Slashdot Mirror
iPod Shuffle, Mac Mini, iLife '05, iWork
A number of announcements from the Mac World keynote this afternoon.
The iPod Shuffle is pack-of-gum sized, no screen, weighs less than an ounce. Ships today, $99 for the half gig, $149 for a gig.
The Mac Mini is the headless iMac... 6x6x2.5 with all the expected plugs, starting at $499.
Lot's of tiger bits, spotlight, virtual folders in Mail.app. iLife '05 will ship Jan 22. iPhoto gets folders and video support. iMovie supports HD. GarageBand gets 8 channel recording. iWork includes Keynote 2, and 'Pages' the new word processor and ships the same day as iLife.
wait, cheap Mac, cheap iPod. Nevermind
Technically, we now have an iPod for $99 now...technically.
Anyone else dissapointed?
This is a very good thing, now I can afford a mac ;-)
The moral of the story is: "Always remember to mount a scratch monkey."
Nice. These types of things at these pricepoints are the types of things that can change the world - every kid & teenager could end up with one, using their Mom & Dad's hand-me-down Keyboard/Video/Mouse.
Will Pages be MS Word compatible?
The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.
--Aristotle
the flash-based iPod is cool but damn it sure does look like a tampon.
iTampon maybe?
iHope iCan get one!
Cannot connec. You mean it's already slasdotted?
I am Lord Snowbeam. Heed my call!
For more details on the keynote, although they are hastily written.
coral cache here
...though I would hope for more capacity in the iShuffle. Anyone have pics? (FP!) - J
#include "humorous_pop_culture_reference.h"
go to apple site and gawk at stuff , lots of cool things.
apple is back!
p.
Hmm, I like the price point, but I don't like the "no screen" bit. Part of the allure of the iPod is how easy the UI is to navigate and use. How well will you be able to navigate with no feedback?
If the new Ipod has the sound quality of a Ipod I might look into buying one. That is the main problem with small mp3 players today, yeah maybe it can hold 20 miliion hours of music, but it sounds like crap.
::kicks self real hard for not buying apple stock 12 months ago::
My wallet just got substantially thinner.
I like big butts and I cannot lie.
Can't you at least read the blurb?
The iPod Shuffle is pack-of-gum sized, no screen
no wireless. Slower than a dell. Lame.
I have seen the future, and it is inconvenient.
I imagine the OS will come with it, just like every other mac product.
Since it ships with the iLife software, hopefully they'll give you something to run that on : )
No screen on the iPod shuffle.
Then again it is Apple, and I'd be willing to give up the screen to know the quality was spot on. I've been eyeing those Creative Nuvos, but I've heard good and bad about them. Oh well, if I can mount it under Linux I'm sold :).
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
2. Do not eat
http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/
Spymac http://www.spymac.com/ has photos of the new gear. Maybe time to bust open the piggy bank
No, I don't have anything planned for you, I promise...
Will Pages be MS Word compatible?
More importantly, will it be OO.O compatible?
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
Well now that's it's true...damn, even I might buy one!
I'm begining to get the feeling that Steve Jobs might be trying to reposition Apple. Hardware is a mugs game, after all. We all know what happened the last time Apple tried to licence the Mac to clone builders..but what if they tried it now?
It seems to me that over the last two or three years Apple has been working to reposition itself from a hardware company to a more diverse place, where the OS and the services it offers (E.g. iTunes) are what matters more than the hardware. The $499 Mac would seem to enforce that point. The idea is obviously to try and penetrate into the mid range market; make the Mac an everymans computer. If they can do it, and if they can increase their market share, they would certainly seem to have enough room to manovour and licence the Mac to clone builders again..
Amazing that Apple is the only company to come up with amazing products like it does....
It's either on the beat or off the beat, it's that easy.
I moderate therefore I rule!
--
Add a USB ethernet to make dual homed firewall?
Add external Firewire storage to make big file server?
Wow!
Great price point to introduce non Apple users to the platform.
What a great box.
Apple exec 1: iGot an iIdea. Let's make an iPod with iShit for memory and sell it for half the iPrice of our device that has 50 times the memory.
Apple exec 2: Let's do this iThing.
Most of the mac sites have the keynotes in point form. To answer you questions:
1) mini mac comes with OS and iLife (iWorks $79) -- which I think puts it under an corporate workstation microsoft licence cost... how much does Office cost again?
2) No screen... playlist or shuffle/autofill
Head exploding.
cyn, free software and *nix operating systems enthusiast.
$0.00
Does the iPod Shuffle have a screen?Wow... I know ./'ers usually can't be bothered to read the linked article, but you would at least hope they would read the Posting. (here's a hint: "... and no screen." )
Why not iPages? Seems strange to make iEverythingElse and not iPages.
Well, between this announcement and Microsoft's latest security fixes (including a fix for the HTML Help cross-scripting vulnerability, yay!), I think I'll finally be able to persuade them.
No, OS X isn't perfectly secure, nor is it Free -- both important considerations. But it will help keep my parents from inadvertantly polluting the Internet with spam, viruses, and trojans, and do a lot better job of it than Windows.
Carousel is a lie!
Apple, you've finally sold me. I live in a one bedroom apartment with no office and no room for a full desk. The Mac Mini would be perfect for me. I can plug it into my TV and use a wireless Bluetooth keyboard and mouse from the couch. I'm completely sold. I wonder if the graphics card is poerful enough for gaming? Possibly not. Even still, as a word processor/iTunes machine/mp3 storage/IM box, this sounds just perfect. Sign me right up.
El riesgo vive siempre!
Lame, no wifi, less space than a Nomad
I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!
Take a look at the bottom of the http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/ iPod Shuffle page on the Apple website. It actually says "Do Not Eat iPod shuffle".
.....that their own web designers didn't know Appleworks was upgraded to iWork. Mac Mini lists Appleworks as included software.
The Mac Mini will be a perfect X-Terminal to use with a Linux box in another room. You'll have a silent and small box on your desk and the fat and loud server is down in the basement. Great.
I dropped my IPod in a puddle a few months after I got it, and after that the screen would come and go. If you've got all your settings the way you like them and you just randomize your whole playlist, it works just fine.
2. No. Look at www.apple.com
It's either on the beat or off the beat, it's that easy.
I moderate therefore I rule!
--
I finally got around to plowing through Niven's Known Space series of books.
Anybody else want an OSX version named 'Kzin' to come out?
Just me, or has apple been slashdotted?
The Mac Mini looks like it's the thing for me. I've never owned a Mac in my life - I've used a few in my time and I've been to a few Mac Expos with Mac-owning friends - but I think that's about to change.
This is the Mac for all of us who said Macs were too expensive. For around £400 (yeah, Apple just like the rest of them loves screwing non-Americans when it comes to exchange rates) I'll have a nice little toy that'll give me some first-hand experience of MacOS 10.4 plus my girlfriend will have a easy-to-use machine that she can play with when I'm hogging my PC.
Hopefully, it'll work with the PS/2 keyboards and mice that I've got lying around, if not then I suppose that I'll be shelling out for USB ones but that's no great loss.
Mark my words: these babies are going to sell like hot cakes.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
Here's a scoop.
"Honey, I feel a certain distance between us..." "Really? A 31ms ping ain't that bad..."
The iPod Shuffle is pack-of-gum sized, no screen, weighs less than an ounce... and no screen.
... etc.
Let me guess - it also is pack of gum sized, has no screen, and weighs less than an ounce? And has no screen, and is pack of gum sized, and weighs less than an ounce? And weighs less than an ounce, and is pack of gum sized, and has no screen?
In other news - this does actually price compete with some of those flash based players afaik (though I haven't really priced them in some time) - good way to stranglehold people into buying from iTunes (can't blame them).
cyn, free software and *nix operating systems enthusiast.
The Apple Store is down. Guess you'd better call 'em.
The iPod Shuffle is pack-of-gum sized, no screen,, weighs less than an ounce... and no screen
That's all well and good, but does it have a screen?
Stupid Cheap Guitars
...in fact no mouse at all with the Mac Mini. Perhaps the following line from Apple's Mac Mini page was intended to answer the Slashdot crowd's inevitable response:
http://www.apple.com/store
but it is crashing pretty hard. Basically 1/3 of a cube. Smooth looking. Ports in back, CD slit in front and that's about it.
Bet you could make a cool cluster out of these.
iLife'05 http://www.apple.com/ilife/
iWork'05 http://www.apple.com/iwork/
Mac Mini http://www.apple.com/macmini/
iPod Shuffle http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/
Way to go - Apple Rocks
I bet ThinkSecret feel vindicated (tho not as vindicated as they'll feel if Apple's lawsuit fails!)
The Mac mini weighs 2.7 pounds. That's less than any Apple laptop (granted without the LCD). I see people taking this in the car and plugging them into those LCD screens. I'll be buying one as a general purpose computer and maybe to try out Tiger Server when it comes out. As for the iPod shuffle, I lost my USB stick, so this would replace it nicely.
"The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved." -- John Ashcroft
There will be a lot of bitching about the new iPod not having a screen. However I say that apple has done it once again. You have to understand the market for the new iPod, it is not meant to hold your entire music folder, its not meant to go with you on long drives.
The new iPod is for the runners, for the people who take it with them to the gym, etc. These are people who wouldn't be navigating songs anyway, they just toss on a playlist, hit shuffle and go. This is exactly what the new ipod does, with only 200 songs, you don't really need to select your songs.
If you want a display, if you want to hold other stuff, this iPod isn't for you, get the other ones. If you just want to listen to music while you work out, then this is exactly what you want.
Be better in bed. Wikiafterdark!
I wouldn't get one for my main player though...
Apple's latest digital music device, the iPod shuffle, is shaped like a long, thin rectangle with beveled edges
;)
The girls will surely like this one
One solution to dealing with the iPod Shuffle's lack of a screen is build them small enough that they can only hold 2 songs. This way you only need an On/Off button and an Other Song button. And that will save case space as well.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Oh well, I guess I'm sticking with NeoOffice/J for a little while longer.
You have two hands and one brain, so always code twice as much as you think!
getting iFedUp
I am trolling
Didn't apple sue a bunch of sites because they leaked info out about asteroid?
Be better in bed. Wikiafterdark!
I would say RTFA but this is slashdot. Yes of course it comes with the OS (and iLife too) and yes it has some kind of display
The price range is more in the Daddy Can I have that catagory. Usually seeing other peoples macs they want one of their own but the price tag was a bit to high. Now with it at closer to a PC price Daddy may shell out the cash.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Although the front page is still showing the new XServe (i.e., old news), the hardware page has Mac Mini and iShuffle info: here.
Jobs describes the Mac mini and BYODKM: Bring Your Own Display, Keyboard and Mouse.
LOL. OMG. WTF. TITWAIIHEHO (That Is The Worst Acronym If I Have Ever Heard One)
Now then, Dmitri, you know how we've always talked about the possibility of something going wrong with the Bomb...
I thought it would be just as easy for them to take an iPod Mini, rip out the HDD and put in the flash memory, and call it a day.
But I can see where this idea will pick up. The fact that it works as both a 512 MB/1 GB flash drive as well as a MP3 player makes me go "Well, a regular 1 GB USB drive is $80, so for $99 I can have a 512 MB one that's an MP3 player. Use it for jogging and such."
I jog with my iPod and while it never skips, it is a little odd to have it flopping around inside my sweats pant's pocket. (No comments from the peanut gallery.)
So for people with only $99 - $150, iPod Shuffle will be pretty cool. I'll still probably just get my wife an iPod Mini anyway, since she has over 1 GB of music in her special playlist (which I'm desperate to get off my own iPod. Country does not go in my personal music life, no offense meant.)
But now there's a range:
Cheapo: $99 - $150. No screen, but plug it in, get your playlist, and walk away.
Mid-range: $249. Have some additional tracks for longer drives or periods away from the computer.
Expensive: $299 and up - for the folks who need to carry everything around with them all of the time.
I still wish for an iPod Razor (iPod Mini with the flash and think as a credit card), but I think you can see lots of families where one personal already has an iPod, and wants to get another for the wife/kids but doesn't want to spend $1000 on electronics.
Which, with me, my lovely wife, and my three kids (including a daughter that's listening more and more to her own music), $150 is pretty affordable.
We'll have to see if the market thinks the same.
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
yeah their was a lot of speculation about this one and it basically was the drive behind Apple making absolutly sure their shuffle really did shuffle. If Im not mistaken there are two players out now that are without screens as well. and truthfully even on my 5 gig iPod original... i never looked at the iPod half the time but instead listened to what played and then fast forward the player if it wasnt something I wanted to hear.
"Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."
So it's true...
Wow!
Now I'm wondering if you can shave 0.25" off of the thing and mount it in a 1U rack. The specs seem good for a cheap & simple web server.
Also, I predict that there will be some kind of add-on in the next 6 months that allows you to control this Mac with a infra-red remote -- something to run the CD & DVD without a display attached.
The after-market is going to have a field day with this device!
-ch
Judging the crawl at which the normally bulletproof Apple website is moving, it seems the allure of cheap Apple goodies is what it took to bring the weight of the internet to bear on one of the strongest servers out there.
Raise your glasses, this is a day to remember.
Yup...
Engadget has some pictures of the mac mini http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000590026982/ It's about 1/3 the size of the cube- looks smaller than most external cd drives. They're going to cell millions.
http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/ The caption under the "gum" picture reads, "iPod Shuffle: Smaller than a pack of gum and much more fun.(2)"
(2) "Do not eat iPod shuffle."
"One touch of Darwin makes the whole world kin." George Bernard Shaw
iAmSick of apple's iMarketing iScheme.
sig?
Its true.. I guess when you place it next to gum it gets confusing. Crunchy and expensive...
I would sincerely doubt that Apple will license at any point in the foreseeable future since part of what makes that seamless integration that people like is the control over the hardware. Microsoft bashing aside, even they would have an easier time with bugs if they had control over the hardware or at least a narrower field. It is all about the tradeoffs. Many producers means lower prices but a harder time for the support people. Fewer producers would mean less variables to test but higher prices from the reduced competition. Generally anyway, your milage may vary.
I can just see Evil Steve Jobs at the marketing table. He raises his pinky to the corner of his mouth and says, "I'll think I'll call it mini Mac".
Bhwahahaha.
http://www.macmerc.com blogged the thing live. I hope they don't made me posting it here.
01:59 PM - The speech is wrapping up. Please stay tuned to MacMerc for coverage. I'll be moblogging photos from the Apple booth in a few minutes. And if you haven't already, please PayPal us a buck or two (button left column). Thanks!
01:54 PM - Shipping starting today. Accessories rolling out in the next four weeks.
01:54 PM - 2 models: 512MB for $99 and 1GB for $149.99.
01:53 PM - Autofill: button in iTunes to make a playlist sized for the iPod shuffle. You can also manually fill it. You can also use the iPod Shuffle as a USB flash drive (choose how much for songs how much for data).
01:50 PM - iPod Shuffle: really tiny (smaller than most packs of gum), no screen, weighs under 1 ounce. Cap on the bottom, USB 2. 12 hour rechargeable battery. PC/Mac. Looks about the size of a flash key drive.
01:46 PM - There is one more thing: iPod marketshare is 65% over double last year. But Apple is going after the remaining flash player market.
01:45 PM - Motorola: iTunes client on Motorola phones. Showing Motorola e398. Phones shipping this spring.
01:43 PM - iPods on cars: BMW, Mercedes, Nissan, Volvo, Scion.
01:40 PM - We have the iPod and the iPod mini (something else coming???). Holiday 2004 quarter iPod sales: 4.5 million vs. 730K a year ago. Cross 10 million iPods sold, 8 million in 2004.
01:39 PM - Moving onto iPod...
01:37 PM - iTMS sold 230 million songs so far. On pace for 1.25 billion.
01:36 PM - Mac mini is in stores January 22nd.
01:34 PM - The Mac mini fits in the palm of your hand. Hook it into your own keyboard and mouse, or Apple's. Comes with Panther and iLife 05. Price point:$499 $599.
01:34 PM - The Mac mini looks like a 3" tall CD drive. A short cube. All the connections, DVI and VGA.
01:33 PM - Introducing the Mac mini -- ThinkSecret was right!
01:32 PM - "Why doesn't Apple provide a stripped down lower cost Mac?"
01:32 PM - iWork available January 22 for $79
01:27 PM - Phil is out to do a demo of Pages. Start with a blank page or a template. Import photos in pages through iPhoto library (iLife is integrated). Designed by the Keynote team. Word processing with a sense of style.
01:21 PM - iWork announced, to replace AppleWorks. Built from the ground up for OS X. Includes major update to Keynote: 10 new themes, animated text, powerful animated builds, presenter display, interactive slideshows, self playing kiosk slideshows.
PagesOther part of iWork, advanced word processor. 40 Apple designed templates.
01:21 PM - iLife 2005 will be priced at $79. Goes on sale a week from this Friday. Free on all new Macs.
01:18 PM - Traffic update: about 100,000 pages an hour. Please donate if you have found this useful--the webhost enjoys being paid. (PayPal button sidebar left). Update: Thanks guys, keep em coming. We sprung for a dedicated server for our coverage.
01:15 PM - John Mayer is on stage showing the new GarageBand (he helped introduce the first version). Notes, "I didn't win any grammy's for playing the piano."
01:14 PM - GarageBand '05: Up to 8 track recording. Real time music notation (taken from Logic), pitch and timing fixing, recorded tracks now can act as loops, create loops, vocal transformer. Also a new Jampack (#4)
01:09 PM - iDVD '05: 15 new animated themes, OneStep DVD creation (video to DVD in one step), All DVD formats(+R/W).
01:05 PM - Spotted on stage, small metallic box with Apple logo...
01:04 PM - The president of Sony is on stage talking about HD. Steve is a fan of Sony's prosumer HD video camera (just $3499).
12:58 PM - iMovie 05: Faster, non destructive trimming, more transitions and effects, mpeg 4 video, Magic iMovie (auto movie). Biggest feature: HD.
12:45 PM - iPhoto '05: Better searching, More formats, far more powerful editing, more book designs, better organization (folders, c
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
Apple's imac mini page is actually selling the thing as a second computer...
They talk about adding a KVM switch to your keyboard, mouse and display and popping the imac mini on top of your PC and whola! you have a imac to go with your pc.
These things are going to fly out of the stores...
(and, every kid in america is going to be wearing an ipod shuffle around his or her neck this summer.)
Good god what's up with apple? Could they possibly think they have a chance to gain PC marketshare?
Those little $20 (hopefully non-screwy exchange rate pricing available) USB-PS/2 dongles work really really well with Macs. I use one on my powerbook, I've used them with KVM's...I'll probably pick one up for my "emergency kit of random cables and adapters" I carry around.
Mac's Mini Storage
Dumbass. $50 gets you a new battery you can install yourself in 5 minutes.
