Wednesday Open Mike: Remember Moms

Great gift idea for Mother's Day: B&H has the Apple 9.7" iPad (2017, 32GB, wi-fi only, gold) on sale for only $269. Your Mom is worth it.

I love my iPad.

I have five Apple devices. Of those, by far the worst is the one I have to use most of the day every single day, the 2012 Mac Mini that I use as my work computer. It overheats and crashes frequently and it's not all that powerful when I'm doing things in Photoshop. Why Apple can't make me a competent basic computer in a smallish (but not overly small) box, that doesn't @!#%#$ overheat, is one of those problems that's annoying chiefly because it shouldn't be a problem at all.

The phone (mine's an iPhone 7+) is my favorite "thing" ever, large or small, tech or mechanical or art-object—favorite all-time. Well, actually I liked the 6+ a little better because the button was real, but "same difference" as we said when I was a kid.

I'm writing my book on a 21" iMac that I like a lot (it's not connected to the Cloud and has almost nothing on it), and then I have an older MacBook Air laptop that I don't use except when I'm traveling. Which means, I hardly ever use it.

The device that I need the least is the one I'm most attached to: my iPad.

When I first got it, I couldn't figure out what to do with it. Now it's like Linus's blanket: I take it to bed with me every night, and it's what's in front of me when I eat alone. I use it mainly to watch videos, movies, and snooker (snooker's my no. 1 spectator sport), and I read books on it. It migrates around the house.

It's fantastic to look at pictures on. It's just the right size to hold in your hands, and the Retina screen shows off digital images nearly ideally. I like looking at pictures on it.

You've probably already gotten your Mom a present. Just thought I'd add a suggestion.

Alternately, try flowers!

Mike

Original contents copyright 2018 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Ernie Van Veen: "The boys and I bought an iPad mini for my wife got Mother's Day five years ago. She's never been a fangirl of tech stuff, but she was, as we say in Australia, 'chuffed' when she got it. She uses it every day for everything from Facebook, to news, blogs, email, and reading, and she takes it in her handbag everywhere we go because it's her first choice for photography. Lately she's been complaining about the limited storage space...I think it may be time for a new one."

Eolake: "I couldn’t agree more about the iPad. Love of my life since the first one. Tip: make a search on Amazon for Tablet Grip. There are many different kinds, and when you hold a tablet in your hand, it makes a big difference. (There are some for phones too.)"

james wilson: "I keep my mini cool with Macs Fan Control. It is a great little app that increases the fan speed in response to processor. I batch process hundreds of images at a time and the fan goes faster and faster to maintain a normal temp. I love my little Mini, no problems."

Mike replies: Thanks. This seems to be working well. It's not clear what the best settings are or what the target temperatures should be, but I was able to get the case cooled down quite a bit and the CPU temps down from 210°F to about 180°F. Hopefully that will help with the crashes, but of course it could be something entirely different causing those.

Comments

[Joe]

My iPad Mini Retina is to blame for almost completely weaning me off paper books.

Not that I prefer reading books on a screen -- I actually prefer paper. But with all the subway and sidewalk travel I do every day, I don't want to carry paper books (library books here are almost all hardback.

[Franklin Berryman]

I am surprised that you have trouble with you Mac Mini 2012. I use mine almost exclusively for photography, running Lightroom and Photoshop simultaneously without problem. To my knowledge, it has never overheated, and I can't recall it ever having locked up. I have 16GB of RAM; perhaps if you have less it uses its processor/hard drive more.

[Joe B]

Mike,
Thanks for the tip on the iPad. Apple usually makes beautiful devices and this is one of them.Looking forward to reading downloaded books on it. Ordered from the link on your website (of course).
cheers and beers,

[BC]

Interesting your comments about your Mac mini. We still have three of four purchased in the past ten years, ranging from a 1st gen Intel Mac mini to a a 2016. While none have particularly great performance, they have slogged on without complaint for years. Overheating and crashes have been non-existent, even while trying to run games that demanded everything of the integration Intel graphics.

