Mac Mini Released

[Yvan256]

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?

Only 629$ to finally run OS X and iLife. And you're seriously asking us "is it worth it"?

Ever watched any Keynote stream? Have you seen what Tiger will be capable of? And what iLife '05 is already capable of?

Bah, you're a lost cause, I won't try anymore.

 

[Kagetenshi]

Tiger runs well on G3s!
BTW, OS 9 runs fine under Tiger.

How do you know if it runs well on Tiger?
Are you a beta tester? Tiger has not been released yet.

Well, I can confirm that it runs well on a 500 MHz G4 tower with 384 megs of RAM and an 8 meg video card…

~J, ADC member

 

[SvK]

dicklacara

Cool !!! thanx,

BTW, I'm a huge Quick Keys fan! (I'm in sound-design....lots of repetitive tasks)

I hope Automater will be BRILLIANT

SvK

 

[jwhitnah]

Agree

In that regards yes. The mini would not work for him. Anyone is goes into a purchase actively comparing specs, looking for the most clocks, RAM, etc isn’t going to get one of these. The mini isn’t targeting spec hunters. It is targeting average users who:
1. Are sick of malware.
2. Sick of needing to shell out extra money to secure their system (viral and spyware.)
3. Looking for the basics.
.

Skightly off topic but I think intel and AMD are having a positive effect for Apple in the GHz race. Pentium M and 4 have markedly different clock speeds but similar performance. Just to sell the M, intel has to emphasize that clock speed alone has been oversold. A consumer's natural reaction is, "what about the G4/G5?' In general this decreases concern for the GHz spec, which has been a major stumbling block for Apple for years. The other crack I endure from PC buddies is, "too slow."

 

[digitalbiker]

Not wrong.

My post was not totally wrong. OS X does not run optimally on a beige g3 with 4mb of vram.

The OS 9 that runs in Panther will not run many of my older system 7 software. In fact some software developers even bailed on OS X and to this day do not make software for Apple anymore. Delorme is one example. Adobe even dropped some of their offerings.

Have you compared the performance of OS X on a G3 with 256mb memory and 8mb vram to that same machine running OS 9 natively (not classic on OS X). The OS 9 GUI smokes, the OS X GUI crawls. Move your cursor over the dock with a folder containing a lot of files and the mouse button depressed. Takes a while before the directory listing comes up doesn't it. How fast is that genie effect?

Do you really think Apple will hold back on adding advanced features in Tiger et al for a few old G4 boxes? Get with it! G5's are here and Apple has a chance to take back market share in the the new 64 bit market. Once the OS is in place for 64 bit. Apple software developers are going to blow people away with the reality of 64 bit memory addressing and professional level gpus.

 

[jwhitnah]

Only 629$ to finally run OS X and iLife. And you're seriously asking us "is it worth it"?

Ever watched any Keynote stream? Have you seen what Tiger will be capable of? And what iLife '05 is already capable of?

Bah, you're a lost cause, I won't try anymore.

When you consider all the truely free software (no need to upgrade MusucMatch so you can burn at the speed your equipment is rated at) and lack of hassle, Apple kicks butt.

 

[3Memos]

Have you seen what Tiger will be capable of? And what iLife '05 is already capable of?

I read a thread over at ThinkSecret where some of the people are saying that the video card in the Mac mini doesnt do Coreimage. I hope this is not true. Those dashboard animations are pretty cool in Tiger, so I am looking forward to using it with my 2 minis.

 

[jwhitnah]

Well, I can confirm that it runs well on a 500 MHz G4 tower with 384 megs of RAM and an 8 meg video card…

~J, ADC member

Must have gotten it from a news group.

 

[jwhitnah]

I read a thread over at ThinkSecret where some of the people are saying that the video card in the Mac mini doesnt do Coreimage. I hope this is not true. Those dashboard animations are pretty cool in Tiger, so I am looking forward to using it with my 2 minis.

what is coreimage?

 

[Gizmotoy]

Must have gotten it from a news group.

Doubt it. He even said he's a Developer's Connection member (they get to test all the Tiger builds). If you wanna know about the current state of Tiger, ask an ADC member.

