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Mac Mini End Of Life?

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cmoibenlepro said:
What is the next even where new macs (macbook, macbook pro, mac mini, etc) could be released? Is there one in August?
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Not to my knowledge. Most new macs are released with little more than a press release. If they have a new form factor, that might warrant a special event. The timeframe right now is a lot to do with the back-to-school promo (not sure when it ends) which apple likes to use to clear old inventory. that's not to say that the inventory won't be cleared and the new macs released before the promo is over (that's happened before), but the new macs tend to arrive after the promo ends. That said, i'm pretty sure the mini doesn't get included in the deal.

I would still guess that something will be out by end of august, if the last 2 years are anything to go on. The sudden long overdue legal action taken against psystar suggests apple is expecting a spike in sales at the mini's pricepoint sometime soon.
 
nickane said:
The sudden long overdue legal action taken against psystar suggests apple is expecting a spike in sales at the mini's pricepoint sometime soon.
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Not that a mini update wouldn't have anything to do with this, but seems like Apple lawyers might have a better go of it after the "update" psystar gave to it's users. They might have tried claiming that everyone had the right to install a purchased copy of the OS on their own anyway, but the update would have been clearly theft, or at least added another charge/made a better case. Still, it's another sign. What's next? Montevina is released. The sky turns dark. The four horsemen ride... and POP ...new mac mini!
 
cmoibenlepro said:
What is the next even where new macs (macbook, macbook pro, mac mini, etc) could be released? Is there one in August?
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There are no set dates for computer releases. iPods come out in September, iPhones come out in late June.

MacBook Pro at the end of this month or early August.

Mac Pro right before MacWorld 2009.

MacBook Air probably at MacWorld 2009.
 
Here come the Montevinas -[cribbed from CNET]

Shipments of the Centrino 2 integrated graphics silicon--"GM" chipsets--have already begun and systems may be available as early as the end of this month.

"We are already shipping integrated graphics and you will see integrated graphics on the shelf in the coming weeks," said Mooly Eden, general manager of Intel's Mobile Platforms Group.

Though Eden touted 1.7X better 3DMark performance, and a host of other improved benchmarks over the previous Centrino platform, he spent most of the time Monday talking about features of the Centrino 2 chipset, including hardware accelerators for playback of Blue-ray video (the ability to view a two-hour Blue-ray movie on a typical laptop battery), faster transcoding (converting, for example, audio from one format to another), and Intel "Switchable Graphics," which allows the turning off and on of a discrete graphics chip.

Finally, Intel showed a desktop "Montevina" design. that wasn't much bigger than a cigar box.

[end cribbing]

Hmm.. a cigar box, you say. Are we talking a tin of Cafe Cremes, or a box of Churchills, I wonder?
 
All I can say is, bring on the new Mini, but give it a real hard drive. The slow hard drives make me CRAZY.

Then again, maybe that's how they sell the Pro.
 
I'd like to see a new Mini with the following features:
* Montevina
* 802.11n (part of Montevina)
* Capable of 4GB+ RAM (ditto?)
* Optical drive (DVD ok, blueray cool but not expected)
* Firewire
* One of these
* HDMI output

I don't care if the form factor is new or not
 
statler said:
I'd like to see a new Mini with the following features:
* Montevina
* 802.11n (part of Montevina)
* Capable of 4GB+ RAM (ditto?)
* Optical drive (DVD ok, blueray cool but not expected)
* Firewire
* One of these
* HDMI output

I don't care if the form factor is new or not
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* X3100 or better graphics
 
statler said:
I'd like to see a new Mini with the following features:
* Montevina
* 802.11n (part of Montevina)
* Capable of 4GB+ RAM (ditto?)
* Optical drive (DVD ok, blueray cool but not expected)
* Firewire
* One of these
* HDMI output

I don't care if the form factor is new or not
Click to expand...

That is perfect for me, that is all I am looking for, well hopefully sometime this August, my G4 is starting to make some strange noises and that spinning beach ball is beginning to pop up more often now, and I don't want to bother upgrading it. Bring on the mini! 🙂
 
I would not mind if the mini came with a lower graphics card to keep the price down, but as long as it was user replaceable to something better, that way everyone can get what they want, it will target more people
 
terrorbite said:
* X4500 or better graphics 🙂
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Not gonna happen unless the rumours are true and apple does something altogether different with the mini than keep its current form factor and updating it annually so that it's always 1 year behind the macbook.

Bad Paper said:
That's more like it.

My wish list adds an eSATA port.
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Good luck with that, but apple's probably not about to break the habit of a lifetime by letting its lowest-end model get features like eSata and bluray before all (much less any) of the others do. Besides, given apple's decision not to include eSata on the Mac Pro back in January, it seems likely they plan to skip it altogether in favour of USB 3 and FW3200. Once they adopt a standard like that, they'll have to keep wasting a port on it on every mac for years after its been made obsolete by later iterations of interfaces apple will have been supporting for much longer.
 
yeah, but

cmoibenlepro said:
But then it would compete with the iMac...
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Past experiences would definitely back up your statement -- the Mini has always been crippled and used as a starter machine or bait. But, take a look at Apple's recent market share gains. If they are going to continue to gain market share, they need the Mini to be a better product. Something like the Mini should be their volume sales leader in the desktop category. The iMac would be a more elegant desktop, probably only selling in the $1500+ strata, while the Mini would be the mainline desktop in the sub-500 to maybe 1200 or so range.

My gut feeling is that a new product line is required, unless they choose to market a "lite" version of the Mac Pro. Nah, the most reasonable scenario is the oft-rumored xMac, and maybe the real end of the road for the Mini.

Bold action is required. 😎
 
andyr2120 said:
My gut feeling is that a new product line is required, unless they choose to market a "lite" version of the Mac Pro. Nah, the most reasonable scenario is the oft-rumored xMac, and maybe the real end of the road for the Mini.

Bold action is required. 😎
Click to expand...

Exactly, It's time for the second coming of Michael Spindler 😉
 
a thought

Hopefully with the new macbooks and macbook pros being released sometime soon, hopefulyl Apple will throw a really nice upgraded mini in there, and i hope by this whole phystar fiascio apple realizes the need for a decent mid range computer
 
Bad Paper said:
yar, but eSATA is standard on all Centrino 2 boards.
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Since when has logic like this ever played a role in a design decision at Apple? Minimally, I would hope for a FW800 port. Apple has never been one to do something just because it was there. Centrino 2 also offers WiMax ... don't think you will see that either!
 
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