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Apple Releases New Mac Mini

Agreed, it's a price drop, not an update...

Why did they even bother? I was all ready to drop my cash, but not without some sort of video card upgrade. When they bump the graphics to 64mb, then I'll jump. Not one second before.

I can wait.
 
MarkCollette said:
What province are you in ?!? Luckily we have no PST here in Alberta.

I lose 21% to income tax, and have to pay 7% GST on purchases.
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I'm in Québec. And the "25 to 50%" was an average (50% is for people who earn like 100K$/year or higher). At my last job I had about 30-35% income tax. :-(
 
aswitcher said:
This update makes the eMac look attractive. And I wonder how soon until that is upgraded...
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Perhaps next Tuesday :D J/k

However, I bought a Mac Mini today. I was gonna buy one before the update so any improvement is cool with me (even though I was hoping for a GPU upgrade). I am not going to use it to play games (I built a PeeCee for that). I will use as a test webserver for my Webpages and other programs I write in PHP. I will also us it as a place to store all my music.
 
The Powermacs might be big, but they're not loud.

shompa said:
I wanted to replace my only PC with a MacMini.

My HTPC.

Apple don't have any computer that can be used as a HTPC.
The minis are to slow to play HDTV files.
The Powermac is to loud and big.
The imacs have the power, but have a screen that I dont need and cant hide in the living room.

The macmini with 1.8 ghz G4 meaby could play HDTV.
Using the soundblaste USB, you get 5.1 sound.
And last: An EyeTV
The ultimate HTPC.
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Worst update ever

Why can't I order a 1.42 w/ no Airport or Bluetooth? I need a modem, but neither need nor want AP or Bluetooth!!!!!

I wanted a 1.42 and after the update it's going to cost me even MORE than it would have before because I'll have to buy the modem extra! (Or rather I should say it WOULD cost me more since I'm not buying this nonsense.) The extra RAM doesn't matter since I'm putting in my own 1GB stick anyway.
 
Yvan256 said:
I'm in Québec. And the "25 to 50%" was an average (50% is for people who earn like 100K$/year or higher). At my last job I had about 30-35% income tax. :-(
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( Sorry to kind of thread-jack )

I think that part of the problem is that your provincial taxes are higher, but also that Quebec handles, at a provincial level, what's handled federally everywhere else, which I doubt saves any money.

I've been putting some serious thought into moving to Montreal, in a year or two, and was wondering if you know anything about jobs for software developers? If you know anything then please email me via my MacRumors account. Thanks.
 
aswitcher said:
This update makes the eMac look attractive. And I wonder how soon until that is upgraded...
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... or, at long last, dropped. Yes, there is a $500 difference between the base eMac and the base iMac, but the eMac form factor has already outlived what anyone could have expected.

Apple can't be making near the margin on the eMacs it makes on the iMac line.
 
Well I guess this means when the Mac Mini comes out with a 2GHz + intel chip, decent FSB, 100+gig HDD option, and a 64 Meg GC it will really shine - and dual/tri boot hopefully as well.
 
