Apple Working on High-End Mac Mini With Additional Ports and More Powerful Chip From Next-Gen MacBook Pro

[EntropyQ3]

Since it will almost always be connected to power, the battery would tend to dgrade pretty quickly. And they swell up, etc. Just one more thing to break, adds to cost, etc. And often not needed, either because you have a bulletproof grid, or you have backup generators, solar, or a UPS. Not worth the hassle.

Possibly. But you would never charge such a battery anywhere near full, and it wouldn’t be used at all unless something did happen. It would be largely useless of course, except in rare instances, but it could be checkbox benefit over the competition, and give piece of mind to all oldtimers who have experienced corrupted rust drives even if it were because we cut the power ourselves in a less than considerate fashion.
Not that I have ever done so myself of course (*cough*).

 

[name99]

Well, I’m seriously middle aged and must have been decades since I’ve experienced any power outage at all lightning storms and clumsy digging included. Doesn’t mean it can’t happen, or that it hasn’t happened and I didn’t notice, but just judging by forum comments (the very definition of anecdotal evidence) the grid in the US seems a fair bit less robust in general. National infrastructure here has typically been built by the government, not by private interests. UPS:s do exist here, but very, very few are owned by consumers.
Nevertheless I do think it could be a decent idea for the new iMacs or the Mini to have a small built-in battery that could power the machine for long enough to notify the user and then arrange/allow a graceful shut down. It’s no problem to pull the plug on a laptop and keep going, so doing this cheaply should be no effort at all.

Criticizing the US grid is all fun and games, but if you want to be an adult about it, the numbers paint a very different picture. In particular
(a) the US has substantially harsher climate extremes than most of Europe, is a lot larger, and outages here get more publicized (in part bcs of English, and US media world reach).
(b) how do you measure outages? It's very easy to cherrypick to get the outcome you want. Do you measure unavailable electricity minutes averaged over the entire country? Frequency of unscheduled outages? Frequency of outages important enough to get on TV (it's a big country! there is one of those every year, but generally in a different place each year).

Here are some opinions by a variety of different somewhat informed folk.

U.S. Power Reliability: Are We Kidding Ourselves?

Over the years, I’ve had a growing niggle that we may be in a little bit of denial about U.S. electric reliability and our power quality in general. I tossed this question out...

www.tdworld.com

Especially interesting, I think, was the quote: "There is a fundamental difference in character of the U.S. grid that follows from our geography and design philosophy. We have always prioritized access — universal, rural, and even remote access — over reliability"

 

[Riot Nrrrd]

I live in greater Los Angeles and see outages (of several seconds or more) or spikes (current suddenly jumps from 116-118 V to 143 V or higher, dunno why) often enough that a UPS is an absolute necessity. I have 3 APC UPS units in all.

 

[name99]

I live in greater Los Angeles and see outages (of several seconds or more) or spikes (current suddenly jumps from 116-118 V to 143 V or higher, dunno why) often enough that a UPS is an absolute necessity. I have 3 APC UPS units in all.

I don't know what counts as "greater Los Angeles" but I have lived in both Pasadena and San Gabriel and never had the need for a UPS.
I suspect there's a combination here of cheap power supplies (not enough capacitance to smooth out expected noise in the power) and perhaps particular locations that don't represent the experience of most of the people in the city.

There is a problem in CA as a whole of occasional loss of power for a few hours, sometimes from fire, sometimes from high winds downing trees, sometimes from whatever else the nature gods throw at us. But that's not what you're describing.

 

[dandeco]

Well, I’m seriously middle aged and must have been decades since I’ve experienced any power outage at all lightning storms and clumsy digging included. Doesn’t mean it can’t happen, or that it hasn’t happened and I didn’t notice, but just judging by forum comments (the very definition of anecdotal evidence) the grid in the US seems a fair bit less robust in general. National infrastructure here has typically been built by the government, not by private interests. UPS:s do exist here, but very, very few are owned by consumers.
Nevertheless I do think it could be a decent idea for the new iMacs or the Mini to have a small built-in battery that could power the machine for long enough to notify the user and then arrange/allow a graceful shut down. It’s no problem to pull the plug on a laptop and keep going, so doing this cheaply should be no effort at all.

