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My Next Mac Mini

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Re: My Next Mac Mini

#281

Post by dgregd »

fowlerpower wrote: post #157

Someone here needs to explain it to me because I just don't understand. We have the largest computer company in the world, a shit load of people work there, supposedly smart people. Yet they can't put together a refresh of many of their desktop machines. Why the fuck not? What do all those people getting paid all that money do all day? I can only imagine the conversations, "it takes years it has to be super innovativ…

I ask myself the same questions. It seems that Apple is lost in internal politics.

It was right decision at the time to build the new OS only for mobile devices. But now laptops and desktops have also touch screens. It was easy to foresee this. So Microsoft decision to build touch OS for laptops and desktops payed off. But who at Apple will take the blame for the decision made 5 years ago to still have two separate OSes? I guess it is safer to continue Steve Jobs vision, even knowing that Steve often changed his mind.

That lack of Mac Mini internals upgrade is really insane. It seems that no exec wants to be associated with that simple project. In most innovative and valuable company everyone has to work on something revolutionary, otherwise someone will be not considered as the right person for Apple.

I guess that "laser focus" and "saying no" are now mostly used in internal office fights.

Re: My Next Mac Mini

#282

Post by tqkxzugoaupvwqr »

spydum wrote: post #171
fowlerpower wrote: post #157

Someone here needs to explain it to me because I just don't understand. We have the largest computer company in the world, a shit load of people work there, supposedly smart people. Yet they can't put together a refresh of many of their desktop machines. Why the fuck not? What do all those people getting paid all that money do all day? I can only imagine the conversations, "it takes years it has to be super innovativ…

It's waaaay more profitable to sell the same device for three years without updates: it costs nothing in r&d. This wholy explains the mind boggling profit margins doesn't it?

Sounds short-sighted. You assume they continue to sell the same number of devices per quarter. I argue the quarterly number declines with outdated specs. Taken to the extreme, 40% profit margin on 1k sold units is nothing compared to 30% of a million sold units. Also, how hard can it be to put new CPUs and more RAM in? You don’t need a design team for that.

Re: My Next Mac Mini

#283

Post by DCKing »

camperman wrote: post #210
DCKing wrote: post #201

I understand this blogpost is meant to point out that Apple is abandoning desktop computers and their various use cases. It's all very bad and we haven't had enough articles discussing this yet, why won't Apple think of us anymore, etc. etc. But I'm surprised he quickly says "No worries you might say, go to Apple and buy a new Mac mini!". If your Mac Mini behaves like he describes, wouldn't the straightforward respon…

I don't believe you can - it's all soldered on. Like the new Macbook Pros, it's designed to be impossible to upgrade.

This is not as true for the Mac Mini, not even the latest generation. Although not plug and play, the hard drive in these machines are serviceable with a basic kit you can buy off eBay and clear instructions from iFixit. The Mac Mini referred to in this post moreover is 'over six years old', making them a little easier to service.

Re: My Next Mac Mini

#284

Post by tqkxzugoaupvwqr »

josephg wrote: post #277
maolt wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many of those do you ? How many of those hardcore users actually do like the new MBP and do not bother talking about it ? I would honestly appreciate to see a bit more fact & figures instead of anecdotal evidence.

Yes - I know a bunch of software developers who excitedly bought one of the new MacBook pros on launch day. And Apple has said that by volume it was one of their best laptop launches ever. I think regarding the new mbps the internet echo chamber doesn't mirror reality.

> by volume it was one of their best laptop launches ever

I argue: One reason is that it took Apple one and a half years to refresh the MacBook Pro, leading to pent up demand. Previous models were refreshed after max. 0.8 years, from 2015 to 2016 it took 1.7 years.

Re: My Next Mac Mini

#285

Post by once-in-a-while »

rswail wrote: post #178
once-in-a-while wrote: post #167

(this is nothing nice to say, but here I am, the one without "karma" -- whatever this means to you, to me it simply means: "sold" -- so, I will tell you some naked Truth): As of today, the guy heading Apple(R) is a man(?!) who has the courage to publicly state: "Homosexuality is maybe the biggest gift God gave me". If this is what majority thinks on this Planet, I want to leave for a better place already... (Yes, I k…

This is irrelevant and attacks a person for their sexuality. You should be ashamed of yourself.

