Mac Nano / Apple Pi

[macduke]

Any chance at getting a Mac Nano now that they're switching to ARM chips? I'm thinking something along the lines of the Mac Mini dev kit, but with a much smaller enclosure. Basically take whatever current iPad Pro CPU, and put it in a tiny case with soldered RAM and SSD. No fan like Macs, and no display, no touch layer, no speakers, no cameras, no sensors, no battery—nothing else that the iPad Pro has. Maybe a little heat sink attached to the case. They could sell these for $299-499—maybe even make them HDMI sticks with just a few USB-C ports. Thoughts? Think of it like an Apple Pi. Too niche? I think they would be fun.

 

[tranceking26]

While I don't disagree with the idea, it seems very unlikely Apple would do this.

 

[sevoneone]

They could easily make a Mac in the form factor of the AppleTV obviously. I doubt we’ll see it, but you never know... a $400-$500 Mac that can drop-in replace a Windows PC at any desk could be very attractive to businesses and the education market.

 

[Puonti]

Even if we don't get Pi-like Macs, it'll be interesting to see what industrial design changes the move to ARM will allow. Lower power consumption means less space taken by PSU, less heat means less space taken by cooling solutions... A bulge-less, silent microLED iMac Sounds nice.

 

[jdb8167]

They already have the design—the Apple TV. Update it with an A12 or A13 and release it with an unlocked boot loader or with an open version off iOS not locked to the App Store and you would have a pretty good Raspberry Pi competitor. Apple would probably never do this but they should.

 

[Erehy Dobon]

Unlikely.

>85% of Macs sold are notebook models. Most the desktop models are iMacs. The unit sales of Mac minis and Mac Pros are exceedingly small, especially in context of the worldwide PC sales figures.

Hell, I have a Raspberry Pi 4. It's really a novelty and/or appliance more than a "PC".

Remember that Apple has no qualms at killing off profitable product lines like the Retina MacBook.

 

[jdb8167]

Unlikely.

>85% of Macs sold are notebook models. Most the desktop models are iMacs. The unit sales of Mac minis and Mac Pros are exceedingly small, especially in context of the worldwide PC sales figures.

Hell, I have a Raspberry Pi 4. It's really a novelty and/or appliance more than a "PC".

Remember that Apple has no qualms at killing off profitable product lines like the Retina MacBook.

The RPi 4 is a great appliance for an iPad Pro or MacBook with a USB-C port because you can set up the RPi to both be powered by the USB-C port and to communicate over it. Totally portable to go with your mobile system. I just need a working 64-bit version of Raspbian (coming soon) or another compatible Linux dist to make me completely happy with the kit.

 

[Erehy Dobon]

RPi has no built-in power source and no built-in input system. Nor display.

I think back at my first iPhone -- the 4S model -- which had all three.

Don't get me wrong, I admire the RPi4 for what it does. I know a lot of technologists -- particularly Linux pundits -- can't see the forest for the trees.

This is one glaring example.

Be real. RPi is a hardware hack. It's a gentle introduction for newbies into the programming world (is there any question why the setup system is called NOOBS?) but it really is more an appliance than a computing system.

Trust me, I dual-boot Raspbian (which I despise) and LibreELEC and originally ran RH 5.2 on Intel hardware in the late Nineties.

Linux on the desktop still massively sucks.

 

[jdb8167]

RPi has no built-in power source and no built-in input system. Nor display.

I think back at my first iPhone -- and 4S model -- which had all three.

USB-C power delivery works great. You can configure it headless and have ssh shell support or set up VNC and run the GUI environment. Works very well. For $50 or so. I think my 4GB version was $75 and is complete overkill. (I already had a compatible USB-C data cable.)

 

[Erehy Dobon]

Please provide URLs to reputable third-party references, I will be happy to see how this benefits my device. And don't think you are just doing this for me. I'm sure others who read this will want to validate your sources independently.

I already run my RPi4 off some nameless USB power source, perhaps it's an Anker.

I am not interested in hearing "my sister's boyfriend's older brother's girlfriend's uncle says that..." or "someone on the Internet said that..."

 

[jdb8167]

Please provide URLs to reputable third-party references, I will be happy to see how this benefits my device. And don't think you are just doing this for me. I'm sure others who read this will want to validate your sources independently.

I already run my RPi4 off some nameless USB power source, perhaps it's an Anker.

I am not interested in hearing "my sister's boyfriend's older brother's girlfriend's uncle says that..." or "someone on the Internet said that..."

I’ve been thinking about writing up the complete instructions on how I set it up. I gathered the info from various sources on the web and YouTube. I use it from my iPad Pro with Blink shell and Edovia’s Screens app. It works and you only need a single USB-C data cable. Not the rest of the junk you find in the various starter kits.

 

[Bug-Creator]

The specs of the dev kit would be o.k. for a bottom end MacMini going back to it's roots (cheap enough to make users switch who were otherwise put off by the high entry prices).

Case should be so big that it allows leaving out any fan. If thats MacMini,ATV or rPi size should be secondary concern.