Waiting still maybe have two weeks to wait for my Mac Mini. Wish I could go and pick it up, but doubt Apple Store had any of the spec I wanted.
Im using my 13" 2011 Macbookpro to run my ecommerce business, and emails, etc. Nothing complicated. Its always been fast enough for these sorts of things. All my video studio work I do on my macbookpro with an intel I-9 8 core processor. Its plenty fast enough for video work.
The 2011 im using here, is getting a bit old tho (1600+ cycles on the battery) so im looking to get something newer. Im amazed that the refurbed 13" 2017 to 2019 macbookpros with 16G ram and 2TB HD are as expensive as the new M1 machines. SO why not get an M1? Im just concerned about compatibility. Im a tech user, not a techy.
I dont wont to find that I have to re-invent the wheel to use an M1 machine. I dont want to have problems duplicating what I have now on the new machine. I dont want to find out the hard way, that even some simple things i use off the web, or my printers, have compatibility issues. I will need to be able to use zoom and whereby, and already hearing there are issues.
Suggestions? I wish i could find a 2015 or 2016 machine refurb’d, that still has the magsafe charger, and the assortment of ports, relatively cheaply. I really dont like the 2 or 4 usb-c’s and having to use a dongle. OTOH, the only ppl i trust to buy a refurb’d older macbookpro from is OWC, and all their refurbed stuff right now is usb-c, and they are as expensive as the new M1
Suggestions ??
Leo??
If your 2011 is sufficient for your business, why not look into getting a trusted repair place to replace the battery and extend its life? No worry about compatibility then and you can wait for the software to catch up with the new M1 architecture. How reliant is your business on that mac though, or do you have more than one?
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I’ve decided to buy my first Mac after 27 years of Windows PCs; now just to decide on what one/spec.
Pretty sure I’ll stick with the base Air as I’m a fairly light user (basic computing + photo editing). Going to try and get to the Apple store tomorrow to have a closer look.
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Gasp! 32 cores! 128 cores! Corepalooza! And they mention the half-sized Mac Pro, which I’ll be excited for. 
Only 32 cores? The current AMD Threadrippers have been at 64 cores for a while now. Fujitsu’s world-leading ARM processors also have 48 cores each (nearly 159,000 of them in one computer).
Likewise, 128 graphic cores? The nVidia Turing based cards have up to 3072 graphic cores, which are also used for ML/AI.
For a single SoC growing out of mobile, it is impressive, but in the desktop and server arena so-la-la, at least on paper. It will be interesting to see what they actually deliver.
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WRT the number of cores, whatever reports are out now obviously this will continue to develop. Not sure why some people are up in arms over the number of cores. It’s only going to grow and who knows if 32 ASi cores are equivalent to anything else out there.
I really think these chips are the start of a change in computing which is a shift towards specific silicon for specific tasks rather than general purpose CPUs. This is already going on with FPGAs in HDDs. Regular cpus will always be required but things are going to change.
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Big sur is not available for my Mac. Too old