Locator: 51542AAPL.
Updates
Later, 5:58 p.m. CT:
Later, 2:01 p.m. CT: link here. In the earlier links, specifically "Open Claw" was mentioned in passing. Here's more of the story. It begins here.
Welp, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple may have just taken a stab at reaching sup
ply demand balance by plotting to release a surprise run of newly updated Mac Minis. As is often the case, Gurman’s reporting comes from “people familiar with the matter,” who “asked not to be identified because the plan isn’t public.”
Interestingly, these alleged new Mac Minis, which Gurman says have been tested with M5 and M6 chips, may come out, “as soon as the coming days,” which would mean before Apple’s big expected September event, when new iPhones will likely be announced.
And the current line of Mac Minis, if you can find one, are M4-powered, meaning this is a big update either way.
If Gurman is right about there being an M6 version, by my reckoning that would be the very first M6 product released by Apple.
This AI hardware rumor coincides with a big AI software rumor: Meta will release its Hatch agentic platform in a matter of weeks, according to the Information. So if you’re planning to get onboard with Zuck, and, uh, join the Hatch revolution(?) Apple may have your hardware needs covered for that.
Query:
So, if I'm reading that correctly, Apple is incredibly secure (Edge technology) whereas Meta's Hatch is massive cloud distribution?
Reply:
Query: It certainly appears Apple made the decision to announce the Mac Mini ahead of Meta's Hatch?
Reply:
At last: Aha! We've come full circle. The dots all connect. Thank you so much.
Reply, from Gemini: It is incredibly satisfying when the big picture clicks together like that! Seeing Apple anchor the physical hardware right as Meta plays its cloud hand shows exactly how the "Age of Agentic AI" is being fought at the highest strategic levels.
Edge (Apple) vs the Cloud (everyone else).
Original Notes
Everything suggest 2026 - 2028 are going to be huge hardware updates for Apple. This is just the beginning.
Tag: Apple.
Chips are tracked here.
TWSJ: link here.
The Mac Mini with an all-new M6 chip starts at $899, and one with an M5 Pro starts at $1,699—both prices $100 higher than the previous M4 and M4 Pro Minis. The Mac Studio with an M5 Max starts at $2,499 while one with the M5 Ultra starts at $5,499, a $200 jump from the previous M3 Ultra model. Apple says the new chips boast artificial-intelligence performance that’s at least four times faster than predecessors while graphics performance is at least two times faster. Apple is releasing new models of its AI-friendly desktop machines—the Mac Mini and Studio—after the previous generations became sleeper hits, and vanished from shelves.
While the next-generation hardware looks identical to previous models, it packs faster, pricier chips, not to mention higher price tags. But can Apple build enough to meet demand.Demand has exceeded supply for the previous Mac Mini and Studio. Apple even removed the largest memory options earlier this year—but now the company is once again offering those higher tiers and more: The Mac Studio supports a whopping 512 gigabytes of RAM, a configuration that will ship late October.
The new models ship on September 22, 2026.
These screenless aluminum blocks went viral as cost-effective machines for AI power users. Macs offer what’s called a unified memory architecture, where the main computer processor, aka CPU, and the graphics processor, aka GPU, share the same pool of memory on the same chip. This enables local large language models to process prompts and generate responses even faster.
So, after OpenClaw and other processor-intensive on-device AI agents blew up, so too did Apple’s Mac Mini, which typically makes up only about 3% of Apple’s Mac unit sales in the U.S.
In an April earnings call, Chief Executive Tim Cook warned that supply would be tight for months. Between the AI boom and global memory-chip shortage, certain configurations saw weekslong or even monthslong wait times.
Apple pulled the entry-level Mac Mini from shelves, then brought it back at $799—up from $599. In June, Cook told The Wall Street Journal that “price increases are unavoidable” due to the surging costs of memory and storage chips.
The prices for portable MacBooks went up too, and the company has been struggling to keep higher-memory variations of the MacBook Air in stock. Apple isn’t saying whether it has enough manufacturing capacity to meet the unprecedented demand.
The company recently showed off a Mac Mini assembly line in Houston that will start producing machines later this year.
**** Our granddaughter recently bought a new MacBook Air but the wait for delivery was one month.
CNBC: link here.
Barron's: link here.
From MacRumors:
It's interesting that wiki does not include Apple's M5 chips. See links below.
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An Update Of CPUs
Since the previous update:
The Chinese chip:
