In the video the top of the case looks like it has been glued on and sticks above the aluminum side case. In teal Minis the top is inset into the top of the case. The still image from a couple of days a go does not show this. I think either this is a prototype or they are deliberately hiding the top of the case.
Yeah. I can see them keeping the same square shape so as to make it fit in the same racks the originals do, and having opened a few of them up I can see (maybe) not making it any thinner because the originals are fairly crammed inside and maybe it isn't possible. But why not change *something* about the top. Keeping it the same just makes it look old.
What I am having a hard time getting my head around is the fact that if all they were going to do is upgrade the components, why not do this a while ago? Why wait a year and a half and then come out with the same design? If they are going to keep the design the same, they should be upgrading the components much more frequently. If they are going to imitate Dell, do it right.
Maybe the slightly different appearing top is because it's easier to open and swap stuff out? But then why a slot loading drive? And you'd have to take the optical drive out through the top to get at the HD anyway unless it's stuck to the top when you remove it.
Let me apologize in advance for posting so many times in a matter of an hour but I want to make a point in regards to why Apple might have waited so long.
Cost is an issue and it has to be kept in mind that the cost of many of the internals go down as they are in the marketplace longer. It could well be that the cost of the components, like the CPU and the GPU are now down a little compared to a few months ago when these parts were brand new products. Apple could afford to pay a little more to put them in their laptops because those are higher-margin products and you have to start somewhere. But when you are looking at a $500 computer like the mini, cost is a big deal. So they put the 9400M first in the new laptops. Then they upgraded the legacy plastic laptop. And now, we apparently are going to see it in the mini. I don't know this for a fact but I'm willing to bet the per-unit cost of the 9400Ms going into the minis will be lower than it was for the allotment of 9400Ms that went into that first batch of laptops.
One more thing. Doesn't a company's ability to produce a product in volume improve over time and if so, could it be that there just weren't enough components available to convert the mini along with the laptops to the 9400M? After all, I don't imagine Apple would have wanted a shortage to cut into sales of the high-demand laptops.
Anyone know with more certainty if this is the case?
it's real alright - but without knowing the spec or more importantly the price I cant pass judgement.
A big price drop would be very welcome as I want to put a Mac Mini under my TV but athe the moment the cost is too high, and the Apple TV is too limited.
I have GOT to put my two cents in the ring. I find the gullibility shocking.
I am dying to upgrade my G4 mac and have put off purchasing for more than a couple of years now because I'm waiting to see Apple's new offerings. But they haven't come and it's been VERY frustrating. (and don't even get me started on their change in price point strategy).
We're all dying for an upgraded Mac Mini or iMac but come on... how gullible or desperate are we that we are actually believing the photo and video that are currently circulating? The photo is obviously a fake. I'm not talking about macroblocks or anything like that. Just look at the mini's back showing the ports. And notice the wood floor. There is absolutely no depth to the mini. One should be able to see parts of the sides of the mini along with part of the top. They don't exist. Someone with below average photoshop skills and, worse yet, no grasp of how 3-dimensional objects appear in 2-dimensional space obviously hobbled together the picture.
And now we have a video. A Mac Mini from two years ago but with new ports. Do any of us gushers out there realize how easy it is to fake something like that? We obviously didn't major in industrial design or used After Effects. So let's try common sense. If the world was questioning the validity of our photo of the supposed next-gen prototype and we truly did have this prototype, ¿what would be our response? ¿Sit it down on a table and spin around it with a video camera? Hell no! We'd pop that mother scratcher open and expose its guts. We'd show the new motherboard. We'd show the SATA. Anything. We'd show the new RAM slots. ANYTHING, ANYTHING, ANYTHING internal. That would shut up us naysayers. The internals would be s0o0o0o0o much harder to pass off as authentic.
Anyone can fake port outlets pretty easy. But try faking circuit boards. That's out of pretty much out of the youtube league. They can be too easily deconstructed by those that know.
"Hey, me and my buddy Jim are going to paint a fence with whitewash. It's great fun!!! You don't want to miss out. You've got to join in."
Seriously people. How gullible are you? This is nothing more than PT Barnum's Bearded Lady.
