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New Mac Mini Announced! [MERGED]
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I have been pining for this day (a new Mini!!) for the last 18 months and finally it is here! It is so damned sexy and sleek...but:
1. The price increase is insanely outrageous for the outdated innards. I could understand if it was Core i5 but this is nuts.
2. As many here predicted, it is still the same C2D as before (very disappointed on that point).
3. Is the HDD user upgradable with this unibody design (iFixit will be telling us soon no doubt)?
4. The SD slot should be on the front for easy user access.
5. 1 less USB port but it can be justified with the SD slot.
As awesome as this re-design looks I don't know if I can justify the purchase based on points #1 and #2. I am left to wonder if I should smile or frown.....scales are tipped towards frowning.
+1 to everything you said with emphasis on the lean towards the frown side of the fence. The price point for what one could easily argue is "old" technology is laughable.
the reason for the price hike.......
- aluminum unibody
- HDMI
- 320 graphics
- 320 gb
- sd slot
look at all that goodies you're getting for 100 bucks more!
No offence, but that's not a logical argument at all. Technology has changed a lot since it had its last significant update
So it does get you something - not only it is smaller, but you are impressed too.
There's a reason - being Apple. The horsepower, while compelling to you, would be a non-issue for many others.
Apple can also make a 19" five kilogram beast with some great specs.
I hear you (and I'm a Mini owner for 3+ years now)...but again, not everyone buys a Mini (or a $700 DEVICE) to put next to their tv...a lot of people buy the Mini as their first intro to the Mac universe...or a 2nd "cheap" Mac...or the primary (and small) personal computer for small living quarters.
For all the people (and percentage of consumers) out there who will not be purchasing a Mini to convert it to some kind of media hub for their tv, the Mini is way overpriced. And for the people that do want to make it a media hub, there are hundreds of choices from various Wintel PC vendors to compete with the mini on tech specs and physical design. Me? I would likely get a slim tower for about $500 which comes with a 7200RPM drive and much better tech specs. Will I hear it (your comment and I guess probably about a fan?)...I surely would not hear it over my tv or stereo...and even with the non-computer stuff off, I would doubt very much that I would hear the computer fan.
The Mini has a nice physical design...but at the end of the day, it's a bleeping computer. Like all my computers of the past, the desktop sits on the floor or tucked away somewhere. I don't care what it looks like...I care what it does and how much it costs. Yes, there are also people out there who will buy a desktop computer based solely on its looks and cuteness. Not me.
-Eric
I agree completely on all points. This is one area where Apple is REALLY PISSING ME OFF.
Wasn't the last Mini released in March 2009? The USD was at 8.59 SEK at the time, right this minute it's 7.87. The real puzzler is that the discrepancy is wider now than it was back in 2001 when the USD was worth over 11 SEK.
http://www.dollarkurs.se/historik.php
I think the issue is that all Apple products sold in Scandinavia come from the Apple hub/depot in the Netherlands (where the Euro is king). The Euro is at 9.65 SEK (slightly below normal), the USD is at 7.87 SEK (average), but the EUR is doing miserably against the USD. We need an independent Apple Scandinavia, outside the EUR zone...
True, and the iMac (while close to becoming old-ish) is a good deal as well, if the prices are to go up by 15% with a slight speed bump.
Why is this material? So Apple should price its computers to be affordable to people on unemployment? I don't understand why anyone would be buying a new computer (if they already had a working one) when they have no income. Shrug. I feel bad for most people in this situation -- but not if they are blowing money on high-end electronics. Maybe I misunderstood your point...?
Because its basically a laptop in a wider plastic shell.
Weirdly, I'm not impressed this time. I wanted the CPU's to be i5 or i7.
But I think they would never do that because it would take the shine off the iMacs.
Is this a new feature? Handy to have, given a lot of microphones don't work with Apple's line-in ports. (sorry if this was already covered in the last 20 pages!)
I wish it had a slot for a kensington lock to deter casual thieves. It looks so cool I imagine someone would try to grab it and run from my office.
Loving it. Sleek, powerful (enough) and finally got the right balance of ports.
HTPC perfect-o
For a Computer to sit by your TV, this is more than powerful enough. My 3 year old Macbook can decode 1080p video at full speed, this should be able to do that even better. Looks like a winner, and it's cheaper than a MMPC that runs windows that you don't build yourself. And we all know that you're not going to get anything that looks as good as this does and isn't 8 times the size if we build it ourselves.