My dad got me an APC surge protector unit recently that I have my quad-core i7 Mac Mini and my Dell display for it plugged into, but I still need to configure software or whatever so that the Mac Mini stays on long enough for me to properly shut it down.
As for running the M1 MacBook Air on power, I did that quite a bit, especially if I am doing any intensive video editing, but lately I've been using it more unplugged, usually when I bring it to work or if I am using it while relaxing on my bed. Maybe when I use it at my desk I'll generally have it unplugged up until the battery gets pretty low and I let it charge, or at least after each day of using it once the battery is pretty low I let it charge overnight, the way I do with my Apple Magic Keyboard and Mouse when their batteries are mostly depleted. I still kind of need to get more used to often running the Air on the battery, probably because all the other laptops I previously used were x86 Windows notebooks, and PowerPC and Intel Mac laptops.

 

[ElectronGuru]

Nobody has 10 Gigabit internet access

A little context helps here.

Countries that let the free market control infrastructure (Germany, USA, etc) struggle with no competition. The first company to install a wire in a building gets a de facto monopoly over that building - high costs and low speeds. Countries that regulate infrastructure to encourage competition (much of Europe), enjoy higher speeds with lower prices.

Specifically: they require the firm that installs the fiber cable to allow other firms to sell competing services on other strands in the same fiber bundle. This means competitors don’t need to install their own wires, as happens in the US. Competitors get more customers by offering 10gb so they do.

 

[Riot Nrrrd]

I don't know what counts as "greater Los Angeles" but I have lived in both Pasadena and San Gabriel and never had the need for a UPS.

You don't have to deal with LA DWP

 

[Riot Nrrrd]

My dad got me an APC surge protector unit recently that I have my quad-core i7 Mac Mini and my Dell display for it plugged into, but I still need to configure software or whatever so that the Mac Mini stays on long enough for me to properly shut it down.

You should say what model APC unit it is. If it's just a surge protector and doesn't have battery backup, you won't have any time to properly shut it down in the case of an outage - the power will just stop and your Mac mini and Dell will turn off.

If you have battery backup and can connect it to your Mac mini via USB, then you can configure it in System Preferences -> Energy Saver -> UPS. Either that or you can use a 3rd party app like apcupsd or NUT. [Not sure if NUT works on Macs - Ed.]

 

[dgdosen]

I have to see it to believe, I don't think any one released a SoC before that beats a combination of a CPU and high end dGPU.

I still remember the M1 launch video (or was it 2020 WWDC) where the chip designers were more excited about the GPU futures vs the CPU futures... I hope we see that on 6/7.

 

[dandeco]

You should say what model APC unit it is. If it's just a surge protector and doesn't have battery backup, you won't have any time to properly shut it down in the case of an outage - the power will just stop and your Mac mini and Dell will turn off.

If you have battery backup and can connect it to your Mac mini via USB, then you can configure it in System Preferences -> Energy Saver -> UPS. Either that or you can use a 3rd party app like apcupsd or NUT. [Not sure if NUT works on Macs - Ed.]

Mine does have battery backup. I will try to see if I can connect it via USB.

 

[incoherent_1]

If that's the case that would probably encourage me to wait for the models that can have 64GB RAM. I want to have lots of RAM to minimise the swapping and SSD writes that occur as the SSD is not replaceable.

Not that it's scientific or necessarily fits your use case, but for whatever it's worth, my 5 year old MBP has a SSD that has a large amount of swapping and rewriting taking place (I edit 4k video), and I've yet to have any issues with SSD degradation.

 

[EntropyQ3]

A little context helps here.

Countries that let the free market control infrastructure (Germany, USA, etc) struggle with no competition. The first company to install a wire in a building gets a de facto monopoly over that building - high costs and low speeds. Countries that regulate infrastructure to encourage competition (much of Europe), enjoy higher speeds with lower prices.

Specifically: they require the firm that installs the fiber cable to allow other firms to sell competing services on other strands in the same fiber bundle. This means competitors don’t need to install their own wires, as happens in the US. Competitors get more customers by offering 10gb so they do.

I'm a bit wary of commenting since National Pride is apparently tied to these things.
But in my country, Sweden (which is more sparsely populated than the USA btw and overall has a worse climate) not only do we not have much of a problem with the power distribution, but two thirds of all households have direct fiber connection to the net. Most can order 10Gb at $40/month and up (no data caps). Personally I can't since our ISP doesn't offer it yet, but then I have a sweet deal on 1Gb bidirectional at roughly $10/month.

Moral: Apple operates on an international scale. But both the company and these forums often show reasoning that, to the vast majority of people NOT living in the US, appears quite local to US circumstances. Not a big deal necessarily, but a fact none the less. It was weird to read about the market woes of the home pod for instance when no one acknowledged that the device wasn't even for sale in much of the world. And the idea that people want to speak to their devices (weird in itself) gets odd when you don't account for the fact that small human beings may not be fluent in all languages. Et cetera. This is quite obvious, sometimes glaringly so, to those of us not from the USA.

