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With no mention of it in today's event, is it time to give up on the mini?

SnarkyBear

SnarkyBear

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 24, 2014
191
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Tomorrow marks the 5th anniversary of the purchase of my Mac mini. Safe to say I've been waiting 4 of those years for an update. We use our mini as a home theater, and been wanting to upgrade to 4K TV capability.

With the lack of update at today's event, I am about to throw in the towel and start searching for alternatives. Maybe an older MacBook or such. Or even go with a Windows option.

Anyone else ready to throw in the towel on an update?
 
I read in a few places that the mini might be part of a 'non-event' update in the fall. I'm also keen for a serious update to the mini so am looking to see if there are more rumors about that.

But then I waited for 5 years for Apple to come out with at TV, so don't listen to me! :)

SnarkyBear said:
Tomorrow marks the 5th anniversary of the purchase of my Mac mini. Safe to say I've been waiting 4 of those years for an update. We use our mini as a home theater, and been wanting to upgrade to 4K TV capability.

With the lack of update at today's event, I am about to throw in the towel and start searching for alternatives. Maybe an older MacBook or such. Or even go with a Windows option.

Anyone else ready to throw in the towel on an update?
Click to expand...
 
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There were comments that there wasn’t enough time in today’s presentation to cover much else. If there isn’t another presentation scheduled before late Oct, then it will be unlikely this year.
 
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Apple did an iPhone event in September followed by a Mac event in October 2014 and 2016. I predict there will be enough Mac and iPad news to justify an October event this year as well.
 
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Why are you using the mini as an HTPC?

There are so many better options now, it's not like it was just a few years ago.

Anyway, I went from 2012 Mac mini -> Boxee Box -> Apple TV -> Nvidia Shield. The Shield is perfect, it's even running my Plex server on an external 4TB drive. I have my VPN, Kodi, Chrome (I think I had to side load it though), and then HDHomerun, with one shield acting as a DVR. It's running in 4k, and even has a bunch of emulators on it my wife and I will play some times.
 
redheeler said:
Apple did an iPhone event in September followed by a Mac event in October 2014 and 2016. I predict there will be enough Mac and iPad news to justify an October event this year as well.
Click to expand...
What I've read here is that the expectation is for an October release of updated computers. Apple generally does not mix phone releases with computer releases, and before anyone jumps on me citing x event where it did, I'm just saying generally. While I have no inside information, I think that even Apple realizes that they're starting to look like they can't bring new desktops to market, so I would expect that this is visually important for them. But who knows, Steve Jobs knew optics, I'm not sure anyone else there has his sense of theatre.
 
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SnarkyBear said:
With the lack of update at today's event, I am about to throw in the towel and start searching for alternatives.
Click to expand...

The September event has been a regular fixture for years and its almost always been exclusively about iPhone, iPod back when that was still a thing, or nowadays the Watch, maybe Music services, with nary a Mac in sight.

So I don't think this changes the odds of a new Mini one way or the other. Personally, I'd guess those odds were about zip, zero, nada to start with, but if you've kept the faith so far I wouldn't let today put you off.

Mind you, the iPhone announcements show how Apple is thinking at the moment: up-to-date iPhones now start at $750 - "entry level" means you get a 1- or 2-year-old model. So I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for new up-to-date but affordable Macs.
 
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Definitely didn't expect anything but phones at this event, in fact, for a while now nobody has been suggesting there would be but rather at a separate event around October time.

Makes sense, whilst the mini is not their best selling device out there it would have be out of place at todays event.

If, that is if it is a decent upgrade then it would have taken attention away from the main stage which is of course the phones.

I still believe the next event will be the mini, the air refresh and so on, they need their own event.
 
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As with their AirPort Extreme, I think Apple has made a strategic change. They’ve moved away from micro desktops. The strategy is now mostly centered around mobile. I don’t think the Mini will ever be refreshed.
 
SnarkyBear said:
Tomorrow marks the 5th anniversary of the purchase of my Mac mini. Safe to say I've been waiting 4 of those years for an update. We use our mini as a home theater, and been wanting to upgrade to 4K TV capability.

With the lack of update at today's event, I am about to throw in the towel and start searching for alternatives. Maybe an older MacBook or such. Or even go with a Windows option.

Anyone else ready to throw in the towel on an update?
Click to expand...
Historically, October has almost always been a Mac event month. This year it’s very likely to be a Mac/iPad event.
 
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If we get to November with no announcements, maybe so. Today's thing wasn't expected to focus on Macs but only iOS devices and watches. If a new Mini is coming soon, I'd expect to hear about it in October.

Today was all about iPhones and watches. Nothing new with Macs or iPads. So if there's an October event, I'd expect to hear news about Macs and iPads.
 
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SnarkyBear said:
Tomorrow marks the 5th anniversary of the purchase of my Mac mini. Safe to say I've been waiting 4 of those years for an update. We use our mini as a home theater, and been wanting to upgrade to 4K TV capability.

With the lack of update at today's event, I am about to throw in the towel and start searching for alternatives. Maybe an older MacBook or such. Or even go with a Windows option.

Anyone else ready to throw in the towel on an update?
Click to expand...

