I’m waiting for the ‘Google acquires Tile’ announcement. They already have some FitBit trackers with integrated Tile tracking. Had a thought - is the FitBit app also a Tile network extender now?
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I doubt that would ever happen.
All good points. I guess that Apple has made up their mind to continually support the Mac mini. I remember when I began listening to TWIT shows years ago, all the hosts would remark about Apple pretty much neglecting the mini.
The two iMacs I’ve owned have been the entry models. Both served me well, and I would never go back to a PC. I now use an iPad Air 4. Adding a keyboard & mouse/trackpad gives me more power than I had on those iMacs. But honestly, if I didn’t have to pay $1300.00 minimum for a new iMac, I’d probably have both.
I guess what I’m saying is that it seems to me that Apple has decided that they aren’t interested in offering a new all-in-one desktop for those that don’t have the same need for a machine that Alex Lindsay could use…
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I’m just salivating for a high-end mini. I hope they do that. It may be a mini Mac Pro in the end, but that would be ok if my budget could afford it.
If only an iPad could be its only screen, as well. It really is indefensible that it wouldn’t be, IMO. To scoff that it loses Apple money is an easy out: how many customers interested in that would really be buying an entire iMac or external display to get around Apple’s intransigence—or could, financially? How many who could afford an iMac would forego it just to use an iPad instead—and given an iPad is bound to be pricier than an Apple-quality external display per screen real estate? Rene Ritchie’s vision of an iPad that hot-plugs into stuff is I think bound to happen eventually, but unless its thermals support better sustained screen performance it cannot truly supplant dedicated displays anyway, rendering the small-minded protectionist rationale against allowing iPad as primary display Pyrrhic at best, in my estimation. (I grind this axe off your comment only because it’s affecting me personally; it’s not meant as any opposition to anything you’re saying.)
I’m waiting for that or a mini Mac Pro. My 2013 Mac Pro is long in the tooth.
I don’t see a Mac Mini Pro fitting in Apple’s strategy, as much as I might like one.
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If we assume that Apple has to follow the same laws of physics that the other chip manufacturers follow, then one has to assume there is a reason why the incumbent chip manufacturers generally release one chip architecture per year or so. I’ve not used (nor even seen) an M1 based device, but what @Leo et al have been saying is that is a huge jump compared to previous devices. Previous devices were based on Intel systems, the newest of which was probably 4 or more years old at the time of the debut of the M1. This makes it pretty clear that the M1 had to feel like a significant jump forward… it was making up for nearly 5 years of Intel’s lost time.
I think the reason why the M1+/M1X/M2 (or whatever the next model will be called) isn’t coming “soon” is because Apple invested a lot of money into the M1, and they’re going to maximize what they get out of it while they take their time analyzing what worked and what needs to be tweaked for the next generation. They’ve supposedly already bought up TSMC’s next generational jump (3nm.) I expect that it will be at least a year or more before reasonable yields allow for something new from that generation.
All of the above to say, I think, with the current chip shortage situation, and with Apple still learning the ropes as a chip manufacturer, that it would be reasonable to expect any further innovation on M1 to be driving it slightly faster with better cooling. The issue with that approach is that Apple really seems to be focused on smaller and quieter, which would seem to be incompatible with using more power/heat for more performance. I’m not expecting any surprises from them for the rest of this year, but I know many (yourself and Leo included) hope I’m wrong.
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Ted Lasso was great! The best sitcom I’ve seen maybe ever.
Well, it’s just as well, since I need a bunch of time to save for such a machine anyway. 
But whenever they do produce a pro model, I’ll definitely be salivating.
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Yeah M1 will be used in all low end devices for years to come. In the same way A12 is being used in Apple TV this year.
I believe the AirTags will become a staple promotion item for Apple’s future “Back to School” and other promotions (e.g., the Black Friday Sale). AirTags are great, because they are a small low-cost item for promotions. BtS could thrown in 2 AirPods for an iPad Air or better, and 4 AirPods for buying a MacBook Pro. Those sales would be a win for Apple, because the cost of the straps to use AirTags are typically higher than the AirTag itself.