Apple seems to be moving into some more low-end markets with smaller-cheaper devices. I think they may find some untapped markets with a combination of simple and cheap. It seems like the rumor community was right on this time. I'm actually the most interested, however, in Pages. The specs say it imports Appleworks, Word, text, and rich text formats. I'm very curious about how well it handles the Word format. It exports to PDF, Word, HTML, RTF, and plain text. It also seems to have it's own file format. I don't see any mention of XML or OpenOffice formats, nor for Word Perfect. Hopefully these are either undocumented features, or the architecture supports plug-ins to add support.
Keyboard, iPod mini, dock, hands, AirPort, Bluetooth and PC sold separately.
http://www.apple.com/macmini/design.html
This is my sig. It's prescription, I swear. I need it for reading things... on the other side of things
Linking to a popular Mac site right after a Macworld keynote is like kicking a man when he's already down on the ground.
I would seriously consider this w/a gig of ram. I currently devlop on a 17"PB 1.5GHZ, 1.5GB ram. This is running Postgres, Dbvisualizer, Tomcat, Emacs ;), Camino, various iTerm windows (each w/tabs), Konfabulator, iTunes, multiple desktops - and the list goes on.
Point is, I have a fair amount of stuff going on and my machine is solid and holds up well throughout the day. With only the top model sporting a cpu that is 100mhz slower than mine, but allowing the same DDR speed, I would seriously consider this for a development shop. Provided it's a web shop anyway.
Plus, who knows what this is gonna do in the home now that it's affordable.
well, at least not all of those expected by everyone. Some folks ( who clearly didn't know ) were predicting something you could plug into a TV. This isn't that, it's a standard computer with typical modern computer ports and DVI/VGA video, just 'mini'. Really, really, mini... it makes that George Foreman Grill computer look freekin' huge.
Is it just me, or is Apple's site pretty much down? I was only able to follow one link to the iWork page, but I can't see anything else, I just get timeouts and all that jazz.
I was also hoping for slightly updated PowerBooks, because I need to buy one soon. Hopefully they just weren't announced by Steve because I've got $1,500 of pure education discount lovin' burning in my pocket (my wallet, perverts).
I was thinking about getting a little Small-form factor box to run something like MythTv, something along the lines of a AMD64. But checking out the Mac mini just makes me wonder about how I could get that going. Anyone think that this box could be a useful solution to that kind of project? I think the fairly standardized hardware would make that pretty simple to do, but being a non-mac person, I have no idea.
;)
And damn - just in time to consider when upgrading my parents old machines.
"What do you think?" "I think 'What, do you think?!'"
A 512m USB drive is around $50. Get one that plays your tunes for another $50?
I'll take 2.
Wake up.
The target market for the iPod Shuffle is people who buy/download the songs they like and really don't care the order in which they're played. It's basically like having your radio station that plays all your favorite songs all day. Teenagers will eat these up, and at $99-$149, many can afford them.
Would I want one? Probably not, but then I already have an iPod. They've already got me.
Does that $499 include an OS?
do not read this line twice.
ok, don't get me wrong. I love the look of the iPod Shuffle and I'm hitting the "refresh" button on the apple store until I can order one, but I do see a problem and I hope Apple has thought of this too... the iPod shuffle comes with a lanyard you can hang around your neck. Seems appropraite and I bet in 2 months everybody is wearing one of these... but the lanyard hooks to the cap that is meant to be removed. In a year, how likely is it that your ipod shuffle will just fall out of that cap after it's been pulled on and off so much!? Sure, the headphones will most likely be on, but this just seems like a really bad idea and I hope they addressed it...
Grease & Counterbalance
>How much will the OS cost for the mini mac?
>$0.00
Actually I think you'll find there's a yearly subscription fee for OSX.(n++)
Gotta love those disclaimers:
Warning do not eat iPod shuffle
http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/
On Apple's specs page there is a section "Build-to-Order Options", and under there, under Wireless, you will see "Internal Bluetooth module".
-- Jeff Paulsen
No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Remember that story about the BBC site showing off its usage stats? I'd love to see what Apple's servers are going through right about now...
Happiness is like peeing yourself. Everybody can see it but only you can feel its warmth.
Will MS Word be Pages compatible?
No screen, less space than a mini. Lame.
Go down to the bottom of the iPod shuffle page here
Have a look at (2): "Do not eat iPod shuffle". Hilarious
There are PS/2 to USB adapters. I use a similiar one to the link below with my iBook. http://www.cablestogo.com/product.asp?cat_id=1501& sku=27225
Did anyone else at first think that they were referring to the Random in random access memory with their tagline? I wondered if non-nerds would understand that and then I realized that the tagline refers to how the songs are always shuffled.
...with Steve's new look? I mean his beard... cmon.
No jet, but is is slow already. Keep up the good work!
If you go here:
http://www.apple.com/macmini/graphics.html, some of the paragraph headings are actually the lyrics to "Headhunter," a techno song by Front 242. With all this good news, I don't actually mind that it started snowing outside!
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
Yeah, that thing is pretty sweet. And it's about time. Maybe they saw all the slashdot posts bitching about all the low end macs being all in ones. I'm about 5 times more likely to buy this than their imacs.
But that ishuffle thing? blechhh. I'm sure it will do well 'cause of the fanatics, but I think it's just silly. Around 15 albums worth of music and no navigation? Anyone who wants a gumstick sized mp3 player should see the iaudio U2
Same here. I'm very very tempted to go out and buy one right now. Sounds like a perfect portable desktop or server. It's actually cheaper than a similar mini-ITX box. I never really cared about the iPod or the big displays or the software...this is...*jaw drop*.
LOAD "SIG",8,1
ipod shuffle looks kind of like a normal ipod.
The mac mini is very sleek and tiny. Click on link for a comaprison.
The war with islam is a war on the beast
The war on terror is a war for peace
"2. Do not eat iPod shuffle."
The screenless Shuffle iPod is a GREAT idea. I've never actually used a screen on either of my MP3 players to find a particular song. I just have them set to shuffle and hit play. I let "god" choose what I'll hear next.
I do the same thing at home. Even though I have all my CDs organized by subfolders, I only listen to a 6-day long playlist I created of all my favorite songs. I rarely have to look at my screen at home to listen to music; I just click a button on my Remote Wonder and let it play.
And I do the same thing in my car. I have the same 6-days of music spread over 12 CD-Rs. I've never searched for a particular song while driving (or while parked). I just let shuffle do the work.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
If you can't be bothered with an installation, and want auto-security update, then you could do worse than buy one of these as a web or file server.
:)
Even more so for those who need a web server and have no command-line experience. BSD stability, at a Windows price point
This is not a signature.
Not only is it headless, but it's handless ... as near as I can tell from the marketing copy on Apple's site, it doesn't come with a keyboard or mouse.
This isn't that big a deal -- you can get a USB keyboard/mouse combo for less than $50 -- but I think it just goes to show that this is aimed squarely at the whiners on Slashdot who always say, "just give me a sub-$500 Mac, man!" and whose dingy apartments are littered with dozens of abandonned Cheeto-encrusted keyboards.
jf
I've used the belkin and others. Never had one NOT work. 100%. Every time.
Just when I buy a solid-state mp3 player, apple announces a they are coming out with one. Why couldn't you have announced this one week earlier, why? After years and years of waiting, I finally buy one and murphy's law strikes.
For those that are interested, I bought a Creative MuVo N200 512MB for $120 at newegg.
Is this gonna be like the Cube, where I have an ugly wart containing the PSU hanging off a cable going down the back of my desk? Or did Apple figure out some way to build one so small I can just go from the wall to the machine with? Didn't see any details on Apple's Web site or in the Macworld link.
the coolest club on
All the pieces of the puzzle are dropping into place: iTunes + iPod to introduce Apple and remind people they exist; stores to sell Apple products; a relatively fast, stable, secure and easy operating system; good peripheral support. Finally, the last piece: a low-cost desktop machine to really compete with the major PC vendors. Bravo!
Forget the year of Linux on the desktop -- this may be the year of Apple on the desktop.
Is there any rhyme or reason as to why Apple's have always had the power button exclusively on the back of the machine? Everytime the thing crashes you have to search around on the back for the button.
Now this is just cool...
b ook20050111.jpg
http://images.apple.com/ipodshuffle/images/indexi
(1) add a RAM stick BTO - cheapo ...?
(2) add bluetooth BTO - cheapo
(3) add Wifi card BTO - cheapo
(4) sit unobtrusively to my way-cool existing TV and hook up A/V - nothin'
(5) hook to already existing wifi ADSL-powered network - nothin'
(6) bring in my already existing Sony-Ericsson Z600 - nothin'
(7)
(8) Profit!
Lemme see what I get from this:
(A) iTunes playback
(B) VLC playback
(C) DVD playback
(D) UNIX development
(E) Surf web
(F) Check mail
(7) Photo slideshow
(8) Remote control via Z600 (see 2,6,A,B,C,E)
All in the living room sitting comfortably on the sofa (see D)! Yay!
I was tuned in to hear about the new "Mac mini" because I was planning on buying one if it was true. But now I'm also interested in the new iPod. My old thumbdrive just died and I'd like to replace it with a new 1GB one. If I could get one with an mp3 player too (that also plays my iTune songs) that'd be great. (Although I saw and ad today for one from another company that also includes a voice recorder...but no itunes.)
I wonder if I could put Linux on it and boot from it. Think about it: a computer with Microsoft Windows on it, booted into Linux running on hardware made by Apple!
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
Anyone see this on the iPod Shuffle page at Apple? Read footnote 2:
Do not eat iPod shuffle.
It's a reference to this image at the Apple site that shows the relative size of the Shuffle. This is almost as good as the whole "Cookies are a Delicious Treat" thing or whatever it is in Firefox.
...a beowulf cluster of these!
On their main page http://www.apple.com/ they have a nice little splash screen for the shuffle that says "240 songs. A million different ways." Actually, shouldn't that be 4.0678853636470581e+468 different ways (assuming no repetition)?
Joshua J. Kugler
Yes people... Beowulf!
Now we can build a budget Virginia Tech thingy of our own.
It comes with a keyboard and mouse. If you want more than one button, you pay a little extra.
You have two hands and one brain, so always code twice as much as you think!
There's a $100 Superdrive option! Couple that with a good Firewire TV tuner/capture and you have a nice PVR with DVD burning capabilities. With a large external firewire drive, of course.
On the other hand, the 1GB RAM upgrade costs $50 less than the entire Mac Mini. Ouch. Don't buy RAM from Apple. Ever.
Ordering prints form iphoto is now cheaper. 19 cents for 4x6 prints is a big deal.
i'm sure they're hiding that damn dirty external power supply
Or just pick up a used Mac one on eBay for a song.
You can use Winders USB keyboards, but it's a little less confusing if you get a Mac one.
Cheers,
Ethelred
Everyone wants to be Ethelred. Even I want to be Ethelred.
The ones that don't consistently work with the mac will, with a workaround. When USB/PS2 adapters are used with a KVM switch and you are toggling back to the mac, usually all you need to do is replug the usb cable (that goes into the mac).
from http://www.apple.com/macmini: And yes, Mac mini will take advantage of your two-button USB mouse with scroll-wheel and your favorite USB keyboard.
I really think apple has hit a home run with the ipod shuffle...all my friends that have iPods almost all use shuffle, and they are already drooling over this.
Heck, at this price point, even stingy me is hovering over the "buy now" button.
consider the size of the package, and the quality of the operating system, i think this is an absolute winner. i was actually consdering buying a xpc for my blender and povray work(openbsd), but this is a much better offering. $500 is not much, when you consider a bare-bones xpc is $300+, not including HD, MEM,graphics card... i gotta get one!
three can keep a secret, if two are dead - benjamin franklin
This thing is worthless for those of us who like classical music, much of which consists of larger, multiple movement works. Playing these in random order will be a complete mess.
* Caution: iPod Shuffle may suddenly accelerate to dangerous speeds.
* iPod Shuffle contains a liquid core, which, if exposed due to rupture, should not be touched, inhaled, or looked at.
* Do not use iPod Shuffle on concrete.
Discontinue use of iPod Shuffle if any of the following occurs:
* Itching
* Vertigo
* Dizziness
* Tingling in extremities
* Loss of balance or coordination
* Slurred speech
* Temporary blindness
* Profuse sweating
* Heart palpitations
If iPod Shuffle begins to smoke, get away immediately. Seek shelter and cover head.
iPod Shuffle may stick to certain types of skin.
When not in use, iPod Shuffle should be returned to its special container and kept under refrigeration...
Failure to do so relieves the makers of iPod Shuffle, Apple Computer Corp. and its iCEO Steven P. Jobs, of any and all liability.
Ingredients of iPod Shuffle include an unknown glowing substance which fell to Earth, presumably from outer space.
iPod Shuffle has been shipped to our troops in Saudi Arabia and is also being dropped by our warplanes on Iraq.
Do not taunt iPod Shuffle.
iPod Shuffle comes with a lifetime guarantee.
iPod Shuffle
ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES!
Here. Very nice. I wonder who'll be the first to sacrifice their own and post a full autopsy?
Small, quiet, easy to use, and gobs of storage. This sounds like a great addition to my audio/video system. Even DVI output. Visualizations on a 30" HD widescreen. Yummy. Now just need to find a usb or firewire to audio bridge so I don't lose that 5.1 sound.
Joshua J. Kugler
That's 6.5" x 6.5" x 2"
I want to see a picture of three of these stacked up next to a Cube. How about a Beowulf cluster of these! And buy two, they're cheap.
--
"Open source is good." - Steve Jobs
"Open source is evil." - Microsoft
What a dumb move. With optical out it would've made a killer silent home theater system, since its got DVI (perfect for those with HD sets). Add a bluetooth keyboard, and you've got DVI DVD playback, HD photo browsing, web surfing, etc.
Without it, its just a small desktop system.
Considering the Airport Express has optical and analog, they blew it on this one. I'm sure it'll sell well, but thats a big oversight.
Yes: the "Do What I Mean" button.
Call me a mac freak, but this stuff looks good. Just check Pages. A word processor whose documents look good on screen! That's one I've been waiting for for a long time.
Then the Mac Mini. It blows all those recent "design PCs" out of the water. Upgradability will probably be even worse than for those PCs, but the unit will probably work better. And it's cheap!
As for the iPod shuffle, that's one I might buy (I already have an iBook). A USB memory stick that can play music, too. Although I'm afraid it won't play most of my collection (Ogg Vorbis...)
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
I think it might be a good idea BUT only if they certified the config for all of the clones. Sort of like the licensing deals the console manufacturers have with game developers, only in reverse. i.e. You only get to build machines that use our OS as long as we approve your designs and test your machines for compatibility. Apple has worked very hard for their place as one of the top industrial design companies in the world, they don't want some crappy clone machines ruining their image.
Okay slashdot folks, all of you who've said for years that Apple boxes are too expensive... "if they made one for $499, I'd buy one"... time to put your wallet where you mouth has been. And you can't bitch because of the one button mouse, since it doesn't come with one. You can just hook up your current N-button USB mouse and be happy. -=- Seedman
"The things you see when you don't have your over-voltage cattle prod, a shovel and a sack of lime..." -- BOFH
So how many of you emailed your parents telling them to ebay all the old pc's you've built them over the years?
I figure if they sell them they can pickup a couple hundred and then buying a new mac-mini isn't such a big hit in the checkbook for them.
http://slashdot.org/~tf23/journal
... there is a manual switch for "de-shuffling" ;-)
Took a bit but I managed to order 2 through the website. My wife demanded one immediately after I told her about it and we'll I want a stable Linux operating system that looks good.
Lets not argue the Merits of OSX vs Linux.. it's Linux enough for me and I'll probably dual load it with Yellowdog also for fun.
I also think I will eventually get a 3rd one to turn it into a media center if I can find a USB device that can record tv and everything.. this will be a lot of fun!
Similar to yourself, I've also got the feeling I'll be a Mac owner pretty soon.
Backup not found: (A)bort (R)etry (P)anic
(And for posterity?)f le.jpg
http://www.students.bucknell.edu/cbarker/iPodShuf
What good is the Garagebands then?
Seconded
I am one of many. My idea is not unique, nor do I expect my voice alone to sway you. I speak in a chorus of opinion.
The Mac Mini is a great deal, but if you want to add memory and WiFi, the minimum price for the low-end model goes from $499 to $653 w/ 512MB of RAM and the AirPort Express card. Tack on nearly $500 on $499 if you want 1GB of Apple's nitpicky memory. Damn.
I'd get one, but not unless I couldn't get the memory upgrade from Crucial and have it work flawlessly without lockups (seen this often in a co-worker's memory anemic PowerBook 15").
IronChefMorimoto
I have to say after reading the rumors, I was suspect that the Mac Mini would be underpowered, but after completing a web-app dev project on a 1Ghz iMac with 768MB ram, I find the possibility of developing with this 1.25 Ghz sub-$650 workstation (when you factor in a good KVM from the likes of Belkin and some more Ram) to be awesome.
1.25 Ghz Mac Mini - $499
Belkin 2 port KVM - $38
512 MB Ram (for 1.25 iMac) - $93
What blows my mind even more is that the $650 our company would spend just on Office and Visual Studio _licensing_ gets all the software (Xcode) for developing as well as OS X and, oh yeah, the computer!
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
Not a lot of ponies, but this ought to sell. Damn: it's smaller than the cube (and considerably more powerful, even though it's no PowerMac). Hope their supplier can crank a lot of these things. Wonder how it will impact the sales of its more nimble iMac sister?
As I expected, iWork is a competitor for Microsoft Works, not MS Office (yet). That must be where they are heading, since it's bundled with presentation software. Won't get there without a spreadsheet app. But if it's light and fast, I might buy a copy. Never have liked Office's gaudy take an Aqua. A lot of folks have little need to open an Excel sheet.
Shuffle is a home run. Won't replace the iPod, kills off Apple's flash-based competitors, and doubles as a storage device. Great price points. The random music playback interface addresses all the repetition complaints we in radio hear on a daily basis. Just load it every morning and go. It's always different. Damn.
Best consumer-level Macworld ever. Once upon a time, Macs weren't just for well-heeled suburban types. With these affordable products, Apple has found its way home. Shame on Sony for letting Apple humiliate them -- again.
This is my post. There are many others like it. If you don't like what you read here, go try one of the others.
Now if only it could've had something like the Hauppauge PVR 350 (Hardware MPEG2 encoding / TV OUT), would've mdae the perfect settop box, hot aesthetically pleasing with a great price point :)
in all seriousness, you could buy around 8 of these for the same price as one of the higher end PowerMacs. get them all connected via wireless and you've got quite the set up for some xCode shared compiling.
If these don't sell like hotcakes, I'll be very surprised.
-- i am jack's amusing sig file
2. Do not eat iPod shuffle.
Anyone see the IPod Shuffle small print. LOL.
1. Music capacity is based on 4 minutes per song and 128Kbps AAC encoding.
2. Do not eat iPod shuffle.
3. Rechargeable batteries have a limited number of charge cycles and may eventually need to be replaced. Battery life and number of charge cycles vary by use and settings. See www.apple.com/batteries for more information.
4. Some computers require either the optional iPod shuffle Dock or a USB cable extender (sold separately).
After selling 10 million iPods (jesus christmas!) I don't think they are moving away from hardware.
