The New (tiny) Mac Mini. And All This Week's Mac Announces Summarized. | Techmeme Ride Home Podcast
Annnnddd… insert time warp sound effect here. Here it is. Quoting Six Colors:
Just in time for Halloween, it’s a Fun Size Mac mini. The redesigned M4 Mac mini has a footprint of five inches by five inches, making it half the volume of the previous design and easily the smallest desktop Mac ever.
Following the lead of its larger silver-aluminum cousin, 2022’s Mac Studio, the new Mac mini features two conveniently front-facing USB-C ports (but no SD card slot). On the back are three Thunderbolt ports, as well as Ethernet and HDMI.
The M4 Mac mini starts at the same $599 price point as the previous model, despite the fact that the base model now ships with 16GB of RAM, twice the previous 8GB minimum. (All M4 models come with 10 CPU and GPU cores.)
While the M4 Mac mini will undoubtedly be quite a bit faster than its M2 predecessor, there are more substantial gains to be made on the higher end. Just as with previous Apple Silicon-era models, the new Mac mini will also be available in a higher-end chip configuration. The Mac mini with the new M4 Pro chip—which starts at $1399—supports the upgraded Thunderbolt 5 specification, comes with 24GB of RAM (upgradeable to 64GB), offers 14 CPU cores (10 performance and four efficiency) and up to 20 GPU cores, and 75% faster memory bandwidth (!!!) than the M3 Pro. The base model has 12 CPU cores and 16 GPU cores; a $200 upgrade gets you the full 14 CPU cores and 20 GPU cores.
The new Mac mini models will arrive in stores and customers’ hands beginning Nov. 8. ENDQUOTE
First up, the iMacs. Quoting MacRumors:
As expected, the M4 chip in the iMac is available with up to a 10-core CPU and up to a 10-core GPU. Apple says the iMac with the M4 chip is up to 1.7x faster for daily productivity tasks, and up to 2.1x faster for demanding workflows like photo editing and gaming, compared to the iMac with the M1 chip. In the iPad Pro, the M4 chip is up to 25% faster than the M3 chip, and this year-over-year improvement should be similar for the iMac.
All variants of the M4 chip have a faster 16-core Neural Engine that boosts the performance of Apple Intelligence, but keep in mind that Apple Intelligence is also available on previous-generation iMac models with the M1 and M3 chips.
The new iMac comes with a minimum of 16GB of RAM, compared to 8GB for the previous base model, which likely confirms a rumor that 16GB of RAM will be the new minimum for many or all new Macs going forward. The computer can be configured with up to 32GB of RAM, and it continues to be available with up to 2TB of SSD storage.
Apple has upgraded the iMac with a 12-megapixel front camera with Center Stage support that keeps you centered in the frame. There is also a Desk View feature that shows your face and an overhead view of your desk at the same time.
While the iMac has not received any major design changes, Apple has introduced new color options for the all-in-one desktop computer, including "fresh shades" of green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, and blue, alongside the classic silver. In addition, the iMac can now be configured with a nano-texture display, which has a special coating that better scatters light to further minimize glare on the screen. Apple had previously offered the 2020 model of the Intel-based 27-inch iMac with a nano-texture display option, but this is the first time it has been offered for an Apple silicon version of the computer.
All four rear USB-C ports on higher-end iMac configurations with the 10-core M4 chip now support Thunderbolt 4, compared to two Thunderbolt 3 ports and two USB-C ports on the previous model. The base model iMac with the 8-core M4 chip has two Thunderbolt 4 ports.
When configured with the M4 chip with a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU, the new iMac supports up to an 8K external display at 120Hz, or two 6K displays at 60Hz. ENDQUOTE
Alongside this, Apple updated its $199 Magic Keyboard, $99 Magic Mouse, and $149 Magic Trackpad with USB-C, keeping the same pricing, but finally ditching the lighting port. Is there any Apple stuff still with lighting? Some of the low end older models I guess. Though, I also want to note, the magic mouse? Yes, the usbc charging port is still on the underside of the mouse so you CAN’T charge it while using it. So, continue the memes related to the dumbest design choice of all time. They REALLY don’t want you to ever use that thing as a wired mouse.
#applenews #macimini