To Apple, design has always been paramount. The products that come out of their collective creativity always carry a certain sleekness and simplicity that appeals to techie and non-techie alike. However, it is up to the modding community to come up with a creation that is equal parts cuteness and ingenuity, while still being guided by Apple’s two main design philosophies.

                                            The Mac Mini.

Take Apple’s Mac Mini and the Mac Pro – two disparate directions in design that are nonetheless followers of both simplicity and sleekness. In the Mini, the pure white finish and unadorned planes appeal to the purists, while the perforated design and merging handles and feet of the Mac Pro casing gives off an appropriately powerful and high-tech vibe. Both products are very attractive, and to the eyes of this editor at least, are perfect examples of sticking to the essentials while still managing to advance the borders of design beauty.

                                       Nothing seems to be out of the ordinary, yet, look at the size of the keyboard and monitor.

What happens then when these two very accomplished designs are somehow combined? Nothing that would come our of Apple’s design centers surely, and after all, pristine white somehow doesn’t quite mesh with perforated aluminum in my mind. To this modder however, another attribute of the Mac Mini, instead of its mere appearance, was utilized in a design that’s amazingly…cuddly – for a computer that is.

                                             You can see where the Mac Mini was integrated in this shot.

In Hideo Takano’s design, the Mac Mini internals were used to give a miniaturized Mac Pro casing its core, with a some extras added in – specifically, a desktop 3.5” 500GB hardisk, an external power switch, an additional USB connector up front, and a processor upgrade for the otherwise stock Mac Mini. This Mac Pro look alike can be mistaken for the real thing if not for the CD slot to the left of its body, perfectly lined up to the load-in slot of the Mini. It’s super cute, in the same way that a perfectly scaled Lamborghini Diablo model is cute.

                                             Not a simple slide-in mod, the redesign also involved a HDD, power adaptations, plastic work plus a CPU upgrade.

Modding is strictly a niche interest in our little corner of the world, with most people just needing to learn how to use Word or browse the internet. Design is important if only for matching up to the home décor, but this modder-made project shows that a mod well designed can be both a design statement and an expression of modding geekiness – don’t be surprised if Apple waits for the (small) furor to die down and introduce something in a similar design vein a few months later to rave reviews and declarations of originality and design accomplishment. If it happens, remember: you first heard it here.