Apple to Launch New MacBook Air, Mac Mini Later This Year
- Mehedi Hassan
- Aug 20, 2018
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Apple is reportedly working on two new Mac products for later this year. The company has already introduced a new MacBook Pro upgrade just more than a month ago, and it’s now looking to introduce upgrades for the MacBook Air and the Mac Mini, according to Bloomberg.
While Apple already sells the regular MacBook as an alternative to the MacBook Air, the company has continued selling the Air, which only recently picked up a minor processor refresh. But later this year, Apple plans to launch anew MacBook Air with an improved design which includes the company’s Retina displays, and smaller bezels. Apple’s MacBook Air is the company’s only product that doesn’t include the high-resolution Retina display, so this will very much be a welcome addition.
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Cupertino is also planning on launching a new Mac Mini later this year. The company hasn’t upgraded the Mac Mini in years, and the upgraded device is expected to include new processor and storage options. Interestingly, Bloomberg reports that the upgrade will be focused towards professional users like app developers and for home server/media purposes.
Both the new Mac devices are likely going to launch later this year — sometime around October — after the company launches its new iPhone devices. If you are an Apple fan, there’s a ton of things to be hyped about: three new iPhones, new Apple Watches, new iPad Pros, and now the new Macs. The party should begin next month.
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Conversation 46 comments
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skane2600
<p>The only Apple computer I've ever owned was a used Mac Mini given to me by a client for developing a cross-platform application. It was probably a 2nd generation with a CD player. Pretty decent but pretty much unsupported these days. I'd certainly consider buying a new one if it were truly upgraded (not like the last "upgrade") and not too expensive.</p>
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Stooks
<p>"If you are an Apple fan, there’s a ton of things to be hyped about: three new iPhones, new Apple Watches, new iPad Pros, and now the new Macs"</p><p><br></p><p>I am not sure many Apple fans are super hyped about the possibility of new Mac's. I simply hate my 2017 15inch Macbook Pro these days. The keyboard SUCKS and I have not had that sticky key issue. It is just horribly shallow and hard to get used too. I type on my ThinkPad and it is OH SO MUCH better. I am living in dongle hell with the Macbook.</p><p><br></p><p>In January, when they drop the 2017 13inch Macbook Pro, the cheapest Macbook Pro, 13 inch, will be $1799 with a i5, 8gigs of RAM and a 256gig SSD. Do you know how much Windows Laptop you can get for $1800???</p><p><br></p><p>Apple has finally removed too many useful features (actual ports, magsafe, real keyboard) and jacked the price so high I am done with Mac's. I am still a iOS device fan (iphone, ipad, homepod, appletv, watch) but I do not need a Mac anymore once my remaining Mac's get retired.</p>
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Stooks
<blockquote><em><a href="#303208">In reply to ivan19998:</a></em></blockquote><p>It is ironic to say the least, that the latest and greatest Macbook Pro with USB-C only can't connect to the latest and greatest iPad Pro or iPhone X with their USB-A Lightning cables.</p><p><br></p><p>Hey but there is a dongle for that!</p>
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Stooks
<blockquote><em><a href="#303150">In reply to Pierre Masse:</a></em></blockquote><p>WTF does that have to do with the Macbook Hardware?</p><p><br></p><p>I use Office 365, all my tasks, email, and calendar items are in sync on all of my devices. My iPad, my iPhone, my 2017 Macbook Pro, my 2015 Mac Mini, my 3 Windows 10 computers. I also sync my iPhone photos using the OneDrive upload. </p><p><br></p><p>I have always used Photoshop/Premiere elements both on Mac and PC to manage/edit my photos and videos. OneDrive allows me to grab photos from multiple sources (iPhone, downloaded to a Mac or PC) and put them in one place. I then use my most powerful computer to manage all of that via the Adobe Products.