For creating content it is still much easier to use a laptop/desktop than a tablet. I for one would be disappointed to see BootCamp go.
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The new Mac mini is almost certainly coming
- Thread starter GabrieleR
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I'd say it's over already. We're some 3-4 hours over the usual time for the store going down.
Now I'm curious, what are 2010 minis infamous for?
Basically midnight PST. If you hit 0100 on Tuesday and the store hasn't gone post-it, dial in another week of waiting.
So...you think it would be better to have a CPU that is in the entry-level ballpark from 5 years ago (assuming they double the power)? And will also break compatibility with all OS X binaries.
What do you see as the advantage? I mean if I'm using hardware that's 5-years out of date and requires I get all new binaries, there must be some benefit. Power consumption per megaflop is actually a bit better on modern Intels then Arm, and anyway on a desktop who cares about a couple of Watts?
Switching to arm just because it's only 5 years out of date has got to be one of the stupidest posts I've read on the internet in a very long time. Besides, geekbench scores only tell part of the picture. I took a graduate level course in CPU architecture that I can best sum up as "Benchmarks between architectures mean absolutely nothing". So your post is even more wrong than you are even capable of understanding.
Wow - I can't remember that I ever read such an agressively insulting and condescending post before!
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It doesn't matter what I see as advantage, but what Apple may think a huge group of potential buyers might see as advantage. Perhaps you could take some graduate level courses in economics and social dynamics to help you understand.
Too bad you didn't also take a graduate level course in politeness. That would have allowed us to lead a normal discussion about this interesting topic.
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The 2010 minis (and MBA's, for that matter) were quite infamous for their relatively poor CPU performance due to the outdated Core 2 Duo architecture.
Me neither, honestly.
I doubt we'll ever see ARM processors running OS X. A factor not usually considered in this discussion is AMD, which beat Intel to the punch not only in the fabrication of 64-bit ARM processors, but also in the ARM-based server market with the Opteron A1100. AMD has also abandoned their failed CMT technology and is currently engineering next-gen architecture to compete directly with Intel once again in x86 platforms. With possible renewed competition between Intel and AMD on the horizon, and AMD's commitment to both ARM and x86, I have a feeling the status quo will remain for the forseeable future, since I don't believe Apple will incorporate ARM in Macs until it can do so across the board, something I don't see happening even without competition from AMD...
Guys I know everyone wants to fancy ARM chips because they are so cool and new. But we are talking about different ships here. Changing to ARM chips is going to be a huge pain in the ass again because like its already said we need new binaries. Which buyer thinks as an advantage yes I need new binaries for everything, I have a slower processor and I save a couple of bucks on my desktop in a couple of years for power. Sounds like a good deal bought!
When you think ARM chips could be an advantage in Macs. Hm the people who care what chip is in the machine are the people favoring Intel right now. I mean why not? Wanting an ARM chip in my Mac is the last thing for me right now.
And yes it sounds so nice if Apple has everything "in house" but since when does Apple want producing everything in house? (The only thing are the Ax chips)
But the real question is: Who is getting there sooner? ARM to get the perfomance to the level of Intel's top class processors or Intel to get their processor down to the efficient processors ARM is currently making.
To be honest I think the ladder(what ever this means for Ax processors). Intel is making big steps in that direction
I really don't think that ARM is ready; I doubt Apple wants to undergo a switch anytime soon, and certainly not for only a portion of their lineup, especially when Intel processors have gained considerably in energy efficiency and integrated graphics performance, while maintaining their solid set of hardware features for video decoding/encoding, compression, encryption etc.
Just take a look at Windows RT; even if Apple created a new Rosetta to handle the changeover I'm not convinced it would be smooth at all. It's also two different segments; ARM processors are great for portable devices, embedded systems (and things like NASes) or really large scale servers, I just don't think they're ideal for desktops at all, and won't be for several years yet.