[Eric Rose]

Can't you drill some holes into the mac mini case to let it breath a bit better?

[Eolake]

Yes! Steve Jobs’ fetish for smallness is hurting Apple again and again. They also got thermal problems with the cylindric Mac Pro, and now they are back to the drawing board! Idiotic.
(Though I’m actually happy with my Mac Pro. Of course I don’t do intense processing.)

[Eolake]

Ooops, I post too fast; I’d forgotten I had just posted about grips:

http://ereaderjoy.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/cheap-grips.html

[John Krumm]

If you really want to give yourself a treat, try a 12.9 inch iPad Pro. My wife got one through her job, and I am very very envious. Every time I use it, I'm like, wow, this thing is great. Super eye relief. Good sound. She also bought the controversial keypad, and I swear, to my hands that keyboard is the greatest design ever. It feels manual, but better. My fingers just fly, and it makes a neat sound. So, I've been making hints about father's day...

[Dave Van de Mark]

When you make it sleek and neat, you bring on the heat! That would be my way describing Apple's endless quest to pack in the power but make it as tight a fit as possible. I do Photoshop & Lightroom on a 13" MacBook Pro with only 8 gigs of RAM fairly well actually. But the problem lies in driving 3 monitors at the same time. The MacBook screen keeps email and the net in view, while a 19" handles the menus and an NEC 27" has the working image. The MacBook sits on a fan base to keep it from getting real hot.

My 12" iPad Pro is exactly to me as yours is for you. I wish it could sort of levitate on its own and follow me everywhere like a good dog would. Once in a blue moon, just as I'm readying for bed, I discover it's missing, forgotten when I had an full load of groceries to carry in and dinner to fix. So, no matter what the weather is like, I put my clothes back on and go fetch it, because I want it back and next to me, irrespective of the pain and inconvenience.

[James]

Whatever screen you watched it on Mike, that Higgins-Williams final was a cracker eh?

[Clayton]

We are going to be in withdrawal for a while, but there were some dramatic moments in the World Championship.
A few years ago in Venezuela the postal service got so far behind that they burned a bunch of undelivered mail. (just a random comment)

[Richard de Lhorbe]

Have you cleaned the accumulated dust out of the Mini? I have three that I run hard i.e. 100% CPU for nearly 24/7/365, and never have an issue with overheating .... I remove the bottom plate and blow the dust out once per year, and there is usually a good accumulation that needs removing.

[Al C.]

A card-carrying member of the Apple cult, I see.

[I've been using Apples since the very first 128k Macintosh in 1984 and I see no reason to use anything else. Re your misuse of the word "cult," Al, I'm not even religious about religion, much less about corporations. --Mike]

[Rick Baumhauer]

Your mini really shouldn't be overheating. Have you tried blowing out the vents? Also, it should be relatively easy to open that model - the plastic base should rotate and come off, then there's a metal plate you may need to remove to get at the internals. Once you get it opened up, try going at it with a rocket blower or similar to clear out as much dust as possible.

[Steve Rosenblum]

I use one of these to keep my Mac Mini cool.

[I have one of those (probably bought it on your recommendation, Steve), but I still have problems. --Mike]

[Profligatographer]

From the Other Coast

Mike,
My first Apple computer was the original Lisa in 1983 and my thirteenth and most recent was the iPad Air in 2013.

I never found comfort with or use for the iPad. Neither the operating system nor the applications worked like what I was used to with the Macintosh. Only recently did I mount the iPad on a stationary bicycle and used it to read e-books from the library. Then the iPad suddenly stopped working! Would not boot, period. One of these days I’ll take it into an Apple Store but I don’t have hope for what I view as a one-shot, glued-up creation. In the meantime, I bought a Kindle.

