Apple debunks Mac Mini, iMac rumor
Apple has taken the rare step of denying speculation that new Macs are on the way.
(Credit: Apple)Apple has quashed the rumor mill's latest obsession, declaring that no new Macs will be released before the holidays.
Earlier Monday, reports surfaced that Apple was getting ready to release an updated version of the iMac and the Mac Mini next week. But a company representative told Macworld, "our holiday lineup is set," in a rare move to dampen the speculation regarding the new products.
As Macworld's Jim Dalrymple points out, the iMac and Mac Mini seem overdue for a hardware update, making it quite plausible that new versions would be along some time soon. But Apple appears to be saving those updates for a later date, perhaps at the annual Macworld conference in January.
Apple did just release new MacBooks and MacBook Pros to bolster the Mac lineup heading into the holiday season, which is generally the busiest time of the year for the computer industry.
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(just kidding) ;-)
No-doubt they did this to keep sales up during the holiday (slump?).
The problem for Apple is in this economy, the more people wait, the more likely they'll decide to buy something cheaper instead (read: a PC) or buy nothing at all. Either way translates to lost sales for Apple.
mbenedict is (as usual) half-correct. If someone is looking to buy a Mac, they pretty much already have the means to buy one. Buying cheaper only gets you cheaper (read: inherently broken) machinery.
/P
Except that Apple rarely does this so explicitly. Apple really depends on rumors and speculation to augment their advertising campaigns. Usually this works out very well for them (an apple employee told me that the company values this speculation to be worth some several hundreds of millions of dollars in free advertising).
Mac users are not the brainwashed... we are the few, the smart, the savvy savers who want CONTINUOUS quality for our money, not just the "chance" of getting something that "might" or "might not" work ok. Everyone else is simply hypnotized by the Microsoft "Pied Piper" Gates, who said in the beginning "computers are not for the average person."
Even G4 Mini does miracles if used right in its purpose.
So, buy a Mini and if you can fit 8 GB, 8 GB will be used. Even on current "32bit" Leopard.
3.2 G RAM limit etc. are windows issues, their driver model, backwards compatibility etc. They have nothing to do with OS X or even MacOS.
Yes, that makes sense. Consumer products would be a good fit for a MacWorld announcement, hopefully along with revisions to iLife and iWork (certainly the latter).
Use an external Tuner (USB port) for Cable or however you want to hook up your system. On the other Channel of your display you can have the DVD to avoid using the Mac drive.
http://www.apple.com/macosx/technology/64bit.html
But even then, Apple neglects to mention that most Macs in existence today can't actually take advantage of 64-bit features anyway, even if they are upgraded to Snow Leopard. For example, most macs (including all Intel iMacs produced through the beginning of this year) can't actually access more than 3GB of RAM even if more is physically installed on the machine, so there's no compelling reason to move to 64-bit on the Mac.
Apple didn't need "pure 64bit" kernel, on Snow Leopard, they actually need "pure 64" so they are implementing it.
Seriously - either the Mac Mini or the iMac are very good machines, and we all KNOW that in a year today's cutting edge tech (PC or MAC) will be yesterday's news.
What bugs me about Mac Mini/Intel is lack of a real GPU from a real GPU manufacturer like NVidia or ATI. If it had something rather than that Intel scandal, I would buy it as soon as tomorrow, Max the RAM and enjoy.
Apple didn't move back to real GPU/Hybrid graphics solution for no reason.
Maybe this reported delay is so they can get them back off the ship and into the factory to retrofit firewire ports and expansion slots on them. If so, that's all that matters. The wait will be worth it. I'll just stockpile my HDV video work until then.
PS - And why not add eSata and HDMI ports as well. I'm prepared to pay extra for such versatility
Problem would be blu-ray playback (requirements) but it is non existent on Mac.
I'm more than happy to help their bottom line this holiday season, but it will have to wait.
I apologize for shouting up front. I understand the need for a Mac-mini refresh. I have a G4, but it hasn't given up on me yet, so I haven't given up on it. I also have the white plastic Intel Core duo iMac (not to mention 3 Dells and an MBP). I mention this because I want to clarify my working knowledge of using these platforms.
THE LATEST iMACs ARE NOT DUE FOR, NOR NEED AN UPGRADE. It would be nice if there were price cuts in mini, and iMac lines. I miss the reasoning for people suggesting an upgrade to a line of computers, in the iMac, for an early overhaul of that platform.
It does not make sense for Apple, the retailers, nor the consumers. Those devices do not "fly off the shelves" like the MacBook line does. Neither does the MacBook Pro, or MacBook Air. The iMac is basically a new version to begin with, and with the economy having a global impact, it makes zero sense to do anything but to announce holiday pricing. That would be a nice thing.
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by mbenedict
November 4, 2008 6:01 PM PST
- @Xiibo: Sorry to break the bad news, but unless you have a relatively recent MacBook Pro (from mid-2007 or later, post the Santa Rosa update) then your MBP cannot actually use 4GB of RAM. The max it can actually use is 3GB; the extra 1GB in your case is simply wasted. This is a physical limitation of the chipset Apple used in the MBP.
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(41 Comments)In general the first Intel iMacs & MBPs could only actually use 2GB of RAM regardless of the amount of memory physically installed. The Core 2 Duo update allowed MBPs to access 3GB (until the Santa Rosa chipset).