Intel Atom-Based Mac Mini Due in March?

[AidenShaw]

Apple's probably's off Intel's favors list

Question:

Don't you think, like the iMac and MacBook Air, Intel will give Apple a special pre-release CPU, and maybe make available a 1.82 or 2.0 GHz Dual Core Atom for the Mini?

Why, so that Apple can put it on an Nvidia chipset and advertise how much faster it is than systems that use Intel's chipset?

I expect that the whatever special treatment that Apple once got is over....

 

[derphoenix]

New MacMini-Yeah

I ill be happy!
But with an atom-chip?
I dont understand this.

 

[Wolfpup]

Why, so that Apple can put it on an Nvidia chipset and advertise how much faster it is than systems that use Intel's chipset?

I expect that the whatever special treatment that Apple once got is over....

Yeah, and this is why I'm still surprised Apple's using anything but Intel. Intel gave them so much early or custom stuff. It was kind of neat, because you still didn't know for sure what Apple was going to release, even though they were using the same Intel hardware as everyone else.

 

[dwl017]

But if that Dodge is a VIPER, I don't think it would be as bad as you insinuate. Yes, I'm saying other than the Mac Pro and Macbook Pro (in terms of expected laptop performance not a desktop like the iMac that performs like a laptop), Mac hardware is slow and outdated and definitely overpriced. It's a shame such a nice OS is forced to live on such lousy hardware choices. Pretty cases don't make up for inferior hardware. Apple needs to get their butts in gear and offer a mini-tower that's competitive with PC hardware (even if it costs $1800 to get what a PC has for $1200) and make OS X capable of using SLI and accelerated video among other things. OpenCL is a niche by comparison. Why not fully support the existing standards before inventing new ones?

Bravo!!!!!!!!! this is the best post I have seen here on MR in the last year or so and the very reason I made the switch back! I gave Apple my money for the following machines before I said no more!

G4 Cube
G3 iMac
G4 iMac
G5 iMac
CD2 iMac
CD2 Mini
G4 PowerMac
G5 PowerMac

Fast forward to late 2008 and I refuse to hand over another dime of my hard earned money to Apple. Sold everything and bought three new Dells for under $3000 two of which are the XPS models with Quad Core Processors and the top of the line Studio Hybird for the family. Later this summer I plan on selling one of my XPS 420 boxes and upgrading to the i7 processor for under $900 from where Im sitting life is good

Regarding Vista, so what! I am using both boxes for video editing and CS4 since I run my own web site. Some of us use computers for more then surfing so the OS means nothing to me and I refuse to pay a premium for it.

 

[gkarris]

Why, so that Apple can put it on an Nvidia chipset and advertise how much faster it is than systems that use Intel's chipset?

I expect that the whatever special treatment that Apple once got is over....

Ooops, forgot. You're right though - Apple chose the nVidia Ion over the Intel x4500MHD...

Regarding Vista, so what! I am using both boxes for video editing and CS4 since I run my own web site. Some of us use computers for more then surfing so the OS means nothing to me and I refuse to pay a premium for it.

And on top of all this, Windows 7 is actually pretty good...

 

[marold280]

having your macbook fall on your head in exactly the right position for it to completely crush your entire brain

 

[applgeek]

But if this is true, we should be glad that they haven't gone to Celerons next.

Actually, an atom is a Celeron.

 

[applgeek]

But if that Dodge is a VIPER, I don't think it would be as bad as you insinuate. Yes, I'm saying other than the Mac Pro and Macbook Pro (in terms of expected laptop performance not a desktop like the iMac that performs like a laptop), Mac hardware is slow and outdated and definitely overpriced. It's a shame such a nice OS is forced to live on such lousy hardware choices. Pretty cases don't make up for inferior hardware. Apple needs to get their butts in gear and offer a mini-tower that's competitive with PC hardware (even if it costs $1800 to get what a PC has for $1200) and make OS X capable of using SLI and accelerated video among other things. OpenCL is a niche by comparison. Why not fully support the existing standards before inventing new ones?

