The new Mac mini is almost certainly coming

[Boyd01]

What's wrong with 640K? You can do plenty with that amount of RAM; I've personally spent more than a decade of my life working on machines with that much RAM or less.

My first computer was an Apple ][ in 1978 and the big choice was between 4k or 16k RAM. That's Kilobytes. I got the 16k version, which was a stretch financially, but you needed that much to load floating point BASIC (from cassette tape - they hadn't inroduced a floppy drive yet). Otherwise you were limited to the integer BASIC burned into ROM. 48KB was the maximum RAM you could put in the original Apple ][.

In the 80's I had an AT&T 3B/1 "Unix PC" which I thought was so cool… real unix (although Sys V) on my desktop! It had a 68010 CPU and 2MB RAM. Got very slow when it started swapping, I think the hard drive was 40mb. It took a lot of 5" floppy disks to back it up, LOL.

Got an i5 MBA with 4gb RAM in 2011 (the max available) and it ran all my software (Final Cut Pro, Strata 3d CX, Vue Infinite) twice as fast as my 2008 15" MBP. It was probably swapping but I didn't even realize because of the SSD. Now have a 2013 i7 MBA with 8gb (again, the max) and it's a little faster but things feel pretty similar.

My software is getting old and most of it can only use 4gb RAM, so I'm completely happy with my quad i7 16gb Mini. I think it will also be fine for the next year or two when I move to newer versions of 3d and video software. Nothing wrong with having a Mini that could accept 32gb but seriously, we know that isn't going to happen, right? And if it did, you would have to buy the 32gb model at some outrageous price directly from Apple since the RAM would be soldered.

Sorry, I lost interest in games with SimCity, back around 1993. It ran great on my Mac IIcx! Have Macs ever been competitve as gaming machines?

 

[Cape Dave]

Oh hell Dave ....you missed the joke too. The comment was made in reference to your "ridiculous" amount of 32GB of Ram. Not browsers.
See hanger anthology. lol

LOL! I actually had a feeling I was missing it. Because I was! I had better sharpen up

 

[Apple fanboy]

Almost certainly


Specs?

Mac Mini, i7 Processor
16GB RAM
1TB Fusion

 

[Miat]

32GB of RAM?

I don't believe there is any such thing. It's a scam by RAM manufacturers.

If it were real Apple would offer it to us, because they have only our best interests at heart.

Almost certainly.

 

[Cape Dave]

32GB of RAM?

I don't believe there is any such thing. It's a scam by RAM manufacturers.

If it were real Apple would offer it to us, because they have only our best interests at heart.

Almost certainly.

Silly me! Of course, you are 100% right. I forgot that about Apple. They love us

 

[Apple fanboy]

32GB of RAM from sounds expensive!
Cheaper to buy some copper braid and a soldering iron and upgrade yourself!

 

[DesertSurfer]

32GB of RAM from sounds expensive!
Cheaper to buy some copper braid and a soldering iron and upgrade yourself!

To go from 12 to 32GB on the Mac Pro will cost you $550. From 12 to 64 it's only $1300. And that's DDR3.

 

[sublunar]

To go from 12 to 32GB on the Mac Pro will cost you $550. From 12 to 64 it's only $1300. And that's DDR3.

We're now at the stage of parodying Apple decisions now?

To be fair, I always saw a certain amount of Apple 'overpricing' on hardware as their way to putting a value on the work they put into Mac OS X in the past where Microsoft would rely on folks buying Windows (and yes, pirates pay nothing). This is after you allow them a certain amount of budget to engineer Macs to the higher standard that we have become used to. Very few PC manufacturers would risk opting out of the race to the bottom in terms of build quality and profit level just to get people to buy their machines. It seems today that some manufacturers are trying higher quality materials in an effort to try and attract PC buyers to higher quality equipment.

You can accept a certain amount of locking out independent RAM and drive upgrades in Apple laptops but applying it to desktops increasingly smacks of more blatant profiteering. Rather than allowing users to prolong the usable lifespan of their Mac with a RAM upgrade or storage boost they want you to buy a new machine.

Apple's goal, as with iPhones and iPads, is to get people upgrading to bring in revenue because their OS is 'free'. With the engineering quality of modern Macs being so high, people don't need to upgrade for 3-5 years or longer rather than the annual upgrade that phone users are used to. Look at the slowing pace on iPad refreshes - plenty people just don't see the need to have the latest iPad annually.

This is brings us back to the Mac Pro and Mac Mini, the argument about old technology is a fair one in my view, in a normal retail environment we'd have seen special offers from time to time to boost sales. Just look at the way Best Buy operate as a retailer. In the car industry we'd see the same platform get annual spec bumps with facelifts every 3-4 years to soften the blow of an annual price increase for inflation. Apple and the PC industry seems to have become used to higher specs for the same or lower price.

