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The new Mac mini is almost certainly coming

Partron22 said:
Apple's Tim Cook declares the end of the PC

Apple lets you hook a keyboard to iPad Pro, so no more Mac minis?
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The new Mac Mini is almost certainly coming because not everyone wants a portable with a pokey little 12 inch screen. Large the iPad Pro may be by iPad standards, but I for one prefer work with at least twice the screen real estate.

Maybe folks are reading too much into the word of Timmy. Maybe the iPad Pro will challenge the Mac Book range for IT on the go, but desktops are a different beast. More complementary than competing.
 
Crosscreek said:
I think Tim has been using too many drugs or something. Sure sounds like he wants out of the PC business though.
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I'm guessing this is just a way to sell iPad Pro's, but it makes me wonder why anyone would buy any Apple computer if Apple is going out of the computer business. Not the wisest thing old Timmy has said, so maybe Crosscreck is on the right track.
 
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Crosscreek said:
I think Tim has been using too many drugs or something. Sure sounds like he wants out of the PC business though.
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This has been rumored for awhile (since jobs was alive) and the monster ipad is the first real indicator that the hardware is blending. Hard to imagine but it sure seems that way. That said, I Remember when the iPad first came out and I thought 'who the f would want one of those?' Seemed very impractical at the time. So shows what I know.
 
The review of the iPad Pro where the person typing the review on his Macbook feels like the horse delivering parts to the car factory is right on. Fact is the old and new generation of tinkerers are on the way out, and whatever the future of computing is in the aggregate, it's going to look a lot more like the iOS ecosystem then the Mac.

With that said, it doesn't mean that this will happen very fast, or that there's not plenty of room for Apple to exploit the PC landscape (which is what they've been doing...) again unfortunate for those of us oldies who want our xMac or whatever, but certainly great for Apple.
 
fuchsdh said:
The review of the iPad Pro where the person typing the review on his Macbook feels like the horse delivering parts to the car factory is right on. Fact is the old and new generation of tinkerers are on the way out, and whatever the future of computing is in the aggregate, it's going to look a lot more like the iOS ecosystem then the Mac.

With that said, it doesn't mean that this will happen very fast, or that there's not plenty of room for Apple to exploit the PC landscape (which is what they've been doing...) again unfortunate for those of us oldies who want our xMac or whatever, but certainly great for Apple.
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I have to agree with you. Tim did not misspeak those words by accident. He sees the future of Apple computing as IOS and will phase the X86 out slowly so that Apple can control their own chip design and a unified OS from the Watch to the iPad Pro.

I hope it takes a few years to do this because I like the stability of OS X over Windows and Linux. I'll be in the market for a new computer next year and I'm left with a lot of confusion as to the direction I'll go.
 
Crosscreek said:
I have to agree with you. Tim did not misspeak those words by accident. He sees the future of Apple computing as IOS and will phase the X86 out slowly so that Apple can control their own chip design and a unified OS from the Watch to the iPad Pro.

I hope it takes a few years to do this because I like the stability of OS X over Windows and Linux. I'll be in the market for a new computer next year and I'm left with a lot of confusion as to the direction I'll go.
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It'll definitely be slow. As the iPad proves, Apple's chip designs can now stomp Intel's low and even medium-performance areas, especially in terms of things like performance vs. battery life. But for high-performance where energy efficiency isn't valued as highly, there's still a gap between reality and possibility. There's also the benefits of x86 from a compatibility standpoint, and for allowing people to boot Windows if they need to while buying Macs because they prefer the hardware.

Tim's comments elsewhere also suggest that he's not interested in dramatically upsetting the Apple cart until he's good and ready—or else Apple might have been a lot more gung-ho about following MS's lead and trying to create one master OS to unify their mobile and desktop offerings, which they are still vehemently against.

I don't think anyone needs to worry about buying a Mac now and being in a PowerPC circa 2005 evolutionary dead end. Also, ideally in this ARM Mac world which looks increasingly likely, the stability of OS X shouldn't change at all (or only get better.)
 
fuchsdh said:
It'll definitely be slow. As the iPad proves, Apple's chip designs can now stomp Intel's low and even medium-performance areas, especially in terms of things like performance vs. battery life. But for high-performance where energy efficiency isn't valued as highly, there's still a gap between reality and possibility. There's also the benefits of x86 from a compatibility standpoint, and for allowing people to boot Windows if they need to while buying Macs because they prefer the hardware.

