It makes more sense the more you think about it. A more powerful Apple TV designed to capture some desktop market with iOS. Its a stepping stone for iOS to completely replace macOS someday. Next step, the MacBook-not-pro will be more like an iPad Pro with a built in keyboard and it will run ios.
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The new Mac mini is almost certainly coming
- Thread starter GabrieleR
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It makes more sense the more you think about it. A more powerful Apple TV designed to capture some desktop market with iOS. Its a stepping stone for iOS to completely replace macOS someday. Next step, the MacBook-not-pro will be more like an iPad Pro with a built in keyboard and it will run ios.
The Iris Graphics 5100 was a half decent draw but obviously well out of date and, crucially, incapable of driving a 4k display at 60Hz (never mind to a standard that Apple would be happy with.
My main criticism from the 2014 was the official shutting down of DIY upgrades to HD and RAM. Losing the quad core option was a deal breaker for many more but explained away later by the divergence in sockets leading Apple to make a difficult decision in terms of budgeting.
The goalposts have moved an awful lot now and Apple will already know where they stand with the pricing of the 2019 Mac Pro (no way is it going to cost as little as $3000 and the generously specified iMac Pro shows us a big hint for what Apple could do to increase the average selling price - don't offer it with poverty spec in the first place).
I think when the 2019 Mac Pro drops it won't be matching the 2013 Mac Pro for price points simply because it'll come generously specified even if the RAM is replaceable which will raise the starting price well beyond the 2013 Mac Pro.
This will inevitably leave a nice gap in the $2-3000 price range for a top end Mini to present a buying option.
If you step back from the enhanced onboard graphics, there's a real sense that Apple will stick with CPU+dGPU - especially if a case redesign is coming for Mac Pro and the Mini with higher predicted heat from the Coffee Lake PCs due to extra cores. I don't think they'd need the Kaby Lake G CPUs because of they only have 2 cores.
You'll have no argument from me that AMD offered Apple really good deals to get their GPUs into Macs. Apple wouldn't want to be stuck with bespoke tech that could be ended if it's unpopular.
Again, I think Apple couldn't see much of a roadmap into the future for Iris Pro. Intel have better iGPU coming down the line after the recruitment of Raja Koduri. They've been influencing Intel to get better quality iGPU into their products with the 13" MacBook Pros the main case in point. They'll have had to accept that iGPU with 15" MacBook Pro isn't popular after the lack of interest in the Iris Pro series for that size of laptop. The advent of 4k screens means that iGPU efforts will probably be limited to the 13" MacBook Pros.
A Mac Mini Pro model - as hinted in some places - could replace the lower price points of the Mac Pro 2013 (effectively allowing that to go on clearance months before the 2019 model arrives) but could come well enough specified to be usable off the shelf like the iMac Pro. If you're redesigning the case to allow a higher TDP you can then look towards something that could fit the marketing - for example:
Xeon E-2126G - $255 with 80w TDP - 6 cores (no hyper threading) and UHD P630 graphics for Quicksync - effectively a close cousin of the i5-8600 only faster base speed at the expense of a higher TDP to cool. The Xeon chipset and motherboard allows the possibility of more Thunderbolt ports - if Apple get the right mix of value for money, horsepower and heat/silence they could have a good quality headless replacement for the 2013 Mac Pro at the lower price point.
Add a decent GPU to that (up to an AMD 580X on a PCIe card) and design the case to cool the combination and you have something that could fill the lower end of the Mac Pro 2013 price range which Apple could do if they know at this stage that the Mac Pro 2019 will start at $4-5k next year.
And that's just one theory. There's so many variations of what could happen for the Mini that, as we've all said, within 4 weeks we may know what we're looking at - even if nothing - in terms of the Mini going forward.
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I think there has to be a viable headless option given that server farms were mentioned in the recent Bloomberg article on the Mini. If this headless option comes with an iGPU SKU (as well as a dGPU SKU) it has to interest most of us just from being 4 years newer tech than the currently available Mini.
That's weird; I just replaced a dying HD in a 2014 mini with an SSD at my office the other day. Took about 20 minutes.
As long as it's able to be upgraded, I want them to offer it with the cheapest spinner and the least amount of RAM possible - All stuff that way cheaper to replace yourself then buying from Apple.
Maybe even offer it as a barebones (special order obviously) with no CPU, HDD or RAM - good luck with that though.
Please, please, please do not offer the Mini with the absolutely horrible Magic keyboard, mouse or trackpad. PLEASE
Maybe even offer it as a barebones (special order obviously) with no CPU, HDD or RAM - good luck with that though.
Please, please, please do not offer the Mini with the absolutely horrible Magic keyboard, mouse or trackpad. PLEASE
Sounds like you should be going down the Hackintosh route..... for others, the new Mac Mini is almost certainly coming.
Wrong reply. Whoops. I cannot delete this. See below.
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Ever.
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Lord I hate those keyboards/mice! But as for the rest of it, you can have it. Except for the fact that Apple is never gonna do that
Ever.
Based on the timing of Apple's last few October events, the announcement would still be at least a week or two away.
They had their iPhone announcements (the only product they seem to care about).
Can't speak about the Magic Trackpad 2 as I have not tried one, but the original Trackpad is fantastic. I have two, still going strong, and absolutely love them. I knew within minutes of first getting one that I was a trackpad man. Apple trackpad, at least.
Apple mouses, on the other hand. Blegghh! Haven't touched one since getting the trackpads, except for when I need wired input to get around the occasional BT glitch when booting up.
Apple mouses, on the other hand. Blegghh! Haven't touched one since getting the trackpads, except for when I need wired input to get around the occasional BT glitch when booting up.
You know that it has always been end of October when it comes to actual keynotes? Give it a breather
New Emojis are coming (IOS 12.1) and surely, the new Mac Mini is coming too..[silence]
4540S, Z800.... been there, done that.
I just cannot be arsed with the system updates and the issues that come from them.
I traded my way faster dual processor Z800 for a Mac Pro (6,1) and paid over $1500 to "downgrade" just for the convenience factor of not having to rejig it every time a new update comes out.
I bet you jailbreak your iPhone too, right? LOL!
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Last night I was unable to sleep. Because my brain would not stop thinking about this question: "Which is more important, Emojis or Watch Band Colors?" There was just no way I could wrap my head around such a complex problem!
Exactly ZERO...unless you are counting yourself among those people and then it would be exactly ONE.
No need to choose - get both! The emoji will offer you new ways to express your joy when the new Mini arrives, and the colorful watchbands will cheer you up if it doesn’t.
But its all y'all saying iOS is so bad because it doesn't support a mouse. I'm thinking its more likely iOS adds mouse support than osx adds touch support. Its obvious apple wants iOS to take over osx. Isn't it obvious that a Mac mini iOS device is the next stepping stone? From there you can put iOS into the MacBook-not-pro and then silo off the MacBook pros as actual pro devices on account of them still running osx. Does this make sense?
Perfect! I am putting you on my payrollNo need to choose - get both! The emoji will offer you new ways to express your joy when the new Mini arrives, and the colorful watchbands will cheer you up if it doesn’t.
We are not all saying that. The touch control of iOS is great for consumption, the mouse control of macOS is great for creation. This is further compounded by iOS devices commonly being held at different angles without a surface that does not suit a mouse, and Mac devices being placed further away on a surface with the screen near-vertical so does not suit touching. I don't want a mouse for iOS or a touchscreen for macOS. Apple has said iOS and macOS serve different purposes, and it should stay that way.
The ARM / Intel separation will probably disappear at some point (for both macOS and Windows, so Bootcamp will continue), but the interaction separation will not.