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So wait a minute... On step 9 of the teardown, ifixit notes the following regarding the RAM...

Samsung K4E8E304EE-EGCE 8 Gb LPDDR3 DRAM (8 Gb x 4 = 32 Gb = 4 GB)

Wtf? If I didn't know any better, I'd say that looks like 4 8GB chips in there on a machine they say is spec'd at 4GB. Is the RAM capacity some sort of firmware limitation? I'm nuts for thinking this...right?

That's 4 x 8 Gigabit RAM chips, not Gigabytes. Note the small 'b'. RAM chips are usually specified in bits, and the total combined storage then given in bytes.
 
Even the handheld computer (iPhone) market is saturated now.

All they can do is hold features back as long as possible and hope they don't lose too many customers by pissing them off to much and sending them off to the hoards of chinese manufacturers that are churning out feature packed Android phones as fast as they can dig the raw materials to make them with out of the ground.

That's why we don't have 2gigs of ram in the iPhone 6. It would have cost them essentially nothing to put it in, but then they would have had have absolutely nothing to offer next year for the 6s, except maybe waterproofing.

Of course they'll keep waterproofing for the 7... or 7s...
So your prediction is that the record sales of the iPhone 6 represent the peak, and that sales will decline from this point.

My prediction is that the straightforward security of Apple Pay is going to lure more people to the iPhone over the next few years. It will certainly lure users of older iPhones to upgrade. Apple has a number of years to ride the iPhone wave, before something new comes along to render the smart phone as quaint as an mp3 player seems now.
 
This is Apple's way of making more money.

A) People who buy the Mac Mini, especially the 4GB ram one have no upgrade option for when OS X 10.12 comes along and cripples their Mac (4GB is allready too little) and they'll need to buy a new one.

B) More people will BTO their Mac Mini with more ram, so more money to Apple straight away.

C) Others will spend even more money and jump to an iMac (the mid range 21.5 which is still semi upgradable).

As far as I can see Apple wins with every option, they make more money and the consumer is left worse off. It seems to be all that Tim Cook wants for Apple.
you forgot D - skip apple and find an alternative. Apple is doing its best to drive people away from their computers. Smells like the 90s all over again.
 
Unfortunately, you'll lose your energy savings by having it take longer to perform the same tasks.

While I realize it's not a real world situation... imagine if it took 2 hours for a LED light bulb to light a room for 30 seconds drawing maximum power, and it took a regular light bulb exactly 30 seconds to do the same. Which one do you think would cost you more for the same amount of illumination time?

Obviously, a light bulb isn't the best example, but I think you get the idea.
I get the idea. If you're the kind of user who runs your computer at max capacity all the time, you're not going to see any power savings. But if you use your computer to watch a video on iTunes, it will take the same 45 minutes to watch an episode of The Walking Dead on the new Mac Mini as it would on an older model.
 
So let me get this right...

A. People buy something low end. Apple makes money now and more again later when they upgrade.

B. People buy something a little better. Apple also makes money, even more right away, maybe not as much tomorrow but for sure more today.

C. People buy something even better. Apple makes ever more money.

lol :rolleyes:

A - In the past, after 2 or so years you could upgrade the ram and get another couple of years out of your Mac.

B - Previously people were able to upgrade the RAM at their own leisure instead of overpaying for the ram from Apple.

C - The Mac Mini used to be a machine capable of rivalling the iMacs, except for in the graphics department.

The point is this is just another Apple greedy cash grab, in the guise of a $100 or so price cut on the Mac Mini.

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you forgot D - skip apple and find an alternative. Apple is doing its best to drive people away from their computers. Smells like the 90s all over again.

I was actually going to say D was that when the soldered ram happens to fail for some people it will be a massive logic board replacement cost instead of ordering a new ram stick..

This does smell of 90's Apple. Crippling Macs, thinking it could do no wrong etc etc.
 
The CPU and circuit board on it delivering slower speed, combined with the new soldered ram give high reason for Mac Mini consumers to boycott.

Avoid purchasing this model.

I just bought an imac instead, sucks cause it has soldered ram too. wish we had better options
 
Unfortunately, you'll lose your energy savings by having it take longer to perform the same tasks.

Why in the world would you "upgrade" to a dual core from a quad core if your real world performance was degraded? (compute time) The Broadwell release from Intel is a mess. Quad core U and H Skylake CPUs will be out next year.

Single core performance has improved over Haswell at a $200 price reduction.
 
Here comes the "Pro's" complaining how stupid it is that Apple soldered the RAM so the .01% of people who open up and upgrade their components can't.

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How dare this $500 box not be comparable to a $2,500 Mac Pro!

