Mac Mini Released

[Lord Blackadder]

Many potential switchers (who may be checking out this forum right now) should probably take into account Apple's paradigm:

Apple emphasizes high quality industrial design, hardware/software/peripheral integration and ease of use.

The Mac mini's strengths are that you get everything you need in one small attractive package. Aside from Office there is no need to buy more software. An El Cheapo Dell has shared graphics memory and a very stingy software suite. What on the Dell side comes with an iLife-equivalent package? Nothing.

 

[Jaffa Cake]

On first impressions, not bad! It definitely looks like Apple is looking to use this to capitalize on the 'iPod Halo' effect. I was a little surprised by the fact that it doesn't come with a keyboard or mouse... but thinking about it, I guess Apple are targeting potential switchers who would maybe consider a Mac and would appreciate the cost saving and comfort zone of keeping their old peripherals and display, and just switching the box. Plus, there are other keyboard and display options out there that work perfectly well and are a lot cheaper than Apple branded equivalents. On the other hand, there are going to be some people who open up the box and wonder where their mouse is...

Granted, in terms of the specs it may not be the most powerful computer around – but that's not what it's trying to be.

 

[sanford]

Outstanding!

But unfortunately I can in no way justify buying one. My 15" Powerbook with an external monitor, Apple wireless keyboard and mouse, well it's about the same thing, not too much larger and doubles as a portable Mac. Too bad. I really like the look of this Mac mini.

Perhaps I can justify an iPod shuffle. Yet I already have a 3G iPod and an iPod mini. Guess not. Looks like it's just iLife '05 for me.

At the very least Apple has made the day when we must replace almost everything due to age, battery issues, or total breakdown less daunting. Instead of $2000 for openers, it's more $700.

I can't imagine Mac mini won't sell incredibly well. It really could be the thing that sets Apple's marketshare back on the climb.

 

[maxterpiece]

This is not an office computer. it is a computer for the ipod user who doesn't liek the idea of computers - doesn't want to know what how their tech works or even have to consider that their tech is technology. They just want it to be a utility that helps them do the things they do in life. These people don't upgrade their computers, they don't count ports, they are relieved when they are able to do what they want to do on a computer and amazed when they are able to do anything new. For $500 now they have a DVD player, an emailer, a web surfing device, they can even use emulators and play all sorts of video games. THis thing has the potential to be 100% wireless... just plug and play and the keyboard is wireless... so is the internet. You could sit there on your couch and play UT2K4 and not even consider that you're on a computer. Then you could stay on that couch and jump over and check your email, then your friend shows up and you can jump over and show him some photos on your nice widescreen TV (or sitting on your side table with a discreet 15" screen and a small keyboard with built in tracking device). You could then pull up a video chat with another friend, also sitting on his couch with his mac mini (this would be a fantastic ad BTW). This is all so seamless because that is the way OS X is built, and based on the tiger demo, OS X is going to become even more well integrated as a media center. Using photos in chats and email and iphoto and iCal are all coming together so that the computer works to facilitate your lifestyle. It is a perfect solution for a lot of things. It is a computer that can fit into a more social environment. It's the first desktop that is as unobtrusive as a console. This thing could be more conceptually revolutionary than the ipod. It could bring the computer to places that it has never been before. If you have mini in your room and another downstairs in the kitchen you could pull up a chat (text, audio or even video chat) with that person and have a real conversation with them without having to yell! Until now I don't think the computer has really found it's niche in the average person's lifestyle, but this could be the computer that really turns the focus and is the culmination of steve jobs' vision of the computer being the center for your digital lifestyle.

Where I see this revolution going:
1) Wire your house with gigabit ethernet and you can have a computer with no hard drive or CD drive. Make it wall mountable and a tablet... If you can sell that for $400 you have something that is affordable. Now you can mount it in the kitchen and page the family down for dinner, video chat with grandma about how to cook a certain thing, look up recipes, type an email using viavoice and voice commands. This is all tech available right now!

2) Drop the price on iSights particularly when purchased with a mac mini... eventually integrate them into the case. Also make airport extreme standard.

3) Work on Address Book integration into all this.

4) Much more voice recognition.

 

[nagromme]

Mac Mini is "confusing"?

You have feel bad for this guy: http://billpalmer.net/

""Headless iMac rumor is just as phony as it ever was"

"it's a pointless product with no target market whose only purpose would be to confuse potential buyers about the merits of Apple's other Macintosh products and thus make them less likely to buy a Macintosh at all. Steve Jobs is neither an idiot nor hopelessly out of touch. I gave the headless iMac rumor a zero percent chance of being true prior to the lawsuit, and I give a zero percent chance of being true now."

"After years of the tiny irrelevant "geek caucus" wasting keystroke after keystoke trying to convince Apple to remove the monitor from the iMac, such futility finally gave way to flat-out lies on the part of the frustrated. If you can't convince Apple make the product, then why not just make up fake rumors about its impending release in an attempt to build support for the product and force[/i] Apple into building it?"

