There’s a particular kind of irony only the tech industry can produce, and here's a textbook example. The Mac mini—the small, quiet, remarkably capable desktop that became the darling of creative studios, music producers and indie filmmakers—has lost its entry-level configuration. The $599 / £599 model with 256GB of storage is gone. The machine that once offered the most accessible route into a proper Apple desktop now starts at $799 / £799. But this time, it has nothing to do with Apple wanting more of your money.
The culprit is the AI boom, hoovering up the global supply of memory used in affordable computers. Your next Mac costs more because a data centre somewhere needed the memory more. And now, the base configuration of pick of the best computers for graphic design is no more.
