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Mac Mini Receives First Overhaul in Four Years; New iPad Pro With No Home Button Announced (venturebeat.com)
Apple is turning its attention to a range of devices it has not upgraded in recent years. Alongside the new MacBook Air that the company unveiled on Tuesday, it is also upgrading the Mac Mini for the first time in four years, and also has a new iPad Pro in the offering. Regarding the new Mac Mini: It has Intel's 8th generation processors -- in four- and six-core i7, i5, and i3 flavors -- and 60 percent faster graphics. The processor's paired with up to 64GB of RAM (8GB comes on standard) at 2666MHz and up to 2TB of SSD storage -- double the capacity of previous Mac Minis. Overall, it's up to 5 times faster than the previous-gen models, Apple claims, and can drive 4K and 5K Thunderbolt displays and output in three formats. In terms of ports, there's plenty to go around: two USB-A, HDMI 2.0 video, four Thunderbolt USB-C, an audio out port, and a Gigbabit Ethernet port (you can add up to 10 Gigabit Ethernet, if you so choose). Also onboard is Apple's T2 chip. It's a 64-bit ARMv8 chip -- a variant of Apple's A10 -- that runs Apple's custom BridgeOS 2.0 operating system (an Apple watch derivative). The new Mac Mini starts at $799. Regarding the new iPad Pro: After months of rumors, Apple has today announced a completely redesigned iPad Pro with slimmed-down bezels, Face ID, a USB-C port, and far more powerful specs than its predecessor. Just like prior years, the new iPad Pro comes in two screen sizes: 11-inch and 12.9-inch. The 11-inch model has essentially the same proportions as the prior 10.5-inch model. And the 12.9-inch model puts the same-sized display into a much smaller form factor. The new iPad Pro starts at $799 for the 11-inch and $999 for the 12.9-inch. Preorders begin today and it ships November 7th. The new Pro is the company's first iPad not to include a home button, which allowed Apple to extend the screen vertically for a much more immersive experience. The bezels have been downsized on all four sides. [...] But something else has been removed, too: the headphone jack. There's no 3.5mm port visible on any of the device's sides, meaning that buyers will need a USB-C-to-headphone dongle to listen to music through wired headphones. The 11-inch iPad Pro starts at $799. The 12.9-inch version starts at $999. It goes on sale today and ships on November 7.
Fair point, but still doesn't change the fact that if you can upgrade the memory yourself there's no point at all to pay the Apple tax. I haven't checked recently, but you should be able to get 32 GB for well under $300.
Apple always makes the entry tier for their products crappy so push people into the next product wrung where they charge an extra $200+ for components that cost them maybe $20, so that it's pretty much pure profit. Then they've got the high-end model that's even more expensive, but isn't that much better so you feel like you're still getting a hell of a deal. It's a pretty well known marketing gimmick to get people to upgrade.
However, here there's no need since the user can just buy their own memory if they want it.
I really liked the Mac mini refresh, but what I really loved was the iPad Pro update.
I had the first larger 12.9" iPad Pro before, which I liked quite a lot for photo editing.
Now though, the newer one has FaceID - was nicer with a device you can hold in any direction than trying to find the home button. And the power seems really impressive, the demo they gave showing editing a 3GB PSD was the most impressive thing I saw at the Apple event.
The USB-C connection also is great for connection to external monitors and other things I already have accessories for... and the redesign of the pencil to simultaneously clamp onto an edge (I think any edge?) and charge at the same time is a great touch.
Also if you look at it from a pure travel standpoint, the new MacBook Air is 2.75 lbs - but the largest iPad Pro is just 1.25lbs or so!! That is a huge difference in what you have to lug around, as long as what you need to do can be done on the iPad Pro. For photo editing when traveling this device is pretty much perfect now.
Perhaps finally Apple will bring Xcode to the iPad Pro...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
> there's no point at all to pay the Apple tax.
The reason that you *consider* paying apple memory prices is that apple's specs for memory are something like a half a standard deviation higher than other good memory.
I don't find it worth it, but the reality is that meeting apple's specs is more expensive.
Then again, a few years ago when I brought my iMac in the third time for crashes, they returned it with my bank of aftermarket memory in a bag--with the offending stick labeled . . .
hawk