</p><p><br></p><p>I use, or my family uses Apple Music family plan. So we can get to our music, from our iPhone's, iPad's, Apple TV's, our HomePod in the Kitchen…..or ( I know this is crazy hard to understand) from iTunes on a Mac or PC.</p><p><br></p><p>We have in my house, 5 iPhones, 5 iPad's, 3 Apple TV's, one HomePod, 2 Apple Watches, 2 Mac's and 3 cars that support Apple Car Play……what part of not being into the Apple ecosystem were you talking about?</p><p><br></p><p>I have been a Mac user since the Mac SE, which I still have today and it actually boots up to its 20meg SCSI drive 31 years later. We got that in 1987 (my dad did). I used it while in college. </p><p><br></p><p>All that said I do not like the choices Apple has made with the Mac. Go online and you will find out I am not the only one. They Keyboard is not liked by the majority of users if for nothing else the lack of travel. It is super shallow and bottoms out, making noise in the process. Never mind the fact that so many people are having issues with tiny particles of whatever killing the keyboard. Out of warrenty it was a $600 fix because Apple glues the battery to the bottom of the keyboard….and that is why iFixit gives them a 1 out of 10 for repair-ability. That is why there are multiple states trying to pass laws that will allow users to repair their own computers, and Apple is fighting those laws. They keyboard sucks. I have over $200 in dongles for my 2017 Macbook Pro so I can use things like USB drives, HDMI monitors, SD cards from my camera's etc. The touchbar is a complete gimmick. The MagSafe which was a great Apple invention is now gone. At work we have seen people trip over the power cord on some new Macbooks draging them to the floor. That nice aluminum shell dents really nice and does not pop back out like a plastic PC shell.</p>
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Stooks
<blockquote><em><a href="#303191">In reply to curtisspendlove:</a></em></blockquote><p>The $1299 Macbook you are talking about goes away at the end of this year. Apple announced that when the 2018's came out. They have 7th gen CPU's. What can you buy for $1299 on the PC side? Will it have a larger SSD, more RAM, better ports, a touch screen?</p><p><br></p><p>In January of 2019 the cheapest 13inch Macbook Pro will be $1799 and all Macbook Pro's will come with the TouchBar. </p><p><br></p><p>I have never played games on my Mac's because honestly the selection of games is pretty bad. It is usually old stuff that gets wrapped in wine or whatever and run's just OK only on the higher end Mac's. The fans go nuts on Macbooks when you play those games. When I was down on Windows (Vist then 8) I still kept a gaming PC but did everything else computing on a Mac.</p><p><br></p><p>Apple's low end computing options are a mess right now. Mac Mini, super old hardware and everything is soldered in. Macbook….fanless CPU the initial model would throttle playing a HD youtube video. The latest version is not much faster but hey it is thin, quiet, has only one USB-C port and starts at $1299. The Macbook Air is old hardware (CPU, screen, RAM) as well but is cheaper than the Macbook, has a better keyboard, two USB-A ports, thunderbolt and a SD card reader, plus Magsafe.</p><p><br></p><p>How are they going to align this stuff and what will be the new price points? Will the new Air get the new keyboard, lose useful ports and lose the Magsafe…and get a higher price?</p><p><br></p><p><br></p>
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Stooks
<blockquote><em><a href="#303243">In reply to Andi:</a></em></blockquote><p>I agree, MacOS is not leaner. I use both all the time. My Mac's are not slow (hardware) and neither are my Windows 10 computers. Windows 10 just feels snappier. MacOS does not feel slow but does not have the pep Windows 10 does….and yes I have turned off the lame animations in MacOS.</p><p><br></p><p>I open up say OmniGraffle Pro on 2017 15inch Macbook Pro with its quad core I7 and PCIE SSD vs Visio on my ThinkPad, dual core i7 with Samsung 960 PCIE SSD. Visio is way faster. Office apps faster on Windows as well. Not slow on a Mac just noticeably faster on Windows. </p><p>Maybe its the 32gigsg of DDR4 on my ThinkPad vs the 16gigs of DDR3 on the Macbook. The Mac cost 3k and the ThinkPad cost me $1500 at most (cant remember after upgrading the SSD and RAM….MY SELF).</p>
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Stooks
