Mac Mini Released

[jiggie2g]

The Beginning of Something Great

Mac Mini: The Beginning of Something Great

People are not seeing the Master Plan behind the the Mini Mac , it has the potential to become an even bigger hit then the iPod , simply becuase the Mac Mini maybe the 1st PC that ends up in more Living rooms then in bed rooms or dens.

More and more People are purchasing HDTV's weather it be DLP , Plasma , LCD , or LCD Porjection. Prices are becoming reasonable now especially in the DLP/LCD Projection Martkets. Now a 50in HDTV can be had at $2500 and below , by Holiday season new models may hit close to $2000, late 2003 these models where around $3000, and guess what they all use DVI or HDMI(DVI compatible) and most are around the 1280 x 768 resolution which is pretty much the Wide Screen version of 1080 x 720.

imagine one of thse connected to your reciever and HDTV, now u can play all your songs on that fancy 5.1 system or Stereo on those Polk/Infinity/Klipsch tower speakers. I have a Feeling Apple is going the Windows Media Route with this machine but will Implement it in a way M$ will never be able to.

now u have less clutter with it and it's not nearly as huge as those RAID Sized Home Theater PC's (they are bigger then most recievers which makes them TOO BIG). this is going to be what AMD's upcoming geode PC is supposed to be.

once this Product Matures (G5, Blue Ray, SATA) the possibilities are Limitless an all in one Home theater PC/Consloe/DVD Player/Music+Video Jukebox thats plays full resolution HD , burns CD/DVD. This is the device that M$/Sony want Xbox 2/PS3 to be, but they will fail.

 

[iPC]

you missed the point

Mac Mini
• 512MB DDR333 SDRAM - 1 DIMM
• 80GB Ultra ATA drive
• SuperDrive
• Wired Keyboard & Mouse Set
• 56K v.92 Modem
• Mac OS X - U.S. English
• 1.42GHz PowerPC G4
Plus 20” Apple Display
Total Price is $1,832

iMac G5
• 512MB DDR400 SDRAM - 1 DIMM
• 160GB Serial ATA drive
• None - Bluetooth Module
• Keyboard and Mouse + Mac OS X - U.S. English
• 20-inch widescreen LCD
• 1.8GHz PowerPC G5
• SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW)
• NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra w/64MB video memory
Total Price is $1,974

So for only $142 more for the iMac G5 you get an empty DIMM slot, 80 GB more Hard Drive, a G5 Processor at 1.8 GHz, and a better graphics card.

For someone like me it makes no sense to get the Mac Mini. For a PC user who has a monitor and wants to do things like schoolwork, organize photos/music, occasional iMovie stuff, surf the web etc. Sounds like a cheap way to switch to a Mac.

I think it has a definite place but not in my home office.

Mr. and Mrs. Public already own a PC. It has a keyboard, mouse and monitor. Their son convinces them to buy the miniMac for $499/$599 and BAM. Switch accomplished. (Of course when they figure out the PS2 keyboard and mouse won't work - without adaptors....)

 

[ruud]

4 weeks until shipped!

Just ordered a 1.42 GHz mini with 512 MB RAM and Airport Extreme. Expected to be shipped on or before 02/11. Ouch!

 

[Macmaniac]

I would bet money that we will see company make a USB/Firewire hub that fits right on top or on the bottom of the Mini Mac, and it will match colors. It would be nice to have 3-4 USB and 2-3 Firewire.

 

[BillD222]

I was really hoping this would be more of a media center PC. But at this price, and with the price to upgrade it with airport, extra memory, etc., it's really not a very good deal.

I've been comparing this to a refurbished iMac (1.8GHz/SuperDrive/17") and the iMac is BY FAR a much better deal. A refurbished, mid-range iMac-G5 is $1299. For $45, YOU can upgrade the memory to 768MB. With the Mac mini, the higher-end unit with a factory 512MB upgrade, and superdrive is going to run almost $800, now add speakers, a monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc.. And the iMac also already has a nice widescreen 17" LCD, is going to perform more than 2x as fast as the mini, etc.

there a large amount of people who don't need a superdrive or even 512 K RAM ( But, I think it whould have it)

1.) Most of those older machines won't have USB keybd/mice, and they'll have an older CRT

It is only if you want to use your old stuff. There are plenty of cheap kybd/mice and LCD (19" in the 300s). One could then carry this with them to the next mac mini and or Powermac, etc. That's the point...duh...
plus, mac mall is offering free k/m, wireless g router, and printer - i;m sure ram will follow.

2.) The Dell special for $499 is going to be more expandable, faster, and will come with a new LCD, keyboard, mouse, AND PRINTER.

You have to compare it to a 4700 C tho, it is at least somewhat small. It did it many posts back - it ends up $1270 with same config + kybd/mouse, but no OS X, iLife, Firewire, DVI. Didn't you learn in High School to check your facts first??

