As a 60-something Linux sys admin with a beard, long gray hair in a ponytail, and black socks with sandals, I demand the new Mini have three SCSI ports.
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Mac Mini to Lose Its USB-A Ports Later This Year
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I checked for the sheer joyful absurdity of it: USB-C to DB9 is available. 😀
Then they should still be able to buy these so that their legacy clutter doesn't hold up our technology:
USB C to USB Adapter 3-Pack USB C Male to USB 3.0 Female Adapter Compatibllity for iMac 2021 for iPad Pro 2021 for MacBook Pro 2020 for MacBook Air 2020 and Other Type C or Thunderbolt 3 Devices gray
USB C to USB Adapter 3-Pack USB C Male to USB 3.0 Female Adapter Compatibllity for iMac 2021 for iPad Pro 2021 for MacBook Pro 2020 for MacBook Air 2020 and Other Type C or Thunderbolt 3 Devices graywww.amazon.com
Just $5.99 for three!
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
No, you would have the same number of ports on the back of your Mac mini. It's just that ALL of them would be USB-C. You would simply plug your legacy device (with a tiny $2 adapter) into one of the non-thunderbolt USB-C ports, which would have otherwise been a limited, legacy, unidirectional USB-A port. Now you can connect your ancient legacy optical drive and we can have our faster and more powerful omnidirectional ports. Win-win!!
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
No, let's imagine THIS out:
Applying some practicality, the solution is to pay up for a multiport hub to sop up all USB-A connections while allocating only 1 of 2 or 1 of 4 ports on this new Mac Mini. Now you have this "cute" (smaller) Mini sitting where the old Mini used to sit and the freed-up space is now filled by this hub to replace the utility that used to be built INSIDE the old Mini with 2-4 Thunderbolt ports PLUS 2 USB-A ports.
But yes, there's some kind of win for us consumers in reducing port quantity because we can spend extra money on $2 adapters to fill Thunderbolt 4 ports... or more for some kind of hub to eat up the desk space created by shrinking the form factor of the Mini. Clearly, that's better.
- New Mac mini ships with- say- 4 Thunderbolt ports (like the M2 Pro now)
- Allocate one to your $2 adapter and that leaves 3 Thunderbolt ports, one now mostly "wasted" by turning all that Thunderbolt power into a "lowly" USB-A port.
- Need a second USB-A to match what we ALREADY have in Mac mini now? Allocate another $2 adapter and that leaves 2 Thunderbolt ports.
Applying some practicality, the solution is to pay up for a multiport hub to sop up all USB-A connections while allocating only 1 of 2 or 1 of 4 ports on this new Mac Mini. Now you have this "cute" (smaller) Mini sitting where the old Mini used to sit and the freed-up space is now filled by this hub to replace the utility that used to be built INSIDE the old Mini with 2-4 Thunderbolt ports PLUS 2 USB-A ports.
But yes, there's some kind of win for us consumers in reducing port quantity because we can spend extra money on $2 adapters to fill Thunderbolt 4 ports... or more for some kind of hub to eat up the desk space created by shrinking the form factor of the Mini. Clearly, that's better.
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Apple has been telegraphing this for TEN YEARS, it’s not a premature decision. Good grief, is Apple supposed to leave USB-A on there forever? Then no one moves on and we end up with PC motherboards still sporting VGA ports 20 years past when they should have been removed. Sorry, time to move on, it’s really not that difficult.
Just say you have never been in a datacenter before. I can tell you 100% even if a datacenter had thousands of Mac minis all the crash carts will be USB A. Once again company like mine that has a single device to compile a mobile app now we need to buy multiple adapters/docks for one device. Our absolutely newest servers have one type C port and those are being deployed to stores. The Mac Mini is the only server in our datacenter with Type C. I think a couple of the new Cisco devices are type C console ports and the number of times we have had network engineers driving someplace to get an adapter and complaining is always fun.
A pack of Amazon adapters isn’t going to cut it we need a dock with Ethernet a separate hard drive for backups etc. The business hates having the Mac Mini at the datacenter and this just makes it worse. The only thing they hate more is we gave the option of going to a cloud hosted build node and the reoccurring cost was absurd not to mention many hosted solutions only give you basic access and don’t allow any software installed except their build. Our app environment wasn’t compatible in the first place.
Right and even better yet, that connector usually ships inside the box of the latest phones. I have at least 10 of those connectors lying around.Then they should still be able to buy these so that their legacy clutter doesn't hold up our technology:
USB C to USB Adapter 3-Pack USB C Male to USB 3.0 Female Adapter Compatibllity for iMac 2021 for iPad Pro 2021 for MacBook Pro 2020 for MacBook Air 2020 and Other Type C or Thunderbolt 3 Devices gray
USB C to USB Adapter 3-Pack USB C Male to USB 3.0 Female Adapter Compatibllity for iMac 2021 for iPad Pro 2021 for MacBook Pro 2020 for MacBook Air 2020 and Other Type C or Thunderbolt 3 Devices gray
www.amazon.com
Just $5.99 for three!
