The new Mac mini is almost certainly coming

[DeepIn2U]

Mini the Moocher?

LOVE this and so appropriate!

We are 2 months away from the make-or-break period for any possibility of a new Mac Mini.

In October, it will have been a full 3 years since it was last updated (5 years since the last genuine update).

No rumours whatsoever 2 months out, which is not a good sign at all.

This thread should be closed after October. If there is no release by October, the Mini is a discontinued product.

It's killing me to be honest!

Devil's advocate: "NEED" for a reasonably priced alternative can be satisfied by not going to an Apple store. Either via used or Hackintosh or even move to Windows.

So true!!

Where can I get THIS hackintosh the size of the Mac Mini 3 yet with the power of this mentioned in this post? Also just how EASILY can I find a hackintosh OSX Sierra that will get official updates to run on it?!

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...e-is-no-new-mini.2027789/page-4#post-24344612

 

[Cape Dave]

Sorry folks. The wait is over. Not gonna happen. Time to move on. Apple just does not like the mini.

 

[masterbaron]

Ya know - I think we should at least position ourselves to appear visionary - by that I mean ... gone are the days when the Mini served as a segue to Mac computing - certainly that gateway is the iPhone today. If Apple recast the MacPro as a modular solution it would make sense to eliminate the Mini and the name and direct that audience to the bottom-tier modular MacPro - satisfying the question why you should spend $2500-$3000.

In that rendition we may get the games, 4K-8K Res., upgrade potential and the form-factor we've been asking for albeit at a much higher cost.

Should that happen this thread will die off along with the Mini - we need to prepare for that ... we need a place-holder name that shows we won't be left in the dust like relics of the past. When we (X-Mini users) join the new Board we should carry the iconic machine and all its glory forward by being recognized as the new user-base (X-Mini) joining the MacPro user community.

Folks like Cape Dave, Desert Surfer, Crosscreek, Boyd01, Dogslober and yes, Mickey Do and so many others, who've contributed so much in terms of perspective and insight, will more than likely always be around ... we need to carry this heritage forward - yes?!

 

[CWallace]

I guess eventually the Mac Mini will need to be updated because the Haswell-generation CPUs it currently uses just won't be available anymore.

 

[Boyd01]

I guess eventually the Mac Mini will need to be updated because the Haswell-generation CPUs it currently uses just won't be available anymore.

That would be an equally valid reason for Apple to just discontinue it.

Now Apple did put a new CPU in the base model i5 MacBook Air recently. But even though it was released in 2017, EveryMac still considers it a 2015 model. The updated chip is a Broadwell i5 (like the original 2015 model), but the clock speed on the new one is 1.8ghz vs 1.6ghz on the older MBA. Everything else about this model is exactly the same as the 2015 MBA. I doubt that any participants in this thread would be very excited about a Mini update like this.

And it has been generally accepted that Apple was planning to kill the MBA, but sales are so strong they decided to keep it around. I would be surprised if the Mini enjoys this level of popularity. OTOH, you could argue that Apple kept the MBA because it's their entry level laptop at $1000 and the Mini is their entry level desktop at $500. This gives them some "bragging rights" that they aren't ignoring the lower end of the market.

 

[CWallace]

Yes that would be a reason for Apple to finally retire the Mac Mini line, but I do believe it does fill a role in Apple's Mac lineup even if sales are less than 10,000 units a quarter. Now whether that would warrant funding a new motherboard to support a new CPU socket...

And yes, while the MBP makes up the majority of Mac laptop sales, the form factor, performance and price of the MBA do keep it popular with consumers. Once the component price of the MacBook falls sufficiently to reach the $1000 price mark, coupled with the performance of the CPUs improving to match the old Broadwells, the MBA will most likely fade away.

And speaking of Broadwell, the 5350U now costs the same as the 5250U, which is probably why Apple made the switch - a bit more performance for consumers at no additional cost to Apple.

 

[ElectronGuru]

Let's face it. Mac mini is essentially iPod touch of Mac lineup. On rare occasions when it is updated, it's already partially outdated with last generation components.

My gut feeling tells me Mac mini is alive and well, because its form factor allows wide range of niches that other Macs cannot fulfill as well. But my expectation is low.

The killer app used to be productivity. Replacing paper with screens and reaping more productivity. There was also connectivity but productivity paid the bills. Somewhere between 1995 and 2005, these switched places. Connectivity became the point of purchase and the question became: how much connectivity can I get for x size and y money?

