GoKawiil
Tech News
With Apple's new Mac Mini M6 now available, retailers are discounting the previous-generation M4 Mac Mini's base configuration (256GB storage, 16GB memory) to $649, $150 off its $799 price. The M4 originally launched in 2024 at $599 before Apple raised prices across its lineup this year, citing chip and memory shortages; the new M6 starts at $899.
Apple's new M6 and M5 Pro Mac mini models have removed the removable NAND storage module that was present in the previous M4 Mac mini. That earlier module let users unscrew the back panel and swap in a third-party SSD up to 2TB, bypassing Apple's costly build-to-order storage upgrades. The new models look externally similar but no longer include this swappable storage slot.
Retailers are offering Prime Day discounts on docking stations designed to fit the current Mac Mini's chassis, adding USB-A ports, SD card slots, and SSD bays that the compact computer lacks natively. Tom's Hardware notes these bespoke docks won't fit older Mac Mini models with different chassis shapes, and that standard rectangular USB-C or Thunderbolt docks can offer similar functionality without the custom fit.
A hobbyist developer documented progress toward running Linux on Apple's M4 Mac mini, building on work by the Asahi Linux project. The effort required disabling macOS boot security, loading the m1n1 bootloader, and working around the new SPTM hardware security layer that blocks the usual MMIO-tracing approach used for earlier Apple Silicon chips.
Cody Ho and Niklas reverse-engineered Apple's AGX GPU firmware and user-space stack to create a fully OpenGL ES 3.0 compliant Linux driver for the M4 Mac Mini and MacBook Neo, a project completed in roughly a month rather than the years such work typically requires. The driver already runs Chrome, Firefox with WebGL, and Minecraft at 200fps, though it remains unready for general users.