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I’m not really trying to come to Apple’s defense here as they don’t need it, but everyone reacting as though this is as bad as or worse than the mouse charging port seems to be ignoring the fact that most computers nowadays don’t need to be manually turned off or on with any level of frequency. People will push this button like once or twice a month I imagine. I don’t see why that’s the end of the world.
What the hell are you talking about? I push the power button every single day on my PC. I'm aware that wake on LAN is a thing, but your average computer user doesn't utilize that feature. And only a psychopath who doesn't care about their power bill nor the environment would leave their PC running 24/7.Edit: Thanks for the insight. You were right, I was wrong. My bad.
The power draw of these things when sleeping is negligible. They’re basically off, so there’s no real need to shut them down with any regularity.
I can use my MacBook for a whole day and still have half the battery left. Their power efficiency is genuinely remarkable.
This is correct, but still, fuck apple. What if I just prefer to turn my computer off instead of putting it into sleep mode? And how exactly am I supposed to wake up my computer from sleep if the power button is inaccessible? I know macs can be configured to wake up on keyboard/mouse activity, but that makes them too easy to wake up on accident.
It would be annoying, but to be fair, it's the Mac Mini, which is small and easy to pick up. I would guess you could just tip the corner up to press the button.
I still think it's a dumb design. It's going to confuse everyday users
It’s going to confuse everyday users
Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I believe this is the intention. I think big companies deliberately put in confusing and bad design to "test the waters" and see if people will still buy their products. It's the same with the apple mouse charging on the bottom, or why companies keep making their logos uglier with each iteration. It's a psy-op to condition the masses into accepting worse products without complaining.
And how exactly am I supposed to wake up my computer from sleep if the power button is inaccessible?
Poke your finger under the corner and push up. It doesn't take a rocket surgen to figure out how they want you to hit this button. You can tell from their promo images that they designed the base to make the computer sit up enough for this.
I know macs can be configured to wake up on keyboard/mouse activity, but that makes them too easy to wake up on accident.
Why does it matter? It's just gonna go back to sleep in 30 seconds if you don't mess with it.
A key on the keyboard turns it on afaik. You don’t need to press the power button.
You know this thing is tiny, right? It’ll be shockingly easy to pick up and press the button. Even with cables hanging out of it.
I use a 2014 mini with all cables hanging out the back, and it’s really easy to pick up.
I should have considered that I was posting this comment to Lemmy before posting it.
Maybe you push the dedicated power button on your computer’s case everyday but I’m very confident most users of any computer do not. And in that regard I’m including all computers - wearable, handheld, and laptops. We’re well past the age where most users feel the need to fully shutdown and boot their computers everyday, AND there are plenty of software buttons and even some physical keyboard buttons for shutting down a computer so I mean it when I say that I think most computer case’s power buttons go untouched for definitely days and possibly weeks at a time.
You can wake a Mac by clicking the mouse or hitting literally any of the hundred+ buttons on the keyboard.
…also this power button is dumb.
The average user uses sleep mode and wakes from sleep. Sleep mode should be under 10w, or around $1/mo.
Sleep mode on the mini < 0.5W
laughs in home lab
Not that I'd buy it but, if I did, that power button might get used twice a year. Likely less since I wouldn't be able to upgrade or maintenance its hardware.
To be fair, if you have a home lab setup (or even a simple server), you're not the average computer user.
I think it’s more about design. Apple is a company that has set a high standard for design and premium looking/feeling products. I understand that it still works, but I also think it’s not the best design. It’s just not the expectation Apple has set as a brand. Same goes for the mouse that charges on the bottom.
On one hand, I’m happy that Apple is breaking away from some of their earlier values (e.g. recently allowing for more iOS customization) but I do appreciate how well designed their products tend to be. I hope they don’t get sloppy with future products. So yeah, it’s just a silly power button, but it just seems out of character for their brand.
You are just asking for issues not turning off your PC. All the software on your machine is buggy. ALL OF IT. Plus updates require a reboot and we have SSDs so your boot takes like 10 seconds.
Keeping your PC in sleep mode is dumb.What? I booted my Linux machine sometime last year and my Mac gets rebooted for updates.
Not all of us use Windows, my friend.
A Mac is not a Windows PC
The last time I turned off my Mac Mini was when we moved. The time before that was when my UPS battery died and I had to swap a new one in.
I do reboot it though, but why would I bother turning it off?
I do turn off my PC. But most of the time, I do it by pressing the software-based “restart” button in my OS, not by pressing the physical button on the case. Otherwise I normally use hibernate which is also software-bound and can be undone by pressing the space bar. I’m not saying I never press the physical power button or that I never turn off my computer. I’m just saying it’s in no way a big deal to have to lift up a small box sometimes to press a button like one a week
You're much more likely to just restart than to shutdown and need to hit the power button. I don't think I've shutdown my MacBook since I turned it on, or my Linux box either. IMO unless there's a power outage you'll never need to hit that button. Still dumb though but i can't imagine this as a deal breaker.
$599 for this thing is an insane deal.