I like everything about this update except 2 things.
1. I know a lot of people get the mac mini becouse its the only mac they can afford raising the price will make it harder for these people.
2. why the hell did they stick an SD card slot on the back? I don't know about you guys but when I owned my mac mini I pretty much kept it hidden under wires and under my desk there is no way to reach the SD card slots in many peoples mac mini setups I would assume.
other then that I love that it has an HDMI port now and integrated power supply and of course I love the new enclosure.
1. I know a lot of people get the mac mini becouse its the only mac they can afford raising the price will make it harder for these people.
2. why the hell did they stick an SD card slot on the back? I don't know about you guys but when I owned my mac mini I pretty much kept it hidden under wires and under my desk there is no way to reach the SD card slots in many peoples mac mini setups I would assume.
other then that I love that it has an HDMI port now and integrated power supply and of course I love the new enclosure.
Hands up if you ever thought 'You know what, I'd like a Mac Mini, but it's just too damn tall'.
Yeah - didn't think so.
This 'thin' obsession at Apple has gone too far.
Yeah - didn't think so.
This 'thin' obsession at Apple has gone too far.
Oh, I dunno... if I hadn't blown money on high-end electronics back in 1995 when I was unemployed, I never would've learned web design back when web designers were hard to find. Now I'm running my own multimedia company. I'd probably still be unemployed if I hadn't blown that money in the mid 90's... it was a huge money and time saver compared to going the educational route (there really was no such thing as educational programs for multimedia designers back then anyway).
pfff
809 Euros. WTF??? Nearly 300euros price increase for mainly a slight faster gpu? Allthough the new chipset isn't more expensive that the old was in 2009?
And dont argue with HDMI, the older chipset was possible of that, too....
It seems Foxconn isn't manufacturing anymore but Rolex...
Totally overpriced for a 2 gig RAM, C2D System...
Cool looking unibody Alu isn't worth that money.
809 Euros. WTF??? Nearly 300euros price increase for mainly a slight faster gpu? Allthough the new chipset isn't more expensive that the old was in 2009?
And dont argue with HDMI, the older chipset was possible of that, too....
It seems Foxconn isn't manufacturing anymore but Rolex...
Totally overpriced for a 2 gig RAM, C2D System...
Cool looking unibody Alu isn't worth that money.
If you're looking for raw power, obviously not. However, those ION platforms are perfectly able of delivering 1080p to your HDTV, all the while consuming less power. Raw CPU doesn't make the mac mini a more interesting HTPC.
Atom-based platforms have a lower consumption than the mini. Bluetooth, honestly, I haven't looked as this is a non-issue for a HTPC for me.
I'd much rather have an external PSU like the older mini had, since it means less heat inside the box, and so less noise.
All potential HTPC I've looked at offer HDMI.
Comparing ALL details is pointless. I'm only looking at the specs that are important for my intended usage. Why would I need more than 4 GB RAM for a HTPC?
I'll just get a box that is no larger than the mini (albeit admittedly less sexy), draws less power, makes even less noise, and will offer the same amount of functionality for a HTPC for barely more than half the price. That's kinda sad, because I really like Apple's design (I own both a late '09 iMac and a MBP), but this time, the premium is really too outrageous.
Yes, I am "impressed" insofar as I am like "Wow, that is an amazingly light, portable, rugged little box that's going to sit on a shelf built to hold bigger, heavier boxes," but I'm not going to drop a grand on it so I can have the prettiest BitTorrent box on the block--and neither, I suspect, will anyone but people for whom money is no object.Meanwhile, there are literally MILLIONS of people sitting just in between the new Mini and the current Pro, and Apple steadfastly refuses to service them. If I hadn't had enough tax return scrilla to go with the Pro, I'd have forgone Mac entirely.
Peace
Ty
Very simple.
Circa 1990
(I owned several and it could run Apple ][e programs too! LOL)
Attachments
What Mags means is that currently the world is still deep in a recession...and unless you have not been watching/reading/listening to the news lately, unemployment (at least here in the USA) is still at an extremely high rate. Thus the tongue-in-cheek comment about unemployment...and how Apple's price INCREASE is nuts.
