Apple Event in Brooklyn

[The Old Man]

October 30th, 10 AM EDT at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
New iPads and pencil. What else?
Any chance of an upgrade to the iPad Mini 4?

[OtinG]

Rumors are thick, but no telling what we will see. I've heard rumors of an update to the Mac Mini 2014 making it more like the Mac Pro, but that seems rather odd to me. The Mac Mini is their least expensive model and the Mac Pro is their most expensive model. It makes no sense to combine those two models into something that will cost more than Mac Mini lovers will be willing to pay and provide way less computing power than professionals who use the Mac Pro need.

At any rate, I love my old Mac Mini late 2012 model. Back then they were made to allow a small amount of modification. I bought mine with the i5 chip, 4 GB RAM, and a 500 GB HDD. I bought 16 GB of RAM from a 3rd party company for a fraction of what Apple wanted, and upgraded it to 16 GB of RAM. I'm still using it as a secondary computer today. It runs Mojave and with Boot Camp it also runs Windows 10. Ironically, Windows 10 runs faster than Mojave on it. It is a bit sluggish now under Mojave.

Unfortunately, two years later Apple updated the Mac Mini 2014 which turned out to be a downgrade. They took away the ability to modify them, unless you are good at electronics and skilled in soldering. Certainly not an option for the average owner. I suspect/fear that any new update to the Mac Mini will be similar. They will probably use a ton of glue to secure the case and do everything they can to thwart owners from trying to upgrade them on their own. That is rather chicken poopish IMO. I know they need to make a profit, but they go overboard. They should at least allow us to easily add more RAM and upgrade the HDD/SSD on our own, but I seriously doubt we will ever see another Mac that does.

[John F]

Since it is at the Academy of Music... Maybe new airpods, or headphones. I have no idea.

[DaleDe]

Only iPad Pro that I am aware of. I outlined some of the changes in our wiki.

[OtinG]

Mac Rumors website is ripe with all kinds of rumors including new iPad Pro(s), a new Mac Mini, other new Macs, Air Power, and Air Pods. Personally, I'm preparing to once again be underwhelmed by new Macs with yesteryear's processors and little RAM at a higher cost. Apple is banking on their current bread and butter iPhone line up, and lesser so on the iPad lineup. Macs are nearly extinct now. Geez, the current Mac Mini 2014 was a lackluster downgrade when it was released four years ago, and it has one foot in the grave now. I really like Apple OS X and hate MS Windows 10, but Apple really needs to improve their offerings of Macs and let us be able to add our own internals like more RAM and bigger HDDs or SSDs, etc. I'm really sick of having to pay Apple a king's ransom just to get 16 GB of RAM and/or a decent sized SSD. The days of shiny new trinkets just doesn't cut it for me, they need to give me computing power at an affordable cost or I'll have no choice but to switch back to that horrible Windows OS at some point. At least you can build your own computers with Windows OS.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by OtinG

Mac Rumors website is ripe with all kinds of rumors including new iPad Pro(s), a new Mac Mini, other new Macs, Air Power, and Air Pods. Personally, I'm preparing to once again be underwhelmed by new Macs with yesteryear's processors and little RAM at a higher cost. Apple is banking on their current bread and butter iPhone line up, and lesser so on the iPad lineup. Macs are nearly extinct now. Geez, the current Mac Mini 2014 was a lackluster downgrade when it was released four years ago, and it has one foot in the grave now. I really like Apple OS X and hate MS Windows 10, but Apple really needs to improve their offerings of Macs and let us be able to add our own internals like more RAM and bigger HDDs or SSDs, etc. I'm really sick of having to pay Apple a king's ransom just to get 16 GB of RAM and/or a decent sized SSD. The days of shiny new trinkets just doesn't cut it for me, they need to give me computing power at an affordable cost or I'll have no choice but to switch back to that horrible Windows OS at some point. At least you can build your own computers with Windows OS.

The iMacs make it easy to upgrade the memory, you just open the memory hatch and put the new memory in. That's what I did with my iMac. The mac mini is very much a niche market. Apple has never been about joining the race to the bottom and providing the rock bottom cheapest machine out there. They have had that business model for the last 20 years, I'm not sure why you expect them to change now.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

Only iPad Pro that I am aware of. I outlined some of the changes in our wiki.

I've also heard a mac mini, but who knows. I would love a new ipad mini upgrade with a faster processor and more memory, but I'm not holding my breath on that one.

[The Old Man]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I've also heard a mac mini, but who knows. I would love a new ipad mini upgrade with a faster processor and more memory, but I'm not holding my breath on that one.

Exactly what I'd like to see.

