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Apple Adding Thunderbolt Display and Original iPad Air to Obsolete Products List

Having 2 Thunderbolt Displays, which were working great on the Mac mini, after switching to Mac mini M1, I can only use 1 display...
Sometimes upgrading actually means downgrading.

Anyone who has a tip how I can use both Thunderbolt Displays on a M1 Mac mini, please let me know! Thanks!
 
anson42 said:
I've got one on the bench at the moment, used to use it with an older MBP model. Did you have to purchase the Apple TB3 to TB2 adapter to connect up the TB display to the Studio?
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Yes thank you, when I find some tome I am going to replace to TB cable/ Power Cable. Great there are parts for exchange outside.
 
In response to the comments in this thread, I can report that I do not in fact own one of these, but if I did I would probably still be very happy with it.
 
anson42 said:
I've got one on the bench at the moment, used to use it with an older MBP model. Did you have to purchase the Apple TB3 to TB2 adapter to connect up the TB display to the Studio?
Click to expand...
Yep. Plugged in via the adapter and all works perfectly.
 
PowerMacBook said:
Having 2 Thunderbolt Displays, which were working great on the Mac mini, after switching to Mac mini M1, I can only use 1 display...
Sometimes upgrading actually means downgrading.

Anyone who has a tip how I can use both Thunderbolt Displays on a M1 Mac mini, please let me know! Thanks!
Click to expand...
That simply won’t work with the M1 mini. It can run two displays, but one has to be over HDMI which will not work with the TB display. The M2 Pro mini that recently came out would work, but that’s a pretty expensive option just to solve this. This limitation is in hardware and has been know since the M1 launched and is unfortunate if HDMI is not an option.
 
My TBD died a few months ago. It was a sad day. That monitor lasted me so many years and still looked great up until its death.


RIP
 
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I currently use 3x Apple thunderbolt displays connected to my 2017 MacBook Pro. Running on macOS Ventura 13.3.1 no problem! Two of them are daisy chained together and the third has its own adapted and USB C port. Gigabit ethernet works great, only downside are the USB 2.0 ports but I have a USB-C to USB-A adapter for anything I need to connect to. 2x Thunderbolt works in Windows 10 Bootcamp also - just hooked up the third monitor so not sure if that will work yet in Bootcamp.

EDIT: Three thunderbolt displays confirmed working in Windows 10 bootcamp on my MBP!. I've attached a screenshot.
 

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conradwt said:
I was going to get the Apple Studio Display but then there were just too many issues. For example, Apple Thunderbolt port has the following:

Cables

Built-in Thunderbolt cable
Built-in Universal MagSafe cable (up to 85W)

Peripheral connections

Three powered USB 2.0 ports
FireWire 800 port
Gigabit Ethernet port
Thunderbolt port
Kensington security slot

The Apple Studio Display had issues with the webcam resolution, no built-in ethernet port, and Center Stage. I would have taken the Apple Thunderbolt Display as a template and did the following:

  • update Built-in Universal MagSafe cable (up to 85W) to MageSafe 3
  • update Built-in Thunderbolt cable to Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) cable
  • update to allow the cable easily disconnect from the back of the monitor similar to the Pro Display XDR
  • update Gigabit Ethernet port to 10 Gigabit Ethernet port
  • update FireWire 800 port to Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C)
  • update Thunderbolt port to Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C)
  • update Three powered USB 2.0 ports to USB-C
  • update to use the current Apple Studio Display design and tech specs
  • update the refresh rate to 120Hz but 60Hz is fine here
In the end, I just stuck with my trusty Apple Thunderbolt display and I have been using it since 2015. It has never required servicing. Thus, this is an excellent example of build quality.
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You forgot to add couple inches or so extra to the display, about 30-32 inch
 
Meh. It was a very clean looking display and it preserved the Apple aesthetic, which third party displays could never match. But it also got hotter than sin, limited you to the Thunderbolt standard, and the lack of any matte option made it as though your retinas were being burned out of your skull. Ultimately, consumers paid a big premium for the privilege of having a giant piece of aluminum on their desks. I still have a working 20" ACD that has none of those problems.
 
Too bad about the Thunderbolt display. I have one that I use with my M1 MacBook Air in clamshell mode, and it's pretty nice, but I do need to replace the built-in Thunderbolt cable, since it's not that reliable anymore. For now I am getting by using the Thunderbolt port on the back, hooked up to a Thunderbolt 2-to-3 adapter connected to my CalDigit TS3-Plus dock. Shouldn't be too hard a replacement job for me, given I do this kind of work a lot at my job. Then once I get an M2 Pro-equipped Mac Mini, I can use the Thunderbolt display with it, but I won't need the dock, as I can just hook it up to one of the four built-in Thunderbolt 4 ports using my 2-to-3 adapter. (I'll most likely still have the dock hooked up to another one of the TB4 ports, for when I need to import from SD cards or analog line-in audio and whatnot.) Even the Display's built-in FireWire 800 port I find useful for when I am archiving/importing MiniDV or Digital8 tapes...
BE2A11A4-DD41-412A-B5B4-782B5AF5C064_1_105_c.jpeg

...such as this YouTube fursuit vlog I did demonstrating the older camcorders' tacky built-in effects. That way I don't have to always daisy-chain my TB 2-to-3 adapter to my FireWire-to-Thunderbolt adapter (and that method DOES work, by the way).

As for the first-generation iPad Air, I'm kind of not surprised. We're getting a LOT of them from school districts retiring them in favor of newer iPads and/or Chromebooks (just like a couple years ago when Apple announced the iPad 2 as being obsolete and we began getting hundreds of them from schools) and after a while we got so many that now I have to log any with noticeably physical damage (cracked front panels, heavy scratches, engraving on the back) as not worth re-selling online; once these damaged models are wiped and reset, I prepare them to be recycled. But still, it's amazing how the iPad Air replaced the "regular" iPad in 2013 and eventually influenced the "regular" iPad once that was revived, to the point where the current iPad Air is basically a "lite" version of the iPad Pro, and the "regular" iPad is like the original Air.
 
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teejaysplace24 said:
Meh. It was a very clean looking display and it preserved the Apple aesthetic, which third party displays could never match. But it also got hotter than sin, limited you to the Thunderbolt standard, and the lack of any matte option made it as though your retinas were being burned out of your skull. Ultimately, consumers paid a big premium for the privilege of having a giant piece of aluminum on their desks. I still have a working 20" ACD that has none of those problems.
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I have one of the late 23” AC(HD)Ds which can run even brighter than any of the later LED Cinema (and Thunderbolt) displays. It sits right next to a 27” Thumderbolt display on my desk at work. That thing gets insanely hot. You could probably cook on it.
 
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