I like this guy. BTW, I also did a reverse switch. Ill be happy to run OS X. On my new Dell Studio 15 which I bought as a refurb for $440. At least with the dell I can get warranty service after 90 days without paying $40 to talk to someone. Both Machines are made in the same factory, by the same Chinese children. One costs 1/3 the price. half the price if you buy it new. Price of dell laptops vary by the current sale price. Macs always remain High.

 

[UltraNEO*]

Tom's Hardware reports that the expected Mac mini refresh will be coming in March and will be based on NVIDIA's new Ion platform utilizing Intel's dual-core 1.6 GHz Atom 330 processor. The Ion platform, announced in mid-December, also utilizes the GeForce 9400M integrated graphics found in the current MacBooks and MacBook Pros.



The source also revealed that the new Mac mini should be released around the time of the CeBIT computer expo beginning March 3rd in Hanover, Germany. No pricing information has been revealed, but Tom's Hardware believes that the new Mac mini will be priced in the same $500-$700 range as the current model. They also believe that the use of this platform will enable Apple to reduce the size of the already-diminutive Mac mini.

Evidence found in OS X configuration files in mid-December has pointed to the use of NVIDIA chipsets in upcoming Mac mini and iMac revisions, but this is the first indication that Apple plans to use Intel's low-power Atom processor instead of the larger Core 2 processors found in Apple's notebook computers and the current Mac mini.

Article Link: Intel Atom-Based Mac Mini Due in March?

Yeah, sure!!! ROFL.

 

[QuantumLo0p]

Apple Gaping Lineup Hole- Bigger Than Ever.

I ill be happy!
But with an atom-chip?
I dont understand this.

I don't either. I suppose an i7 quad is a bit much to ask since it seems to use about a third more power than a core2 quad.

C'mon, Apple. Fit a core2 quad in the Mini.

 

[Wolfpup]

Actually, an atom is a Celeron.

Nope. Celeron is just the name Intel uses for a stripped down version of their current 'regular' CPU. They've started using 'Pentium' in the same way (ie Core 2 > Pentium > Celeron) but they're just stripped down versions of the current CPU.

Atom's something totally different. It's basically a modern Pentium 1, and they're hoping to eventually use it to compete with ARM's designs. (Right now it's still too power hungry...or not really, but too power hungry for the types of designs companies make for cell phones and the like, but it's also a lot higher performance than ARM.)

 

[fmaxwell]

Sorry, but I disagree with you and I see no reason to change my mind based on your ranting.

That's a sad commentary -- but not on the intelligent, well-reasoned posts that I've made.

I understand the computer marketplace just fine.

No, you do not -- unless you did not really mean what you posted earlier.

I was never suggesting that a Netbook should be used to replace a computer for those who need real computing power.

Stop making strawman arguments. I never accused you of that. What I accused you of was being wrong when you said that the vast majority of consumers do not need "real computing power." You wrote 99% of the tasks that consumers use a computer for can be done on a Netbook. Only pro users or computer hobbyists need the CPU & GPU power necessary to run things like CS4, Maya, Final Cut Pro, etc.

As I said in response: I've got a DVD that I would like to watch on my flight to from Virginia to California on Monday. Later on, I'd like to rip it and convert it to h.264 to put on my iPod Classic. I'm probably going to be burning some MP3s to play in my rental car which has an in-dash MP3 player that reads CD-R discs. While I'm on my business trip, I'll probably want to play some first-person shooters (Quake III, Unreal Tournament, etc.) in my hotel room. There's also a multiplayer game I've been hearing about called Armada Online and it requires at least 1024x768 resolution, so I'll need a netbook that can do that. I'm hoping to edit together a video using footage from the HD camcorder I'm taking. I'll have to work on some work-related documents and I will be typing for several hours, so I need a decent keyboard and display.