What I see more focus on hardware design, the exact opposite of the clone fiasco. They are getting, and supporting, higher margins on their hardware because of their design engineering. No other MP3 player looks or feels as good as the iPod. The Mini looks looks like another homerun, their first small form factor PC and its uniquely Apple and great looking.
Apple's focus has shifted to perfecting the Human-Computer interface. This is what it was all about originally. They are focusing on the look and feel of products, both hardware and software.
Get the details right, and they will come.
Spencer Ogden
I've never had a problem either. Except when I tried to use a Model M keyboard. The Windows keys get mapped to the Command key, and there's no Windows key on a Model M.
--
"Open source is good." - Steve Jobs
"Open source is evil." - Microsoft
On the design page for the mini, it is stacked next to what is probably a PC case. Any ideas who makes that case?
k 20050111.gif/
http://images.apple.com/macmini/images/designstac
The iPod Shuffle is pack-of-gum sized, no screen, weighs less than an ounce.
Incomplete sentences which have grammatical errors make me very.
An interesting note from MacWorld is something Jobs said about the iPod Mini.
Before the iPod Mini was released, the flash player market was double what it is today. That means the iPod Mini did NOT canibalize hard drive player/iPod sales but instead got Flash player buyers to spend more money on buying a Mini and claimed the upper end of the Flash Player market.
This means the iPod Shuffle is being sent in to sweep up the low end market where people are buying $49 128 MB players.
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
... and no beowulf comment? no, i won't either!
iDo??
People discover the meaning of life between getting piss drunk and the following hangover.
- A two-dimensional, charting spreadsheet
- A flat file database
- A very basic bitmap paint program
- A very basic vector drawing program
- An architecture to plug in other editors
- Tons of cheesy clip-art, fonts, and templates
- Mac OS 9 compatability via its Carbon roots
In some ways these were completely crap features. The shell that these editors plugged into was very non-Aqua. The editors were bare basic items that looked to specifically not compete with even the most basic shareware on the market. And although Apple had seemingly dropped support for AppleWorks files createed on the Apple ][, it was a model of backwards compatability in terms of it's file formats.This always seemed to me to be more of a checklist feature (Why, Yes, we do have a free Works package bundled with every Mac.) than something they were very proud of. So I can see why they'd want to sweep it under the rug. I do hope that they are working on updating the other modules at least to make working with them in an Aqua-esque environment to be a pleasure. I think the shareware crowd could use a bit of encouragement to get their apps up to a level that could compete with iWorks.
As an aside, I had expected Apple to name this suite with a name that had just a bit more subversion or punch... something like iHo (iHo, it's off to work we go).
You're missing the point. It's all about Steve. All Steve all the time. Everyone else is supporting cast
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
You know, I'm wondering something. I wonder if they made this thing so small to encourge people to take it out and show it off. Want to tell you friends about your new Mac? Just take it over to their house and plug it in to their monitor. Wanna convince the boss that it could be a solution to some of your problems? Take it to work and plug it in!
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
If they can do it, and if they can increase their market share, they would certainly seem to have enough room to manovour and licence the Mac to clone builders again..
Actually I think the exact opposite. Remember, one of the things that killed the last clone attempt was the fact that Apple was having to absorb all the cost of r&d while allowing the clones to cannabilize their own sales. Units like the Mac Mini take a lot of r&d bucks to design, they'd either have to charge exhorbanant sums to their oems (giving them little breathing room on price), or face the same problem as they did last time (which Steve in no uncertain terms made clear that he didn't like). Perhaps the closest we'll get to seeing clones is what HP is doing with the iPod, really just a re-branded unit.
But that ishuffle thing? blechhh. I'm sure it will do well 'cause of the fanatics, but I think it's just silly. Around 15 albums worth of music and no navigation? Anyone who wants a gumstick sized mp3 player should see the iaudio U2
Except that the U2 costs more than twice as much than the new ipod.. I'm ordering one tomorrow, as soon as the apple store calms down.
d.
I'm not a runner or anything, but this is exactly what I want too -- all I do with iTunes is shuffle play my "3 stars or above" Smart Playlist anyway!
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
IPOD SHUFFLE LET'S YOU NAVIGATE IF YOU WANT, RANDOMNESS IS AN OPTION!
From Apple's website:
"With Play in Order mode, you manage the music. If things take a turn for the predictable, never fear. Turn iPod shuffle over, flip the slider to Shuffle and mix on the go."
You can read a good summary of all the announcements made at the Apple Keynote here
Homme petit d'homme petit, s'attend, n'avale
what exactly are you reading? Jackass Daily? i ask since you obviously didn't read APPLE'S OWN FUCKING PAGE. here, let me note the salient points for you, you poor pathetic schlemiel:
- "Autofill iPod shuffle from a specific iTunes Playlist..."
- "...drag and drop individual songs from iTunes onto iPod shuffle."
- "...Play in Order mode..." !!!
somebody mod this troll down.is update the powerbook line.
I mean, seriously.
I love macs. I love my iBook. IF I were to buy another mac righ tnow, it would be a G4 ibook to replace my aging G3 ibook.
Why not a powerbook?
It's too dated. They *NEED* to revise this, and soon.
What it needs:
- Better display. It's a fine display and all, but it sucks compared to the new translfective high-contrast displays on new toshibas and sonys... let's upgrade.
- HIgher resolutions. I know, people say "Why would you want higher resolutions on a laptop screen". Why? DETAILS. Increased resolution doesn't have to mean smaller fonts, it just means more detail and smoother displays. 3 years ago I had a 1600x1200 15" display... Apple still has nothing with this DPI, and in my opinion, should have even higher.
- Update the 12" specifically... with Gig-E and FW800 (might have the latter already, I forget). WHy compromise on ethernet speed?
- macs are REALLY not good with drink spills... do SOME level of toughbook-style design. please... at least make the keyboard waterproofed.
I say all this because I"m at the point of wanting a new notebook, but I can't in good conscience buy a powerbook at the price they sell at considering how behind the displays are.
Mac Mini, meet Mr. KVM switch.
The Glass is Too Big: My Take on Things
I just spent the entire keynote switching (no pun intended) between five different mac fansites and two IRC channels trying to find *one* news source that wasn't completely overloaded. If anyone can handle that kind of bandwidth, it's Slashdot.
Media that can be recorded and distributed can be recorded and distributed.
-kfg
Steve Jobs should be president of America =)
Read this page -- http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/ -- and look at footnote #2 at the bottom that corresponds with the photo of the iPod Shuffle with sticks of gum:
"Do not eat iPod shuffle."
ROFLMAO!
IronChefMorimoto
1Gb iPod Shuffle = 99 UK pounds
Expanding MacMini from 256 Mb to 1Gb = 290 UK pounds!
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
after a home run. Way to go, Apple. Release products that kick ass and people will come to you. If that's not capitalism then I don't know what is.
Disclaimer: I am a developer of OpenOffice.org for Mac OS X and a founder of the NeoOffice project
If Keynote is any indicator, they will most likely not support OpenOffice.org or OASIS formats. There is also no OASIS or XML option in the screenshots of their filter sheet. While it's unclear from the limited info on the website, Pages may save either in RTF or in its own internal format. If it's internal, Apple most likely will open up this file format over time.
When Keynote first came out its file format was "secret" unless you wanted to reverse engineer the XML. A month or two after the software came out they did publish the Keynote schema for their documents. So they are using an open file format for Keynote, even if Keynote is the only application that uses it.
I spec'd a Keynote filter for OOo/NeoOffice a long time ago but no one has taken up the task of implementing or revising that specification. Being able to import Keynote formatted documents just isn't really a commonly requested feature (definitely much less so then Aqua user interface) so I haven't spent my own time on it.
ed
and second: Tiger is not going to need top of the line hardware.
After the iMac G5s came out, I was really worried about whether my iBook G4 would be able to handle Tiger well enough, but the specs of the Mac Mini seem to show that Tiger will probably be fine on most G4s (unless Apple is out to alienate the huge market they've created today.) I was worried about how much longer Apple's "faster on the same hardware" OS development would continue, but it seems that Tiger will at least not run much slower on even slightly dated hardware. Good news from Apple today in a lot of ways.
They finally caved in to Dell-style 'a la carte' bait-n-switch pricing: get the basics for the advertised price, but start tacking on the accessories to get full function. Looks like the rumours were right, it's aimed at /. cranks and windows iPodders. Check out the accessories page; this is definitely a switcher box, with a kvm and Move2Mac front and centre.
First prediction for big complaints: one RAM slot, so upgrade from crucial then sell your spare on ebay. 2nd: 32MB VRAM, gaming will suck. 3rd, user-serviceable access will be unlikely. Hey, I say, it's the appliance plus they've been hinting at for a while, and its expandability will be primarily USB/1393/bluetooth.
Damn those pesky terrorists
As Jobs noted, the iPod Mini took a nice chunk out of the Flash MP3 player market and thus the Shuffle is meant to take the remainder (low end). However, if the Shuffle were to have a screen (and thus be fully functional) it would almost certainly eat into Mini sales. Thus, the lack of screen is not only a design (elegant) and engineering (fewer parts) triumph, but also a marketing coup (increase marketshare without cannabalizing sales). Impressive.
THANK YOU APPLE!
;)
At last, I will get a machine that both my parents will be able to use with ease without supervision of their every move. I'm actually going to buy a couple for my family/friends....
Time to take advantage of working at an Apple retailer and all
On the other end of the spectrum, looks like we will need to get more Apple certified technicians working for us, and I will be shipping more parts.
I paid nearly 100 bucks for my 128 MB USB thumb drive (couple years ago, granted) to cart files around. The new iPod can (presumably) do the same for the same price, with more storage AND can play music! Sounds like a win/win. My thumb drive doesnt have or need a screen, and neither does this new iPod. The computer is your screen when you plug it in.
Apple has learned something with the iPod -- you can make a shitload of money selling accessories.
And they're focusing on it with one of the iMac mini pages
They're going to end up selling a lot of add-ons to something that "only" costs $499. The funny thing is that some of these things (displays, for example) actually cost more than the original device.
-ch
It's all so beautiful...[sniff].
Okay, the new Mac Mini is going to be perfect for my mother. It's certainly going onto the "iWant List".
iLife 05 and iWork I'm going to put on order today (if I can get through to the Apple Store -- that's for /.'ing Apple everyone ;) ).
Damn. I had prepared myself this morning to find out that maybe one of the rumours was true, but all of the major rumours turned out to be true. Joy oh joy! It's like having another Christmas all over again :).
Please allow me to point one last thing out: to all of those here (and elsewhere) who complained that Macs were too expensive, it's now time to put up or shut up. Buy the new Mac Mini, or never speak of the purported high cost of Apple hardware again.
Yaz.
Called KeySpan, Express Remote.
http://www.apple.com/macmini/accessories.html
USB -> IR remote, been around for ages, i love it.
I consider buying mini Mac having recently playing with older generation of Power Macs.
They sell on ebay around $300.
I hope now all of them will go drastically down over next couple weeks. It would be great time to pickup couple for webservers or second computers.
Let's the killing begin.
I can imagine the Apple DJ, built on the Macintosh's text-reading ability. You could ask the iPod shuffle to "read" the song title, artist, and album at the beginning of each track, like a virtual DJ. And maybe you could even choose which voice to use...
I thought CoCo or Carbon or Aqua or whatever required 64MB?
From the Mac mini website: "Keyboard, iPod mini, dock, hands, AirPort, Bluetooth and PC sold separately." Of course you have to see the page http://www.apple.com/macmini/design.html to appreciate the statement. With this and the not eating the new iPod, it looks like someone at Apple has a sense of humor.
apple did do that for the old mac clones. (in fact, many of them were apple motherboards or apple motherboard designs in the first place!) i'm sure the 3DO company did that for all the 3DO consoles that were released, and that nintendo did it for the panasonic gamecube.
-mkb
If I had the mod-points, you, Mr. (Or Ms.?) AC, would get some. That's another cool purpose of a box like this one.
"What do you think?" "I think 'What, do you think?!'"
I can see this being an issue with VOIP.
-dameron
It has a DVI video port (with VGA adapter included), and it comes with no monitor, mouse, or keyboard. Although Apple states on their website that "Mac Mini will take advantage of your two button USB mouse with scroll wheel", I think that decision is a mistake. Most PC users don't have USB peripherals, and will find the Mac Mini somewhat, err, nonfunctional upon purchase.
Hardware-wise, the specs are pretty low-end (what do you expect from a $500 Mac?). Comparing them to a local no-name store, here's what you get when comparing the cheapest options:
Price-the cheap PC is $450 Canadian, the cheap Mac is $500 US. The PC is significantly cheaper.
Processor-the Sempron 2200+ is slow, for a PC. It would quiver beside the 2.0+ GHz Powermac G5's, but it beats the crap out of the 1.25 (or even 1.4 GHz upgraded) Mac Mini. PC wins again.
Video-the Mac's discrete Radeon 9200 is an ok chip, the PC's integrated video isn't. Easy win for the Mac Mini.
Memory-they both come with 256 megs, so where's the contest? The Mac Mini is only upgradeable to 1 gigabyte. Slashdotters considering purchasing one may want to avoid it for this reason. Another victory for the PC.
Peripherals-the PC comes with a monitor, a mouse, a keyboard, and speakers. All cheap junk, but still a much better deal than the Mac, which doesn't come with any of that.
Optical drive-both come with CD burners, but the PC's doesn't read DVD's, and the Mac's does. Another point for the Mac Mini.
Cool factor-the Mac is much smaller and less of an eyesore. I don't know about volume, since neither manufacturer gives specs. This is a big plus for the Mac.
OS-Mac OS X versus no OS included. Victory for the Mac, although the PC will probably end up with Windows XP. Most users will prefer Windows since it is compatible with more programs and they are more likely to be familiar with it, although opinions can be very polarized about which is better. (=
Warranty-each offers a one year warranty. Victory for the Mac, since Apple service is much easier to get if you go outside of southern Ontario.
Connectability-the Mac offers a modem, IEEE1394 and DVI, as well as USB2 ports. The PC offers only VGA and USB2 for modern peripherals, although it has old style serial and parallel ports, and PS2 keyboard and mouse jacks that the Mac lacks. Both machines include 10/100 ethernet. I prefer the modern options, so the Mac gets a slight win.
Other specs such as hard drive and sound capabilities seem similar, so I won't use them for my conclusions.
To anyone who complains about the white box vs. brand name comparison, show me a white box Macintosh and I'll yield the point. But not much, since Dell offers a similar system (with more RAM plus Windows XP, but a Celeron processor and $499 Canadian price point).
Overall, the Mac just isn't a good deal compared to the PC. The price is significantly higher, and you still need to get a mouse and keyboard. Further, the limited memory expansion means that it isn't a good deal for hobbyists like the Slashdot crowd who would like to play with a Macintosh. I suspect sales will be decent, but that many customers will be unsatisfied when the performance is no better (or even worse) than their current PC, and they are forced to make a second trip to the store to shell out for a new mouse and keyboard. Although they may cash in on the current ipod craze, this machine is unlikely to win users for Apple in the longer term, or to stop Apple's market share from shrinking.
Whoever corrects a mocker invites insult;
whoever rebukes a wicked man incurs abuse.
--Proverbs 9:7
So yes, $499 includes the latest version of Mac OS X.
As a side note, all Apple servers include a copy of OS X Server UNLIMITED Client. Factor that in every time you compare a Windows Server to an XServe!
Random is the New Order
Welcome to a life less orderly. As official soundtrack to the random revolution, the iPod Shuffle Songs setting takes you on a unique journey through your music collection -- you never know what's around the next tune. Meet your new ride. More roadster than Rolls, iPod shuffle rejects routine by serving up your favorite songs in a different order every time. Just plug iPod shuffle into your computer's USB port, let iTunes Autofill it with up to 240 songs(1) and get a new experience with every connection. The trail you run every day looks different with an iPod shuffle. Daily gridlock feels less mundane when you don't know what song will play next. iPod shuffle adds musical spontaneity to your life. Lose control. Love it.
Now I'm wondering whether you can skip from album to album if you want to. Maybe by double-clicking the + button?
Frankly at this price point it could be the New Commodre 64. The computer that every kid has. Unless you had an Atari. Will games soon follow. And what about schools? if they have old keyboards and monitors they could "upgrade" the the mac mini for cheap. Wonder what apple will sell them to schools for? Not to mention the lack of spyware, virus, and other nasties floating around your average school computer lab.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
It won't be long before these are called MiniMacs. They already come in cardboard boxes. Thanksfully they are low in calories though.
Actually it does NOT come with a keyboard and mouse....you have to supply your own. I've never owned one either, but I'm thinking this will look great next to my linux box.
Nope. Only USB on the Mac Mini. But still, hey, that's a cheap thrill.
Photography, technology, and my dog Scout - http://mattstratton.com
The iPod shuttle looks neat and I notice that you can add a battery pack with 2 AAA batteries. I wonder if the rechargeable battery can be replaced. Otherwise this device will probably have to be replaced in 12-20 months.
"If all the American people want is security, let them live in prisons." Eisenhower
I am worried about one thing. Years ago when they started shipping cheap laptops, performanced suffered greatly. The cheaper hardware could not match the quality and speed one had come to expect from apple. I probably won't buy one of these until the third gen.
What I do hope for is these to start appearing in schools. I want a lab in which I can have student log into an account with *nix like controls over applications and net access. Our admin cannot seem to do this with XP.
And the new ipod is a good as anything I have seen. Extremely competative price and storage capacity. It might bring me back to the flash based player. Certainly easier to carry for exersise.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
That's why it was obvious the rumours were true... Hasn't everyone figured out that Jobs is not a stupid man?
you had me at #!
Too bad Apple decided to release the iPod Shuffle after Christmas. They would have ruled holiday sales for flash-based players at that price point. I know I would have at least picked up one or two as gifts...
I can't wait to get 20 of these things running in a cluster, with linux.
Yeah, I'll be buying the Mac Mini and the Shuffle. Apple has finally hit my market. I've been lusting after Garageband since its release. Now I have an affordable way to start using this great program.
As for the Shuffle, I use iTunes, and I would like to be able to transport AAC tunes, but I cannot justify plunking down $300 for a 20gb player (ditto for a $250 player with 16 fewer gb). I also don't feel the need for bringing "3,000 songs" with me wherever I go. I'd rather have a lower cost, smaller memory player, even if I keep switching music files to keep the selection fresh. The Shuffle is that player!
I have a PowerBook, I really like OSX - but I've tried not to Drink the Coolaid. So, can the Mac haters point out what the Apple brand is still missing (other than market share)?
.\.\att Clare
Except for the waiting for it to arrive......
still not here yet........
No, it doesn't come with a keyboard and mouse.
