If a new form factor is introduced this year, it's likely to be Haswell, thus the Broadwell update could arrive as a silent Mac store update late 2015
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Mid-2014 Mini: What are we in for?
- Thread starter ZipZilla
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Meh, not necessarily, only if they use the old form factor. The new form factor will be designed for less heat the processor will generate. IMHO
Actually not big difference, the major advantage of Broadwell update is is mobile gpu.Meh, not necessarily, only if they use the old form factor. The new form factor will be designed for less heat the processor will generate. IMHO
What could be happen if a new form factor is introduced this year and was Broadwell optimized but on Haswell chips, that Apple will intentionally deliver an much less powered mini using Mobile chips (dual core), leaving the return to quad core minis to the Broadwell update.
I dream with an Mac Pro like mini passively cooled, it's possible also with Haswell.
Left field but...
What I would like:
External PSU with magsafe - I run from a 12v supply.
Internal UPS - just enough to power down safely.
64bit ARM CPU - Provided
R&D have been busy with the silicone steroids.
2 x TB2
External PCIe GPU option on Thunderbolt.
SDD
Small form factor.
Front SD slot
I'd also like it buffed up to a fine polish in British Racing Green.
But that's just me.
What I would like:
External PSU with magsafe - I run from a 12v supply.
Internal UPS - just enough to power down safely.
64bit ARM CPU - Provided
R&D have been busy with the silicone steroids.2 x TB2
External PCIe GPU option on Thunderbolt.
SDD
Small form factor.
Front SD slot
I'd also like it buffed up to a fine polish in British Racing Green.
But that's just me.
I would like to see passively cooled also. It's a +++.
I see all the other Mini's by different manufacturers out there and can bet with 100% confidence they will put Broadwell in those machines as soon as they can and although the processor speed will not increase much the GPU will be blazing for the small form factor.
Apple has to have that in mind for a unit they only refresh every 2 or three years.
I see all the other Mini's by different manufacturers out there and can bet with 100% confidence they will put Broadwell in those machines as soon as they can and although the processor speed will not increase much the GPU will be blazing for the small form factor.
Apple has to have that in mind for a unit they only refresh every 2 or three years.
I think the people that want an internal sd slot actually don't use SD cards or at least don't so often.
There are usb thumb drives that you can plug a SD card into so Apple could eliminate that slot and people would still be able to use their cards.
Yes, and actually use to provide an stronger connection, my mbp not only don't retain well the SD cards, but lately have an read-only bug that forces to use an external reader (an OSX bug, since os on bootcamp don't have such behavior) .
I have an mini micro sd adapter which also helped me to recover files from damaged cards, impossible to do on std sd readers seems due the format adaptor adds noise or whatever, I prefer to use a format specific cards reader (sd for std sd, and micro for micro sd) since using sd with micro adapters use to fail
The additional support chips for v1 are not radically different from v2. ( DisplayPort 1.2 switch/support probably is incrementally more expensive, but at the volumes across mac products sold probably not a huge difference). Even with a difference, drop Firewire and any $1-5 difference is essentially a wash. If Apple is squeezed by $2-10 on one subsystem they can often squeeze that back out of another ( e.g., drop legacy port , stagnant on performance/capacity , etc. )
For a company that increments prices by $100 ( $x99 prices for Mini). $20 isn't huge. Even your range has a $100 swing in there. $360 in parts going to $380 is still under $400. If being under $400 is the requirement ( $350+ 30% = $455 or $400 + 30% = $520 ) then nothing significant happened with that price increase.
Apple chopped $100 off the MBA prices so I can understand why the 2014 versions didn't get a TB v2 update ( buying up 'old' TB v1 production is likely much cheaper than buying current TB v2 stuff). Ditto with the MBA stuffed into iMac body. Chop prices selling last year's stuff at higher volumes.
Unless do something super fancy with the secondary Display Port v1.2 support that is new ..... TB v2 doesn't cost significantly more than TB v1.