So, which netbook do you recommend for the above? It will need at least 1024x768 resolution, a combo DVD/CD-R drive, a full-size keyboard, enough processing power to do video conversions to put on an iPod. It will have to have good enough CPU horsepower and 3D video acceleration to play a first-person shooter. It will need to be capable of light video editing.

All of those examples are pretty typical mainstream things done by consumers. I didn't get into esoteric examples like 3D rendering, high-end video editing, film and audio restoration, etc.

As you can see, I totally disproved what you said and made your foolishness obvious to everyone here.

I stand by the assertion that most consumers do not need the full power of a traditional computer. 95% of what consumers want to do can be done with a combination of Netbook power and "Cloud Computing".

You are still totally wrong -- even though you've now revised your number downwards. Do you think that 95% of consumers have hands the size of a four year old child's or never have to compose anything longer than the four sentences that they would type before throwing a netbook against the nearest wall? "Cloud computing..." What a hoot!

This is ridiculous. Is the build quality of the touch ipod worse than the build quality of the ibook?

The iPod touch is not a smaller iBook. It doesn't have USB ports. It doesn't have a keyboard. It isn't designed to run a standard computer OS. The list goes on and on, but your analogy has no merit.

Is the build quality of the Dell 9" mini worse than the full sized Inspiron?

I said most. You picked the absolute best-constructed one. Look at an average. Include the MSIs, Acers, etc.

I see no evidence for your claim.

That's okay. I'm an engineer in the aerospace industry and know what I'm talking about. You can trust me.

SSDs have no moving parts and are more durable than magnetic head HDD. They also have much better read speeds. In fact the newest SSDs when connected to a PCIe bus are obtaining throughput speeds of over 800Mbps.

And they cost how much? There's a reason why rotating magnetic media is still so popular.

Your classic ipod 120GB cost as much if not more than a Dell mini Netbook and the magnetic drive it uses is more susceptible to failure.

Really? A Dell mini netbook can be purchased new for less than the $250 (list) price of an iPod Classic 120GB? Wow, that's really impressive.

And the SSD on the Dell is comparable in size to the one in my iPod Classic? Half of the size? A fourth of the size? An eighth?

It looks to me like the least expensive Mini 9 is $300 and the SSD is a whopping 4GB. Whoopdy Friggin Do! I have 15 times the storage on my iPod and you've got the nerve to compare the two?

The future is moving toward SSD storage as prices drop and storage space increases at a faster rate than HDD storage.

For a hundred and some change, I can get a single 1.5TB drive. I would have to buy about a dozen 128GB SSD drives to get that much storage -- if I could find a RAID controller that would deal with that many drives. It would cost several thousand dollars. You can go on all you want about the technology of the future, but it's not the future -- it's the present. And SSDs are absurd for most general purpose use.

I want to point out that most consumers do not need to be copying DVD OS ISOs. Besides a better way would be to copy the OS ISO to an SD card. That way when you need it, you plug it into card reader, boom you have your ISO.

A tremendous number of consumers burn their own mix CDs, burn video DVDs of family events (e.g., birthday parties, family vacations), and burn MP3 CD discs to play in their cars. They also buy software on CDs and DVDs and install the software packages that take up more space than exists on a 4GB or 8GB SSD.

Look if that is what you "REALLY" want to do while on the go, which seems like it is very contrived by the way, then you need a $2000 laptop. But most consumers could do similar tasks with a $400 - $500 Netbook.

Sure. I'll tell all of my coworkers that while they are on the road, they will be editing multi-page documents, e-mails, and producing presentation graphics on netbooks. And that they won't be able to watch DVDs on the plane (I flew yesterday and lost count of the number of people watching movies on their notebook computers. That will go over good, won't it?

For instance, instead of a DVD, why not download the movie and install it on your ipod and netbook.