Major upgrades, eg. x.x.0 releases, are paid for. They usually (well, Jaguar and Panther) cost $130 or so, or $200 for a large bloc of licenses to use at home. As for piracy, I don't believe they are widely pirated, no, at present, but probably will be if the notoriously cheapskate PC crowd migrates over to the Mac en-mass.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
That said, where are the PBs? I'm not expecting a G5 or antyhing, but I thought they would bump the speed (say to 1.6667 from 1.5) and the HD (to 100gb and 5400rpm) and add bluetooth 2.0 and such. Thinksecret said it was confirmed. I've been waiting for this show to buy a new powerbook, where are they?
Here PB, PB, PB...
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
"In the bud"? More like years after it went to seed. How long has it been since Mac OS had any limitation on the use of two-button mice?
I agree, they threw that line in there to address it with the people who weren't paying attention. But the "argument" here hasn't been a meaningful point since... I can't think when... How old is the Kensington Turbomouse line?
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
Noticed on the iPod Shuffle site:-
"1. Music capacity is based on 4 minutes per song and 128Kbps AAC encoding.
2. Do not eat iPod shuffle.
3. Rechargeable batteries h..."
Do not EAT iPod shuffle??!!
Hey, why not? After all, an Apple a day keeps the doctor away, right?
It's £339 including VAT. At today's exchange rates, US$499 + 17.5% is £311, so they're not screwing us too badly.
Disclaimer: I am a developer of OpenOffice.org for Mac OS X and a founder of the NeoOffice project
No, the new iWork is definitely not a replacement for the old AppleWorks/ClarisWorks suite. AppleWorks really did try to do a "kitchen sink" approach as well as give you the flexibilty to embed one type of document in another. I really suspect their decision to focus on word processing is very good from a market driven perspective.
Most people tend to want to be able to write simple letters on their computer. TextEdit could do this, of course, and for simple tasks I do know people who use it. The next class of users is advanced home and entry-level business personnel. Think of the kind of people that want to make a flyer advertising a store event or the people making a newsletter for their little league. These are the exact target audience for Pages.
Pages comes with 40 templates that are customizable in the sense you can add in your own graphics easily to creat new templates (I think...). This makes it easy to create newsletters, corporate letterhead, and the like. The transparency allows for easy watermarking of documents.
Pages will also probably be sufficient for opening most Word documents generated by these similar types of users, home or small business users who have Word pre-installed on their Windows box and use the DOC format to e-mail their newsletters as attachments. In that respect it's great to have a similar pre-installed option available on the Mac that can support that market segment.
Whether they will target spreadsheets and database connectivity in the future is still up for speculation. After all, even Claris killed its own standalone spreadsheet application (Resolve) by selling it off to C&G. For users who want an integrated suite full featured spreadsheets, charting, macros, database connectivity and the like, there's only a few remainingplayers in the Mac market: Microsoft Office, NeoOffice/J (OpenOffice.org, but without the X11), ThinkFree, and Mariner. I don't think Apple's about to compete with Microsoft Office anytime soon as they use Office to help sell the platform. The death of AppleWorks now leaves us open source guys as one of the remaining strongest office suite competitors on the platform.
ed
I shit you not, there is a disclaimer (Do not eat iPod Shuffle)
http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/
postmodernsideshow.com
*sigh* And here I was trying so hard to save some money this semester...
...the new marketing tool for everything Apple.
OK, all you folks who are about to get your first Mac -- yes, do it, it's worth it. But listen, OS X just won't be happy with 256MB of RAM. Throw in another $75 and get 512.
Apple loves overcharging for ram. I don't know why, and it bugs me, so normally I upgrade from a third party right after I get a new computer. That isn't an option here, so just bite the bullet and do it. Otherwise, we're all going to be back here in a month complaining about how slow the mini is, and no one wants that.
if you want to see what the insides look like check this. you can clearly see that something like the RAM are user serviceable.
The war with islam is a war on the beast
The war on terror is a war for peace
That Gateway is huge, comparatively. And it comes with Windows.
Think of it as a G4 iBook in a small case, designed for desktop use. For $499 I get a more or less feature complete Apple Macintosh with OS X on it, ready to use whatever hardware I already have (for input and display.)
With that other one you'd have to either use Windows or fight to get a useable Linux install.
Still no user-replaceable battery, which is quite lame, my iPod now has about 90 mins battery life these days :( Come on apple, is it really too hard to let people replace batteries on their own?
Are you new to the Internet? Go buy a new battery you fool!
Those who laugh at you for you having a Mac.. are the people who constantly call you to fix their PC.
that there were no announcement for a new powerbook.
Firstly let me say that I'm not an Apple fan boy by any stretch of the imagination - mainly due to having just bought an expensive upgrade to Emagics Logic about three weeks before Apple bought them out and killed the Windows line (At the time I bought my first Logic/Wintel machine I simply couldn't afford a MAC)
However I function as the increasingly irate and fed up "first port of call" for my friends Windows (ostly XP Home) spyware/dialler/virus etc. etc. problems. And I am sick to death of fixing crap only to find one of their kids has used IE to do something and we're back to spyware central.
If you could remove IE altogther that would be fine but you simply can't explain internet security to a 10 year old and quite frankly why should a user put up with this level of incompetent security in an operating system ?
So... if we don't get the usual ridiculous UK price hike (i.e. if the Mini mac comes in at a reasonable price - which will not be $499 = £499) then in future they'll be getting one piece of advice from me. Sell the XP box then buy a MAC for computing and a games console for gaming.
Maybe then they can get on with actually usuing their computers instead of spending all their time fighting to remove crap off them. And maybe I can have a week without having to deinfest some crap off an XP machine.
Worst part of it is that I only accept beer in return for my efforts so I've not only got a garage full of booze but I'm becoming an alcoholic (I have to drink to forget the frustration of removing all the crud from the Windows boxes) But quite frankly my liver and my sanity could do with a rest. Hell I might even get enough free time to properly understand my Linux boxes !
So to anyone at Apple reading this you're still a bunch of bastards for shafting us "Emagic on Windows folks" but well done for this. I hope you sell millions. My only question is why didn't you get your finger out and do this sooner ? And when can I look forward to the supporting adverts ?
"Are you tired of spending all your time removing spyware and viruses from your computer ? Wouldn't you rather use it as a productive tool instead ?"
"Then why not buy our Mini Mac and remember how computing was supposed to be"..
You get the picture.
Sky subscribers are morons. They pay to be advertised at !
This is the only real huge drawback I see to the Apple iPod line - non-replaceable rechargeable batteries. Otherwise I would buy these things up like crazy.
I'll probably buy the shuttle as I like the function and excellent price-point, but I really don't like the battery issue.
It's a G4, so pretty much all the PPC Linux distros will work. Take yer pick, Ladies 'n' Gents. Dual-boot with OS X, unplug your office monitor and keyboard, and jack in. On the cheap, at that.
This is my post. There are many others like it. If you don't like what you read here, go try one of the others.
A question so funny, I feel compelled to reply to it... not sure what that says about *me*, but anyway...
The Virginia Tech cluster is cabled together with some very, very high-end high-speed networking stuff, and the Mac mini ( note capitalization, like 'iPod mini' ) has standard 100-baseT ethernet, so one technically correct answer to your question, based on networking tech, would be 'can't be done'.
On the other hand, XGrid would run on this like any other OS X machine, so with a little ( fairly simple ) programming, you'd be clustering away in style. If you have some computation that's Altivec optimized, you'll probably even outperform a comparably priced cluster of Linux machines... though really, you *should* be able to put together a comprable no-graphics-card AMD boxen for ( a little, not counting labor ) cheaper, if a cluster of "whatever" cheap machines is really your goal.
A bunch of Mac minis could sure fit in a small space, though! I couldn't build a cheap PC that small. A cluster of Mac minis might not beat a G5 XServe cluster for price/performance, but it'd be cheap to set up!
Short ( ha ha ) answer: nobody is going to go about setting up a network of these for "real" high-performance computing... but a small college or even high school lab could be built pretty cheaply and XGrid applied to get it all hummin' on some distributed computing project and actually do some pretty impressive number-crunching... cheaply!
Do I REALLY have to reach around the back side of my Mac Mini to plug in my new iPod Shuffle to load songs?
Silly.
(yes, I know, usb extension cable, usb port on keyboard, etc. etc. etc.)
Wouldn't it seem a bit more, I don't know, integrated if I didn't have to do that?
I wonder why the hell did they decide not to add a microphone jack... Maybe for aesthetical reasons, or are they planning on selling USB mikes?
Is there any word whether the Mac Mini would include the OS?
If so, then they could seriously beat down Microsoft, since the only way to get XP "free" is by buying a crappy prebuilt PC.
It's sexy and tiny, and probably the first time any kind of Mac has come in a price range that graphic artists could easily afford (which was essentially the first real use for Macs, historically).
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
Radio...Radio...FM AND AM!!!! Yes...AM for news/sports & FM for music. Mr. Jobs, are you listening? Well, maybe Sony will have something for us. (Radio add-on on the PSP???)
I was pondering this same thing. I sell older Apple computer parts.
I could decide if this would just make the market bigger for older stuff or simply reduce my prices that I get for the parts.
Time will tell I suppose.
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
If apple would of just included 5.1 surround in the mac mini it would make a GREAT family room PC for multimedia.
It still can be done with USB audio, but sheesh, how hard would that of been? Almost every PC comes with at least 5.1 capability.
The Mac Mini is aimed clearly at PC users looking to switch, but featurewise it is a disappointment.
It has OS X and is an affordable Apple computer. That is all it needs to succeed in the market Apple is shooting for.
This is maybe somewhat off-topic, but I'd really like to try garageband. Can any mac afficionado's tell me what type of hardware I'd be liable to need? Imac, emac, powermac, mac mini, ibook, powerbook? G4, G5? Is there any additional hardware/software I'd need, or would the computer come ready to go? Sorry if this is dumb, but I find mac nomenclature incredibly confusing.
Did Apple annouce a release date for Tiger?
It might be worth waiting until it comes with the Mac Mini (and save yourself $150).
They make more money selling hardware than they would make from licensing it. Allowing clones would undermine their business model.
The reason you're seeing Apple develop all these cool things, is not because they're getting away from the hardware market. These products (iPod, iLife, OS X, etc.) are all designed to help SELL MORE MACS, and it appears to be working. They're showing that Macs are more than a different platform, it's a lifestyle. Much like BMW/Volkswagon advertise that their cars will change the way you feel about driving.
FWIW, we bought some ps/2 to usb adapters to use some hp provided ps/2 mice on macs, and got nowhere with them.
ostiguy
"Mac Mini" what a suck name. Ah well.
Ok, rant time. What the hell is wrong with people? I don't want a slot loading drive -- they never (AFAIK) take the industry standard Mini-CDR or Mini-CDRW or Mini-DVD discs, while a "regular" CD loading system does. Thanks a lot, Apple, for giving me this nice little unit... that I have to plug in an almost equal-sized external drive into to use my optical media. And for what? You can't tell me they are saving any size on that box by making it slot loading, it just "looks cooler" or some crap like that. Okay, rant off.
Yup, I'm getting a Mac Mini anyway. Ah well. Can't wait to run MacOS X at home finally, but damn the slot loaders of the world. Damn them straight to Windows hell.
MORTAR COMBAT!
I've met several Mac users who pirate all their software including the OS. I also see a lot of Slashdot comments that advise buying everything with the educational discount ($70 for OSX versus $130 without the discount) regardless of whether or not you meet the requirements. Apple doesn't check in any significant way.
Apple tends not to pursue pirates. The margins on their hardware are that good, and enough people buy the software legit, that it doesn't hurt Apple's bottom line enough for them to care.
For more information, click here.
The next post on Bill Palmer's blog might be quite an amusing read.
We seem to have slashdotted the apple store, too.
Your point about value is a good one, and I'd agree that the cute little machine offers a lot of bang for the buck, but none of the internals offer really eye-popping performance. It's a commodity-priced apple, with midrange componentry. The XPC gives you hundreds of different configurations available, depending on what you want and how much you value things like graphics capability/processing horespower, etc.
I'd argue that the real value of this little number comes in that it's a Mac, and you don't have to pony up 1K+ to get something that will acceptably run OSX. I guess I don't see how this new cheap little Mac is even in the same product space as the XPC, even if its range of uses may overlap with that of a homebuilt XPC.
I'll probably buy one myself, but it certainly won't be able to replace my XPCs.
.. pa-ra-bo-la, pa-ra-bo-la, 2 pi R, 2 pi R, where's your latus rectum, where's your latus rectum, 2 pi R
I just bought a 512 MB Creative MuVo TX FM... got it yesterday, actually. I've read good reviews, but overall... meh. It's got good features, I like the built in FM radio, but it feels a little flimsy overall. And worst of all there's a very high-frequency buzz that I can hear almost all the time, but especially when the backlight is on. That and, the first time I transferred songs to it, it only caught "chunks" of a few songs and refused to play the whole thing. Anyway, I think it's going back... in favor of an iPod shuffle. :-)
Also, the shuffle is actually quite a bit cheaper than the MuVo anyway. I paid $130 for 512 MB MuVo, I'll only pay $150 for a 1 GB Shuffle. I doubt the lack of screen will be a problem, I rarely look at the screen on my Audible Otis anyway, which is what this will replace.
Hi... I'm Larry... the shivering chipmunk... brrrrr!... I'm cold... I need a sweater...
After years away from Mac (I drifted to Windows then Linux), I might buy myself one of these. It's so small and it fits a simple lifestyle, you know. I assume all the programming tools I need would work on it (i.e. MySQL, Apache, Tomcat, etc), plus I could learn Carbon just for fun. Wow. What a day for Apple.
a beowulf cluster of these!!!
I had to for old time sakes.
This thing is amazing, I can see buying a crate load of these.
How long till headless uses for these pop up. I can already think of using them as servers, data loggers, and robot controls. I mean, get a 1970s chevy blazer, some webcams, actuators, and a few of these mini macs and you can win the DARPA grand challenge. Okay you have to write some pretty nifty software first, but this would give you the right platform.
3) Apple will take a big risk in 2005. This could be in the form of a major acquisition. With almost $6 billion in cash, Steve Jobs hinted to a group of employees not long ago that he might want to buy something big, though I am at a loss right now for what that might be. Or Apple might decide to throw some of that cash into the box along with new computers by deliberately losing some money on each unit in order to buy market share.
We might see that as early as next week with the rumored introduction of an el-cheapo Mac without a display. The price for that box is supposed to be $499, which would give customers a box with processor, disk, memory, and OS into which you plug your current display, keyboard, and mouse. Given that this sounds a lot like AMD's new Personal Internet Communicator, which will sell for $185, there is probably plenty of profit left for Apple in a $499 price. But what if they priced it at $399 or even $349? Now make it $249, where I calculate they'd be losing $100 per unit. At $100 per unit, how many little Macs could they sell if Jobs is willing to spend $1 billion? TEN MILLION and Apple suddenly becomes the world's number one PC company. Think of it as a non-mobile iPod with computing capability. Think of the music sales it could spawn. Think of the iPod sales it would hurt (zero, because of the lack of mobility). Think of the more expensive Mac sales it would hurt (zero, because a Mac loyalist would only be interested in using this box as an EXTRA computer they would otherwise not have bought). Think of the extra application sales it would generate and especially the OS upgrade sales, which alone could pay back that $100. Think of the impact it would have on Windows sales (minus 10 million units). And if it doesn't work, Steve will still have $5 billion in cash with no measurable negative impact on the company. I think he'll do it.
So, $249 was a bit of wishful thinking in Bob's part... ;)
The filesystem is the package manager
Pun!
Check it here to understand... ^_^
Yeah, similar reaction here. It's like a paradigm shifting without a clutch. 1.25 GHz G4 will rock the heck out of Via's C3 and Eden processors too.
If not now, when?
Anyone care to take bets on how long that will take?
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 is the magic number.
iI iThink iThat iJobs iAnd iApple iAre iTaking iThis iI iPrefix iThing iToo iFar i.
https://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested
This iPod Shuffle do not eat!
-Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
"I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
this
I wonder how long it will take for iWork to get
1. A spreadsheet
2. Shipped with every new mac
When that happens, I'll buy one for my girlfriend.
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
My wife would quite like to play world of warcraft along with me, as well as be able to browse websites etc while I'm hogging the pc as I often do. I was thinking of picking up a cheap HP or similar, the kind that have a few hundreds worth of rebates at bestbuy etc. Does anyone know if this is powerful enough to play WOW and are macs able to be connected to the same router as a pc? If so then this would be the perfect solution and I've always fancied playing about on a mac. Someone enlighten me and my apple ignorance :)
That Mini Mac is going to be the multimedia hub for my car. It's a full scale computer that will fit right into the dash of my car! This is great!
NMG
OTOH, get the thing configured with built-in bluetooth and, with a BT headset you're away. How cool would that be?
Take a look at the new Tiger preview.h tml
http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/mail.
You think brushed metal is bad and inconsistent? Take a look at our new random UI widget overlords.
If folks haven't noticed Apple has updated their Tiger page with more stuff including movies of features in action. The polish they have put on Tiger since its announcement is rather impressive (was at WWDC 2004 and have access to seeds).
http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger
The great thing about Pages is that it sounds like InDesign for the rest of us - that is, something that can serve as a simple page layout program.
Word is not well suited to exact placement of anything really, and if the UI is really good it could win over a lot of people that traditionally have bought things like Print Shop Pro.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Use the Full-Duplexing capabilities of the USB 5.1 Channel Audio Adapter to record and play back without the use of a PC sound card! The USB 5.1 Channel Audio Adapter provides exceptional stereo performance with it's standard input / output connectors. Connect to the most popular audio equipment such as microphones, home stereos, musical instruments, and powered speakers through your USB capable computer.
You haven't even factored in the cost of additional software here. I don't know what the Dell has (assuming MS works), but the apple has an equivalent, and even has the full iLife suite, which would set you back a fair bit on the PC side even for just photo software, movie software, and garageband equivalent.
Just curious.. and it might run under wine in a pinch.
Who has pictures of the new hardware?
There goes 600 bucks.... ( already got a pod.. but a cheap G4.. cool! )
---- Booth was a patriot ----
That power connector looks fairly nonstandard. Is it just to reduce socket size to leave room for the tiny connector panel, or does this thing have an external power supply like the cube did?
I can't find the answer on Apple's site.
I stole this sig from someone cleverer than me.
OK, so how long till someone mods the Mac Mini to fit in one or two PC drive bays? :) Maybe route the usb through to the PC's usb headers, a custom bracket in the back of the PC for DVI... Hmm, that could actually work...
It's OK! I'm a limo driver!
...as a previous poster pointed out, at this size it almost certainly takes 2.5" drives, and there is already an 80gb option; the largest 2.5" drive currently available AFAIK is a (not particularly cheap) 100gb one. So you'd probably be best off just buying the 80gb option, which also gets you a faster processor 'for free'.
Heat probably wouldn't be too bad; it looks like the power supply is external and most of the other components are (low-heat) laptop ones.
Okay, looking at the little picture of the innards of the Mac Mini, it seems like it's using a 2.5" laptop-class HD. That would explain the 40 & 80 GB sizes. This also means it's almost certainly a 5400rpm drive. Yuck.
