Macs, like many other computers, have always had their share of problems. These past few years feel particularly bad though, so here’s my quick take on the current state of the Mac lineup.
Mac Mini
Mac Mini Review — A Testament to Apple’s Stubbornness →
Peter Bright, for Ars Technica:
[…] the new Mac mini is a compromised box that’s engineered to be quite small. If you’re wedded to macOS, then it does the job well enough. It’s not bad as such, and it’s certainly a solid upgrade over the 2014 system. But there’s nothing this device particularly excels at, and there’s no real scenario where it leaps out at me as being the ideal, obvious choice. It’s the Mac you buy when you know you need to buy a Mac… and you’ve already ruled out all the other systems Apple has on offer.
After Apple’s appalling history in keeping the Mac Mini relevant and updated, people are applauding the new model. It does get a lot of things right, but imagine if the Mac Mini managed to fit just the following hardware inside its case:
- the newer Core i9-9900K 8-core 16-thread (95 W) or the Core i7-9700K 8-core 8-thread (95 W) CPU
- a single PCIe slot
Even if Apple decided not to offer user-accessible M.2 NVMe flash storage instead of its proprietary standard (and easily user-accessible RAM), people would go crazy for this machine. I can easily see this Mac instantly becoming one of the bestselling models ever. I know I’d get one.
Marco Arment’s 2018 Mac Mini Review →
Marco Arment:
The 2018 Mac Mini is real, and it’s spectacular.
It makes almost nothing worse and almost everything better, finally bringing the Mac Mini into the modern age.
This is probably the best review of the new Mac Mini that I read and watched.
Tim Cook On The Mac Mini →
Tim Cook, answering an email:
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.
Plans can change, as evidenced by the current Mac Mini, which hasn’t been updated in 1099 days. I’ll believe it when I see it.
The iMac is currently the only model which has been getting regular updates. The MacBook Pro 13” should have had the new quad-core Kaby Lake Refresh chips announced already — the PC competition is already selling them — and we’re still waiting for the “can’t innovate my ass” Mac Pro.
Apple seems to have lost focus on the Mac over the last couple of years. I hope they get their shit together soon, before it’s too late.
P.S. Oh! Make the Touch Bar optional please!
Rethinking Apple →
Dr Drang:
Apple is making money hand over fist. By market share, it’s the biggest company in the world. Why is it continually putting itself in positions where it’s either apologizing, like today, or should be apologizing, as with the once long-overdue MacBook Pro update and the currently long-overdue iMac, Mac Mini, and iPad Pro updates.
While I appreciate Apple voicing their commitment to the Mac, I cannot fathom why this is even necessary. They are one of the biggest companies in the world and surely they can create teams that will constantly only work on Mac hardware. While I understand that simple updates to components seem perhaps too easy to do, with Apple’s aspirations being much higher, regular updates should be present in all line-ups. For example, the Mac Mini perhaps doesn’t fullfill Apple’s dreams of what a small Mac could or should be, but while they figure this out, it would be nice to have current generation hardware inside, regularly updated to the latest and greatest technologies, including Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C. I know of a lot of people holding off, just because the Mini is 900+ days old.