Apple’s Software Magic for the Bottom-Button Blues

Apple has finally addressed the most mocked design choice in recent memory: the M4 Mac mini’s bottom-mounted power button. Instead of moving the physical button—which would be a rare admission of a design flaw—Apple is using software magic in the latest macOS Tahoe update to save your fingers. A new setting in the Energy section allows the Mac to start up automatically as soon as it is connected to a power source. This means if you use a smart plug or a simple power strip, your Mac mini, iMac, or Mac Studio will roar to life without you ever needing to lift the device like you're checking its pulse. This clever workaround is Apple’s polite way of acknowledging that the button is indeed in a hard-to-reach place. To make it work, you just need to set the Startup when power is connected option to Always. The update also introduces better support for external accessibility switches, giving users even more ways to bypass the physical hardware. It is a classic Apple solution: fixing a hardware headache with a software touch, ensuring your elegant desktop setup remains undisturbed and right-side up.