If Apple had simply increased the base RAM, dropped the price of upgrades, offered AppleCare at a cheaper price during holiday periods, or made Fusion standard on some models while meeting us half way with mild price increases - that doesn't need extra engineering investment and would keep sales ticking along. We could have had a 2015 spec Mini which just came with better specs from the CTO bin - call it a Mac Mini 2014S if you have to!

The issue is even more magnified by the time you reach the Mac Pro. They could have increased base storage or RAM on some models - even at a cost of slightly increasing prices too meet us half way. It might have tempted some buyers out of the woodwork instead of watching them list the 2-3 CPU-led refreshes that Dell and HP have made to their workstations since 2013.

Microsoft are moving towards a model where people will pay for subscriptions to Office 365 and One Drive. But Apple's offerings in that area seems a lot less appealing to Pros who may well choose to stick with Dropbox or One Drive because of the performance and finer control over files and syncing. iCloud needs a Pro offering.

 

[Lankyman]

Are most rational posters now of the opinion the Mini may simply end up quietly dropped from the Mac line-up, or at the most receive a modest update with poor specs?

 

[sleconte]

Are most rational posters now of the opinion the Mini may simply end up quietly dropped from the Mac line-up, or at the most receive a modest update with poor specs?

Even irrational, drunken posters like myself think that the Mini is a goner. But I would prefer to find myself wrong on that 1st quarter of next year.

 

[jpietrzak8]

Are most rational posters now of the opinion the Mini may simply end up quietly dropped from the Mac line-up, or at the most receive a modest update with poor specs?

It is hard to determine exactly what Apple will do with the Mini in the short term; this is a company with an enormously gifted collection of engineers, along with an enormous bankroll. They can pretty much pull any rabbit out of their hat that they would like.

It is, however, less hard to determine where Apple is heading in the long term. They have placed most of their resources into the iPhone and iPad products, and most of their bleeding-edge research continues to be in the realm of mobile devices. Their desktop and laptop lines have been left to languish. Unless they suddenly manage some sort of 180 degree turn in their leadership, I just don't see a bright future for the Mac, and particularly not the Mini or Pro.

 

[sleconte]

It is, however, less hard to determine where Apple is heading in the long term. They have placed most of their resources into the iPhone and iPad products, and most of their bleeding-edge research continues to be in the realm of mobile devices. Their desktop and laptop lines have been left to languish. Unless they suddenly manage some sort of 180 degree turn in their leadership, I just don't see a bright future for the Mac, and particularly not the Mini or Pro.

Do you see them loosening up the requirement that development for MacOS and iOS be done on Apple hardware? I would love to see that happen. People have to develop for those mobile devices they want to sell after all, and if they don't want to be a computer company anymore...

 

[Boyd01]

most rational posters

Who would those people be?

I've never been very good at predicting what Apple will do. They don't seem very interested in the Mini anymore however. I wouldn't sit around waiting for the mini of my dreams if I needed a computer now. And in fact, that's why I recently got a used 2012 2.6ghz quad and couldn't be happier.

 

[DesertSurfer]

Rational poster here The new Mac mini is almost certainly coming

 

[jpietrzak8]

Do you see them loosening up the requirement that development for MacOS and iOS be done on Apple hardware? I would love to see that happen. People have to develop for those mobile devices they want to sell after all, and if they don't want to be a computer company anymore...

Nah, that's unlikely, at least for now. I think Apple is currently arrogant enough to assume that their Mac line is still doing fine. They're slowly poisoning the existing Mac user base, but it'll still be years before they find themselves far enough behind that they really start losing developers. The iPhone is a big enough deal, and development requirements for it are sufficiently minimal, that existing Mac hardware is plenty sufficient for iOS development.

But yeah, that's probably what the Mac line will come down to. Minimal laptop improvements, and practically no desktop improvements. The Pro will die soon, once Apple notices that nobody but extreme Mac enthusiasts will buy it; video and graphic designer experts have already started migrating away to Windows, and I don't see them ever coming back. Office desktop machines are going to start needing more CPU power than at least the low-end iMac provides; home desktops already demand more GPU power than any Mac provides, as VR is slowly becoming a standard there.

So iOS development will eventually become one of the last pillars of support for the Mac line, and Apple will be loathe to give that up...

 

[now i see it]

MacOS isn't worth this kind of torture.
In the future, if you want to stay with the mac, buy a new computer that you'll be happy with for the next 6 years.
Then when 6 years rolls around, buy the next one that you'll be happy with for the next 6 years, regardless if it was released years prior.

That's the sane thing to do.

Don't pay attention to what's available on the PC side. That's not a playground that's applicable to mac users.

