Clarus

This is great news. I’ve literally been waiting for this 4m2 upgrade for YEARS...one that works properly. The reason is, OWC previously had a nice little black 4m2 which said it was Thunderbolt 2 and 3 compatible. The catch was, if you weren’t ganging up multiple SSDs as a RAID, it could only do a single slot transfer at under 900MB/sec (slower than USB 3.2) because of the older PCI standard it used, but I wanted to use it as JBOD. Also, people said the fan was noisy. So I didn't buy it.

This new 4m2 looks like it's fully modernized for Thunderbolt 4/USB4. It would be nice if AppleInsider could test one when it becomes available and confirm that the 3200MB/sec that OWC claims really applies to every slot individually. That is how it should work. Also, if AppleInsider could verify that the OWC claim of "near silent operation" is actually true this time.

When the SM1 keyboard was released I ordered it before reviews came out. I ended up liking it a lot, and it’s my daily driver. Nice typing experience and feels durable. I'll bet this new one will be great. I didn’t need it in extended keyboard form but it's nice to see they released that since lots of users were asking for an extended version.

My only quibble is that most of the SM1 lighting patterns are kind of annoying…frantic gamer-style key light animations, but all the LEDs are white. I leave it on the slow fade cycle setting which is kind of soothing.

jeffharris said:

Only 10Gbps transfer speed? 

That kind of blows, especially since the new mini has Thunderbolt 5 ports.

If you sit down and think it through, both decisions make complete sense.

10Gbps for the SSD is because the dock is a USB-C hub, and the 10Gbps max data rate of USB 3.2 is what is limiting the speed. So having the slot is like getting a free USB 3.2 SSD enclosure, because that is exactly the max speed of the $30 NVMe SSD enclosures you get through Amazon which I have several of. (10Gbps is fast enough for most uses.) No disappointment there.

Now, you can go and be an armchair quarterback and say “But SSDs can do 6000MB/sec and Thunderbolt 5 would let that happen, therefore this dock is useless.” OK cowboy, again, think this through: To achieve that, the hub would have to be upgraded to support Thunderbolt 5. But the problem is this hub is a replacement for their old Mac mini hub which the article said retails for around $100. And you are not going to find any Thunderbolt 5 peripherals (except a cable) on sale today for anywhere as low as $100. 

If you buy a 40Gbps Thunderbolt 4 SSD enclosure today, the going rate is about $120. That alone is already a higher price than what this dock is supposed to cost. Based on the current prices for Thunderboltl 4/5 hubs, a hub like this supporting Thunderbolt 5 through the SSD slot and multiple ports would probably cost no less than $300. Satechi could probably sell a few of those, but Satechi knows they will sell a lot more $100 USB-C docks.

So I like to think of this dock’s SSD slot as a free $30 10Gbps USB SSD enclosure that saves a port. And that is a nice feature.

jeffharris said:

A couple extra USB-C ports would be nice, too. Aren’t we all trying to get rid of USB-A?

We have not seen a full spec sheet yet, only a pre-announcement. I also hope there are more USB-C ports. But by including USB-A, Satechi has again been smart. If you have actually read comments on the new Mini, one of the biggest complaints is no more USB-A ports. Yes, I am trying to get rid of USB-A myself, and all new accessories I buy are USB-C, but I still have several 10-15 year old USB-A devices that are still doing their job and do not need to be thrown out just because. A lot of people are like that. (Yes, of course we could all go out and buy more USB-A to C adapters, they’re cheap. But sometimes it’s nice to just plug it in.)

gatorguy said: A nicely detailed post, but you could have saved the effort if you had paid attention to what I said: Was, when it was first employed, not is. I agree with your "is". 

I don't think that is true. Retina was probably designed as not resolution specific from the beginning, following emerging industry trends. Retina and the parallel HiDPI standard in Windows and Android were the same response to the fact that if something was not done to compensate, the increasing resolution of monitors would have made text and UI tinier and tinier until they were impossible to read. The concept of distance-adjusted scale factors had to be implemented if that problem was to be avoided.

It seems very unlikely that one year Apple decided to say "We have xxx dpi." That has no long term road map. The actual Retina explanation fits into a much bigger picture and road map that the entire industry was following.

Two Franklin series? They should just combine "Snoopy Presents: Welcome Home, Franklin" with "Franklin":

It is about Benjamin Franklin's journey during the American Revolution. Being 70 years old and having no diplomatic training, he struggles to fit in with the Peanuts gang, until Franklin discovers the neighborhood kite competition. He teams up with Charlie Brown to build an innovative new "lightning kite" and an even greater friendship.