Anyone else excited to get a touchbar MBA?
yeah, neither am I. I wish it would go away. If they're going to force that down the throats of the MBP buyers (15") then at lest have a magic keyboard with it and give it some better functionality.
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Apple to Debut Low-Cost MacBook Air With Retina Display, Revamped Pro-Focused Mac Mini in 2018
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Anyone else excited to get a touchbar MBA?
yeah, neither am I. I wish it would go away. If they're going to force that down the throats of the MBP buyers (15") then at lest have a magic keyboard with it and give it some better functionality.
As a MASSIVE Mac Mini doubting Thomas(seriously, check out the Mac Mini forums), I have to believe that the "Pro" part would come in, with the upgrades to the base unit. The i5-8250u would seem to be a good starting point for the base unit, or a one tier upgrade. I don't think you would see the base mac mini be priced out of the ballpark. At least I hope not.
These make GREAT machines for less than tech savvy relatives, who already have monitors/iPads. And Apple would be silly to chase these folks away by making the base model, way more expensive.
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Depends - Will Apple intentionally neuter the Mac Mini, like they did from the 2012->2014 version? If you don't see why people complained about that, then I wonder how you are able to even access these forums and post.It's gonna be so awesome to see all the posts from the people who have been pounding Apple for years for not updating the Mac Mini post about how lame the update is and how they're not going to buy it. You know it's gonna happen.
It’s not a dongle, it’s a cable. Apple is not putting the HDMI port back on the MacBook Pro and it has never even been available on the iMac, MacBook or MacBook Air...the world has changed and you can change with it or you can keep tilting at windmills.
Do you also consider a mini DisplayPort to HDMI cable a dongle, because that’s what the current MacBook Air or iMac would need to connect to an HDTV or projector? We use an mDP to HDMI cable to connect a Late 2013 iMac to our ceiling projector via a wall plate HDMI jack at work.
By the way, your horse is getting tired.
To some, yes. That's kinda the whole point, when it comes to Apple's computers.
Honestly, I could use a dual link DVI jack right about now because I still have 4-30” Apple Cinema Displays at work that refuse to die and for what they are used for they really do not need to be replaced. They are currently connected via a Apple Dual-Link DVI to mDP adapter and then into the Thunderbolt 2 port on 3-15” MacBook Pros and a 27” 5K iMac. My task now is to either find a suitable cabling solution or replace them to make way for 2018 Macs. So mildly inconvenient, but not the end of the world. LOL!
FYI, I hated having that giant DVI port on the side of my 2006 17” MacBook Pro...big, clunky and so many pins.
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My theory is the product manger who got the i7 BTO upgrades for the mid-2012 Mac mini past product marketing is either permanently in the masonry of the Apple UFO or was dispatched to Gnome, Alaska after Tim Cook took over and started running cost analysis on all the product lines looking for “strategic synergies and savings”! According to the MacTracker app, the 2.3GHz Core i7 quad-core started at $799, which seems like a fever dream now...
I really don't care how the horse feels. If every conference room, media hall, tv, projector etc. in the BUSINESS WORLD has an HDMI cable sitting there to plug into and I as a PROFESSIONAL have to lug around a cable of ANY KIND then it then becomes an adapter or dongle or..... a pita. The world hasn't changed btw... just the stupid MacBook Pro. Unless you think Apple is, "The World".
Proprietary form factor (lego clip together units) is a mistake that Apple won't make. That's why I think they are going with the Thunderbolt port with cabling.
Apple show the way with Thunderbolt requiring cabling between external boxes with them only responsible for the central CPU. If you want fast storage buy an external array. If you want GPU buy an eGPU (Thunderbolt 4 may come next year in time for modular Mac Pro for example, offering the equivalent of 8 PCIe 3.0 lanes - 4 PCIe 4.0 lanes at 80Gb/s for external graphics).
Thunderbolt 4 would allow virtually all of the performance of a modern GPU on a single cable (where TB3 already offers 90%) and I'd expect the modular Mac Pro to be the first to get that if the timings are right. It would also make a logical upgrade for the iMac Pro at the same time alongside a processor refresh.
A modular arrangement is likely to be messy with external power supplies required for many of them. On the face of it a very un-Apple like solution. If they have consulted with data centre folks like Mac Mini Colo I'd expect if a new Mac Mini form factor was on the cards it would divide out and stack nicely into a standard data centre tray.
I'd hazard that in the vast majority of conference rooms in America and around the world, both VGA and DisplayPort connections still outnumber those outfitted with HDMI. I'd also point out that my first lesson as a traveling profession, with my work issued Windows laptop and it's standard ports, was to be prepared and carry my own adapters, regardless.
If you want to use a 2016 and up MacBook Pro...yeah, I guess Apple IS the World. But I digress.