 

[jpietrzak8]

Don't pay attention to what's available on the PC side. That's not a playground that's applicable to mac users.

Nonsense. Locking yourself into one particular OS or UI means that you miss out on all the advances made by competitors. Apple has had a great run in the last couple of decades, but it does not have a monopoly on innovation. Other OSs are quickly catching up to OS X in usability, and of course the Mac hardware has been eclipsed by competitors for years now.

Mac users should only stay Mac users so long as the Mac is the best tool for their job. If there's a clearly better machine available elsewhere, there's no reason not to use it instead. Especially as Apple refuses to provide any details about future Mac developments, nor evidence that they are even interested in new Mac desktop machines at all.

 

[twalk]

MacOS isn't worth this kind of torture.
In the future, if you want to stay with the mac, buy a new computer that you'll be happy with for the next 6 years.
Then when 6 years rolls around, buy the next one that you'll be happy with for the next 6 years, regardless if it was released years prior.

With the way things are going, you should really look at the next Mac you buy will likely be the last Mac that you buy...

 

[Micky Do]

Are most rational posters now of the opinion the Mini may simply end up quietly dropped from the Mac line-up, or at the most receive a modest update with poor specs?

So called rational posters have been predicting the demise of the Mac Mini for almost a decade.

Latest news has been Appleinsider saying that the Mini was going to be discontinued.

I've been waiting for the Mini to be updated to Core 2 Duo and 802.11n. I've been waiting for what seems like an eternity. I haven't heard any rumors about what might replace the Mini. Surely somebody must know what Apple is thinking in this area. Have there been any rumors?

The only complaint I have about the Mini is that I'd rather it be a little large and accommodate a 3.5" drive so that I could put in a terabyte drive and really use it as a media server.

Rational poster here The new Mac mini is almost certainly coming

I reckon.

 

[Flash SWT]

Are most rational posters now of the opinion the Mini may simply end up quietly dropped from the Mac line-up, or at the most receive a modest update with poor specs?

I'm really worried they're going to drop it. I'm ready to buy one for my new HTPC / Media Server / Home Server as soon as their released.

I'd be happy with a newer dual i7 and Thunderbolt 3 / USB-C. Would love it they go back to quad cores and add a 4TB or larger Fusion Drive option.

 

[ThisBougieLife]

Now that I have a 4K monitor (for my Windows desktop), I'd love a 4K-capable Mac Mini, but considering the last "update" crippled it, I doubt that's going to happen.

 

[Denmac1]

I'm really worried they're going to drop it. I'm ready to buy one for my new HTPC / Media Server / Home Server as soon as their released.

I'd be happy with a newer dual i7 and Thunderbolt 3 / USB-C. Would love it they go back to quad cores and add a 4TB or larger Fusion Drive option.

We'd all be happy, especially with quad core. My 2012 has been good, but I'm afraid that even if they continue the MM line, they will cripple it more as they have done with the MBP.
Thinking about buying the current(?) mini 2.6 with the fusion drive and hanging onto it until my current mini dies. At least I could buy another 2 additional years of future upgrades. For little over a Grand, I could have almost the machine I have now and still have a desktop without buying an iMac. I had a g3 all in one and hated it.

 

[tibas92013]

We'd all be happy, especially with quad core. My 2012 has been good, but I'm afraid that even if they continue the MM line, they will cripple it more as they have done with the MBP.
Thinking about buying the current(?) mini 2.6 with the fusion drive and hanging onto it until my current mini dies. At least I could buy another 2 additional years of future upgrades. For little over a Grand, I could have almost the machine I have now and still have a desktop without buying an iMac. I had a g3 all in one and hated it.

Bought a Refurbished i5 MM(Late 2012), 2.5 GHZ, 4GB Ram, 500GB HD from the Apple On-Line Store in August, 2013 and last year I purchased another Refurbished MM(Late 2014), 2.8GHZ, 8GB Ram, 256SSD from the Apple On-Line Store.

Back in the early 90's I purchased for around three thousand Dollars($3,000) a new Mac LCII which was one great machine that provided me many years of great service and To say the least; I continue to be one of many Happy Apple Customer(s) due to these excellent purchases and excellent customer service!

 

[wol]

Silly me! Of course, you are 100% right. I forgot that about Apple. They love us

Correct, Apple is the Scrooge McDuck of companies, and is working very hard to collect all the wealth in the world, and store it away safely in their money bin ...

 

[Lankyman]

I'm really worried they're going to drop it. I'm ready to buy one for my new HTPC / Media Server / Home Server as soon as their released.

I'd be happy with a newer dual i7 and Thunderbolt 3 / USB-C. Would love it they go back to quad cores and add a 4TB or larger Fusion Drive option.

To be honest with you if that is going to be it's only job then a SFF Windows 10 machine would probably serve you better.