Personally, I think that this is an instigator with a noble cause?someone as frustrated as me with Apple's lack of hardware upgrades and subsequent continual silence regarding said lack of upgrades. This is someone's attempt to elict a response and get Apple to get off of their butts, put their iPhone down, and start innovating again. Don't make me call The Woz.
The Mini has turned into an interesting machine of disparate uses. Yes, it's still the cheap Mac for those who already have a display. But it's also the HTPC of Mac users who want more flexibility than an AppleTV and it's the cheapo server of the corporate world and some SOHO users. The article about their use in Vegas casinos was most enlightening...reminds me of the old SE/30 of 20 years ago.
I personally want one for a new Leopard Server to replace the ancient (G4 Powermac) one in my house now. FW800 is a must for my Drobo. And a display doesn't matter much to me. A quard core processor would be nice but I'm not getting my hopes up. Bring on the refresh!
it's real alright - but without knowing the spec or more importantly the price I cant pass judgement.
A big price drop would be very welcome as I want to put a Mac Mini under my TV but athe the moment the cost is too high, and the Apple TV is too limited.
Big price drops are rare with Apple. They prefer upping the specs at the same price point. For what the mini currently costs, considering nearly half of that cost would be a reasonable price to pay for the bundled software, I don't see a lot of room for a price drop of any significance.
Could be wrong but if you're waiting for a mini that costs more like an Apple TV, it's probably going to be a long wait.
boring. boring. boring. fine for those who want an entry level machine, of course. but, i want a new mac cube! 1 quad core processor, up to 8gb of ram, imac level nvidia graphics, and up to 1tb 7200rpm drive. please! i cant afford a mac pro, dont need all that empty space for expansion anyway. but, i already have drives keyboard and monitor... i just need a decent little box for graphic design. at the least, give me top-of-the-line imac specs in my box (and, use use of full 4gb of ram). and, make it $999. i would pay that in a heartbeat. bring back the cube!
You could also do something like the photo shown below. Its pretty similar as is an old photo of what someone thought the next iMac should look like.
I was thinking about why it would need 5 USB ports, and then it hit me. This computer, although portable, is meant for the Multimedia Room. That would mean you need 1. ATV, 2. TimeCap, 3. iPod / iPhone dock, and two for whatever (USB Flash, EXT HD, camcorder, etc). This makes sense to me because being the size the mini is, a usb hub would kind of clutter it's area. Also, I believe they left firewire on it because many cable companies are required to include firewire on their boxes, and firewire is also found on many other CONSUMER LEVEL A/V equipment (multimedia).
Cable companies are not required to include a FireWire port on their boxes. Time Warner, the largest cable provider, does not have FireWire on any of their boxes. The only consumer level AV devices that include FireWire these days are MiniDV cameras, and those are almost phased out. If that was the purpose, they would have stuck with FireWire 400. The Mac Mini was intended for the cheap PC user to get them to switch. In your list of USB devices, you forgot the Keyboard and Mouse.
I would say it is still a fake or a prototype because Apple ditched FireWire from the MacBook so it seems unlikely they would include FireWire 800 on such a cheap Mac. Also, it is pointless to have two display ports when they failed to include both on the MacBook for backwards compatibility.
I don't know why they continue to make the Mini when it is their least sold Mac. Over the years, it has INCREASED in price, which is the opposite of other models. The original Mini was $499. Now you are looking at $599 and $799.
As usual, if it's real Apple will have it removed.
My opinion is that there's no way Apple is going to use the same materials and look that it has for the past 4 years and this machine does not fit in with Apple's other products.
It matches their keyboard and mouse just fine. Apple maintained the PowerBook/MacBook design for 6 years.
But when you are looking at a $500 computer like the mini, cost is a big deal.
Unfortunately, the Mac Mini is NOT a $500 computer. Where have you been? The Mac Mini is the only Mac that has increased in price since the introduction. Unfortunately, the Mini is a $600 and $800 computer. It is not worth either price, either. If Apple wanted to have the low cost computer for PC switchers, topping the price at $800 isn't the way to do it.
Don't forget, Matt, that the Apple keyboard has two USB ports. So, if you plug the Apple keyboard into one USB port, on the Mac Mini, you'll have two USB ports on the keyboard, and you'll only need two more, making it three total, on the Mac Mini.