Also, why did the iBooks get ATI Radeon 9550 while the Mac Minis stayed with the Radeon 9200. It seems to me if they could fit/work inside a 12" iBook it could fit/work within a Mac Mini. I don't know what the difference between the two are considoring the only other spec I'm aware of is they both offer 32 mb of vram. Just another I'd point out was updated on the iBook but not the Mac Mini. With the previous models prior to the update, the Mac Mini seemed a little bit better then the iBook (as in the 1.25 mini seemed a bit better then the 1.2 12" ibook) and the 1.42 ghz mac mini seemed a little bit better then the 14" 1.33 iBook. Now the roles have switched, it appears as if the iBooks are better the Mac Minis. For the extra money I'd definitely considor the portability and improvement of the iBooks. Before it seemed better to get the Mac Mini if you didn't need to portability ,but now even if you don't need the portability (or DVI input) then the iBooks seem to have sweeter specs in comparison. I don't know, I guess I just thought it seemed smarter to have the desktop perform better then the laptop... But I guess the Mac Mini is below the consumer line the iBooks are more compared to the desktop counterpart of the iMac anyways... Oh well, rock on iBook updates (except the lack of the superdrive in the 12" which has been mentioned millions of times over) and rock-on price drop on the minis. Not the best update ever, better then nothing, but I seriously hope we don't have to wait 9months-year for another iBook Mac Mini update... Here's to crossing my fingers for the powerbook update being a little more promising. Heck, I'd take a powerbook update right now like the mac minis - just price drops. Give me the 12" powerbook for the price of the 14" iBook (1200 with educational discount) and I'd be happy - even w/o the free ipod mini offer, wish we didn't have to get a ipod mini to receive the 179 buck rebate... Then again, what happened to the old models of the iBooks? I wouldn't mind paying 700 bucks or less for a the old 12"-er ;)
 
GFLPraxis said:
What the heck are you talking about? Here we have a $999 laptop with a *decent* though *slightly* underpar processor, but not terrible by any means. Built in 802.11g AND Bluetooth 2.0. A Radeon 9550 graphics card. THIS IS NOT BAD. Go to your local Best Buy and try to find a laptop with a graphics card (ANY graphics card other than an 'Intel Integrated' with 0 MB of VRAM) for under $1500.
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http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=329226&pfp=cat3

This machine kicks the christ out of todays 14" ibook.

Faster, lighter, dual layer dvd burner, 100gb harddrive, @$1400.

The only draw back being Windows... *shrug* at least I can still use CAD.

Anyways... that's OT. I dont mind this update.. cuz I'm never going to buy a mini... but its still ****.
 
paulsecic said:
What did you expect? Apple cut their throat.. You won't see anything new in nine months.
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Yep - I'm more underwhelmed by this update than the iBooks (since they got new features), but I'm betting this will be the last Mini update till the Intels come (announcement at MWSF 2006, maybe shipping in Feb.). It would have been nice to see the 1.6GHz G5 in a Mini, but the cooling issues probably would have made this unfeasible. Heck, maybe that's why they can't stick a much faster G4 processor in these little guys, too - but who knows?
 
MudLake said:
Making a claim that CoreImage will run on a Mini is too general and not really informative

What we do know for sure is the Quartz 2D Extreme won't run on the Mini.
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And claiming that it won't is too general and downright incorrect. As for QDE, it doesn't let you do more--it's a speed issue. So in other words, a higher GPU in the Mini would make some graphics run faster. No surprise there :)


remingtonhill said:
No core image support in the mac mini? sheesh.
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Core Image has always been supported on the Mac Mini. Core Image will use the GPU if a high enough one is there, or it will use the CPU if not. A higher GPU (64 VRAM) is not required for CI.

It keeps getting repeated that the Mac Mini is somehow a "crippled" worthless machine because CI doesn't have a higher GPU to feed it. Yet you don't see people posting actual real-world problems, just the abstract concept that "some Macs have hardware-accelerated CI, so ALL Macs must have it!"

So I hope potential Mac "adders" don't take those comments seriously. CI is neat, and some video folks need it to run at it's fastest. Most people do not--if they ever use it at all. Mac Mini is a very productive system without hardware-acceration for CI. (And it DOES have hardware acceleration for 2D, 3D, video, etc. etc.--things everyone uses, unlike CI.)


FoxyKaye said:
I'm betting this will be the last Mini update till the Intels come (announcement at MWSF 2006, maybe shipping in Feb.).
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Agreed. A drought is upon us. Nothing to do but buy if you NEED to, wait if you don't. I wouldn't be surprised if there are NO Mac updates the rest of the year except for one PowerMac update.

And then new Pentium M-derived chips are coming out, and the Intel transition begins. Worth the wait--and I'm glad I CAN wait.
 
