There were some interesting new Apple products announced yesterday that I’m sure you’re all sick of hearing about, so I’m not going to echo all the breathless geekery you’ve read a million times already.

But, I am going to ask “where’s the new Mac Mini”?

According to the Mac Buyers Guide at MacRumors, the Mini hasn’t seen an update since August 07, 2007. That’s the longest any current Apple product has gone without major changes, with the exception of the Cinema Display line which got a new model yesterday. Now, I have two Mac Minis and I love them. They’re little machines that stay out of the way and don’t have loud fans going constantly. They aren’t particularly easy to upgrade, but if you’re willing to drive two putty knives into the chassis, you can upgrade the latest ones to 3gb of RAM, and they sport Core 2 Duo processors.

What’s missing? 802.11n networking would be nice, but you can get a USB adapter for that. What’s really hurting the Mini is its integrated Intel 950 graphics, which are downright pitiful next to the new Nvidia chips announced yesterday. The Intel 950’s fill rate (”the number of pixels a video card can render and write to video memory” according to Wikipedia) is a “theoretical” 1600 megapixels/s. The Nvidia 9600M GT announced yesterday has a fill rate measured in gigapixels.

I’m not expecting the Mini to get much love in the near future. It’s always been seen as a cheap little machine for switchers to get the Mac experience before diving in and buying an iMac or MacBook. Not all hope is lost, though. There are MacBooks with broken screens selling for about $300 on eBay right now. They’re not the new ones, no, but they pack the same CPUs & features as the latest Minis, plus 802.11n networking and better graphics.

You can lay them flat and call them “squished Minis”. Or, turn them upright and wont take up much space on your desk. They were made to be portable, but they don’t have to be!

Anyway, just a thought from your local Mac Mini afficianado.