JoeMurphyJr

If it's that easy to move out of the enclosure, it probably wouldn't be too hard for somebody to offer an aftermarket enclosure so you could have the Mac mini internals and a more powerful graphics card all in one with a short thunderbolt connection bridging them. I'm not sure how much of a market there would be for that, though, especially with the modular Mac Pro on the horizon.

EDIT: Nevermind, this sentence in the article was a bit deceptive. "Once a Mini is open, the logic board for instance can be removed with thumb presses instead of a tool." According to iFitIt, that's actually a 15 step process before you get to that point.

Two words: Online gambling.

If this is true (and I can see many, many reasons for them to implement a dedicated "secure" CPU / core as they already do for iOS devices), then I see no reason why HomeKit couldn't finally come to the Mac. If nothing else, it opens the possibility for Siri voice control, and possibly some dedicated 1st party HomeKit app like what exists in iOS today to set up more advanced rules. The benefits are numerous and, long term, I cannot see Apple limiting this to *only* the iMac Pro. There's already precedent for this today as Touch Bar-enabled Macs technically have a dedicated Ax processor running in tandem with the main Intel CPU.

Until now, there was pretty big concern about macOS, which is a much more open operating system compared to iOS, having any access to home automation, including critical home security devices like smart locks. By offloading this to a secure core, they get rid of that risk and can remove any chance for 3rd party access as well.

The speed boost was achieved with new carrier aggregation technology pulling in 12 data streams, each up to 100 megabits per second. Upload speeds are significantly slower, but still go up to 150 megabits per second.

i don't see the urgency in Qualcomm and Apple settling some dispute to get their hands on an LTE modem that can only hit theoretical speeds in a controlled lab environment. 2-3 way carrier aggregation is a fairly new concept, let alone the idea of 12 carrier aggregation. You won't see anything close to 1.2 Gbps in the real world.

The industry is more preoccupied with 5G as the new shiny technology to tout even faster (lab, not real world) speeds. Intel just came out a 5G capable modem, although it will be a couple years before we ever see it in a smart phone.

I don't see how this is considered "minor" news. If Apple supports 4K, it brings a ton of implications:

1) 4K content on iTunes. It's a given -- they wouldn't support a premium format on Apple TV that if they can't monetize it. It'd make zero sense.

2) Possible 4K gaming and apps. This in itself would have interesting implications on the upgraded unit's required hardware capabilities.

3) Support for HEVC, which is pretty much the gold standard codec for 4K content. This would bleed over into native HEVC support in iTunes and Quicktime. This would be a huge benefit even for people who don't consume 4K content because movies encoded in HEVC versus H.264 are about 1/2 to 1/4 the size. Any video, 1080p or any resolution, would take up much less space on your computer.