Add a battery to Mini

[AdamBuker]

I’ve seen the Apple LCD screen for the Apple IIc in person. The math department in the university I attended freshman year had a bit of a computer museum in the halls of the building. They had a 128k Macintosh (though it’s one with the badge, so it’s from after the 512k Mac came out), and one of the items was the Apple IIc LCD screen. So it seems to have been a shipping product, but just so prohibitively expensive (and of somewhat limited utility) that it didn’t really sell. (No 80 column support, AFAIK, only 2-4 lines of text, monochrome. Probably wouldn’t be terribly useful for anything other than running your own AppleSoft BASIC programs or word processing, maybe pre-curses teletype emulation, but that would need a phone line.) As for an Apple IIc battery, I’ve never heard of one from Apple, but I could see a third party example existing.

There's a dude on YouTube who takes these LCDs and retrofits newer high-resolution color panels for use with the Apple //c. There's still quite an active Apple ][ community. I have a platinum //e that I use for distraction-free writing.

 

[teh_hunterer]

I assumed the iPad Pro had the M4 Pro chip, for some reason. I don’t know if I need the Pro chip or not. The M4 chip might be fine, if it beats my Intel iMac. l

I would say a standard M3 MacBook Air even (or M4 once it exists) would beat your Intel iMac handily. Seeing as you like the MacBook Air as a portable machine around the house and at coffee shops etc, if it can stand up to a professional workload too it might be a great one stop shop device for you.

Paired to a Thunderbolt dock at the studio it would be able to connect to any assortment of audio equipment without the issues old USB hubs had, basically no penalty at all for it not being plugged in directly.

There's no fan, so no noise to make it onto the signal chain. You'd just have to make sure it had enough ram and storage. It can connect to one external monitor with the laptop screen open, or two with the screen closed.

Apple silicon has changed the game, and it really does mean a laptop can go where you once would have only ever imagined a desktop to go. That might be why you're getting some pushback from people when you say a laptop is amateurish.

It should come in the same range of chips as in the MacBooks, and beat all of them at cooling due to not having a screen. Maybe they will throttle if kept in pocket but then take them out of pocket and put on cool desk.

The reality is MacBooks don't suffer cooling wise due to having a screen. The screen is separate. You're going to massive throttling on any device that's small enough to fit in your pocket, regardless of where it is. A phone sized device throttles so so much worse than a tablet sized device does. And tablets throttle so much worse than a passively cooled laptop does.

For a device today to do this, it's going to have to be at least tablet sized.

 

[HowardEv]

I would say a standard M3 MacBook Air even (or M4 once it exists) would beat your Intel iMac handily. Seeing as you like the MacBook Air as a portable machine around the house and at coffee shops etc, if it can stand up to a professional workload too it might be a great one stop shop device for you.

Ok I like the Air. But why do people buy the M Pro if a standard M is all they need? Why buy more memory? Are you sure a Logic recording studio doesn’t need a Pro chip or more RAM?

Paired to a Thunderbolt dock at the studio it would be able to connect to any assortment of audio equipment without the issues old USB hubs had, basically no penalty at all for it not being plugged in directly.

But then I can’t use my Air as a laptop, because it’s connected to a dock and in clamshell mode.

There's no fan, so no noise to make it onto the signal chain. You'd just have to make sure it had enough ram and storage. It can connect to one external monitor with the laptop screen open, or two with the screen closed.

How does one make sure it has enough RAM? Is 16 still needed or will 8 do?

Apple silicon has changed the game, and it really does mean a laptop can go where you once would have only ever imagined a desktop to go. That might be why you're getting some pushback from people when you say a laptop is amateurish.

The reputation of laptops is the problem there. Even if you explain it has the same specs as a desktop.

The reality is MacBooks don't suffer cooling wise due to having a screen. The screen is separate. You're going to massive throttling on any device that's small enough to fit in your pocket, regardless of where it is. A phone sized device throttles so so much worse than a tablet sized device does. And tablets throttle so much worse than a passively cooled laptop does.