Pros? I'm not a Mac expert, but I upgraded my former 2010 Mini (RIP) upgraded from 2 GB to 8GB, and boy did it pack a punch. And no, I'm not a pro, I'm just a consumer that wanted a bit of a speed boost so I could avoid planned obsolesce.
 
And the improved single core performance - at a *lower* price point will work just fine for them. *They* certainly aren't the ones on here complaining about soldered RAM, and quad core multi-threaded performance. That machine will last them for years - if all they want is information. I still have a fully functioning Mac mini core 2 duo from what must be going on 10 years ago. RAM and HDD aren't the problem - but the discontinued power cord is. The drama in your post is ridiculous. I didn't realize that Apple was suddenly OLPC. :rolleyes:


Well its a good thing your MAC MINI has a user replaceable part. You don't have to get a new mini just buy the part that is broken. After the 1 year warranty is over some 2014 mini owners the will lose everything if there ram goes or the logic board goes. It would be nice to Take out that 300$ of ram if the computer breaks.
 
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you forgot D - skip apple and find an alternative. Apple is doing its best to drive people away from their computers. Smells like the 90s all over again.
With every update, Apple drives some of its loyal fans away. But this was true all through the 2000s, also. I heard the threats of walking away when Apple released the rMBP. I'm sure some of those who made the threats followed through and went to other platforms. But usually more came in to take their place.

Contrary to the cliche, Apple's users aren't sheep. They decide to stay, or they decide to go. They decide to buy or they decide not to buy. They use a feature, or they don't.
 
...aren't only miffed about the non-upgradeable RAM, but also the lack of a 2nd drive bay
It looks as if it's 1x SATA and 1x PCIe bay, so presumably you could buy the HDD only version of the mini and then add your own PCIe SSD/flash/thing?

Subject to pricing and availability of PCIe SSD/flash/things, of course. If the appropriate bit is the OWC Aura card then they're inherently pricy vs SATA SSD, but you could buy the stock spinner mini (500GB on the base, 1TB on other two models) and add a 240GB/480GB Aura for $189/$329.

Although it's probably easier to just chuck the spinner in the bin and slap in a SATA SSD, of course...
 
I am just going to ahead and start referring to this a the "Apple TV Pro" or ATVP.




Guys the spec bump on the ATV is amazing!
 
Here comes the "Pro's" complaining how stupid it is that Apple soldered the RAM so the .01% of people who open up and upgrade their components can't.

How dare this $500 box not be comparable to a $2,500 Mac Pro!

Agree. Had a manager that called their type of response, "A Ferrari owner criticizing a Ford."

The new lower price point opens the volume of this product wide to be the "stealth Mac" hidden on a stack of equipment accessible via a KVM switch. It will do well.

I'm still convinced this is a "Plan B" release with a supplier issues holding back the "real" upgrade being a Quad-Core Mac Mini with SSD and new industrial design following the style of the Mac Pro.
 
I've already started moving away from :apple:. I've stuck it out long enough. Nearly 20 years. It's just not worth the headache and the money anymore. Too many options out there.

I suggest others start considering it. I mean, :apple:Watch, really?

The MacBook Pro (retina) is still the best of its class. Not so for the desktop Macs.
 
I last met a person who upgraded his computer four years ago. Upgradability on computers, removable battery on phones & memory cards on tablets are interesting perhaps to less than 1% of the market.

Some people really need to stop trying to conserve technology products for ages and get a new device when the time comes, just like the rest of us. In 2014 tech products are designed to be easy to manufacture & be thrown away when their time comes. Deal with it :cool:
You gotta get out more, sounds like you're flush with cash, so it shouldn't be a problem, meet some new people that appreciate well designed tech, not throwaway crap.

Every time I've bought a Mac, the first thing I've done is toss the RAM and the Hard Drive, because Apple gives you bottom line junk at a premium price.

Then I add the appropriate High Capacity SSDs and max out the RAM at a fraction of the Apple price, and I have a useable computer, while Apple picks your pocket for an "Upgrade".

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The MacBook Pro (retina) is still the best of its class. Not so for the desktop Macs.
Don't gloat, you know what's coming.
 
Agree. Had a manager that called their type of response, "A Ferrari owner criticizing a Ford."

The new lower price point opens the volume of this product wide to be the "stealth Mac" hidden on a stack of equipment accessible via a KVM switch. It will do well.

I'm still convinced this is a "Plan B" release with a supplier issues holding back the "real" upgrade being a Quad-Core Mac Mini with SSD and new industrial design following the style of the Mac Pro.

This. Finally someone with sanity and intelligence.
 
I have myself been into building PC's and pulling off some impressive overlocks. I understand the whole DIY thing, but you guys always knew that the Mac mini was intended as the entry level Mac.