FWIW, I have never owned or used an iPod, (Apple) Watch, or iPhone.

My most recent computer has been the Mac Mini Server, purchased in 2011 with 2GHz i7 CPU, 8GB RAM, and two 500GB hard drives, driving a pair of NEC 2690WUXi2 wide-gamut LCD displays. I just recently upgraded the primary drive to a 1TB OWC Mercury Electra 6G SSD. Considering doubling the RAM one of these days but—what’s the rush?

I use this computer for e-mail and browsing, of course, but primarily for extensive Photoshop work (my work files are frequently over 200MB—without levels). I have had almost no ‘crashing’ or overheating.

[Peggy C]

Not being a Mac person, I looked up the 2012 Mac Mini.

Small intake on the front and the exhaust on the bottom....what were they thinking. Guaranteed to over heat.

Even though my desktop PC has excellent intake and exhaust ports, during the summer I will set a small 4" fan at the front of the intake. Gives it that little bit of extra air flow...especially when running Photoshop or any graphics intensive program. Also means I have to clean the dust bunnies out more often, but at least I never worry about over-heating.

Since it appears that the vents on the Mac are small and not in the best locations, what about sitting it on a laptop chill pad? Or sit a small fan at the front intake. Can't hurt to give it a try.

Would make for a cool experiment or an exhausting trial.

Sorry, could not help myself. It's 3:30AM on the west coast. I'm a bit loopy. :D

[Daniel]

You are writing and complaining about the shortcomings of the gear you are using.
WHY don't you move on to some thing that works?

[James]

Mike, You can get tiny QUIET fans from Amazon for about $15
Place it close to the Mac mini and you should be good.

[Sergio Bartelsman]

I pretty much have grown to dislike Apple. I finally let go of my iphone which was liberating. Android works just as fine or even better. Now my ipad is broken. That I guess could very easily get replaved by a much cheaper equivalent android alternative too. But, and it is my big BUT, I can't go back to Windows if I want to replace my imac. I just don't seem to get around that idea.

[Arg]

Too late: got her one for Christmas. Greedy little vixen wanted her Gen 4 upgraded to a 1TB Pro! Can't say no to my girl.... so the daughters will have to think of something else for their mum this weekend. :)

[Crispulo]

This is one of those times I miss the "like" button.

[brad]

It's because, Apple has continued with Job's product formula. It's the reverse of, Form Follows Function. When designing the iPhone, Jobs carved out an object and look. He gave this to his engineers and said, make it all fit in this form (package). So, many compromises were made. The same with all other apple products except for their towers.
I once spent a day with Jobs. He was late for work so, I was lead to his cubicle where I waited for him. In the time there, I looked through all his magazines. All were design magazines, from Graphis to Industrial Design. Not one EE publication. Jobs was an industrial designer and marketing guy. Woz was the original engineer, and inventor of the PC. There's a street named after Woz in Silicon Valley (SJ).
So, your apple heats up because it wasn't designed to exhaust the heat properly. It was designed to look good, sacrificing proper cooling.

[Henning Wulff]

A very common reason for crashes is bad RAM. If your Mac (or other computer crashes fairly often, it's not a bad idea to use a utility like memtest to check this out. It's only a couple of bucks. To do this thoroughly takes about a weekend, but you don't have to sit there watching it. I've had bad RAM, both OEM and third party, probably twice a decade for a while.

It might be worthwhile checking it out.

[Per Kroon]

A have the same model, a Mac Mini from 2012. I was happy with it for a long time, but about two years ago it started to slow down. I got tired of editing photos in Lightroom, it was simply too slow. I couldn't understand why at first, but eventually realised that it was slowing down the CPU to avoid overheating. The cause of the problem? Dust, as many others have suggested. I opened the Mac Mini (easy!), found lots of dust and after cleaning that I have had no problem – it's like a new computer!

If you haven't looked inside your Mac Mini, give it a try, it might be worth it.