Because I want to watch the DVD at home, don't want to pirate the movie, and because you convinced me to get at 4GB SSD Dell mini 9, so I can't store anything bigger than a recipe for bread pudding.

Or rip the DVD in advance and install it on you ipod.

DING! We have a winner. Like most consumers, the netbook is a useful adjunct to a desktop or notebook PC -- not a replacement.

The same thing with the music, buy it from the itunes music store, you could then play it on your ipod or your netbook.

So I'm supposed to buy inferior, lower bit-rate music in AAC format rather than using Exact Audio Copy and LAME to rip and encode to very high standards?

Why burn to a CD-r? Most mp3 playing stereo radios also have connections for ipods.

No, they have aux input jacks. So you have to try to control the iPod with a touch wheel while driving. Dumb. Super dumb. Then you have to find a place to hide it or carry it with you.

Some even use wireless options for music library connections.

For use with the non-existent wireless streaming iPods?

As for the games, they won't play much better on a $1500 laptop anyway.[/qoute]

Untrue. Also, many games require more screen resolution than a netbook has.

If Apple designed an accelerometer controller in their version of the Netbook then you could play high quality games like those for the touch ipod. Hopefully Apple will release a mini macbook and it will have a full size keyboard similar to the Dell 9" mini, a high-res led display, and a GPU equivalent to the 9400M for light video editing and light 3D game playing.

Don't hold your breath.

No, they are not typical consumer tasks and yes you did go into the higher-end areas. You mentioned video editing, 3D video game playing, etc which do utilize a higher performance GPU or CPU.

Those are mainstream tasks done by average consumers. Even the Mac Mini comes with iMovie video editing software preinstalled. Consumers who don't even know the difference between digital and optical zoom go into Best Buy and get camcorders that they hook to their PCs for editing the movies. 3D video games are commonplace items sold at stores like Walmart and Kmart. People burn mix CDs all of the time (sophisticated consumers don't even play audio CDs any longer).

You've made up some pretty retarded consumers when you say that they don't play video games, don't burn audio CDs, don't use Quicktime to transfer music from CD to their computer, etc.

 

[DoFoT9]

wow sarcasm!

 

[digitalbiker]

That's a sad commentary -- but not on the intelligent, well-reasoned posts that I've made.
No, you do not -- unless you did not really mean what you posted earlier.
Stop making strawman arguments. I never accused you of that. What I accused you of was being wrong when you said that the vast majority of consumers do not need "real computing power." You wrote 99% of the tasks that consumers use a computer for can be done on a Netbook. Only pro users or computer hobbyists need the CPU & GPU power necessary to run things like CS4, Maya, Final Cut Pro, etc.
s I said in response: I've got a DVD that I would like to watch on my flight to from Virginia to California on Monday. Later on, I'd like to rip it and convert it to h.264 to put on my iPod Classic. I'm probably going to be burning some MP3s to play in my rental car which has an in-dash MP3 player that reads CD-R discs. While I'm on my business trip, I'll probably want to play some first-person shooters (Quake III, Unreal Tournament, etc.) in my hotel room. There's also a multiplayer game I've been hearing about called Armada Online and it requires at least 1024x768 resolution, so I'll need a netbook that can do that. I'm hoping to edit together a video using footage from the HD camcorder I'm taking. I'll have to work on some work-related documents and I will be typing for several hours, so I need a decent keyboard and display.

