Hasta La Gadget!

The Apple event on the 23rd of October – next week, that is – is quite likely going to be playing host to more than just the iPad mini: in fact details today suggest that refreshes of both the Mac mini and iMac will be appearing at the event as well. This tip comes from 9to5Mac where they’ve got sources close to the line saying that three new Mac mini models will be appearing at the same prices the current models are at, that being $599, $799, and $999 – the last being a single server model. New iMac models are also being suggested to keep their pricing scale with $1199, $1499, $1699, and $1999 depending on the size and innards.

These refreshes have also been tipped to be coming with some upgrades, of course, including a Mac mini with 16GB of RAM included in two RAM slots and a denser machine overall. That’s not to say much for the weight of the machine, but the insides will certainly be jumping at leaps and bounds while the size of the unit stays relatively similar to past models. This update has the Mac mini finally able to join the official Apple ranks – rather than just 3rd party modified sales ranks – with its 8GB configuration replaced with 16GB of RAM for the standard edition.

The Mac mini may well have 32GB of RAM then with higher grade models, with four slots for RAM still being the situation on the innards. This boost has separately been tipped to be coming in at a thinner profile than before, strangely enough, this ringing true with the theme of the event, Apple showing us “a little bit more” as it were.

The iMac on the other hand will be keeping its height but reducing its thickness, with a bit of a teardrop design making this all-in-one sort of machine small as it is gigantic. The iMac has been tipped as having a price increase as well, so we’ll see whose reports add up in the end. Size reductions add to the possibility of there being a 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro as well.

We’ll be live at the Apple event on the 23rd of this month – that’s next week – so stay tuned and make sure you’re ready for lots and lots of action. New hardware primarily is what we’re expecting, but we could very well see some software boosts as well – we shall see!

iMac and Mac mini refresh pricing tipped to remain the same at Apple event is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Apple’s Mac Mini–the least expensive way to run OS X–hasn’t been updated for over a year, and supply at 3rd-party retailers is declining. Could this mean a refresh is forthcoming? According to sources contacted by 9to5mac, Apple will announce a new version of its Mac Mini alongside the iPad Mini at their event rumored to be held on October 23d. Also rumored is a “mini” 13-inch Retina Macbook Pro. It’s a mini party! (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Mac Mini in Apple II Disk Drive available on eBay, Apple rumored to refresh the majority of its Mac computers at WWDC,

Remember the Mac Mini that was modded into an old Apple ][ Disk Drive a couple of years back? Well, the modder behind the build has now put it up for sale on eBay, to make room for other projects.

It only has a 1.5Ghz Core Solo CPU and 2GB of RAM, so it’s not the latest and greatest in Mac Mini tech, but on the other hand it’s way more powerful than the 1978 floppy drive upon which it is based. My favorite part of the mod has always been the slot-loading DVD drive that’s perfectly aligned with the old floppy disk slot.

Modder Charles Mangin has listed the 5-1/4″ floppy drive cum Mac Mini with a starting bid of $500(USD), but if you absolutely must have it, there’s a Buy-it-Now price of $1000.

Apple is well-known for wanting a close spread in hardware requirements with OS X upgrades, having dropped PowerPC like a hot potato when Snow Leopard arrived just three years after the Intel switch. Whether or not you’re a fan of that policy, it’s certainly carrying forward with Mountain Lion. When the newly-finished OS hits the Mac App Store, it will rule out the very first wave of 64-bit Macs: certain MacBook Pros, Mac Pros and other early systems will be denied a taste of 10.8. Some sleuthing from Ars Technica suggests that it’s a matter of graphics drivers rather than capriciousness on Apple’s part, as the Macs excluded from the mix are using 32-bit drivers that won’t play nicely with Mountain Lion’s 64-bit Utopia short of a wide-scale conversion effort. It’s little consolation to those who dropped a pretty penny on certain Macs just a few years ago. That said, Apple is still going the extra mile to support some systems — if you’re reading this on an original aluminum iMac, you’re sitting pretty.

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Software

Apple sunsets a few 64-bit Macs with Mountain Lion, video drivers likely the culprit originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Jul 2012 11:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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