Tim's comments elsewhere also suggest that he's not interested in dramatically upsetting the Apple cart until he's good and ready—or else Apple might have been a lot more gung-ho about following MS's lead and trying to create one master OS to unify their mobile and desktop offerings, which they are still vehemently against.

I don't think anyone needs to worry about buying a Mac now and being in a PowerPC circa 2005 evolutionary dead end. Also, ideally in this ARM Mac world which looks increasingly likely, the stability of OS X shouldn't change at all (or only get better.)
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As long as there are sufficient software to support whatever architecture they want to run them on, it will be fine. I eventually had to dump my used G5 because by the time I got it we were already into the Intel era of Mac. The amount of software that will run on the G5 was declining and I got fed up with having no software to run on the machine.
 
I have an early 2011 MacBook Pro, 2.3 dual-core i5. I upgraded the RAM from 4 to 8 gb. It has a 320 gb 5400 spinner. It is mighty slow and memory usage is always over 90%. I'm hoping to replace it with the next new mini, but who knows when that will come out and what it will have in it. So, I'm a little tempted to take the RAM put to 16 and put in an SSD and ride it until it dies instead of waiting. That would cost me about $250 with taxes from OWC. Any thoughts?
 
DesertSurfer said:
So, I'm a little tempted to take the RAM put to 16 and put in an SSD and ride it until it dies instead of waiting. That would cost me about $250 with taxes from OWC. Any thoughts?
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Partron22 said:
I wouldn't bother with RAM, 8 is still usually plenty. That SSD, as big as you can get, is essential though.
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Patron22 beat me to it! Skip the RAM upgrade and get the fattest SSD you can manage. Not only will every penny of your upgrade go toward accelerating your performance but you will also have investment insurance. Most of us expect that you will be ecstatic about the performance of your enhanced MacBook Pro. Even if you aren't, your SSD can be transferred to another computer if you decide to upgrade. :)
 
DesertSurfer said:
It is mighty slow and memory usage is always over 90%.
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Ah, if your memory usage is always over 90%, you could probably use more RAM. If it's over the top and you've started swapping, you _definitely_ need more RAM (and that's probably the reason why the machine is so slow). You can check if you're swapping by running the "Activity Monitor" (which can normally be found by going to the Utilities folder in the Activities folder in the finder). When the Activity Monitor window comes up, click on the "Memory" tab, and look at the bottom of the window; there should be a "Memory Pressure" graph at the bottom, with some statistics on both sides. At the bottom left is "Swap Used"; if that number is above 0, you'll get a fairly noticeable speedup by adding more RAM.
 
jpietrzak8 said:
Ah, if your memory usage is always over 90%, you could probably use more RAM. If it's over the top and you've started swapping, you _definitely_ need more RAM (and that's probably the reason why the machine is so slow). You can check if you're swapping by running the "Activity Monitor" (which can normally be found by going to the Utilities folder in the Activities folder in the finder). When the Activity Monitor window comes up, click on the "Memory" tab, and look at the bottom of the window; there should be a "Memory Pressure" graph at the bottom, with some statistics on both sides. At the bottom left is "Swap Used"; if that number is above 0, you'll get a fairly noticeable speedup by adding more RAM.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion. I am indeed using swapping, so it looks like a memory upgrade could be a good idea.
 
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jpietrzak8 said:
Ah, if your memory usage is always over 90%, you could probably use more RAM. If it's over the top and you've started swapping, you _definitely_ need more RAM (and that's probably the reason why the machine is so slow). You can check if you're swapping by running the "Activity Monitor" (which can normally be found by going to the Utilities folder in the Activities folder in the finder). When the Activity Monitor window comes up, click on the "Memory" tab, and look at the bottom of the window; there should be a "Memory Pressure" graph at the bottom, with some statistics on both sides. At the bottom left is "Swap Used"; if that number is above 0, you'll get a fairly noticeable speedup by adding more RAM.[/QUOTE
Celerondon said:
Patron22 beat me to it! Skip the RAM upgrade and get the fattest SSD you can manage. Not only will every penny of your upgrade go toward accelerating your performance but you will also have investment insurance. Most of us expect that you will be ecstatic about the performance of your enhanced MacBook Pro. Even if you aren't, your SSD can be transferred to another computer if you decide to upgrade. :)
Click to expand...