I quite nit undestand the logic of some like you... seems like you like getting less... because apple remove upgradability and charge more ... they love to get higher profit by giving less, and have you lose your computer every 4 years... instead of upgrading just buy one from them!!! You seem to love that too, so its perfect.... for them.
Apple did the same with phones... removed the sd card( hey , need more storage? pay apple 200 so you upgrade storage from them instead of buying your own card for 25... perfect ... for them !!! .... they multiply profit margin, give some bs to customers about how it increases quality... and voila... someone like you defends them. Perfect !!! .... for them. Then many other in the industry followed them... good ... right??
They also did the same with removable batteries... remember the days you could buy 2 batteries and have one charged in your, then just switch them when you ran out of charge?... apple changed that... more profit... industry followed... and then give the bs to customers about how it is better for us...
Yes I remember when I bought a super computer, a mac g5, that I used for many long years... and upgraded a few times, the price was a bit over 2,000. Now if you want pro quality from apple you need 5000 at least. Ohh and it is disposable, no upgrades... lucky for me I got a crazy fast omen desktop pc on black friday, and it came with hp vr headset and controllers. i changed the drive to ssd, and still was under 1000....
Today I only look at apple thinking “ohh I remember when apple loved creating innovative computers and devices”, with a tiny hope that they will ever come back...
In the meantime, I do enjoy my upgradable pc...
Apple did the same with phones... removed the sd card( hey , need more storage? pay apple 200 so you upgrade storage from them instead of buying your own card for 25... perfect ... for them !!! .... they multiply profit margin, give some bs to customers about how it increases quality... and voila... someone like you defends them. Perfect !!! .... for them. Then many other in the industry followed them... good ... right??
They also did the same with removable batteries... remember the days you could buy 2 batteries and have one charged in your, then just switch them when you ran out of charge?... apple changed that... more profit... industry followed... and then give the bs to customers about how it is better for us...
Yes I remember when I bought a super computer, a mac g5, that I used for many long years... and upgraded a few times, the price was a bit over 2,000. Now if you want pro quality from apple you need 5000 at least. Ohh and it is disposable, no upgrades... lucky for me I got a crazy fast omen desktop pc on black friday, and it came with hp vr headset and controllers. i changed the drive to ssd, and still was under 1000....
Today I only look at apple thinking “ohh I remember when apple loved creating innovative computers and devices”, with a tiny hope that they will ever come back...
In the meantime, I do enjoy my upgradable pc...
Here is my "wish" fulfillment list (don't judge, I am trying to be as practical and realistic as possible)-
$499 - Core i5-7360U/4GB/500GB HD (EDU only)
$699 - Core i5-8259U/8GB/1TB Fusion Drive
$999 - Core i5-8269U/8GB/1TB Fusion Drive
$1299 - Core i7-8559U/8GB/1TB Fusion Drive
$1499 - Core i7-8705G/8GB/1TB Fusion Drive
Ports - Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI, 2-Thunderbolt 3, 4-USB 3.1 Type-A, SDXC, Audio In, Headphones
BTO upgrades - 256GB SSD,512GB SSD, 1TB SSD, 2TB Fusion Drive
BTO upgrades - 8 GB, 16GB, 32GB DDR4-2400 DRAM
The top end of the price scale would be $2599 for aCore i7-8705G/32GB DRAM/1TB SSD, which sounds just about ludicrous to be true.
It would be great if the gave us two SO-DIMM slots for user upgradeable DRAM, but I am realistic enough to know that is probably not going to happen. It think the above are at least plausible, but Apple keeps disappointing on many things and 4 years between updates leaves me with little hope until I am reading the above specs on the Apple website.
Am I the only one wondering how they can offer a 13" retina MacBook Air for less than the 12" MacBook? I mean, there's barely anything to the 12" retina MacBook as it is! A smaller SSD in the base model? Well they can do that for the 12" MacBook if they want to reduce the price of entry.
Mac Mini Pro: The current Mac Mini already follows the 'Pro' upgrade cycle. They're just making it official.
As in the naked $35 maker board? Do you really see that as competition for a luxury PC? When has Apple ever offered any PC anywhere close to $350?
Really, there are only three "prosumer" markets left: audio, photograph, and software development. From a marketing perspective Apple doesn't want to make the machine too good and cannibalize the Mac Pro. OTOH they don't want to make it really lame, either.
I'd guess the base is a i5 with 8GB of ram, a 1TB fusion drive, 4 usb-C ports, with 2 monitors max (2 4k or 1 5k and 1080p). Best system would be an i7 with 16GB of ram and one of the ultra-fast MBP SSDs. 32GB is really Pro territory; if you need that get an iMac or a Mac Pro.
