My i7 quad is totally silent from my desk chair...unless it's doing something that the 2014 would likely take much longer to do...and the 2014 won't be silent doing that either.
Less electricity? So it uses 11 watts instead of 13? Big deal.
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New 2014 Mac Mini Has Soldered RAM, Not User Replaceable
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My i7 quad is totally silent from my desk chair...unless it's doing something that the 2014 would likely take much longer to do...and the 2014 won't be silent doing that either.
Less electricity? So it uses 11 watts instead of 13? Big deal.
That's NOT the point.
Again, what are the tasks which a typical user performs which can't be met by a Chrome machine? Such a simple question, but so much evasive dancing!
By the way, I have a Pi and can't perform many of the tasks which a typical user requires. No unified offline storage, no unified email servers, no big app store, etc. Please think before you post.
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" The desktop market isn't critical to Apple."
Then they wouldn't have gone through the trouble of committing resources to a nMP and Retina iMac. Besides, desktops are still critical for creative professionals. It's probably more correct to say that the Mac mini is not critical to Apple, not desktops.
Great points that most will miss and continue to cry about other stuff because a machine they were never going to buy anyways isn't offered with every option that non-mainstream users could want.
I'm glad I left the apple universe a while back as far as computers are concerned. I like my Iphone and even more so my ipad, but that's a different story.
I had a macbook air and then very briefly a mac mini.
While my experience with the air was brilliant hardware-wise and never matched by wintel laptops in terms of heat management and touchpad useability, I always hated the OSX experience.
OSX might be a functional OS, but it is equally limited and restrictive as is the hardware is nowadays. Power users will feel limited in terms of tweakability. But the thing that bugged me the most were mouse & scroll wheel acceleration and the lack of proper DPI scaling on non retina displays. I found the mac mini to be useless in combination with a 2560x1440 display, everything on screen was just too hard to read. That's just two examples, yet there's a whole battery of things like these that 'just work' on 'the dark side' but are completely overlooked by apple as if they didn't matter.
I come back to MR every once in a while to see what's cooking. But personally, I'm done with apple's patronizing demeanor. This very peculiar decision now is the straw that breaks the camel's back.
I had a macbook air and then very briefly a mac mini.
While my experience with the air was brilliant hardware-wise and never matched by wintel laptops in terms of heat management and touchpad useability, I always hated the OSX experience.
OSX might be a functional OS, but it is equally limited and restrictive as is the hardware is nowadays. Power users will feel limited in terms of tweakability. But the thing that bugged me the most were mouse & scroll wheel acceleration and the lack of proper DPI scaling on non retina displays. I found the mac mini to be useless in combination with a 2560x1440 display, everything on screen was just too hard to read. That's just two examples, yet there's a whole battery of things like these that 'just work' on 'the dark side' but are completely overlooked by apple as if they didn't matter.
I come back to MR every once in a while to see what's cooking. But personally, I'm done with apple's patronizing demeanor. This very peculiar decision now is the straw that breaks the camel's back.
Good design also means using less materials, and it's obvious that soldered RAM would not need the plastic socket. If only 10% of Mac mini owners upgrade their RAM, then that's 90% of wasted sockets out in the world.
I, too, wish Apple would design their systems to be more user serviceable, but there also needs to be a realistic balance stricken. Apple is probably well aware of roughly how many Mac mini owners would perform a RAM upgrade. With the Mac minis coming with 8GB out of the box, that will be more than enough for the vast majority of users, and for those that need more, they still have the OPTION of getting double that amount at time of purchase.
Pressure on Apple is always a good thing, so I'm glad to see this issue discussed in such depth. Let's hope that Apple is paying attention.
Oh, how wrong that is... OS X is the most capable operating system out there, combining the best of *NIX under the hood (it's still a certified UNIX), a first-class user interface, full support for virtualization software, and now even tighter integration with mobile devices.
So please, give three examples of how OS X has *become* limited and restricted. If anything, it's continued to get more capable over time.
Another way to put it is: Apple's customers are not particularly interested in fiddling around with aftermarket upgrades. (And, obviously, Apple is not particularly interested in customers that are.)
Personally, I don't see what is wrong with this. There are tons of options for people who like to modify, customize, upgrade, and reconfigure their setups. If Apple embraced that, it would he just one more drop in a large bucket full of companies doing the same thing. What's the use of that? Apple takes a different approach and gets different results... this leads to more options for everyone.
Isn't this exactly what we all want?
It's not like there aren't great benefits to their focus on massive vertical integration as a counterbalance to the negatives. And it's not like you could have the positives without some negatives either. The vertical integration approach, by it's nature, means just that.
Now, I think the Mini would be a better computer if the RAM was user-serviceable, or at least not soldered. And I know they could have made it replaceable without too much trouble. But for their approach to work, Apple has to draw the line somewhere. And no matter where they draw it, it cannot possibly meet everyone's needs or make everyone happy. So this kind of thing is inevitable... necessary even... if you want Apple to stay Apple.
Somewhere out there is a single, lonely old factory, kept in business by Apple, whic stil makes old and slow 500 GB drives.