<blockquote><em><a href="#303138">In reply to CaedenV:</a></em></blockquote><p>I have a 2015 Mac Mini, loaded i7, 16gig of RAM, SSD etc. I tried connecting it to my Xbox One X monitor (cheapish 27inch LG 4K) and it could only do 30hz as the intel video card could not push past 30hz. It was not a good experience. </p><p><br></p><p>They have been using that same hardware since 2014. I would think that somebody that needed to replace their Mini would have moved onto something more powerful and cheaper by this point. No wonder Mac sales were down 13% last quarter. Releasing crazy expensive Macbook Pro that have heat issues and the same lame keyboard is not going to do much to change that.</p>
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Stooks
<blockquote><em><a href="#303298">In reply to nbplopes:</a></em></blockquote><p>Please read what I posted. </p><p><br></p><p>My Mini connects just fine to the LG27UD69 just fine. However at 4K the mini can only output 4K at a max of 30hz. You get ghosting and such when moving windows because the HZ is so low. Limitation of the 2014 Intel chip used in the current Mini.</p>
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skane2600
<blockquote><em><a href="#303143">In reply to Stooks:</a></em></blockquote><p>I don't think the target market for a Mac Mini is the same as that for a 4K monitor. Now if they make the new version "Pro" it might change. Of course a "Pro" version kind of turns the original concept upside-down. The whole idea was an entry-level device that could ease a user's transition from a Windows PC to a Mac. </p>
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Stooks
<blockquote><em><a href="#303371">In reply to skane2600:</a></em></blockquote><p>Why not? 4K computing (not gaming ) is not particularly taxing. Document work, email web surfing etc. </p><p><br></p><p>In fact MacOS does DPI scaling way better than Windows. With that Mac Mini and that monitor the native resolution is 1920×1080 HiDPI mode….retina. Basically 1080p with 4K of pixels, looks fantastic. Problem is Apple, for whatever reason did not upgrade the Intel Graphics chip for 4 years now???? It would not have been hard say in 2016 to upgrade it a bit and keep the price/size/power the same.</p>
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Stooks
<blockquote><em><a href="#303277">In reply to TEAMSWITCHER:</a></em></blockquote><p>So the updates to the Throttle book 2018 were great?</p><p><br></p><p>Upgrade to entry level machines we have not even seen yet, just rumors.</p><p><br></p><p>And the mythical Mac Pro and cinema display.</p><p><br></p><p>So one botched update and two rumors. You should setup a direct deposit from your pay check to Apple.</p>
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Stooks
<blockquote><em><a href="#303377">In reply to curtisspendlove:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>Yes for bursty work the Macbook Pro with the i9 gives you what you payed for. For heavy CPU/GPU work it throttles and never gives you the power of the i9.</p><p><br></p><p>Yes Apple "patched" it. Instead of letting the CPU throttle its self under load at 100c, now the Macbook throttles the CPU by choking the power to it and keeping it at its base speed.</p><p><br></p><p>I watched both of David Lee's youtube videos the before and after the patch. He is the guy that brought this to everyone's attention and worked with Apple.</p><p><br></p><p>In his second video (cant link it here) he had 6 – 15inch laptops. 3 thin and light, and 3 thicker no as light. 5 of them were running Windows. All have the i9. The Macbook, post patch, came in last place running the same video cutting test with Premier. The other 2 thin PC laptops did throttle, but way less than the Macbook. The thicker 3 laptops never throttled and ran at full speed.</p><p><br></p><p>Apple jammed a faster/hotter CPU into an existing case and never modified it to handle the increased heat load. I am not sure why anyone at Apple would think that was going to work. Now they have throttled it so that you never get the full potential of the CPU. Class Action is bound to come at some point. This after all the negativity from the 2016/2017 model with the keyboard issues, sound issues, their own heat issues, lack of ports and removal of the magsafe…..they should have known better.</p><p><br></p><p>Maybe that is why Mac sales were down 13% last quarter?</p>