There is suppose to be an iMac mid 2014 too. There is pretty likely chance they'll get TB v2 just like a Mini mid 2014 would if/when it arrives. The only way the mini stays at TB v1 is if Apple is stuffing a refactored MBA 2014 design into the Mini. They did it with the low cost iMac so it is possible. Perhaps Apple is going to shave $100 off the Mini too to crank up sales. But at the current prices and TB v1 ... that is far more indicative of boosting margins even higher than of "too expensive for mini".
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Indeed! It would be nice to see the most recent Wireless technologies in the Mini for the occasional transportation, but it's still a desktop device and as such it should NEVER lose the Ethernet Port. It's not going to be that extra wire that's going to cause a mess on the desk and Ethernet will always be more reliable than Wireless.
As for the second thunderbolt, now that I think about it, I think I'd actually prefer the the second HDMI that I also suggested. That way I could plug a second screen without having to resort to adapters
My hope is fading away with Ethernet port seeing what Apple has done to its retina macbook pro, macbook air, and even iMac!!!
my bad. With the much slimmer design and soldered PCBs, I think I saw somewhere that it lost its ethernet port.
And that's good news that it still retains the port.
I believe that due to Intel's schedule changes, we are seeing the true state and future of desktop computing and the writing is on the wall. The industry is evolving away from desktop computing. Intel knows that the money now is in portable tablets and cloud based systems which doesn't need a lot of firepower to operate. No sense of putting money in research and developmenting Desktop CPU's any more.
After all, the PC (Personal Computer) age is winding down and Intel knows this. This is why it makes no economical sense to put out faster CPU's every year/half year for a market that is shrinking in demand. I believe the slow down will be the trend as the PC evolves to basically nonexistent.
Microsoft under Bill Gates had a vision years back to have everything in the cloud and just have "dummy" terminals to access it (like Google is working towards) with all software and files in the cloud for access. What saved this from happening years ago was the business community and this still might be our hope OBI-One. But now the current CPU's and RAM are MORE than ENOUGH for any regular businesses needs (MSOffice and Solitaire), so the need to push faster and powerful systems is not needed any longer due to demands.
Most of the people on the forums that desire faster and powerful systems are probably into gaming, but desktop gaming is starting to decrease as Xboxes etc. try to fill that need (Microsoft's new future plans).
For those like myself that do basic video editing etc., the days of pushing our little friend Mac Mini to the limits because we cannot afford a Mac Pro is probably winding down. Again, no need to push developing CPU's. CPU Cycles may go back to 2-3 years for single updates.
All that said, is that my guess is that because of the mess-up with Intel's schedule, we will probably see modest upgrades for the Mini and then probably one last redesign (2016 at minimal if the Mac Mini is updated soon). Apple is hinting with the cheaply entry iMacs for China and probably business needs...so If you want or need more power, you will need to upgrade to the base Mac Pros.
If no update in October (or silent upgrade), then NO MINI until October 2015 at minimal.
After all, the PC (Personal Computer) age is winding down and Intel knows this. This is why it makes no economical sense to put out faster CPU's every year/half year for a market that is shrinking in demand. I believe the slow down will be the trend as the PC evolves to basically nonexistent.
Microsoft under Bill Gates had a vision years back to have everything in the cloud and just have "dummy" terminals to access it (like Google is working towards) with all software and files in the cloud for access. What saved this from happening years ago was the business community and this still might be our hope OBI-One. But now the current CPU's and RAM are MORE than ENOUGH for any regular businesses needs (MSOffice and Solitaire), so the need to push faster and powerful systems is not needed any longer due to demands.
Most of the people on the forums that desire faster and powerful systems are probably into gaming, but desktop gaming is starting to decrease as Xboxes etc. try to fill that need (Microsoft's new future plans).
For those like myself that do basic video editing etc., the days of pushing our little friend Mac Mini to the limits because we cannot afford a Mac Pro is probably winding down. Again, no need to push developing CPU's. CPU Cycles may go back to 2-3 years for single updates.
All that said, is that my guess is that because of the mess-up with Intel's schedule, we will probably see modest upgrades for the Mini and then probably one last redesign (2016 at minimal if the Mac Mini is updated soon). Apple is hinting with the cheaply entry iMacs for China and probably business needs...so If you want or need more power, you will need to upgrade to the base Mac Pros.