I like the idea of transferring one day, so I think I will indeed put in a big SSD. Thanks for the suggestions!

I still want to see the next new Mini, which is almost certainly coming.
Click to expand...
 
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jpietrzak8 said:
Ah, if your memory usage is always over 90%, you could probably use more RAM.
Click to expand...

Yeah, jpietrzak8 made a good point about your RAM. Patron22 and I ignored that memory usage factor but we had our reasons. It might be best to get more information about the system software and programs that run on DesertSurfer's MacBook Pro. ;)

We both commented from experience but jpietrzak8 focused on that RAM usage detail provided by the OP. Say DesertSurfer, what do you do with your 2011 that causes it to run out of memory with 8GB on board? I am also curious about your OS X version.

Memory is inexpensive right now but most Mac users don't need 16. Some however do! Are you really one of them DesertSurfer? :)
 
Celerondon said:
Memory is inexpensive right now but most Mac users don't need 16. Some however do! Are you really one of them DesertSurfer? :)
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I can tell you from experience that if you run any VMs that require 4GB of ram or more then 8GB of ram is not enough.

I bought one of Best Buys $1649 basic 27" 5K iMacs to test drive just to see if I might go that way next year when I will be ready for a new Machine and running a Windows 10 Bootcamp with 4GB of ram in Parallels 11 VM eats up every bit of 8GB ram.

I really like this iMac and if the upgraded porting with USB C and TB3 I will probably get a BTO
SSD model next year.

The screen is huge compared to my Dell 24" screen but I think I'll get use to it.
 
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Crosscreek said:
I can tell you from experience that if you run any VMs that require 4GB of ram or more then 8GB of ram is not enough.
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Exactly!

VMs are probably the best example of a requirement for a Mac user to push past 8GB of RAM. Does the OP run VMs or perhaps some other RAM gobbling software package?

Otherwise 8GB of RAM should be enough, shouldn't it? :confused:
 
Celerondon said:
Exactly!

VMs are probably the best example of a requirement for a Mac user to push past 8GB of RAM. Does the OP run VMs or perhaps some other RAM gobbling software package?

Otherwise 8GB of RAM should be enough, shouldn't it? :confused:
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I'm afraid I've pulled good old "The new Mac Mini is almost certainly coming" off subject, although meandering is one of the threads more endearing characteristics, and we don't have any mini news to kick around. I'm not running any VM, or really anything unusual. In typical usage I have four to eight Safari tabs open, Mail, Acrobat reader with something in it, Pages, sometimes Word and/or Powerpoint, that sort of thing. I'm getting conflicting information on memory usage. Dr. Cleaner says 99% right now. Activity Monitor shows 6.12 of my 8 gb used, and 478 MB of swap used. I think I will put in an SSD and see how it behaves before going to more memory, but any ideas are welcome.
 
Crosscreek said:
I can tell you from experience that if you run any VMs that require 4GB of ram or more then 8GB of ram is not enough.

I bought one of Best Buys $1649 basic 27" 5K iMacs to test drive just to see if I might go that way next year when I will be ready for a new Machine and running a Windows 10 Bootcamp with 4GB of ram in Parallels 11 VM eats up every bit of 8GB ram.

I really like this iMac and if the upgraded porting with USB C and TB3 I will probably get a BTO
SSD model next year.

The screen is huge compared to my Dell 24" screen but I think I'll get use to it.
Click to expand...

I have been very tempted by the iMac, and if it gets USB C and TB3 in the next update it would be even more attractive, but it is mighty expensive. To prevent myself from doing that I bought a 27" ASUS IPS panel to go with my 2011 MacBook Pro that is almost always pugged into an external monitor. We'll see if that works. I will be tempted by a new Mimi if it has Iris Pro. A dGPU would be even better, but it seems unlikely.
 
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