So, which netbook do you recommend for the above? It will need at least 1024x768 resolution, a combo DVD/CD-R drive, a full-size keyboard, enough processing power to do video conversions to put on an iPod. It will have to have good enough CPU horsepower and 3D video acceleration to play a first-person shooter. It will need to be capable of light video editing.
All of those examples are pretty typical mainstream things done by consumers. I didn't get into esoteric examples like 3D rendering, high-end video editing, film and audio restoration, etc.
As you can see, I totally disproved what you said and made your foolishness obvious to everyone here.
You are still totally wrong -- even though you've now revised your number downwards. Do you think that 95% of consumers have hands the size of a four year old child's or never have to compose anything longer than the four sentences that they would type before throwing a netbook against the nearest wall? "Cloud computing..." What a hoot!
The iPod touch is not a smaller iBook. It doesn't have USB ports. It doesn't have a keyboard. It isn't designed to run a standard computer OS. The list goes on and on, but your analogy has no merit.
I said most. You picked the absolute best-constructed one. Look at an average. Include the MSIs, Acers, etc.
That's okay. I'm an engineer in the aerospace industry and know what I'm talking about. You can trust me.
And they cost how much? There's a reason why rotating magnetic media is still so popular.
Really? A Dell mini netbook can be purchased new for less than the $250 (list) price of an iPod Classic 120GB? Wow, that's really impressive.
And the SSD on the Dell is comparable in size to the one in my iPod Classic? Half of the size? A fourth of the size? An eighth?
It looks to me like the least expensive Mini 9 is $300 and the SSD is a whopping 4GB. Whoopdy Friggin Do! I have 15 times the storage on my iPod and you've got the nerve to compare the two?
For a hundred and some change, I can get a single 1.5TB drive. I would have to buy about a dozen 128GB SSD drives to get that much storage -- if I could find a RAID controller that would deal with that many drives. It would cost several thousand dollars. You can go on all you want about the technology of the future, but it's not the future -- it's the present. And SSDs are absurd for most general purpose use.
A tremendous number of consumers burn their own mix CDs, burn video DVDs of family events (e.g., birthday parties, family vacations), and burn MP3 CD discs to play in their cars. They also buy software on CDs and DVDs and install the software packages that take up more space than exists on a 4GB or 8GB SSD.
Sure. I'll tell all of my coworkers that while they are on the road, they will be editing multi-page documents, e-mails, and producing presentation graphics on netbooks. And that they won't be able to watch DVDs on the plane (I flew yesterday and lost count of the number of people watching movies on their notebook computers. That will go over good, won't it?
Because I want to watch the DVD at home, don't want to pirate the movie, and because you convinced me to get at 4GB SSD Dell mini 9, so I can't store anything bigger than a recipe for bread pudding.
DING! We have a winner. Like most consumers, the netbook is a useful adjunct to a desktop or notebook PC -- not a replacement.
So I'm supposed to buy inferior, lower bit-rate music in AAC format rather than using Exact Audio Copy and LAME to rip and encode to very high standards?
No, they have aux input jacks. So you have to try to control the iPod with a touch wheel while driving. Dumb. Super dumb. Then you have to find a place to hide it or carry it with you.
For use with the non-existent wireless streaming iPods?
Untrue. Also, many games require more screen resolution than a netbook has.
Don't hold your breath.
Those are mainstream tasks done by average consumers. Even the Mac Mini comes with iMovie video editing software preinstalled. Consumers who don't even know the difference between digital and optical zoom go into Best Buy and get camcorders that they hook to their PCs for editing the movies. 3D video games are commonplace items sold at stores like Walmart and Kmart. People burn mix CDs all of the time (sophisticated consumers don't even play audio CDs any longer).
You've made up some pretty retarded consumers when you say that they don't play video games, don't burn audio CDs, don't use Quicktime to transfer music from CD to their computer, etc.

This is my last response to you as this is not only off topic but you are beginning to invent arguments, are turning this into a rant, and you obviously will always live in the 1990s and carry around a full sized laptop long after most people have moved on.

However, your rant does point out a few misconceptions that you have and they need to be pointed out to you once more.

1) A Netbook does not necessarily need to use a crappy keyboard. The Dell 9" Mini uses full sized keys with a nice spacing. They only reduce the size of the spacebar, return, tab, and shift keys. They also eliminated the extra Fkeys to save space.

2) The displays on the Netbooks may be smaller but they are still of high resolution and backlit by LEDs. These are very good quality screens and most people would not have any problem with simple word processing on a Netbook.