Does anyone know if the HD is user-serviceable/replaceable? I'd love to stick one of those 7200rpm jobbers in there for a nice speed upgrade.
I like the idea of the Mac Mini, but I think I'll wait for a G5 version. Hopefully they'll have gigabit ethernet in there by then. They'll need to figure out some way to get 2 memory sticks in there for a dual-channel G5, though.
This is _definitely_ the machine I'll be recommending to non-technical family and friends from now on, no doubt about it. Good work, Apple! Now let's sit back and watch Apple's marketshare rise...
A firewire port that you can connect to your cable box to use as a DVR?
Bluetooth that you can use for a great wireless remote?
Ability to play songs from the #1 online music store?
Ability to print a picture you are watching on the TV from where you sit, or mail it to someone?
Real VGA/DVI output for people with projectors or advanced displays?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Personally, I wish them well. I know I'm getting the Shuffle on payday. My long runs are taking over 2 hours now, so this will be a welcome companion.
All successful Apple products must be first bashed by Slashdotters, right? :)
It's a G4, so can I load OS 9 on it, or are there other issues?
-- Boycott Shell
Too bad their Apple Store can't hold up. I was going to order one today.
This is a test. This is a test of the emergency sig system. This has been only a test.
is that you?
http://www.apple.com/retail/feedback/
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
I thought I'd buy a mac mini but the UK store seems to be broken. Probably will have changed my mind by the time it's working again.
I love it!
-- Boycott Shell
As somebody who has just switched his main personal computer from a Linux/KDE system to an iBook running OS X, let me state that Apple is now the single greatest threat to open source operating systems. The things really just work, especially the hardware (I'm so fucking sick of USB problems with Linux), the interface is beautiful (execpt, for course, for that stupid single-button mouse), and you can still drill down and use bash.
Forget Windows: The gold standard now is Mac OS X. That's what KDE and Co. should be aiming for.
You can buy a third party DIMM and throw it in. Why do you say it's not an option? Now, not including keyboard and mouse is a cheap move on Apple's part. I mean, come on, how am I expected to use the damn thing without a keyboard?
Apple just like the rest of them loves screwing non-Americans when it comes to exchange rates
Any idea how much would this iPod Shuffle would cost in the UK?
Wanted : A Signature.
"Keyboard, mouse, megaphone and display sold separately." :D
"All you have to do is be fragile and grateful. So stay the underdog." Chuck Palahniuk, Choke
Oh my, if i've ever seen the spitting image of a Nanode, it's the mac mini. More Nanode action here.
Latest W3C stats:
Mac: 2.7%
Linux: 3.1%
Apple really needs this cheapo Mac to be a hit otherwise the Mac is going to go the way of the Amiga. I hope this new Macs quality is better than the eMac's lousy record.
Da Blog
All of the points you got wrong are related to who is going to buy this in droves - people have have PC's who like iPods and are tired of the PC world.
In that world, the computer might be a little old - and slowed further by virus/spyware that have crept in. This computer will seem like a rocket.
Plus of course it's like 1/10 the size of a clunky Dell box, a plus for anyone.
The firewire port is also not a "slight win" for anyone that likes to play with video, which is all parents in the US.
It's a box for people that want to buy a computer without having to worry about a computer. It's for people who like iPods and wonder what else Apple can do. Shortly it may well be anyone looking for a high-end DVD player and PVR. It's basically a computer for anyone that has not got a PC yet, or wants something different - dare I say a PC for the rest of us?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The Dell you mention might be a better comparison, and... it's the same price, but with a Celeron ( for cryin' out loud... ) and *still* doesn't have dedicated VRAM... the Mac mini beats that one in just about every category.
You list 10 points, give only 4 of which you can clearly give to the PC, and not clearly or easily on all points, and yet you conclude that the Mac isn't relatively a good deal with little discussion as to why. It's a much closer race than you make it out to be. I'm looking at the other responses to your 'analysis', and I think I'll stop here, just saying I'm one more vote for "that analysis is not so good, that post is not so insightful".
Sure, you and I can build cheaper AMD systems. That's not the point. The point is this is a machine any iPod user might buy on a whim. We'll see how these sell...
This will be my new media box. My current media box is a full sized PowerMac 1GHZ sitting next to my 50" LCD RPTV and it's noisy and distracting. (And let's not forget the 250GB firewire drive with neon lights on top. Damn you Western Digital!) This will replace it easily and fit under the TV with the rest of the stereo gear. It lacks digital out, but I already have an M-Audio Sonica which works great. Now admittedly I'm not the target user (I mean you have to run SwitchRes X to get a good resolution on the TV) but this will look very nice next to the rest of the HT gear!
"Where quality is like a dead stinking rat - you just can't miss it."
has anyone found out what the educational discount on the $499 machine will be?
going along with their regular trend, i would think itll cost us lucky students $449?
Isn't the current iMac just a head with keyboard and mouse? So what's a "headless iMac"? Particularly since the mini doesn't ship with a keyboard or mouse.... $499 well spent.
The Mac Mini looks just like a sawed of Mac Cube from years past. We had one at our company and it drew a lot of attention but few people wanted one of their very own. Well at least this one's reasonability priced, unlike it's predecessor. Still no date on Tiger...
I realize I may be in the minority, but I think the CPU specs suck. the BEST they can do is a 1.4Mhz G4? I might as well snag a used G4 tower at that price. And the 80GB drive? Still way too small. Since 300GB drives are available, why not give customers the option to go that high? Hell, even 200 would be great. I have an old Mac tower with 4 drives. Where am I supposed to put all my crap?
In theory, this thing is great. But the G5 has been out for well over a year, year and a half and they're giving us the leftovers? Make it an inch higher and give us a screaming G5!!
Oh, and the graphics card? Also yesterday' news. No thanks, Steve.
What a bummer.
What I want to know is, how well would the Mac Mini work for MythTV? I know MythTV on OS X isn't quite ready for prime time yet, but what about running Linux on it instead?
Hmm, let's see
i'm selling my car and building a beowulf cluster of mini macs... i'm gonna put it in my shed out back and call it "the apple tree" mmmmmmmm
Like any good drug dealer... the first hit is free.
--Phillip
Can you say BIRTH TAX
once again, the dirty bastards are trying to rip us off $499 =/= £339 =/= 519 thats 680 dollars in Ireland and 636 in the UK.
What if Tetris was invented by Nazis?
....A big fat nothing at CES.
Apple have the mo ! The times are a-changing.
Lets see... 240 songs @ 4 minutes per song (according to this) would equal 16 hours of music. Thats a long time. I think this would last me on a long drive...
The drawback is that the battery only gives about 12 hours of continuous playback time. Still, thats enough for a long drive - don't usually want to spend more than 8-10 hours a day driving anyway.
So... iShuffle - $99
Not having to put up with irritating DJs, commercials, and limited playlists - Priceless!
Sig cancelled due to lack of interest
haha funnays
Anyone read fine print #2 on the iPod Shuffle page?
http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/
Blessed be he who reads this post, Cursed be he who tells my boss.
It does include OS X (10.3) and the iLife 2005 suite. Also included is AppleWorks, Quicken 2005...
As below, so above and beyond, I imagine drawn beyond the lines of reason. Push the envelope. Watch it bend.
I'm a little disappointed that the Shuffle is USB only. Lots of mac users are stuck with Firewire and USB 1.1 (Apple didn't join the USB 2 party until pretty recently), the transfer speeds for 512 or (shudder) a gig of music will suck with USB 1.1. I really don't see as much difference between the Shuffle and it's competitors as I see between the iPod and other hd based players, and I was assuming that fast transfers would be the difference for mac users, but apparently it won't be for all but the most recent macs.
The give you imovie and garage band. Both very cool high quality prosumer apps.
The video editing is really quite good and garageband is a lot of fun( you can record into it and use drum/bass/keyboard loops.) and comes out quite professional. Good stuff.
It's USB only. You can, however, get PS2->USB adapters on eBay pretty cheap. I have one so I can use my Microsoft Natural on my Mac. Works great. Also means you only take up one USB slot too.
The one mouse button - any application designed well should only need one button.
So tell me, when I click a link in Firefox, should it behave as a left-click and open the page in the current tab, middle-click and open the page in a new tab, or right-click and open a context menu so I can save the link, bookmark it, or copy it to the clipboard?
Les Miserables Volume 1 now up with my reading of
I looks like the Mac Mini has an external power supply (much like a notebook computer). That's one reason it's so small.
If there are only 120 songs on an iShuffle, and you know the order of the songs, perhaps the shuffle technique could be one of the fastest to get to where you want to be?
E.g. Shuffle mode on -> next -> (nope) -> next -> (nope) -> next -> (yup that's about it) -> shuffle mode off -> back / back / back / play
Mac mini weight own 2.9 pound? I predict in the very near future the market will be flashed with mac mini accessories. A display and keyboard would make it a great budget portable.
I just wanted all the slashdot users out there to remember: it may be small like a pack of gum, it may even look like a pack of gum. But please DO NOT EAT IPOD SHUFFLE.
Read more at http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/ on the bottom of the page.
...is there such a difference in price across the Atlantic?
$399 for the basic Mac Mini in the US and $636 (GBP339) in the UK! The Irish have it even worse for a change with $680 (EURO519).
Anyone care to have a go at explaining the price difference?
Check out the guy with the ipod shuffle on the apple front page. You'd think they would want a somebody a little more excited about their new music thingy.
This guy looks pissed off that he didn't get a real ipod...or retarded...or both.
No. I think this is far more indicative of reduced hardward component costs than anything else. Hardware has never been "a mug's game" for Apple - it's been the foundation of their operating profit. Granted, lately it's been consumer product hardware like the iPod, but Apple has always made money because they make stuff not code.
Are you saying that it doesn't have Bluetooth? Because it does. It's a build-to-order option. Or are you saying that they should offer a wireless keyboard and mouse for it? Because they do. It's all there. They definitely didn't miss the wireless boat with this one. You can also add Airport Extreme (802.11g) to it. It's perfect.
So.. What exactly is so great about the iPod Shuffle? Seems like they threw away all that was unique to the ipod. No more cool click wheel, no more quality GUI interface.. So what's left? A small usb player with not even a one line song title display and no OGG support.
Great, there's a million of that type and most of them have at least either a rudimentary display for the song title or support for more formats.
(Yes I realize the normal iPod is still available, I'm saying the new one is pretty stupid)
(but the audio had some glitches at ~50minutes.. maybe they'll repost a fixed .mov)
normally when apple releases new products everyone gushes about them and i'm normally pretty disappointed. i know when you buy apple, you pay for the industrial design, but i've never really been impressed with what they do. the ipod and ipod mini don't do it for me... and i've always thought the computers are way overpriced.
i have to say that at first glance i'm pretty impressed with what i see here. the ipod shuffle looks to be a pretty good idea. not much more than a usb thumb drive, the price is a little much, but not absurd.
the mac mini is somewhat the same thing. the price isn't super hot, but it looks to be a step in the right direction in terms of apple's product line. good size, good value...
i hope to see apple keep going in this direction and broadened their horizons by marketing to everyone, not just people that want to be trendy and to those that think the whole "it just works" thing still applies.
sig.
Ahh, but that's where ucontrol comes in
http://gnufoo.org/ucontrol/ucontrol.html
can map out that pesky caps lock key and have your apple key.
The modem M keyboard is a tank, and it's too bad there isn't a version of it currently.
If it is just going in a closet to be a file server, he is probably better off buying the smaller drive.
Keep the OS on the factory drive.
Buy an external USB drive (or better yet... a drive enclosure and supply your own drives) and keep your data there.
Use a format on the disks that will be readable if the "server" dies.
--Phillip
Can you say BIRTH TAX
In the specs for the iMac mini, they specifically spell out the iLife software bundle. In it, they mention iDVD. This is very curious considering that iDVD only (currently) supports Apple-branded "superdrives". The iMac mini does not offer a superdrive, but it does have a firewire port that someone could connect an external 3rd party dvd recorder to....
Could Apple be preparing to support non-Apple DVD recorders in iDVD?!?! I hope so.
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
And you point would be? I would assume that 99.99% of personal computers (i.e. computers sold to individuals) have only one ethernet port?
As below, so above and beyond, I imagine drawn beyond the lines of reason. Push the envelope. Watch it bend.
>.>
<.<
oO
Oo
*Buys all of them*
I have lost my sanity! Luckily, I have it backed up on a disk somewhere.
Now why would Apple put a second ethernet port in a low-end consumer product designed to keep costs LOW when they don't put a second ethernet port in ANY of their machines (except XServe)? If you want a firewall or router, build a cheap PC and do it with Linux (i.e., Smoothwall, etc.) I think this is not as much a "missing feature" as much as it is you're missing the point, IMHO.
I might know what I'm talkin' about, but then again, this is Slashdot...
The current mac keyboard, the white one with the transparent backing.... I think it sucks.
It's solid enough, well built, and all that
but
- no key click
- shallow key travel
- not enough taper, keys too close together
Now, it could be just me.. but I type rather fast, and I'm comfortable on almost any keyboard that doesn't suck. I can fly on my ibook keyboard, my little vaio z505 keyboard I was fast on too. Normal pc keyboards, etc. But the new mac keyboard seems to be totally unacceptable. So my question is:
Does apple have any other keyboards that don't suck?
If you haven't noticed, we've just now gotten the word processor, after Keynote's been around for awhile. Give it some time. :P
Yeah that's a great idea considering the success of the iPod "clone" builders (e.g. Creative, Rio, iRiver).
Why license when you can dominate instead.
Hrmm. These things seem perfect for setting in a remote closet and doing network intrusion or packet monitoring. They are realitively cheap, are all put together w/ OS (unlike the small boxes that you build yourself).
I wonder if this will get into the interprise market. Maybe Apple could sell a stripped down version w/ a hardened OS on it and a web or SSH interface for just such a purpose. I see this formfactor becoming more than just a headless Mac desktop....
...that's for keyboard and mouse. The Apple Store appears to have collapsed under the interest, so I can't check your link, $29 each for keyboard and mouse could be right I guess. I think you get free shipping on the Mac mini (and the keyboard if you buy it together) so that might be your best option.
Imagine a World of Warcraft party where you could all play in one room - this box is perfect for that.
Or it would even be decent for a UT2004 party. You don't nessicarily need the most powerful box at a LAN party, just something that can play.
I'll bet this box just pushed back the release date of Mac Doom 3 though, they were already complaining about Mac hardware but they would not want to miss this market...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
As much as I hate to do this, he's just plain wrong. It can play on shuffle mode, or a preset, and you can skip forwards and backwards with the keys.
Gamers Europe - Gaming News. Reviews.
As for the OS, you are right, I didn't factor it in. Once you add $120 Canadian for an OEM copy of Windows XP you are around the same price as the Mini Mac. I do expect piracy of the operating system on systems like the whitebox AMD I compared to, but even including a legal copy of Windows, the PC at worst goes to price parity.
The size of the Mini Mac is very nice, but that isn't something that most people think about when buying a computer. The volume is probably smaller than many laptops, even if you sliced off the display and keyboard. I don't see that being a decidng factor to many people, though.
I think your points are good, but I still don't think the Mini Mac will be compelling to a large enough audience to materially affect Apple's success.
Whoever corrects a mocker invites insult;
whoever rebukes a wicked man incurs abuse.
--Proverbs 9:7
It is screenLESS! Another feature.
I'm not sure if they are planning on having a screen though, which would be the next logical step.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Mod the parent (grandparent to this one) up! Geeez! lol
-- Boycott Shell
The power supply appears to be about twice the size of the standard apple power brick (those nice square ones used by powerbooks, ibooks, and ipods.). It is rectangular rather than square and the cord appears to be long enough to enable you to place it in an unobtrusive location.
BTW: I had originally cut and pasted the wrong dimensions.
The unit is 6.5x6.5x2".
The thing is, it's really got everything. Obviously it's targetted as a replacement--it assumes you've already got a keyboard, mouse and monitor that you can just unplug from your PC and plug into this. VGA? Got it. DVD burner option for the real "iDVD is SO cool" experience? Got it. Bluetooth and Airport support for the ultimate wireless experience? Got it. FireWire and/or USB2 for your iPod? Got both of those.
Want the peripherals? No problem, buy a one-piece iMac instead.
You'd think it junk because it's got so little, but in fact it's got EVERYTHING you need to make full use of iLife (and iWork) at a price that can make people really think about switching. I never, ever would have thought to build something like this. It's nice to see Apple is still on the cutting edge.
The iPod shuffle seems like a cheap way for commuters to replace radio - load up a podcast or two and a few songs, you are good for the drive to and from work. And you can also drag a few documents along the way.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I'm sorely tempted myself. It promises to be a wonderful machine for its intended audience. BUT, I would strongly suggest adding $125 for a base configuration:
* As usual, Apple skimps on stock RAM. Only 256MB? Add $75 at the Apple Store to bring it to a passable 512MB.
* Given the RAM configurations available at the Apple Store -- 256MB, 512MB, 1GB, each 1 DIMM -- it appears there is only one DIMM slot in the machine. However ...
* if you choose to upgrade the RAM on your own, you'll pretty much want to drop in 1 GB (+/- $180 at current prices; Apple wants $425) and be done with it. Feed the stock 256MB DIMM to your dog.
* If Apple follows precedent, you can only get internal Bluetooth from the factory via special order or pre-configured retail; you can't install it later.
As for other options, they can be fleshed out with spare gear (monitor, keyboard, and rodent) or as more gear (or money) become available. But buying a fully tricked out system? Better off buying an iMac G5 or your choice.
Which is exactly what Apple wants. Well done.
The idea is obviously to try and penetrate into the mid range market; make the Mac an everymans computer. If they can do it, and if they can increase their market share,Spot on.
they would certainly seem to have enough room to manovour and licence the Mac to clone builders again.While they could, I still think it's unlikely. The single best way to ensure that the software works properly is to design your own hardware. Outsource the manufacturing and ... that pretty much describes Apple's situation right now.
It is not now, nor is it ever likely to be in Apple's interest to follow Microsoft's business model. But that's another topic that's been rehashed to excess. In brief, Apple sells software be it Mac OS, iLife, or music in order to sell high margin hardware: Macs and iPods. Any branching out on Apple's part will be in addition to Macs and iPods.
"Where's my other sock?" - A. Einstein
Yup, I looked at your Gateway link. $150 rebate, integrated video with shared memory (consume up to 1/4 of your main memory!), CD-ROM drive, roughly 18x (up to 26x) the volume of space taken up on the desk, monitor not included. If you don't see a $150 cost difference here, I'm glad you're not in this market. Enjoy your new Gateway!
$500 is pretty cheap for a comparable mini-itx system, which your comparison (if it's intended to be fair) should take note of. You always pay extra for miniaturization.
Quote from Apple http://www.apple.com/macmini/
Why would anyone buy the eMac now? It was the budget mac, but an all-in-one design is not an advantage. If your monitor dies on an eMac, it will cost a lot more to repair than simply swapping out the monitor of your MacMini.
store.apple.com
I wonder whether they switched before or after they got nailed today?
The television will not be revolutionized.