The i in iMac was originally for internet/connectivity, it's killer app. But the iPhone takes the connectivity crown, leaving mac with the niche that used to be everything - productivity. And Mini is the niche niche, compact low power portable productivity with no screen.

Apple solves this by building Mini with kitchen sink parts, components already on the shelf so they don't need to bother the purchasing dept. So what makes Mini possible is also what makes updates mediocre. Combined with the slow cycling of all headless Macs, and you've got small infrequent updates.

But if updates were yearly or even every other year, the investment for little return would get questioned at stockholder meetings and Mini really would be threatened. So we wait. Wait for the next round of scraps to go into the pot and boil up into the next Mini, which is almost certainly coming, eventually.

The mini CANNOT do those things. Which is the whole point. It's actually one of the few computers on the market than can't display 4K content properly (60hz). $250 windows boxes can easily accomplish that.

4K is the biggest advancement in PC in a long while. Only the Macbook Pro and retina iMacs can hack that. The Mini certainly can't.

I am waiting for full fourK to upgrade mine (2010).

 

[MRrainer]

I hope all the people waiting and complaining here about the lack of a modular Mac in some form have been saving up money for the last few years so when it finally arrives, they can actually afford it ;-)

Or at least, afford the top-end non-upgradable MacMini 2018 (or 2019).

 

[DeepIn2U]

I hope all the people waiting and complaining here about the lack of a modular Mac in some form have been saving up money for the last few years so when it finally arrives, they can actually afford it ;-)

Or at least, afford the top-end non-upgradable MacMini 2018 (or 2019).

It maybe that no refresh will occur, forcing us to go iMac Pro or wait for Apple to get brace and bold like they did with the iMac Pro doing it instead to the MBP.

 

[MRrainer]

Either way, we'll have to dig deep into the cash-flow...

Last time (2014), I spent around 700 for the base 2012 i7 2.3 and around the same on SSD, RAM, iFixit kit.
And got the old 30" HP from my boss (which has like triple the power consumption of a modern 30" display, but none of its features)

We haven't migrated to 4K displays at the office, yet - so the chance of getting a free, used-one is nil in the next five to ten years I'd say....

 

[masterbaron]

"There was also connectivity but productivity paid the bills. Somewhere between 1995 and 2005, these switched places."

Productivity still pays the bills in corporate America just not as much in consumer circles because the average consumer has reaped sufficient productivity (the delta between paper and electronic storage permanently adopted) - the surge for mobility and Apps is where productivity opens the door for consumers now - hence the decline of the desktop. The browsers and the requirement for image-heavy content also took up some bandwidth in terms of productivity which is why connectivity has also surged to meet those demands.

Productivity in corporate circles has migrated to Contact Centers and Web Portals off-loading vendor functionality to the client-base affording more on-demand control of the environment hence greater productivity for the client and less overhead for the vendor.

Productivity has always been a fleeting goal often minimized by improper or inconsistent application of process and procedures - a soft target until metrics are applied and then forensics often reveal gains can be found everywhere even from aesthetics like ergonomics and the presence of windows (not Windows).

Again, Apple raised the bar with OSX, iOS and the Cloud giving the user a seamless environment with which to be productive to their liking - so with that under their belt ... bells and whistles while being fast should keep us happy while they dither on future strategies to wow us again.

 

[Count Blah]

It maybe that no refresh will occur, forcing us to go iMac Pro or wait for Apple to get brace and bold like they did with the iMac Pro doing it instead to the MBP.

You forgot one option - move on from Apple

 

[twalk]

You forgot one option - move on from Apple

Hackintosh. While that's definitely not for the faint of heart, you can build an i7 quad core system for < $600 + get a card slot, memory upgrades, storage upgrades, repairability, and all the ports

 

[majkom]

if there wont be new mac mini till the end of the year, I am going hackintosh way, I want my own display and there is no headless mac for bfu as me... sad story

 

[DeepIn2U]

You forgot one option - move on from Apple

True and I have to win10, but I miss all the beauty that is OSX.

 

[MRrainer]

I'm certainly not going Hackintosh.
I'll rather run Linux (or go for TrueOS outright, so I don't need to deal with the systemd-crap).

I'm not paid enough to run Windows at work. I'm not going to run it at home.