3) You can purchase an external DVD drive for your Netbook to rip and burn your precious CDs and DVDs if it is absolutely necessary. Although most people are happy with "itunes plus quality" 256 bit aac, no DRM. This especially holds true for playing in a car while traveling. I doubt you will miss your supposed higher quality CD rips for your mix CDs. So you can rip your CDs at home with your Netbook (No Desktop required) and then leave the DVD drive behind when you travel.

4) Are you telling me it is more difficult and dangerous to hook an ipod to your car audio system play a pre-made playlist than it is to play the CD in your car audio system? Why burn the mp3s to a CD mix? You can build a much larger playlist of songs than you can on a CD mix. Give me a break you are just trolling, aren't you? By the way you can stream songs from an ipod touch and if Apple made a Netbook you could stream to your car audio via wi-fi.

5) As for my "retarded customers" (using your gross words), there are many many more people who use a computer at their local wi-fi spot or from their couch for texting, email, internet browsing, video playback, itunes music, ebook reading, audible books, personal finance, to do lists, calender,etc. than there are computer users who travel frequently for business and do their own video editing. I am talking real consumers not just business people. At $300 - $500 for a Netbook you open up the market base to a huge segment of society.

Apple is a consumer oriented company not a pro or business oriented company. That is why I know that Apple needs to enter the Netbook market. If they do not then the sales of Macbooks, and MacBook Airs are going to decline. Neither machine is a pro machine, and neither machine competes well with a Netbook under $400.00.

This is the last I will post on this as I never intended to get into a diatribe as to what Apple needs to market. My personal opinion is that Apple is missing a great opportunity here as the market place is changing towards smaller, lighter and more wired. Just as I feel that Apple missed a great opportunity by not releasing a Mini Tower Mac back a few years ago. Apple has a great OS and I like the design of their hardware but their computer offerings are just too limited.

 

[uncola]

In threads like these, posts longer than a couple paragraphs are usually not worth reading.

 

[DoFoT9]

In threads like these, posts longer than a couple paragraphs are usually not worth reading.

im guessing you read mine then

 

[fmaxwell]

This is my last response to you

Good. I prefer having the last word.

you obviously will always live in the 1990s and carry around a full sized laptop long after most people have moved on.

As I have said repeatedly, I plan to purchase a netbook. But, as this review at AnandTech says, "Netbooks like the Mini are very specific in their usefulness." They are not supposed to be general purpose or primary systems any more than a Blackberry is.

1) A Netbook does not necessarily need to use a crappy keyboard. The Dell 9" Mini uses full sized keys with a nice spacing. They only reduce the size of the spacebar, return, tab, and shift keys. They also eliminated the extra Fkeys to save space.

Which function keys are the "extra" ones? As Anandtech review says, the keyboard eliminated all function keys, rearranged punctuation, and "if you’re typing for accuracy, it’ll drive you insane - just in a different way from the Eee PC’s keyboard."

2) The displays on the Netbooks may be smaller but they are still of high resolution and backlit by LEDs. These are very good quality screens and most people would not have any problem with simple word processing on a Netbook.

Again, from the review: "The 600 pixel screen height is an issue and is bothersome given that the focus of a netbook is to, well, surf the net." I agree that for simple, light word processing a netbook would be acceptable, but between the compromised keyboard and the small display, it's not something that would be pleasant.

3) You can purchase an external DVD drive for your Netbook to rip and burn your precious CDs and DVDs if it is absolutely necessary.

Netbooks lack the horsepower to and storage: How do you rip an 8GB commercial DVD to a 4GB SSD netbook? Cloud computing? And where do you get the CPU horsepower needed to convert to a new format? Certainly not with an Atom CPU.

4) Are you telling me it is more difficult and dangerous to hook an ipod to your car audio system play a pre-made playlist than it is to play the CD in your car audio system?