FoxyKaye said:
Yep - I'm more underwhelmed by this update than the iBooks (since they got new features), but I'm betting this will be the last Mini update till the Intels come (announcement at MWSF 2006, maybe shipping in Feb.). It would have been nice to see the 1.6GHz G5 in a Mini, but the cooling issues probably would have made this unfeasible. Heck, maybe that's why they can't stick a much faster G4 processor in these little guys, too - but who knows?
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Did you actually think they would put a G5 in there? or was that a typo? A much faster G4 doesnt exist.
 
brianus said:
"changing everything?" Most of expected a very modest update, something to tide us over until Intel, not anything extraordinary. The same as with the last updates for the other models: better GPU, very slight speed bump, not a massive redesign. The thing is, this "update" was less than that. They literally changed nothing. Why should I bother with a company that offers zero incentives for people to buy their current stuff when we all know new stuff will be out in a year?
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I just bought a Dell 3 gigahertz machine with a 160 gig hard drive, 1 gig of RAM, CD-CD-RW DVD drive, Firewire port for: $1,120.99.
 
Yvan256 said:
I think the modem is a plug-in module that can easily be skipped on the production line. No change to the motherboard was required.

As for the HDs, as I said, they could have a really huge stock to go through, so no upgrade there either.
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I'm doubtful an excess of obsolete motherboard and HDD inventory would be the cause of this. Apple is supposed to operate on a 'Just In Time' inventory model, which helps avoid problems like having a backlog of obsolete parts in the build queue.

I think it's far more likely that Apple's marketing department has determined that including an extra 256MB RAM for hardly any additional cost to the company, and slapping the phrase 'OMFG!!!! TEH NEW MINI!!!!' all over their web site and stores will be enough to sustain buyer interest until the Intel versions are released.
;)
 
oingoboingo said:
I'm doubtful an excess of obsolete motherboard and HDD inventory would be the cause of this. Apple is supposed to operate on a 'Just In Time' inventory model, which helps avoid problems like having a backlog of obsolete parts in the build queue.

I think it's far more likely that Apple's marketing department has determined that including an extra 256MB RAM for hardly any additional cost to the company, and slapping the phrase 'OMFG!!!! TEH NEW MINI!!!!' all over their web site and stores will be enough to sustain buyer interest until the Intel versions are released.
;)
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Quite. They choose not to do any proper updates on the mini which is far more worrying than if they couldn't.
 
Porchland said:
... or, at long last, dropped. Yes, there is a $500 difference between the base eMac and the base iMac, but the eMac form factor has already outlived what anyone could have expected.

Apple can't be making near the margin on the eMacs it makes on the iMac line.
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While school students are still school students, there will be a market for the eMac. It's way more robust than anything with an LCD, and weighs a ton, so it's difficult to steal. And it's $500 cheaper than the iMac, which might not make much difference for you, but can make a huge difference in a school's stretched IT budget (or a university's, for that matter). Remember that the eMac was originally intended only for the educational market, and was not made available to the general public until a number of months after its launch.

There's still a place for the eMac.
 
nagromme said:
And claiming that it won't is too general and downright incorrect. As for QDE, it doesn't let you do more--it's a speed issue. So in other words, a higher GPU in the Mini would make some graphics run faster. No surprise there :)
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I think that's absolutely false. It's been documented in numerous places (Macworld I believe is one) that Quartz 2D Extreme only fuctions on GPUs that support Shader 2.0 or DirectX 9; in other words "programmable". The fallback to the software/CPU implimentation is not Q2DE.
 
SiliconAddict said:
6 months. I'm willing to bet cash MW will bring Macintels.
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agreed. mac's computer sales will dwindle for the remainder of this year as people wait for the intels to come out. thankfully the success of the ipod should be able to buy them some time, especially if generation 5 is introduced in the fall. but yea... for sure in MW the macintels will be introduced. once they roll out, it's all smooth sailing from there. :D
 
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