APPLE SILICON
The M4 Macs are Coming and You Shouldn’t Buy One
But you probably will anyway
I am writing this on the M2 Pro Mac mini sitting underneath my desk. Silent. Immensely powerful. It’s running my usual complement of apps: Hue Sync, TextEdit, Terminal, Wireshark, Apple News, Firefox, Safari, Xcode, OpenEmu, Preview, Acorn, and Numbers. It has four Thunderbolt 4 ports, two USB-A ports, one HDMI port, one Gigabit Ethernet port, and one 3.5 mm headphone jack. Those ports are connected to an Apple Studio Display, PlayStation 4 Dual Shock Controller, 5TB external hard drive, and 2 external SSDs. What more do you want?
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple thinks we want the Mac mini to be shrunk down to the size of Apple TV:
Apple Inc. is planning a new version of the Mac mini that will be its smallest desktop computer yet, part of a broader overhaul of the Mac line with AI-focused chips.
The new model — due later this year — will mark the first major design change to the mini since it was revamped under Steve Jobs in 2010, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The device will be far smaller than its predecessor, approaching the size of an Apple TV set-top box, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the work is secret.
