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Beyond vague statements about the mimi being an important product in the lineup, Apple has revealed nothing.

I think that speaks for itself. Apple did a lot to hype the power of the iMac Pro and Mac Pro. But the Mini is just "important". Doesn't make me expect anything especially powerful. ;)
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I'm surprised they continue to showcase it at the Apple Store

There were a number of reports in this same thread a few months ago of Apple Stores removing the Mini and employees saying that nobody was buying them when asked.
 
The last two stores i've been into which were 2.0 stores - they didn't have any minis on display at all.
I am sorry but that cannot be. Tim Cook said it is a very important computer in the future of the company. SO, you probably could not see it through all the iPhones and iPads!

It was a good run for the mini but really, it is over.
 
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I'm starting to think we won't see a Mini replacement unless Apple (Tim) decides that it makes sense to have both an AIO computer line (for the appliance crowd) and a headless desktop line. Business model would be that the design of the AIO (limited options, case soldered/nailed/bolted/fused-glass shut) separates the two lines, with the headless line being open and DIY update/upgrade-able. Now, that means they have to jettison the idea of the new iMac Pro (which I think was a lousy idea to start with) and rejigger things, but they would end up with a far more rational approach to their desktop computer line than they've had in years. Of course, this means Apple needs to get all rational and stuff, so it probably will never happen. In that scenario, I either see no Mini or another 'new-and-degraded' crippled sorry-a**ed Mini.
 
Sadly, the Mac Mini is a dead product line. It's over. 2014 was a long time ago, especially in tech years.

Apple is under no obligation to make a product just because we want them to, but what I resent is how they blatantly lie to their own customers about the fate of the product for no reason. Especially considering they probably decided to EOL the Mini line prior to the release of the 2014 model.

If anything, their lying and refusal to discuss the Mac Mini is hurting them, as current Mini owners might move on to a Macbook Air or iMac instead of waiting around for a new Mac Mini that will never arrive. Sure, these customers could move to PC once the Mini is officially put out of it's misery, but it's not like being kept in the dark is pushing them to upgrade to different Apple products now.

At best, their lying is having a neutral affect and at worst it is hurting Mac sales. It makes no sense at all. They are hurting themselves just for the satisfaction of screwing with their own customers. Cook must take some sick pleasure in it.

Just tell us the damn thing is finished and let's get on with our lives. What the hell kind of company is Apple? It's turning into a farce.
 
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If anything, their lying and refusal to discuss the Mac Mini is hurting them, as current Mini owners might move on to a Macbook Air or iMac instead of waiting around for a new Mac Mini that will never arrive. Sure, these customers could move to PC once the Mini is officially put out of it's misery, but it's not like being kept in the dark is pushing them to upgrade to different Apple products now.
And you have exposed Tim's plan all along.

Hopefully a fair number have moved onto other manufacturers who have addressed their needs. As this is the ONLY hope we have for Apple to take the mini line seriously again.
 
Sadly, the Mac Mini is a dead product line. It's over. 2014 was a long time ago, especially in tech years.

Apple is under no obligation to make a product just because we want them to, but what I resent is how they blatantly lie to their own customers about the fate of the product for no reason. Especially considering they probably decided to EOL the Mini line prior to the release of the 2014 model.

If anything, their lying and refusal to discuss the Mac Mini is hurting them, as current Mini owners might move on to a Macbook Air or iMac instead of waiting around for a new Mac Mini that will never arrive. Sure, these customers could move to PC once the Mini is officially put out of it's misery, but it's not like being kept in the dark is pushing them to upgrade to different Apple products now.

At best, their lying is having a neutral affect and at worst it is hurting Mac sales. It makes no sense at all. They are hurting themselves just for the satisfaction of screwing with their own customers. Cook must take some sick pleasure in it.

Just tell us the damn thing is finished and let's get on with our lives. What the hell kind of company is Apple? It's turning into a farce.

In October Cook was asked about the mini. He could have ignored the question and left us in limbo. He could have said (as you did above) that the Mac mini is dead.

He did neither.

