When it comes to design of Apple accessories, I personally think the team at Charleston, SC – based Twelve South sometimes does a better job of thinking things through than Apple’s own design team. Recently, I received a Twelve South Inspire “Mac Candle No.2” for review, which is a US$29.99 scented candle that’s the followup to last year’s model with the “New Mac Smell”. Let’s take a look at this fun gift, and I’ll tell you why I think Jony Ive should look at the candle for inspiration…
As a scented candle, Inspire is pretty impressive. I frankly hate going into places like Yankee Candle because the candles are overwhelmingly powerful, almost sickening. I found the Inspire to be just about the right level of scent, and the bergamot, lemon and tarragon scents were subtle enough to not give our house the overpowering perfumed “French Whorehouse” odor that’s common with most scented candles.
OK, enough about the scent. What I really wanted to talk about is how Inspire inspired me to wish for a new Mac mini — one that comes in a container the same size as the Inspire candle. The Inspire is a rounded cylinder 3.25 inches (82.55mm) in diameter and 4.25 inches (107.95mm) high.
Now, Jony Ive, your challenge is to make a new Mac mini that fits into that space. You can use a different material than the ceramic used for the Inspire for better heat exchange, and you can make it shiny black like the “Trash Can” Mac Pro. But I challenge you to fit a fairly powerful processor and graphics card, up to 1TB of flash storage, two USB 3.0 and two Thunderbolt 3 ports, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and all the other necessities into that little cylinder.
It’s done frequently in the PC world. For instance, look at the Ockel Sirius B Black Cherry, which the manufacturer notes is “lighter than an iPhone 7 Plus”! Certainly Apple’s Chief Designer can make a more powerful computer than the Sirius B Black Cherry and make it look better, too…
So thank you, Twelve South, for inspiring Apple fans with the wonderful scent of the Inspire Mac Candle No. 2 and for hopefully inspiring Jony Ive and his team to create a new Mac mini using the Inspire as inspiration. (Did that make sense?)
By the way, with the holidays coming up, an Inspire would make a good gift for your favorite Mac fan.
