MacOS
- News
The 2018 MacBook Air and two 13-inch MacBook Pros are now obsolete
Apple made the 2018 MacBook Air and two 13-inch MacBook Pros obsolete, ending hardware service and parts supply.
- News
Apple’s new M6 and M5 Ultra chips, explained
Apple's M6 is its first 2nm chip. The M5 Ultra joins four dies. What both actually do, explained plainly.
- News
Apple’s $699 MacBook Neo could launch today
Apple is reportedly taking a page out of Samsung’s playbook, and it might be the best news budget-conscious Mac fans…
- News
Google finally adds native HLS playback to Chrome, Edge, & other Chromium desktop browsers
After nearly four years of development, Google is finally rolling out native HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) playback to Chrome on…
- News
Apple mocks Windows blue screen of death in genius new ad, and it’s hard not to laugh
Apple is back with another cheeky “Apple at Work” ad, this time, turning one of Windows’ most infamous nightmares, the…
- Interesting Reads
All Apple Intelligence Features Coming with iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26, and watchOS 26
Circle September 15 on your calendar. Because that’s the day Apple will push out iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26…
- News
Apple Admits Hackers Exploiting iPhone Bug, Pushes Emergency Update
Apple just dropped iOS 18.6.2 and iPadOS 18.6.2, and if you’re the type who usually ignores those “Update Available” pop-ups,…
- Interesting Reads
Windows Market Share is Falling Fast in Africa, and macOS is Quietly Rising
If you grew up in Africa in the early 2000s, chances are your first real taste of the internet came…
- News
Apple’s $599 MacBook Could Finally Make Macs Less of a Distant Dream for Africa
For years, MacBooks have been the stuff of wish lists in much of Africa. Sleek, powerful, and painfully out of…
- News
Apple May Be Building a Budget MacBook Powered by iPhone 16 Pro’s A18 Pro Chip
Insights At a Glance: Apple is reportedly working on a cheaper MacBook powered by the iPhone 16 Pro’s A18 Pro…
- News
Everything Apple Announced About Apple Intelligence at WWDC 2025
Apple expanded its AI features at WWDC 2025 but focused more on UI updates, with mostly incremental, not groundbreaking, improvements.
- News
Apple Officially Ends Intel Mac Support: macOS 27 Requires Apple Silicon Only
Apple announces macOS 26 Tahoe will be the final update for Intel Macs; macOS 27 requires Apple Silicon only.
- News
Apple’s New Accessibility Features Redefine How Blind, Deaf, and Disabled Users Use Tech
Apple's 2025 accessibility updates include new tools for blind, deaf, and mobility-impaired users across Mac, iPhone, and Vision Pro.
- Quick Reviews
iPhone Mirroring Setup, Bugs and What to Expect with macOS Sequoia
New public betas for macOS, iOS, iPadOS, tvOS, and watchOS released, featuring iPhone Mirroring on macOS Sequoia with detailed setup…
- Reviews
Here’s your sign to get the M2 MacBook Air!
The M2 MacBook Air: Powerful, portable, and long-lasting battery, the ultimate thin and light laptop for basic productivity and mobility.