If no update in October (or silent upgrade), then NO MINI until October 2015 at minimal.
I suspect this is wild speculation on your part based on zero evidence. I currently use the internal SD card slot on my Mini, and I'm a busy professional photographer so I use the slot on a daily basis. It is convenient and quick - no need for another USB slot to be taken up by a card reader.
I believe that due to Intel's schedule changes, we are seeing the true state and future of desktop computing and the writing is on the wall. The industry is evolving away from desktop computing. Intel knows that the money now is in portable tablets and cloud based systems which doesn't need a lot of firepower to operate. No sense of putting money in research and developmenting Desktop CPU's any more.
After all, the PC (Personal Computer) age is winding down and Intel knows this. This is why it makes no economical sense to put out faster CPU's every year/half year for a market that is shrinking in demand. I believe the slow down will be the trend as the PC evolves to basically nonexistent.
Microsoft under Bill Gates had a vision years back to have everything in the cloud and just have "dummy" terminals to access it (like Google is working towards) with all software and files in the cloud for access. What saved this from happening years ago was the business community and this still might be our hope OBI-One. But now the current CPU's and RAM are MORE than ENOUGH for any regular businesses needs (MSOffice and Solitaire), so the need to push faster and powerful systems is not needed any longer due to demands.
Most of the people on the forums that desire faster and powerful systems are probably into gaming, but desktop gaming is starting to decrease as Xboxes etc. try to fill that need (Microsoft's new future plans).
For those like myself that do basic video editing etc., the days of pushing our little friend Mac Mini to the limits because we cannot afford a Mac Pro is probably winding down. Again, no need to push developing CPU's. CPU Cycles may go back to 2-3 years for single updates.
All that said, is that my guess is that because of the mess-up with Intel's schedule, we will probably see modest upgrades for the Mini and then probably one last redesign (2016 at minimal if the Mac Mini is updated soon). Apple is hinting with the cheaply entry iMacs for China and probably business needs...so If you want or need more power, you will need to upgrade to the base Mac Pros.
If no update in October (or silent upgrade), then NO MINI until October 2015 at minimal.
I wouldn't worry too much about Intel giving up on x86 processors. It may slow down a bit with shrinkage becoming more difficult but it will happen.
Even if you were to put Mac Pro level performance into a tablet, they're still hardly the most convenient devices for serious office work; work on the go, sure, or more casual work, absolutely, but unless you're going to advocate my getting a 21" or larger tablet I just don't see how I'm supposed to get anything done without a proper computer. Also, cloud services are very likely to continue growing so it will still make sense for Intel to develop for desktops first, before refining for workstations and servers, as I doubt the latter two are going to decline much.
And yet software continues to grow in complexity. You could argue that a Pentium III was plenty for running office apps (because it was), so why did we progress beyond that point? Because we wanted richer, easier to use office apps, with real-time drag-and-drop layout tools, handling greater detail with bigger images etc. etc.
Even now, while office apps have a great set of features, they're still far from done evolving; there's still a lot more that apps could do with machine learning and other automated features, that are still too powerful for todays average desktop processor. Sure you could stuff all this in the cloud, but you're moving all that processing to a central location, potentially introducing latency, or worse, leaving users at the mercy of the service; I mean, how many big services have had issues in the last year, either going down or being compromised in some way? I'd much rather have the clout to run the full features of a program on my machine and know it will continue to just work; supplementary services are fine, but moving the apps entirely into the cloud? No thanks.
They're not doing an amazing job of that, as console lock-in is making it a very frustrating experience. Consoles have actually pushed me back towards PC gaming, as I'm sick of paying such high prices for games and DLC when the PC gaming market continues to actually be you know, a market, with a huge degree of freedom. I'm loving the possibilities of Steam Machines, as they might actually make PC gaming more accessible (with time, they seem to be aiming for existing PC gamers that want more console-like machines for now).