 

[toke lahti]

Hackintosh. While that's definitely not for the faint of heart, you can build an i7 quad core system for < $600 + get a card slot, memory upgrades, storage upgrades, repairability, and all the ports

Where is the simple list of chips used in 2016 or 2017 imacs and the motherboards that use the exact same chips to make hackintosh bulletproof with macos updates?
"How hard can it be"...

 

[twalk]

Where is the simple list of chips used in 2016 or 2017 imacs and the motherboards that use the exact same chips to make hackintosh bulletproof with macos updates?
"How hard can it be"...

There's no such thing as 100% bulletproof with hacks

There's about a dozen good sites for making hacks, but Tonymac is the most famous and pretty much the best if you're starting out

How hard can it be? If you've built computers before and do a lot of work with terminals, it's more time consuming than hard. Otherwise... you'll have a lot to learn

 

[MRrainer]

Hackintosh days numbered anyway.

Once Apple has all the pieces in place, we'll get end-to-end cryptographic authentication of all hardware-components also in the Mac. It will start with laptops and then move to the desktops.

This will be Apple's answer to direct PCIe-bus attacks via the Thunderbolt port.

 

[philipma1957]

this is our best hope Apple lose a series of lawsuits causing them to rethink the iPhone's value


Apple Insists It's Not Responsible For Distracted Driving Accidents Involving iPhones

Friday August 18, 2017 9:49 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple appeared in Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday to argue that it shouldn't be held liable for iPhone-related distracted driving accidents, in response to a lawsuit filed against the company earlier this year.

California resident Julio Ceja filed a class action complaint against Apple in January, accusing the company of placing profit before consumer safety by choosing not to implement a lock-out mechanism that would disable an iPhone's functionality when being used behind the wheel by an engaged driver.

Ceja said his vehicle was involved in a collision with another vehicle in which the driver was texting on an iPhone.

Apple, however, told the court that it's a driver's fault if they choose to misuse an inherently safe iPhone while operating a vehicle. Apple essentially said it cannot be blamed simply because it manufactures the device, according to court documents filed electronically and obtained by MacRumors.

Just yesterday, a U.S. district court in Texas dismissed a similar distracted driving lawsuit brought against Apple last year. In that case, Meador v. Apple, Inc., the plaintiffs accused Apple of failing to automatically disable a user's ability to operate an iPhone while driving, and of improper marketing.

However, judge Robert W. Schroeder III said the plaintiff's injuries stemmed from neglecting to safely operate her vehicle.

When a driver negligently operates her vehicle because she is engaging in compulsive or addictive behaviors such as eating food, drinking alcohol, or smoking tobacco, it is the driver's negligence in engaging in those activities that causes any resulting injuries, not the cook's, distiller's, or tobacconist's supposed negligence in making their products so enticing.

Similarly, her decision to direct her attention to her iPhone 5 and maintain her attention on her phone instead of the roadway is the producing cause of the injury to Plaintiffs.​

Apple has faced similar lawsuits in the past. In response to one filed in Texas in 2015, Apple indicated the responsibility is on the driver to avoid distractions in a statement provided to The New York Times:

"We discourage anyone from allowing their iPhone to distract them by typing, reading or interacting with the display while driving," Apple said… "For those customers who do not wish to turn off their iPhones or switch into Airplane Mode while driving to avoid distractions, we recommend the easy-to-use Do Not Disturb and Silent Mode features."​

Ceja's lawsuit mentioned a patent for a motion analyzer that would detect whether a handheld device is in motion beyond a certain speed. A scenery analyzer would then determine whether the holder of the handheld device is sitting somewhere other than the driver's seat. Otherwise, the device could be disabled.

In other embodiments, a vehicle or car key could transmit a signal that disables functionality of the handheld device while it is being operated. To a lesser degree, a vehicle could also transmit a signal that merely sends the device a notification stating that functionality should be disabled.

Apple hasn't gone as far as implementing any of those functions, but in iOS 11 it introduced Do Not Disturb While Driving.


Do Not Disturb While Driving is an optional setting that, when enabled, turns on whenever an iPhone connects to a vehicle via Bluetooth or detects rapid acceleration. While active, the feature mutes all incoming phone calls, notifications, and text messages, and the iPhone's screen stays off completely.

Phone calls are allowed, so long as an iPhone is connected to a car's Bluetooth or a hands-free accessory, allowing drivers to respond without needing to pick up their phone. If not connected to Bluetooth or a compatible accessory, calls will be blocked like text messages and notifications.

For text messages, there is an option to send your contacts a message that lets them know you're driving and will get back to them later. In an emergency, a person who is attempting to contact you via text while you're driving can break through Do Not Disturb by sending a second "urgent" message.

