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The new Mac mini is almost certainly coming
- Thread starter GabrieleR
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That certainly applies to me. I don't type anything on my phone unless I can't get to a real computer. But every now and then I'm surprised. Just got an e-mail about taxes from my accountant yesterday that said "sent on my iPad".
It doesn’t mean everything but that doesn’t mean there isn’t an important effect
Pickups used to be all utilitarian. When guys started buying them for commuting and groceries, feature lists exploded. Now the same utility buyer (say rancher) can get those same features more easily.
Conversely, consumers buying PCs gave natural importance to their design and production volume that benefited producers on economies of scale. Loosing them means paying more but also getting more producer focused designs.
I’m a fan of both mini and iMac and just replaced my 2007 iMac with a 5k. Retina + 4 core + 2500 ssd is the winning combination.
If Intel is shifting standard laptop processors to 4 core, this is the way forward for mini. Mix in 4K hdmi + 2500 ssd and its time to replace my 2010 mini. It’s almost certainly coming.
Pickups used to be all utilitarian. When guys started buying them for commuting and groceries, feature lists exploded. Now the same utility buyer (say rancher) can get those same features more easily.
Conversely, consumers buying PCs gave natural importance to their design and production volume that benefited producers on economies of scale. Loosing them means paying more but also getting more producer focused designs.
I’m a fan of both mini and iMac and just replaced my 2007 iMac with a 5k. Retina + 4 core + 2500 ssd is the winning combination.
If Intel is shifting standard laptop processors to 4 core, this is the way forward for mini. Mix in 4K hdmi + 2500 ssd and its time to replace my 2010 mini. It’s almost certainly coming.
No it's not. There is no way I could do my work on an iPad or a phone. Apple marketing would have you beleive this but with recent product launches the only thing they appear to be good at right now is alienating customers.
I would like to meet those people who manage to do ANY work done on a smartphone
They don't. Nobody here has made that argument. However, I will say that plenty of people get work done on laptops for example, and those have outsold desktops for well over a decade. I work in a software engineering company and about 2/3rds of the engineers here prefer laptops for their portability over the greater power of a desktop.
I would argue that they are extremely meaningful.
If you are going to make new hardware, software, and services, what are the customers using? Think of all the new technologies in the last 10 years. Are you going to make navigation software for Windows, or for iOS? Are you going to make an Uber application that's designed for a desktop or a mobile? Are you going to make a new iPhone every year or a new Mac Mini every year? Device type marketshare is extraordinarily important.
I agree with your point but these are probably not the best examples because they are mobile applications in nature and benefit greatly from being on mobile devices, regardless of the marketshare.
Apple flat out admit they accept less margin on the Mini than other Macs. Basically, per unit they make less money and if it were being treated like an iMac in terms of percentage margin the retail price would be higher than it is now. Even if it sold like hotcakes they'd probably make more profit on a single iMac (easily because the retail price per unit is higher).
The forthcoming Apple displays might be a watershed moment because in theory they ought to be fully Thunderbolt 3 units with a full set of IO onboard and shielded with wifi, plus capable of powering MacBook Pros. I've said before that if these displays are capable of powering a MacBook Pro they ought to be able to power a redesigned Mac Mini (if Apple choose to go that way) but of course such a Mini would have to be designed at the same time as the displays with an eye on the joining the two together easily.
To give you an example of an all-round design, a BTO version of a 2018 Mac Mini could allow users to delete the USB-C adaptor for a discount if the intention was always to pair it with an Apple monitor.
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I predict that Apple discontinues their new monitors after about a year. They cannot seem to make up their mind very well about monitors. One huge reason for the epic fail will be, of course, the lack of a mini to pair them with, LOL!
Yes, but how many of those are hybrid desktops (i.e. laptops with big monitors, keyboards, docking station and input devices... a desktop in other words) - where, yes they can take it home but connect to full-sized peripherals??
I am 1) expecting it, 2) being excited about it and 3) being terrified by the idea. Because you just know it will not turn into a Mac of any sort, but a large iPad with large iOS (and on a 27" screen still five tiny icons in a row that you won't be able to reorder).
I would like to meet those people who manage to do ANY work done on a smartphone
Here is basically how I use Word, Excel etc on my phone. I don't edit things at all, I only look at documents that people send to my work email. Like agendas for meetings. I would never actually try to edit a document on my phone haha that would be crazy.
Man the new Ryzen+Vega 2200G and 2400G chips would make a pretty sweet Mac Mini if Apple was ever willing to use AMD CPUs
Do we call photo and video creation and light editing on smartphones and tablets NOT producing content? Many submit crime footage and news footage using just their smartphones.
