Currently Apple’s MacBook Pro, iMac, and Mac Mini offerings all feature a single FireWire 800 port (the Mac Pro has four), but if you compare functionality and transfer speeds to Thunderbolt you will see that FireWire 800′s days could be numbered. Also it’s far slower than USB 3.0 and devices are much more expensive in comparison, but will Apple decide to snub this interface in 2012? It’s a tough decision to make.

The image below shows just how much faster Thunderbolt is when compared to rival technologies, we previously explained how it’s faster than USB 3.0 and eSATA, however what’s most noticeable is just how much has changed over time and how FireWire 800 can no-longer be regarded as a fast means of transferring data.

In theory it would take FireWire 800 just shy of 5 minutes to transfer 25GB of data, however Thunderbolt has the potential to do the same in under 30 seconds. The biggest problem with both technologies is price, the Apple Store lists a 1TB FireWire 800 drive for $179.95 1TB, or a 2TB drive for $219.95, alternatively you can pay $479.95 for a 1TB Thunderbolt drive or $579.95 for a 2TB – to put this into perspective you can easily get hold a 1TB USB 3.0 drive for $115 or a 2TB USB 3.0 drive for $130. We don’t think Apple will adopt USB 3.0 – which means Mac owners will have to choose between pretty expensive FireWire devices or stupidly expensive Thunderbolt device – not much of a choice ey?

We honestly think that FireWire 800 has had a good innings and is now showing its age, snubbing the once-popular port for its 2012 line-up and dropping the price of Thunderbolt devices and cables would lessen the blow, but we’re sure that there’s enough Mac users out there with FireWire drives who would hate to hear that their ‘trusty old’ FireWire drive won’t plug into new Apple products.

As usual Apple has kept very quiet in regards to the next-generation of Mac offerings, therefore all this speculation about FireWire’s future is unfounded, we just can’t see any reason other than convenience to include it – can you?

Given the choice we’d sooner see USB 3.0 than FireWire, how about you? Want to save FireWire 800? Tell us why below!

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In terms of design it’s cosmetics are pretty much the same as the previous model. And although the Mac Mini is a rather curious piece of machinery, it still falls short of what is to be expected. For one, you still have to get yourself a mouse, keyboard and a monitor to even make it functional.

Certain qualms aside, the Mac Mini is still beautiful to look at. It’s sure to catch the eye of any unsuspecting techno-geek, who will ask the question “exactly, what is it?” When you tell them it’s a mini PC, they will wonder exactly how everything can be so compacted into such a small 7.7 x 7.7 x 1.4″ box.

Being so small, it is also hard to fathom how they managed to fit an Ethernet, FireWire 800, a full-sized HDMI, Thunderbolt, SDXC, audio input and headphone port into the back. Then on top of that we get four USB 2.0 sockets, but why they are not USB 3.0, we just do not know. If you plan on using a monitor which only has a DVI input don’t worry Apple decided to include a HDMI-to-DVI adapter, if money is no concern for you check out the 27-inch Apple Thunderbolt LED display t.

On opening the bottom lid, you can see some of the components that the Mac Mini houses. The only thing to note is the two SODIMM 1GB memory modules, which even the most un-savvy PC fiddler could replace, preferably with bigger ones.

Another hindrance here is that Apple are still keeping the HDD away from prying eyes and hands, which means that you are stuck with a rather sluggish 500GB (5,400RPM) hard drive. After some vigorous testing by Engadget, they say that boot times were rather snappy (45 secs), and other mundane applications such as Office were pretty quick. It’s when some of the heavier applications such as Photoshop, Word, Firefox, Chrome, TweetDeck and Lightroom were open for a few hours that they really noticed heavy slowdowns in performance. Oh, and did we mention the lack of an optical drive too?

Yeah, it’s getting rather silly now right? Apple surely are pointing this towards the media market, but with no optical drive and no choice to even have a built-to-order Blu-Ray installed, you could almost say it is laughable. Ok, we can pay another $600 on top of the $599 you pay for the Mini itself just to replace the sluggish HDD with a 256GB SSD, but this still does not allow you to play audio CD’s, DVD’s, Blu-Ray, or install any media-bound software, is this a mistake? We think so…

Engadget have the full-review that you can take a look at, but be aware that they only marked it as a 6/10, citing good points as it’s gorgeous design, the inclusion of the Thuderbolt port, and it’s snappy performance, but the bad is pretty much explained above.

Have you had a chance to play with this years Mac Mini? Are the faults listed here just as bad as we think they are, or are you happy with what Apple have done with the 2011 release?

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One thing that stayed the same was the need for an optical drive in the new MacBook Air, it took a while for us to get used to this first time around but many months on, you wonder why laptops have optical drives. The world is going digital in almost every way, and now the new MacBook Air has received a much-needed improvement to make the need for optical drives completely obsolete, and this comes thanks to “Internet Recovery”. This service will use Apple’s servers to reinstall Mac OS X Lion, meaning you can repair problems much easier than on any previous OS X.

The new Mac Mini is also drive-less, which is a first for the Mac Mini and should lead to the same benefits MacBook Air users have become used to. Do you think physical formats like discs are history? If you still love to go old school, then you can do so with the help of an external SuperDrive that will work with both the Mac Mini and MacBook Air.

Apple has been planning this move for a few years, which saw the first-gen Macbook Air without an optical drive in 2008. Back then the product was more niche thanks to the screen options and price, but this year the range of sizes and low price point, when Apple products are concerned, should only help more homes have a MacBook Air.

Do you favor digital downloads? What do you think of installing OS X Lion via the Mac App Store? You may want to read about redeem code problems for Mac OS X Lion, or the invalid serial number issue.