Instead, he said 1) Apple loves the mini; and 2) it’s not time to share any details; but 3) Apple does plan for the Mac mini to be an important part of their product line going forward.

To me, that means Apple has plans for a Mac mini refresh. You've taken a completely different meaning, that’s fine.
 
In October Cook was asked about the mini. He could have ignored the question and left us in limbo. He could have said (as you did above) that the Mac mini is dead.

He did neither.

Instead, he said 1) Apple loves the mini; and 2) it’s not time to share any details; but 3) Apple does plan for the Mac mini to be an important part of their product line going forward.

To me, that means Apple has plans for a Mac mini refresh. You've taken a completely different meaning, that’s fine.
Yup..... The new Mac Mini is almost certainly coming.
 
Hopefully a fair number have moved onto other manufacturers who have addressed their needs. As this is the ONLY hope we have for Apple to take the mini line seriously again.

That makes no sense to me. If a fair number of former Mini owners have moved on to other manufacturers, then Apple's market for a new Mini has gotten even smaller, so why should Apple take it seriously?
 
The 2011 mini was just declared obsolete. At this rate, the 2014 Mini will be declared obsolete before they even get around to updating it or replacing it.
Although some would say that the currently available Mac Mini is already obsolete.......

If manufacture of the 2014 Mac Mini ceased today, it would not officially become obsolete until January 2025.

As things stand it will not become obsolete until seven years after the new Mac Mini (which is almost certainly coming) arrives..... sooner or later.

Vintage products are those that have not been manufactured for more than 5 and less than 7 years ago.

Obsolete products are those that were discontinued more than 7 years ago.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201624
 
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I'm still minded to believe that the next Mac Mini will not use the 28w CPUs and instead will go all out for 15w U-class CPU with Iris Graphics across the board. In other words, the CPUs that would have been deemed "MacBook Air" class and are in the non touch bar MacBook Pro.

The 28w CPUs are in pricey touch bar MacBook Pros and Apple don't need to draw attention to this fact.

Having a smaller, taller (for wi-fi) case containing just a PCIe SSD for storage, coupled to a 15w CPU with a decent cooling solution and anyone needing GPU could add an external one using Thunderbolt 3. The relevant CPU isn't announced yet though. The kicker being that the miniaturised Mac Mini unit can be powered directly off a USB-C connection from a monitor or an eGPU case.

I should mention this would be done to push power users towards a cheaper base modular Mac Pro.

I don’t see the point in dropping all the 28W processors, and I don’t think you’re going to get Iris graphics in a 15W TDP. We need processors that are more powerful, not less powerful. Fortunately, 28W quad cores will finally become available this year.

To my mind, the most legitimate complaints about the Mac mini are that it hasn’t been updated in way too long, and there’s no quad core option. There’s also a good argument to be made that a desktop PC should have upgradable RAM, and of course 4K@60Hz video would be most welcome.

Blanket complaints about spinning hard drives or even Fusion drives aren’t particularly well founded; my grandma doesn’t need a PCIe SSD drive no matter how loudly some might protest otherwise. The alternative is a $699-799 base model instead of $499-599.

In summary, although I’m sure some will disagree, I think a new Mac mini that has the following features—at a minimum—could be considered to be a successful refresh:
  • Current Kaby Lake dual-core processors
  • Quad core options (not yet released by Intel)
  • User upgradable RAM
  • Same form factor
  • 4K@60Hz HDMI video
  • two USB-C 3.1 Gen 2/Thunderbolt 3 ports
  • four USB 3 ports
  • Gb Ethernet
  • 802.11ac/Bluetooth 4.2
  • SDXC slot, headphone jack
Nice to haves:
  • 45W CPU options, with upgraded cooling
  • Significant bonus points for 32GB max RAM
  • ???
Hopefully arriving by mid-2018. Your comments and thoughts welcome.
 
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Although some would say that the currently available Mac Mini is already obsolete.......

If manufacture of the 2014 Mac Mini ceased today, it would not officially become obsolete until January 2025.

As things stand it will not become obsolete until seven years after the new Mac Mini (which is almost certainly coming) arrives..... sooner or later.