I'd guess the base is a i5 with 8GB of ram, a 1TB fusion drive, 4 usb-C ports, with 2 monitors max (2 4k or 1 5k and 1080p). Best system would be an i7 with 16GB of ram and one of the ultra-fast MBP SSDs. 32GB is really Pro territory; if you need that get an iMac or a Mac Pro.
My understanding is, that the rumour mill is talking about an 8K display to coincide with the release of the new Mac Pro next year...
Since Apple is already working with LG, I don’t see the need to release their own 4K display...
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Please no more Fusion drives!
Agree, because we haven't yet got the new Mac Pro, there's a danger of people being disappointed that it's not got pro features in them.
I think that the interesting things is when the new Mini is released, that we'll be able to look at the top of the range spec and get a good idea where the Mac Pro will be going i.e. it'll most likely be components and functionality beyond that.
Apple could clean up its notebook line by segmenting it according to CPU/chipset TDP. For example,
5W - 12" MB (Intel HD iGPU)
15W - new 14" MB(A) (Intel UHD iGPU)
28W - 13" MBP (Iris Plus)
45W - 15" MBP (Intel UHD iGPU-AMD dGPU)
Apple's lineup is already close to this, so the adjustment would be minimal.
As for the Mac Mini, I imagine Apple will stick with Intel's Kaby Lake-G--a 4-core/8-thread CPU paired with either an RX Vega M GH (for Graphics High, 24 CUs) or RX Vega M GL (Graphics Low, 20 CUs). Hopefully Apple will not use Intel's HD Graphics 630, which is also available in this configuration.
I would rather see an AMD APU in the Mini, but I doubt Apple would split up its supply chain in this manner.
Lastly, I would hope for TB 3 across the lineup, but I rarely get my wish.
5W - 12" MB (Intel HD iGPU)
15W - new 14" MB(A) (Intel UHD iGPU)
28W - 13" MBP (Iris Plus)
45W - 15" MBP (Intel UHD iGPU-AMD dGPU)
Apple's lineup is already close to this, so the adjustment would be minimal.
As for the Mac Mini, I imagine Apple will stick with Intel's Kaby Lake-G--a 4-core/8-thread CPU paired with either an RX Vega M GH (for Graphics High, 24 CUs) or RX Vega M GL (Graphics Low, 20 CUs). Hopefully Apple will not use Intel's HD Graphics 630, which is also available in this configuration.
I would rather see an AMD APU in the Mini, but I doubt Apple would split up its supply chain in this manner.
Lastly, I would hope for TB 3 across the lineup, but I rarely get my wish.
Thanks for breaking that down. I'm in the market for a new desktop. With no rumors of upgraded iMacs, I'm definitely considering this new Mini. One question, aren't those some majorly big jumps for the CPU? Especially that i5-59U to 59U. How are you getting a $300 jump there?
For me to do a Mini, I'd have to do 512GB SSD and 16GB RAM. Assuming the RAM is $200 upgrade and the SSD is $300 upgrade, I'd be looking at $1,499 for an upgrade i5. So a pretty big savings over a 27" iMac at $2,299. And the CPU would be current generation instead of the one year old iMacs.
I would hope they'd use the 45W processors instead. I also don't see the G processors being used unless the entire line up were to use it. Making two separate logic boards probably isn't worth it. Seeing that there isn't a great deal of differentiation in the G processors with Vega I wouldn't hold out too much hope for them.
Also, given that they mention "Pro", I would hope that perhaps an i9 could be on the table. Given that they used them in the MacBook Pro refresh, perhaps that would be the processor family of choice. It would simplify their supply chain and allow for 6 core processors.
The other wish list item would be 10Gb ethernet. But I doubt the heat constraints would permit that. However it would feel more "Pro." I have no idea if they would keep Type-A USB or not.
The 4K display from LG is USB-C only, so it would be nice to see a Thunderbolt 3 display with 4K resolution (4096x2304) that includes some additional ports on the back similar to the old Thunderbolt Display. My wish list for new Apple Displays would be just four -
$799 - 21.5" 4K USB-C - works with MacBook, MacBook Pro, Mac mini, iMac and Mac Pro
$999 - 21.5" 4K Thunderbolt 3 - works with MacBook Pro, Mac mini, iMac and Mac Pro
$1499 - 27" 5K Thunderbolt 3 - works with MacBook Pro, Mac mini, iMac and Mac Pro
$2499 = 40" 8K Thunderbolt 3 - works with iMac Pro and Mac Pro
LG's designs are uninspired at best and after the issues with Ultrafine 5K, I would prefer Apple put some energy into creating some truly decent displays for their users.
Okay, so instead of Fusion Drives in the Mac mini, what is your solution? Pure Flash Storage?