For a device today to do this, it's going to have to be at least tablet sized.

Hmm, so the laptops surface area is what keeps it from getting too hot? The liberty would need fins maybe? OK give it fins and cheese grater holes if it needs it, but I bet AS doesn’t get so hot anymore.

 

[theluggage]

But why do people buy the M Pro if a standard M is all they need? Why buy more memory? Are you sure a Logic recording studio doesn’t need a Pro chip or more RAM?

Because "Logic recording studio" is as long as a piece of string.

At one end of the scale, MIDI sequencing is 1980s tech, digital audio recording is 1990s tech, a CD-quality stereo audio stream is about 1.2 Mbps when even old-fangled USB2 is 480Mbps. Logic first appeared over 30 years ago - although at the time yiu needed a "massive" 600MB of disc space!!! - and the bandwidth of the mk 1 human ear-hole hasn't changed in the meantime. 70 minutes of high quality stereo audio, uncompressed, fit in less than 1GB of storage or RAM - you might want to double that if you want some headroom for mixing and effects, but if you think you can hear the difference I've got some special green CD mats and audiophile ethernet hubs to sell you at $500 a pop.

The processing, RAM and storage specs of modern computers are largely dictated by video editing and 3D graphics which are an order of magnitude more demanding than audio work. The cheapest Mac and many iPad models are more than powerful enough to do the basics. VSTs and effects can be quite CPU heavy but they're only working on a few dozen milliseconds worth of data at a time so they don't necessarily use that much RAM. Of course, there's the obligatory elaborate 3d-animated control panels...

At the other end of the scale, there's this guy who wants all the samples for a 100-piece orchestra cued up in RAM, and has a workflow that involves running Pro Tools and Logic simultaneously, and apparently needs a Mac Pro with 700GB of RAM. Guy's got an actual flux capacitor in his Eurorack so I'm not gonna second-guess him However, it depends whether you'd call that a "recording studio" - he's a composer and clearly doesn't want to break the creative flow every time he wants to load up a new instrument.

In short, you can probably record a 4-piece band and add a bit of reverb and EQ with the cheapest Mac or most iPads, although getting an 8GB RAM/256GB HD with that task in mind would be false economy.

But, if you need hundreds of effect-loaded tracks you're probably going to want a more powerful CPU for those plug-ins just as much as more RAM. At the higher end, the scarcity of RAM on Apple Silicon systems - both the insane prices Apple wants for upgrades and the physical limits on how much RAM each SoC can drive - are a problem. I suspect that optimising software to take better advantage of super-fast SSD would fix the "pre-loaded samples" thing & that the requirement dates back to the spinning rust days, but that's down to the software developers.

The Mac Mini in my studio gets moved very rarely, only when we need to change what’s plugged into it the back. That’s why people forget about the power cord possibly being stuck on something and pull it forward too hard, crashing it like it’s 1999. That is always disrupting and can be devastating, destroying you reputation as a studio.

Then get professional and fix your cable management. Get a $5 pack of cable clips and fix the mains and other cables in place with enough slack to let you pull the Mac forward. Get longer cables where needed. Get a USB hub or USB switch or set up a patch panel so you have front facing sockets and don't need to move the Mac. Put a big yellow "do not move this while the recording light is on OR ELSE" label on it.

Professionals don't move or mess about with cables on live equipment that could be "devastating" if it crashes - and while a battery might fix that for the mains cord, it won't stop disruption from (e.g.) unwittingly unplugging external storage or networking. Pulling a mains cable like that once is human error. Doing it again is unprofessional.

You're fretting a lot about how laptops "look unprofessional" - hardware isn't professional or unprofessional, people are. I don't care if an electrician does my wiring with an Amazon Basics screwdriver. I do care if they're careless, work in a dangerous mess, keep accidentally pulling out cables, need me to explain the wiring diagrams to them, use 1" of 5A wire to extend a 30A ring main wire that they've cut too short*... er, sorry, getting too specific there

(* it was pretty crispy when I found it... never met the person who installed it so I could shake them warmly by the neck...)