This was never going to be a Mac event, so there's still hope. Rumors are of an October event or press release of some form.
 
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I wasn't expecting an announcement on iPhone day, but yes, I'm ready to give up. My 2010 Mini is on its last legs and I've been eyeing the new Intel NUC (NUC8i5BEH) as the most suitable replacement. I would much rather get a 2018 Mini, but since that doesn't exist it's not really an option (and the 2014 Mini wasn't a suitable option even when it was brand new). Alas, the new NUC is not yet for sale, but is expected to be available before the holidays. So unless by some miracle Apple updates the Mini before the NUC shows up in stock on Amazon, I'll be another Mac casualty.
 
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So if a new 2018 mini does come out will it obsolete my 2014 mini I just got on august 30th.
 
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Keep in mind they didn't do any Macs this event or even the iPad or Apple TV. I'd give it till the end of 2018 to start looking for alternatives. They could announce it in October or November.
 
I will -guess- late October or early November for the "new Mini" and re-worked MacBooks.
There may not even be "an event" -- they could just be "released", and that's it.

The next iteration of the iMac probably won't come until Spring 2019.

The 2018 will be "the last Mini" that is capable of running 32 bit software, so I'll probably be buying one, though not "right away" (not until next year).

Same for the 2019 iMacs and MacBook Pro's (if there is another release before September 2019).

After the release of OS 10.15 in 2019, everything will be "64 bit".

I have lots of older software that is still 32 bit and probably no hope of being updated.
I want to keep using it for the foreseeable future, say, 5-8 more years.
 
ivnj said:
So if a new 2018 mini does come out will it obsolete my 2014 mini I just got on august 30th.
Click to expand...

No it won't. Your Mini was obsolete on August 30. :p

Which one did you get? Was it the base 1.4ghz/4gb/500GB hard drive model? That one was really not suitable for most uses in the first place. I use one as an iTunes server, and it's fine. But if I try to do anything else, it's unbearably slow. The higher end 2014 models should perform pretty well however.

Bad timing on buying the Mini, unfortunately. Assuming that Apple does update it in October, the rumor is that they will be more focussed on "pro" users, and therefore will be more expensive than the 2014 models. So, yes, I think they will be much better than any of the 2014 models. However, they may be more powerful than you need and cost more money than you want to pay. :)
 
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Boyd01 said:
No it won't. Your Mini was obsolete on August 30. :p

Which one did you get? Was it the base 1.4ghz/4gb/500GB hard drive model? That one was really not suitable for most uses in the first place. I use one as an iTunes server, and it's fine. But if I try to do anything else, it's unbearably slow. The higher end 2014 models should perform pretty well however.

Bad timing on buying the Mini, unfortunately. Assuming that Apple does update it in October, the rumor is that they will be more focussed on "pro" users, and therefore will be more expensive than the 2014 models. So, yes, I think they will be much better than any of the 2014 models. However, they may be more powerful than you need and cost more money than you want to pay. :)
Click to expand...

i5 2.6 8gb ram 1tb hdd (not ssd or fusion). Yes its already super old. But even 2012 supports Mojave 10.14 and hopefully 15. So 14 mini is good for 1 year at least. And I have 3 years apple care so I am good for 3 more years. Went to bestbuy. They only sell apple care plus not regular. So 3 more years at least. But if new mini comes out in 2018 then 14 is good for Mojave at least. But maybe not 10.15. If new mini comes out then 14 mini might not support 10.15. But after trade-ins and including 3 years apple care I only paid 368 dollars and 98 cents. So not bad for 2.6 with 8gb ram and apple care.
 
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ivnj wrote:
"I only paid 368 dollars and 98 cents. So not bad for 2.6 with 8gb ram and apple care."

Not bad.
Now --- if you really want to "speed it up, on the cheap" --- buy an external USB3 SSD (such as the Samsung t5), plug it in, put a copy of the OS onto it, and set it up to be the boot drive.

If you don't have too much stuff on the internal drive at the moment, just download CarbonCopyCloner (FREE to download and use for 30 days), and clone the contents of the internal HDD to the USB3 SSD. CCC will even clone the recovery partition for you. Then select the SSD in "startup disk" and reboot.

You will be AMAZED at the performance increase for having spent so little money.
 
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Fishrrman said:
ivnj wrote:
"I only paid 368 dollars and 98 cents. So not bad for 2.6 with 8gb ram and apple care."

Not bad.
Now --- if you really want to "speed it up, on the cheap" --- buy an external USB3 SSD (such as the Samsung t5), plug it in, put a copy of the OS onto it, and set it up to be the boot drive.

If you don't have too much stuff on the internal drive at the moment, just download CarbonCopyCloner (FREE to download and use for 30 days), and clone the contents of the internal HDD to the USB3 SSD. CCC will even clone the recovery partition for you. Then select the SSD in "startup disk" and reboot.

You will be AMAZED at the performance increase for having spent so little money.
Click to expand...


I don't care about speed. Its plenty fast enough. I am more concerned if the os doesn't load. The fastest computer in the world does not matter if you are running a 10 year old OS and can not browse the web or do anything relevant. How many people do you know still using windows 3.1 / 95. Not many. So speed is not that important. If 10.15 does not run on my machine then its dead.
 
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