Do Not Disturb While Driving can also be activated manually in Settings > Do Not Disturb or in Control Center.

Tags: distracted driving, Do Not Disturb While Driving

190 comments​

 

[twalk]

Hackintosh days numbered anyway.

Once Apple has all the pieces in place, we'll get end-to-end cryptographic authentication of all hardware-components also in the Mac. It will start with laptops and then move to the desktops.

This will be Apple's answer to direct PCIe-bus attacks via the Thunderbolt port.

While that's certainly possible, there's no certainty that it will happen. Because of the huge gap between Mac releases that happened in the last few years, there's a really strong indication that Apple really views the Mac line as "only" 9% of their revenue, therefore not really worth the time. Other than the touchbar, everything else that they've done recently has either been for cost-cutting or a port from ios work. On top of that, they've already had in place just about everything they'd need to stop hacks, but simply haven't bothered to do it. Unlike the ios world, where Apple went harshly after any iphone hacking, Apple really hasn't done anything on the Mac side

Even if it does happen, the previous macos systems are already out there. When you consider how many people don't bother to upgrade to the latest, it seems like many would be perfectly happy to run an old macos.

It's really hard to say what will happen, but it just doesn't seem like Apple cares enough to lock Macs down

 

[spacebro]

I feel like apple is pushing people away from the mac towards the theoretical tablet replacement. They would much rather sell 1 tablet than 1 mac mini. I could see going to ios from macos. Still waiting on photoshop to get an ios touch interface. I see they have photoshop express for tablet but I'm waiting for a legitimate photoshop on tablet. It could happen and it could be very nice. Once photoshop becomes nice on a tablet there will be an avalanche of professional tools ported to ios touch interface. This will happen very soon and we will all forget that we wanted a mac mini update.

 

[masterbaron]

"This will happen very soon and we will all forget that we wanted a mac mini update."

Only because we bought a NUC - you just can't negate form-factor - we don't want a dozen cables on a tablet When you go "deep" into work you sometimes need space (real keyboard) - you may need presentation or incorporation into rackspace - you may need a home theater/ media room where there's also lots of connectivity - a tablet just isn't the answer to everything.

If you look closely there's a tablet sitting on the desk in the attached pic doing what it has always done since I bought it - nothing!

 

[twalk]

I feel like apple is pushing people away from the mac towards the theoretical tablet replacement. They would much rather sell 1 tablet than 1 mac mini. I could see going to ios from macos. Still waiting on photoshop to get an ios touch interface. I see they have photoshop express for tablet but I'm waiting for a legitimate photoshop on tablet. It could happen and it could be very nice. Once photoshop becomes nice on a tablet there will be an avalanche of professional tools ported to ios touch interface. This will happen very soon and we will all forget that we wanted a mac mini update.

I've been advocating that point of view for a while now. Why did Apple neglect the entire Mac line for so long? There's every indication that Apple execs bought completely into that "Post PC" thinking and were looking to milk the entire line for only a few more years before killing it. Then they had years of sizable sales drops (both revenue and unit) with the iPads, closer to stagnated sales with the iPhone, while the completely neglected Mac line still held steady. So, you get a begrudged dumping of the 2016 MBP and now a more of a "dam breaking" kind of situation...

That said, the execs who bet on the Post PC market are still there and probably not happy at all that they failed to predict the future...

Which is why my feeling is that the Mac is being forced to vacate the < $1000 market for ios devices. I'd also bet that Apple will have out an iPad Pro in the next 1-2 years that has a usb-c connector and can use a kb/mouse/monitor (with windows)/external storage when put onto a dock

 

[CWallace]

I feel like apple is pushing people away from the mac towards the theoretical tablet replacement. They would much rather sell 1 tablet than 1 mac mini.

Yes, because the tablet makes more money. But you can be sure they'd rather sell a MacBook Pro than an iPad Pro on the basis of revenue and profit generation.

Why did Apple neglect the entire Mac line for so long? There's every indication that Apple execs bought completely into that "Post PC" thinking and were looking to milk the entire line for only a few more years before killing it.

Well considering Steve Jobs was the prime advocate of that strategy, is it no surprise his successors would feel the same?

And even as they "neglected" the hardware, they still poured significant resources into keeping macOS up-to-date and relevant - something you would not think they would do if the "plan" was to phase out Macs within years of the iPad's release.