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The new Mac mini is almost certainly coming

Yvan256 said:
The new MacBook mini is almost certainly coming.
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I actually think this is a very realistic possibility. The Mini was supposed to be the cheap switcher machine. But the PC market has become dominated by laptops since then. In some ways, a switcher device that's BYOKVM no longer makes sense; average PC users no longer have a separate monitor.

There are also rumors of a new "entry level" MacBook that may replace the MacBook Air altogether. Perhaps it's the same device. A new, cheap switcher machine; that's a laptop. And it's gimped relative to the Pro, but bulkier than the regular MacBook. Simultaneously it would be an excellent machine to target at the education market.

MacBook Mini or MacBook Edu anyone?
 
MRrainer said:
Well, most Windows-users, when they have to use macOS, also complain. Loudly often.
Just watch the sysadmin-reddit and wait for people complaining about Macs...

The thing is: I never used Windows in earnest. It was always an also-ran OS for me.
Maybe it works a bit better when it's not in a VM or in a remote desktop session. I don't know.

I assume, it can be made to work, sort of:
find replacement for the Photos-app,
find replacement for TimeMachine,
find replacement for Pages,
find replacement Safari that isn't Chrome,
find replacement for Omnigraffle,
no replacement for iMessages,
find replacement for Spotlight,
wrangle with iTunes on Windows,
switch from VMWare Fusion to Workstation (re-license),
find replacement for Contacts that syncs with the iPhone,
find replacement for Mail,
find replacement for Calendar that syncs with iPhone,
find replacement for Preview


Some stuff is of course available: Firefox, MS-VSC, Sublime, Libre/OpenOffice, VLC.

And no, I don't have a Google account, nor do I use any MSFT-services.

So please no "Just use Google to sync everything", please.
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The only app I use in the list is Preview. I spend most of my computer time on a browser (firefox) and Adobe's software. So I should be OK in Windows land, if need be.

macOS is good but Apple's walled-garden-attitude is affecting both their hardware and software's direction, even more so than the past as they're a very big player now. I just feel more suffocated now more than ever.
 
enc0re said:
I actually think this is a very realistic possibility. The Mini was supposed to be the cheap switcher machine. But the PC market has become dominated by laptops since then. In some ways, a switcher device that's BYOKVM no longer makes sense; average PC users no longer have a separate monitor.

There are also rumors of a new "entry level" MacBook that may replace the MacBook Air altogether. Perhaps it's the same device. A new, cheap switcher machine; that's a laptop. And it's gimped relative to the Pro, but bulkier than the regular MacBook. Simultaneously it would be an excellent machine to target at the education market.

MacBook Mini or MacBook Edu anyone?
Click to expand...

Good reasoning there, I think they just have a $999 or $1099 price point to aim at and try to build the best machine they can to fit that.

For me, they're almost there with the non touch bar MacBook Pro but without a 15w Iris graphics equipped CPU they can drop the 'Pro' moniker by definition - enabling them to drop the price through series of carefully judged cost reductions.

13" Retina Macbook - 15w non-Iris Graphics CPU (i5-8250U or i5-8265U, quad core UHD 620 graphics), 8Gb RAM, 128Gb SSD, 13" retina screen with TrueTone, 2 Thunderbolt 3 ports - or USB-C ports, and the headphone socket. 'Quieter' 3rd generation keyboard included.

If they can shave the start price down to $1099 from $1299 that the current nTB MBP starts at they could have the basis of a decent product that replaces the MBA and nTB MacBook Pro while looking like a modern MacBook.

We're quickly reaching the point - within a matter of days - where any 15w Coffee Lake CPU going into a MacBook now could outpace any currently existing Mac Mini for benchmarks. The value proposition will switch to these laptops if the 2014 Mini continues to be sold in the face of a $1099 quad core MacBook which comes with SSD.
 
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leo-tech said:
Going Windows in protest against scarcity of Macintosh hardware, for whatever reason created by Apple - yes, I can understand that (stranger things happened, were driven by perfectly legitimate frustration). However, leaving macOS for good and staying with Windows for long - I would not be so sure about that. You see, there was a number of good reasons, why many users left Windows and accepted Macintosh/macOS wholeheartedly in the first place. And guess what, not much happened to those reasons since then, they are all still out there. Surprise, macOS is still the greatest user-friendly desktop operating system under the sun! And it's not like no feasible staying with macOS options exist: wait for Apple hardware refresh, buy a new/used Macintosh model you previously resisted buying, go Hackintosh or V-Hackintosh.
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There's no protesting and there's no leaving anything for good. Economic and technological forces move me where they move me. I prefer macOS, but I won't bore you with things it can't do that I can do with Windows. Regardless, with every passing day the value of Apple in the desktop space diminishes. Wouldn't it be cool if there was a reason that this thread should die?
 
leo-tech said:
When people express their dissatisfaction with, or negative feelings toward some OS, I guess it has something to do first and foremost with that OS's sh*tty questionable design philosophy, with the way its designers treat that OS users, expect or force them to act in certain ways, to accept and do certain things etc. Which IMHO is perfectly justified, they have every right to do so. You are correct that "OS is simply a means of running software to enable you to do the things you want to do" - but how exactly it goes about that, or in what way precisely it allows users to do so is also very important. For some users Windows is ok, while some other users simply cannot stand it. Interestingly enough, I have yet to encounter the opposite sentiment "I cannot stand macOS", for this or that particular reason.

