Mac mini - page 16

I recently decided it was time to get a proper desktop computer. I needed it predominantly for work, but I wanted it to be powerful enough to play the latest games in 1080p without worrying about stuttering or terrible frame rates.

The new Mac lineup didn’t offer a perfect fit — the Retina 5K iMac was too expensive, and the new Mac mini simply wasn’t powerful enough — so I set myself a goal: To build a gaming machine with a dedicated video card, capable of running OS X, for around the price of a Mac mini.

I set a budget of $650 for my build. That’s $150 more than the base model Mac mini, but $50 less than the midrange model. In this piece, I’ll take you through the components I purchased and why I chose them, and how I put them all together. Next week, I’ll show you how I installed OS X to turn my DIY gaming rig into a Hackintosh.

Thinking of buying Apple’s new Mac mini? Make sure you get plenty of RAM when you place your order. Unlike its predecessors, the new machine’s RAM is soldered to the logic board, so you’re unable to add your own later on.

It’s been way too long, joked Apple, since any groundbreaking announcements like the Apple Watch and iPhone 6 Plus. While the product refreshes announced at today’s iPad-centric event aren’t as high on “wow” as the revelations during last month’s big show, these are solid updates to product lines that continue to make Apple great.

Here are the top 12 things you need to know from today’s Apple event.

Until September, 2014 was a pretty quiet year for new Apple products. But the drought is over.

After announcing new iPhones and the Apple Watch last month, another media event is being held October 16th at Apple’s Town Hall auditorium on its Cupertino campus. “It’s been way too long,” joked Apple in its invitation to select members of the press. For those itching to see new iPad and Mac hardware, indeed.

While Town Hall is only a fraction of The Flint Center’s size, October 16th’s event shouldn’t be viewed as any less important. iPad sales are stagnant, and Apple’s desktop displays have been needing an upgrade for years. Apple Pay, an entirely new venture for the company, is expected to come out any day now. And then there’s always the chance that Apple still has at least one surprise up its sleeve.

With Apple’s last keynote live stream being an utter disaster, we weren’t holding out much hope for another one in the foreseeable future. But the company has today posted a note on its website that confirms you will be able to tune into next Thursday’s iPad event via the Apple website.

The tagline for next week’s Apple media event is “It’s been way too long.” While that might be nothing more than a sarcastic nod to the fact that Cupertino announced the Apple Watch and iPhone 6 just last month, it could be a cryptic indication that we’ll see updates to some of the company’s neglected products.

Rumors suggest new iPads and Macs will share the stage at Apple’s October 16 event, and we’ll probably get OS X Yosemite’s release date and more talk about iOS 8 and Apple Pay, but what about the rest of the product lineup?

Here’s a look at Apple products currently languishing in update hell, along with some rumors and speculation about what the future might hold.

The iMac is Apple’s only machine that hasn’t gone Retina, but a new report claims the wait is almost over for the desktop beast — Apple is “incredibly likely” to announce its new Retina iMac next month.

Apple is on a price-slashing spree this morning after taking down its online store for a few hours last night. Not only did Cupertino just release a cheaper low-end iMac, but it’s also dropping prices on the Apple TV and Mac mini across the UK and Europe.

If busting out your iPhone to catalog your #outfitoftheday is just too tedious, meet the mirror that will take your selfie game to the next level.

S.E.L.F.I.E (Self Enhancing Live Feed Image Engine) looks like your average mirror, but behind the shiny glass facade is a Mac Mini-powered selfie machine that features facial recognition tech so all you have to do is smile snap your picture.

Here’s how it works:

First debuted in 2005, the bring-your-own-monitor Mac mini has always been Apple’s entry-level Mac desktop, but at an entry level price starting at $599, the Mac mini isn’t exactly “cheap” compared to competing budget desktops out there.

Doubtlessly, Apple doesn’t consider this a problem — they’ve never tried to compete in the race to the bottom — but what if Apple did release a Mac mini that was cheaper? Over at Letemsvetemapplem.eu, they’ve taken a crack at imagining what such a 2014 Mac mini would look like, and they think it would look a lot like a double-stuffed Apple TV, and start at just $399.

More details below, including a close-up of the concept.

“We still have a lot to cover,” is Apple’s promise this time around. On October 15th, the company sent out press invitations for a media event that will be held at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco this coming Tuesday, October 22nd.

Last month we saw the unveiling of the iPhone 5s and 5c, and this second event is expected to center around new iPads. But that’s not all; the future of OS X, iOS 7, and the Mac are also rumored to be waiting in the wings.

Here’s what to expect from Apple’s October 22nd event:

Even as DVDs become less and less desirable and the idea of streaming media becomes more prevalent, going with a Blu-ray disc for home entertainment is still a great experience. But not every device can handle Blu-ray discs, let alone give you the kind of control and simplicity of use that many of us crave.