"Mac enthusiast sites whose deep geek underpinnings prevented them from understanding that outside of the Geek Caucus, no one in the real world gives a damn about having their monitor separate from their CPU."

I imagine he will change tacks to "Apple screwed up big-time and nobody will buy these." (The MWSF recap on another site of his mentions how the mouse and keyboard being optional will "confuse" people so much they will buy a Dell instead )

But hey, he took a firm position

 

[alms]

New Opportunities

My brother turned me on to one way in which the Mac Mini will create a whole new way to use computers. He will have one set of monitor-keyboard-mouse at his home in the city, and another set of monitor-keyboard-mouse at his weekend house in the country. Then he can just carry the mini back and forth between the two, and have his whole work life with him.

Oh, by the way, he's currently a PC user.

For myself, I won't buy one now. No excuse. But when it comes time to buy Tiger ($129) and the next version of iLife ($79) I could certainly see buying an extra computer instead.

 

[Nickygoat]

What a glorious piece of kit. My dad is fed up with his POS wintel box and is already very interested - I phoned him to tell him the good news. Specs are a little on the low side, but for email, photos, music, surfing it's perfect. And the design is fabulous - congrats Mr Ive, again. Another stick to beat my Windows friends with.

 

[Moonlight]

another brick in the wall

Can anyone explain to me what is the brick that is attached to the same cables as the monitor? is it a power supply for the monitor ? The other brick is the mini's power supply....hmmmm

 

[rdowns]

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.

Sorry, who the hell is going to buy a $1,000 display with a $500 computer? Certainly not the target market and probably only Mac nuts. Really unfair comparison.

You'd do better adding a $300 15" LCD and seeing the value in this puppy. The iMac G5 is then "only" $842 more expensive.

 

[spercharged69]

Sorry, who the hell is going to buy a $1,000 display with a $500 computer? Certainly not the target market and probably only Mac nuts. Really unfair comparison.

You'd do better adding a $300 15" LCD and seeing the value in this puppy. The iMac G5 is then "only" $842 more expensive.

Or a $100 CRT from Best Buy. Then the iMac G5 is only $1042 more expensive.

 

[Fredstar]

This is really going to be massive, it is such a gorgeous lil computer that is more portable than a laptop and is good vfm!
We are getting one to compliment my imac G5 and my bro's imac G4 (Getting rid of the Dull finally )
I know 5 family friends who have been stunned by what my imac can do creatively, have a display and keyboard and would love to use Panther. Apple really have made a 100% correct decision with introducing this.
Watching Keynote atm and it is great to watch, i love the dig at Bill Gates and the CES fiasco. Gotta love Apple and Steve

 

[MacNeXT]

Great! This turned out to be just what I hoped it would be, except for expandability, which I didn't expect anyway.

And PHEEWWW, ok, it was obvious that the "spy shots in elevator" were fake, but what a relieve that it looks NOTHING like that hideous piece of cardboard. I also don't remember seeing a mockup that looked anything like this, do you?

And then these name discussions we had. xMac, cMac, uMac, iMac Express etc. etc. Did anyone mention just simply "Mac Mini"? I don't think so but I could be wrong.

Don't know if this has been mentioned - it's a bit difficult to read MR right now because the 9 out of 10 "Server too busy" messages, but

http://www.apple.com/macmini/design.html

shows some pictures of the Mac Mini's innards. You can clearly see it uses large DIMM's, but I can only imagine a 2,5" hard drive underneath the ComboDrive, it doesn't look like a 3,5" would fit. Can anyone confirm this? I'd really like to know.

That large number of clamps visible in the picture might suggest you need some kind of special tool to open it up. That would explain "Memory upgrade must be performed by an Apple Authorized Service provider" in the specs.

Anyway... I'm very happy with how this thing turned out to be. I can't afford one right now. Maybe when they get a speed bump. About 7 or 8 months?

 

[slo]

Will it work this time?

Other than the smaller size and standard industry upgrades this is a G4 cube.

Now my question is this....

Would the G4 cube have been successful if it was cheaper with a G3 processor in it?

If not, why will it work this time?

Open to your thoughts!

 

[Rower_CPU]

Can anyone explain to me what is the brick that is attached to the same cables as the monitor? is it a power supply for the monitor ? The other brick is the mini's power supply....hmmmm

Yes, it's the display's power supply.

 

[tech4all]

I like the new Mac Mini and it definetely different. Kinda looks like the dock for the iPod, only squared dimensions and larger. Only thing I'm kinda bummed about is that it does not come with a mouse and keyboard. I know they probably did that to keep the price down, but I know some people who would look for anything to cut down a Mac and if I told them about this and that the keyboard/mouse were extra they be like, 'eh that's Apple for ya, trying to rip their customers off. Stupid Apple'. And yes they probably would say that But nonetheless, I like it; although I will wait until I see on at my local Apple Store to have an 'official' opinion on it

 

[digitalbiker]

The comparison is correct!

