Posts tagged with "mac mini"

The Mac Mini Receives A Refresh, Now Come With Thunderbolt and Sandy Bridge Processors

Following the refresh of the MacBook Air, Apple has today also released new Mac Mini models. As is standard for this year’s Mac refreshes, the Mac Mini now comes with the new Intel Sandy Bridge processors and Thunderbolt ports. Interestingly there is no optical drive in the Mini anymore.

Mac mini is designed without an optical disc drive. Because these days, you don’t need one. It’s easier than ever to download music and movies from the iTunes Store. And you can download apps from the Mac App Store with a click. So what did we do with all the extra space? We squeezed in more powerful processors, advanced graphics, and Thunderbolt technology.

There will be two standard models available for the average consumer as well as one server model. The base model will come with a 2.3 GHz i5 processor, 2 GB of RAM and a 500 GB hard drive for just $599. The second model increases the processor clock to 2.5 GHz and doubles the RAM to 4GB – keeping the hard drive at 500 GB and costs $799. There is also an updated server model for $999 which has a 2.0 GHz quad-core i7 with 4 GB RAM and dual 750 GB hard drives.

Jump the break for more details and Apple’s press release on the new models.

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Mac Mini And MacBook To Receive A Refresh In The Very Near Future?

Clarifying a report from two days ago, 9to5 Mac is today claiming that the part numbers posted are not for new Mac Pros but rather refreshed MacBook and Mac Mini models. They still believe that the MacBook Air part numbers are correct. They think it is likely that these new models will be launched soon and the Mac Pro to follow in a few more weeks time.

The “MC914LL/A – J59, BEST – USA” part number is presumed to be for the refreshed MacBook with what one can only assume would come with a Thunderbolt port and a spec bump.

Meanwhile, the following three part numbers are thought to be for refreshed Mac Mini models with similar improvements to that expected of the MacBook and MacBook Air. One being a standard configuration, another being the server version and a third which is likely for the built-to-order Mac Mini.

MC936LL/A – J40, ULTIMATE – USA – Mac mini Server

MC815LL/A – J40I, BETTER – USA – Mac mini standard configuration

MC816LL/A – J40, BEST – USA Faster Mac mini (likely BTO)

[Via 9to5 Mac]

Mac mini and Mac Pro Refresh In August?

According to Cnet’s Brian Tong, sources have confirmed that updated models of the Mac mini and Mac Pro will come out in August. With a series of tweets on his profile Tong says the “all new” Mac minis and Mac Pros with Sandy Bridge processors and Thunderbolt technology will be released towards the end of July or first week of August. A report from two weeks ago claimed that Apple was looking to refresh the Mac mini and Mac Pro server line-up in July, though Tong seems to believe both the consumer and server lines will receive the much anticipated CPU and Thunderbolt upgrade to follow changes in the MacBook Pros and iMacs.

Tong correctly pinpointed the changes in the 2011 iMac refresh months ago and was the first one to claim back in February that the MacBook Air family was on track for a June update. Several rumors from different publications in the past months have indicated Apple was working on new MacBook Airs with faster processors and Thunderbolt, and the most recent theories suggest the update will come out either in late June or July.

Another report from last week also claimed Apple won’t release new Macs until OS X Lion comes out, and considering Lion’s scheduled July release, it would make sense for Apple to put new Airs for sale (the MacBook Air is now Apple’s most popular notebook) with the new OS preinstalled. In other tweets, Tong also confirms Lion will come pre-installed on new Macs this summer.

Mac Mini Vault Tries To Host A Webpage On Apple TV 2G

Mac Mini Vault, a colocation service that allows you to host a website (or multiple ones) on a Mac Mini or Mac Mini Server located in their Chicago data center, is running an interesting experiment to see how a single webpage hosted on an Apple TV 2nd-gen would handle traffic and CPU load. The Apple TV isn’t of course meant for hosting webpages and running on high CPU usage, and in fact the device (with iOS 4.2.2) had to be jailbroken using Seas0npass to enable the installation of lighttpd and a web server.

One of the fun projects going on at Mac Mini Vault is our Apple TV webserver. As much as we ‘d love to see how many Apple TV’s we could mount into a data center cabinet, it will never be a sustainable service to offer. This project was a fun way to see how far we could take the A4 powered Apple TV. The Apple TV is running iOS 4.2.2 (obviously jailbroken) with lighttpd for a web server. You can see the webpage we set up by visiting atv.macminivault.com. We’ll keep an eye on the CPU load and watch the analytics to record how much traffic the Apple TV receives.

The Apple TV-powered webpage is available at atv.macminivault.com, and it’ll be interesting to see how the experiment will play out once curious readers hit the direct link.

Apple Silently Cuts Mac Mini Prices Outside The U.S.

If you live in Europe or in any other market outside the United States, here’s a nice surprise for you: Apple cut €100 off of the price of the Mac Mini, which is now available at €699 in the standard configuration with 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB memory, 320GB hard drive, 8x double-layer SuperDrive and NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics. The price cut is also available in the UK Store, where the Mac Mini is now priced at £599.

Prices in the US remain unchanged at the moment of writing this. I assume these prices cuts in Europe are likely connected to Dollar - Euro conversion rates, or maybe Apple just wants to sell more Minis in the holiday season in Europe.