Apple clearly favours OpenCL for high performance in the Mac Pro, and I do think that for pro apps we'll see OpenCL more as it's a big area for improving software performance. But iMacs and Mac Minis are another question entirely; Apple won't take much interest in the gaming credentials of an AMD APU, but will they really care about OpenCL? Maybe in a few years, but not even high end apps are moving quickly to adopt OpenCL, and more casual apps aren't likely to follow all that quickly either.
Just take a look at Windows RT; even if Apple created a new Rosetta to handle the changeover I'm not convinced it would be smooth at all. It's also two different segments; ARM processors are great for portable devices, embedded systems (and things like NASes) or really large scale servers, I just don't think they're ideal for desktops at all, and won't be for several years yet.
While I'm a fan of AMD, and would love to see OS X support AMD processors, most AMD offerings have pretty poor CPU performance compared to Intel processors. The area where AMD is currently most interesting is with their APUs, which have far better integrated graphics than even Iris Pro chips from Intel, but it's hard to see Apple bothering to switch for iMacs and Mac Minis, even though AMD APUs are actually great performers when it comes to OpenCL leveraging both the CPU and GPU.
Apple clearly favours OpenCL for high performance in the Mac Pro, and I do think that for pro apps we'll see OpenCL more as it's a big area for improving software performance. But iMacs and Mac Minis are another question entirely; Apple won't take much interest in the gaming credentials of an AMD APU, but will they really care about OpenCL? Maybe in a few years, but not even high end apps are moving quickly to adopt OpenCL, and more casual apps aren't likely to follow all that quickly either.
I don't think it's a very good article, but this is from today:
"Why Apple wont dump Intel x86 for its own ARM chips in MacBooks and the Mac Pro"
"Why Apple wont dump Intel x86 for its own ARM chips in MacBooks and the Mac Pro"
No ARM desktop Mac will arrive in the near and mid term (0-3 year from now) at least, coz ARM while more power efficient, don't deliver the single core mips performance an desktop need, and to equal a desktop computer in performance requires 1632 cores ti match a dual or quad core i7, period.
Where maybe plausible an ARM powered Mac is one running osx server, since most server apps don't require a windowed front end, are much easier to port to another cpu, and a server takes more advantage of a multi core cpu than a desktop, since it's threads are in response to file or database request, involves less cpu time on each thread.
But this ARM based osx server will be another line, also maybe not named Mac at all.
Where maybe plausible an ARM powered Mac is one running osx server, since most server apps don't require a windowed front end, are much easier to port to another cpu, and a server takes more advantage of a multi core cpu than a desktop, since it's threads are in response to file or database request, involves less cpu time on each thread.
But this ARM based osx server will be another line, also maybe not named Mac at all.
I'm sure Tim Cook looked at Microsoft's smashing success with Windows RT, and said "Yea, we can do that too. Let's put a desktop OS on ARM."
Apple had better be a little humble and realize that its current rocket to the stars started precisely when they announced they would be using Intel CPU's. And stopped being such a boring walled garden.
So Apple, go easy switching to ARM and making yourself incompatible all over again. Beware. Be warned. Be smart.
So Apple, go easy switching to ARM and making yourself incompatible all over again. Beware. Be warned. Be smart.
You mean, like Steve looked at the smashing success of Windows tablets before releasing the iPad? Or the "smartphones" from Nokia, Sony and Blackberry before releasing the iPhone? Or the mobile hardddrive music players before introducing the iPod?
Okay - maybe Steve said something more along the lines of "Yea, we can do that better..."
AFAIK iOS is directly derived from a desktop OS codebase, so they basically already did that.
Why would they "switch" their "mac" OS to ARM when they can simply make iOS more and more capable?
They already have the most successful ARM platform ever in terms of profits. The could close the mac business all together if they wanted (in terms of money...in terms of culture and providing macs for iOS developing not). They already "switched" to ARM if you look at the revenue share between iDevices and Macs.
2006 is the new 1984.
Imagine a "giant leap" kinda update for iOS like Mac OS Classic to OS X.
Add mouse support, boom.
No need to shoehorn OS X to ARM, why have two ARM platforms.
