Filed under: Hardware, Odds and ends, Mac mini, Found Footage
Found Footage: A fanboy's Mac mini concept
The Mac mini has an amazing following. It's a great machine for switchers who want to use their existing keyboard, mouse, and monitor, there are companies devoted to using them as small colocated servers, and the mini is the machine to use for all sorts of cool hacks.TUAW reader, designer, and Mac mini fanboy Sait Alayali decided that it's time for a new look, so he created his own conceptual design for a new mini. Rather than the little flat box we know and love, it's designed like a right angle. It has a low-speed fan for quiet and effective cooling, a design that makes it simple to swap out drives, and it can be placed on a surface in a number of ways.
Call me old-fashioned, but I like the "boxy" look of the existing Mac mini. They're easier to stack and there are plenty of matching peripherals. I'd prefer to see a new Mac mini made with some of the MacBook Air tech so it could be thinner and smaller. How 'bout you? Leave a comment with your ideas for a new Mac mini design.
The New Mac Mini Concept from Sait Alanyali on Vimeo.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Eideard said 10:14AM on 12-15-2008
The introduction of the Mac Mini is what made me a switcher after 25 years of toiling in the dungeons of Micro$oft and predecessors.
I'd love to see Air advances in design not only brought over to the Mini - but, to the next-gen AppleTV. Whenever that happens.
The look and feel of the Air is so damned tempting, I think about getting one every couple of weeks - even keep it in my Amazon wish list. And I have absolutely NO need to change from my perfectly useful MacBook.
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Gregg said 10:14AM on 12-15-2008
fail...
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James said 10:21AM on 12-15-2008
Yeah, no thanks.
The ports are on the inside of the bend, making it a mess in a few of those positions.
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sauronu said 10:27AM on 12-15-2008
I just want to see dual monitor support in the new Mac Mini :) and off course better graphic card. I think that now Apple has all that is needed to made another of this macs but with more horsepower
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Ryan said 10:28AM on 12-15-2008
The form seems to have been determined by an idea about cooling that doesn't seem especially sound.
The design doesn't align well with Apple's aesthetic, either.
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ben said 10:33AM on 12-15-2008
I'd like to see a mini that's as powerful as the top of the line Macbook Pro, then I would buy one.
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Think Adrian said 10:34AM on 12-15-2008
It should be designed so it can fit together with an Apple screen. Maybe even the same shape so it can sit under or on the foot of the screen.
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durr said 10:53AM on 12-15-2008
this is aggressively stupid
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Darren said 10:54AM on 12-15-2008
The large majority of minis are sold to organizations for use in Mac server farms. For example, Microsoft uses hundreds of minis just to run automated tests of their Mac software.
Minis need to be small and stackable. This design ain't.
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Kyle Derouen said 12:01PM on 12-15-2008
Large majority? Where are you getting that from?
Darren said 12:20PM on 12-15-2008
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/10/24/informed_players_say_apples_mac_mini_still_kickin.html
Apple sells minis sell to businesses over consumers 2 to 1.
dandaman said 4:47PM on 12-15-2008
It's very stackable, but if you're stacking it the mini will be a) very inefficient, space wise and b) virtually port-less. I'm thinking/hoping a full mac mini in more of a aTV size. It could be a cubier dell studio, with a stand that can be used long and thin or upright, depending on your space (it's got hdmi, so I think the idea is that you would make the dell wide in your media cabinet but tall on your desk). The dell's lights change depending on the orientation of the dell, and I can see apple making the apple logo do a similar thing.
I hope I'm describing this well... you should look a picture of this thing. I was thinking about 86ing one, but I don't know if OS 86 has blu-ray support, and I'm happy with my macbook anyway.
Laurens Schrijnemakers said 10:56AM on 12-15-2008
Looks like something that tool Lebedev could have come up with. Thanks, but no thanks.
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Le Big Mac said 2:11PM on 12-15-2008
Why not produce them in all the tetris shapes? Then hire gamers to figure out how to stack them most efficiently?
smacklin said 11:08AM on 12-15-2008
Rotate the logo 90° so you can stand them on the edge and two of them would make a great pair of bookends on your desk! Other than that - no thank you. Too "clever" by half.
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Martin said 11:22AM on 12-15-2008
What is this? Apple Tetris?
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Johnny said 11:46AM on 12-15-2008
As many mockups as there are floating around the internet, why would this one get featured? It is a completely horrible design. I'm not even sure where to begin on how awful it is.
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Eamonn Glass said 11:53AM on 12-15-2008
This is an awfully unpractical "re-design" of the Mac Mini. The beauty of the Mini is it's form factor; this idea trades that away for something that looks terribly inconvenient and ugly.
The Mini could/should be much hipper than it is. Unfortunately Apple has not done anything substantial with it in years.
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Matthew said 11:59AM on 12-15-2008
As long as it has HDMI, I'm in. That's the only thing keeping me from buying one now. If I had HDMI out, I'd be a mac user.
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Marcos said 12:14PM on 12-15-2008
You can connect the mini to an HDMI screen easily through a very cheap adapter cable. I do it.
I think the mini will likely mini Display Port soon... you can do HDMI with HDCP then easily, if that's what you're looking for.