That’s where this Cult of Mac Deals offer comes in. For a limited time, you can get Aurora Mac Blu-Ray Player for only $19.95 – and save time and money in the process.

With Aurora’s Blu-ray software, you can freely control playback. You’ll have the ability to play any title or chapter and adjust the screen size as necessary. The app even allows you to customize your experience, such as choosing the language and background image and changing the playback behaviors. And if you’re a Blu-ray power user, you can de-interlace movies (manual or automatic) to get better visual quality according to your display configuration.

Ever wondered why you can’t pick up a cheap used Mac Mini? No, me either—I always figured the new ones were already cheap enough.

But the answer is both interesting and unsurprising. Unsurprising, because it’s just down to supply and demand. Interesting because—well, let’s ask some people who really know about selling used Mac Minis: Macminicolo.

With iOS 7, Jony Ive designed an icon grid that was meant to give developers some guidance on how to proportion their icons so they would look “harmonious” on the new iOS 7 homescreen.

As you can see above, though, Jony Ive has been using a similar mental grid to design Apple’s physical products for a long time. As Reddit user Kepano notes, however, Ive has probably not used this grid as a precise guide to design in the past.

“In my opinion as an industrial designer this image suggests that there are some intuitive similarities between all of Ive’s designs but that the iOS7 icon grid is probably the first time he’s defined those proportions so strictly. The fact that certain shapes match so closely (e.g. the width of the donut shape on the iPod) is probably not a coincidence but a matter of taste. What the image doesn’t show is that these products have radically different dimensions which is why the corner radii are very different from one another.”

Source: Reddit

Owners of late 2012 Macs like the Mac mini, the new iMac or the MacBook Pro with Retina Display are reporting a major problem with their machines: they can’t re-install Mountain Lion or even re-install from a Time Machine backup if their systems get corrupted.

Apple makes some really great software and hardware. We love it. But sometimes there are certain little things you want out of your computer that Apple can’t or won’t provide. That’s why we have jailbreaking and modding.

We love it when someone takes an Apple product and morphs it into something completely different. There have been a lot of Apple hardware mods that have crossed our desks over the last few years. Some have been simple, while others have required over a hundred hours of work. Here are the five greatest Apple hardware mods we’ve ever seen.

Apple celebrates the Chinese New Year by offering its fans in Asia one-day “Red Friday” deals, similar to the Black Friday sale it holds for customers in the United States. And the Cupertino company has today begun teasing the event via its online store with a big red advert that promises “great gifts for everyone on your list.”

When Tim Cook said that Apple would start manufacturing part of its Mac lineup stateside in 2013, many speculated that the Mac Pro would be the most likely candidate. We postulated that the upcoming Mac Pro would make the perfect choice because it is easier to build and doesn’t sell as well as the other Macs. Apple would be able to test a desktop production line in the U.S. with a niche Mac that won’t create huge consumer demand.

According to a new rumor, it will not be the Mac Pro, but instead the Mac mini that gets manufactured in the U.S. next year.

Apple could be looking to switch its graphics cards supplier from NVIDIA back to AMD for the iMac. The Cupertino company began using NVIDIA solutions for its latest all-in-one, which started shipping late last month, but a job listing on its website suggests it could already be preparing to switch back. Apple is looking for a Hardware Systems Electrical Engineer with experience in AMD graphics processing units (GPU).

Have you been having problems with the HDMI connection on your new Mac mini? You’re not alone. Apple has released a firmware update for all 2012 Mac mini owners that addresses a “HDMI video flicker issue.” The issue seemed to be originally related to an Intel driver, but it has been fixed now that Apple has issued an official firmware patch.

The update is available now in the Mac App Store.

Your Mac mini’s EFI firmware will update to version 1.7. The download is less than 5MB and is also available on Apple’s support site.

Source: Apple

Ever since Apple discontinued the Xserve, network administrators have had to come up with creative ways to build new OS X based servers. You can still purchase a Mac Mini with OS X Server on it, but one Mac Mini isn’t enough to support some hardcore server needs.

Steve was trying to put together a Macintosh processing based rack, but when he couldn’t find any XServes in the marketplace, he decided to come up with his own homemade solution – stuff 160 Mac minis into a custom made rack. The end result is brilliant.

We’ve been waiting a month to see Apple’s beautiful new iMacs in the wild, and while the 27-inch models won’t ship until late next month, the new 21.5-inch units are not available in stores. Along with a sleek new body, the iMacs also feature Intel’s new Ivy Bridge processors which should make them markedly faster than last year’s iMacs.

Geekbench scores have already been compiled for the new 21.5-inch iMacs. When compared to 2011’s high-end 27-inch iMacs, the new 21.5-inch iMacs stand their ground and outperform last year’s models by about 10%.

Apple has just reissued the OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.2 supplemental update for late-2012 Macs, including the 21.5-inch new iMac and Mac mini, as well as the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro. There aren’t any reasons given for the original retraction of the update, and no noticeable changes in the list of fixes that are included in it.