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Hacks and jokes ‘fix’ M4 Mac mini’s odd power-button placement

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A photo of the back of an M4 Mac mini, with the words,
The weird placement of the M4 Mac mini's power button is fueling "Buttongate."
Image: Cult of Mac

Right after Apple unveiled the redesigned M4 Mac mini on Tuesday, people noticed the power button’s odd placement — on the bottom of the tiny but potent machine! The design provides precious little room for a fleshy finger to reach without tipping the whole computer to get at it. Since then, a variety of “fixes” have poked fun at this perceived error, which is most likely a very intentional Apple design choice.

Check out some of the best “Buttongate” fixes below.

Hacks and jokes flow after M4 Mac mini design places power button underneath

Why would Apple place the power button on the underside of the newly redesigned M4 Mac mini? Well, it seems like another “win” for the design team, which, historically, seems to relish removing elements from sight whenever possible. You know, so they don’t mar anyone’s view of the product’s clean lines and so forth.

Consider Macs’ disappearing ports over the years, and the Magic Mouse’s much-maligned charging port to this day, for example. Apple designers placed the Magic Mouse’s charging port on the bottom of the sleek device long ago, and they haven’t moved it. That means you can’t use the mouse when it’s charging like you can pretty much all other wireless mice (which place a port on an end or a side for reasonable wired use while charging). But at least Apple made sure the Magic Mouse charges fast, so you quickly add some juice to get through the rest of the day of use before you charge it fully overnight.

With the new Mac mini, there’s really no compensating factor, other than the scant space provided by the machine’s recessed base and the fact that most users rarely power off and on, preferring to let the machine sleep. In terms of the scant space, a small child’s finger might fit under there. But most other users will need to tip up the Mac mini itself — or turn to an ingenious hack like the ones below (although some of these are just jokes, mind you).

Hacks and jokes ‘fixing’ M4 Mac mini’s power button placement

Ivan Kuleshov (@Merocle on X.com) creates “iFixTheButton.” It’s a sort of literal rocker switch he 3D printed that extends from the underside of the machine:

An X.com user (@shapoco) and some followers took a different route to a style of switch that creates leverage from on top of a Mac mini, and looks even more like a telegraph key from a previous century:

Designer Basic Apple Guy (@BasicAppleGuy), maker of cool wallpapers, went with a poker design, claiming Apple offers the Magic Poker for $29 as of November 8:

Another person defends the button placement, citing how rarely users power off, but offers a crude fix involving an upturned thumbtack anyway:

Other users drew the connection between Magic Mouse’s charging point and Mac mini’s power button, pointing to doctored “how to” images showing how to access the button:

And because you can never have enough dongles to solve Apple connectivity issues, let’s wedge a very sarcastic one in here:

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