[wiether]

Buying a new computer at +$500 just to have iMessage access feels insane to me.

OpenClaw supports all the mainstream (and free) chat apps like Discord, WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram... None of them requiring a MacOS machine.

Is it a lack of knowledge from the users or do they really value iMessage integration that much?

[hypercube33]

What I don't get is where is the Mac Mini Neo at like $350? Neos tiny motherboard in a box with some more ports would be awesome.

[officeplant]

With how apple seemed to be caught by surprise when it came to Macbook Neo demand, I'm not sure they have the quantities of SoC's around to handle the demand a Mini Neo could drive. Especially if they could do it for $299.

[runako]

I will go out on a limb and say that's not going to be an Apple product, period. It doesn't fit anywhere in the value envelope.

The relevant questions here are: will the person using this machine also conceivably be wearing a pair of $549 AirPod Max? Or a $399 base Apple Watch? Does that person expect to pay more or less for their largest-screen computing device than their headphones?

Framing that way points toward a $350 price point being a laptop for young children (younger than Apple Watch age, so lower elementary). That's a whole different software experience beyond just the hardware.

[api]

A Pi running macOS more or less. Not dissing it though. Killer machine for those who don’t need a lot of power locally. Also a great kiosk for some things.

[robotresearcher]

Apart from the ports, that’s roughly the AppleTV hardware. A macOS or Linux port to that would be a cute thin client. Not gonna happen, but cute.

[xienze]

> Is it a lack of knowledge from the users or do they really value iMessage integration that much?

My understanding is that the barrier to entry to using iMessage makes iMessage a LOT more secure from spam. If you want to do mass iMessages you have to register as a business with Apple, go through all sorts of checks and attestations, etc.

At any rate, iMessages are a lot more trustworthy than SMS. So being able to spam people via iMessage is very desirable. I recall a few months ago a guy posting his little spam-iMessage-as-a-Service product here on HN. You could build your little iMessage spam army using a bunch of Mac Minis...

[moduspol]

It's anecdotal but the kind of people I know that bought Mac Minis for this purpose are what I'd call "light techies." They definitely know how to use an iPhone or a Mac but would struggle on the CLI of a Linux box.

Anyone who wanted the OpenClaw use case that is comfortable with Linux probably already has several Linux machines (including a few Raspberry Pis) on-hand.

[ramijames]

And configuring a bot for Telegram is incredibly easy.