Thanks to a video posted on social media showing the inside of the new Mac mini, we now know it has modular storage and the 256GB base model uses two 128GB chips. This is good news for tech enthusiasts who were disappointed with the M2 Mac mini’s single 256GB chip since it caused slower SSD speeds.
Two chips allows for parallel reading and writing so jobs can get done faster, but it’s important to note that the difference isn’t noticeable for most day-to-day tasks. The problem only applied to 256GB models and was primarily a pain point for enthusiasts — but it’s still nice to know that Apple is willing to listen to customers sometimes (not always, though).
Partial teardown of M4 Mac Mini /w 16GB RAM & 256GB SSD. Interesting revealation: Wifi chip & antenna on the back of bottom air intake. SSD on a daughter board. And even the base 256GB version comes in two chips. No compromise in speed. Theoretically also end user upgradable. pic.twitter.com/vA2vQwkl7J
— ＨＧ 阿聻 𓆣 𓇽 (@ohgkg) November 8, 2024
The modular storage means that the chips aren’t soldered to the motherboard either, which almost sounds like users should be able to remove and replace them easily — but that’s not quite the case. While it’s easy to remove them, trying to swap them out for something else opens up a whole other can of worms.
To put it simply, Apple silicon SSDs aren’t self-contained devices like typical SSDs, so you can’t just swap it out and expect everything to work the same as before. Whether this reason is a good enough excuse for Apple’s terrible upgradability and repairability practices is another question, however.
The new Mac mini isn’t the first device to correct this mistake — the M3 MacBook Air also switched back to two chips instead of one — so it’s good to know the fix is happening across the Mac lineup.
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.