Apple Releases New Sandy Bridge Mac Minis and Thunderbolt Display

paulro said:
Interesting that Apple pictures the mac mini with a 27" cinema display.

Why would you buy a mac mini and 27" cinema display though ? The UK prices are £599 for the lowest config mac mini and £899 for the display.

Surely you'd just buy a 27" iMac with keyboard and mouse/trackpad for less money ?

I've never really understood the value of a mac mini though. Ridiculously overpriced in my opinion.
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Some of us like Mac Mini. For me, it was obvious choice as I already had a high quality HP 24" IPS display. But yeah, Mini and Apple 27" display is as expensive - or even a bit more than 27" iMac. It's also quad core vs Mac Minis dual core (not counting server edition).

EDIT: btw, I think base model Mac Mini is 529 uk pounds.
 
ArcaneDevice said:
I like music, why wouldn't I?

I can buy a CD that I can play in almost any music device in the past twenty years, rip into any format I want to, it comes in an universal storage format so I always have a backup, it includes liner notes and from more creative artists, cool packaging.

For the same price as buying it on iTunes.

So, yeah why wouldn't I buy a CD? Why would anyone who likes music not buy a CD?
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You kind of just answered that for me. The packaging of music is not important.. its the music that is.. the sound... plus discs just build up get scratched or damaged and clutter the place.

Just my opinion... music cd's are pointless to me in todays world. Soon so will dvd's and blu ray discs....
 
WvB22 said:
The only reason, and solely the only reason, why Apple drops physical media in any form (DVD discs) and don't adopt new media (Blu-Ray) is that they won't benefit from it.

If you buy Blu-Ray discs Apple won't get a penny. If you buy DVD movies Apple won't get a penny. If you buy software on DVD/CD Apple won't get a penny. If you buy music on a CD Apple won't get a penny.

But hey! If you buy all these media with the App Store / iTunes Apple gets a healthy piece of the pie. Apple has no benefit at all by making physical media available to macs. Now it doesn't seem like much but what about software suites that cost 1000's of dollars or more. Those companies won't be happy with the way this is going.

Do the math yourself
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I haven't used physical media in years and don't use iTunes. Lots of alternatives like Amazon, 7 digital, lovefilm, etc

I'm happy to see the back of the optical drive. Only moving part left now is the fan, hopefully this will soon be eliminated and we can finally have a silent and more reliable system :)
 
ArcaneDevice said:
I like music, why wouldn't I?

I can buy a CD that I can play in almost any music device in the past twenty years, rip into any format I want to, it comes in an universal storage format so I always have a backup, it includes liner notes and from more creative artists, cool packaging.

For the same price as buying it on iTunes.

So, yeah why wouldn't I buy a CD? Why would anyone who likes music not buy a CD?
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sound fidelity is way better also. CD's are a real way to support artists you like as well. audio codecs will change over time, and you get artwork!.
 
New Display

It would be cool if you could pair your keyboard and mouse to a bluetooth receiver in the monitor rather than the computer itself. Then it would be a true docking station, because whatever you plugged into it would instantly be set up and paired to the peripherals.
 
How can we ask Apple to have a BTO option for an anti-glare display? There doesn't seem to be a feedback page for the displays.

I'd love to grab one of these but I need the anti-glare for my work.

Can someone recommend a good display that's not glossy? Preferably mini DisplayPort, but if I have to grab a DVI adapter or something to connect to it, that's cool too. I just need a nice big display to do websites and video on.
 
winston1236 said:
do people actually hook up a 1000 display to something like the mini?
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Why not ? Personally, I'd go for 2 1920x1080 monitors instead, but some people just don't have the desk space and there's no other way to get 2560x1440 pixels otherwise (The Dell U2711 is as expensive).
 
The history of TB has hardly been written

Where, I might ask, are the TB audio systems, the TB PS4, not to mention TB BD and TB videocams and cameras?

I'm looking at you Sony, you pathetic has beens.

This is an opportunity to rise up and make some TB peripherals that will melt our Apple loving socks off.

But
not
going
to
happen
 
To all the super-cool people not needing an optical drive, because they are so super-cool that they happen to live in a super-cool area with super-cool high speed internet, just downloading everything with super-cool DRM build in:

Could you please lend the last 3 movies you bought on iTunes to a friend? Oh wait, you can't. Unless of course, all your downloads are illegal.

Digital distribution is all about DRM and killing the used-market, and you are even happy that this is happening.
 
ri0ku said:
You kind of just answered that for me. The packaging of music is not important.. its the music that is.. the sound...
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If the sound is so important for you, then surely you would want to go for the CD instead of the inferior compression of AAC and MP3 files.

But I'm guessing you don't really care about sound quality at all, like most people. Plus, you won't be able to hear any difference anyway if you're listening through those cheap white iPod earbuds. :eek:
 
So... looking at the specs, an i5 with 3MB cache or a dual core i7 means these are Westmere / Arrandale chips, not Sandy Bridge. Server model is probably SB, but not the regular models.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Core_i5
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Core_i7

A little disappointing, but probably won't stop me buying one.

capwkidd said:
Does someone make software that lets you use a Mac Mini solely with an Apple remote? So you can play podcasts, BluRay rips (MKV) from your network, iTunes (which would come from my main Mac), etc?