Besides, the Mac Mini is far from a gaming oriented machine; it might run some stuff quite well, but if you bought it for gaming you've wasted your money, as the same money could buy a far more capable machine for that purpose (some even vaguely console sized). Likewise with the Mac Pro; even the previous generation of Mac Pros were a horrible choice for gaming as you were paying a huge premium for Xeons and ECC that you didn't need, plus a graphics card you'd likely swap out first chance you got.
Why? Video is just as important, and 4k video is going to be even more demanding. While this might mean more people are forced to buy a Mac Pro to get the performance they need, you're still going to get people who can't do that so need to push every extra fps out of a Mac Mini to get encoding done in a reasonable (albeit likely pretty slow) time.
Fortunately OpenCL and rapidly improving integrated GPUs to run it on, might just help to keep modest systems at a reasonable level for encoding/transcoding video, for those of who can't afford the hardware to really do it seriously.
Huh? Got an iMac from the future? Current models do have (Gigabit) Ethernet onboard.
AHHH! You're right.
When I first got mine I for some reason swore it didn't (I use wireless so it was do biggy). I just stomped into my office and spun it around and noticed I'm an idiot.
I believe that due to Intel's schedule changes, we are seeing the true state and future of desktop computing and the writing is on the wall. The industry is evolving away from desktop computing. Intel knows that the money now is in portable tablets and cloud based systems which doesn't need a lot of firepower to operate. No sense of putting money in research and developmenting Desktop CPU's any more.
After all, the PC (Personal Computer) age is winding down and Intel knows this. This is why it makes no economical sense to put out faster CPU's every year/half year for a market that is shrinking in demand. I believe the slow down will be the trend as the PC evolves to basically nonexistent.
Microsoft under Bill Gates had a vision years back to have everything in the cloud and just have "dummy" terminals to access it (like Google is working towards) with all software and files in the cloud for access. What saved this from happening years ago was the business community and this still might be our hope OBI-One. But now the current CPU's and RAM are MORE than ENOUGH for any regular businesses needs (MSOffice and Solitaire), so the need to push faster and powerful systems is not needed any longer due to demands.
Most of the people on the forums that desire faster and powerful systems are probably into gaming, but desktop gaming is starting to decrease as Xboxes etc. try to fill that need (Microsoft's new future plans).
For those like myself that do basic video editing etc., the days of pushing our little friend Mac Mini to the limits because we cannot afford a Mac Pro is probably winding down. Again, no need to push developing CPU's. CPU Cycles may go back to 2-3 years for single updates.
All that said, is that my guess is that because of the mess-up with Intel's schedule, we will probably see modest upgrades for the Mini and then probably one last redesign (2016 at minimal if the Mac Mini is updated soon). Apple is hinting with the cheaply entry iMacs for China and probably business needs...so If you want or need more power, you will need to upgrade to the base Mac Pros.
If no update in October (or silent upgrade), then NO MINI until October 2015 at minimal.
I opted for a Mac Mini/ iMac ethernet solution using Vienna Ensemble Pro for music creation instead of the GPU/graphics centered Mac Pro. Apple may use the technology from the Mac Pro to create a scalable form factor that will replace the Mac Mini and maybe also the iMac.
Advanced voice recognition will eventually replace the keyboard and portable computing will be totally dominated by hand held devices.
I will replace my current Win 7 htpc with the new Mini, so I would be satisfied with a 128 GB PCIe SSD and 801.11ac. And if there are two i7 options, I'll most likely go for the slower one. And if 8 GB RAM isn't standard, I'll add that too.
The GPU isn't of any concern to me.
The GPU isn't of any concern to me.
There's a lot they could do such change the amount of RAM (this would be great), update the CPU, possibly different graphic cards depending on what model you buy (doubt that will happen), add more ports like an extra HDMI, add an SSD (hope not because I need to store a lot and if people use it as a media player surely they will store a lot on it) and various other options mention. However i'll deal with that when it happens because all I want is ......
a release date or confirmation of a new mac mini!
a release date or confirmation of a new mac mini!
There might be an i5 model with Iris graphics, and an i7 with Iris Pro. That is likely to be the only graphics options. But it would be an option.