I personally would not trust Windows to run on bare metal ever again, because it behaves pretty much like a nasty virus, eager to mess with everything it can touch (recently I tried to install Windows in a separate partition on my NUC, any semi-decent OS would keep itself restricted to that particular partition and leave other partitions alone, but hey "We are Borg Windows, resistance is futile!"). I can run Win10 in VM, if or when I need it (mostly of curiosity, as macOS and Linux pretty much cover my humble computational needs).
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As Mr Spock would have commented - 'that's totally illogical Captain'.
 
I'm guessing:
1) soldered ram
2) even soldered SSD (like the 2017-2018 MBP)
3) USB-C only (hopefully not)
4) super expensive ram and i7 QC upgrades
5) the exact same form factor (2012 can hold 2x 2x5" but 2014 wouldn't/couldn't.

Discuss!
 
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Yeah I think you're probably right on all points there. Think we'll be lucky to even see an ethernet port too.
What I would like to see is a different form factor and - in my dreams - a space grey option.
 
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1. they will sell it without igpu and you are forced to buy it with egpu sold by apple, exclusively.
 
Well the rumor that was published here just said that a processor upgrade was expected. If that's the case, Apple would just replace the current dual core chips with newer dual core and not change anything else. That's what they did when they "upgraded" the MacBook Air - the i5 model got a chip that was 0.2 ghz faster and there was no upgrade at all to the i7 model.

But really.... any upgrade would be welcome and I'm not ready to proclaim that Apple is going to "screw" us. Not yet.... ;)
 
1. Soldered RAM

2. Soldered hard drive

3. Intel Integrated crap graphics, but this is expected due to the eGPU. Expect Intel 5K all around!

4. The base model will be an i5 so severely underclocked that you're forced to upgrade just to get decent performance.

iFully expect the line to run i5, i7, and an i9 so overpriced that you look at used Macs instead.
 
Kaida said:
I'm guessing:
1) soldered ram
2) even soldered SSD (like the 2017-2018 MBP)
3) USB-C only (hopefully not)
4) super expensive ram and i7 QC upgrades
5) the exact same form factor (2012 can hold 2x 2x5" but 2014 wouldn't/couldn't.

Discuss!
Click to expand...
A lot of that is wrong. Also an all USB-C design is not be a bad thing with desktops, it is annoying with notebooks.
 
for this said:
The only app I use in the list is Preview. I spend most of my computer time on a browser (firefox) and Adobe's software. So I should be OK in Windows land, if need be.

macOS is good but Apple's walled-garden-attitude is affecting both their hardware and software's direction, even more so than the past as they're a very big player now. I just feel more suffocated now more than ever.
Click to expand...

Your last statement indicates that you have no experience of Windows, that's why you presume that you "should be OK in Windows land, if need be."

For all its sins, macOS we love thee. Can't say the same about Windows, not any version, not ever, never.
 
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You have to ask yourself ... how is it Apple (stockholders - don't they use this stuff) can't see the potential of MacOS and some serious hardware flexibility that benchmarks the bottom to mid-tier user in the "sweetspot" .. with all the various configuration needs referenced here a hardware company with courage and licensed MacOS would seriously rock ... with all that money Apple should really exploit themselves as a luxury company with "niche" solutions (and feed us) since that seems to be the direction.
 
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vkd said:
Your last statement indicates that you have no experience of Windows, that's why you presume that you "should be OK in Windows land, if need be."

For all its sins, macOS we love thee. Can't same the same about Windows, not any version, not ever, never.
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I disagree 1000%. Win10 spanks MacOS. Faster, stabler, more modern UI. Whoever goes to Windows Land will be just fine and dandy.
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Partron22 said:
Emojis.
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Yes! Emojis! You are partially right. The other prediction, and you heard it here first, is ... Wait For It... Here it comes... Watch Bands! Yes, I know you are amazed! It will be a new type called Mac Mini Bands. They will come in different colors (well, only three to start) Rose Gold, Silver and Space Grey. You can change them out and trade them with your friends!
 
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Cape Dave said:
Wait For It... Here it comes... Watch Bands! Yes, I know you are amazed! It will be a new type called Mac Mini Bands.
Click to expand...

I didn’t think it was possible... you’ve just stumbled on the “subscription model” for hardware... now hear me out... instead of “Mac mini bands” we are given “Mac mini belts”, 1” colored silicon bands in seasonal colors that wrap around the sides of the Mac mini, with sculpted cutouts for ports in the back.

Damn can we market this before Apple does?
 
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Apart from being an entry level desktop machine, I think quite a few people run the Mac Mini as a headless machine. This is where a possible new Mac Mini is hampered by MacOS in comparison to Windows 10. As good as my Windows 10 works with its Remote Desktop app on my iPad, as bad is my Mac Mini unfortunately with little or no support for remote desktop use out of the box and troublesome scaling.
 
I have a base 2014 mini for an iTunes server. It works great with the standard Apple screen sharing from my MacBook Air and 2012 mini. Haven't tried it from my iPad, and can't think of any reason why I should. ;)
 
Gazelleer said:
my Mac Mini unfortunately with little or no support for remote desktop
Click to expand...

I use Apple Screen Sharing on all 3 of my Mini's accessing all of them through one machine - scaling has not been a real problem but sometimes movies remotely watched need resizing or perhaps a missing menu bar here and there which can be restored in Display prefs. through resolution resizing.
 
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