Hey all, long time no see. Been crazy busy, but glad to see FTM's still up and running.

So we got in a shipment of new Mac Minis the other week and waddaya know, no Kensington security slot and the bottom cover twists right off with a little flick of the wrist. Uhm, great, but now we can't deploy them and expect them to still be there the next morning. Any leads on a security kit that works with these new Minis? Nobody seems to have one out yet. And I'm not about to epoxy something onto that sweet aluminum finish.

Thanks for any ideas. Sigh.

Epoxying a plate with a proper lock port on it is probably your best option.

Unless you want to build a lockable box to put them in

Are you sure there isn't a tab on the inside? I haven't opened one yet, but the mini has a tab on the top cover that prevents it from being lifted off if there's a lock on it.

And I personally REALLY like the MP/PMG5 system.

Really, lock ports need to do two things... 1) prevent outright theft, and 2) prevent memory swappage to override firmware locks. (and most models of mac don't manage that)

Hey, donikatz

If you have not already done so, you might see if this Mac Mini Security Enclosure is designed for the the new Mac mini (Mid 2010).
I am not clear what "new" means in that announcement. The page also includes a reference to a Power Supply Bracket which is confusing.

Looking at the picture in that link it looks like a previous gen mini in the box.

We just got our mini demo, and I'm afraid I have to agree, it has no kensington lock port, and appears to be trivial to remove all the guts from the shell since after a few screws the inner assembly just slides out.

Soooo, to secure it you will either have to box it with something like that dianne linked to, or come up with a creative epoxy solution that causes the presence of the padlock to block the ability to slide out the assembly. And then there's also the RAM to watch out for.

The simpler solution may be to simply have the entire computer out of reach, such as in a desk drawer, locked. But then no optical drive. But then not many need to use discs anymore. Set it to power on at 2am every day, and set it to auto power on after power failure. In a pinch unplug power at the wall to reboot it.

aaaand 20 minutes of phone tag later, first with the apple mac mini sales, then with educational, then with apple engineering. (yes, that far for "how do we stop our mac mini from getting stolen?")

Answer: you can't. not right now. there's a third party that will be selling a "cage" like solution, it will be available at the Apple store and in other places. There is no ETA. Maybe dianne's link is to the 3rd party they are referring to? Funny, each of them said they have not been asked this question before!

donikatz,

Some posts to you about the moveAddict application have been detached from this thread and can be found here: moveAddict application information.

Don't you hate when people start a thread & then disappear for ages?

Anyhow, after much hemming and hawing, we wound up epoxying Kensington Mini Plate Anchors to the Minis after all. Not ideal, but less obtrusive and much less expensive than any of the mounting kits & enclosures that were eventually released. Doesn't secure the RAM, but we're not really too worried about that. And even with the little black tumor, the 2010 model is still much prettier than the previous gen.

http://us.kensington.com/html/17083.html