Looks like Christmas is coming early this year. I just pre-ordered the new Mac Mini with the M4 pro chip. I also ordered Air Pods Pro 2 as a replacement for my 8-year-old Costco hearing aids.
I'm purchasing the base M4 model right now! I'm a little confused why the base Mac Mini comes with a 10-core CPU while the iMac has 8. I wish they also bumped the base storage to 512 GB, but I'd much rather have 16 GB RAM than additional storage. After all, I have tons of space available on external drives, so it's no big deal.
I bought the base Pro model with 24GB RAM and 512GB SSD, which is way more than I need for my more-or-less typical consumer usage. But it should be more than enough to support MacOS AI features to come, and hopefully will remain a viable system until Apple discontinues support for it.
This is the first actual new computer I've purchased in years. Most of my recent machines were bought as refurbs, including the 2018 Intel Mac Mini I'm composing this comment with.
I only have macbook pro currently. Now that I see relatively positive bug patches in sequoia for my usecase, I can maybe imagine myself with a mac tower computer. I always liked the formats of blink or similar so why not a mac mini speced out? Or a studio for that matter but...
For those who have a mini, what's the workaround with having or not having an external monitor or an hdmi emulator? How required or unnecessary is this in terms of functioning of the system and voiceover?
You don't need a monitor or a spoofing dongle either.
the shame about it all, I think, is all this power and so little to do with it. unless we're video editting, unlikely, or working a huge number of tracks for music, it's all kinda pointless. We still don't have any good games for it. Even the sighted don't have good games for it. I think future proofing by getting what you can afford is wise, but I do wonder what that future is actually going to contain. Even with 24 gb ram and an m4 pro, you'll not be running any meaningful LLM locally. I just wish the mac could do more. It's starting to look a lot like the Ipad and it's utterly pointless benchmarks for all but the most specific of use cases.
More ram is good though. That will help voiceover be a little less fussy.
In over 40 years of experience with personal computers, the one constant is that more RAM is the most likely way to boost performance and therefore the best return for the cost. In my Windows days, I used to buy new machines with a base memory config, then, after two or three years, upgrade to max with third-party RAM. Can’t do that with Macs, sadly.
Your advice to buy the best system one can afford is sound. I’m not searching for million-digit prime numbers, or identifying tumors in CT scans, or looking for alien intelligence in SETI data, or computing cryptocurrency hash values. My typical consumer use case will hardly make my new M4 Pro break a sweat. It is the continued, inexorable operating system bloat that will strain the machine’s resources, and it will do so in ways I can neither predict nor control.
AirPods Pro 2 arrive today, and I’m totally excited about that! M4 Mac Mini should arrive November 8.
I still think the AirPods Pro 2 are, or is, one of apple's best products. I can't wait for the next version, next year or 2026, not that getting V2 now isn't a great deal. A brilliant addition to a blind person's watch pocket.
The AirPods arrived yesterday. It was an absolutely awesome out of the box experience. Took me some time and another AppleVis post before I figured out the touch gestures. It is not tapping. That aside, I'm hooked.
Apple wanted me to take a survey about my purchase experience. I marked them down on the difficulty of paying with ApplePay. I placed the order through a desktop web browser. To pay with ApplePay, I had to scan a code with my phone's camera. I found it to be a tedious process of scanning across the monitor, back and forth, with my camera at varying distances. Bar code detection seemed to be very sensitive to camera distance. The bar code timed out and expired not once, but twice, before my camera was able to recognize the code.
I hope Apple takes steps to improve this process. Why can't I just place my phone close to my Mac, like I do every time I use ApplePay at my local coffee shop? This could be so much easier.
Last year I considered buying a Mac Mini but once I beefed up the RAM and the hard disk the cost started to go up and I ended up with a Macbook Pro. If I hadn't caved in then, then I would definitely be up for some of this. The base model looks great. On Double Tap I think they said it's 5 inches square or something. That's insane.
One thing I am confused about - the guy in the Apple Store said of the previous model that it didn't include a speaker, whereas on Double Tap they suggested that maybe it does. Out of curiosity, what is the story with that?
Comments
this looks like an awesome mac mini
This looks like another wonderful job of Apple hitting it out of the park.
