Don't be fooled, those from USB "3" ports on the front are the old 5.0 Gb/s variety. Not 10Gb/s like the 3.1 and 3.2 ones.
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Hands On With Apple's New M4 Mac Mini
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Just wanted to let you know there a number reports with the new release 5.01 of CleanMyMac that's causing some weird deletions of application software be advised
Apple launched the new Mac mini, iMac, and MacBook Pro models with M4 chips today, and because the Mac mini is the only one of the machines that got a design update, we thought we'd check it out to see how it compares to the prior version.
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The 2024 version of the Mac mini is much smaller than the previous M2 model, so it takes up less space on a desktop. It's 5 by 5 inches, down from 7.75 by 7.75 inches, and you can really see a difference when they're side-by-side. There were rumors that the Mac mini could be as small as the Apple TV, but it's not that small.
It's impressive to have a powerful M4 computer in such a small enclosure, and with so many available ports. There are two ports on the front and three on the back, all USB-C or Thunderbolt. If you have USB-A accessories, you'll need an adapter. There's also an HDMI port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, an Ethernet port, and a port for the power cable.
You can get the Mac mini with an M4 or an M4 Pro chip, and the M4 version has three Thunderbolt 4 ports at the back while the M4 Pro version has three Thunderbolt 5 ports that support faster transfer speeds. The M4 and the M4 Pro offer notable speed improvements over the prior M2 and M2 Pro chips. We've got the full array of benchmarks in the video, but CPU performance is up to 55 percent faster in the M4 Pro compared to the M2 Pro. GPU performance is up significantly, and even the SSD is faster.
Apple is also selling the M4 Macs with 16GB RAM at a minimum, which is a major upgrade over the previous 8GB starting RAM for the base model.
The Mac mini is priced starting at $599, but that's because it doesn't come with a display or peripherals. You'll need to supply your own. It's a solid machine for home or work, and because it's so small, you can take it from one place to another if you have two setups with displays and accessories.
There is one downside to the Mac mini. If you often turn your Mac off and on, you might be annoyed to find that the power button is on the bottom of the device. To access it, you'll need to lift the Mac mini up a bit. That's no big deal if you don't turn your computer off regularly, but if you do, just note there's a little bit of an extra hassle to deal with.
Did you get a new M4 Mac mini, or do you plan to? Let us know in the comments below.
Article Link: Hands On With Apple's New M4 Mac Mini
Again, no one is talking about the build in speaker and mic. It's your basic speaker perfect for short meetings. It has no bass for music but very good speech. I used to connect my M1 Max MacBook 32gb. This mini M4 pro blasts my previous setup away.. VERY HAPPY with my destroyed credit card.
I believe it's a matte display, but the degree of 'matteness' varies across matte displays, as does the extent to which the matte coating fights glare but can alter the appearance of colors and text.
Are are operating in an environment where glare is particularly bad? My 'man cave' is a repurposed 'kid's bedroom' type room with the computer in a room, no window behind me and the overhead light not a problem. My 2017 iMac is glossy and I'm not bothered by glare. If you intend to use your new setup where your current 2017 serves fine, I don't think the Dell will give you any new glare hassles.
Oh?!?!? That would be great news. Where'd you hear that? Removable and upgradable by who?
One of the criticisms of Apple's recent Macs is that it has to recognize something about the internal SSD on booting (even if the Mac is set to boot from an external SSD), and if the internal SSD just plain dies, the Mac is bricked. SSDs have a limited lifespan, so that's a concern.
What's involved in replacing one?
I read it on The Verge first but now tear down videos are trickling in on YT confirming it. Same with forum posts on iFixit. It's not a plug and play process and most likely voids warranty but a giant step in the right direction. I'm sure OWC and others will come out with a user friendly kit down the road.
It is a Really expensive replacement, 3X to 4X for the cost of a new Apple TV.
Well the SSD is removable and replaceable, it is not really more upgradable. It is a unique Apple design that allows the replacement of the SSD memory chips [with a unique Apple supplied replacement], not the entire SSD. To upgrade the SSD storage, you still need the skill and equipment to remove the surface mounted chips and to solder in new chips. Simialr to the SSD configuration found on the Mac Studio, allowing for repairs but not a simple means to increase SSD capacity.
That’s not how Apple decides on things. If they did that, the back might get too dense and fugly? Also, the chip might not have enough lanes to support that many high speed ports when it scales into a TB5 with M4-Pro. They’d much rather keep everything nice and neat.
Same. Was tempted to wait til Black Friday ... but Amazon was offering the 512/16mb for $750 with 2 day shipping.
Can you find where the backup folder is and symlink it to external?
Good question. Ive had my mini m1 for 3 years and its been standing on its side the entire time.
Way more expensive, no proper remote and not ideal for streaming content from VOD services as most of them limit the quality of the content that can be streamed in the browser.
Only minor problem I had in setting up the new Mac mini was rein putting the activation key in HIARCS Chess Explorer Pro. I played a couple test games against HIARCS on the M4 and I notice that the new Mini is calculating moves at 3X the speed of my old M1 Mini. I also note that when it's on move I do not hear the fan coming on at all. Oh I am REALLY impressed with it so far. Just wish they had put the power button on the front of it. Was a little tricky in the setup when I had to touch the Mini's power button twice during setup.
I feel it would be more cumbersome trying to play media apps from a Mac compared to Apple TV, or even substituting the remote with a keyboard and trackpad.
MacOS is not setup to act as a HDCP supporting device, as are most PC's.
From Wiki against High-Bendwidth Content protection with intel devices as a example.
In order to make a device that plays HDCP-enabled content, the manufacturer must obtain a license for the patent from Intel subsidiary Digital Content Protection LLC, pay an annual fee, and submit to various conditions. For example, the device cannot be designed to copy; it must "frustrate attempts to defeat the content protection requirements"; it must not transmit high definition protected video to non-HDCP receivers; and DVD-Audio works can be played only at CD-audio quality by non-HDCP digital audio outputs (analog audio outputs have no quality limits). If the device has a feature like Intel Management Engine disabled, HDCP will not work.
Most of us access VoD services using a browser in MacOS, not like the dedicated apps in tvOS that recognize a HDCP-enabled device.
Looks like it. At least not without a bit of surgery. Someone has already been able to remove the nand chips and install their own on the removable ssd. Well, I'm hoping someone (OWC?) will come out with a SSD that bypasses/tricks the controller in the same form factor. Oh well.
I thought about it but never tried. Did you really mean 150 megaBYTES or 150 megaBITS per second? If it’s bytes, I won’t try it.
Rackmounting is one thing, but another problem is cable displacement. You guys always show use of the power button with pretty much nothing plugged in. Can you show us what its like to hit the power button with all the ports populated in a realistic desktop setup?
Sorry, Mbps. Technically, Nvidia says 45 mbps to achieve 4k/120fps but I'm not so sure about this. Latency less than 80ms from their data center is key as well. Their native MacOS app also works better than via browser. Tried multiplayer first person shooters and the experience was quite good when wired. Didn't notice much delays if any in first person shooters or racing games. The biggest issue is to ensure the games you want to play, are compatible with GeForce Now. It will even link your Steam/GamePass and Battle.net libraries so long the game is compatible.