Tile will probably complain about the “unfairness” of this, too. It’s an example where Apple’s large array of products allows them options that a one trick pony manufacturer cannot imitate.
Interestingly, a bunch of the Tile products are currently out of stock (see their website).
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The combination of the new high-res LIDAR maps, AirTags, and app Snippets (plus Siri once it doesn’t suck) form the infrastructure for a seamless handoff from search through to final sale: from transport to your destination then handed off from Maps to AirTags you download a Snippet for a rich but still light-weight kiosk-like mini-app to complete a transaction. The problem will I think be _over_use: no one wants intrusive AR ads from beacons everywhere, even if your location is anonymized against tracking, yet businesses have a lot of incentive (or at least, perceived incentive, I’m guessing) to saturate their space with such beacons once there’s a low-friction platform to do so.
Another prediction: we are going to see boatloads of product placements of those 24" M1 iMac computers on broadcast and streaming shows this fall. We’ll see not just one iMac, but several rainbows worth of the computers next to each other. Through that thinness, billions and billions of people are going to know about the astonishing thermal efficiency of those computers. Characters in those shows will be happy doing their computing on those gentle pastels (with their white bezels).
I’m sure we’ll see the other products in placement, but those rainbow iMacs will get the lion’s share of the sunshine.
Who knows what a true “pro” version of the M series chips will look like. Apple’s fast and loose attitude around the word pro has really done a disservice to the term. It seems like they define “pro” as the same basic computer but with more horsepower and a higher price point. If we’re talking about a souped up SOC with more cores and memory, but still in the same cases, then that would certainly be in keeping with Apple’s recent interpretation of a “pro” machine.
What I’m waiting to see is the M series version of the Mac Pro. Will it be as expandable as the current iteration, with RAM slots and PCI express slots? Will the CPU have a beefed up data capacity so you can have lots of expansion on board? In other words, will it be a true “pro” machine as the rest of the universe understands it - a lot of horsepower and a lot of room for expansion.
On another topic - I couldn’t help but look at the new iMacs and think “that’s an iPad with active cooling.”
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I refer to them as “laptop on a stick”. LOL
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I suppose. If it’s clocked at the same speed as the M1 Mini/MacBook Air/MacBook Pro, it will take quite a bit to fire up those fans. I think that they will clock the M1 iMac a little bit faster. That would definitely give this “iPad with active cooling” a bit of a bump for its intro. 
M1 is a phenomenal chip, but we humans know how to turn wonder into mundane. The M1X will itself be mundane in no time.
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It’s cooling for the screen that worries me. The active cooling is for the chipset. My 10.5” iPad Pro’s peak brightness is 600 nits: though it does not have local dimming zones, the 1600 peak/1000 sustained of the M1 iMac even with its slightly thicker enclosure seems liable to be at least if not more susceptible to overheating. Granted, the iPad has its chipset directly behind the screen whereas the iMac’s is in the chin, but I have to wonder whether or not, given the fact that the tiniest exertion dims it for me, the iMac in practice won’t have to in most environments as well, albeit for reasons of ambient temp rather than chipset heat. (There’s also the matter of local dimming, but the point of sustained performance is to maintain it even with content that is mostly full brightness.)
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Definitely going to order airtags as soon as we can. Although what I really need is a little robot to go around inventorying everything I own and where it is, and when I go to order another one online, it lets me know I already have one in the back of the drawer in the laundry room. I’m guessing with NNs continuing to get better at identifying objects, they could build that into AR glasses in a few years.
I’m desperately wishing that the Macbook Pro 16" is announced in June.
Good point. The new 24" iMac will get some heat stress, but I’m confident it can take it on the chin.
Hey @Leo: use that line on the next MBW. 
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