The base model is very…
The base model is very compelling, especially now they've caved and put 16 GB ram in the base models.
Only trouble is... It's still a mac... :)
Awesome!
I'm purchasing the base M4 model right now! I'm a little confused why the base Mac Mini comes with a 10-core CPU while the iMac has 8. I wish they also bumped the base storage to 512 GB, but I'd much rather have 16 GB RAM than additional storage. After all, I have tons of space available on external drives, so it's no big deal.
More machine than I need
I bought the base Pro model with 24GB RAM and 512GB SSD, which is way more than I need for my more-or-less typical consumer usage. But it should be more than enough to support MacOS AI features to come, and hopefully will remain a viable system until Apple discontinues support for it.
This is the first actual new computer I've purchased in years. Most of my recent machines were bought as refurbs, including the 2018 Intel Mac Mini I'm composing this comment with.
I only have macbook pro…
I only have macbook pro currently. Now that I see relatively positive bug patches in sequoia for my usecase, I can maybe imagine myself with a mac tower computer. I always liked the formats of blink or similar so why not a mac mini speced out? Or a studio for that matter but...
For those who have a mini, what's the workaround with having or not having an external monitor or an hdmi emulator? How required or unnecessary is this in terms of functioning of the system and voiceover?
You don't need a monitor or…
You don't need a monitor or a spoofing dongle either.
the shame about it all, I think, is all this power and so little to do with it. unless we're video editting, unlikely, or working a huge number of tracks for music, it's all kinda pointless. We still don't have any good games for it. Even the sighted don't have good games for it. I think future proofing by getting what you can afford is wise, but I do wonder what that future is actually going to contain. Even with 24 gb ram and an m4 pro, you'll not be running any meaningful LLM locally. I just wish the mac could do more. It's starting to look a lot like the Ipad and it's utterly pointless benchmarks for all but the most specific of use cases.
More ram is good though. That will help voiceover be a little less fussy.
Agree with Ollie
In over 40 years of experience with personal computers, the one constant is that more RAM is the most likely way to boost performance and therefore the best return for the cost. In my Windows days, I used to buy new machines with a base memory config, then, after two or three years, upgrade to max with third-party RAM. Can’t do that with Macs, sadly.
Your advice to buy the best system one can afford is sound. I’m not searching for million-digit prime numbers, or identifying tumors in CT scans, or looking for alien intelligence in SETI data, or computing cryptocurrency hash values. My typical consumer use case will hardly make my new M4 Pro break a sweat. It is the continued, inexorable operating system bloat that will strain the machine’s resources, and it will do so in ways I can neither predict nor control.
AirPods Pro 2 arrive today, and I’m totally excited about that! M4 Mac Mini should arrive November 8.
I still think the AirPods…
I still think the AirPods Pro 2 are, or is, one of apple's best products. I can't wait for the next version, next year or 2026, not that getting V2 now isn't a great deal. A brilliant addition to a blind person's watch pocket.
Apple purchase experience survey
The AirPods arrived yesterday. It was an absolutely awesome out of the box experience. Took me some time and another AppleVis post before I figured out the touch gestures. It is not tapping. That aside, I'm hooked.
Apple wanted me to take a survey about my purchase experience. I marked them down on the difficulty of paying with ApplePay. I placed the order through a desktop web browser. To pay with ApplePay, I had to scan a code with my phone's camera. I found it to be a tedious process of scanning across the monitor, back and forth, with my camera at varying distances. Bar code detection seemed to be very sensitive to camera distance. The bar code timed out and expired not once, but twice, before my camera was able to recognize the code.
I hope Apple takes steps to improve this process. Why can't I just place my phone close to my Mac, like I do every time I use ApplePay at my local coffee shop? This could be so much easier.
Like the look of this
Last year I considered buying a Mac Mini but once I beefed up the RAM and the hard disk the cost started to go up and I ended up with a Macbook Pro. If I hadn't caved in then, then I would definitely be up for some of this. The base model looks great. On Double Tap I think they said it's 5 inches square or something. That's insane.
One thing I am confused about - the guy in the Apple Store said of the previous model that it didn't include a speaker, whereas on Double Tap they suggested that maybe it does. Out of curiosity, what is the story with that?