Do you not understand that this is a global, personal attack on ourselves?

Homosexuality is a "problem" of maybe 3% of human beings.

So, now should somebody be proud of this, and attributing it as a "gift of God Personally Himself"?

Are you really so blind to not see the obvious?

And why does a comment like mine need to be "flagged"?

Can't you see that this is "dictatorship of relativism" already?

If not, I'm really sorry, not of you, but about the whole web community...

Re: My Next Mac Mini

#286

Post by spraak »

I never really use my laptop as a portable computer. It usually still just sits at my desk, so I think next time I buy a machine I'll consider getting something like this and max out the RAM and get a nice USB monitor.

Re: My Next Mac Mini

#287

Post by mwfunk »

spydum wrote: post #171
fowlerpower wrote: post #157

Someone here needs to explain it to me because I just don't understand. We have the largest computer company in the world, a shit load of people work there, supposedly smart people. Yet they can't put together a refresh of many of their desktop machines. Why the fuck not? What do all those people getting paid all that money do all day? I can only imagine the conversations, "it takes years it has to be super innovativ…

It's waaaay more profitable to sell the same device for three years without updates: it costs nothing in r&d. This wholy explains the mind boggling profit margins doesn't it?

No, because while those ancient computers probably do have amazing margins at this point, they don't sell in sufficient quantities to make a big impact on quarterly earnings. Those mind boggling margins and profits really do come from mostly new devices. It really is just a matter of either poor multitasking by the organization, a very depressing long-term strategy, or both.

It's weird- the practice of never talking about product roadmaps started in an era when whatever customer angst and uncertainty it generated was vastly outweighed by customer and media delight when the next step in that roadmap was finally revealed, which at the time happened like clockwork at 6-month intervals. Now people want them to talk about product roadmaps not because they're excited to know when/what the next great Mac is going to be, but because they're worried that there won't BE any Macs anymore (at least not any that they would want to buy). :(

Re: My Next Mac Mini

#288

Post by protomyth »

kogepathic wrote: post #149
newscracker wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple's attitude to the Mac mini truly confuses me. I'm probably speaking for thousands of people. It's been complete frustration to see what Apple hasn't been up to on the Mac front. Apart from not updating a few ranges for years (and introducing updates that reduce or remove the kind of expandability the core Apple customer base wants), not reducing the price of old systems is highly insensitive on the part of th…

> Though lacking in certain ways, the HP Z2 Mini seems like a decent alternative for people who can move out of macOS. The Z2 Mini is a completely different class of hardware. People who are looking for an alternative to the Mac Mini would be well served by an Intel NUC, Zotac ZBOX [0], or Gigabyte BRIX [1]. [0] https://www.zotac.com/product/mini_pcs/all [1] http://www.gigabyte.us/products/list.aspx?s=47&ck=104

and yet, the HP Z2 Mini is the same price as the middle Mac Mini packing quite a bit more power and expandability.

Re: My Next Mac Mini

#289

Post by bootload »

" Is this what I’ve been missing all these years as a died in the wool Mac user?"

Laser focus in apple (cf @nattnewton), laser focus in customers perceptions.

Re: My Next Mac Mini

#290

Post by ajmurmann »

Symbiote wrote: post #129
ajmurmann wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been to countless offices that use Mac Minis for dashboards and CI monitors.

I set one up at work for this purpose, but using an old, unused Mac Mini. If I'd needed something new for refreshing a couple of web pages, I'd have bought a Raspberry Pi or similar. Would anyone really buy a Mac Mini, new, to do this?

Well it depends. If it was just me I'd buy a raspberry pi. If it was a single or small number of machines for work I might buy a Mac mini, just because I know for certain that it will work and know exactly how much labor will go into it. The labor and risk easily can outweigh the lower price of acquisition.
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