Unreleased prototype Mac mini with iPod nano dock surfaces in photos

Apple was considering releasing a version of the Mac mini with a built-in dock for an iPod nano, photographs of an unreleased prototype reveal, one that could have enabled synchronization of music and other content with the portable music device without relying on a separate cable or dock.

Posted to Twitter on Saturday, the images by @DongleBookPro show a first-generation Mac mini, complete with a white top, but with a cut-out section to the rear of the computing device. Located at the back and in the center line of the top casing, a gap offers a space for a user to place an iPod nano.

The dock section includes the depreciated 30-pin connector, offset to the left of the unit, designed to match up with the connectors on the iPod nano. The size of the dock space meant it was incompatible with larger hard drive-based models of iPod, suggesting the prototype was meant just for use with the iPod nano.

EVT Mac Mini, with iPod dock. Totally scraped project that never saw the light of day pic.twitter.com/fSm1m31fhX
— Dongle (@DongleBookPro) August 22, 2020

The poster describes the unit as being a "totally scraped [sic] project that never saw the light of day," and possibly for good reason. The shift towards iPhone and the wide variations in physical design over time, as well as changes in connector to Lightning, would have severely dated the unit shortly after going on sale.

While Apple did not rely on building docks into Macs, it did utilize the concept in the iPod Hi-Fi, a speaker unit that worked by plugging an iPod into the dock section on the top. The device failed to make much headway, and was gone from Apple's online store a mere 18 months after launch.

8 Comments

elijahg 18 Years · 2842 comments

About 4 years ago

The Mac Minis had an unpopulated connector on one of the breakout PCBs right up until the newer flatter design, which was until now rumoured to be an iPod connector. This looks pretty odd imo. Mac Minis were popular at the time as the hub for home theatres with the FrontRow app, I wonder if Apple was going to have some sort of "iPod theatre" with the Mini as the host; plug in an iPod and all its media is playable on the attached monitor/TV, but then the AppleTV came along.

Rayz2016 8 Years · 6957 comments

"For every 'yes', there are a thousand 'nos'"

mainyehc 17 Years · 145 comments

What a stupid, stupid prototype… Great idea (no, really), terrible execution (and not because it looks ugly, but because it was a dead end, as it was so very well put in the article).

Why on earth would a first-generation G4 Mac mini, a computer introduced in January 2005, NOT include an Universal [32-pin] iPod Dock, modeled after the standalone version, complete with those swappable plastic adapters instead of this dedicated iPod Nano-bound abomination? That Dock was also released in 2005, so it’s not like those products weren’t both in the prototype stage at the same time at some point. :/

Hank2.0 5 Years · 151 comments

Considering the ever increasing computational power being put into iPhones, I'm surprised Apple hasn't played with the idea of a processor-less iMac or MacBook where you would slide your iPhone into slot and it would act as the processor, if you get my meaning.

Hank2.0 said:

Considering the ever increasing computational power being put into iPhones, I'm surprised Apple hasn't played with the idea of a processor-less iMac or MacBook where you would slide your iPhone into slot and it would act as the processor, if you get my meaning.

Why would they do that (at least branded as an “Mac”, and not as a glorified display/hub)? Apple wants you to buy as many fully-fledged, standalone devices as possible, and they reward you accordingly with whatever performance their TDP and thermal envelope allows.