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Apple's Latest Mac Mini Turns Four Years Old Ahead of 'Pro-Focused' Refresh Expected Later This Month
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If I were an average user (like virtually no one here) I probably wouldn’t know the difference. Haswell shmaswell. Mainstream consumers aren’t affected by platter speeds either. The people who do care aren’t shopping for a Mini. The current Mini is fine. I do a lot of video transcoding, which is why I kept my 2012 i7 quad, and why I’m hoping for a beefy new Mini soon. If I did a lot of browsing, emailing, consumer level photo/music playing, and cooking recipe storage, I’d never know or care what was under the hood, and I’d think $499 was fine for a Mac that did that stuff.
You can’t have it both ways, combining someone who doesn’t know any better (most consumers) with someone who both knows about and needs high-end parts.
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I hope they come out with something great. I got sick of waiting, and ended up replacing two 2012 Mac Mini's with two refurbished Dell SFF systems. They may have ultimately lost me as a customer. I still have my MacBook Pro (2015), but I haven't seen anything I want to replace that with yet either.
There have been x86 emulators for ARM since the late 1980s, Microsoft already have an up-to-date-ish one for Windows, odds are Rosetta itself was designed to translate anything to anything... although this time around, Intel might get sue-y about anything that emulates their instruction set. I'd be very, very surprised and disappointed if Apple don't already have an ARM-based Mac lash-up, or an iPad running MacOS, chugging away in a tightly-locked room somewhere.
However, I don't think emulation/translation would be so central to an ARMentosh as it was to the 68k/PPC and PPC/Intel transitions. For one thing, its never that efficient and ARM doesn't offer the head-and-shoulders speed advantage that came with the previous switches, so its never going to be a great solution. The #1 motivation of a switch to ARM would be that it let Apple effectively build their own, bespoke, chipsets rather than wait for Intel to release the right chip.
Secondly, most modern software is written predominantly in high-level code and using hardware-abstracted OS frameworks for the fancy stuff. In many cases its "just" going to be a case of ticking the ARM box in the IDE, re-compiling then testing and firefighting any glitches (the latter may be nontrivial, but the back axel isn't going to need to come off - maybe about as much work as supporting the next version of MacOS). As for the potential big stumbling blocks, MS already have MS Office on ARM (not for Mac, but one would assume that they've made as much of the code as possible common), Adobe have just announced full Photoshop CS for iPad (and, hence, ARM) so that's two ticked off. In any case, a lot of "legacy" software that relies on arcane blobs of lovingly-hand-coded-assembler and isn't being enthusiastically supported is about to be wiped out when the next version of MacOS dumps 32-bit support.
NB: I'm not suggesting that an ARMintosh is likely or imminent, but I think its a lot more feasible than some people think, especially given the power of Apple's current A-series processors. Someone probably needs to implement Thunderbolt (which I believe Intel is now licensing, but I doubt supporting ARM is a priority for them!) - also, if it was to happen I suspect that it would be a WWDC pre-announcement, possibly with prototype hardware available to developers.
November event, I think, at this point. Oct 30 is too close to iPhone XR release day.
Price out Intel NUCs. The difference is insane. Buying a Mini is like buying a five year old Honda Civic for the price of new midsize BMW.
Yeah, we desperately need new Mac Pro and Mac Mini models. This is getting out of hand, Apple!
I run the IT for a 65-person Mac-based architecture firm. For years we scoffed at windows-based data centers and offices: juggling upgrades, licenses (excuse me "CALs" 
), and meh hardware. Since the discontinuation of the Xserve, and Mac OS X Server was turned into an app, a poor one at that, I have been struggling. What does one do when a clearly superior product throws in the towel? I am now running a combination of Minis (File and Kerio server) connected to Promise RAIDs, a few old MP 5,1s, and a (gasp) couple HPs I had no choice but to budget for last year. I fear it's a losing battle and my last remaining "servers" will be replaced by Windows or NAS. I'm afraid any updated Mini or Pro at this point (don't misunderstand I hope I'm wrong) may be too little too late.
), and meh hardware. Since the discontinuation of the Xserve, and Mac OS X Server was turned into an app, a poor one at that, I have been struggling. What does one do when a clearly superior product throws in the towel? I am now running a combination of Minis (File and Kerio server) connected to Promise RAIDs, a few old MP 5,1s, and a (gasp) couple HPs I had no choice but to budget for last year. I fear it's a losing battle and my last remaining "servers" will be replaced by Windows or NAS. I'm afraid any updated Mini or Pro at this point (don't misunderstand I hope I'm wrong) may be too little too late.
