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Apple to Launch New Mac Mini at Next Week's Media Event?

Rocketman said:
This will be my next media server. I switched to internet only services and canceled cable, satellite, telephone. What is needed is a 4 hour APU/UPS to power the modem, router, phone box, portable phone base and other low power devices. POTS phone works during power outages and that is a feature not a bug. I don't know if someone has already solved that in an elegant way, but Apple could certainly do it with a specialized device or an accessory to one of its boxes such as ATV, TM, or others.

BTW the monthly savings so far exceed $200. I just have to figure how to get untethered HBO. You know, without using someone else's code for HBOGO.

Rocketman
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I've been talking about this for several months! I think this may be the last year of NFL/Superfan with DTV and if so, we may "cut the cord" too. We've got a few boxes doing some media server duties, but I'd still like to pick up a Mini for a dedicated iTunes server (plus doing some background download services).

The problem I can't seem to figure out is near-real-time network/cable shows (Sons of Anarchy, Walking Dead, etc.) without going through alternative means, getting them a season late or paying too much.

FWIW, I've got a 2500VA UPS on our network gear (also on the main TV/media rack) :D
 
So in the end, this is going to be a Mac event. Nobody cares about the *yawwwwnnnn* iPad Mini.
 
Cool. I don't want USB 3.0 to take over, though. Why do the inferior products win so often?
 
faroZ06 said:
Cool. I don't want USB 3.0 to take over, though. Why do the inferior products win so often?
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What's inferior about USB 3.0 ? I'd say it's superior due to reduced cost, complexity and the backward compatibility it provides. Thunderbolt is mostly an over-engineered/overkill solution for consumer peripherals.
 
KnightWRX said:
What's inferior about USB 3.0 ? I'd say it's superior due to reduced cost, complexity and the backward compatibility it provides. Thunderbolt is mostly an over-engineered/overkill solution for consumer peripherals.
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TB is good but would you pay so much more for twice the speed, for more USB3 is more than enough right now... until USB4 comes along.

Again I doubt Apple will be soldering in it's RAM on the Mini (and iMac) I'm wondering if there was such would Apple somehow manage RAM slots in the next generation Retina MBP. I'm betting that one day the current old MBP will merge with the retina version and they will just have Retina and Air versions of the MacBook.

Did people complain this much about the lack of upgradeabllity in the MBAir?
 
This is starting to feel like an event for the "mini" end of Apple's line up.. smaller rMBP (aka rMBP mini), Mac mini, iPad mini... I thought the iMac was supposed to be updated too, but then that doesn't fit into the mini theme :confused:
 
The Mac Mini is ALWAYS overdue for a refresh. Who remembers the 20-month gap three years ago?
 
KnightWRX said:
What's inferior about USB 3.0 ? I'd say it's superior due to reduced cost, complexity and the backward compatibility it provides. Thunderbolt is mostly an over-engineered/overkill solution for consumer peripherals.
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FireWire and Thunderbolt are superior, and they've got to be more expensive mostly because of rarity. No connection is cheaper than mass-produced USB. Even with fast USB speeds, FireWire and Thunderbolt provide exclusive features that USB always lacks by design. But the USB backwards-compatibility is nice.

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Lancer said:
Did people complain this much about the lack of upgradeabllity in the MBAir?
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The people who did bought MacBook Pros. I'd like the MacBook Pro line to merge with the MacBook Air line then have a new MacBook Pro line emerge that is not obsessed with thinness at the cost of upgradeability, battery life, and coolness (in running temperatures). There are people who simply don't give a hoot about specs because they don't need to care about it for their purposes, and those people should not be the target audience for the MacBook Pro line.
 
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CharlesX said:
The Mac Mini is ALWAYS overdue for a refresh. Who remembers the 20-month gap three years ago?
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Most Macs are usually overdue for a refresh. If only Apple put the amount of effort into the Mac as they put into the iPhone...
 
faroZ06 said:
FireWire and Thunderbolt are superior, and both are more expensive simply because they are rare. No connection is cheaper than mass-produced USB.
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Thunderbolt is more expensive due to the nature of its engineering. It requires multiple controllers per device, adding up the costs. It has nothing to do with rarity.

Also, it's overkill, meaning why would a vendor bother trying to sell you a more expensive disk using Thunderbolt controllers (requiring the more expensive Light Ridge controller if you want to provide 2 channel daisy chaining) when the less expensive USB 3.0 device provides the same performance since the bottleneck is not the I/O interface, but the actual physical spinning platters inside the case ?

Sometimes, simpler, more flexible and cheaper are the superior choice. USB 3 is all 3 vs Thunderbolt. I can plug my existing USB 1.1 mouse in a USB 3.0 port. I can also plug a disk and saturate its mechanical hardware to extract every last bit of read/write performance out of it without even touching the peaks of USB 3.0. Why would I pay more for the less versatile Thunderbolt ?

