Well I’m out. The HP minis have always been one of the worst Apple devices I’ve owned. Slow and unreliable. A remote UI with massive lag. Sound has never been all that great with punchy little bass and pokey highs, leaving a lack of mids for a truly empty sound stage. Makes sense for having an 8 year old watch processor. I was expecting a nee model to improve matters but that never came. Now with OS 26, they are bottom rung. Which tracks given how Apple rolls. New model will handle OS 26/27 just fine. The first gen minis? Well… LOL.
Every new OS has tanked it’s performance by adding new features I have no need for. Playing music has always been spotty. The nee bug in OS 26 b3 is corrupted buffers which produce squelches and blips in some uploaded tracks that survives reboots.
It was really nice of Cook to cut off the exit strategy of using an iPad as a homekit hub though. Using my M4 iPad Pro to control Siri is palpable compared to the mini. Instant from “Hey Siri.”
They also removed Home controls from macOS which I don’t know how it didn’t lead to a riot. Offloading it to “Scenes” should have been the realization that Apple is on fumes regarding real innovation and now wedging corporate interest even above UX.
This company actually used to be about quality because their CEO almost bankrupted TWO companies in his pursuit of the perfect PC. The new CEO has heart palpitations over shaving 23 cents off every iPhone sold.
I don’t even care if they release a new one. Their walled garden is starting to feel like a jail.