Can anyone advise whether iTunes 4.7.1's AutoFill feature works only for the iPod Shuffle or whether it works for all iPods? It'd be sweet if it took care of my iPod Mini, but given Apple's history of quickly abandoning older generations of iPod users, I wouldn't be surprised if it's not available.
Excellent example. The first thing that came to my mind was the various Active Directory MMCs, but I guess that doesn't really apply here...
So Apple hope switchers will use existing keyboards and mice - makes sense for the mice but a typical PC keyboard would not have all the right keys for mac use ?
You can achieve the same effect with option-click.
Yes, contextual menus are handy, and a good way to do things, however, they aren't strictly necessary.
Apple doesn't hate multiple button mice, they just try to push a design wehre the second button augments the experience, but isn't required.
When you click a link in firefox, it should do whatever it's been set up to do according to your preferences.
So the iPod costs more than the computer you buy to use it with? Dang, Steve is clever.
Envy my 5 digit Slashdot User ID!
Apple iControl a Bluetooth or 802.11 remote control compatible with AirTunes/iTunes/TiVO Employs a click wheel in addition to programmable standard remote keys. ...or an 802.11 or BT compatible iPod, which is compatible with all of the above... Can navigate iTunes library and TiVO from iPod screen or TV screen. Also can connect to iTunes Music Store on any open WiFi network.
Imagine being able to control your stereo/tv from any room in the house via a click wheel.
(%i1) factor(777353);
(%o1) 777353
Price is the total with the necessary, 512Mb, 80gb HDD, Faster processor, wireless keyboard, BT, Wireless ethernet and superdrive. Excluding a monitor.
Seems expensive ? How about a Nanode?.... ah but these are now Q2 / 05.
It includes OS X 10.3 and iLife.
InstantCool
... Why bother paying another $129?
;)
Also, is minimac fanless? Jes' curious..
(Looks like my cube may get on ebay after all
No, seriously. Imagine a cluster of the Mac Minis. They're tiny. They're stackable. All of the holes are conveniently to access. As you can see from the smarmy graphic on the design page, you can stack about 7 Mac Minis up in the space taken up by just one tower PC. These things are perfect for clustering. The only thing really holding you back in the 100 megabit ethernet (no gigabit, unfortunately), but it does have a firewire 400 port. Even with the slowish networking, these things would still be ideal for many clustering applications.
Stupid like a fox!
THere is a way to do it at Crucial's prices when you go to your local Apple Store to buy your Mac Mini/Powerbook/G5/etc... just take a printout with the cheapest memory you found online and Apple will price match it (I got a powerbook with 512 Mbs, in-store price-matched)
uh, didja even *bother* to read the specs on it before you knee-jerk posted? it has a sequential mode. They only emphasize the random playlist bit because it maximizes the relatively small amount of space on it. Justifiably so, I think.
mod parent down as poo.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Well excuse me for wanting to use this for a router. The only problem with my old PC hardware is that mine is ATX-sized in tower form that is not exactly the quietest nor smallest thing in the world. Excuse me for wanting to do something more with the new Mini.
iDonthavealife
I hadn't known there were so many idiots in the world until I started using the Internet -Stanislaw Lem
well, like many people, this is the mac that will finally get me owning one but after having a look on streetwise.com.au (the first 3rd party australian mac seller i came across) at the prices of adding a larger hdd + ram + wireless card im left thinking that perhaps the apple warrenty isnt that valuable after all.
is there anything special to note when upgrading a mac or can i throw a standard pc hdd in there?
is the ram some special type that im not going to find at normal pc shops?
how about the wireless card? does this thing only take apples airport card or whatever they call it or can i buy generic ones?
TIAEAE!
Yes.
"A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" - Alan Perlis
I went with a $600 shootout instead of $500 to make sure that some obvious add-ons were included with each model, but the new Mac mini holds up surprisingly well!!
$600 Desktop Apple/Dell System Shootout
good idea. what's a cheap but sexay KVM switch.
OK I just want a cheap one.
HD and SD tuner
Nice PVR and tuning software (EyeTV)
Free guide
Free CyTV lets you stream to any other machine using VLC
Does OTA (antenna), analog cable, and, as of today, unencrypted QAM digital cable!
Ignores the Broadcast Flag!
See: http://www.eff.org/broadcastflag/eyetv500.php
I disagree. Not with the windows critique, per-se, but with your other point.
Fitt's law, which the mac zealots love to quote, says that the easiest thing to operate on the screen is the one that you have to move the shortest distance to.
Well, right under where your mouse already is, is the shortest: zero. Right-click makes that location accessible for more than one operation.
This is a good thing.
In general, I think a good ui designer will make an area have one primary purpose, and correspond that to the normal "click". Right-click should function as a sort of "what else can I do with this area".
To say that right click is a kludge that the mac designers simply out-designed around is a tough position to defend... especially since they do have extensive right-click support and it makes all of their apps easier to use.
Mucous membranes are the part of your brain that, like, make you think about mucous. --Beavis
looking at the design I'd say there could easily be a 3.5 inch drive in there
interior image @ apple.com
My AST century city has an equally crammed design and managed to hide a 3.5-inch drive under a laptop CD drive, as here.
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
Today Apple announced two new portable devices with extremely limited input and no displays.
... it's all laptop components. Take the average base of a laptop, cut it in half, stack - you have your macmini*.
The ipod shuffle - a usb pendrive ipod!
The mac mini - an iBook without its keyboard or display!
I agree it's cool, proprietary hardware has the ability to make things nice and tiny - but really
*some additional modifications required for functionality.
cyn, free software and *nix operating systems enthusiast.
Many people find the hold-down-one-button paradigm to be easier to learn and use than multiple buttons. Other people find having multiple buttons easier to learn than multiple actions with the same button. Curse Apple for trying to make their computers useful to both kinds of users!
From Apple's website: Memory upgrade must be performed by an Apple Authorized Service provider.
Sounds like they don't want you to open the white box at all. This probably means that if you try to add your own RAM to the computer your warranty will be void. This is not very nice since it costs $100 to upgrade to 512 Mb.
Add a USB hub and a USB ethernet and you're off. Seeing as how it's got 2 High-speed USB ports, you should be all set.
Apple's educational discount knocks the price down by $20 to $479. The upgrade to 512MB RAM is just $67, so for $546, you get a 1.25GHz G4 with 512MB DDR333 RAM. I think I'll go with that. All the other upgrades are still a little too expensive.
LOAD "SIG",8,1
sell millions? well i hope so. but they have to be able to manufacture and product millions first. apple hasn't been good at that in the past.
I was comparing the specs of iBooks and the iMac mini. The only differences seem to be a slightly higher bus speed and clock speed plus faster RAM. Other than that, the specs are roughly the same.
Anyone else think maybe Apple just repackaged the iBook's motherboard and turned up the speed a bit?
Even without the Mac Mini they were doing fine.
How exactly is declining in market share by ~50% over the past 5 years "doing fine"?
Da Blog
How am I supposed to connect my digital camera to this mini, when I have my mouse and keyboard plugged into the 2 USB slots? It seems like they are saying Mouse, Keboard, digital camera - choose two.
This will be the ultimate 2nd iPod for couples with one iPod.
(Don't overlook the new Autofill feature -- it's crucial to this device/usage.)
Another option is to buy off eBay. I just recently got Panther for like $65 or so plus shipping. All the original discs, and manuals in box for about half the price....plus, no tax.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
a) OSX is heavily disk dependent, if this is 5200RPM forget it. Really.
b) 7200RPM/60GB 2.5 drives (if that's what this takes) can be had for 150USD, very tight but better than nothing.
d) lack of 5.1 is a minus. Next iteration?. No audio in? Again!
e) 1GB can be had for 85USD (Apple $400+), but again how do you open that case?
f) size of that power brick?
g) opening the case is the problem - all those plastic latches. Somebody needs to make a cheap opening tool and sell it to 3rd party memory/drive sellers a buck a piece so they can be included with purchase.
h) good robust and good looking USB and Fire hubs badly needed for this baby.
They make a lot of normal US words into sexual references. Pants for example refer to panties in the UK.
-- these are only opinions and they might not be mine.
and you will find many 3rd-party iPod replacement battery suppliers in the ads on the right hand side.
And Apple does supply one as well: www.apple.com/batteries/replacements.html
No doubt there will soon be suppliers of replacement batteries for the iPod Shuttle as well.
Much closer to 18 months, actually, and that was the case even before Mac OS X. Apple is releasing a major update every 18 months (roughly) to the OS just as it has for almost 10 years.
Finally they've listened. I don't really need a new computer right now ... but if I don't buy one I'll feel like a jerk. Great work Apple!
In fact, if the Apple online store wasn't dead I've have "impulse" bought one already. I wonder how many sales their losing because their web site can't handle the traffic?
Sam
It won't support PS/2 keyboards and mice out-of-the-box as it does not have those ports. However you can get a PS/2 to USB adapter from third parties.
Alternatively, when you order the Mac mini you can add an Apple keyboard and mouse package for $58 (wired), so not bad. No, it doesn't look like you can add just the keyboard - it's a package. You can buy the keyboard separately, but last I checked it was something like that price or more by itself!
--- What?
Microsoft and Logitech make USB keyboards that have a special driver for Mac OS X to swap the Windows and Alt keys. I have been using a Microsoft Natural USB keyboard with my Mac for more than five years. In addition, Mac OS X10.3 supports two-button scroll wheel USB mice with no extra driver needed--unless you need left-handed. Then you need a driver. But again, Microsoft and Logitech provided Mac OS X drivers for all their products.
Maybe, but aside from Final Cut Pro, most of their software products are dirt cheap. They may have made some money on some of their software. Their power app, iTunes, is free because of its tie-in with the iTunes Music Store and the revenue from iPods.
I do think that Apple shines on software, but their entire company is pretty much centered on hardware sales. So to change that would be pretty hard. And as soon as you license a computer platform, that's it.
Let's look at IBM, shall we? They licenced the PC format. Everyone kept saying how this was a beneficial thing for IBM. Well, it was, in a way. But now, their hardware department is *gone*. Apple's has still stuck around, primarily because they've got a deathgrip on their hardware, and the software they design is just appealing enought to keep people coming back.
If you look at what Microsoft is trying to move into -- developing more media-centric software and trying to move out of being seen as mostly "officeware" -- I just don't think they're as successful, on a technology or marketing level, as Apple is.
Man, if only they could have done something with HyperCard. That could have been the powerapp to end all powerapps. If they had developed it through the growth of the Internet and made it have a flash-like player, it would probably be the #1 tool for developing online apps.
Karma: Chevy Kavalierma.
Automatic iTunes sync, and the iTunes shuffle playlist thingie, both of which sound pretty cool. Plus, 512MB for $99 is extremely competitive for one of those little doohickeys. A quick search found similar 512MB devices for $139.99 to $199.99. 1GB devices were even more expensive.
My Systems
I was trying to find some info on the development of ADB. I thought I read somewhere that, like ADC (apple display connector), it was a written standard that Apple (and only Apple) used and rebranded with their name.
I could've sworn that Intel or TI developed the ADB standard and didn't use it. Intel settled on PS/2 instead.
Please point me in the right direction.
--Mike
The first ever mac to come without keyboard and you insist on an apple keyboard?
I think, therefore I am...I think.
Who cares about market share?
Apple is a very profitable company with no debt and huge cash reserves.
They will never dominate the market but they will make a tidy profit selling their superior machines. What's wrong with that?
Of course: http://www.apple.com/macmini/accessories.html
The thing that struck me while reading about iWork Pages was that they're really emphasizing the "great design, real easy" aspect of it, same as iLife always has. MS Word is about making great business documents; Pages is about making great-looking newsletters.
Additionally, Apple's got a long way to go before they can overtake MS in the business environment. Spreadsheets are mainly a business tool. Not much room in an Excel document for photos or sophisticated one-click text wrapping. (Yes, I know some people abuse Excel for documents it was never meant to process.) Home users who aren't bring their work home with them don't have much use for spreadsheets. Some, sure, but not much.
I don't think Apple is marketing iWork as an MS Office replacement--yet. There's too much functionality there for Apple to try and match it, and much of it is business-only. What they can do is take Office, pick out the multimedia-heavy apps, and make them prettier and easier to use.
The Mac Mini will be a perfect X-Terminal to use with a Linux box in another room...
Or it would also be great for connecting to your Windows boxes using the Windows Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac. Supposedly one of the target audiences of Mac Mini are PC users who have an iPod; this will allow them to pull up a Windows terminal on the Mac without bothering to emulate hardare.
Do not forget that every Apple laptop sold has only a trackpad and single button. By having developers target a UI that can work well with one button and keyboard chording, it makes life much easier for laptop users.
I have always found it awkward to use right mouse buttons on Windows laptops.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Because radio freaking sucks. AM is all talking morons, and FM is all mindless Clear Channel crap (and a few talking morons). And most people seem to agree, because no one's bought a portable radio *only* since, like, the 70's. Of all the features this didn't have, you're the only one to mention radio. Everyone else is either A) bitching about the thing not having a feature it actually does have, or B) bitching about it not having a screen. So no radio for you - the market has spoken.
I'm glad Apple didn't succumb to feature creep and include a feature that would have cost us all an extra, say, $10 and have pleased only you and like 3 other people.
-Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat
I wouldn't think so, but I didn't think the iBook's was either and got a little burned by not being able to use my 1280x1204 LCD monitor.
Sam
Apple's goal with allowing cloning was for other manufacturers to licence their basic Mac tech (both HW and SW) and extend it into markets that Apple themselves couldn't reach, growing the MacOS marketplace. The problem was that cloners instead made machines targeted at the exact same range as Apple, taking their (Apple's) R&D investment which they got for cheap and using it to cannibalize Apple's own sales.
When Jobs returned, he cranked up the licencing fees when licence renewal time came for the cloners. None of the cloners would go for it because it ruined their business model. (I believe UMAX was an exception to this but I don't remember the details).
If the cloners had instead taken that Mac tech and gone after new markets, making something like the Xserve or Mac Mini (which at that time had no equivalent in Apple's lineup), it would have been what Apple had hoped for opening up cloning. But as it was, there was no incentive for cloners to do such a thing - far easier to make a quick buck by taking Apple's cheap licensing and then gobbling up their market.
PowerComputing, of "You can take my Mac when you pry my cold dead fingers off the mouse!" fame, even admitted later that they had only intended to get a start with Mac cloning, as a big fish in a small pond, to use as leverage to start off doing PC cloning instead. Which they wound up doing after Jobs returned... and I haven't heard of them since. Not so easy competing on level grounds, is it?
-Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
"I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
$499 for a Mac is virtually no money at all. Its the amount of money i make scratching my ass for about 20 hours in the local supermarket :). Now prices in Denmark is a wee bit higher, but i already ordered a n Apple Mini from the Danish store. I cant wait to receive it, my first Apple machine in a loong time. Been drooling over my Mates OS X for just about since they got them. Ohh its christmas all over again.
Can you honestly think of three parents you know that do not have camcorders?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Dude, what are you talking about?! Are you trying to compare apples to oranges: huge, ugly, loud & power-hungry PC box with a SFF Mac?! Lets be honest and compare Man Mini to SFF PC.
The *closest* possible SFF PC configuration to compare Mac Mini is:
Hoojum Cubit 3 Case: $214.20
14.7cm(H) x 21.0cm(W) x 21.0cm(D)
(Mac smaller: 5.08 x 16.51 x 16.51)
Panasonic Slotload 24x CDRW/DVD Drive $124.20
EPIA MII 12000 LVDS 1.2Ghz Motherboard $232.20
PentiumM with ITX motherboard will cost much more, Pentium IV/Celeron is not good for SFF PC - too much noise from cooling system and power demanding
Seagate Momentus 40GB 5400RPM 2.5in HDD $135.00
256MB DDR PC2100 DIMM - EPIA M Compatible $66.60
Lex 60W Silent PSU Kit $63.00
Windows XP Home OEM $124.20
-----
TOTAL: $959.40
(All prices are from www.mini-itx.com, i'm sure that you can find some parts cheaper, but not too much)
Mac Mini: $499
And even without looking at a price Apple still wins due bundled software and box dimensions.
One major value it has is for creating basic layouts. It can then export to Word format, and then you use Word to add the integrative features like scripting and database merge.
Most documents are of the simpler sort, so for 80% of the things we use word processors for, Pages seems like it would be worth taking a chance on. Apple has a good reputation, and can be counted upon to leverage the resources built into Mac OS X imaginatively and masterfully. This is a bold new foray into the office space, and I think it will pay off.
I imagine the new headless Mac Mini, set up to auto-login to a limited Finder desktop. The kind with the tabs and buttons. And on this box are the office applications the user has access to. It has become a true office appliance.
-- thinkyhead software and media
Could the MiniMac revive the idea of the set top box? This thing is smaller than a DVD player and does a hellova lot more. Hook it right up to your TV and edit movies, play games, surf the net, watch slideshows, play DVDs, listen to music, etc. all right at your entertainment center. Maybe this box will serve a dual purpose: a cheap computer for PC switchers and an entertainment hub for your living room?
Can anybody tell if there is an infared port on this thing? I guess you don't really need it with bluetooth.....
Tolerance does not tolerate intolerance, or hypocrisy.
I don't think anyone is suggesting that putting Apple in Microsoft's position would be a good thing.
Why not? Why would it not be better to have a player with Microsofts level of influence that:
Supports fair use.
Supports open formats (like the XML based document format used for Keynote).
Support Open Source projects and gives back code.
Fully supports UNIX command lines integrated with the GUI.
Has a more reasonable design sesnibility (this one is debatable of course).
If Apple were where Microsoft is today, they could perhaps help to put thier foot down further on DRM limitations users will face, and Open Source projects would be more highly thought of in the business world because they are such important partners to Apple.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Build an equivalent Windows PC. Here's the best I could do:
/ 29/products_id/114
http://www.logicsupply.com/product_info.php/cPath
Logic Supply 3688 mini-ITX System
- Power Supply Morex 60 Watt Power Supply
- Operating System Windows XP Home - English
- Motherboard EPIA MII 12000 1.2Ghz
- Memory 256MB PC2100/DDR266 RAM
- Hard Disk 2.5" 40GB Seagate 5400rpm
- Color Silver
- CD / DVD Drive Panasonic CW-8123-B Slotloading CD-RW / DVD
- Build and test Build and test this system
Total: $710
The Cupid 3688 is the closest I could come in price, size, and style. It's still bigger and slower than the Mac mini and is $210 more!
"Another thing to note. A DIN slot (car radio standard size) is 2"x7", the mini mac is 2"x6.5"."
Combine that with the integration of the iPod with additional car models--Volvo, Nissan, and Mercedes Benz were mentioned today--and you reach an inescapable conclusion: Apple is set to blow away the market for in-car computing.
I was just in a taxi the other day here in Como, Italy, where I live, and the driver had a brand new navigation computer, complete with TV and DVD capabilities. Of course, car navigation computers are not new in Europe, providing GPS and all kinds of other in-car services. I have a friend living in Switzerland who had to drive to Luxembourg for work once a week, and he is so dependent on his in-car navigation system that once when it crashed, he couldn't find his way back home.