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From what we have read it looks as though the price of a new MacBook Air could have around $100 shaven off its price, which is about £62 in the UK. This could certainly help with sales, and would be keeping in line with what they recently did with the iMac and MacBook Pro. 9 to 5 Mac admits that this is a small price cut, but it is better than nothing.

The reason for this drop is to try and counter fluctuations caused by currency, as we know that changes in this can greatly affect how much you will have to pay. But that is not the only reason for this rumored price cut; Apple has been working constantly to streamline its operations, and as such the savings made will be able to be passed on to the customer.

The current price of the MacBook Air in the US is $999 for the 11-inch version; this could be reduced to $899. So going at that rate this converts to a price cut of 10 percent. Now if this were to happen Apple could show to the world that they are not afraid to offer aggressive pricing on its new products.

Going back Mac OS X Lion, we had assumed that UK consumers would now have the update, but that did not happen. We had assumed that this was just another one of those rumors, but the news had to be reported. There are so many reasons why this date was not plausible, and one of them is with app developers for the new OS. It seems that they are having a few issues, and that they still need time to iron out a few kinks.

How bad would it be to launch Mac OS X Lion without full app support? At least we know that Mozilla has made sure that their browser is ready, as they have just issued Firefox 5.0.1 update. The reason was due to a constant crashing issue.

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The upcoming ZBOX mini-PC was at the recent Computex event and on first impressions looks like one of the older Mac Mini models. Inside things are very different; the processor is a dual-core model from VIA with speed choices of 1.2 or 1.6GHz. This pales in comparison to the Mac Mini, as you have a choice of 2.4GHz or 2.66GHz.

As yet we have no details of how much RAM there will be, but with know that Apple’s little computer comes with either 2GB or 4GB. The ZBOX has 3 USB ports, whereas the Mac has 4. However, they both have HDMI and display ports and boast a multi-card reader.

Engadget is hoping that the price of the ZBOX mini-PC will not be as much as others on the market, but we do not believe that it will be. Zotac knows that they need to compete in a tough market; so getting the price right could be the difference between success and failure.

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AnandTech has spent some time with the device to see if ASRock has upped its game, and we can tell right away how impressed they were. We were even more shocked to learn that they believe that the Vision 3D HTPC is the best small form factor that they have reviewed.

Let us have a brief look at the hardware to see what makes this SFF so special; the first and most important piece of hardware is the 2.4GHz Core i3-370M processor, which works well in conjunction with its GeForce GT425M GPU. That’s not all, 4GB of DDR3 RAM helps to handle all what is thrown at it.

The addition of Blu-ray and a HDMI port helps to make this one hell of a media PC, but the price tag does seem a little high at just under a $1000. For a detailed review of the ASRock Vision 3D HTPC visit AnandTech.

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ColorWare allows you to add a little bit of your own personal choice to your Mac Mini, you can choose a color for main case itself and then the Apple logo on top. There is a huge choice of color combinations to choose from, just like you can with an iPhone 4 or the new Xbox 360.

You can choose from solid, metallic or pearl, these choices are offered in gloss or softtouch. The price for this service is $250, or if you prefer to purchase your Mac Mini directly from ColorWare then you will have to part with $1000.

If for some reason you do not find the color that appeals to you, then you can choose your own color with Pantone PMS. This will cost and extra $250 and you will be sent a sample for you to make certain that you like it before committing to it. For more details on this process visit ColorWare

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We can see that the new Mac Mini comes with more grunt now, but what we were most impressed with is its size – Apple have made the small computer even smaller. That is not all; it now has a unibody aluminum exterior and that all-important HDMI port – so now you will be able to get audio and visual from the same lead.

Prices start from $699, for that you get a 4GHz Core 2 Duo CPU, 320GB hard drive, 2GB of RAM and an NVIDIA GeForce 320M – all of which can be upgraded.

For $999 you can get yourself 2.66GHz Intel chip, 4GB of RAM, two 500GB hard drives and Snow Leopard Server. Both come with a host of free software to help improve your user experience.

Visit the Apple Store now and tell us if you think that the new 2010 Mac Mini has been worth the wait?

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The first thing that you will notice about the new 2010 Mac Mini is its size, the current model was small but this is even smaller – measuring just 1.4-inches thin. It makes you wonder how Apple can do it, and they have even packed more hardware in as well.

We are told that the new 2010 Mac Mini comes with a faster processor, more memory, larger hard drive, a host of pre-installed software and twice as much graphics performance. All these updates are reflected in its price, but this was to be expected.

The price is $699 for the 2.4GHz, 2GB Ram and 320GB hard drive model. There is a 2.66GHz, 4GB RAM with Dual 500GB hard drive, the price for this is $999, bit does cup with Snow Leopard Server.

For more details visit the Apple Store

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This got us thinking what other upgrades Apple will give the Mac Mini and what you would like to see – so what is your wish list before the Worldwide Developers Conference? A recent article from Luke Johnson over at T3 reports that Mac Mini prototypes have been seen with NVIDIA MCP89 chipsets – this certainly makes sense, as it would work perfectly with the HDMI port upgrade.

There are a number of things that Apple needs to do in order to still make the Mac Mini relevant, firstly a processor upgrade is needed to one of the latest Intel chips. Secondly it would be nice to see the Mac Mini come with more RAM as standard and thirdly a smaller storage capacity – but use SSD instead. Why do we need huge hard drives when we store all our photos, videos and music on external devices?

So with all of these features we could have a much faster working Mac Mini, but we do not expect Apple to do all this. Whatever they decide to do will be an improvement over the current model.

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