Thunderbolt is a niche technology, a Host based interconnect to replace more prosumer/professional oriented Host interfaces. It's just not the consumer technology Apple is trying to push it as.
 
faroZ06 said:
Most Macs are usually overdue for a refresh. If only Apple put the amount of effort into the Mac as they put into the iPhone...
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This is why they don't:
piechart.png
 
Excellent run of MAC Rumors this week!
I love my Mini, but won't be going with this update. Other than HD space, my mid-2011 is still going gangbusters. In fact, in honor of this update I'll finally do one of my own...1TB drive here I come!:D

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gkarris said:
Long live the Mini!

Bunch of people I know are switching from using just a MacBook to a Mini/iPad Combo (me included).
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Ditto. For a while I was just hooking my MacBook into my monitor, but the Mini/iPad combo (I use a ZaggFolio for the iPad) is a great combo. iPad's a killer commuter, and I can do nearly everything I could with the MacBook.
 
If apple's posting the majority of ivy bridge updates now I don't want to think when haswell will come out lol
 
Well this is what I've been waiting for all these months. I'm sure it'll just be a silent update... if they do devote any stage time to Macs it'll probably be for the redesigned iMac line.

:apple:
 
MacRumors said:
The Mac Mini is overdue for an update; the last refresh occurred in July 2011, some 450 days ago.
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Overdue according to what criteria? It's clear since long that Apple does not update all their products lines anymore when the new technology arrives. They update them one by one, clearly separated by many months, in order to somehow differentiate their products for maximum profitability.

With even more products launched by Apple, you'll see new CPU's from Intel at around June year, but won't find their way into some Apple hardware until Christmas. It's ridiculous.

Apple's business strategy never cease to amaze. Or, I meant, their greed.
 
faroZ06 said:
I'd like the MacBook Pro line to merge with the MacBook Air line then have a new MacBook Pro line emerge that is not obsessed with thinness at the cost of upgradeability, battery life, and coolness (in running temperatures).
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You've just described the current MacBook Pro line - but I suspect what you really mean is change the current line into something that won't sell at all, but will appeal to people who won't actually buy them, but will praise them on forums like this.
 
Of course they will update the Mac mini ...

Of course they will update them. We just bought one for the kids (to replace their suddenly-dead iMac G5) three weeks ago. Solidly outside the 14-day return window: time for an update!

Seriously, though, an update to the Mac mini is a no brainer (and, yes, I knew that when we bought ours ... but another month of the kids borrowing our laptops to write their papers was going to drive us crazy!) I'd just be surprised if it made the keynote. Seems more likely a pre-show silent upgrade. Might even be post-show as it's unlikely to steal any of the thunder of the iPad / iBooks announcements.
 
D.T. said:
I've been talking about this for several months! I think this may be the last year of NFL/Superfan with DTV and if so, we may "cut the cord" too. We've got a few boxes doing some media server duties, but I'd still like to pick up a Mini for a dedicated iTunes server (plus doing some background download services).

The problem I can't seem to figure out is near-real-time network/cable shows (Sons of Anarchy, Walking Dead, etc.) without going through alternative means, getting them a season late or paying too much.

FWIW, I've got a 2500VA UPS on our network gear (also on the main TV/media rack) :D
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The Walking Dead is available next-day from iTunes. At least, it was all last year and the year before (I haven't heard anything indicating AMC has changed its contract this year). iTunes shows the season as $42.99/HD or $27.99/SD, and has the first episode available at the moment, so it seems the same as the last couple years. IMHO, being able to watch with no jitters, no commercials, and on my schedule is worth the $2/ep (we just do SD because we don't see enough of a difference in HD to warrant a 50% cost increase as well as the extra burden on our low-end internet service).

The real sticklers are HBO and Showtime. The other networks usually have a free stream, a per-episode download, or both.

(We cut our DirecTV cord in 2008 for savings of "only" $85/month ... pays for a lot of per-episode downloads while still being an average of $60/month ahead ...)
 
topmounter said:
New iMac = Mac Mini + Cinema Display
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I don't know if this post was sarcasm or for real. But ..
It's not exactly new. You can always do it NOW.

Buy a $700 base Mac Mini + $1000 Thunderbolt Display = $1700 and you get a machine equal with 13" MBP guts on 27" Display. Oh, and you get 1 Thunderbolt port, Dual core i5 CPU, 500GB puny HDD, 2 RAM slots and weak GPU. And yes, Mac Mini is NOT a portable machine, nor it is powerful enough. :rolleyes:

Or simply get base 27" iMac for roughly the same price. You get the same 27" display, 2 Thunderbolt ports, faster Quad i5 CPU, 1TB HDD, 4 RAM slots, infinitely better graphic (compared to HD3000 on current Mini).

Mac Mini + Thunderbolt Display = Spend more, get less ..

So .. no thanks ;)
 
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