New Mac Mini at MWSF?

Sad Professor

So says Wired. Seems the mini may not be dead after all.

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/12/rumor-new-mac-m.html

Who wants to bet there'll be no firewire?

J-blk

There might be no new Mini at all, not just no firewire . Apple categorically denied a new Mini recently, which is very unusual for them (they seem to prefer to let the rumor mill run wild). Still, I am hoping for a - decent - update. The Mini really does need a better GFX card and 802.11n at this stage...

Sad Professor

Yeah I'm sceptical about these rumours as well. I've written the mini's obituary more than once, but I think if Apple were going to kill it off they would have done it by now. The recession might have changed things. Apple may hate the mini but there is a definite market out there for it.

I'm not expecting much from any potential update though. More shiny is the most we can expect.

J-blk

Checked out some of the rumors - spec-wise, the best guess is that it would match current MacBooks to a degree, which would be a decent enough boost over the existing generation. I wouldn't hold my breath though...

Too bad really, I don't know why Apple hates the Mini, it was my first Mac and without it, I probably would have never switched - I'm sure that's true for many others too...

Sad Professor

The Mini interferes with Jobs' vision of Apple as the Rolls Royce of the computer world. Plus, he's never going to get over what happened with the Cube so there's no chance of the Mini ever going up market and becoming a headless prosumer machine. It was a nice way of luring in switchers in the beginning but I'm not sure it's viable for that purpose anymore, it's too expensive and crippled. Most PC users think it's a joke. It's biggest selling point now is its size for use as a media centre — which is what the Apple tv is supposed to be — but I don't think Apple get this.

Red Alert

I'm strongly thinking about replacing our 'communal' computer in the kitchen with a Mac mini, I have an Apple TV but I was thinking of also getting a Mini instead of that too.... I hope they keep it.

I wonder will the AppleTV get a refresh (at least cosmetically) or will it be killed?

Sad Professor

More rumours:

TUAW believes that the Mac mini will indeed see an update at Macworld San Francisco next week. Rumors of a Mac mini update have been ongoing with most expectations pointing to Macworld.

TUAW's report is light on details but expects at least two major changes

- The internal optical drive will be an SATA drive that can be swapped out with a second SATA hard drive
- Design will change from the current white plastic to black plastic and aluminum.

Based on circulating evidence, we also expect the new Mac minis to be based on the NVIDIA chipsets. This design change should guarantee the use of the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics card at a minimum. This should improve the graphics capabilities of the mini significantly over the current design.

http://www.macrumors.com/2008/12/31/mac-mini-to-launch-at-macworld-san-francisco/

J-blk

And 802.11n I hope, otherwise I'll cry...

Jokah

If they discontinue the Mac Mini - does that mean they get sold off cheap then in the Apple Store or do they remove them straight away from the shelves?

Maybe a bit of a Noob question, but I am a recent convert to the computer..had an Ipod for ages, and got the iphone at the beginning of the year..

I have a MBP Laptop - bought in June after using a brand new Dell XPS with Vista for a week - love Apple now and I won't go back to Windows anymore...Vista, unless it is 64 bit, is pants.

I want a computer running 24/7 in the house and the Mac Mini would be perfect..don't want my laptop running the whole time....so, I hope they don't dis-continue the range, just update it....

Whatever they do, I'll be on the road to Belfast to save myself money....wireless and a base of 2gigs of ram would be sweet.

J-blk

Apple is pretty good at winding down stock availability of a model about to be discontinued/updated and there's usually not a lot of the old ones left "on the shelves". If the Mini is replaced or discontinued, it'll disappear off the main Apple store straight away, but you'll probably still find the older models in the refurbished store or via third party retailers for awhile - it's hard to say if the savings will be substantial, but the Belfast option is always good for now. It's what I plan to do if a new one is released, to replace my current one .

Dorsanty

I find myself waiting for a new Mini to come along too. Intending to stick it near the TV. My parents have an AppleTV and while it's simplicity is good, it's too crippled. US iTunes account is a must have for it. I also now have a DVB-T usb device so I want to get some use of that.

I will be following the blog on http://decabled.com/
The guy there is disconnecting his cable TV in the new year and seeing if he and family can live off internet based media alone.

So my ideal device would be some merger of the Mini and AppleTV,
Optical disk drive + HDMI out + Better GPU + 802.11n

I think this would be smart for Apple, make 1 device rather then 2 and appeal to the consumers of both. With the savings in manufacturing too it could sell for a nice low price