Think about it. It would take Apple only a baby step or two with the new Mac Mini to completely take over this market. Installing a car navigation system can cost you thousands of dollars, but Apple's core component would only cost you $499.
Imagine not only being able to plan a trip, but to have your kids do it on your desktop Mac, and then beam the instructions through AirPort to your car in the driveway. Car media centre? No problem, with a Bluetooth keyboard and a screen attached to your stereo slot. Or what about a snap-on interface connected to the USB and video-out ports on the back of the Mac Mini? But the greatest potential lies in the business uses of a car that is fitted as a fully-capable mobile office for less than a thousand bucks: the term "working remotely" takes on a whole new meaning.
Now you can be serious about taking your work to the beach.
"Stop throwing the Constitution in my face! It's just a goddamned piece of paper!" -- George W. Bush
I have strugled to get an old klunker PPC 601 to use OSX Server just for headless network tasks (thanks to XPostFacto!). Bizarre RAM (5V DIMM?) and software trickery made the task difficult. I considered using an iMac for the job, but the wattage was just too high (mostly the "always on" monitor).
The tech specs claim the miniMac consumes 85W maximum continuous -- much better than the 100W for the 7500/100 or 390W(!) for the 8600/200. And how much wattage does the standard beige box P4 consume? 400W? 500W?
For $2000, you can buy four of the miniMacs and make a respectable computing cluster. Not as nifty as the XServe, but reasonable with a modest budget.
his comment said it all "That's why we have backups."
no error messages...the app just did something it shouldn't have. he switched to the backup and continued on.
Did anyone see anything about an upgrade option for iWork? I paid more for Keynote alone than iWork costs, so some sort of a rebate would seem appropriate.
DUH!
Learn punctuation, troll.
Unlike your Linux PC, my PowerMac's keyboard does include a shift key.
As below, so above and beyond, I imagine drawn beyond the lines of reason. Push the envelope. Watch it bend.
Hidden costs indeed. If you upgrade the Mac mini to 1GB of memory through the Apple store, the additional cost is $425! So that $500 marvel is now $925. And for OS X to really sing, mucho memory is required.
You conveniently neglected to mention the upgrade to 512MB for $75. For a machine of this type 512MB is plenty, this is not a development class system. It is for more casual use. Hell for typical home users just doing email, browsing, and letters to grandma 256MB is probably OK given that you won't have the spyware and virus bloat. Apple's math is just fine. You are presenting an unrealistic edge case as if it was the norm.
hmmmm... and apple is not part of the global conspiracy i guess?
This ipod shuffle really is just a "me too" product.
Can we quote you for next year's "iPod shuffle is a runaway smash hit" retrospective?
--R.J.
Electric-Escape.net
"It is better to remain quiet and risk being thought an idiot
than to open your mouth and remove all doubt."
You know, spell checker is global in OS X.
/. sees >1000 comments and all "5 rated" posts are put downs against Apple. /. is fast approaching NPR for content-less entertainment programming.
And for that matter, what about digital audio out? I see a good market for a 'media center' friendly video/audio breakout box with IR support (Keyspan, are you listening?)
If they were truly trolls why does the mini fix so many of their complaints? There were no shortage of legitimate complaints about recent Mac products, and many came from people who own and use Macs.
Apple's worst enemies are the fanboys who think Apple can do no wrong. Thankfully Apple seems to be listening to the market not the fanboys.
Apple is now on there way to reclaiming lost territory. The good news? Even if they don't win it's going to force a lot of new smaller form factors out by their competition and make the world a better place!
My sig is as boring as you...
you still havent answered my point, instead being nitpicky about the phrasing of the post itself. i see that like most mac users you prefer form over substance.
This is just speculation, but I suspect that Jobs looked at Shuttle XPC devices and said to himself, "I'll make it cheaper and smaller, and better" and poof! intro the Mac Mini. No doubt Shuttle is wondering whether or not their shift away from making motherboards and selling just XPCs was a prudent move. Most likely Shuttle will still shine in PC sales, but you will wonder if they'll still do well with this Mac Mini being available.
Linux at home
No, they haven't nipped it in the bud because apple still supplies the user interface guidelines which still define a one button world.
Sure, having 3 buttons with ad hoc conventions for two of them is better than being stuck with only one button but not as good as having a UIG that includes how all 3 buttons are to be used.
...were a pain to upgrade memory for.
Apart from using SO-DIMMs, which were expensive, it was major surgery to take apart the machine and get into the spot to install them.
Obviously this bothered alot of customers because the later iMacs had a nice neat hatch at the bottom were you could slot in more common SD-RAM.
I wonder if the MiniMac has also gone down the "Neat package, but a pain in the arse to upgrade" path.
It's probably hopeless, this is on page 8... but, excellent idea!
:-)
And you even branded it well.. good job
Spoon not. Fork, or fork not. There is no spoon.
by your reasoning, apple should ship keyboards with just one key and have users tap their text in via morse code because we all know that one key is simpler than 104 keys.
XGrid Anyone?
Ok so the obligatory "Beowulf Cluster" needs to be brought up. While these minimacs don't have gigabit ethernet or any means of highspeed interconnecting, if it did, would this would be a force to be reconned with? Figure your average midsized tower is "16 tall, these little guys being 2" tall, you can fit 8 of these in the same size as 1 mid sized tower. If you bought the 1.25ghz base models at $500 a piece that combines to a total of 9ghz of processing power, 2048 megs of ram, 320 gb hard drive space all in a nice and neat stack about the size of a midsized tower, for a grand total of $4000.
Or how about a rack filled with them? Given a 20U rack, 1U being 1.75"x19"x36"(HxWxD), and the dimensions of 1 minimac being 2"x6.5"x6.5". You'll have 17 minimacs high, 2 wide (almost 3), 5 deep, for a total of 170 minimacs in a single 20U rack. 212.5ghz total processing power, 43520 megs of ram, 6800 gb of hard drive space. $85000.
I've never read much about super computers/clusters, but I'm curious if any of you happen to know how these measurements stack up against other cluster configurations price/size/performance wise.
Okay, I saw the pic of a Mini with it's box off.
Pretty easy to replace that RAM.
Build in the airport extreme card, and use it as a wireless router?
You've been meaning to get rid of those messy cables anyway, right?
I use the command keys so much that I actually bought an apple keyboard for my powerbook (as opposed to the ms keyboard I was using).
It's definitly a point worth noting.
Spoon not. Fork, or fork not. There is no spoon.
Those puppies were industrial quality - you had to exert so much force on the buttons there was no such thing as an accidental mouse click! If you managed to force it down, you had to know you were doing so. And yes, I used 4 ST's over the course of 10 years.
It will need to be a USB KVM, they cost a little more. Also the KVM will probably support VGA connectors not DVI. If you want DVI that will cost a lot more. That said, I have used a USB KVM and a nice 21" tube to go between a couple of PCs and a Mac and it worked fairly well. The only trouble spot was when I plugged in the USB speakers. If I was switching between Windows and Mac desktops everything was fine soundwise, but if I was dual boxing in some game I could loose sound during the switch. Overall the USB KVM worked far better than I expected and having one keyboard, mouse, monitor, and 2.1 sound on the desk was nice.
If anyone here wants something with the price tag of an iPod, but not the features or space (or iPod), I think we can come to some arrangement!
Yeah, everyone buys the iPod for the software.
Apple is just doing a great job of integrating hardware and software. They do both. It amazes me how many people I hear say that Apple must open their hardware to cloners and become a software company like MS to be successful.
Macintosh humor! MacComedy.com
From a design standpoint, I think the G5 PowerMac are great and the iMac G5 are pretty good too. I do have one suggestion for Apple when creating avant garde designs is not to forget the very basics of ergonomics and usabilty. The power button on the Mac Mini, eMac, iMac G5 are all placed on the back. If you ever walk into a computer lab where the computer isn't switched on, you'll see people confused and scratching their heads on how to switch on an eMac, iMacG4 and will probably occur with the iMac G5and the Mac Mini.
Most slashdotters are aware of the one button mouse is not the only supported mouse for Mac OSX. However, when a visitor to any urban Apple Store curious about Macs try the computers out. They 'might' leave with the impression of Macs as a toy like device because the mouse. In fact this indelible impression of Macs is reinforced when Apple doesn't offer an alternative, unless its an after market add on. Many Mac users I know buy the Microsoft Optical Intellimouse and they make a pretty damn good mouse (give credit where its due folks i.e. Starck mouse). If the Playstation 3 came out tomorrow with a joystick from the Atari 2600 with its single fire button, no kid would want to use one. Even if the game play rocks, the graphics better than reality, and the features mind blowing. The preceived wimpy single fire button game console could hurt sales and this is sort of what does happen with Macs when people see this impressive water cooled G5 PowerMac coming with this single button mouse. This image of Apple is so ingrained that even former Mac OS9 users, some now using Windows or Solaris are amazed that Mac OSX has mutli button and scroll wheel support. This is a mouse I can recommend. I use the extra buttons for Expose and can't live with it. Mouse in a Box Optical Elite
Yes, it can be done, but it's not as simple as a PS/2 --> USB adapter; you have to get one that will actually convert the signal. While that sounds strange (isn't an A an A? Why would the cheap kind work connecting PS/2 keyboards to the USB port on a PC, but not to the USB port on a Mac?), I've reluctantly accepted this through personal experience.
...)
I bought a Mac-friendly PS/2-->USB dongler (with two PS/2 inputs -- for mouse and keyboard -- and one USB output) at a computer show in the U.S. (I think that one was in western Maryland) for about $30; the simpler ones, which will work fine with a PC, are of course much cheaper; I've paid as little as $5 for one of those.
(Why have I bought several? Because I like old, clicky keyboards, which all have PS/2 or AT connections, and I'd rather keep an adapter on each one, so I have a keyboard handy if I construct of acquire a new machine. And I'm not a big fan of laptop keyboards, so I wanted to have a keyboard with my iBook
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
When I look at the iMac Mini and read about it's size as specifications I can't help but feel frustrated that they did not include s-video out/in. The Mini would be able to target the emerging set-top box market as it would be compatiable with most TVs.
Being able to copy content to the box (pictures, movies, applications) and run them from on a nice TV is fun. Even better if you realize that FreeBSD can give you pretty good TiVO like software with a few downloads.
If only they had an ATI all-in-wonder option.
Go Gusties
I use the extra buttons for Expose and can't live without it
A Quicktime stream of the entire presentation is available here on the apple website.
Right, because Apple is the ONLY computer maker to ever suffer from supply problems.
$499 should be something more like €380. (€499 is $654). Source: www.xe.com .
I'm a bit tired getting screwed and seeing Americans eat all those free lunches.
-- Alper
I can't imagine that there is a 3.5" drive under the laptop CD drive in that image; besides, I think the drive options - 40gb or 80gb - sort of give away the fact that it's a 2.5". The lack of a fan is a further pointer.
should be able to make a cool home built cluster using these. Also why doesm't MS buy these install office and virtual PC and rebrand them as OfficBox
I recently had a struggle buying hi-fi kit for my mother who is in her early sixties. She wanted a single, tidy box but wanted all kinds of functionality (DVD, Digital Radio etc...) and I had to keep her from buying overrated Bose kit. It was a struggle. To my mind, the Macmini is the computer equivalent of the kind of thing she was looking for. All the functionality you need with a design that's unobtrusive and could double up as other things (media centre etc...) Even as a Microsoft using, PC owning, iPodless wonder, for the first time in my life, I looked at an Apple computer and thought "One of those and a KVM switch and it would be interesting to have..."
They cost money, and come out way more often than Microsoft upgrades. They are also much more significant. Windows 95 to 98 to Me? Not much of a difference, a couple added things, fixes, etc, but nothing really set one apart from the other.
/anyways...
That said, the updates (and everything else) is very widely pirated.
You'll notice one thing about mac users, generally those who file share, etc are not just leeches, they have nicer pipes to upload through as well. "PC Warez" (haven't used that word in a while, sorry) just seems so cold nowadays, Mac "download" sites seem to be more personal, as if you went to a swap meet and someone said, "Sure, I'll make you a copy" or if you were on a bbs 15 years ago.
1q2w3e4r5t6y7u8i9o0pqawsedrftgthyjukilo;p'azsxdcf
Weekly World News is a tabloid newspaper that routinely prints absolutely outragous stories. It is totally fictitious, though sometimes the stories are loosely based on famous people.
http://www.weeklyworldnews.com/
My other first post is car post.
Let me start by saying I am already in love with the mini mac, however... Where is the digital audio out? I would love to be able to use it as a DVD player, however without surround sound, I guess ill stick with playing via my PC for now.
From the iMac mini page:
"Keyboard, iPod mini, dock, hands, AirPort, Bluetooth and PC sold separately."
Cheeky monkeys..
Just think what Apple revenues would have looked like had they released the Mini-Mac before the back-to-school rush. Jeeze, every kid would have wanted one for school, and every parent would have said "Jeeze.. only $499, ok!" Sigh... But hey, no complaints here, this might be my opportunity to dip my toe in the Apple Pool for only $499.
Lindsay Blanton
RadioReference.com
So, initially it is $499... apple for a while is gonna be production constrained at that price (took them quite some time to finally satisfy ipod mini demand). So take the extra $$$ while it is available and bring up your production. Then once sales begin to ebb... drop the price. Then you can really bring in the masses. Remember - it is always more $$$ to be on the cutting edge of technology!
:) And they have features I just can't say No to!!! (Hmmm... maybe that actually foils Cringely's plan - might be cheaper at $249 to just buy a MiniMac to upgrade all your software and throw the hardware away!)
He's right about making it up in software. I just got an iMac G5 for Christmas... and now I need to get me a new copy of iLife ($79) and upgrade my Final Cut Express ($99) let alone pick up Tiger when it comes out ($???)... just when I thought I could recover my finances from Christmas!
.. like when you plug in a USB keyboard and a USB mouse. Why did they only put 2 USBs on the thing?
iSuck
The MAC Mini...
Initial thoughts OMG I NEED THIS. Run a kvm switch and place it next to my pc, and I got the best of both worlds. Then it started sinking in, hmm g4 128mb of ram no keyboard or monitor. Well assume 499 for the base model 200 for a monitor and 50 for a keyboard and mouse and you are up to $749. kick up to 512 mb of ram and you are around $850. Well for 1299 you can get a much faster g5 with a 17inch lcd and 512mb of ram and a video card that will run circles around the mini's. So where is the cost savings? Is the mini really worth it?
Call me jaded but back in the powerpc days I watched apple release products that the OS would not support 1 year down the road. With the g4 virtually gone from apples lineup and the new architecture of the g5 (64 bit) How long is the g4 going to be supported, or is the OS going to fork into a 64bit and 32bit versions similar to the early ppc days? Granted the situation is not completely identical as from what I know(limited) you cannot work in both a 32bit and 64bit environment at the same time, unlike the extra code for the risc chipped PPC's.
I can see alot of uses for a mini. It is a great appliance not a desktop replacement. It would be great to serve you itunes, and wireless itunes. It could make a great T.V. set computer but the svideo adapter is extra (apples site is being hosed right now so I cannot get the price for it.) But lacking svideo in and out no DVR out of the box which is a disappointment. Apple really could have cleaned up with built in DVR. It could make an assume techtool for fixing macs or networks with it's light weight and cheapness. (much cheaper then a laptop.)
One use that you might see is a nice cheap server array using firewire drives for storage. You could cheaply build your own budget server array with these.
Yes I will most likly buy one, and might even try and convince my parents that they need one. I can convince them to buy one with a wireless keyboard mouse and wifi to connect to the network I built at there house, and have them connect directly with the vga/dvi input on there 52 inch dlp T.V.
I think that you will see this machine sell well for 9 months sales drop after that, and then be removed from the lineup after 1.25 years.
Hits
cheap initial cost
Has some uses
great appliance potential
Will get alot of PC users into the MAC
Misses
No svideo in/out so no out of the box DVR...
low amount of base ram 128mb
g4 proc ( $100 more with a g5 and I would be first in line for this thing)
Other news... Apple has there own office suite big suprise there (yawn not really) they needed it, lets see how there WORD killer actually works. We all now the there version of powerpoint is way better, and is now in version 2. The new iPod will sell like crazy... awesome price for a usb mem stick with an mp3 player built in. Lets see if Apple can clean up Motorola's horrible user interface with the co-branded phone (which is still not actually seen) they just used a (hacked) version of a phone they did with mtv last year. The real one is still out on the horizon.
Ok why no broadcast this year... hmmm....
---In a time of Chimpanzees I was a Monkey.
If this would be windows, everybody would be writing about it.
Beta software crashes! News at 11!
Does myth TV work with Firewire video hardware? I have been having the exact same thought... Of course, I'd also need video out, but that shouldn't be too hard with firewire...
:)
Also, VideoLAN client works with Mac OS X. Ooooh. I will probably use my BT878 in my video server running VLC, and stream to the Mini Mac... As soon as I can get a refurb open-box mini mac for $399, anyway.
Yes, I admit to a certain amount of zeal.
But that's because this brings the MiniITX form factor into the mainstream! This makes for a very practical MythTV style box in a lot of ways other PC do not. Video editing and DVD creation is a rapidly growing market (although come to think of it, there's no DVD burner on these yet so probably that's premature).
Do you really doubt this is going to sell very well to all sorts of different people? The presales alone will probably outnumber the total MiniITX sales to date.
It's not the holy grail of computing. But it is a computer that is aimed at a market that until now was not primarily mainstream. That is what is really exciting, thinking about how this whole market will probably explode (and that's for PC's as well as Macs, as I expect lots more smaller PC's coming out now).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I have used InDesign a fair amount and would agree it's not a good program for the average user, much less a beginner - it's hard sometimes to figure out the common things you'd like to do, like image wrap (at least non-intuitive).
If they have solved all that and can just let people put simple newsletters with cool graphics together (which it looks like they have) they will have a huge market. Like I said, it's for all those people that used to use Print Shop Pro (which was very popular years ago) to create flyers or newsletters or what have you. Also, with the HTML export it could be much nicer for creating web pages (Word is even more horrible for HTML generation than page layout),
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
It looks like Apple is going to market this thing very directly at PC to Mac "switchers" and schools.
;-)
If you check out the Mac mini QTVR movies, there's one showing it connected to PC peripherals and the Apple
Store's Mac mini page highlights that it can be used with your old PC's peripherals. The Mac mini's main page even recommends upgrading school computer labs from PC to Mac so that you can "spend your time teaching advanced topics instead of basic computer maintenance". Ouch. I knew that this would be the target market, but I didn't expect such a direct sales pitch to PC users and schools.
As a side note, you get to see how big the power brick is for the mini. If you look at the "with Mac peripherals" QTVR movie you see that if you use an Apple monitor, you are stuck with two power bricks and a bunch of cables. Seeing that picture makes me want to buy an iMac G5.
The DVI can pretty much be downgraded to S-video if you so desire. Most HDtvs seem to carry DVI in now and you can always convert that to other signals pretty easily(such as component, composite, s-video, VGA, etc).
