AppleInsider Staff
In an update to a support document regarding Boot Camp compatibility on Monday, Apple added reference to an as-yet-unannounced "mid-2014" Mac mini, suggesting the company is — or was — planning a long overdue refresh of its smallest desktop offering.
As Apple plows through its annual hardware refresh cycle with tweaked iMacs, MacBook Airs and today's MacBook Pro with Retina display, the Mac mini remains untouched since October 2012, when Apple upgraded the computer's CPUs to then-current Intel Ivy Bridge silicon.
A support document modified on Monday, however, made reference to a mid-2014 Mac mini. As seen in the above screenshot of a web-cached version of the document, the supposed mid-2014 Mac mini uses Boot Camp 5 to support 64-bit versions of Microsoft's Windows 8 and Windows 7.
The latest build of Boot Camp 5 — version 5.1.5640 — requires current Mac hardware released no earlier than the start of 2013. It should be noted that Boot Camp version 5.1.5621 supports Macs down to 2011 and it is unclear which build Apple suggested for use with the 2014 Mac mini.
While the addition of an unannounced refreshed Mac mini to a support document suggests Apple may be working on an overhaul, it can just as easily be assumed that the post was updated by mistake. With the MacBook Pro with Retina display lineup receiving its mid-2014 refresh today, Apple may have inadvertently modified the Boot Camp document in error, instead meaning to add the new Retina MacBooks to the list.
Popular with a niche audience, the Mac mini has seemingly fallen by the wayside as stronger sellers like the iMac, Mac Pro and MacBook lineup continue to expand their capabilities. There is still a market for the Mac mini, as seen in multiple online forums including numerous active threads on Apple's own Support Communities forum, though the company has been slow to upgrade the tiny desktop with new internals.
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
143 Comments
Don't get my hopes up. I am anxiously awaiting a Haswell quad core mini with Iris Pro graphics.
Just as I was about to have my employer pull the trigger on a 2012 model for my office (I've been holding out with a 2007 iMac for over six years now), this rumor pops up. I hope this comes soon!
Uh-oh. Mac mini refresh complainers will have to find something else to complain about.
How about a working driver for the Radeon 4870, Apple? Since ATI refuses to make one, that is.
The Mini is popular where you need a Mac but it's not your primary machine. It's perfect for iOS development/cross-development (eg with monogame/xamarin) and is reasonably powerful enough and portable enough to be used as a HTPC or taken to convention settings when there is power available. That said, the lack of OS X on more capable desktop/laptop hardware is often a deciding factor in what Mac or PC someone buys. I'm not terribly fond of the Apple Laptop designs, as I feel they are overly compromised (eg the macmini 2012 is more capable than all the 2014 13" Retina Macbook Pro and Macbook Air's), versus the desktops which undoubtly beat the mini. The Iris Pro graphics doesn't make up for the weaker dual-core designs. I have a desktop Windows machine that I'd drop in a heartbeat if I could get the same specs in a Macmini. It won't happen. The mini gets relegated to be development/backup system while the windows machine gets to be the primary development/steam-games system. OS X, is a wonderful OS, but it's only available on weak systems, systems that because of Intel Graphics have not been terribly capable. This problem extends to the new Mac Pro in that the graphics can never be upgraded.