The Mini is for switchers, who are bringing their own keyboard. Many PC keyboards don't have USB ports on them. Two USB ports are lost automatically for these people (keyboard, mouse). Throw in a printer and an iPod and you only have one left for whatever else you may have (camera, external HD, etc).
In terms of the form factor for the mini, if it ain't broke . . .
That's right, the Mini is probably the only Mac I've ever know that hasn't had a single widespread problem in its entire existence. The only issue I have found is that the heat build up inside with the hard drive being above the CPU causes it to start making a clunk noise. The drives keep going but it's annoying. I'd love to switch to SSD to eradicate this but I'll wait for more SSD reviews.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ruDog
Do any of us gushers out there realize how easy it is to fake something like that? We obviously didn't major in industrial design or used After Effects. So let's try common sense.
Common sense?? What you're suggesting is that this person has modelled in 3D all of the individual fake ports, reverse calculated the lighting, built shaders that look like the same materials used on the ports, tracked the video of the rotation in 3D using a tracker that builds a 3D scene and then placed lights accordingly and rendered the ports on alpha then taken them into After Effects or similar by importing the tracking information again and matching the movement precisely, all to convince people that this is the new Mini, which we know is coming any time now? And you're telling *us* to have some common sense? Time to take off the tin foil hat and maybe put the bong away. I say maybe because we are celebrating the fact Apple have finally updated the Mini and there is definitive proof
The last time I looked every TV/monitor besides Apple uses it as well as every new HI-Def PC laptop, desktop and Apple TV.
Oh and by the way- 30, 32, 37, 40, 42, 50", etc LDCTVs and Plasmas have been used as monitors for years. So you're really not that alone.
I think you understood what I meant but are trying to be sly, you should understand it by what I was quoting. When I said 30" computer displays, I meant the ones that are 2560x1600. That's not a TV, none of those monitors have tuners. All those that you mentioned are 1080p at most. The terminology for TV usually means that there is some kind of tuner box, such as for NTSC, ATSC, PAL, QAM. Monitors usually don't have that.
I wish it was MORE of a budget industrial design. Use a commodity mini tower case, and let us decide what we want to put into it.
Apple would NEVER do something as inelegant as use one of those horrid plastic boxes.
The current Mac mini design is adequate for what it is: a low-cost, full-featured, bare-bones (for Apple) Mac.
The current mini is crippled by the integrated graphics chip. With a real video card, mini-DVI and FireWire 800 (and I'd expect gigabit Ethernet), I would certainly be able to recommend them to friends and clients.
Unfortunately, the Mac Mini is NOT a $500 computer. Where have you been? The Mac Mini is the only Mac that has increased in price since the introduction. Unfortunately, the Mini is a $600 and $800 computer. It is not worth either price, either. If Apple wanted to have the low cost computer for PC switchers, topping the price at $800 isn't the way to do it.
Yes, Apple bumped the price of the Mini back in 2006 when they switched to Intel chips. That was a major reworking of the Mini's internals, not just a price increase on the same old model. Even so, the Mini is still the cheapest Mac available. The low-end white MacBook is %50 more expensive, and the iMac is nearly twice the price. As someone who wants to buy a new Mini when they are available, I'd love to spend as little as possible, but I don't think $600 is unreasonable.
Also, the current (aluminum) MacBook is more expensive than the MacBook it replaced, and there are other examples of Apple raising prices when they feel it is justified. A rare event perhaps, but not unheard of.
I don't know if this video is real or not, but I think it's very strange how so many are arguing that Apple wouldn't add one more USB port. There will be a mini-DP for sure, so what else would they do with all the extra space freed up by not having a full sized-DVI?
I've heard reports that the MacMini may be a media server. That would tend to support a Firewire 800 providing a high data bandwidth. I'm ready to buy 2 if they ever announce it.
OK ladies and Gents.... the reason for 5 USB is nothing to do with you guys wanting more or less..
its a feature if the Nvidia Chipset......
FIrewire 800 is cheeper to build in than the old 400 due to bulk buying the chipset..
Both display ports are there because they want you to use your own monitor (if your moving from PC to Mac) , the 24" LED or one of the new LED displays that are coming soon. (note that the old ones are vanishing from the apple store..)