Now, if they'd lowered the price a little more (per Cringley's predictions) or made this machine with better specs (better graphics card, faster CPU, second memory slot that user upgradable, then I think it would sell better.

If they upped the specs it wouldn't be that cheap. You can't have something for nothing, you can't have freedom for free!!

stop your whining and bet an iMac. It's perfect for many people( gonna be a great upgrade for my mom's iMac G3- 350). Funny, everyone wanted this and now that it's here, they're bitchin'.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

For switchers having only 2 USB ports is a legitimate complaint.

So who will be the first company to offer a stylish, weighted USB2.0/FW400 weighted base/hub that matches the look of the Mac mini? You just stack the Mac mini on top of the hub and plug it in.

Come on, you know someone is gonna do it.

Try reading through all the posts, I and others with me, has pointed to solutions...

 

[B_Gates]

It will be intresting to watch Apple's top seller list to see where thei mac mini ranks. I wonder how many people who buy the mac mini today will be pissed when tiger is released & their mac mini seems underpowered.

 

[BillD222]

Cahnge keyboard setting!!

I mentioned the keyboard layout in a previous post, no replies yet.

A few examples from UK keyboard layout:
option = alt
command = alt gr
@ = "
" = @

Also note no # on UK Apple keyboard (alt 3 to get it) - very annoying.

As I said in my previous post the Mac mini needs a keyboard setup wizard or printed documentation so that switchers are not confused.

Why don't you just change your keyboard to UK in sys prefs?

 

[Goliath]

Get over it

The good: Everything about it except one thing...

The bad: WTF?!? That video card would hardly power Tetris, are they nuts? The upper one they should throw in the rather crummy MX or FX5200 as at least it's 64 VRAM and vaguely passible. And hell, retail price of that, at least for peecee lusers, is $30-50, so wholesale it'd cost Apple, what, $15 tops? Basically Apple must have gotten a real REAL cheap deal on the 9200, like a buck a pop, or free, they were throwing them out. Again, Apple is friggin' clueless about the gaming community. And more laughable is they show it playing Halo in one of the pics of it (cough)... yeah... right... Halo. Halo would absolutely CHOKE on 32 MB of VRAM unless you turned off EVERYTHING and ran it at 640 X 480. What a joke.

Not everyone that buys this machine wants to sit there and play Halo, UT4, Doom3 etc- Heck go buy a bloody Xbox/PS2 if you want great gaming! This Mac mini underpowered?? So you can surf the net/email use it as a music server, edit digital video, burn a DVD with optional superdrive or external burner, make music on garageband, use photoshop yet it's under powered to play tetris??? Go back to your pc online gaming community whilst I enrich my life with real life apps that make my life easier

 

[Belly-laughs]

Why so small?

I wonder why Apple made the effort to make it soo tiny. It must have taken considerable amount of engineering to pack all the components into such a tight space. They could have saved themselves lots of effort just by making it slightly bigger and it would still be tiny enough to being labeled mini. But maybe they´re keen on squeezing size; perhaps this is this a first sign of Apple creating miniature computers based on the low-watt G4?

Any thoughts?

 

[iGary]

I wonder why Apple made the effort to make it soo tiny. It must have taken considerable amount of engineering to pack all the components into such a tight space. They could have saved themselves lots of effort just by making it slightly bigger and it would still be tiny enough to being labeled mini. But maybe they´re keen on squeezing size; perhaps this is this a first sign of Apple creating miniature computers based on the low-watt G4?

Any thoughts?

It's Apple.

 

[B_Gates]

The competition is going to respond to the Mac Mini

Dell has already upped the anti:
All for $499.00 @ Dell
Processor/Display: Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor (2.80GHz, 533 FSB)
Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
512MB Dual Channel DDR SDRAM at 400MHz
40GB2 Ultra ATA/100 7200RPM Hard Drive
15 in (15.0 in viewable) E153FP Flat Panel Display
Single Drive: 48X CD-ROM Drive
WordPerfect®, Powerful Word Processing

& you can run iTunes & iPod on your Dell too.

I think most reasonable people will make a comparison & this comparison will stifle the growth of the mac mini.

 

[dicklacara]

It will be intresting to watch Apple's top seller list to see where thei mac mini ranks. I wonder how many people who buy the mac mini today will be pissed when tiger is released & their mac mini seems underpowered.

Every release of OS X has been faster and more efficient than the previous release. Tiger will be much faster than Panther on all hardware including a 500 Mhz G3, iMac Snow.

Apple is getting pretty good at adding features to OS X, while, at the same time, improving performance.

The only downside Tiger rumor that I have heard is that it will require a DVD (somewhere on the network) to install-- it won't install from mutiple CDs.

However, you can install Tiger on any external Firewire drive, take that drive to a computer without DVD & boot/run from the external drive.

Now, if you only had an external firewire drive......

