Weird but true: Writing the guide to judging Apple rumors which I posted last week was both cathartic and disillusioning. Ultimately, it left me feeling that the best response to about seventy percent of Apple-related gossip is to ignore it: Chances are that it’s wrong, and devoting even a little time to thinking and writing about it is a waste of perfectly good brain cells and electrons. Better to devote energy to that minority of scuttlebutt that rings true–and even then, it makes sense to regard it from a safe, dispassionate distance, being careful to avoid being sucked into any frenzies that may break out.

Tonight, though, there’s buzz about a rumor which I find kinda fascinating…because it’s so damn boring. MacRumors and AppleInsider have posted a photo that purports to be the backside of a new Mac Mini:

If the photo’s legit, all it tells us is that the new Mini has five USB ports, Mini-DVI and Mini-DisplayPort, and FireWire 800, among other connectors. If you can summon the energy to be excited by any of this, you’re a more dedicated Mac fan than I am…or maybe you’re just hungry for any available scrap of pseudo-news about the Mini, a computer which has seen no hardware upgrades of any sort since August of 2007, and whose basic industrial design is unchanged since it first appeared more than four years ago.

Actually, the most notable thing about the photo may be the possibility that it’s fake. 9 to 5 Mac and other sites are theorizing that there are telltale signs that it’s a not terribly artful bit of Photoshopping. (Note to self: If you ever go rogue and start whipping up Apple-related hoaxes, at least make ’em interesting ones.)

Rumors about a new Mac Mini have been particularly rampant for eons, ranging from one that has it encased in black plastic to one that said there won’t be a new Mac Mini. The only way this particular zit will get popped is when Apple upgrades the machine (or discontinues it, although that seems unlikely in a day when there’s presumably a pretty good market for a low-cost Mac).

I think there’s a good chance there will be news of some sort about new Macs within the next few weeks, but I’m not going to hazard any guesses about whether it’ll include a new Mac Mini–or, if it does, just how many USB ports that machine will offer…

 
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