Soon all the apple displays with have the new display port connection..
all this talk about HDMI... well if you want HDMI just use a DVI to HDMI cable its not rocket science, this is a computer not a DVD player.. so HDMI does not come into it...
osX 10.6 is just round the corner its going to be INTEL+Nvida optimized so the layout of this prototype is not a surprise...
The mini I guess will share everything the new macbooks have.......
Comments
Yeah. I can see them keeping the same square shape so as to make it fit in the same racks the originals do, and having opened a few of them up I can see (maybe) not making it any thinner because the originals are fairly crammed inside and maybe it isn't possible. But why not change *something* about the top.
What I am having a hard time getting my head around is the fact that if all they were going to do is upgrade the components, why not do this a while ago? Why wait a year and a half and then come out with the same design? If they are going to keep the design the same, they should be upgrading the components much more frequently. If they are going to imitate Dell, do it right.
Maybe the slightly different appearing top is because it's easier to open and swap stuff out? But then why a slot loading drive? And you'd have to take the optical drive out through the top to get at the HD anyway unless it's stuck to the top when you remove it.
Let me apologize in advance for posting so many times in a matter of an hour but I want to make a point in regards to why Apple might have waited so long.
Cost is an issue and it has to be kept in mind that the cost of many of the internals go down as they are in the marketplace longer. It could well be that the cost of the components, like the CPU and the GPU are now down a little compared to a few months ago when these parts were brand new products. Apple could afford to pay a little more to put them in their laptops because those are higher-margin products and you have to start somewhere. But when you are looking at a $500 computer like the mini, cost is a big deal. So they put the 9400M first in the new laptops. Then they upgraded the legacy plastic laptop. And now, we apparently are going to see it in the mini. I don't know this for a fact but I'm willing to bet the per-unit cost of the 9400Ms going into the minis will be lower than it was for the allotment of 9400Ms that went into that first batch of laptops.
One more thing. Doesn't a company's ability to produce a product in volume improve over time and if so, could it be that there just weren't enough components available to convert the mini along with the laptops to the 9400M? After all, I don't imagine Apple would have wanted a shortage to cut into sales of the high-demand laptops.
Anyone know with more certainty if this is the case?
A big price drop would be very welcome as I want to put a Mac Mini under my TV but athe the moment the cost is too high, and the Apple TV is too limited.
I am dying to upgrade my G4 mac and have put off purchasing for more than a couple of years now because I'm waiting to see Apple's new offerings. But they haven't come and it's been VERY frustrating. (and don't even get me started on their change in price point strategy).
We're all dying for an upgraded Mac Mini or iMac but come on... how gullible or desperate are we that we are actually believing the photo and video that are currently circulating? The photo is obviously a fake. I'm not talking about macroblocks or anything like that. Just look at the mini's back showing the ports. And notice the wood floor. There is absolutely no depth to the mini. One should be able to see parts of the sides of the mini along with part of the top. They don't exist. Someone with below average photoshop skills and, worse yet, no grasp of how 3-dimensional objects appear in 2-dimensional space obviously hobbled together the picture.
And now we have a video. A Mac Mini from two years ago but with new ports. Do any of us gushers out there realize how easy it is to fake something like that? We obviously didn't major in industrial design or used After Effects. So let's try common sense. If the world was questioning the validity of our photo of the supposed next-gen prototype and we truly did have this prototype, ¿what would be our response? ¿Sit it down on a table and spin around it with a video camera? Hell no! We'd pop that mother scratcher open and expose its guts. We'd show the new motherboard. We'd show the SATA. Anything. We'd show the new RAM slots. ANYTHING, ANYTHING, ANYTHING internal. That would shut up us naysayers. The internals would be s0o0o0o0o much harder to pass off as authentic.
Anyone can fake port outlets pretty easy. But try faking circuit boards. That's out of pretty much out of the youtube league. They can be too easily deconstructed by those that know.
"Hey, me and my buddy Jim are going to paint a fence with whitewash. It's great fun!!! You don't want to miss out. You've got to join in."
Seriously people. How gullible are you? This is nothing more than PT Barnum's Bearded Lady.
Personally, I think that this is an instigator with a noble cause?someone as frustrated as me with Apple's lack of hardware upgrades and subsequent continual silence regarding said lack of upgrades. This is someone's attempt to elict a response and get Apple to get off of their butts, put their iPhone down, and start innovating again. Don't make me call The Woz.
