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Intel Mac mini To Evolve Into Digital Hub?

Couple things:

1) generally, I don't pounce on first-edition releases of any hardware, but if all this comes to pass, I'll plunk down my money pretty quick.

2) after briefly chatting with Nick at Think Secret tonight, he wanted me to emphasize that the move to 3.5" HD was _speculation_ and not part of the "known" bits about the machine. That said, it sure would make sense for them to move up to a standard-sized HD and allow for upgradability if it indeed does the DVR thing.

3) I think Lacero reloads the front page incessantly so he/she can get first post a lot. Plus, he/she knows the trick for holding the spot. For the record, I'm fine with that, and appreciate that you're using it for an actual post, instead of "neato - first."
 
Damn I just bought a mini... I will still get a powermac in september, but it realy suck when you buy something and something else get released less than 2 months after. Is there some sort of exchange possibility when that appens with apple?
 
SAukland said:
ok... so now we have reports of intel ibooks, powerbooks, imacs, and mac minis. this is seeming sort of "nostradamus" sounding. :cool:
Click to expand...

It's true! He predicted it. I read it at the supermarket. I mean, he nails it everytime. Unbleviable.
 
p0intblank said:
The upgrades sound nice, but wait a minute! A 3.5" hard drive? No, this is not required in my opinion. This would just make the Mac mini a larger system and I don't want that. Its size is perfect how it is. I realize it wouldn't be that much larger, but still... anyone agree with me on this? There are 7200RPM notebook drives out there; so utilize them! As for the built-in iPod dock, that sounds very nice. I don't want it to mess up the style of the mini, though. I hope Apple implements it with stealth in mind. Maybe an "eject" button of some sort reveals the Dock whenever you want it showing. That'd be pretty nice. :) And FrontRow 2.0 would be excellent! The Mac mini is the perfect HTPC. And with FrontRow included, that would be perfect. Oh please be true... I'm just a little concerned about increasing the size of the system.
Click to expand...

The size of the new Mini will be dictated by the Intel CPU setup and newer/faster video card so why not put a bigger capacity 3.5" HD in!

I give this a big thumbs up!
 
LagunaSol said:
Give this thing HD recording capability and iTunes streaming control (from my Power Mac via Airport Express), and I'm in. Like Flint.

Goodbye TiVo, with your monthly subscription fees and your pathetic Mac support!
Click to expand...

iTunes streaming control... mind clarifying? you mean, control airport extreme streamed music with the apple remote?
 
p0intblank said:
The upgrades sound nice, but wait a minute! A 3.5" hard drive? No, this is not required in my opinion. This would just make the Mac mini a larger system and I don't want that.
Click to expand...

What if the new CPU runs hotter, and requires a bigger heatsink, and therefore a larger case? If the case is getting bigger anyway, then they might as well put in a bigger drive too.

Edit: I missed Peace's post (2 above mine), which says basically the same thing!
 
I really hope this rumor is true. Assuming Apple does the living room hub/dvr right, I will buy on day one. I could care less about the cost.

There are two common--common meaning 10-100's of millions of people use these devices or need a solution--electronic devices/purposes which the market's current solutions are terrible:

1. Living room hub and universal remote.
2. Cell phones

If Apple gives us solutions to both in 2006, I will be happy. As a shareholder, I will wish I had bought more stock.

My prediction:
January for the living room since this doesn't require cooperation from partners.
September for the cell phone with Cingular and Orange as distributors.
 
Poor Tivo

Poor Tivo.

I used to be a big fan. Sold a ton of units over the years as I raved about Tivo to my friends.

But Tivo got stupid, and now I am done with them.

Tivo's Sins:

1. Their hardware is massively out of date. No HD? No dual tuners? Pathetic.

2. No support for the Mac. This is moronic of them, and it has nothing to do with supporting the Mac community (although that would be a nice thing to do.) Microsoft has been gunning for their business for years, and by not supporting the Mac and Linux, they are reinforcing the need to use their competition's solutions.

3. Putting advertisements through-out the user interface

4. Putting advertisements over TV shows. The brand promise was to skip advertisements and watch TV on our terms. Tivo broke that promise, and sold-out to the major networks.

Poor, poor Tivo. Goodbye old friend.
 
If they are going to sell it as a DVR/Video hub, then the 3.5" HDD is necessity. The 40gb HDD on the current base model mini is way too small for this; with 3.5" HDD's they could have capacities or 80/160/250 GB easily, with no price increases. Those small HDD's are expensive in large capacities.
 
BWhaler said:
Poor Tivo.

I used to be a big fan. Sold a ton of units over the years as I raved about Tivo to my friends.

But Tivo got stupid, and now I am done with them.

Tivo's Sins:

1. Their hardware is massively out of date. No HD? No dual tuners? Pathetic.

2. No support for the Mac. This is moronic of them, and it has nothing to do with supporting the Mac community (although that would be a nice thing to do.) Microsoft has been gunning for their business for years, and by not supporting the Mac and Linux, they are reinforcing the need to use their competition's solutions.

3. Putting advertisements through-out the user interface

4. Putting advertisements over TV shows. The brand promise was to skip advertisements and watch TV on our terms. Tivo broke that promise, and sold-out to the major networks.

Poor, poor Tivo. Goodbye old friend.
Click to expand...

