Late-2007 Mac Mini (A1176) Unsoldered Mystery Connector on Interconnect Board

Question

I'm just wondering if anyone has ever done a thorough probe/exploration of the interconnect board in late-2007 Mac Minis. I'm specifically curious about the 14 unsoldered pads on the back of the board (J27 if the silk screen is to be believed?), to the left of the audio ribbon cable connector.

There's so much extra capability locked away in the chipset, I'm just wondering if there's something extra there that would be accessible with a little soldering. 14 pins is a strange number, but it looks like it's designed for a ribbon cable connector like the audio one.

Answer 1

There were rumors early in the mini's life that there was (at some point) supposed to be a built-in iPod Dock on the top. They were even supposed to have gotten far enough in the design that they left the headers for the USB and FireWire connections on the board. Those may be them. (Here's a The Register article on the subject.)

To my knowledge, nobody's proven or disproven this rumor. If you, in your explorations, find an answer, do post it here!