 

[seek3r]

Does a phone have a UPS in it? UPSes provide 120V power to plug desktops into.

no, UPSes do exactly what they say on the tin - provide uninterruptible power. There are 220v UPSes. There are pure DC UPSes. There are low voltage UPSes. The majority of UPSes you see in the store are 110/120 AC-in with similar out because that's what most folks around you want for retail purproses and that's the most common power option in the US. You are literally advocating for having a specialized UPS in a mini, that's all.

 

[Jumpthesnark]

I think this is a solution in search of a problem. The Mini isn't meant to be a portable in the same way a MBP or MBA is. The mini is an inexpensive, simple desktop Mac. Start adding a battery or UPS, an LCD screen and other items and suddenly the price has gone up and the simplicity is gone. More complexity = more places for it to fail, and a higher cost to the consumer.

Minis are great for what they are, but if you want to move it around, simply power it down and then move it. If you want a UPS then buy one. If you want portability then buy a portable.

Oh and that poll is one of the worst I've seen in a long line of unserious push polls here.

 

[HowardEv]

You are literally advocating for having a specialized UPS in a mini, that's all.

It’s the same guts as a MacBook Pro just without a screen and keyboard attached. The screen and keyboard would attach wirelessly.

 

[hg.wells]

It’s the same guts as a MacBook Pro just without a screen and keyboard attached. The screen and keyboard would attach wirelessly.

Gotta love your passion but I just can’t see it working or wildly wanted by users.

I can’t rely on a device to AirPlay to a monitor, I’d have to upgrade all my monitors to support AirPlay and I don’t even think you can AirPlay across multiple displays.

A single USB-C dock solves all of this and is cheaper than having to buy another device.

 

[HowardEv]

I can’t rely on a device to AirPlay to a monitor

You wouldn’t use AirPlay for your monitors! You would use AirPlay to control from a MacBook.

Edit: sorry, I think I meant Remote Desktop not AirPlay. I mean a wireless monitor connection, perhaps Bluetooth or WiFi or something else, to use a MacBook as the screen and keyboard for a nearby computer.

 

[Boil]

I don't care if an electrician does my wiring with an Amazon Basics screwdriver.

Klein or nothing...! ;^p

 

[teh_hunterer]

Ok I like the Air. But why do people buy the M Pro if a standard M is all they need?

Some people want more displays, more RAM, or they just want a bigger screen, 120hz refresh rate, better speakers, they might need more performance because they do multiple heavy things on their laptop.

But then I can’t use my Air as a laptop, because it’s connected to a dock and in clamshell mode.

I truly don't understand this. If you want to use it as a laptop, unplug it from the dock and use it as a laptop. What's the issue here?

Why buy more memory? Are you sure a Logic recording studio doesn’t need a Pro chip or more RAM?

How does one make sure it has enough RAM? Is 16 still needed or will 8 do?

You were the one who said you needed a pro chip and claimed that a laptop is amateurish, but you have no idea how much RAM is required? It just seems like a lot of big claims being thrown around based on emotion.

The reputation of laptops is the problem there. Even if you explain it has the same specs as a desktop.

I've actually never encountered this 'reputation' until this thread.

Hmm, so the laptops surface area is what keeps it from getting too hot? The liberty would need fins maybe? OK give it fins and cheese grater holes if it needs it, but I bet AS doesn’t get so hot anymore.

The thermal mass of the laptop, the size of the heatsink, the surface area, and the fact the screen is separate from the rest of the internals.

When you go down to a tablet, you have to deal with the fact the screen is touching the internals, so the heat from the screen and the battery and the chip are all in the same place. Plus the tablet is smaller.

