If only that were addressed in the article to which you're responding.
To be fair, it's not clear in this report whether the base M4 model will have all three USB-C ports on the back or one on the back and two on the front, or vice-versa.
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Mac Mini to Lose Its USB-A Ports Later This Year
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To be fair, it's not clear in this report whether the base M4 model will have all three USB-C ports on the back or one on the back and two on the front, or vice-versa.
I'm really steamed it won't have a SCSI port to interface to all of my hard disks from the past.
Wahhhhh... Apple is mean. Tim Cook needs to be fired. Wahhhh.
Seriously... It's time for USB-A to disappear.
Recently I went into a Best Buy and lightning cables were extremely scarce and micro-usb was nowhere to be found. Time to just make both ends of the cable USB-C. Painful for some in the interm (including myself to an extent). But it has to happen.
No big deal ditching USB-A most people have hubs with a collection of ports and I just keep some USB to USB C adapters around for my old audio gear and no problems using the adapter.
Apple's redesigned Mac mini will not have any USB-A ports, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports.
The current Mac mini with the M2 chip features two USB-C ports and two USB-A ports, while the M2 Pro variant has four USB-C ports and two USB-A ports. Writing in his latest "Power On" newsletter, Gurman explained that the new Mac mini with the M4 Pro chip will have a total of five USB-C ports, but no USB-A ports. Three USB-C ports will be located on the back, while two will be present on the front of the machine, similar to the Mac Studio. There will continue to be ports for ethernet, HDMI, and 3.5mm audio. The power supply will apparently continue to be internal.
Last month, Gurman reported that the next-generation Mac mini with the M4 and M4 Pro chips will feature the first major design change to the machine since 2010. The new Mac mini will apparently approach the size of an Apple TV, but it may be slightly taller than the current model, which is 1.4 inches high. It will continue to feature an aluminum shell. Individuals working on the new device apparently say that it is "essentially an iPad Pro in a small box."
Gurman says that suppliers in China are scheduled to begin shipping the new Mac mini models with the M4 chip in early September. The M4 Pro model will not begin shipping until October. The M4 generation of Apple silicon will purportedly be the first time that Apple has used the same chip generation across all of its Macs, with refreshes to add the M4 chip to the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro planned to take place over the next year.
Article Link: Mac Mini to Lose Its USB-A Ports Later This Year
I'm mainly interested in the new shape and size. If small enough maybe they could make an adapter to attach it to the back of a Apple Studio Display and we have a 27" iMac again.
I don't get why anyone cares, I would rather have a USB C than USB A or HDMI, since it can be anything I need it to be. More USB C ports is better.
Will be interesting to see the new Mac mini. Not surprised with the move to USB C ports considering the iMac is having only USB C
And the company fell so flat on its face that it was better to get rid of Ive as head of design.
If you want to sell devices, you have to recognize reality. That means HDMI and SD.
Buy a USB hub. You can get a LOT more than 4-6 ports out of only ONE port via USB C. It’s the far superior port, and USB A is worse in every single way. Or buy a Mac Studio as previously mentioned
A bit off topic for this thread, but the main reason that Apple was pushing for x86 apps to be 64 bit only was to make implementing Rosetta much easier. The AMD-64 instruction set is not that much different from the ARM instruction, so it is relatively easy to translate. The 32 bit x86 instruction contains a lot of holdovers dating back to the Intel 8008, which do not work well with a modern RISC machine.Still keep an Intel Mac mini on the side to run my purchased software that’s still 32 bit and working fine.
Can’t we have an add on module for macOS to install onto Rosetta to run older software? (Like Windows and Ubuntu can)
Running 32 bit software would probably be best done on some sort of an emulator, e.g. QEMU. I'm in the same boat as you having several purchased apps that won't run on any recent vintage of MacOS. Fortunately the apps weren't that expensive.
Like I said, I am a happy user of Apple products in part because part of the “prize” is intangible and cannot be quantified in terms of specs or on a spreadsheet.
I can’t speak for any individual product, but USB-C is starting to become standard for physical input on BT speakers, in place of Toslink/Minijack/RCA etc.
Edit: In terms of power supply, a power supply and a charger are two different beasts. It’s potentially dangerous to use the wrong power supply, while the wrong charger just means slow charging.
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SD does not have a direct replacement, so it makes sense to keep it. Apple learned the hard way that even though SD card users are a minority, that minority is at the core of it’s user base.
HDMI does have alternatives, but none has really become ubuquitous, and especially for a computer that will often be connected to a TV, it makes sense to keep it. In other words, HDMI and SD is not going away for the rest of the world, anytime soon. USB-A however is, and Apple removing it will push it to happen sooner. Just like it did with floppy, CD/DVD, minijacks on phones etc.
In all seriousness, EU can’t force a standard on speakers because their poser draw is varying wildly. A power supply and a charger os not the same thing. A low output charger into a phone means it takes longer to charge. But it works. A low output power supply into a speaker means no sound, and potentially a dead power supply.To see how long it takes the EU to force them to switch to usb c
I’m not arguing that you’re completely wrong here: one USB A for flash drives etc would be convenient. However Apple has never waited: looking at your iMac example, what about the ditching of the parallel port for USB A in 1998? That wasn’t something you could fix with a dongle. and a LOT of people ended up having to buy a completely new printer for their iMac as a result. For better or worse, Apple has previous form here, and this is a very minor change which can be fixed with a dongle, unlike many of the other changes people have mentioned above (loss of 3.5mm jack from iPhones, dropping support for Flash, ditching Hypercard, dumping SCSI etc).
Sounds like Apple going back to the days of 1 USB C port on its computers. Ridiculous and unnecessary. But it'll increase profits. A LOT of things still use the old style ports.
5 is lower than 6, and 3 is lower than 4.
Your criticism of the previous poster isn't justified.
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Whether it's 2 or 3 USB-C ports, it's still pathetic for a desktop in 2024.
To all the "buy a hub" people: Apple has poor compatibility with external hubs that's been reported many times in this forum.
Things like random disconnects, sleep problems, or speed negotiation (like 10Gb/s vs 5Gb/s USB) issues. But hey, let's introduce another potential point of failure in daily operations just so the comoputer could be awed for 5 extra seconds.
Things like random disconnects, sleep problems, or speed negotiation (like 10Gb/s vs 5Gb/s USB) issues. But hey, let's introduce another potential point of failure in daily operations just so the comoputer could be awed for 5 extra seconds.
That’s what the docks are for. I have a lot of USB A stuff and my 2018 Mac mini only has 2 A ports. There’s plenty of great docks connected by usb c that have a bunch of a ports
That wasn’t what the other poster was saying. The other poster was saying up to 4 USB-C total on the M4 Mac mini which was wrong.
It’s up to 5 total. USB-A cannot output video so they are lesser than USB-C.