 

[Genkakuzai]

I'm a bit wary of commenting since National Pride is apparently tied to these things.
But in my country, Sweden (which is more sparsely populated than the USA btw and overall has a worse climate) not only do we not have much of a problem with the power distribution, but two thirds of all households have direct fiber connection to the net. Most can order 10Gb at $40/month and up (no data caps). Personally I can't since our ISP doesn't offer it yet, but then I have a sweet deal on 1Gb bidirectional at roughly $10/month.

Fellow Swede here, living in the middle of the forest, 2 km from the nearest paved road, still got fiber \o/

 

[theorist9]

But both the company and these forums often show reasoning that, to the vast majority of people NOT living in the US, appears quite local to US circumstances.

That's true of all countries—I'm sure if I went to Sweden I'd find people showing reasoning there that is quite local to their circumstances. It's only obvious to you about the US because you're looking in from the outside. If I went to Sweden, I expect I'd find all sorts of assumptions that Swedes make that are local to their circumstances, but don't realize it. But they would be obvious to me because I'd be the one looking in from the outside.

But in my country, Sweden (which is more sparsely populated than the USA btw and overall has a worse climate) not only do we not have much of a problem with the power distribution....

I wouldn't be surprised if Sweden has a higher percentage of under-grounding than the US, which would make its power distribution system more robust (that's what causes a lot of power outages--cables coming down during storms, etc.). There are certainly political problems the US has faced which have resulted in insufficient investment in our infrastructure.

But note that, while Sweden's overall population density is less than the US's, it is also more urbanized. 12% of Sweden's population is rural, compared to 17% for the US. Higher urbanization means higher concentration, which helps make power distribution easier.

Also, while Sweden certainly has a higher frequency of severe winter storms, it also has fewer tropical hurricanes ;D.

 

[name99]

That's true of all countries—I'm sure if I went to Sweden I'd find people showing reasoning there that is quite local to their circumstances. It's only obvious to you about the US because you're looking in from the outside. If I went to Sweden, I expect I'd find all sorts of assumptions that Swedes make that are local to their circumstances, but don't realize it. But they would be obvious to me because I'd be the one looking in from the outside.


I wouldn't be surprised if Sweden has a higher percentage of under-grounding than the US, which would make its power distribution system more robust (that's what causes a lot of power outages--cables coming down during storms, etc.). There are certainly political problems the US has faced which have resulted in insufficient investment in our infrastructure.

But note that, while Sweden's overall population density is less than the US's, it is also more urbanized. 12% of Sweden's population is rural, compared to 17% for the US. Higher urbanization means higher concentration, which helps make power distribution easier.

Also, while Sweden certainly has a higher frequency of severe winter storms, it also has fewer tropical hurricanes ;D.

Nature also happens in Sweden...

60,000 Households Still Without Power - Radio Sweden

Swedish electricity companies estimate that some 60,000 households, mainly in the southern part of the country, are still without power after a powerful ...

sverigesradio.se

The difference is that Sweden is small. In America it might be a hurricane in New York State last year, winter storms in Texas this year, flooding in Sacramento next year. By some metric it's the same rate of failure per city (or whatever), but all those different cases get aggregated to a single "America" that's experiencing an electrical catastrophe every year.

 

[Genkakuzai]

Nature also happens in Sweden...

60,000 Households Still Without Power - Radio Sweden

Swedish electricity companies estimate that some 60,000 households, mainly in the southern part of the country, are still without power after a powerful ...

sverigesradio.se

The difference is that Sweden is small. In America it might be a hurricane in New York State last year, winter storms in Texas this year, flooding in Sacramento next year. By some metric it's the same rate of failure per city (or whatever), but all those different cases get aggregated to a single "America" that's experiencing an electrical catastrophe every year.

Dude, that was 16 years ago, after one of the biggest cyclones to ever hit Sweden in 100 years 🤦‍♂️

 

[name99]

Dude, that was 16 years ago, after one of the biggest cyclones to ever hit Sweden in 100 years 🤦‍♂️

Which changes my point how?
You could equally say the same thing about Texas this year.

This is not about "Sweden rah rah, America boo" (well not for me; maybe it is for you).
It is about the consequences of nature for electrical systems, and the fact that anyone who says "it can't happen to us" is basically someone with no memory and no understanding of how numbers work.