Then you go down to a phone sized device that has the same shortcomings as a tablet in terms of the screen being packed in there, but it's even smaller. It's just physics, you want the same performance in a smaller and smaller chassis and eventually it gets small enough that the cooling just isn't enough anymore.

In terms of your idea, fins and air holes won't do anything. If you have to be able to hold the thing in your hand, there is a limit to how hot Apple can allow the chassis to get. Apple could make the passive cooling in the MacBook Air better if they wanted to, but the chassis would get really hot to the touch and the part you touch with your hands would be hotter than is allowed by regulations. Any passively cooled device has this issue. A fan can blow the hot air away and it won't burn anyone. A passively cooled system has a hard limit of how hot the part of the device you touch with your hands is allowed to get.

If you want to see how hot an Apple silicon device can get, play a demanding game on the iPhone 15 Pro for 20 minutes.

 

[HowardEv]

Some people want more displays, more RAM, or they just want a bigger screen, 120hz refresh rate, better speakers, they might need more performance because they do multiple heavy things on their laptop.

It was a rhetorical question, because people are telling me the basic Air is all I need. I’m sure I need more power than people that don’t try to make big Logic projects. But it’s a big price jump to get the Pro with 16GB. I’d like to see Apple’s internal benchmarks on track counts, virtual instruments, while playing a video, before each SoC starts spinning circle of death.

I truly don't understand this. If you want to use it as a laptop, unplug it from the dock and use it as a laptop. What's the issue here?

If I unplug it from the dock, it isn’t connected to my interface or displays anymore, is it? I want to split the laptop away from the CPU, so the CPU stays plugged in, and the laptop is wirelessly connected to it.

You were the one who said you needed a pro chip and claimed that a laptop is amateurish, but you have no idea how much RAM is required? It just seems like a lot of big claims being thrown around based on emotion.

I’ve always been told DAWs need at least 16GB. But now there are options for huge amounts, and how many cores. You don’t find out it’s under-powered until you are recording the fifteenth vocal track and the error screen pops up. I don’t want to overspend on the computer and underspend on microphones.

I've actually never encountered this 'reputation' until this thread.

Everyone that has tried to record on a laptop knows they hit their limit sooner than desktops, and become unusable due to fan noise. All pro studios have desktops and big monitors, they aren’t hunched over a screaming laptop.

The thermal mass of the laptop, the size of the heatsink, the surface area, and the fact the screen is separate from the rest of the internals.

Ok that explains why Apple always made you buy the 16” if you wanted the i7. That is less necessary now with cooler AS chips though.

When you go down to a tablet, you have to deal with the fact the screen is touching the internals, so the heat from the screen and the battery and the chip are all in the same place. Plus the tablet is smaller.

Then you go down to a phone sized device that has the same shortcomings as a tablet in terms of the screen being packed in there, but it's even smaller. It's just physics, you want the same performance in a smaller and smaller chassis and eventually it gets small enough that the cooling just isn't enough anymore.

OK but newer chips are cooler and at some point they don’t need to be in as large and heavy an enclosure. The Mac Mini can be smaller now, but it isn’t.

In terms of your idea, fins and air holes won't do anything.

So why do heat sinks have fins and air holes? Of course they work to increase surface area and fins increase thermal mass too.

If you have to be able to hold the thing in your hand,

You wouldn’t hold the Liberty in your hand. It’d be small enough to run in your pocket, but you wouldn’t keep it in your pocket if it got too hot and was throttling, you would take it out and put in on a cool desktop to dissipate heat. The point is to take the hot chip out of the laptop and put it at the back of the desk. The laptop would have the basic chip that doesn’t get hot because all it is doing is displaying the DAW running on the Liberty, solving the following real problems with current paradigm of all-in-one laptops.

there is a limit to how hot Apple can allow the chassis to get. Apple could make the passive cooling in the MacBook Air better if they wanted to, but the chassis would get really hot to the touch and the part you touch with your hands would be hotter than is allowed by regulations. Any passively cooled device has this issue. A fan can blow the hot air away and it won't burn anyone. A passively cooled system has a hard limit of how hot the part of the device you touch with your hands is allowed to get.

