Tiny Mac mini M4 - PORTS DELETED‽
This is Unbelievable! It’s like the original iMac having no floppy drive! Apple HATES ports!
I told you things were getting busy! So, Mark Gurman, holder of knowledge at Bloomberg has revealed some new tidbits about the Mac mini that will be released with a new smaller design, and a change to the port selection that we’re getting on the device, which is going to upset some.
The new version of the Mac mini will be much smaller than the previous generation, with a footprint much closer to the Apple TV, and potentially slightly taller than the current version, which in my head makes it basically a scaled down Mac Studio. And, it has another Mac Studio like feature, which we’ll come to in a moment.
So first up, the power supply will be internal, no external power brick like the iMac, and I don’t think anyone will be upset about that. Just a power cord right in the back, alongside 3 USB-C ports, HDMI, Ethernet and a headphone jack. That’s right, while we were worried before about the future of the ethernet and headphone jack, it seems they were just missed off the original leak. Winning. That’s not it though, just like the Mac Studio, we’re apparently getting front USB-C ports too, a pair of them, so you won’t have to give it the classic reach around.
But here we go with what will most likely cause the most controversy. The USB-A ports will be no more. And good riddance.
Smash the dislike button - I know, I know, you’re all going to hate me for saying it, but losing the USB-A is overdue. No, it shouldn’t come back on the laptops. No, it shouldn’t come back on the Mac Pro or the iMac. And most likely it’ll be gone from the Mac Studio later this year too. And that’s good. Hear me out.
Remember when we mentioned the first iMac not having a floppy drive, and that being super controversial? It had a CD drive instead. It was also controversial because it introduced USB-A - version 1.1 in the place of ADB, GeoPort and SCSI.
Apple has form. Apple has always been this way, and probably will always be this way. USB was originally developed by Intel and was struggling for adoption when Apple adopted it in 1998. And while the change from those old ports was uncomfortable for some, it didn’t make the iMac struggle, it flourished. It saved Apple. And the industry followed. Just like you can follow my channel by capacitively touching the subscribe button. Don’t smash it. Too aggressive.
Then in 2015 Apple was one of the first companies to bring USB-C to their devices in the tiny 12” MacBook, again, ahead of the vast majority of their competitors, and again, at the cost of older legacy ports, like USB-A. Almost 10 years later, and Apple has finally relented and replaced the Lightning charge port on the iPhone with USB-C too, because USB-C is now so ubiquitous.
So is it time to do away with USB-A? The cries of people with older wired peripherals would say no. But Bluetooth is ubiquitous, and almost all devices with a USB-A cable could just get a new cable, so this isn’t exactly DongleGate all over again. BUT - if you do need some USB-A to USB-C adapters, I’ve linked some in the description.
Honestly, the USB-A ports were super handy for the Mac mini in its first role, a drop in replacement for people who wanted to dip a toe into the Mac ecosystem and keep their keyboard, mouse and display. But now, bluetooth keyboards and mice are super cheap and there’s designs for every taste. The other major use of those ports was USB-Thumb drives, but with the advent of airdrop, google drive, dropbox, and iCloud, the utility of them is way less than in the past, and doesn’t really outweigh the risks of them being used to deploy malware or even direct electronic attacks that can fry a system just by being plugged in.
And just as a reminder, this new Mac mini will be landing before the end of the year, with M4 AND M4 Pro inside, most likely at an October event alongside an M4 iMac and M4, M4 Pro and M4 Max MacBook Pros, which will apart from that Mac mini all look basically as they do right now. And I still think there’s an outside chance Apple could have the new Mac mini pulling double duty as an Apple TV Ultra, bringing higher end gaming to your TV. But, like a very outside chance.
So, a decade after USB-C, will you mourn the loss of USB-A? Or will you embrace change? We all love progress when it comes to performance, speed, more storage, better efficiency, but somehow if we loose a port we’re used to, the world is going to end. We’ve managed fine without SCSI, FireWire, iPod 30 pin connectors, parallel ports, and even DVI. At some point, it’s kinder to just say goodbye.
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