Vintage products are those that have not been manufactured for more than 5 and less than 7 years ago.

Obsolete products are those that were discontinued more than 7 years ago.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201624

It might also depend on when Intel decide to EOL the Haswell CPUs that are in use in the current Mini. Remember that the 2012 iteration of the original Mac Pro (5,1) was primarily brought about because the CPUs in the 2010 model were about to be discontinued by Intel as they were so old. The 'upgrade' wasn't popular at the time because the CPUs themselves were just slot compatible 'upgrades' when later generation CPUs (which would have required new motherboards etc) were available. A very inexpensive 'upgrade' for Apple to engineer.

The 2012 model itself had to be discontinued in the EU sometime in 2013 because of an unguarded fan as I recall, leaving a big gap before the 2013 new Mac Pro was released at the end of that year.

As far as Intel is currently concerned most of the Haswell generation desktop CPUs are EOL now and it can't be long before the mobile CPUs follow.

As for Apple stocking spares for that long I'm sure people won't complain if they are simply handed a a more recent version of a machine that Apple can't carry spares for any more as Intel stopped making the CPUs before Apple had it 6-7 years.
 
Mini owners might move on to a Macbook Air or iMac instead of waiting around for a new Mac Mini that will never arrive.

Not sure i agree with that part at all... the i5 air is slower than the lowly base i5 in the mini
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i5-5350U-vs-Intel-Core-i5-4260U
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp[]=2530&cmp[]=2238
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i5-5350U-vs-Intel-Core-i5-4278U
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp[]=2530&cmp[]=2312

And while the i7 option isn't significantly better it's still better.
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i7-5650U-vs-Intel-Core-i7-4578U
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp[]=2503&cmp[]=2345

So, unless you are wanting 15W, lower performing CPU, you're better off sticking with the mini.
Maybe this can be a crotch of comfort for some? The mini isn't the worst performing and most dated product in the apple line up...
 
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I don’t see the point in dropping all the 28W processors, and I don’t think you’re going to get Iris graphics in a 15W TDP. We need processors that are more powerful, not less powerful. Fortunately, 28W quad cores will finally become available this year.

To my mind, the most legitimate complaints about the Mac mini are that it hasn’t been updated in way too long, and there’s no quad core option. There’s also a good argument to be made that a desktop PC should have upgradable RAM, and of course 4K@60Hz video would be most welcome.

Blanket complaints about spinning hard drives or even Fusion drives aren’t particularly well founded; my grandma doesn’t need a PCIe SSD drive no matter how loudly some might protest otherwise. The alternative is a $699-799 base model instead of $499-599.

In summary, although I’m sure some will disagree, I think a new Mac mini that has the following features—at a minimum—could be considered to be a successful refresh:
  • Current Kaby Lake dual-core processors
  • Quad core options (not yet released by Intel)
  • User upgradable RAM
  • Same form factor
  • 4K@60Hz HDMI video
  • two USB-C 3.1 Gen 2/Thunderbolt 3 ports
  • four USB 3 ports
  • Gb Ethernet
  • 802.11ac/Bluetooth 4.2
  • SDXC slot, headphone jack
Nice to haves:
  • 45W CPU options, with upgraded cooling
  • Significant bonus points for 32GB max RAM
  • ???
Hopefully arriving by mid-2018. Your comments and thoughts welcome.

15w with Iris Graphics is exactly what drives the non touch bar MacBook Pro 2016 and 2017 models - both have to drive a retina screen. I believe there are Intel slides that predict the coming of a Kaby Lake refresh CPU with Iris Graphics perhaps in the second quarter of this year - they are currently unannounced.

Apple generally would not use a CPU that didn't have at least Iris Graphics in the absence of a 'proper' GPU - see the Radeon inside the latest G-class Intel quad core CPUs that are destined for the 15" MacBook Pro. That would make a superb Mini but would send that range deep into the 4 figure price bracket for starters. It only makes sense IF the modular Mac Pro is going to be an insane range topper that starts in the iMac Pro price range because it comes with AMD Vega GPU and has dual CPU out of the box.