If you want to see how hot an Apple silicon device can get, play a demanding game on the iPhone 15 Pro for 20 minutes.

You could still get those devices that get too hot to use, but now you’d be able to get cheaper lighter cool devices, and get a powerful MPro chip in a separate brick that got hot sat on a desk or passive heat sink.

 

[YoitsTmac]

So this Mac liberty is creating a product for cost considerations. It also defies logic by putting pro chips (which are not as efficient as the standard M series and can draw power) in an iPhone ish size. You say it goes in your pocket, but then that you should take it out of it gets too hot. So now I’m maintenancing this thing?

If you need 16GB of RAM, there’s a MBA for you and a MBP. If you feel it’s too expensive, you’re entitled to your option.

If you’re unplugging drives all the time, then connect those to a thunderbolt dock so you don’t accidentally connect your desktop.

If I were a budget consumer trying to maximize my dollar, I wouldn’t ever buy this Liberty. It’s searching for a problem. Now that I’m less budget centric, to fulfill the need your describing, I have a 14” MBP for maximum portability and a CalDigit dock to my monitors and storage. I just don’t see what this Liberty does for me that isn’t corrected by a $150 dock or by buying a MBP with slightly less portability.

And if disconnecting peripherals pulls your power cord, just add a little slack to your cable management.

 

[teh_hunterer]

I’d like to see Apple’s internal benchmarks on track counts, virtual instruments, while playing a video, before each SoC starts spinning circle of death.

There are plenty of people who make videos showing doing that exact testing.

If I unplug it from the dock, it isn’t connected to my interface or displays anymore, is it? I want to split the laptop away from the CPU, so the CPU stays plugged in, and the laptop is wirelessly connected to it.

But why do you want to do that? Why this seeming obsession with having a laptop wirelessly connected to a desktop? You haven't explained this yet - is it because you want to control Logic from a device that's not tethered to the desk? If so, you might find that an iPad is a great control surface for Logic. Apple has a Logic Remote app for the iPad that does just this.

I’ve always been told DAWs need at least 16GB. But now there are options for huge amounts, and how many cores. You don’t find out it’s under-powered until you are recording the fifteenth vocal track and the error screen pops up. I don’t want to overspend on the computer and underspend on microphones.

I would just pick something with the same amount of RAM as what you have now. I don't think RAM requirements have changed much with music since Apple silicon.

Everyone that has tried to record on a laptop knows they hit their limit sooner than desktops, and become unusable due to fan noise. All pro studios have desktops and big monitors, they aren’t hunched over a screaming laptop.

Ok that explains why Apple always made you buy the 16” if you wanted the i7. That is less necessary now with cooler AS chips though.

That common wisdom about laptops has been correct for all time, up until Apple released the 14" and 16" MacBook Pros in 2021. I'm not kidding, once you've daily driven one of these laptops, your idea of what laptops with fans are like changes completely.

OK but newer chips are cooler and at some point they don’t need to be in as large and heavy an enclosure. The Mac Mini can be smaller now, but it isn’t.

It could be much smaller if they stopped putting the pro chips in there.

So why do heat sinks have fins and air holes? Of course they work to increase surface area and fins increase thermal mass too.

To dissipate as much heat as possible. An iPhone, iPad, and MacBook air do not dissipate as much heat as possible. Because a passively cooled device like that dissipates heat into the part of the chassis that you touch with your hands. These three devices also have a screen they don't want to dump too much heat into, and a battery they don't want to dump too much heat into.

You wouldn’t hold the Liberty in your hand. It’d be small enough to run in your pocket, but you wouldn’t keep it in your pocket if it got too hot and was throttling, you would take it out and put in on a cool desktop to dissipate heat.

