I’m no expert in business, but I guess that maintaining the Mac side of the company goes a long way towards the popularity of the iOS side. What they make from Macs might be tiny in comparison, but it all helps towards the amount they make from iPhones and iPads. It’s all symbiotic, y’know?

This does make me wonder whether the entry level mini is something of a loss-leader at this point. Literally just a way to get people into the ecosystem.

I wouldn’t have thought Apple are using flash chips that are two or three times more expensive. They’re just price gouging at a point where consumers have literally no option.

It does make me wonder what value there might be in a third party offering, tied with a local repair shop who have a Mac running Sequoia that can be used to restore it. Assuming the boards are reasonably easy to produce (easy for someone who is able to do that kind of thing), it’d be pretty straightforward to take your Mac in to a shop to have it restored.

I’d be tempted to say that the 2014 Mini is a better bet for retro Mac usage.

It’ll still run Sonoma via OCLP, but has the benefit of USB 3. Bung a huge SSD in there and you can use it as a media server too. I have a 2014 that’s about to become surplus to requirements, so that’s precisely what I intend to do.

I’m trying to be a Linux nerd, but my god is there so much research to do to figure out how to get it to work the same way my Mac does.

I’m also in the UK, so yeah…

But yeah, it’s a Linux distro based on Fedora that’s been developed to run on M-series Mac hardware.

Oh god, he’d have no idea at all. He text me after I helped him set up his new one because Plex wasn’t working.

The server hadn’t been set to launch at login.

He loves his toys, but has almost no idea how to use them.

My main is an M2 Air, so I’ll use the M1 at work so I can finally give my creaking 2014 mini the retirement it deserves. But not before I’ve given Asahi a proper airing on it to see whether I can daily drive it.

Oh, I know that. But he’s got the money and enjoys his toys.

My dad took delivery of his yesterday, and it really is a marvel.

Of course, literally all he’ll use it for is as a Plex server so he could have carried on with his M1 mini. But it does mean that I now have an M1 mini to mess about with.

I love that he took it to the Apple Store to make sure it fit and take photos of it.

My dad took delivery of his today, and asked me to help him set it up. I’ve inherited his M1 mini now, which I’m looking forward to finding uses for.

I have basically no need of one of these right now, but damn do I want one.

Imagine what they’d charge for RAM and storage upgrades.

Tim Cook didn’t have to offer congratulations. None of them did, but least of all the head of a company that seemingly prides itself on its inclusivity and diversity.

I wonder what his employees make of it. His gay employees, and trans employees, and employees who are the children of immigrants.

That’s what I wonder.

I wish the EU would pass a law making it so that all devices must be unlocked once they stop receiving software updates. How many perfectly usable devices are forced to fall by the wayside because the last supported OS can’t do anything useful. I would love to see a version of Linux running on old iPad hardware.

I couldn’t believe how long I could get out of my 15" M2 Air’s battery when playing No Man’s Sky. A good five hours of gameplay without needing to worry about plugging in. Meanwhile, my previous Intel MacBook struggled to get five hours on standby.

My 18 month old 13 mini is running 18.1 and has been off charge for a little over ten hours. I’ve barely used it today as I’ve been at my desk with my iPad and work Mac, but the battery is at 63%.

My year old iPad mini has been off charge for a couple of hours, during which I’ve been typing in a Pages document using a regular Logitech keyboard and mouse hooked up via dongle. The battery is at 58%.

Something ain’t right with the drain in 18.1.

But which is it to be; the simplicity of iPadOS, or cramming iPads with ultra-powerful processors that are hilariously overpowered for what the OS can achieve?

In the case of the iPad mini: it could be an excellent, simple computing device, a la Chromebook. Hook it up to a display, get a Stage Manager-led device that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse and used to get on with simple computing tasks. The iWork suite would be perfect in that setup.

Instead, when you do that you get the regular 8” display blown up to the size of whatever display you have, which adds nothing. The Mini has the capability to be so much more without losing what makes it such a compelling device, but Apple don’t seem to care.

And it’s not like I’m asking for them to make it a Mac replacement. There’s no danger of it cutting in to iPad or Mac sales. It would become its own little niche. Hell, they could make iPhones do the same. But they won’t, because money.