The M4 Mac mini illustrates Apple’s unhealthy power button obsession

I’ve been thinking a lot about the new M4 Mac mini. When I saw it on Tuesday, I decided that, contrary to widespread allegations, it does not look like an Apple TV 4K; it’s more like a shrunken Mac Studio. But I’m prepared to concede that the new mini is quite a bit more Apple TV 4K than we expected.

Case in point: have you ever seen an on/off button on your Apple TV? Of course not, because it hasn’t got one. And based on recent developments it might not be long before the same policy applies to the Mac. Apple appears to think that you switch a Mac on once, and then work with it for years without switching it off. You just send it to sleep or let the software shut it down and start it up again during an operating system update.

Since you never need to turn the Mac off, it stands to reason that you don’t need to be able to find the power button. On desktops, Apple hides it rather coyly around the back. The equivalent button on a MacBook is slightly more prominent–at the top right of the keyboard–but since it now has Touch ID built in, there’s no label, and it’s pretty inconspicuous.

With the Mac mini M4, however, Apple has taken its quest to hide the on/off switch to the next level. It’s now located on the bottom of the housing. Seriously.

Instead of awkwardly reaching behind the Mac mini to switch it on, you now have to awkwardly lift it slightly to find the power button. Who came up with this nonsense? It wasn’t Jony Ive, but his aversion to buttons and ports obviously still runs deep in Apple’s DNA.

Apple’s climate contradictions

Let’s get back to the idea of never having to switch off a device. If you don’t use the Apple TV 4K for a while, it shows pretty pictures from around the world and then goes to sleep on its own. But if I really want to switch the thing off, I press and hold the power button on the remote control and the TV goes to sleep too. Does the Mac mini M4 have a remote control? No!

So I switch it on once and never switch it off again… how does that fit in with Apple’s claim of carbon neutrality? Yes, I cover part of my electricity needs with a solar panel on the roof. And yes, my local provider uses some renewable energy too. But this is still going to involve coal and gas getting burned somewhere along the line.

It may well be that the aluminum in the casing is 100 percent recycled, as is the gold in the conductors and sockets inside. It may also be that Apple is now saving even more material in the packaging and not using plastic. It may also be that my Mac mini M4 came by ship from China to Rotterdam and was then transported from there by rail.

Okay, the M4 is damn efficient and requires far less energy with far higher performance than my Intel mini from 2018. But I still want to switch off the Mac mini if I don’t need it for a long time, as it draws a few watts even when it’s idle. And when I switch it on again, I don’t want to have to lift the thing, no matter how light it may be.

Current best prices: Mac Mini M4