You say you wouldn't hold it in your hand, yet in the same breath you say you would put it in and out of your pocket. Can't put it in and out of your pocket without holding it in your hand. Apple is also never going to make a device that is doing heavy processing like that in your pocket. It's not safe to have a device heat up like that in someone's pocket. It'll burn the person, or potentially even impact male fertility.

The point is to take the hot chip out of the laptop and put it at the back of the desk. The laptop would have the basic chip that doesn’t get hot because all it is doing is displaying the DAW running on the Liberty, solving the following real problems with current paradigm of all-in-one laptops.

You could still get those devices that get too hot to use, but now you’d be able to get cheaper lighter cool devices, and get a powerful MPro chip in a separate brick that got hot sat on a desk or passive heat sink.

I'm sorry but no matter how many times I reread this I just don't get it.

 

[trip1ex]

iMac is a better candidate because it's self contained. Look at Apple's marketing. iMac begs to have some battery power.

Use case for a battery in a Mini seems very narrow.

 

[trip1ex]

Ok you win. You have convinced me that the Mac Mini is a desktop computer that sits on a desk, plugs in, and that it should stay that way, using the same aluminum enclosure that server farms need and is fine for everyone.

Everyone says they don’t want a battery in the Mini. A vast majority chose obsolete design with no advantages.

And no one could understood what I was proposing because they took the title too literally. So I give up and accept that the product I want is not a Mac Mini.

It is a … Mac Liberty!

Mac because it would run MacOS, and Liberty because it isn’t tied to a desk or tied to a laptop, it pops in a pocket and goes anywhere. It frees Apple customers from Steve’s jail window product line. Now customers will be able to choose the CPU and how much memory we need, what ports we need. and how big a battery we want.

And then customers would use their Liberty with any screen and keyboard they want, including laptops and iPads and TVs.

We wouldn’t be forever stuck with the screen we chose when we bought it. We could buy the computer first, use it with our old screen, get new screens whenever we want, and keep using those screens when we upgrade to a new M5.

The form factor would be a iPhone Plus size, probably thicker if ordered with all the ports and large battery. It’d weigh about the same as the same spec iPad Pro (.98 Pounds), less because it wouldn’t have iPad screen. Think of it as an iPad Pro without a touch screen, running Mac OS.

It’d be the end of the iMac as well as the Mini (sorry server farm dudes) but they could morph the iMac into a Apple TV, and replace the chin with a hole for the Liberty to pop into to charge and turn it into an iMac.

lol at least we know they would sell 1 Mac Liberty.


KInd of a tangent but since you mentioned ATV: You can buy 2 4gb RAM 128gb SSD A15 ATVS plus 2 remotes for $300 list. An M2 8gb RAM 256gb Mac Mini is $600. It seems like hardware on the ATV side is much cheaper.

 

[trip1ex]

Plug 1' USB extenders into the ports on the back of the Mini. Never have to turn it around again.

 

[HowardEv]

iMac is a better candidate because it's self contained. Look at Apple's marketing. iMac begs to have some battery power.

Use case for a battery in a Mini seems very narrow.

Indeed, Apples ads for the M1 iMac showed them on without a cord. There was a common take that it was an iPad on a stand. But iPad has a battery. iMac should have the battery they want people to think it has.

 

[mcnallym]

Indeed, Apples ads for the M1 iMac showed them on without a cord. There was a common take that it was an iPad on a stand. But iPad has a battery. iMac should have the battery they want people to think it has.

You do realise that the pictures of the Mac Pro in ads also show no power cord.
so with your argument then all Apple Computers even the Mac Pro should be battery powered not wall powered.

mac pro page on apple site has part of for pro xdr monitor and that has no cable for power or conmection to Mac Pro, or keyboard, mouse to operate.

also has part where shows the mac pro cover sliding off without anyone touching it, again with that logic then do we expect to slide the cover off with the power of our mind, as clearly there is no visible hand lift and twist the handle on top to unlock and remove the case covering.