 

[digitalbiker]

Core Image

I read a thread over at ThinkSecret where some of the people are saying that the video card in the Mac mini doesnt do Coreimage. I hope this is not true. Those dashboard animations are pretty cool in Tiger, so I am looking forward to using it with my 2 minis.

I have heard the same from some others claiming to be beta testers of Tiger. The quote I heard said 64 mb vram was minimum config for Core Image. However I guess that 32mb vram cards will still be supported by Tiger and I am not sure what the consequences are for not being able to run CoreImage. I'm not sure Tiger will even run on 4mb - 8mb vram cards.

 

[3Memos]

what is coreimage?

Here's Apple's explanation of it.

Coreimage

 

[mwpeters8182]

The people who this computer is aimed for will most likely not ever hear of CoreImage, nor will they care if it's implemented fully. If there's a couple of graphical effects missing, my parents wouldn't notice, because they don't read up on every single feature of the OS - and that's the target audience. A first mac, and a basic system. This system is made to compete with the low end Dell/HP/Emachine, which doesn't even have a real graphics card, let alone something that would support a technology like CoreImage.

MP

 

[3Memos]

The people who this computer is aimed for will most likely not ever hear of CoreImage, nor will they care if it's implemented fully. If there's a couple of graphical effects missing, my parents wouldn't notice, because they don't read up on every single feature of the OS - and that's the target audience. A first mac, and a basic system. This system is made to compete with the low end Dell/HP/Emachine, which doesn't even have a real graphics card, let alone something that would support a technology like CoreImage.

MP

Yes, I tend to agree with you. For Apple to advertise CoreImage, it's sort of like a double-edged sword for them.

 

[digitalbiker]

Agreed

Yes, I tend to agree with you. For Apple to advertise CoreImage, it's sort of like a double-edged sword for them.

I agree with you both!

What I don't agree with are those users here who are informing newbies that each new release of OS X will run faster and faster on their minimum config minis. That information is misleading to new users.

Lets not look at the mini and make it out that it is state-of-the-art. It is the new minimum config for Apple and it may or may not properly support Tiger or future releases of OS X. However it is guaranteed to run panther, ilife 05, and current mac software just fine for now, and well into the future.

Like I said, I would not be surprized if the mini is upgraded to a 64 mb GPU and 512 mb ram in rev 2. probably released around the same time as Tiger.

 

[SvK]

Ok,

At home I run my old Quicksilver 867 Dual wih 1 Gig ram....

Will the 1.42 GhZ MiniMac with 1 gig perform just as fast as my Quicksilver?

What about frontside bus speed? And what exactly does that affect?

SvK

 

[jiggie2g]

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.

Airport Express has an Optical Out , and if someone is going to put one of these next to their HDTV i would assume that they would have a complete wireless setup , especially for the Keyboard and Mouse. bad enough to have Speaker and A/V component wireing, no need to add to the clutter with all kinds of computer wires.

 

[Photorun]

Only 629$ to finally run OS X and iLife. And you're seriously asking us "is it worth it"?

Ever watched any Keynote stream? Have you seen what Tiger will be capable of? And what iLife '05 is already capable of?

Bah, you're a lost cause, I won't try anymore.

B_Gates is a troll Yvan, stop wasting your breath, don't feed the trolls.

 

[SvK]

Ok this is kind of interesting

G4 Mac Mini:
1.42 Ghz, 1 Gig RAM, Superdrive: 1124.00 $

G5 Tower
1.8 Ghz, 1 Gig RAM, Superdrive, mouse+keys included: 1724.00 $

hhhhmmmmmmmmm...........

in conclusion, the Mac Mini is ONLY a bargain you do NOT intend to go with 1 Gig of RAM.

 

[davecuse]

Airport Express has an Optical Out , and if someone is going to put one of these next to their HDTV i would assume that they would have a complete wireless setup , especially for the Keyboard and Mouse. bad enough to have Speaker and A/V component wireing, no need to add to the clutter with all kinds of computer wires.