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Wow, I must admit that I have really been taken aback by the obsessive "you can pry my USB-A port out of my cold dead fingers" attitude concerning our further step into the future of USB-C.
Back in the ancient days, if somebody wanted to upgrade from the pre-1919 model-T hand crank used to start their car to a futuristic keyed ignition system, one had to purchase an entirely new automobile, and they couldn't optionally bring along and use their hand crank for those occasions when they felt that they needed some physical exercise.
Now, computer users can easily bring all of their legacy USB-A cruft with them into our shared future by utilizing simple, inexpensive adapters or a small hub, without having to purchase an entirely new computer! What a bargain! Win-win!
Back in the ancient days, if somebody wanted to upgrade from the pre-1919 model-T hand crank used to start their car to a futuristic keyed ignition system, one had to purchase an entirely new automobile, and they couldn't optionally bring along and use their hand crank for those occasions when they felt that they needed some physical exercise.
Now, computer users can easily bring all of their legacy USB-A cruft with them into our shared future by utilizing simple, inexpensive adapters or a small hub, without having to purchase an entirely new computer! What a bargain! Win-win!
Without going to double-check, I think the only USB-A things I need to connect on a permanent basis are microphone, printer and, umm, Apple keyboard. And a couple of cameras with mini-USB.
The keyboard is easy, I just charge it from my Windows PC.
The others, I already have sufficient hub connectivity with at least a couple more USB-A connections available.
The keyboard is easy, I just charge it from my Windows PC.
The others, I already have sufficient hub connectivity with at least a couple more USB-A connections available.
That's completely untrue. The G3 iMac came out in 1998, and floppies were the only popular form of writeable media at that point - zip drives etc existed, but for most people floppies were still what they used, hence why there was such a market for USB floppy drives (many of which were transluscent bondi blue to match the iMac).
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floppy_disk:
The lack of a floppy drive on the iMac was a shock to everyone at the time, and was highly controversial, as much so as was the use of the USB standard rather than parallel and serial ports.
So everything is "spend even more money" to solve something that shouldn't be a problem to begin with?
That sounds awfully useful..
Are you sure you don't want a bunch dongle and adapters instead?
Because going to only USB-C isn't a step into any "future" at all, it's simply inconvenient in the here and now.
To quote the great Captain Rachel Garrett: "We better get used to living in the here and now"
Nobody is arguing against USB-C ports ... folks would simply like to retain a single (or a couple) USB-A ports so their desktop computer is more flexible, adaptable and convenient to use
I don't know why this is so upsetting to folks for whom "all and only USB-C" works fine
We are all different here
I use an adb keyboard as my daily driver, an og AEK, there are USB adapters out there for them
Ah, they’re gonna play this game again ?
the people I know who have Mac minis are parents and grandparents, who know and use usb a .
the people I know who have Mac minis are parents and grandparents, who know and use usb a .
Perfect! And to power the mini, you place it on top of the hub! Sure, there's no battery in it so as soon as you bump it, it powers off, but so what? Courage!
You watch, there will be either be two USB-C ports and plus a power port or four USB-C ports and one of them is used for power and only one thunderbolt four.
No ethernet, no HDMI no SD card.
No ethernet, no HDMI no SD card.
...or you could get a $6 USB-A to C dongle if you really need it. Many current "USB-C" devices are only USB 3.1 and won't work any faster over a USB-C port than they would over USB-A.
Very few users will have 5 devices that actually use TB/USB4 speeds, whereas many, many people have still-perfectly good USB 3 and USB 2 devices with A-type cables which will gain absolutely no benefit from being connected to USB-C.
Then there are things like receivers for wireless mice and keyboards, and memory sticks, which are still, often, USB-A, probably because, that way, most of the electronics fits into the barrel of the plug and they can be really low profile - where USB-C versions do exist they're bigger than the USB-A versions because all of the electronics have to go outside...
It's unlikely that all 5 of those ports will be Thunderbolt/USB4 capable anyway, or that you'll be able to use more than 3 displays in total. Odds are, like the current M1 Max Studio, those front ports will be USB 3 only, with no display support anyway.
The problem with all-USB-C systems is that a full-functioning USB4/TB port is clearly more expensive to implement & relies on the CPU having enough controllers, so we end up with "socket rationing".
It's reassuring that this rumor says that Ethernet, HDMI and the internal power supply are still there - but we're still talking one fewer USB socket (whether A or C) than the old version - possibly worse on the non-Pro.
One of the nicest things about my M1 Mini is the almost complete lack of noise, quieter than any of the recent Intel based MBP's. The large case size allows for a decent size fan that can move air with far less noise.
No ethernet, no HDMI no SD card.
...and no Buy