Should we all just give up home and then build out a raspberry pi type device that has USB-C/Thunderbolt ports (if one exists) and load macOS/OSX on it?
[EDITED: just to be to the point]
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Why even debate how someone gets work done - what's important is getting work done. Desktop vs laptop vs smartphone is really beginning to show its age - don't you think?
I mean if there was anything truly revolutionary or even evolutionary (i.e. 4K-8K content and hardware is readily available to the masses - AR / VR changes in the way we interact with computers - ditching the keyboard or using predictive sentence creation maximizing keystrokes into whole sentences instead of characters expanding on what the iPhone does now) we'd have something to really talk about perhaps.
But tired as it is ... we've reached a plateau and until something breaks the ice we can just wax and wane the ambivalence of Apple.
I mean if there was anything truly revolutionary or even evolutionary (i.e. 4K-8K content and hardware is readily available to the masses - AR / VR changes in the way we interact with computers - ditching the keyboard or using predictive sentence creation maximizing keystrokes into whole sentences instead of characters expanding on what the iPhone does now) we'd have something to really talk about perhaps.
But tired as it is ... we've reached a plateau and until something breaks the ice we can just wax and wane the ambivalence of Apple.
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Makes sense. You can take photos/videos with an iPhone, so therefore you can let the Mac Mini languish for 4+ years.
Logic
Logic
I suppose this is the future Apple wants for desktop computing - plugin your desktop iPhone and become a "Pro"!
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It'd have to be a wireless connection.
No ugly plug holes exist in the future.
You'd think moving forward the goal would be to make any ergonomic scenario productive and enable computing to meld with that requirement - thus the Mini more closely fits that need. Small, configurable, portable and somewhat (2012) powerful.
Tim in Fast Company interview today: "For us, on the product side, we have to come up with our silicon requirements three, four-plus years in advance. So we’ve got things that we’re working on now that are way out in the 2020s"
Previously in October, 2017, Tim: "we do plan for Mac mini to be an important part of our product line going forward."
So, sometime between almost certainly coming next Tuesday and sometime before the end of next decade.
Is it really so hard to design this kind of box? I guessing the Hades Canyon nuc took less than 2 years with the AMD/Intel package. If I could order a Mac OS device with similar size, I/O, and specs next month, I would not hesitate. It would be perfect for my needs.
Previously in October, 2017, Tim: "we do plan for Mac mini to be an important part of our product line going forward."
So, sometime between almost certainly coming next Tuesday and sometime before the end of next decade.
Is it really so hard to design this kind of box? I guessing the Hades Canyon nuc took less than 2 years with the AMD/Intel package. If I could order a Mac OS device with similar size, I/O, and specs next month, I would not hesitate. It would be perfect for my needs.
My faithful quad-core Mac mini remains faithful. But if a meteor hit it (but not me at the same time, given that I'm a foot and a half from it right now), I'd have to go to eBay to find a replacement, because Apple is only selling placeholders right now.
The thing is....WAY too much time has gone since the last (disappointing) update for the mini. If another mini does surface some year down the line, it's sure to be a dissapointment too cuz it has to be a bottom spec Mac and nothing can live up to users expectations & hopes after waiting 5 freaking years. Tim's Apple clearly despises the mini regardless of the lip service paid to it.
Meh. 8GB RAM, SSD standard and ability to run 4k @ 60hz is all I ask for.
Literally every computer manufacturer on earth can manage that at an extremely reasonable price, but not Apple. No Sir. They are too busy milking the rubes with 4GB machines that run 5400 spinners... in 2018.
Perhaps the business model Tim et al. are following isn’t the traditional tech model, but rather the pusher’s model. Get your users hooked on a particular dose, then withhold it while they become more and more anxious about their next fix. Then you can bring out your 'new' product, stepped on as much as you want, at a premium price, and it’ll sell like hotcakes. (Cue Steppenwolf ‘The Pusherman’.)
Slashdot Asks: What Do People Misunderstand or Underappreciate About Apple?
Tim Cook:
Do not stray from the mainstream of the brand.
There are edges.
That statement is so bleeping warm and fuzzy (particularly fuzzy) that it makes me want to install Windows Vista on my iMac (or maybe Microsoft Bob). Couple this with the picture of Tim now showing on this site's Front Page and I think I know where the problem is.
"I'm glad you love Mac Mini. We love it too."
- Tim Cook, 10/19/17
- Tim Cook, 10/19/17