 

[Genkakuzai]

Which changes my point how?
You could equally say the same thing about Texas this year.

This is not about "Sweden rah rah, America boo" (well not for me; maybe it is for you).
It is about the consequences of nature for electrical systems, and the fact that anyone who says "it can't happen to us" is basically someone with no memory and no understanding of how numbers work.

The fact that an unprecedented once-in-a-century cyclone hit Sweden 16 years ago has little to no relevance to what our power grid looks or functions like today. Lessons were learned, **** were fixed. The same most certainly can't be said for Texas now can it.

We're vastly more prepared now if something similar were to happen today. Yet again, the same cannot be said about Texas, or the U.S. in general.

 

[EugW]

I don't give a chit about Texas' and Sweden's electrical grids, and obviously it would not affect my decision to purchase a Mac mini or not.

Anyhoo, back on topic.

I don't really need faster performance, but I wouldn't be enthused with the limited port options on the current M1 Mac mini. Same goes for the RAM limitation.

While a machine with 8 performance cores (and 2 efficiency cores) would be great, that is not a primary concern for me. I'd be fine with 4 performance cores if the machines had more I/O and memory support, even for a primary desktop. My current main desktop is a 2017 27" iMac Core i5-7600.

Geekbench 5 scores:
Apple M1 - 1735/7700
i5-7600 - 1030/3700

IOW, M1 is already literally twice as fast as my Core i5-7600, and I don't really have any complaints about its performance. However, it would suck to get fewer ports.

What does suck though is Apple futzing with sub pixel anti-aliasing algorithms so that current OSes look sub-par on anything less than a Retina display. The ironic part is that Windows 10 looks better on my Apple Cinema HD Display than macOS Big Sur.

 

[theorist9]

What does suck though is Apple futzing with sub pixel anti-aliasing algorithms so that current OSes look sub-par on anything less than a Retina display. The ironic part is that Windows 10 looks better on my Apple Cinema HD Display than macOS Big Sur.

Yup, because my primary display is a 27" 4k (~160 ppi), I've been forced to stay with an unsupported OS (High Sierra) to avoid eyestrain/headache when reading text.

[For those unfamiliar with this issue: High Sierra is the last OS with native subpixel text rendering; it can be implemented in Mojave using a Terminal command, but the result isn't as good as in HS.]

 

[macjustin]

I purchased the first M1 Mac mini and I love it. I am hoping for a higher end Mac mini (better graphics performance please). I will definitely buy one and pass on my old new Mini or put it to some other use. I cannot express just how impressed I have been with the first run of ARM based systems.

 

[Matrix1776]

Apple users have always wanted a non-pro, but powerful, Mac. I hope they make it a bit luxurious, and just call it the Mac. Not a Mac Mini, not a Mac Pro, just a Mac. Have it use the Pro or Max chip. I think this will be a big hit. I already have a 43" 4K that was $1500, built for PC gaming, so this would allow me to switch inputs and utilize it. I would like an iMac Pro if it's colorful and 30"+, but doesn't seem that way. I don't need a notched 27".

 

[Tagbert]

Apple users have always wanted a non-pro, but powerful, Mac. I hope they make it a bit luxurious, and just call it the Mac. Not a Mac Mini, not a Mac Pro, just a Mac. Have it use the Pro or Max chip. I think this will be a big hit. I already have a 43" 4K that was $1500, built for PC gaming, so this would allow me to switch inputs and utilize it. I would like an iMac Pro if it's colorful and 30"+, but doesn't seem that way. I don't need a notched 27".

I don’t see any reason why they would put a notch in the iMac. The reason for the notch is to expand the screen while keeping the MBP case as small as possible. That is the same reason for the notch on the phone. There is no particular reason to minimize the case/bezels on an iMac. They didn’t do it for the iMac 24”, either. Contrary to what some believe, the notch is not a design flourish. It is a solution to a specific packaging problem.

 

[Matrix1776]

I don’t see any reason why they would put a notch in the iMac.

Yep agreed. That doesn't mean it can't happen, though. It seems to be their signature. But yes, perhaps, not doing it to the 24" shows some sign they won't.

Personally, I'm in the minority but not only do I expect a notch-less iMac, but such computers to have a hardware shut. It seems absurd that in 2022, I have to rely on security solutions to disable camera's that can capture the home, or even worst, put stickers on a new computer.

 

[weaztek]

It seems absurd that in 2022, I have to rely on security solutions to disable camera's that can capture the home, or even worst, put stickers on a new computer.

Get a Mac Mini where a webcam can be unplugged any time.