Mini Hope, Delayed Air and Free AT&T

Many people have been reading the signs lately and trying to predict the future of the Mac Mini. In fact, it’s death has been prematurely predicted several times before. But Apple responded directly an email from a Mac Mini fan with a phone call. An Apple representative told him that that Apple knows the value of the Mini and seemed to indicate a new version of the machine will be available soon.
But that probably won’t be until next year, as Apple has stated that no new machine updates will be coming out this year. This is probably to encourage people to go ahead and buy holiday presents and Mac as end-of-year expenses right now. It also makes sense that any major changes will wait until the MacWorld announcements in January.
The new MacBook Air is shipping, with its upgraded video chips. But the base level machine, with a 1.6GHz processor seems to have been delayed. People with orders have been told they won’t get theirs until after Thanksgiving.
In iPhone news, it is confirmed that AT&T’s free iPhone WiFi access at Starbucks and other AT&T hotspots is official. We received and email directly from AT&T with the procedure. iPhone users at an AT&T hotspot need to look for the “attwifi” network and then they will be asked for their 10-digit phone number. A free text message will then give them a link to follow to complete the connection.