 

[iGary]

Dell has already upped the anti:
All for $499.00 @ Dell
Processor/Display: Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor (2.80GHz, 533 FSB)
Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
512MB Dual Channel DDR SDRAM at 400MHz
40GB2 Ultra ATA/100 7200RPM Hard Drive
15 in (15.0 in viewable) E153FP Flat Panel Display
Single Drive: 48X CD-ROM Drive
WordPerfect®, Powerful Word Processing

& you can run iTunes & iPod on your Dell too.

I think most reasonable people will make a comparison & this comparison will stifle the growth of the mac mini.

You're back?

Great.

 

[B_Gates]

You're back?

Great.

Yeah I missed you to

 

[Trowaman]

Dell has already upped the anti:
All for $499.00 @ Dell
Processor/Display: Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor (2.80GHz, 533 FSB)
Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
512MB Dual Channel DDR SDRAM at 400MHz
40GB2 Ultra ATA/100 7200RPM Hard Drive
15 in (15.0 in viewable) E153FP Flat Panel Display
Single Drive: 48X CD-ROM Drive
WordPerfect®, Powerful Word Processing

& you can run iTunes & iPod on your Dell too.

I think most reasonable people will make a comparison & this comparison will stifle the growth of the mac mini.

Yes, the dell has a monitor . . . and a CD player. The mac mini you can burn CDs and play DVDs. Which do u think some yokel with a monitor cares about more?
Aso XP Home vs. OS X
Word perfect vs. text Edit

 

[iGary]

Yeah I missed you to

Did you make sure to to do a virus scan this week?

 

[lifeseeker]

An Intriguing Study

For my part, I intend to post success stories. Myriad reasons, both real, and imagined exist to explain the common-folks reluctance to cross the riff, but many will now!

I submit that we're at the forefront of a heady time. A grand experiment from Cupertino. So many quarters are crying for release from the ******** of XP-ism....I expect a rending of the market - nothing less.

Let's all gather together around the experience we love, and post success stories.

We'll all have them!

 

[B_Gates]

You're back?

Great.

Come on!!!
I have to admit when I first saw the mac mini I was very impressed & thought how I could use one, but after the excitement died down & you look at the parts they used you have to ask yourself is it worth it?

 

[Linkjeniero]

I would bet money that we will see company make a USB/Firewire hub that fits right on top or on the bottom of the Mini Mac, and it will match colors. It would be nice to have 3-4 USB and 2-3 Firewire.

Make it also a 3.5" HD housing, and it'll be a winner.

 

[B_Gates]

Did you make sure to to do a virus scan this week?

McAfee is running strong!!! And the Firefox IE helps to.

 

[uv23]

imagine one of thse connected to your reciever and HDTV, now u can play all your songs on that fancy 5.1 system or Stereo on those Polk/Infinity/Klipsch tower speakers. I have a Feeling Apple is going the Windows Media Route with this machine but will Implement it in a way M$ will never be able to.

And how is a mini-plug supposed to output 5.1 digital audio? As I said in my last post, it seems like they dropped the ball on this aspect of the mini. I'm still pushing the SO to get one, but a couple more features (otpical audio out, more USB) would have made a neat product into an amazing one.

 

[B_Gates]

Yes, the dell has a monitor . . . and a CD player. The mac mini you can burn CDs and play DVDs. Which do u think some yokel with a monitor cares about more?
Aso XP Home vs. OS X
Word perfect vs. text Edit

I think the flat panel, extra ram, faster processor it worth more than being able to play a dvd & burn a cd. Last I check a CD burner & a dvd player do not cost much. It would probably only add 50 dollars to the dell, so it would be $550.00.

Still a lot more pc than the mac mini.

I know you like apple & think their great pc's, I looking at it from the perspective of a switcher, don't you think most people will make that comparison?
And isn't that the reason why window boxes sell better even though their not better than Apple’s?

 

[Bigheadache]

I wonder why Apple made the effort to make it soo tiny. It must have taken considerable amount of engineering to pack all the components into such a tight space. They could have saved themselves lots of effort just by making it slightly bigger and it would still be tiny enough to being labeled mini. But maybe they´re keen on squeezing size; perhaps this is this a first sign of Apple creating miniature computers based on the low-watt G4?

Any thoughts?

I haven't seen the motherboard in real life but the dimensions look close to the VIA mini-ITX standard. If it's conforming to an existing standard then there should not be an engineering problem as there should be companies they can source ITX size components from.

 

[iGary]

I think the flat panel, extra ram, faster processor it worth more than being able to play a dvd & burn a cd. Last I check a CD burner & a dvd player do not cost much. It would probably only add 50 dollars to the dell, so it would be $550.00.

Still a lot more pc than the mac mini.

I know you like apple & think their great pc's, I looking at it from the perspective of a switcher, don't you think most people will make that comparison?
And isn't that the reason why window boxes sell better even though their not better than Apple’s?

Dude, learn some grammar.

Anyway, the Dell IS a better deal dollar for dollar.

Next.

Now go away, we did this last week.