tenthousandthings

sunman42 said:

DAalseth said:

I hadn’t thought about it but I think your analysis is likely spot on. 

Wasn’t the Mini one of the very first Macs with Apple silicon? It’s definitely due. But then it is the bottom end machine and I was surprised when it got Apple silicon so early. Maybe they figure that it can go longer between updates because it is just the Mini. Whatever the reason, I’ve got new computer fever. I can wait till early next year, (and my bank account would be happier if I did), but I was hoping not to have to. 

The delay in introducing an up-speced Intel mini between 2014 and 2018 certainly made it appear that the mini was the poor stepchild in Cupertino.

I'm glad you love the Mac mini. We love it too. Our customers have found so many creative and interesting uses for the Mac mini. While it is not time to share any details, we do plan for Mac mini to be an important part of our product line going forward."

The Mini, let's not forget, wasn't "one of the first" Macs with Apple Silicon, it was the first, in the form of the "Developer Transition Kit" = an A12Z SoC with 16 GB RAM inside a Space Grey Mac mini. The M1 Mini has carried on in that role, I think, as a low-cost way to test Apple Silicon. I got one early on and hooked it up to an old Thunderbolt Display, but that's been replaced now with a Studio Display in a configuration that is pretty much the 27" M1 iMac:

Laroche1982 said:

mSak said:

Laroche1982 said:

I’m at the Apple store right now and it’s still up, and I live in the northeast.

Are you sure you’re not surrounded by falling bricks? Check again. Maybe you got a concussion and don’t know it.

LOL.

No smart ass I’m talking about the Apple Store online. It’s still up and running get a clue. Perhaps, the author of this post is full of shit like you. 

JP234 said:

roundaboutnow said:

JP234 said:

ITGUYINSD said:

JP234 said:

So give up a Thunderbolt port on your Mac to get more thunderbolt ports? You had two, now you have three. And some USB ports, Ethernet, and an SD port.

I got a dock with HDMI,  Ethernet, SD, micro-SD, (2) USB 3.0 for $16.19 on Amazon.

Is this one really worth $300? Not to me. Maybe you.

Depends on what Mac you connect it to.  Worst case, the MBP 13 M1 has 2 TB ports.  One used for this dock, leaves me with 1 on the MBP and 3 on the dock.  4 Total by my count.  And it's not just "some USB" ports, they are 10Gbps each.  So yes -- if you just need some generic ports to plug in a mouse or a thumb drive, a $20 dock is fine

For those who need more TB4 ports and high-speed USB 3.2 ports plus Ethernet, this is good.  Expensive, but good.  There isn't much else out there like this.

Like M68000 said -- no HDMI is a big bummer.

Your math is just one port off: you have to connect one of those 3 on the dock to one of the TB ports on your Mac. That's a total of 3.

Thunderbolt is expensive tech, no matter who's producing it, and it's really only useful to a handful of professionals in the I/O intensive applications. 10Gb/s USB-C will do just fine for the other 99.99%. So will two USB-C ports, for that matter.

FTA: On the front of the dock is a Thunderbolt 4 host port, which connects to your Mac and can provide 96 watts of power delivery. 

So there are four TB ports — one in front, three in back. 

Also, an HDMI port would be nice, but a TB to HDMI cable about the same price as an HDMI-HDMI cable. 

So you have one port that connects to the Mac. That leaves three that can be used for I/O. But without the hub, you have (minimum) 2 that you can use for I/O. Net gain: 1 port.