I’m also most excited about the Mac mini. It’s surprising to see that I’m not alone in this. Five USB-C ports are more than enough. Having only two on the current base model feels unjustifiable, especially since the 2018 model had four. If the new base model comes with 16 GB of RAM, it’ll be an instant buy for me too.
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What to Expect From an Apple Event in October: iPad Mini 7, Redesigned Mac Mini, and More
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I’m an optimist. 16GB base for M4. 24GB base for M4 Pro. 48GB base for M4 Max.
The bump for the base Max (up 12GB from M3, up 16GB from M2) is better than the base Pro (up 6GB from M3, up 8GB from M2). The base Max will continue to be the best deal.
I got hope — against the rumor mill and other odds — that Cupertino Donut will surprise us with straightening their device upgrade timeline and present the whole line of M4 Macs — including Max and Ultra units — at the same time.
Even as a margin of a margin, I am myself an example of how a current schedule — which is, in fact, depreciating more capable units — is hurting their sales, as I am sitting on my money for months, forcing myself not to buy any substitute but next gen Studio.
Even as a margin of a margin, I am myself an example of how a current schedule — which is, in fact, depreciating more capable units — is hurting their sales, as I am sitting on my money for months, forcing myself not to buy any substitute but next gen Studio.
I would contain my excitement until we see what actually launches. Its unclear from the rumours whether the base model will have 5 USB-C ports, what proportion of those will be full TB4/USB4/video capable and whether the HDMI, Ethernet and internal power supply will remain.
The current M2 Pro Mini has 4 TB4 ports and two USB-A ports. So a 5-port Mini is swapping two USB-A ports for one USB-C (which may well be USB 3.2 only). Considering that many “USB-C” peripherals still only use USB 3.1g1 and will run without penalty on a USB-A port, that’s not a clear improvement in connectivity... and that’s relying on the rumours that HDMI, Ethernet and internal power will be staying alongside USB-C: remove any of those and you’re placing increased demand on the USB-C ports.
Look at the current iMac - two models mainly distinguished by two extra USB 3.2-only USB-C ports, and everything else has been removed.
I'm not holding out hope that Apple will do much with the iPad mini 7, but it'd be cool if they slimmed it down a bit like what was done with the Pros. Thinner and lighter would be welcome in a device I use as an e-reader.
But I doubt it happens.
But I doubt it happens.
You forgot the MacBook SE, without notch of course.
It may be released in November or December this year.
If a new ATV was released, I don’t need one, but I want one and would definitely buy.
Well, if they're updating the MacBook Pro then we'll presumably get M4 Pro and M4 Max (or equivalent) versions of that.
I'm not sure that it is clear that there is even going to be a M4 Ultra in the old sense. The idea of the Max being a sort of universal die design where you could "chop off" half the GPU to make a Pro or join several together to make Ultra or Extreme seems to have ended with the M3: the M3 Pro and Max are now quite distinct dies, with the M3 Pro being more efficiency-focussed, the M3 Max having more cores and a higher ratio of performance to efficiency cores, and giving the M2 Ultra a run for its money. The rumors of a new high-end Apple Silicon chip sound more like a NVIDIA Grace/Hopper contender for AI development and services, rather than something for a personal AV workstation.
There don't seem to be any substantial rumours about the Mac Studio. I guess only Apple know how the Studio Ultra and 2023 Mac Pro have worked out in terms of sales or if the whole "ultrafusion" idea has been a flop (The Mac Pro seems to be using a whole second Max core primarily to get some PCIe lanes and extra RAM...) I wouldn't be surprised if the 2023 Mac Pro turned out to be the last "big box 'o' slots" Mac esp. if Thunderbolt 5 comes along and offers better bandwidth for external PCIe housings.
Personally, I think a M4 Max Mac Studio with various "binning" options would make a perfectly viable Studio range on its own, without waiting for an Ultra chip. If Apple think there is a market for a server-grade Mac they need to make a ground-up server grade chip rather than trying to glue laptop SoCs together.
What do you mean? That's exactly what I implied. According to rumors that's what's gonna happen. And it makes sense to me.
16GB base is not optimism - anything less is pessimism (unless Apple are going to charge Apple TV-sized prices for their Apple-TV-sized Mini) although that doesn't mean it won't happen.
8GB base on $600 Minis and $1100 laptops was already pretty poor, but the fact that Microsoft are making 16GB the minimum for new AI features (even on ARM chips with more Apple Silicon-like architecture) is going to lead to that becoming the de facto minimum for many cross-platform apps that people will still want to run on Macs. New Macs coming out with 8GB base would be laughed off the stage by all but the most die-hard Apple fans, especially if locally-hosted AI is going to be the big selling point of the M4. The current base RAM sizes for the Pro, Max and Ultra aren't anything to write home about, either. It's 2024 and RAM - even LPDDR5x - just doesn't cost that much.
