Mac Mini to Lose Its USB-A Ports Later This Year

[theluggage]

There was never such a rumor. There was wishful thinking.

...and Hackintoshes!

 

[drrich2]

the Mac Studio is a nightmare to open it up

Yeah. Funny thing, I kept hearing of the legendary G4 Cube Mac and finally decided to see what the big deal was. Watched a video of Steve Jobs demonstrating it, how easy it was to open up and get at the internals.

If I were a master hacker and a sadist, I'd be tempted to try to make that video play on the big screen at the next Apple Mac-focused reveal event, right before Cook and Co. trot out the latest in non-user serviceable aluminum bricks.

Irony you could cut with a knife, truth so plain the greatest spin artists could not overcome it. That would be a show worth tuning in for.

 

[chucker23n1]

Yeah. Funny thing, I kept hearing of the legendary G4 Cube Mac and finally decided to see what the big deal was. Watched a video of Steve Jobs demonstrating it, how easy it was to open up and get at the internals.

If I were a master hacker and a sadist, I'd be tempted to try to make that video play on the big screen at the next Apple Mac-focused reveal event, right before Cook and Co. trot out the latest in non-user serviceable aluminum bricks.

Irony you could cut with a knife, truth so plain the greatest spin artists could not overcome it. That would be a show worth tuning in for.

I'm not sure what your point is. There's also a video of the Steve Jobs demonstrating how easily you can get at the tower innards of the Power Mac G3 Blue & White. Scrub to 34:20. (The stagecraft here is, as usual, clever. He first shows off benchmarks, talks about the specs, talks about things like OpenGL, even has the CEO from SGI talking, then shows off USB and FireWire peripherals, only to ultimately get to the real surprise, which is the tower design. Also, kinda funny how much worse the current Mac Pro is in that respect.)

But.

When Steve presents the PMG3BW, he's gonna highlight all the things that are good about that. When he presents the Cube, he's gonna highlight everything that's good about that. However, it does not follow that either of those are Steve's idea of an ideal computer. He didn't love internal expandability dating all the way back to the original Mac, which did not have it.

So whatever "irony" you want to present to Tim Cook: their choice to make the Mac Studio largely locked down is actually perfectly consistent with Steve Jobs's values.

 

[drrich2]

I'm not sure what your point is.

Basically the flip flop. It goes to show they'll endorse whatever they decide to do like it's a great thing, even if later they go the opposite direction. Kind of like when the Mac Mini was neglected via very sporadic updates and the iMac was the mainstream AIO marvel, but later they took away the popular 27" iMac (as if the option to buy a $1,300 - $1,500 ASD + a separate computer is a decent option), and the Mac Mini and Studio are on offer (though still neglected compared to MacBook updates, though with sales figures being what they are, no shock there).

So Apple doesn't necessarily do what's best or even great; they decide what to do then act to spin like it is. Not unusual in business, but the extent is sometimes a bit off-putting.

So whatever "irony" you want to present to Tim Cook: their choice to make the Mac Studio largely locked down is actually perfectly consistent with Steve Jobs's values.

Agreed. Despite how 'green' Apple would supposedly like to be, extending the life of one's Mac instead of buying another from Apple? Nope, there's a limit to their tree-hugging.

 

[NewOldStock]

Just posting to keep the useless banter and burn a few more electrons keeping these pages going for no good reason.
A company is going to do what a company and its design engineers decide that they are going to do.
Don`t buy it we will change it. Buy it and we will change it. Can`t satisfy everyone.

 

[chucker23n1]

Basically the flip flop.

The Mac has always focused on favoring simplicity over expansion. The Mac II / Quadra / Power Mac / Mac Pro were always the exception, not the norm. So I don't think there's a flip-flop here at all.

It goes to show they'll endorse whatever they decide to do like it's a great thing, even if later they go the opposite direction.

Their PR will tell you why that specific product is great, and implicitly why you don't need what the product doesn't do, sure.

When Steve Jobs introduced the iPod photo, he asked why anyone would ever want to play video on such a small screen. Then he introduced an iPod with video a year later.

Is that BS-y? Sure.

Kind of like when the Mac Mini was neglected via very sporadic updates and the iMac was the mainstream AIO marvel, but later they took away the popular 27" iMac (as if the option to buy a $1,300 - $1,500 ASD + a separate computer is a decent option), and the Mac Mini and Studio are on offer (though still neglected compared to MacBook updates, though with sales figures being what they are, no shock there).

I dunno, that kind of feels like an Apple-can't-win situation. For years, people wanted a headless mid-range Mac. Now they got one, and now other people don't like it.

Apple isn't gonna offer all products to everyone. They tried that in the 1990s, and they learnt their lesson. Customers say they want that, but in actuality, their choice paralysis overall leads to fewer sales.

So Apple doesn't necessarily do what's best or even great; they decide what to do then act to spin like it is.

Well, yeah.

Despite how 'green' Apple would supposedly like to be, extending the life of one's Mac instead of buying another from Apple? Nope, there's a limit to their tree-hugging.

Yes.

(As more examples, they'd much rather sell you three iPads than make the iPad a three-user computer for parents & kid. And they'd much rather sell an iPhone and a Mac than give the iPhone a Continuum-/Dex-like feature. Is that worse for the environment and better for Apple's pockets? Yes. Does it also lead to a better user experience, if you're willing to spend that much? I think so, yes.)

 

[waltsoc]

I want my ports... I don't need a smaller footprint.

 

[JensenKA]

I have two hard drives to plug in, one solid state drive, the USB-C connection to my display and the USB cable from my UPS.

Were I to buy a M2 Pro model this is all doable right on device, with even one port to spare.

Guess I'm getting a hub. Are there good USB-C only USB hubs these days? Last time I was shopping for them they were largely USB-A hubs with maybe a USB-C port or two.

 

[Alex72]

All I really want on the Mini is compatibility with the "standard" three-prong modular power cable so many of my other technology solutions have used over the years. Partly out of the hope it would prevent the electrovibatory "pulsing" my Mini exhibits... and partly because that's the one cable type I never seem to have trouble finding.

 

[DaniTheFox]

I received downvotes for suggesting that a USB-C port could be a nightmare coming loose from a running computer. However, I recently discovered that one of my audio interfaces (Apogee DUET) is entirely powered by USB-C. You won’t lose power by the performance of your live.
Therefore, I propose connecting a mini device via a single USB-C cable fixed to the back of a monitor would be a nice solution.

 

[DaniTheFox]

All I really want on the Mini is compatibility with the "standard" three-prong modular power cable so many of my other technology solutions have used over the years. Partly out of the hope it would prevent the electrovibatory "pulsing" my Mini exhibits... and partly because that's the one cable type I never seem to have trouble finding.

I have observed a significant amount of electrovibration in various devices. Could you please provide an explanation of its origin?

 

[SZPflyer]

These are desktop computers
There is no need to be removing a port that is still highly useful

Why are we trying to even further "shrink" and "port constrain" a desktop computer?

What's that accomplishing?

Imagine if Apple's design philosophy had been applied to the DHC-3T panel...