I personally want one for a new Leopard Server to replace the ancient (G4 Powermac) one in my house now. FW800 is a must for my Drobo. And a display doesn't matter much to me. A quard core processor would be nice but I'm not getting my hopes up. Bring on the refresh!
it's real alright - but without knowing the spec or more importantly the price I cant pass judgement.
A big price drop would be very welcome as I want to put a Mac Mini under my TV but athe the moment the cost is too high, and the Apple TV is too limited.
Big price drops are rare with Apple. They prefer upping the specs at the same price point. For what the mini currently costs, considering nearly half of that cost would be a reasonable price to pay for the bundled software, I don't see a lot of room for a price drop of any significance.
Could be wrong but if you're waiting for a mini that costs more like an Apple TV, it's probably going to be a long wait.
RT
boring. boring. boring. fine for those who want an entry level machine, of course. but, i want a new mac cube! 1 quad core processor, up to 8gb of ram, imac level nvidia graphics, and up to 1tb 7200rpm drive. please! i cant afford a mac pro, dont need all that empty space for expansion anyway. but, i already have drives keyboard and monitor... i just need a decent little box for graphic design. at the least, give me top-of-the-line imac specs in my box (and, use use of full 4gb of ram). and, make it $999. i would pay that in a heartbeat. bring back the cube!
You could also do something like the photo shown below. Its pretty similar as is an old photo of what someone thought the next iMac should look like.
I was thinking about why it would need 5 USB ports, and then it hit me. This computer, although portable, is meant for the Multimedia Room. That would mean you need 1. ATV, 2. TimeCap, 3. iPod / iPhone dock, and two for whatever (USB Flash, EXT HD, camcorder, etc). This makes sense to me because being the size the mini is, a usb hub would kind of clutter it's area. Also, I believe they left firewire on it because many cable companies are required to include firewire on their boxes, and firewire is also found on many other CONSUMER LEVEL A/V equipment (multimedia).
Cable companies are not required to include a FireWire port on their boxes. Time Warner, the largest cable provider, does not have FireWire on any of their boxes. The only consumer level AV devices that include FireWire these days are MiniDV cameras, and those are almost phased out. If that was the purpose, they would have stuck with FireWire 400. The Mac Mini was intended for the cheap PC user to get them to switch. In your list of USB devices, you forgot the Keyboard and Mouse.
I would say it is still a fake or a prototype because Apple ditched FireWire from the MacBook so it seems unlikely they would include FireWire 800 on such a cheap Mac. Also, it is pointless to have two display ports when they failed to include both on the MacBook for backwards compatibility.
I don't know why they continue to make the Mini when it is their least sold Mac. Over the years, it has INCREASED in price, which is the opposite of other models. The original Mini was $499. Now you are looking at $599 and $799.
As usual, if it's real Apple will have it removed.
My opinion is that there's no way Apple is going to use the same materials and look that it has for the past 4 years and this machine does not fit in with Apple's other products.
It matches their keyboard and mouse just fine. Apple maintained the PowerBook/MacBook design for 6 years.
But when you are looking at a $500 computer like the mini, cost is a big deal.
Unfortunately, the Mac Mini is NOT a $500 computer. Where have you been? The Mac Mini is the only Mac that has increased in price since the introduction. Unfortunately, the Mini is a $600 and $800 computer. It is not worth either price, either. If Apple wanted to have the low cost computer for PC switchers, topping the price at $800 isn't the way to do it.
Percentage? Link?
I have nothing to back this up but I'd be very surprised if your assertion is true.
http://www.dannychoo.com/detail/mac/...rver+Farm.html
Don't forget, Matt, that the Apple keyboard has two USB ports. So, if you plug the Apple keyboard into one USB port, on the Mac Mini, you'll have two USB ports on the keyboard, and you'll only need two more, making it three total, on the Mac Mini.
The Mini is for switchers, who are bringing their own keyboard. Many PC keyboards don't have USB ports on them. Two USB ports are lost automatically for these people (keyboard, mouse). Throw in a printer and an iPod and you only have one left for whatever else you may have (camera, external HD, etc).