The only reason we would get an 'affordable' modular Mac Pro is if a base model came with a single CPU and so-called integrated Radeon graphics. There is a roadmap for a Xeon with embedded Radeon graphics similar to the G-class ones but would require additional engineering effort on Apple's part.

The 28w models would go into the touch bar powered MacBook Pro and the price differential due to the touch bar brings into sharp relief the cost of the touch bar on these models. I don't think it makes much sense to go 28w in the next Mini if they intend the range to continue in the same price range. Better for Apple to put that budget into SSD if possible as it would make it possible to make the form factor smaller.

All the ports you mentioned should be feasible on a Mini, perhaps even on a reconfigured taller case, though I think upgradable RAM is at an end. I think base models will all get 8Gb of RAM to start with though, you can't criticise a 2014 Mac for not starting with the minimum RAM required in 2018.

32Gb RAM as an option on mobile chipsets won't be around until the next major architecture change because Apple prefer to use LPDDR3 over DDR4 for power consumption reasons.
 
I think a new Mac mini that has the following features—at a minimum—could be considered to be a successful refresh:
  • Current Kaby Lake dual-core processors
  • Quad core options (not yet released by Intel)
  • User upgradable RAM
  • Same form factor
  • 4K@60Hz HDMI video
  • two USB-C 3.1 Gen 2/Thunderbolt 3 ports
  • four USB 3 ports
  • Gb Ethernet
  • 802.11ac/Bluetooth 4.2
  • SDXC slot, headphone jack
Your comments and thoughts welcome.

:cool:

Only thing I would add to the list is at least one blade SSD slot, and one SATA 3 slot, and it being not too hard to replace/upgrade them.

I am prepared to live without user upgradeable RAM if (if) the price for factory RAM is reasonable.

Apple don't have to do much. We don't need an amazing new product, the current Mini form and concept is fine as it is. We just need the internals and ports kept more up to date, and a quad i7 option.
 
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I think the Mac mini replacement or whatever it will be called, will be the modular Mac Pro, but te lowest speced version will be more expensive, than the basic iMac.

So that means, that for these, who for whatever reason cannot afford more than 1000-1100 $/€ on a new Mac computer from Apple, the only option left is in form of the cheapest iMac and/or Macbook Air (until they EOL it).

Or buying something used.
 
My mac mini has been used to control my tv for many years. Driving my tv with an imac or a macbook air would be fricken ridiculous! Now I have a 4k tv and I can only drive it in 1080p with the mac mini. I recently tried chromecast and am very impressed! You can cast 4k content from your phone, and its very use friendly to browse stuff on your phone and add things from different apps to the chromecast queue. No commercials! 4k content just works! No mac product can do 4k yet and not even my expensive cable box can do 4k yet. I am beginning to consider retiring the mac mini and replacing it with nothing- and use my smart phone to control my tv now! Why is apple leaving so much money on the table? I am (or was??!) a serious apple fan and feel disappointed that chromecasting from an android device is the best path forward.
 
I am beginning to consider retiring the mac mini and replacing it with nothing- and use my smart phone to control my tv now!
I have an Intel NUC running Linux as Plex server + Chromecast + a phone app. Super handy to use. The NUC is on the network so adding files to it is very easy too. I think the whole setup cost me half of Mac Mini's (which is almost certainly very important to Apple) base model's price. About the only content I can't play are my DVD rips – Plex doesn't serve as DVD player (no menu support), so I have to convert them to MKV files.
 
I'm hoping we haven't heard about the Mini yet because both the Mini and Pro are going to be replaced at the same time by a family that share aesthetics and architecture at different sizes. That sharing meaning each model is easier to develop and support.

Mac Mini: 1 NVMe SSD, 2 RAM slots, integrated GPU, i3 CPU, nothing user accessible.
Mac Plus: 2 NVMe SSD slots, 4 RAM slots, discrete GPU, i5 and i7 CPU options, all user accessible and replaceable (except the CPU).
Mac Pro: 4 NVMe SSD slots, 8 RAM slots, 2 discrete GPUs, Xeon CPU, all user accessible and replaceable.

That might be optimistic, but it would be great.
 
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