I have a 53" HDTV and unfortunately my current reciever does not support optical in. My Aiport Express is hooked up via a mini headphone jack to RCA monster cable... When my Mac Mini arrives I'll be hooking up video through DVI to the TV, but for the sound I plan on getting another one of the same mini headphone to rca monster cables. I'm not too worried about signal degradation, although if i do ever get a better receiver the option would be nice... But hey, some alterations to GUI of OSX specifically for use on a TV would be awesome too, just like the ability to record HD shows and burn them to DVD. I'm reaching now, but maybe the next gen version (which they'll really have to twist my arm to buy). Anyway, ranting now, but I'm really excited to get this thing.

 

[budugu]

YOU ARE MISSING THE POINT and difinitely you donot care!

Getting your OS's confused there. That's a Windows trait not an OS X trait.

I've yet to install a version of Windows that has run FASTER on older hardware then the previous OS that was installed on it.

Every version of OS X puts more pressure on the system than ... a new version of windows! XP was released in 2001. Which is not essentially worng just that when an OS is developing you tend to see more updates and once it is matured you will have less frequent updates and revisions. Mac OS X which gets released every year is not backward compatible with some thing that was released AN YEAR AGO. I am pretty sure that i makes any difference to zealots like you who donot know any thing about technology and think that just because you bought a nice designer machine are superior!

PC world is more driven by new technology than the mac world which is run by fashion! These are the most ill informed forms that i have ever seen.... most of them are my pc is not working(educate yourself a little you dumb a**)!! oh ...F*** that sh** get a mac .... now it is so cool .... and btw my d*** is larger than yours.... comments.... nothing about any internals no objective judgement.... just hyped bloated crap....

 

[Yvan256]

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

"Firefox IE"?!?

LOL, that's sad.

 

[SvK]

Hey Troll, today is a great day for us MAC lovers....Please don't spoil it for us...

If you don't like it here, why not leave?

 

[Yvan256]

[...] EMac was rated WORST product of the year by some consumer org, right?? [...]

If you compare the eMac to all other current Macs (the new Mac mini excluded), than yes, the eMac is the worst of all Macs. But it's still about equal to the 2003 version of the 12" PowerBook...

 

[bighairydoofus]

I can't believe how stupid some people are...

As a relatively recent switcher I can tell you that this thing will sell and sell BIG. Man, I wish there was something like this a year and a half ago. When I bought my widescreen 1GHz iMac, the price was the biggest obstacle, and I'd been thinking about buying a Mac for years.

Today alone I've talked to three PC using friends about this machine and at least one is definitely buying a minimac - and the other two are VERY interested. I have a friend that's been using a G3 for years that's going to buy one. The new minimac was in the newspaper today, and was the talk of the break room at lunch. There were at least ten people there, they were ALL interested in this little machine and NOT ONE of them owned a Mac.

Still doubt me?

*ring-ring* clue phone, it's for you:

THE BARE BONES MODEL MINIMAC IS CHEAPER THAN THE TOP OF THE LINE iPOD, OKAY? GET IT? HELLO? ANYONE HOME?

People are going to buy these not only for themselves, but their kids, their mom and dad, heck, even grandma and grandpa. 499 bucks has been shown time and time again to be the breaking point between a "minor" and "major" purchase.

The eMac is dead. Kiss it goodbye. People want LCD's these days but if you really want one, you can have a CRT with the minimac. But why would you? An LCD with a screen size comparable to an eMac will be inexpensive and better.

Even if you buy an expensive 20" cinema display (most won't), when you upgrade to a better computer you get to keep the display. I can't do that with my iMac, and that sucks.

Games? Most people with home computers don't play games anyway. I love these powergamerz complaining about the inability of a 499 dollar Mac (I still can't believe that I just typed that) to render 3D game graphics.

HELLO? I HAVE A FRIEND THAT JUST SPENT THAT ON A VIDEO CARD FOR HIS UBER-MEGA GAMING PC. It's the most expensive gaming console I've ever seen.

And here's another thing to consider - almost everyone that buys a minimac WILL buy an iPod of some sort if they haven't already. Dropping a C-note to get a little iPod to go with your minimac will happen ALL THE TIME. This is going to equal huge sales for Apple for both the players and the music store.

The naysayers just don't get it. They need to think like a frustrated PC user, not like an inveterate Mac geek. Apple is seriously going to kick heinie and take names with this product. Time will tell, but I'm pretty sure on this one.