Yes. Far more. I speak from experience because I tried to do that for a couple of weeks. Just trying to navigate to the playlist while driving, with each bump in the road causing false presses to register on the clickwheel, with the tiny fonts on the display, and with it typically being mounted far off of the line of sight, is hazardous. There's a reason why car stereos have tactile keys and knobs.

Why burn the mp3s to a CD mix?

Most consumers have car CD players that don't play MP3s. I have an Alpine head unit that interfaces to my iPod and it plays no optical media at all -- but I tend to be a cutting edge kind of person.

5) As for my "retarded customers" (using your gross words)

If you prefer to use some PC term like "handicapable," feel free to substitute that in your own mind. But adjective "retarded" is an acceptable, non-derogatory term (unlike "retard" used as a noun).

, there are many many more people who use a computer at their local wi-fi spot or from their couch for texting, email, internet browsing, video playback, itunes music, ebook reading, audible books, personal finance, to do lists, calender,etc. than there are computer users who travel frequently for business and do their own video editing. I am talking real consumers not just business people. At $300 - $500 for a Netbook you open up the market base to a huge segment of society.

First, you underestimate people and how they use computers. That's obvious when Apple ships the Mac Mini with iMovie, iDVD, iWeb (web site editing software). Second, this "huge segment of society" can go down to Best Buy today and purchase a $380 Compaq notebook with 2GB of RAM, a DL DVD±RW/CD-RW drive, a 15.6" widescreen, and a 160GB hard drive preloaded with Windows Vista Home Basic. This isn't the 1990s anymore. Notebook computers don't cost $2000. (P.S. Yeah, let's do our "personal finance" over an unencrypted public WiFi connection to the "cloud." Great idea.)

Apple is a consumer oriented company not a pro or business oriented company. That is why I know that Apple needs to enter the Netbook market. If they do not then the sales of Macbooks, and MacBook Airs are going to decline. Neither machine is a pro machine, and neither machine competes well with a Netbook under $400.00.

I don't know how many more ways, and times, I can say this, but a netbook is not a general purpose computer like a notebook is. People won't be buying netbooks instead of MacBooks. They will be buying them in addition to MacBooks.

Netbooks are a bad idea for Apple:

1. No profit margin. The netbook market won't tolerate the profit margins that Apple enjoys elsewhere.

2. Insufficient horsepower and screen real-estate for modern versions of OS X. Apple is all about user experience and will not release a computer which most consumers would view as being slow and unresponsive. Neither do they want to become Microsoft-like with an "OS X Home Netbook Basic Edition."

3. No continuing revenue stream. Apple would not be able to be able to sell OS upgrades, application suite upgrades, higher-end packages (such as Aperture, Final Cut, Logic, iWork, etc.). The only possible model I could envision would be charging for "cloud computing" apps and storage, but others are already offering that for less than Apple could.

This is the last I will post on this as I never intended to get into a diatribe as to what Apple needs to market. My personal opinion is that Apple is missing a great opportunity here as the market place is changing towards smaller, lighter and more wired. Just as I feel that Apple missed a great opportunity by not releasing a Mini Tower Mac back a few years ago. Apple has a great OS and I like the design of their hardware but their computer offerings are just too limited.

Something on which we can agree: Apple should be selling a Mini Tower Mac!
​

They aren't doing it because they want people to replace rather than upgrade. That's why they moved away from towers. That's why the Mac Mini has so little expansion and upgrade capability. It's why the iMac is a factory-sealed system that even includes the display.

I believe that the lack of an Apple Mini Tower Mac is driving people to Dell, HP, Acer, MSI, and Microsoft. Consumers can afford to pick up a $300 Samsung 24" monitor for their Dell system, but they can't afford to blow two grand on a whole new iMac just to upgrade the display from 20" to 24". The guy with the Dell/HP/Compaq/Acer/etc. PC can go down to Best Buy and get a replacement hard drive. The Apple customer has to pay Apple service, have their computer out of commission, and have some stranger potentially snooping around their private pictures, correspondence, and files.

