The photo shows the rear of a Mac mini that includes five USB ports instead of 4, both mini DVI and Mini DisplayPort connectors, and FireWire 800 instead of 400 — all of which were specifications for a next-generation Mac mini first published by AppleInsider back in January (1, 2).
For what it's worth, this is the second picture of a Mac mini seen by AppleInsider with such a port makeup, the first of which we were asked not to publish. While we cannot vouch for the authenticity of this new photo, it shows a Mac mini that is identical in every way to the system in the unpublished photo, which was said to be a prototype from last fall.
People familiar with Apple's plans have said that the new Mac mini, like Apple's MacBook families and upcoming line of iMacs, will be powered by chipsets from NVIDIA Corp.
However, with no official announcement from Apple, and two photos of the same unreleased system making the rounds in as many months, there's an outside chance the company may have recently changed its course for the next-gen Mac mini.
Update: The image was also posted to the MacRumors forums from user 'monthy,' who claims the system will ship with a 2GHz Core 2 Duo with 3MB Level 2 cache, 2GB DDR 3 RAM @ 1066MHz and a ATA Super Drive. It appears monthy is the source of the image.
221 Comments
Whoopty Doo!
Hurry up and bring it out! I got cash burning a hole in my pocket for this bad boy!
Yes, I agree, just release the damn thing alright! All I want is an apple computer that can handle games for my big screen tv!
How are people doing with the new GPU chips in the macbooks while playing games?
What kind of CPU do you think they will drop in this little box?
I need this little baby right now.
Anybody think there might be delays because of the Intel/Nvidia spat?
Seems fake. Why would Apple leave a miniDVI port on there when they added mini-DisplayPort? And FW800 on the Mini? Why? Plus the design is too similar to the existing mini. After this long you'd think they'd revise it at least a little bit.
The FW800 is nice, but what the hell does anyone need five USB ports for on this level of computer?