I hope the 12GB-as-8GB iPad thing is a red herring - some sort of supply chain glitch/opportunity that made 8GB chips temporarily unavailable, or a source of genuinely "binned" chips that only guaranteed 8GB. There's no official 12GB iPad for sale so I don't see how manufacturing fully-functional 12GB SoCs and only using 8GB would even make sense as "efficiency". Apple might get away with such knobbling on an iPad (where RAM size is tucked away in the small print and the "better" model sold as a storage upgrade) but I think that would go down like a lead balloon if they tried it on Mac... Meanwhile, although 12GB base would be better than 8GB base, it still feels like a day late and a dollar short.
I think the Mini 7 will be an incredibly conservative "update" that basically just tweaks the screen to avoid the Jelly complaints
The last few years have shown me to keep my expectations fairly tempered
Ho Hummm. Not really excited because Apple, instead is being the test it can be in releasing leading tech products is still playing games in order to get as much $$ as possible before Cook is forced to resign.
As tempting as it is for a MacMini, think I’ll hold onto my 2019 iMac for a while yet.
No interest in a smaller 24-inch iMac.
No interest in a smaller 24-inch iMac.
We don’t know why there was no M3 Ultra. In retrospect, it looks like it was never in the cards. That allowed them to focus on the M3 Pro, to define it for the first time as something other than a variant of the Max.
I think the core idea of the Max as the building block remains, the reasoning behind the approach is sound, and we’ve got at least three generations of a straightforward Ultra ahead (M4, M5, M6). The nearest possible fork in the road is M7 in 2027. Until then, Apple will keep ratcheting up its pressure on the industry to keep up as the Max increases in both efficiency and performance, not to mention features.
In sum, I don’t think we’ll see a change in the MacBook Pro and Studio/Pro chassis until 2027 (at the earliest), until then it will be all about the silicon.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
While I have a 6, see the jelly and mostly don't care, a frequent rumor is simply rotating the screen. If true, I can't see how that won't rotate the jelly too: "the new 7, now great in portrait mode" but when you use it in landscape mode: jelly 2.
I'm thinking that it CAN'T be only rotation, since a common landscape use of Mini is web browsing where scrolling of web pages commonly shows the jelly effect. So I would guess the screen itself must be an upgrade to minimize it in whatever orientation it is installed. Else, the "big gripe" problem just shifts to the other view.
Nevertheless, bring on the 7. I'm looking forward to replacing my 6 with the approx. 9 or 10 and need 7 and then 8 to launch first. Working assumption is about 2029-30 for 9 or 10, so that implies 7 about now and then 8 about 2 or 3 years from now.
There's nothing to speculate about here
Older iPads with the previous orientation also have the jelly (my Mini 5 has it), but its' far less noticeable (if at all) when in landscape
Reverting the panel orientation is all they need to do
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Pretty excited about buying a MBP 14" M4 and retire my MBP 13" 2017.
Well, Occam's Razor says it was because they weren't planning to update the Studio or Mac Pro during the M3's lifetime. They're not going to make chips for machines they don't make...
I do, however, wonder if the "ultrafusion" concept really has legs, esp. for multiple-SoC designs where you're doubling everything up for the sake of getting more CPU and GPU cores. It means that your basic die has to be designed to serve a dual purpose as a viable stand-alone SoC and a building block for fusion systems - which is likely to add redundancy. For personal workstation workloads, adding cores tends to have diminishing returns, so maybe designing a slightly larger chip with a couple of extra CPU or GPU cores is more cost effective than doubling everything up. Also, sounds like they ran out of spatial dimensions when trying to make a 4-chip "Extreme" version...
I'm quite excited for the new mini also because of the redesign. My current M1 Mac mini always had a bluetooth interference issue which a lot of people have. It's flagrant when I turn on wifi (I have to use RJ45 to avoid this), I often cannot control the trackpad and it becomes very laggy. Apple support claimed some software update would solve it, but it never did. So I'm more hopeful with the new design to avoid bluetooth and wifi interference.
I don't see why a new Mac mini form factor is needed or if the user derives any benefit vs. the current form factor. If anything it might cause me concern about thermals.
Will be sticking with my current until a mac desktop with the M4 Max arrives.
Will be sticking with my current until a mac desktop with the M4 Max arrives.