Basically an ApplyTV2, but with more horse power and capabilities....
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Yep. And it's free. http://plexapp.com/
 
Mal67 said:
Dearie me! Quad core i7 but no discrete chip for the server model; new discrete chip but only 256mb; no optical drive at all in a computer which will be quite possibly be used as a desktop replacement; only 2g of memory in base model......:(
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Why would a server need discrete graphics? More cores and more memory are what a server needs.
 
daniel335e said:
It is up to Apple to decide when something becomes obsolete, otherwise nobody else will. If Apple didn't kill the floppy drive, I wonder when other PC manufacturers would have?
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I agree to some extend. In the days the floppy went out it was clear there was a better alternative. CD's and later DVD's. But physical nonetheless.

How do I show my iMovie project to my grandma? DVD's will be phased out for sure but Blu-Ray will be a long time around. The quality for BR is still unsurpassed. HD movies in iTunes are still subpar.

The Mac Mini could be the ultimate Media Center if it had a Blu-Ray player installed. It could do everything you would wanted for a media box. Stream music as well as play your old discs, Blu-Rays and whatever more. Anything you would throw at it would play. You could swap out all your video and audio stuff with one slick machine. It looked if Apple was going that way when they added the HDMI port. Now it seems that this wasn't meant to be a multi media monster.

It all has to do with my previous post. Apple only makes money on digital content. Not physical media. That is the reason that Apple goes digital. Apple has never been in the early adopter's role when it comes to new techniques. But now they can make money out of downloadable media they drop physical media faster then Space Shuttle Atlantis is coming down to earth. What a surprise.
 
Apple followed my advice and made the Mini cheaper! and the other version has an actual graphics chip! Maybe I'll wait another year and see what the mini gets next year.

Edit: For those complaining about no disc drive, buy an external one.
 
chaosbunny said:
To all the super-cool people not needing an optical drive, because they are so super-cool that they happen to live in a super-cool area with super-cool high speed internet, just downloading everything with super-cool DRM build in:

Could you please lend the last 3 movies you bought on iTunes to a friend? Oh wait, you can't. Unless of course, all your downloads are illegal.

Digital distribution is all about DRM and killing the used-market, and you are even happy that this is happening.
Click to expand...

Not to mention the restrictions we have to put up with! "This movie is not available in your country"

Most iTunes stores in Europe don't even HAVE a movie/TV shows section yet!
 
New Mac Mini leaves opportunity for a company like Newer Technology to create an external TB box to:

1- add external optical Blu-Ray/DVD/CD "Superdrive"
2- add external higher end graphics chip for higher performance for video gamers, photo, video use.
3- add extra hard drives in bays easier to access than in the Mac Mini itself.
4- extra video/audio inputs and outputs.

Think of it, the Mac Mini is now via Thunderbolt the ultimate potential mini tower. TB allows people the potential to upgrade graphics processors, hard drive space, add optical drives and more.

what is to say third party companies can't create ways for extra hard drives to boot into windows, linux or more?

Also, lets face it Apple just wants to get higher margins, this Mac Mini is cheaper to make, and sell more via itunes. from programs/apps, movies, music, why let consumer have an easy way to buy elsewhere?

Anyway this is a good time for consumers in a strange way, Apple is acting semi-monopolistic, but if the right third party companies come along the Mac Mini has great potential to tap into and boost it to a very capable machine.
 
Install Windows from bootable USB thumb drive

weckart said:
You can download Windows isos directly from Microsoft.
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You can copy the files from the ISO (not the ISO file itself - mount the ISO and drag-n-drop everything onto the thumb drive).

Instructions for setting the drive bootable from Windows at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd535816.aspx .

It should be possible to do it from OSX, zero the first few MiB of the key (to zap any possible partition and hidden boot info). Format a new FAT32 partition, and mark it "active". Then drag and drop the files.
 
ri0ku said:
all the guy tried to do was help you by replying and you ended up replying talking to him like a piece of crap...

Really... thats how Canadians treat people who try to be nice?
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Really... you're making a generalization about Canadians because of one comment?
 
Hattig said:
The Apple website shows you can easily update the memory with 1333MHz SODIMMS of your own choice.

Anyone buying the base model should leave it at 2GB and get third party memory.
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That is a good idea. A rule of thumb is: Never buy extra memory from Apple because it is absurdly too expensive!
 
For the sake of discussion, the display and Mac Mini should be on separate threads. Something to consider next time, MacRumors.
 
The rending of garments over the optical drive here is mind-boggling. You can get a DVD drive on the net for $30 or less and have your mini + drive combination still take up less space than the original white plastic minis did. Plus the lack of an internal optical drive frees up room for other goodies inside the machine.

They lowered the price by $100 and removed something that costs $30 and many customers don't need. I count that as a win.
 
I can live without the cd/dvd, but not even an option of a quad i5 even as an extra option? really? :confused::mad:
where s my quad i5 option?
 
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