Skip to Content

Dept. of deja vu: MacBookMini found in Adium stats

Reader Josh sent along this little note -- nothing too important, just something for you to file away for future reference. He just wanted us to point out that way, way down in the stats for Adium, the IM client for everyone who's not using iChat, there is one surreptitious listing for a "MacBookMini."

Now, I assure you, we're thinking the exact same things you're thinking: these stats are totally bunk, anyone can edit their computer ID to be listed as anything they want, and one stat on Adium's page does not mean that Apple is coming out with some sort of revolutionary miniature laptop. And we agree with you -- it's almost certainly nothing of consequence. Or, that is, we would completely agree with you, except for one thing: it's happened exactly this way before. A little computer called the MacBook Air first showed up in Adium's stats, and people argued those exact same things at the time, and it all turned out to be real.

You might say that makes it doubly likely for someone to tweak their computer's settings to show up as some legendary Apple test machine, and again, we'd agree with you. But it's a big world out there -- unless you work at 1 Infinite Loop, you have no idea what Apple is testing and working on right now. Like I said, we just thought we'd let you know. Just in case.

Reader Josh sent along this little note -- nothing too important, just something for you to file away for future reference. He just wanted...
 

Add a Comment

*0 / 3000 Character Maximum

27 Comments

Filter by:
Lindty

The name Macbook Air is a little more unique, but the name Macbook Mini has been used by the netbook hackintosh community since it began. http://www.dvdcdconverter.com It is far from unique to see it.

May 25 2009 at 6:51 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
iAngelDJ

Yeah, maybe is a Hackintosh with this name

April 29 2009 at 5:31 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tim

I don't know if a netbook would be a good OS X device. I guess that's why a lot of people are ditching their Dell minis.

April 28 2009 at 11:42 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
bradv10@gmail.com

could it just be lumping macbook and mac mini stats together?

April 28 2009 at 6:53 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Matt

On another note... MacBookMini.com wasn't registered too long ago!

(18/4/2009)

http://whois.net/whois/macbookmini.com

Matt

April 28 2009 at 6:05 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
orksnork

I dont use Adium

April 28 2009 at 5:23 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to orksnork's comment
Dave

So then everyone who has a hackintosh that changes their settings to show "Macbook Mini" also does not use Adium? You'd think that if it is so common to change that setting, and that Adium is "the IM client for everyone who does not use iChat" that there would be more then one occurrence.

April 28 2009 at 5:51 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
orksnork

Well, it's common enough in the group of people who mod their mini 9's, but I can't speak for mini modders the world over...

So....

April 28 2009 at 7:37 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Dave

If all you guys are calling your hackintosh's Macbook Mini, why is there only one showing up during one week? I'd think if it is so common there would be more then this one occurrence...

April 28 2009 at 2:57 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
brian

The stat I want to see is how many hackintoshed netbooks are out there. I counted 50% of twitter mentions of the Dell mini 9 reference OS X or hackinstosh and I've seen numerous mentions in comment threads like this.

I've got one (mini 9), and it appears I'm not alone.

April 28 2009 at 1:17 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
jmetts

Come on! Don't report this stuff.

Most of the hackintosh netbooks out there go by the names Macbook Mini, Macbook Nano, etc. My hackintosh Wind reports as a Macbook Air. The reason I use Macbook Air is that it makes it easier to enable the remote disc feature since netbooks don't have built in DVD or CD ROMS. I could easily change it to Mac Book Mini or whatever I want.

As for a Mac Book Air showing in similar stats before being released....OK, I can see it. The name Macbook Air is a little more unique, but the name Macbook Mini has been used by the netbook hackintosh community since it began. It is far from unique to see it.

That said, since I use Adium, my Wind would be showing as one of the Macbook Air's, but it isn't a Macbook Air.

April 28 2009 at 11:11 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
orksnork

yes...but all of us with the mini 9 change this with a kext anyway, to display at the very least the correct processor information.

April 28 2009 at 8:59 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Buy an ad here

Hot Apps on TUAW

Tweets

© 2012 AOL Inc. All Rights Reserved.