[David Munch]

Originally Posted by OtinG

At any rate, I love my old Mac Mini late 2012 model. Back then they were made to allow a small amount of modification. I bought mine with the i5 chip, 4 GB RAM, and a 500 GB HDD. I bought 16 GB of RAM from a 3rd party company for a fraction of what Apple wanted, and upgraded it to 16 GB of RAM. I'm still using it as a secondary computer today. It runs Mojave and with Boot Camp it also runs Windows 10. Ironically, Windows 10 runs faster than Mojave on it. It is a bit sluggish now under Mojave.

Add an SSD and give it new life.

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by David Munch

Add an SSD and give it new life.

I'm too arthritic to be trying to solder stuff on a MB.

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

The iMacs make it easy to upgrade the memory, you just open the memory hatch and put the new memory in. That's what I did with my iMac. The mac mini is very much a niche market. Apple has never been about joining the race to the bottom and providing the rock bottom cheapest machine out there. They have had that business model for the last 20 years, I'm not sure why you expect them to change now.

Well, I've been an Apple buyer since my first real computer the Apple II+ way back in the early 1980s. You probably were not around then. I was also around in the mid-1990s when Apple actually licensed the hardware to 3rd party companies, including Motorola. Jobs had rightfully been pushed out then as he knew nothing about running a computer company and had driven Apple to the brink of extinction. For a brief few years, you could purchase 3rd party boxes and install the Mac OS (which actually sucked big time in those days) and those boxes were generally cheaper and way better than any of the 1000 models sold by Apple at the time. Okay 1000 is an exaggeration , but they had way too many models including a home line, a school line, and a business line, and none were that well equipped. Jobs returned and quickly killed off the licensing of hardware. My point is that Apple has been through a bunch of changes over the years. Your argument about changing 20 years under the same model is not going to hold water. The fact is they did have easily user modifiable Mac Minis as late as 2012. The fact is they didn't even know what an iPod was 20 years ago, much less what a smartphone was. It is okay to have different opinions, but to gripe at me for having an opinion about Mac Minis is not called for. Apple needs to understand that at some point people stop giving a bleep about how shiny and cosmetically appealing a device is and start needing true upgrades that are affordable and worthwhile.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by The Old Man

October 30th, 10 AM EDT at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
New iPads and pencil. What else?
Any chance of an upgrade to the iPad Mini 4?

Rumors say new iPad Mini in 2019.

[The Old Man]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Rumors say new iPad Mini in 2019.

That's a year away - and only a rumor
I'm not sure I have a year left

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by OtinG

Well, I've been an Apple buyer since my first real computer the Apple II+ way back in the early 1980s. You probably were not around then. I was also around in the mid-1990s when Apple actually licensed the hardware to 3rd party companies, including Motorola. Jobs had rightfully been pushed out then as he knew nothing about running a computer company and had driven Apple to the brink of extinction. For a brief few years, you could purchase 3rd party boxes and install the Mac OS (which actually sucked big time in those days) and those boxes were generally cheaper and way better than any of the 1000 models sold by Apple at the time. Okay 1000 is an exaggeration , but they had way too many models including a home line, a school line, and a business line, and none were that well equipped. Jobs returned and quickly killed off the licensing of hardware. My point is that Apple has been through a bunch of changes over the years. Your argument about changing 20 years under the same model is not going to hold water. The fact is they did have easily user modifiable Mac Minis as late as 2012. The fact is they didn't even know what an iPod was 20 years ago, much less what a smartphone was. It is okay to have different opinions, but to gripe at me for having an opinion about Mac Minis is not called for. Apple needs to understand that at some point people stop giving a bleep about how shiny and cosmetically appealing a device is and start needing true upgrades that are affordable and worthwhile.

You might be surprised since I've been programming since the mid 70's and my first computer was an Apple IIe. I think that your memory is a bit off, given that one of the first computer copyright battles was the Apple/Franklin battle (Franklin was an Apple II clone).

You are welcome to your own opinion, I was pointing out that expecting a cheap, expandable computer from Apple is most likely to be met by disappointment given their history. Sometimes in life, someone is going to disagree with your opinion. That's not a gripe, it's a disagreement.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by The Old Man

That's a year away - and only a rumor
I'm not sure I have a year left

There have been more rumors. Like most such rumors, they are all over the place and sometimes contradict each other. I would think that if they are going to refresh the iPad mini line, they will do it at the same time as the iPad Pro, but we will see. There is also suppose to be a new Apple pencil. The iPad rumors include all sorts of things including a new adapter. Fortunately, we will find out in less than a week.

I actually upgraded my ancient iPad Mini about a year ago, but I'll upgrade again if it's a significant speed bump and especially if there is more memory.