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Mac Mini Idea

Y

YesMac

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Hello everyone,

I'm new here. I love the Mac Mini. I think it has allot of potential. I came up with an idea for the next generation of Mac Mini. I thought I'd share it here. I sent my idea to Apple! 🙂

587f8b9f9a0c5cdd4d0f796e3be51d17.jpg



-----> Check out page 2 for the redesign <------
 
Nice. Needs Blu-Ray support too!

I reckon a dark aluminium one with a glass top would look pretty hot.
 
YesMac said:
Why do you say NO! ?
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I say no, not to dish out hurt or insult, just because the Mac Mini needs something more than colors and a dock to bring it back to life.

Yes, it'd be nice to have faster Mac Mini, but it would be nicer to have one that had a redesign and maybe a bigger case and more features.

Honestly, I'd rather it look like the mini tower that Apple is missing, but I won't go any further into that for everyone's sake.
 
I really dont see the benefit of a built in dock. in fact it would make it less flexible to stack or mount or tuck away.
 
Not being ridiculously overpriced would be an awesome start.

Apple wants $925 for:

2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB 667 RAM
160 GB HD

Even if one decided to use a small case you could build a generic PC for half the price, you wouldn't have OSX, but this is a system that targets the bottom end of the market, it's not worth it's price in the least.

It should either be much cheaper, or much more powerful. As it stands it's an underpowered PC in an overpriced category.
 
I agree with more features and the redesign. That's precisely the idea. Color options and a redesign is what helped rejuvenate and continue the progression of the nano. A bigger case is not the right direction. Smaller is what the mini is all about. When larger capacity solid state drive technology becomes more affordable, I see it getting thinner. Having a doc on top eliminates the unnecessary need for extra cables and clutter on the desk.

My feelings are the Mini is small, it's cute. It's almost like the pet-rock phenomenon. This is the direction I think they should take it. Like the nano brand feel. The Mini has a totally different brand feel than the more rugged, industrial looking Mac pro and more mod iMac. Each fit their specific target audience quite well. And of course with that being said, may not appeal to the Pro brand users who like the rugged, tuff look. But that's fine, there is a place for everyone. However, to become more like a mini-tower would get away from the mini's unique appeal. It has it's place with allot of potential. Moreover, there is a need for an entry level mac at an affordable price, so Apple needs to keep the price affordable.

I think a stackable component system would be a way to add more functionality to the mini than make a one-size-fits-all mini tower. People can buy what they need, stack it on top, side-by-side, etc. NewerTech already has Mac Mini look-alike, external cases and drives and such that are really cool.
 
Digital Skunk said:
I say no, not to dish out hurt or insult, just because the Mac Mini needs something more than colors and a dock to bring it back to life.

Yes, it'd be nice to have faster Mac Mini, but it would be nicer to have one that had a redesign and maybe a bigger case and more features.

Honestly, I'd rather it look like the mini tower that Apple is missing, but I won't go any further into that for everyone's sake.
Click to expand...

I'm with you. I liked the G4 Mac Mini I had a few years ago. It's an awesome way to get people into the Mac world who aren't wanting to spend more than $1,000 on a computer that is totally new to them.

While the colors would be a neat idea, I'd rather see a larger model that could accomodate a 3.5-inch hard drive and at least two memory slots, both user upgradeable (even if it's just "advanced user" upgradeable"). I HATE not being able to upgrade something as simple as a hard drive because of how much storage needs change over the course of about 4 years.

The innards basically need to look like the $1,299 MacBook, except they can keep a FW port. Something like this should be doable for $600-900. Keep the processor, memory and hard disk on the low end to stay near $500.

As for Blu-ray, it would be nice, but Sony really does go nutz with its licensing. Sony needs to drop the price on it (both for hardware and discs) to encourage more adoption before someone figures out a magic bullet that kills the format way sooner than it should.
 
Why would they put blu ray in the lowest priced mac in the product line, but not the high end machine, sometimes, the logic of some users here baffles me.

The most change the Mac Mini will see is probably just a black top and bump to Nvidia GPU and current intel CPUs, nothing snazzy will happen to it. This is apple remember, they don't do snazzy.
 
Right. The MacPro will get BluRay several months before of any of the other models.

Don't expect it anytime before 10.6 though.
 
Michael CM1 said:
I liked the G4 Mac Mini I had a few years ago. It's an awesome way to get people into the Mac world who aren't wanting to spend more than $1,000 on a computer that is totally new to them.
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The G4 Cube was Apple's answer to a mini-tower. I agree it was cool for it's time. However, one thing Apple is not known to do is go backward and resurrect things.

Schtumple said:
Why would they put blu ray in the lowest priced mac in the product line, but not the high end machine
Click to expand...

I agree with you on the blu ray part. Not in the base model though, but as an add on stack maybe. 3rd party companies could make them for those who need or want to spend the money for it.

Schtumple said:
This is apple remember, they don't do snazzy.
Click to expand...

I have to disagree with you on that one. iPod nano from plain white and black to colors comes to mind. The new iMac is snazzy, the pro is snazzy, the new laptops are snazzy. Apple does snazzy all the time specific to the branding and target audience. It just depend upon that brand and what your definition of snazzy is.
 
intempo808 said:
Whoever designed that needs shooting.
Click to expand...

Give the guy a break. I say kudos to the thread starter for having fun with Photoshop and thinking of ideas. Maybe you don't agree that it's not the greatest idea ever, but is it really necessary to be mean?

YesMac, keep having fun and ignore the eyerollers.
 
Well, I think it's a fantastic idea! I would probably never buy a coloured Mini, but I can certainly see the appeal, and I think they would cell. Think about how many pink RAZRs and pink BB Pearls sold, and I certainly think there's a market for a Mini-chromatic.

And it would really help the Mini make a splash when they announced the update...
 
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