Hope they release soon, need a Mac for work in my lab and need to spend budget before 1st week of Dec. I would prefer a "suped up" updated Mac mini over a current MacBook Pro!
My guess is the real trend is for people to keep their real computer for much longer and ADD other devices like an iPad. That alone can account for the sales trends of both.
Get over yourself. You know that isn't the case; so why just foment distrust?
I'm starting to not care about Apple at all, but I'm still asking myself: what was Apple doing the whole year? Ok, their main focus is the iPhone. So that's why they released "theSamePhoneXS", "biggerSamePhoneXS", "cheaperSamePhoneXR"?
Did they spend all their resources to get the AirPower to working phase or to create keyboard condoms?
Nothing to be happy about, but at least I can go out and hug a tree. It helps.
Did they spend all their resources to get the AirPower to working phase or to create keyboard condoms?
Nothing to be happy about, but at least I can go out and hug a tree. It helps.
I do not believe that at this late stage of the year there is going to be an update. The only update will be the eventual dissolution of the Mac line. Tim Cook hates computers or anything that does not net his company massive profits. I hate the man. He might have created the richest company in the world but he has done more to destroy Steves legacy than anyone on the planet.
That mini with the giant 4 is
Unless -of course- it’s the brand new Mini with a Quad Core chip option.
No.
Unless -of course- it’s the brand new Mini with a Quad Core chip option.
No.
That's because they were pretty-much meaningless upgrades. Why spend the R&D effort, and go through a BUNCH of Agency approvals (which are DECIDEDLY not-free!) in who-knows-HOW-many countries, just to get a couple of percent better performance?
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You'd probably be very surprised.
Remember, with Apple's volumes, even a couple of percent works out to millions of units.
Meaning: They haven't updated this products in years, but still charge premium prices as if they have the latest tech.
A quick hop over to Newegg has a 7th-gen i3-based NUC at $275. That is with no hard drive, no RAM, and no OS. The 8th-gen quad core i5 NUC only proves my point about the real cost for Apple to modernize the mini—it’s $484, with no RAM, storage or OS. Again, I’m not saying Apple shouldn’t update the mini—or that the current model is worth buying, but Apple won’t hit $499 and turn a profit.
The base model 2014 Mac mini was obsolete from day one. Slow mechanical hard drive, 4 GB of soldered RAM.
To lower the starting price by $100, Apple released a truly terrible product - and threw away years of arguing "we don't sell junk".
I run the IT for a 65-person Mac-based architecture firm. For years we scoffed at windows-based data centers and offices: juggling upgrades, licenses (excuse me "CALs"
^ This... is the reason I ended up finally pulling the trigger on both a Windows tower & laptop and Android mobile devices this year for both personal and solo shop work. And will likely continue into the future.
Apple has made it increasingly problematic for the "pro" shops and institutions (don't forget education groups in this) to be exclusively Mac shops. First it was Xserver and OS X Server, then increasingly 'meh' quality Macs. It gets really hard to keep justifying the MacOS ecosystem when the majority of your back-end infrastructure becomes Windows/Linux based.
This increasingly reminds me of the way Apple handled the early 90s when it was run by Wallstreet Suits.... kinda like today. It was a struggle to keep Macs integrated and interoperable with the dominant Windows world.
Dude seriously?
No matter the marketing, an iPad cannot completely replace a true desktop computer. This is especially true if one is still using legacy software and/or work flows.
Right.
Because every retail business gives a care about anything but sales.
Afterall, most of them sell awful Windows machines year after year, don't they?
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Bye!
Yes, I'm getting ready to do the same.
I made a conscientious decision to make 2018 thru 2019 be a T&E phase for transitioning away from the Apple ecosystem.
With Microsoft's latest offerings, I may go total windows and Android. Or less likely some combination of Linux, Windows, and Android. Basically, the set up that I had before switching entirely to Apple for work and home back in 2005.
How is this progress?
The only thing holding me back from tearing the band aid completely off is an emotional connection to the brand that it was between 2000 and 2012.
Not if Apple is planning an event on the 30th, in which case the invitations won't be sent until next week.