-Eric
A few things not mentioned
I like the design, but here are a few things I would have liked to see:
1. Price Lower: If you wait 3-6 months Apple will drop the price of this new, and referbs will be available for $100-200 less.
2. Power Button: Should be something on the front or front side. PIA to do the reach around.
3. No Remote: Unless I'm missing something, this Mac does not support the IR remote, which at some point could have had a power button.
I'll wait for the inevitable price drop.
I like the design, but here are a few things I would have liked to see:
1. Price Lower: If you wait 3-6 months Apple will drop the price of this new, and referbs will be available for $100-200 less.
2. Power Button: Should be something on the front or front side. PIA to do the reach around.
3. No Remote: Unless I'm missing something, this Mac does not support the IR remote, which at some point could have had a power button.
I'll wait for the inevitable price drop.
$700 starting point?
I don't find the $699 price to be that much of an obstacle, really.
When I built my own Linux-based PC media center a few years ago, I spent more than $700 on it by the time I was done. (For starters, you need to find a good quality and good-looking case, suitable for that purpose. That means something with really quiet fans and shaped properly so it goes on a shelf under your TV, looking just like another DVD player or other consumer electronics device. You can easily spend $150-200 on the empty case, alone, trying to achieve this!)
The lack of a Blu-Ray drive is a valid point.... A lot of people would like it better if this new Mini had one. But it shouldn't really be a deal-breaker either. Most people doing Media Center computers are going with the idea that all the content is stored digitally on hard drives, so it can be accessed in a jukebox fashion from menu screens. You'd want to rip your blu-ray movie and save a copy of it someplace, in that case -- so the Mini lacking the drive isn't a big issue, as long as some other computer in your house has one.
I don't find the $699 price to be that much of an obstacle, really.
When I built my own Linux-based PC media center a few years ago, I spent more than $700 on it by the time I was done. (For starters, you need to find a good quality and good-looking case, suitable for that purpose. That means something with really quiet fans and shaped properly so it goes on a shelf under your TV, looking just like another DVD player or other consumer electronics device. You can easily spend $150-200 on the empty case, alone, trying to achieve this!)
The lack of a Blu-Ray drive is a valid point.... A lot of people would like it better if this new Mini had one. But it shouldn't really be a deal-breaker either. Most people doing Media Center computers are going with the idea that all the content is stored digitally on hard drives, so it can be accessed in a jukebox fashion from menu screens. You'd want to rip your blu-ray movie and save a copy of it someplace, in that case -- so the Mini lacking the drive isn't a big issue, as long as some other computer in your house has one.
No that isn't why at all, in fact. The Mac mini is on the lower end of things, for people who have no use for an i5 or i7. The point is to keep the price down, a veritable Nano of the Mac world, and if they raised the price of this model $100 what do you think would happen if they added an i5?
Initial Reaction -
"Yes! Ive been waiting YEARS for an update and this is awesome! I can't wait to buy it!"
15 Minutes Later -
"Wait...$700 for 2009 specs? What exactly am I paying for here?"
Considering Apple pricing is pretty rigid and Apple specs tend start off shockingly strong but then remain un-updated a few months too long then the specs on a Q3 2010-11 machine are already outdated.
-Processor/Memory/HDD are all what you would expect in a late 2008 device
-Bring Your Own KB/Mouse made sense on a $500 "bare bones" Mini in 2006 but for $700 in 2010?
- The big excuse for weak specs is "Its for your TV". Fine... So wheres the remote?
It's a shame because the Mac Mini was already a niche product and these outdated specs and the outlandish price will push away those of us who are it's biggest supporters.
"Yes! Ive been waiting YEARS for an update and this is awesome! I can't wait to buy it!"
15 Minutes Later -
"Wait...$700 for 2009 specs? What exactly am I paying for here?"
Considering Apple pricing is pretty rigid and Apple specs tend start off shockingly strong but then remain un-updated a few months too long then the specs on a Q3 2010-11 machine are already outdated.
-Processor/Memory/HDD are all what you would expect in a late 2008 device
-Bring Your Own KB/Mouse made sense on a $500 "bare bones" Mini in 2006 but for $700 in 2010?
- The big excuse for weak specs is "Its for your TV". Fine... So wheres the remote?
It's a shame because the Mac Mini was already a niche product and these outdated specs and the outlandish price will push away those of us who are it's biggest supporters.