Again, why should a typical user pay three times the price of a Chromebox to get a Mini and get nothing extra which they need?
If a typical user wants to get a Mini, they should still instead get a Chromebox and spend the difference on a headshrinker. They just might gain enough insight to not be a sheep.
I fix iPhone's & iPads all the time for friends and family but I've never been inside my iMac or a Mac Mini.
I'm curios as to why soldering in Ram is a problem or, just an inconvenience to the average person.
Is it just not possible, can you buy Ram that can be soldered in? There must be a way, as you can buy the Mini with more Ram from Apple, to me this makes it possible?
Does someone have the answer or a good reason this why this couldn't be done, if a person really wanted to???
I'm curios as to why soldering in Ram is a problem or, just an inconvenience to the average person.
Is it just not possible, can you buy Ram that can be soldered in? There must be a way, as you can buy the Mini with more Ram from Apple, to me this makes it possible?
Does someone have the answer or a good reason this why this couldn't be done, if a person really wanted to???
You mistake "people who post to mac rumors" with "people who buy computers". Most people who buy computers don't want to take it apart and customize it. I would hazard to guess that the vast majority of people who have bought minis never took the bottom off. Mac Rumors readers/posters are a tiny percentage of computer buyers.
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Bet it's faster than their landline to Google, the point was local storage and size though.
They are not really equivalent, but you seem to have the answer to all questions, in reality this will not get resolved here, so this is pointless, if someone want's to get the chromebox they will, if they don't they wont.
I fix iPhone's & iPads all the time for friends and family but I've never been inside my iMac or a Mac Mini.
I'm curios as to why soldering in Ram is a problem or, just an inconvenience to the average person.
Is it just not possible, can you buy Ram that can be soldered in? There must be a way, as you can buy the Mini with more Ram from Apple, to me this makes it possible?
Does someone have the answer or a good reason this why this couldn't be done, if a person really wanted to???
Most any consumer that tries to solder RAM into their Mini will break it and render it inoperable. Some people can't even install user replaceable RAM without breaking something.
Those with the proper equipment and experience can do it, but that's virtually no one.
I was giving one example. Take any image or audio software -handbrake, aperture, heck even iPhoto.
How about xcode itself? It's optimized for quad core.
Then you take into account any VMs technical people are more often running, where a specific # of cores can be devoted.
etc...
This "upgrade" is a joke.
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I kind of hope that they aren't listening. Apple needs to be punished for losing sight of the long term and for reaming the long time loyal customers and developers who did so much for Apple in the past.
Yeah, those quarterly results may look pretty good for a while. But the future will come and most users do eventually wise up and so will spend their money elsewhere.
Unfortunately, Apple may have calculated that they have outgrown the need for such network effects. Airlines have just been relentless on crapping on its most dedicated and loyal flyers by gutting their frequent flyer programs because industry consolidation assured that they have a steady stream of customers who don't know which end of the plane the pilot sits. Why waste margins trying to appease a demanding/ discerning customer - when they can load up with customers who have no expectations. You should check out their forums such as Flyertalk to see the pattern that I think all industries will soon follow...
UGH
so disappointing
purchasing a box that is limited
bad enough the 21" iMac was this way.. and I understand the air.. but the mini!
I wouldn't be surprise if mini sales slumps...
I wouldn't be surprise if mini sales slumps...
18 pages of complaints about a product that's probably next in line to be cancelled lol. If you want a real thing to complain about how about complain about the quality control on the screen of the new iphone 6.
How do you think software for the mobile devices are created? Magically? Apple is spitting in the faces of those who fuel the experience for their BIG $$$ profit devices.
Do you think all developers are locked into Apple, and are going to buy Mac Pros?
FTFY.
At the top end this is actually a downgrade, a specced out 2012 Mac Mini would cost less (in the UK at least) and be more powerful that the "updated" Mac Mini specced out. The only difference would be an increase in GPU performance, and better single threaded performance. I seriously doubt that the Dual core i7 will beat the old Quad core i7 in hyper threaded performance.
I'm not in the market, but if I was, there's no way I'd buy any of the new Minis, an iMac, or the Mac Pro. I'd just buy another 2012 i7 quad.
From the view of what a typical users needs, they are equivalent.
And if one considers the very large subset of typical users who are primary school students, a school can administer a couple of hundred Chrome machines at a fraction of the cost of the same number of Macs or any kind. Further, because the cost of hardware is far less, so are the school's losses from breakage and theft.
I agree with this 100%! The average person does not want to open their computers and change things around. Its easy to confirm this, just ask some people you know, most answers are going to be, I just want to bring it home, plug it in and it works.
To normal everyday users, upgrade means getting a new computer.
My wife is a perfect example, her attitude is, "why would I buy a high quality computer to open it and pay more money to add more stuff". "Why not just buy it the way you want it, go home and plug it in?
I like to be able to play around with my computers and iDevices, it fun and I like to fix them. I do agree things like Ram & memory should be easily upgraded. But it does not bother me that Apple has soldered in the Ram, I'm sure there will be a way to do it.
Get the soldering irons heated up..........