I don't think we have Tivo over here, if we do it's certainly not big. I thought it was a Hard-drive. Just a big harddrive in a box with some recording software. What is it then?
 
BlueRevolution said:
oh, and... 8x DL superdrive standard goes without saying.
Click to expand...

Apple NZ was selling first-gen Minis with 8x DL drives. I never saw this in any other country though, and the current models seem to only be 4x :confused:
 
Hm, if the speculation regarding the larger HD/Formfactor + an iPod connector is correct this soundmore like a completely new product than a mini upgrade...
 
Page 2 rumors: "Broadband Tuner 1.0 Released"

What does it do?
"The installer increases the default values for the size of the TCP send and receive buffers. With larger buffers more data can be in transit at once."

So, why is apple doing this?
You got it, video content.
 
BWhaler said:
Poor, poor Tivo. Goodbye old friend.
Click to expand...
LOL. I'm still saying hello to my VHS cassettes and VCR. I don't even use Guide+plus fer crying out loud! Still one of those people who program recording choices via remote control. SP or EP? Tough choices.

I heard TiVo was great until they made some sort of death wish upon themselves. Seems they want to go bankrupt. I think Apple releasing a Mac mini + DVR combo is the type of machine I could see myself owning. Coupled with wireless surfing from the couch... wow!

I could watch TV AND post on MR at nearly the same time! My dreams are coming true! :D

Here's to the Crazy Ones ​
 
Chundles said:
I don't think we have Tivo over here, if we do it's certainly not big. I thought it was a Hard-drive. Just a big harddrive in a box with some recording software. What is it then?
Click to expand...
Tivo completely revolutionizes the way you watch TV. The hardware is as you describe, but i's the service that brings you the guide (and the ads) that is the main attraction. The UI is really intuitive and you can set up season passes and wishlists to have it record things you like automatically even if they are rescheduled, shown on a different date and time. On top of that you can rate programs ranging from three thumbs down to three thumbs up and these ratings are used to let the Tivo itself figure out what programs you might like and record them for you in the background and present them to you as "suggestions".

Then of course there's the pause live TV functions which allow you to take a potty break whenever you feel like and and also allow you to fast forward through the commercials if you are watching a porgram with a slight delay.

B
 
Cablecard support?

Hope it supports cablecard, if not you'll *ONLY* be getting over-the-air HD content for that DVR. This is the primary thing that has been holding back MCE 2005. Hope it doesn't do the same for Apple's launch into the living room.

w00master
 
I have 6 TiVos just a beggin' to be eBay'd!!!

p0intblank said:
A 3.5" hard drive? No, this is not required in my opinion. This would just make the Mac mini a larger system and I don't want that. Its size is perfect how it is. I realize it wouldn't be that much larger, but still... anyone agree with me on this? There are 7200RPM notebook drives out there; so utilize them!
Click to expand...

It has nothing to do with 7200rpm. As it is, 5400 rpm is too fast (noise, heat and wasted speed). The issue is with cost (3.5" is considerably cheaper per GB) and with capacity (even 500GB isn't enough for some of us...my media collection is well over 1.5TB). Sure there is FireWire and USB2, but the cool thing about a potential "mini a/v" is that it would be so convenient to take with you...and 3.5" versus 2.5" really won't increase the size much.

OMG, to think that this bad little boy could boot as a Windows PC, an OS X Mac, and replace my TiVo...Life could be good. Now, please, please, please, let this control common cable boxes, provide an "Apple-cool" programming guide via the Web, and let the files be open (for burning and transfer).
 
w00master said:
Hope it supports cablecard, if not you'll *ONLY* be getting over-the-air HD content for that DVR. This is the primary thing that has been holding back MCE 2005. Hope it doesn't do the same for Apple's launch into the living room.

w00master
Click to expand...

That sounds complicated. I bet this "DVR" functionality simply consists of a "Record Now" function that records an incoming unencrypted digital signal using real time H.264 encoding via some dedicated chip. Completely dumb like our old VCRs. Why spend time on broadcast TV when the future is video-on-demand?
 
I don't know about the rest of it, but I want a good Mac-based PVR. I have my eye on El Gato, but I'd sure like to see what Apple might do themselves.

All just rumor, but I could imagine it happening.

The iPod Dock circuitry is already in the current Mini. But if they decide to use it after all, there's a good reason for them to have waited: now ALL docking iPods can share the same dock, using the supplied adapter plates. That wasn't true when the first Mac Mini shipped.
 
But I Want It Now!!!

ww_053.jpg
 
give an uberclass mac mini with dual-core and liquid cooling ( well, at least make it as silent as possible ), and i'll shell out 1000$ no questions asked ;)
 
Would this not be counter to Apple's publisher/broadcaster-friendly approach? I mean since they stopped referring to iTunes and "rip and burn" in the same sentence hasn't Steve Jobs been trying to keep record companies onside?

How keen are broadcasters of free to air stuff like the BBC going to be if their existing content is turned to downloadable content with Apple simplicity? Yes I know you can do this already (with analogue signals only?) but its more than one click. How will it fit with the video store model already in place?

What about people who rely on encrypted content. It bugs me that my Sky+ DVR records everything in MPEG2 but there's currently no way to get the stuff onto a computer without using a slow, degrading analogue capture. When HD stuff comes out wont the digital signal be DRMed in some way anyway?

Sorry if I sound doubtful. I would, however, be very interested in such a device were it to be released.
 
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