They already have the most successful ARM platform ever in terms of profits. The could close the mac business all together if they wanted (in terms of money...in terms of culture and providing macs for iOS developing not). They already "switched" to ARM if you look at the revenue share between iDevices and Macs.
2006 is the new 1984.
Imagine a "giant leap" kinda update for iOS like Mac OS Classic to OS X.
Add mouse support, boom.
No need to shoehorn OS X to ARM, why have two ARM platforms.
hahaha great
this thread keeps going on
Sure does ..
From a prediction to there would be a new Mini with a week (eight months ago) through predictions that the thread, and the Mini were dead, both live on.
Since reaching 80 pages and 2,000 posts seven weeks ago, the thread has been steaming on at an average more than 100 posts a week, with over 170 in the past week.
The Mini is still in the Mac line up. Still selling OK, it would seem, the Mini likely to remain available in some form or another. That a new Mini will be available sooner or later, probably announced some Tuesday, remains almost certain.
If you are looking for a computer for surfing the internet, watching movies, editing documents, programming and other activities of daily average usage, then the mac mini is an ideal choice for you.
The good thing is that the Mac Mini produces very little noise, and it is an ideal office pc.Mini which takes up little space and consumes only 10W in stendbay mode, while his maintaining is almost unnecessarily.
Mac mini is small, compact and quiet, but you will not be able to play the latest games, therefore it is not recommended for gamers.
Take a look at this comparison at http://antoniom1.hubpages.com/hub/What-is-a-Mac-Mini and You will see comparison to iMac and Mac Pro.Anyone considering purchasing this Mac Mini needs to see the information in this chart.
The good thing is that the Mac Mini produces very little noise, and it is an ideal office pc.Mini which takes up little space and consumes only 10W in stendbay mode, while his maintaining is almost unnecessarily.
Mac mini is small, compact and quiet, but you will not be able to play the latest games, therefore it is not recommended for gamers.
Take a look at this comparison at http://antoniom1.hubpages.com/hub/What-is-a-Mac-Mini and You will see comparison to iMac and Mac Pro.Anyone considering purchasing this Mac Mini needs to see the information in this chart.
But that's not what is being suggested here. Some people on this thread are hoping for / predicting an ARM based Mac Mini running regular OS X. That's not "better". To use your examples, it's more like Microsoft's pen-optimized Windows than like an iPad. It's more like this iPod Phone speculation than what was actually the iPhone: http://www.ijailbreak.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/apple_ipod_phone.jpg
Also, while it's true that OS X and iOS are from the same codebase, that does not mean they are the same OS. A vending machine dispensing Coke, the Mars Exploration Rover, and my Linksys Router all run a derivative of Unix. That does not make them in any way interchangeable, similar, or even comparable beyond the Unix background. There's much more to an OS. Both are great OSes, but there are far more differences between OS X and iOS than similarities. Putting iOS on an ARM Nano Mini or whatever would be as silly as putting Coke's vending machine software onto my router.
It's total fantasy at this point for Mac's to use ARM chips and survive as an manufacturer of PC's.
If it were not for the ability to run different OS's and especially Windows, Mac sales would amount to very little.
I'm sure behind those closed R&D doors they have managed to use ARM and OSX as a proof of principal only.
MAC OSX on ARM has sense of a server fashion, this could happen, but not on an desktop pc ARM still too single thread underpowered to be an alternative to x86-64 architecture, but on servers single thread power not as critical since workload comes from file /database request which are multi thread friendly and historical well optimized for multicore platform.
hahaha great
this thread keeps going on
Whether or not the new Mac mini ever comes or not, this thread will continue today and tomorrow and the next day and the next, it's taken on a life of it's own quite apart from the hypothetical new Mac mini, and doesn't need a new Mac mini to continue and continue and continue and...
I predict that this thread will still be going long after everyone has forgotten what a Mac mini was.
The thread of legends
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I was bored yesterday and called apple to talk to someone about buying a mac mini. I was prodding them as to why there aren't any in the refurb store and mentioned that I wasn't comfortable buying one at full price and both people that I talked to mentioned how well mac mini sales have done and that they didn't think it was likely that it would be discontinued.