No, what is innovative (and useful) is my 2012 MBP. It has a port for the charger, a TB port I use for the monitor, an Ethernet port for faster Internet when it's on my desk, a USB3 port for the second Time Machine backup, another available USB3 port and even a large slot on the other side for making Apple lossless copies of CDs.
Now, that's innovation.
I think you failed to comprehend my sarcastic undertones in my post.
The only thing I can think is Apple developed a God port that encompasses all things.
Was this not supposed to be thunderbolt, when they first released this back in 2011?
What is innovative is that when used portably everything (these days) is wireless unless you have to charge it, then you use the "uniport" for charging. When used at a desk, a single wire docks the MBA and provides power as well as external monitor and any stationary peripheral devices. Basically a step forward from the current Thunderbolt display which is also a docking station but requires two wires (charging and Thunderbolt) and much more convenient that the bulky docking stations with big connectors typical in the Windows PC world..
I see you point, however, i like to carry along with me a couple of usb3 pendrives, my external hdd, as the research work i am doing must be stored on a discreet, encrypted hdd-drive. I appreciate so much data is now housed on cloud based solutions, however, for fast, large chunks of data on the go, usb pen drives and external hdd still have their uses.
I may only represent a small portion of the laptop market, but i believe many people still find a 'normal' usb and hdmi/mdp on laptops essential. Yes i could carry around a dock, however, at the gain of a few mm in thinness, i have lost so many essential features.
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A more beefed up version of iOS and its companion apps is coming regardless of the arrival of an iPad Pro. iOS is no where near fully mature. Many apps matching/marking the more deeply entrenched versions are relatively new ( MS Office apps for Android/iOS , Adobe apps, etc. )
The larger screen space of the iPad Pro is far more likely going to be updates like "two apps on the screen at the same time" feature.
https://www.macrumors.com/2014/06/09/ios-8-code-ipad-multitasking/
I think multitasking /split screen even on the mini (ipad) would be most welcomed by many.
than wholesale abandonment of "files filtered through app viewers" model of iOS. The new/experimental user experience from Android ( and Windows ) likely has clues as to major software features enabled by hardware trends ( e.g., larger screen size) that iOS is missing that Apple will add from more so then wholesale merging of all Mac OS X features. Apple isn't going to copy everything from Android/Windows, but the serve bulk of experimental diversity means those groups are going to have just as many if not more good ideas than Apple will with a vastly smaller number of experiments.
You'd could possibly get a headless iPad if Chrome Box/Windows Bing boxes start to make a sizable percentage of personal computers sold , but it would be an iOS device; not a Mac device.
With respect to the Mac Mini specially the space where small form factor Windows x86 systems are in is very active breeding ground for new ideas and approaches. Between marking where the Mac laptop trends are going and influences from the SFF Windows x86 world those are the likely influencers of upcoming Mac Mini's than anything going on in the iOS device space.
I hear what your saying, it will be interesting to see what direction apple take with their idevices, and lower end hardware, juxtaposed with the evolution of mac OSx and iOS.