It's not the "Mac modular" or the "Mac DIY". I do understand computer DIY and I can understand the disappointment if you have grown accustomed to getting into it and popping in RAM, but I don't understand the outrage per se over this.

The outrage is over forcing users to pay Apple's premiums on RAM and storage as well as reducing performance and raising the price point. Don't be fooled by the $499 "price drop" the orig. Mac Mini introduced by Steve here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJpZGeihy0s

had a starting price of $499 that they just returned to but also lowered the CPU performance. i5 2.3 to 1.4 . The i5 2.6 Haswell is now at $699, up from the 2.3 Ivy Bridge at $599.

Everyone knows, Mac's aren't meant to be over-clocker DIY capable, but upgrading RAM & storage has always been possible until post Steve Jobs era, except for the MBA maybe, but even the pre-2013s have 3rd party upgrades.

MM initially introduced to support the PC->Mac migration during the 2005 iPod-halo era, but by 2012 Phil Schiller proudly presented the Mac Mini as a serious server with Quad-i7 that a lot of businesses have come to rely on:
http://gizmodo.com/5967189/this-custom-datacenter-rack-has-160-mac-minis-crammed-inside-of-it
The Mac Mini Server filled the void created by eliminating the Xserve.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRVzac7PUSk
Phil intro MM server around minute 26.

Far far from the "entry-level" Mac you claim it was always intended for.
Intention and use-cases differ and Apple knows that.
They've just decided to pull the rug from under the Mini Colo crowd and a whole bunch of small to medium tier businesses. I guess, they'll be buying Intel NUCs next.

Apple's becoming a fashion and accessory company and dumping the engineering prowess. I've been using Apple products since the Apple II and us long timers are pissed off at the direction Apple is taking.

I'm not easily swayed and ready to leave the eco system yet, but Apple is now acting like a bully and leveraging the dependance built up over many years.
I'm starting to look for alternatives.
 
If :apple: put "F U" on their frontpage or when you order a iMini, that would be gross... But by soldering RAM, they're sending the same message in a subtle way. Pure genius. Gotta love :apple:.
 
So wait a minute... On step 9 of the teardown, ifixit notes the following regarding the RAM...

Samsung K4E8E304EE-EGCE 8 Gb LPDDR3 DRAM (8 Gb x 4 = 32 Gb = 4 GB)

Wtf? If I didn't know any better, I'd say that looks like 4 8GB chips in there on a machine they say is spec'd at 4GB. Is the RAM capacity some sort of firmware limitation? I'm nuts for thinking this...right?

1B (byte) = 8b (bit)
 
I last met a person who upgraded his computer four years ago. Upgradability on computers, removable battery on phones & memory cards on tablets are interesting perhaps to less than 1% of the market.

Some people really need to stop trying to conserve technology products for ages and get a new device when the time comes, just like the rest of us. In 2014 tech products are designed to be easy to manufacture & be thrown away when their time comes. Deal with it :cool:

I bet you also think that global warming is a hoax and that men never landed on the moon! However, I sure am happy that I am part of a very elite 1% (or 0.01% in a another post) that upgrades their machines to save on some landfill space and have the best machine I can get for that amount of money!
 
Well its a good thing your MAC MINI has a user replaceable part. You don't have to get a new mini just buy the part that is broken. After the 1 year warranty is over some 2014 mini owners the will lose everything if there ram goes or the logic board goes. It would be nice to Take out that 300$ of ram if the computer breaks.

I bet you can't even see how laughable your Mac mini example was!

I think user replaceable are stupid because my mac mini is broken and I'm too lazy to buy a replacement part, plus the installation instruction look so difficult. Since I'm incapable of changing an external power supply no one should be able to upgrade anything from now on!

You'd be the type to buy a Geo Metro - and then put nitrous oxide in it. :rolleyes:

Here, I have your next system for you: http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?itemnumber=56-107-145

You can buy 3 of these, "user upgrade" them to 12GB, run a distributed Hadoop cluster on them to get killer multi-core performance - and they have a planned Q1 2019 lifecycle. You'll be able to take your $350 with you after that - not that you'll find a memory architecture that probably supports it at that time.

The mini will not be worthless after a year if there is an issue. I've never had apple care, and on two different Mac Book Pros received a completely new motherboard / current gen processor. That's assuming, like you said, that something goes wrong with the memory, less likely - nobody will be putting sweaty palms on it, or the motherboard. Typically happens in the first few months (component burn in) or it runs for years. Especially for a device which is just "sitting on the desk" like so many Mac mini owners seem to prefer.

Mobility. Who needs it. /s
 
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