Sorry, who the hell is going to buy a $1,000 display with a $500 computer? Certainly not the target market and probably only Mac nuts. Really unfair comparison.

You are the one making the unfair comparison. The iMac G5 comes with a 20" LCD display driven by an ADC connection. You are comparing a $300.00 15" driven by VGA or a $100.00 CRT driven by VGA. Give me a break!

Swissmann is correct! The macmini low price is misleading. I configured one the way I would want to buy one and it came to $1500.00 with Applecare before tax. This was without a monitor. Add Apple's cheapest monitor (currently a 20" LCD @ $999.00) and it comes to $2500.00.

Apple needs to offer lower ram price, low priced mouse & key board & 15" LCD bundle to make this a popular seller.

Otherwise value buyers will buy a cheap $449.00 Dell that includes monitor, keyboard, mouse, faster cpu, equivalent gpu, word perfect, and XP home media package.

 

[greenstork]

Very nice but not actually that cheap. Factor in the price of a 20in Apple monitor, keyboard and mouse and you're getting close to the price of a more advanced and more useful iMac G5...

Fortunately for Apple, the customer who wants/needs a new 20" monitor is not their target audience.

 

[Foocha]

Looks like Asteroid

No wonder Apple was so upset about the Asteroid "Firewire Breakout Box" leak - anyone else notice the uncanny design resemblance to the new Mac mini?

The guys who found that design had not idea how big their scoop actually was - or why Apple was so jealously guarding that particular secret!

 

[maxvamp]

Sorry, who the hell is going to buy a $1,000 display with a $500 computer? Certainly not the target market and probably only Mac nuts. Really unfair comparison

Quite honestly, when I buy one of these, it will be for one of two reasons...

A) I am replacing another system. I doubt I will need to replace my LCD screens, wireless keyboard, or mouse at that time.

B. ) I am adding to my current PC setup, in which case, due to ergonomics, I will probably just buy a Belkin KVM from the apple/macmini/accessories page.

Either way, this is considered a replacement, or bait computer. It is not being marketed the same way as the iMac G5.

Just keep in mind. Most die-hard Windows users would not be happy with the bottom of the line DELL. In my case, I still build my own, as I am not happy with any DELL. This is a cheap way for Windows users to 'try' a mac without forking over $2k .

Max.

 

[MacPhreak]

This really makes it hard to justify upgrading an older computer. I was thinking about putting a 600mhz G4 in my B&W, but considering I'd still have PCI graphics, half the processor power, slower RAM, ATA/66 (PCI card), slower bus, no warranty, etc... Wish I hadn't bought that extra 512mb RAM three weeks ago. The 1.0ghz upgrade for a B&W is $400 all by itself.

The only thing that grabs me about the Mac mini is having to have the RAM put in by a tech. Is this a complementary service they provide at Apple Stores, or is it a $70/hour service?

Excellent idea; I'll probably be buying one shortly.

 

[greenstork]

You have to bring your own display, keyboard and mouse ... not to mention add another 256 megs of ram to run OS X comfortably and you're right at the price point for the emac .... emachines and Dell offer complete systems for less... oh and by the way I'm not terribly impressed by the power supply brick ... FUGLY

I'm sorry to say that you just don't get it. These minis are designed for PC users who bought that uber cheap Dell and it has been nothing but problems since they bought it. They had to wipe the drive because of viruses, they still can't understand how to manage digital photos because their computer offers them the option of opening one of six programs when they plug in their digital camera, and they still don't quite understand what an MP3 is. They have a monitor, mouse and keyboard already and their son-in-law keeps recommending these new fangled Apples.

They're relying on you and me to recommend these machines to all of our family members and it's damn good marketing. How many of you on this forum are going to recommend Dells, even if price is a big factor? There is your target market.

 

[Foocha]

vs

 

[CubaTBird]

um guys, will this imac g4 work with tigers new graphics features? hMMMMMMMMMMMMM

 

[maxvamp]

One other thing...

For those wanting a LCD monitor to bolt up to one of these things, 15" LCDs can be had for about $170, and a 17" for about $210 over at pricewatch.com


This is very competitive with DELL. Now Apple needs to either come out with one of these ultra cheap panels to go with the mac mini, or start stocking these things in Best Buy, Target, Walmart, CircuitCity, and CompUSA where such monitors are readily available.

Max.

 

[MacNeXT]

My brother turned me on to one way in which the Mac Mini will create a whole new way to use computers. He will have one set of monitor-keyboard-mouse at his home in the city, and another set of monitor-keyboard-mouse at his weekend house in the country. Then he can just carry the mini back and forth between the two, and have his whole work life with him.

Oh, by the way, he's currently a PC user.

For myself, I won't buy one now. No excuse. But when it comes time to buy Tiger ($129) and the next version of iLife ($79) I could certainly see buying an extra computer instead.

That would be the same as having an iBook. The only difference is probably cheaper than two sets of monitor-keyboard-mouse sets, and the iBook allows you to work while you're on the road.