. The Mac mini is Apple's small desktop, an aluminium box roughly 5 inches square that ships without a screen, keyboard or mouse. You supply those, which is why it has been the cheapest way into a Mac for two decades. The design is unchanged this generation. ## Where the $899 comes from The previous Mac mini launched in October 2024 at $599 with the same 16GB of memory and 256GB of storage. We [covered that launch](https://tech-ish.com/2024/11/04/m4-mac-line-up-apple-refresh/) at the time, when the M4 Pro cost $1,399. In May 2026 Apple dropped the $599 version, brought it back in late June at $799, and pushed the M4 Pro to $1,599, [changes tracked by MacRumors](https://www.macrumors.com/roundup/mac-mini/). So the same specification has gone from $599 to $799 to $899 in under two years, a 50 percent rise on a machine whose whole pitch is being the affordable Mac. [AppleInsider calls $899](https://appleinsider.com/articles/26/08/25/m6-mac-mini-arrives-in-ram-and-ssd-constrained-environment) the highest starting price it has ever had. The original 2005 model was $499. ## Why the price went up On its earnings call on 30 July 2026, chief executive Tim Cook told analysts: "we reluctantly raised prices, I would say. We did it because we're in what I would characterize as a 100-year flood on the memory pricing." The [full transcript is public](https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2026/08/07/apple-aapl-q3-2026-earnings-call-transcript/). Three companies make almost all the world's memory chips: Samsung, SK hynix and Micron. Since late 2025 they have moved factory capacity towards the specialist memory AI data centres buy, where margins are higher, leaving ordinary memory scarce. [TrendForce reported in July](https://www.trendforce.com/presscenter/news/20260703-13134.html) that contract prices would rise another 13 to 18 percent in the third quarter of 2026, after jumps of roughly 60 percent in the quarter before. Apple's finance chief Kevan Parekh told the same call that memory costs explained more than 100 percent of the company's sequential fall in profit margin. The same pressure is expected to hit the iPhone 18, covered in our [piece on iPhone pricing in Kenya](https://tech-ish.com/2026/08/02/iphone-18-split-launch-kenya-prices/). ## What you get The M6 has a 12-core processor and 12-core graphics, with a dedicated AI accelerator in every graphics core. Apple claims up to 4 times faster AI work and 2 times faster graphics than the M4 Mac mini, on its own July 2026 tests. It is also the only M6 tier Apple plans to make, since it is skipping the M6 Pro and Max to bring the M7 forward, as our [piece on both chips explains](https://tech-ish.com/2026/08/25/apple-m6-m5-ultra-chips-explained/). Base memory stays at 16GB and base storage at 256GB, so the extra $300 buys speed rather than capacity. The M5 Pro model gets Thunderbolt 5, the fast port standard used for external drives and displays, and can be linked to other Mac minis to run large AI models locally. The M6 keeps the slower Thunderbolt 4. Both gain Wi-Fi 7 and 2.5Gb ethernet, and both run macOS 27, which brings the rebuilt Siri that Apple [showed at WWDC in June](https://tech-ish.com/2026/06/02/wwdc-2026-siri-ios-27-cook-last-keynote/) as an English-only beta later this year. Apple said in February that Mac mini production would come to the United States for the first time, at a Houston plant, and Cook confirmed in July that assembly starts there this year. Apple [opened a training centre at the site on 13 August](https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/08/apple-opens-advanced-manufacturing-center-in-houston/). ## What this means in Kenya Apple has no store here, so the machines arrive through authorised resellers and importers on their own timelines. At about KES 129.45 to the dollar on 24 August 2026, $899 converts to roughly KES 116,000. Nobody will pay that. Computers enter Kenya at zero import duty, but a 2.5 percent import declaration fee, a 2 percent railway development levy and 16 percent VAT all apply, and VAT is charged on top of the other two. With air freight, our working estimate puts the landed cost near KES 150,000 before any shop takes a margin. The outgoing M4 Mac mini sells locally from about KES 89,000 at [iTey Store](https://iteystore.co.ke/category/mac-mini-m4-m5-in-kenya-apple-desktop-computers) to KES 137,000 at [Price in Kenya](https://www.priceinkenya.com/product/113317-apple-mac-mini-m4). Early Kenyan pricing on new Apple hardware runs high and then falls. The MacBook Neo landed at KES 130,000 against a $599 list price [in March](https://tech-ish.com/2026/03/25/macbook-neo-price-in-kenya-alternatives/), and iPhone 17 prices [dropped sharply three months after launch](https://tech-ish.com/2025/12/30/iphone-17-iphone-air-prices-in-kenya-go-down-crashing-just-3-months-later/). So wait for stock to settle rather than paying the first asking price. If your current Mac still does your work, nothing in the memory forecasts suggests a cheaper Mac mini next year. The thing to watch is whether Kenyan resellers list the M6 before the 22 September shipping date.](/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Apple-M6-and-M5-Ultra-hero-260825_big.jpg.large_2x-390x220.jpg)