 

[Gloor]

You clearly don't understand product lineup and or even usage.

Your proposed idea is borderline trolling.

Mac Mini is entry level product with specific use cases and targets specific audience.

Putting a battery into it is borderline stupid. I don't need to explain why as a lot of people here said it.

It was hilarious post until I realised that you are actually serious. At that point everything collapsed.

It’s the same guts as a MacBook Pro just without a screen and keyboard attached. The screen and keyboard would attach wirelessly.

 

[HowardEv]

Apple is also never going to make a device that is doing heavy processing like that in your pocket. It's not safe to have a device heat up like that in someone's pocket. It'll burn the person, or potentially even impact male fertility.

If it really gets that hot in a small case, then maybe two sizes are needed. The M4 Pro and Max versions in a larger enclosure, a bit smaller than the Mini version because it’d not need internal power supply, and with heat fins that make it too big to fit in pocket. And the pocket sized versions would only be the cooler chips.

 

[teh_hunterer]

If it really gets that hot in a small case, then maybe two sizes are needed. The M4 Pro and Max versions in a larger enclosure, a bit smaller than the Mini version because it’d not need internal power supply, and with heat fins that make it too big to fit in pocket. And the pocket sized versions would only be the cooler chips.

You're not getting the M4 Pro or Max chips in a passively cooled device that goes in your pocket.

I'll leave it there because it seems you just brush aside any ideas that are inconvenient and keep demonstrating your total lack of knowledge.

 

[HowardEv]

You're not getting the M4 Pro or Max chips in a passively cooled device that goes in your pocket.

Right read my post again please. I said if the Pro and Max versions get that hot then put them in a bigger case with heat fins so people can’t put them in their pocket. The M4 sounds like it stays super cool though and I bet could be shrunk to iPad Mini size.

I'll leave it there because it seems you just brush aside any ideas that are inconvenient and keep demonstrating your total lack of knowledge.

I didn’t brush your burn issue aside, I said if that’s true then it won’t be pocket sized. If it has to still be the size as the Intel Mini then that’s how big it has to be. I think that’s ridiculous though, given that the AS chips are so much cooler than the Intel chips. And they throttle when they get too hot so no danger of that.

 

[teh_hunterer]

Right read my post again please.

No, you can read my post again, or at all. I'm not going around in circles anymore. It seems like you are either unwilling/unable to fully engage, or you are just keeping this thread going as long as you can.

I really thought you were trolling, but I was so dumbfounded that I went through some history and I can see you've been on this for years. From years ago:

"My point was that it’s stupid to put the CPU, with all the wires that have to attach to it, inside a laptop. Separate the screen and keyboard from the CPU and wires."

"A small one standard to protect against being unplugged for a few minutes wouldn’t add too much cost or weight, a medium option to use on the train or patio" - using a desktop computer on the train? Really?

You've latched on to some really strange ideas about laptops, and it just doesn't appear to be rooted in reality at all.

You appear to be so obsessed with this one idea of a desktop computer with a battery that you can put in your pocket and wirelessly connect to from a laptop, that you are ignoring the fact that nobody agrees and you're getting pushback from every side. You can't write off all this as "Apple fanboys defending the status quo" forever. At a certain point you have to come to terms with the fact that the common denominator is you, not us.

Edit: I should point out that having a battery than can run the system for 20 minutes in the event of power loss or accidental cable connection isn't a bad idea at all. Totally feasible now that we've got Apple silicon. In fact I wouldn't be surprised to see it someday.

 

[HowardEv]

having a battery than can run the system for 20 minutes in the event of power loss or accidental cable connection isn't a bad idea at all. Totally feasible now that we've got Apple silicon.

Having a battery has been totally feasible since the Mini started using MacBook chips, which I’ve learned happened long before Apple Silicon. The Mini was introduced as Desktop Mac without a screen and keyboard, but it’s really a laptop without a screen and keyboard but with a desktop power supply.