This Futuristic ‘Mac mini’ Concept Is Stunningly Innovative
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It’s been over three-years since Apple last updated its Mac mini, and while Tim Cook has suggested that his company “has no plans” to abandon its pint-sized Mac, we’ve yet to hear much if anything from the rumor mill alluding to when we might actually see one.
Of course, what a Mac mini would even look like in 2018 or beyond — given the design and technological advancements Apple has achieved since then — remains open to imagination.
One of the company’s most recent hardware innovations was its revolutionary OLED TouchBar, which was introduced as a staple feature in its high-end 2016 MacBook Pro models. We’ve seen the Touch Bar envisioned in a number of other concepts, including in a patented, potentially upcoming version of Apple’s wireless Magic Keyboard. But never on a Mac mini.
Now, for the first time ever, we’re seeing gorgeous renders of what one industrial design artist envisions as “the next-generation all-in-one Mac,” which are coming to us courtesy of the talented Louis Berger.
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Dubbed ‘Taptop Computer’, Berger’s concept effectively combines all the components you’d find in a desktop Mac computer, along with a microphone and speakers, as well as a Touch Bar integrated into the unit itself — which can either be used to display the app dock on its integrated touchscreen display, or function as a TouchBar for quickly accessing tasks and commands.
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“The Taptop concept repositions the classic desktop PC from a box with outsourced hardware components into a device which is in the centre of user interaction,” Berger said via his official webpage. “It fuses the cursor optimized desktop interface with a multi-touch control strip, functioning as the Dock and Touch Bar, allowing users to interact with the actual device, not just with peripherals.”
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The concept also incorporates Apple’s new Face ID facial recognition tech via a TrueDepth camera system, allowing the tabletop Mac to quickly authenticate a user when they’re within view of it.
It would certainly be awesome to see Face ID on a future version of the Mac, which it could, after the feature is introduced on Apple’s 2018 iPad models of course.