I don't believe that people are standardizing on Windows PCs because Dell offers a Linux-based netbook. I'm sure that many Apple users also own netbooks by Dell, Acer, HP, and MSI.

In closing, I hope that you find the netbook that makes you happy. But I would not hold out for Apple to sell one for all of the reasons shown above.

 

[Yvan256]

Isn't this supposed to be a thread about the Mac mini?

 

[Wolfpup]

After playing with Sunbird, I've come to the conclusion that I'm going to need either Vista's Calendar program, or iCal to replace Palm Desktop (unless I just keep using Palm Desktop even though my TX won't sync ) And that means...darn it, where's the Mac Netbook?

 

[chewietobbacca]

Plus OpenCL and Direct X 11 are going to be on Windows. Plus Windows already supports GPU acceleration, just nothing standards based yet (you have to do it for either Nvidia or AMD GPUs).

Well ATI and Nvidia's next gen cards are going to be DX11 for sure, and both should support OpenCL as well. Don't forget Intel will have Larrabee too which, if it lives up to the hype, should support all of that as well.

GPU acceleration for calculations already exists on PC's (folding@home for example, CUDA apps for Nvidia) so if anything, Apple's doing the catch up right now, but they might take it a step further by integrating it.

Unfortunately, they might say "hey look, our new hardware is top of the line cause it accelerates our OS!" - but the hardware is still outdated, and the second they try to compete against a program accelerated by a superior GPU or whatever, it'll be in trouble.

I guess the big proverbial kick in the nuts right now is the fact that the Mac Pro would get utterly stomped in its tasks by a similarly priced Core i7 PC in the tasks that you would typically get a Mac Pro for.

 

[Wolfpup]

As far as I know all the direct X 10 hardware supports direct x 11 too, it just isn't out yet.

I guess the big battle will be between OpenCL and Direct X 11?

 

[chewietobbacca]

As far as I know all the direct X 10 hardware supports direct x 11 too, it just isn't out yet.

I guess the big battle will be between OpenCL and Direct X 11?

The entire DX 11 vs. OpenCL vs. CUDA reminds me of wayyy back in the day when it was DirectX vs. OpenGL vs. Glide. The parallels are close too (DX being Windows, Open being the open one, and Cuda/Glide being hardware propietary). But I don't think it will be that big of a battle as back in the day, since using GPU acceleration is less of a battle than when video game companies fought over which standard to adopt

 

[Wolfpup]

Yeah, reminds me of that too. I've always assumed CUDA is dead, long term, though Nvidia has a jump on OpenCL support too apparently.

This could be pretty cool. Of course Larabee (misspelled?) COULD theoretically just allow programmers to run x86 code optimized for that type of hardware on it.

 

[spatlese44]

Based on the recent MB upgrade, doesn't look like Apple is downgrading any hardware components on existing lines (ok, firewire is an exception). Atom now almost certain to go into new AppleTV if anywhere.

If you want to know what the new mini is going to be like, take a long hard look at the updated MB. Somewhere between the MB and the MB unibody is probably the specs.

 

[chewietobbacca]

Yeah, reminds me of that too. I've always assumed CUDA is dead, long term, though Nvidia has a jump on OpenCL support too apparently.

This could be pretty cool. Of course Larabee (misspelled?) COULD theoretically just allow programmers to run x86 code optimized for that type of hardware on it.

Yeah Larrabee could supposedly run anything on it, but they have to write those drivers for it, and Intel has never been good at writing drivers. Unfortunately, Apple jumping to Nvidia doesn't make it sound like they're going to use Larrabee for a bit yet.

And I agree that CUDA is dead long term, like PhysX - you can hype it up all you want, but when most of the markt doesn't use your GPU's (i'm including notebooks and integrated graphics), you won't last long making it propietary.