In terms of the form factor for the mini, if it ain't broke . . .
That's right, the Mini is probably the only Mac I've ever know that hasn't had a single widespread problem in its entire existence. The only issue I have found is that the heat build up inside with the hard drive being above the CPU causes it to start making a clunk noise. The drives keep going but it's annoying. I'd love to switch to SSD to eradicate this but I'll wait for more SSD reviews.
Do any of us gushers out there realize how easy it is to fake something like that? We obviously didn't major in industrial design or used After Effects. So let's try common sense.
Common sense?? What you're suggesting is that this person has modelled in 3D all of the individual fake ports, reverse calculated the lighting, built shaders that look like the same materials used on the ports, tracked the video of the rotation in 3D using a tracker that builds a 3D scene and then placed lights accordingly and rendered the ports on alpha then taken them into After Effects or similar by importing the tracking information again and matching the movement precisely, all to convince people that this is the new Mini, which we know is coming any time now? And you're telling *us* to have some common sense? Time to take off the tin foil hat and maybe put the bong away. I say maybe because we are celebrating the fact Apple have finally updated the Mini and there is definitive proof
Please explain what you mean by HDMI??
The last time I looked every TV/monitor besides Apple uses it as well as every new HI-Def PC laptop, desktop and Apple TV.
Oh and by the way- 30, 32, 37, 40, 42, 50", etc LDCTVs and Plasmas have been used as monitors for years. So you're really not that alone.
I think you understood what I meant but are trying to be sly, you should understand it by what I was quoting. When I said 30" computer displays, I meant the ones that are 2560x1600. That's not a TV, none of those monitors have tuners. All those that you mentioned are 1080p at most. The terminology for TV usually means that there is some kind of tuner box, such as for NTSC, ATSC, PAL, QAM. Monitors usually don't have that.
I wish it was MORE of a budget industrial design. Use a commodity mini tower case, and let us decide what we want to put into it.
Apple would NEVER do something as inelegant as use one of those horrid plastic boxes.
The current Mac mini design is adequate for what it is: a low-cost, full-featured, bare-bones (for Apple) Mac.
The current mini is crippled by the integrated graphics chip. With a real video card, mini-DVI and FireWire 800 (and I'd expect gigabit Ethernet), I would certainly be able to recommend them to friends and clients.
I know I'd get one.
Unfortunately, the Mac Mini is NOT a $500 computer. Where have you been? The Mac Mini is the only Mac that has increased in price since the introduction. Unfortunately, the Mini is a $600 and $800 computer. It is not worth either price, either. If Apple wanted to have the low cost computer for PC switchers, topping the price at $800 isn't the way to do it.
Yes, Apple bumped the price of the Mini back in 2006 when they switched to Intel chips. That was a major reworking of the Mini's internals, not just a price increase on the same old model. Even so, the Mini is still the cheapest Mac available. The low-end white MacBook is %50 more expensive, and the iMac is nearly twice the price. As someone who wants to buy a new Mini when they are available, I'd love to spend as little as possible, but I don't think $600 is unreasonable.
Also, the current (aluminum) MacBook is more expensive than the MacBook it replaced, and there are other examples of Apple raising prices when they feel it is justified. A rare event perhaps, but not unheard of.
I don't know if this video is real or not, but I think it's very strange how so many are arguing that Apple wouldn't add one more USB port. There will be a mini-DP for sure, so what else would they do with all the extra space freed up by not having a full sized-DVI?
So it really is likely to be a physical object. Now it's a question of the true nature of that object.
Even more important now than it's nature, is the question of the object's destiny!
its a feature if the Nvidia Chipset......
FIrewire 800 is cheeper to build in than the old 400 due to bulk buying the chipset..
Both display ports are there because they want you to use your own monitor (if your moving from PC to Mac) , the 24" LED or one of the new LED displays that are coming soon. (note that the old ones are vanishing from the apple store..)
Soon all the apple displays with have the new display port connection..
all this talk about HDMI... well if you want HDMI just use a DVI to HDMI cable its not rocket science, this is a computer not a DVD player.. so HDMI does not come into it...
osX 10.6 is just round the corner its going to be INTEL+Nvida optimized so the layout of this prototype is not a surprise...
The mini I guess will share everything the new macbooks have.......