Is there a third-party sound processor that plugs into the USB?
BTW the video out doesn't bother me so much, since a converter from DVI/VGA to component video should be cheap and lossless.
If you're wanting to get first-hand experience with Mac OS X 10.4 you may be shelling out some additional cash - looks like the Mini only ships with Panther (10.3): http://www.apple.com/macmini/specs.html.
I still want one, though.
But there are many ways to achieve an end. Just because Microsoft took the path of generally screwing people over does not make it a requirement. IBM is behaving quite well nowadays, and is generally as big as Microsoft.
The other thing is that Apple, as a company, has seen the power of basing things on top of Open Source stuff. Lots of quality software without a huge engineering expenditure. Look at how because they do not have to work on OS internals as much, they are able to get truly interesting higher level features added to the OS with a smaller development staff!! While Microsoft pushes WinFS out another few years, Tiger is getting Spotlight and CoreData for real early this year.
Apple has a huge financial incentive to keep doing what they are doing, because it is working and making them money.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I think that Mac Mini $499 defines a new price level at which PC users will now be saying - $499?!?!??! and no flat monitor - this is expensive!!!Macs are still overpriced!
You have to get your megaphones separately as well.
See the footnote at http://www.apple.com/macmini/
Keyboard, mouse, megaphone and display sold separately.
I, for one, amd glad, as I already have a megaphhone from my old mac.
Apple USB keyboards (and many PC keyboards) have extra USB ports you can plug the mouse into. If you really want to, you can always buy a $10 USB hub.
It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
Video out comes from the little dongle that Apple will sell you for $20. S-Video or RCA...you pick. Want component? You can probably use the DVI instead...
This is one hell of a cool computer.
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
You can download many Apple Keynotes as .mov files, including MWSF'05 on http://seriot.ch/AppleKeynotes/ Enjoy!
I was putting off buying a Mac until this MacWorld also. The sad thing is, it looks like I'll have to put it off a little bit longer.
Don't get me wrong, the new products are all really great, especially the iMac mini. But what I really wanted was an eMac G5 update. The primary thing I want is a low cost machine with digital editing capabilities. For these things, I need a lot of RAM and a decent sized hard drive.
I decided to try and configure the new Mac mini to be close to the current SuperDrive equipped eMac. If you upgrade the Mac mini to 1 GB RAM, 80 GB HD, and add a keyboard & mouse, you're suddenly up to $1054 (academic price). The eMac with the same config is $1101. Basically, you're getting a built-in 17" monitor for an extra $47.
Of course, I do have an extra 17" monitor at home, but it's hooked up to an old Wintel machine we have up in our attic which we use occassionally. I also do have an extra keyboard & multi-button mouse, but that means that the old iMac I have will have to go back to the small keyboard & hockey puck mouse that came with it (we're keeping the old iMac for the kids). Also, if I wanted to skimp on RAM, I could downgrade to 512 MB RAM, but I'm sure that will degrade performance for video editing. All of these changes would lower it to $681 - a very nice price for a low-end video editing machine if you have the extra equipment.
Apple's new products are great for people who are looking to try the waters. I hope that the Mac mini & iPod Shuffle sell like hotcakes and help increase Mac marketshare! Hopefully Apple will announce an upgraded eMac G5 soon, as it is far overdue for an update. It would also be nice to see the video ram bumped up to 64 MB from the current 32 MB.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
distcc
The Internet's nature is peer to peer - 20050301_cs_profs.pdf
Question for the /.'rs
The cost of a computer can be dwarfed by the cost
of the software to run on it. I am argueing with a friend
about Apple's potential to capture PC customers.
What are the top 10 software programs SOLD for
a PC (including games)? Which not available on
a Mac?
Thanks.
Unless you get caught smuggling it in. 'Cause if you were gonna pay the VAT, well, £305 vs £339 doesn't quite cover a plane ticket.
Yup, me too. I've been putting off buying a new PC for ages because they all seem really, well, sucky.
... and it's beautiful, and small, and elegant, and all those other things other PC makers seem to have utterly no clue about. Even the various companies making small designer cases never seem to really get it right -- they try, but inevitably seem to turn out something just slightly bloated and clunky. Then along comes Apple, and just blows them all away.
So I'm still using a 400MHz P3 -- this new mac may be slow for many but for me it will be great step up.
See, what apple (but no other company it seems) knows, is that design matters. This is what I want.
Well, I have no money at the moment, but I'll wait a while until I do, and until Linux has been ported (OS/X is nice, sure, but I'm a linux guy), then I'm off to get a mini (and a gig of RAM)...
We live, as we dream -- alone....
I actually like the Logitech multi-media keyboard. It has a nice analog volume dial and play/FF/Rev controls that work great with iTunes.
Kensington's Studio Mouse, with it's scroll slide is really slick. too.
I drank what? -- Socrates
I'll have a nice little toy that'll give me some first-hand experience of MacOS 10.4 plus my girlfriend will have a easy-to-use machine that she can play with when I'm hogging my PC.
Believe me, she'll hardly get to use it. These things have a way of sucking you in.
As long as the clustered application doesn't shunt arount huge amounts of data, in other words is more compute oriented rather than bulk data processing oriented, the 100 Mbps link would be plenty fast enough.
1Gbps verses 100Mbps only really matters when it comes to data throughput. Latency isn't going to be much different between 1Gbps and 100Mbps, as latency is limited and dictated by the speed of light, not the number of bits per second.For example, a cluster of theses things would be fine to brute force a crypto key.
The Internet's nature is peer to peer - 20050301_cs_profs.pdf
If the Mac mini is any quieter than my iMac DV, it'd pass muster as a video server in my living room.
Luke, help me take this mask off
" I have an old Mac tower with 4 drives. Where am I supposed to put all my crap?"
obviously not in a 6x6x2.5 inch box.
It is a all in one unit for thosemwho don't own a Mac. The nnly thin this owuld be usefull for to somelike you is in your entertainment center.
Also,, if you are trying to get people to convert, it would be great to take to someones house, quickly plug it in and give them a sample of the Mac.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
There is a very functional MythTV frontend for OSX already.
Backend is another story but the frontend is working great. I think this would be great to sit underneath a Gamecube and just use a Bluetooth remote to operate it. Mmmmmm...
Steve Jobs hits often and rarely misses. This new stunt is so right on. Since the days he came back to apple and rescued the lot with his candy flavoured who-the-fuck-still-lets-his-users-adjust-a-screen macs he's been on the road to king of the common appliance computer. Everything a half-way tech savy computer user would think of as "gee, this would be nice to have", he comes up with it 2 years later and at least 5 years ahead of everybody else. OS X has fully matured, is solidly welded onto a 100% percent predictable hardware base, is based on 30 years of Unix OS experience with 10 years in the OSS training camp, is practically virus and exploit free and comes with all the goodies anybody would want with a computer an the ability to upgrade the one or other OSS speciality needed in 5 minutes flat.
Bottom line:
I couldn't have done any better, and probably wouldn't have (the meager 128 Megs are probably a teeth gritting compromise they had to swallow, to hone costs and margin-leak).
As of today, I bet all my money on Apple and my pocket cash on OSS. This is the first industry strength 20 inch stainless steel nail in a long series of nails in the coffin of Microsoft and the weedy mess of proprietary x86 crappiness and it's shortcomings. Mark my word.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
his point was, it is still more expensive then a dell for more features. Hense, STILL MORE EXPENSIVE!
Plus, if you want a functional mac, it will be another 100 bucks, and probablly won't play the next round of games.
So it has less value to a lot of people.
And no spreadsheet software? a lot of people need that for work.
I do not hate Apple, I can just look at something I like without letting my enjoyment stand in the way of common sense and practicallity.
If this thing pans out as a decent piece of hardware(no cracks or heating issues) I may get one of these for my entertainment center.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
You're missing the point. For the people that care, the context menu is there, but because of the standard one button mouse, designers are forced to not hide functionality in the right click.
I have a shitty sig!
could care less about the OS.
Can I do what I need it to do for 499? That is what they are asking.
Do you know what kind of motor your blender uses? How many copper windings it has?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I've gotta admit it: the pricing is AMAZING. With this price, they're no longer competing with Dell or HP/Compaq, but with the Taiwanese PC-clone manufacturers in Sim Lim!
More than mere navel gazing.
AAC sounds quite a bit better (to me at least, and there's plenty of others who agree), but ALE (Apple Lossless Encoding) spanks both of them - granted it's only about 50% smaller against 90+% for mp3 or AAC, but drive space is cheap these days (i actually bought a 120 gigger recently just to rip CDs to). That being said, I do have iTunes-LAME and it does kick ass.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. - Aldous Huxley
Why is it that a desktop made primarily from notebook parts (a fairly safe assumption, I think) Costs just over 1/2 of what a semi-comparable notebook from the same company costs? If Apple released a $500 notebook, I would seriously consider it, but at $1000 US... Jeez. But then, I guess that's what eBay is for.
Yeah, I'm buying a mini too. Anyway...
Anyone know whether Pages uses the Oasis format?
Mike
The display lineup took a price cut ($999 for 20")
You don't have to be smart to use a Mac, you just have to be smart enough to buy one
Nobody will ever need more than 1 Gig of RAM!
Hmmm...Sounds familiar!
Because portable computers wear out so quickly, I've been trying to come up with a realistic system that I could carry from place to place, comprised of parts that are cheaper than a portable. I'm willing to make the compromise of having to plug in to standard AC. Given that, the mac mini seems like a nicely sized cpu/disk combo at a price I'd be willing to pay. I can use a foldable portable keyboard, no problem. Now the part I haven't been able to figure out: what screen could I use? Small screen is perfectly fine. Sometimes I imagine using some pda screen, like a zaurus running vnc logged in over wireless, but I feel it should be possible to undercut the price/size performance of a zaurus when all I need is a screen itself. Anyone know of cheap, small screens that a person can buy a la carte?
- First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then ???, then profit.
Now if only they got around to supporting middle click on macs.
-"I'm one of those Mac people that will break a bottle on the bar and hold it to your throat for bad-mouthing my system"
The Mini looks looks like another homerun, their first small form factor PC
Don't forget the Cube. The difference between the Mini and the Cube is that the Cube used expensive parts while the Mini probably uses compenents from the iBook line. Oh, and the Cube went for $1300 more than the Mini, IIRC, and also did not come with a monitor.
a beowulf cluster of mac minis.
No, seriously. This would be great to try out!
From the Mac mini Design page:
;)
Keyboard, iPod mini, dock, hands, AirPort, Bluetooth and PC sold separately.
Guess i wont be getting the iHands with my new Mac mini
Was'nt a crash.
I think that Steve activated a wrong button by clicking mistakenly on a Spotlight result option and iPhoto started the slide show, and as usual, it does a lot of image optimisation in the background, which makes it a bit unresponsive for a moment when starting.
Steve (and the audience) did not have the patience, he just switched (and oh so easily!) to back-up system.
=====
I lie all the time, including now
I have to say that Apple's finally done a good thing by bringing their prices down a bit. This will at least make people not dismiss a Mac out of hand just because of the entry price point. Say what you want about leaving out the monitor keyboard and mouse, but enough people will let that slide and get one.
My real question is, how many of the Mac mini people will upgrade when Tiger rolls out? It's going to be like a $100 upgrade, based on previous major OS releases... is that right?
Weird as it seems to all of us who'd probably get the upgrade even if it was $150, I bet more than a few new Mac users would balk at anything more than a $50 upgrade cost.
Because now there's a whole year for the kiddies to build up the "i want it!" factor, which there probably wouldn't have been enough time for prior to christmas.
...and that's all there is to it.
obviously, you have not heard of the iPod...
Obviously you have found some secret way to make an iPod work as a computer or server, with four-figure USPs and high margins to boot.
iPod is a nice product but it is a distraction for a company like Apple. The smartest way to continue as a of any note would be emulate 3Com/Palm and divest itself of iPod, spinning off the division into a separate company. Better for the shareholders as well. Apple currently basically makes no profit from selling computer hardware, so you have massive inefficiencies within the company being disguised by the temporary profits from selling iPod baubles in shopping malls and Best Buy for chickenfeed.
Da Blog
Whats that you say? You will be charging the same amount of money for the point release update as MS is going to charge for an upgrade to their new OS? Wow, you really do have your customers eating from your hand. Quite an accomplishment!
Oh? Considering that for every Microsoft update Apple has put out about 3, why don't you go drink a nice, tall glass of stfu.
Umm, what other revenue generating services besides iTunes do they offer that indicates to you that there is some repositioning going on?
LS
There is a fine line between being a cultivated citizen and being someone else's crop. - A. J. Patrick Liszkie
Who cares about market share?
Apple is a very profitable company with no debt and huge cash reserves.
Ys, that's what they said about SGI, once upon a time. Look, Apple has some nice third-party software available for it, but most or all of that is going to fade away eventually if its market share stays so abysmally low. That's why people "care" about market share. Apple's cash reserves, while large for such a small company, are not infinite and it cannot afford to continue to subsidise the creation of an ever-increasing portion of Macintosh software by itself.
And if you break down Apple's profits for the past couple of years, you see that it makes basically zero profit from its computer hardware business. Zero. That's pretty piss-poor. It's basically being subsidised by the sales of low-end trinkets like the iPod and accessories. If it was possible I'd buy shares in an Apple iPod company, but not in the current Apple Computer company because so much of it is just a write-off, profit-wise. Divest!
Da Blog
For about the same amount of money as the 512MB iPod Shuffle, you can get a flash-memory-based 256MB Rio Cali.
0 00 0AXKBK/103-1100119-7537416?v=glance
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B
The Cali also has a screen and an FM tuner.
So: storage capacity or a screen + radio? I'll take the screen + radio, thank you.
Except... er. My Rio Cali doesn't play AAC files. I didn't care about that when I bought it, but I've been using the iTunes store more and more. I never thought I would, but it's just so damn easy compared to ferreting stuff out on KaZaA. That inferface is like crack.
I have a g4 ibook, and wonder if, by connecting either by ethernet cable or wirelessly, I can use the mm without a separate keyboard, monitor, and mouse?
tia
This is the Constitution.This is the Constitution under the Bush administration. Any questions?
BEFORE: How comes there is no...
AFTER: Why we need...
There is a spark in every single flame bait point.
If the reports are true (DVI output, firewire), the Mac Mini would be perfect for my home HDTV firewire recorder! Mac already has a DVHS recorder, and would work with my cable box (with firewire) and HDTV w/DVI input.
For some reason, the firewire MPEG-TS output is not blocked (encrypted) as I tried other software on my XP based laptop). I was looking at a Shuttle, but the Mini would be better. Apple, here I come!
I'd hope Apple would come out with a security kit other than your standard laptop cable. These generally just fit into a plastic case slot, and the only real security value is that the case is damaged when the unit is stolen.
The damned thing's so small you'd have a significant number of 'em "walking". Not good.
That's one of the advantages of a standard tower design. They're sort of tough to slip into a purse/backpack.
What part of "gestalt" don't you understand?
Google up Yellow Dog Linux, and I think Debian (and one other) have PowerPC ports.
I've had a CappuccinoPC Mocha P4 for the past couple of years. It's similar in concept to the Mac Mini: small enclosure (mini-ITX), lots of ports (2 NICs, serial, parallel, 4x USB, audio in/out, video in/out, firewire...). But keyboard, monitor, and mouse are sseparate.
That's actually a bonus:
Modularization is a benefit.
The main grip I've had is that it's not possible to use the unit in transit. CappuccinoPC claimed they'd be coming out with a battery pack, but AFAIK haven't. And there's no seperable LCD display available I've found that's appropriate (I'm thinking $100-$200 pricepoint for a 4x6 640x480 or 800x600 screen -- enough to work on the run).
If Apple could push for that to come out, it would be ideal. Leave the Mac Mini in its bag with a battery pack. Display with a wire stand and/or velcro backing sits on your cafe table or airplane seat back. Keyboard and mouse/trackpad in front of you. Do work.
What part of "gestalt" don't you understand?
I agree with Cringely's remarks quoted in another post to the effect that this new Mac is overpriced by at least $100.
Frankly, I got a "Troll" rating because Mac users have a magical-religious zeal that prevents them from thinking in terms other than fashion and bling.
If you look at onyl the hardware, perhaps it's similar.
But you, and others, ignore the degree of hardware/software inetgration going on to make this more practical to use with a large amount of music.
Plus how many of the "show company" players act as a USB drive with no external adaptor required?
Any way you slice it, it's well thought out and adds real value to the space. Like all other Apple products, it combines a bunh of features that various people had already but in somewhat unique ways and with good engineering behind them.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
That was my prediction for the Shuffle when I heard that it would have no screen. It would be easy to shuffle between 20 albums in alphabetical order if the names were read to you.
The voice synthesis would be done by iTunes, and saved as a low bit rate ACC or MP3 file and transfered to the player.
Don't you have to at least buy a copy of Mech Warrior or some game to hack it? Can you provide a link to the fully free (nothing additional needed) method?
And I switch it from left hand to right hand and back in maybe every hour. And it works exactly the same in my both hands.
There is a spark in every single flame bait point.
No. Those are Apple's second worst enemies.
Apple's worst enemies are the people who predicted Apple's demise when they stopped shipping with floppies.
Then predicted Apple's demise when they started using USB.
Then predicted Apple's demise when they completely changed their OS.
Then predicted Apple's demise when they stopped supporting their venerable OS and declared it dead.
There are people who have predicted Apple's demise since 1984 when they came out with that useless Graphical Interface thingy. People will always complain about what Apple doesn't do. Have fun. I've been using Apple product for years: the only apps I've ever needed to run that I couldn't run in emulation or run an Apple equivalent were games. That's it.
Ultimately Doom 3 is pretty, but just another Doom. HL 2 is pretty, but just another HL, and frankly I'm over staying up late shooting 13 year old stat whores in the head.
Since World of Warcraft plays just fine on my Aluminum PowerBook, I have no need for a PeeCee, and I'm kept more than busy by that, HomeWorld 2, and all the games on my XBox and Playstation2. Other than that, Word runs fine, Excel runs fine, vi runs fine, and at work I use Remote Desktop Connection to view Outlook on my now headless POS Dell, which allows me to use both 20" LCDs on my G4.
We are now into the 5th year of the 21st century. Shut up about the mouse and the keyboard already. if you must run Windows or wish to run an inferior *nix window manager, feel free.
I'll take my Mac. And I'll take one of those Mac minis too. Personally, I think miniMac is a cooler name, but Steve didn't call me first.
- learn to swim.
Think about this, what computer is "safe" enough and cool enough and cheap enough to buy for your kid.
.mac account, with web hosting, and the email, the blogging software. It can even burn DVDs at $599. Throw in the cheap digital still/video camera, wireless keyboard and mouse, a nice little flat pannel, don't forget the iPod Shiffle. What about a Music Store allowance! Not all at one time, a birthday here, christmas, whenever. We're still talking well under a grand.
What computer is going to sit in a kids bedroom. What can you throw a few bucks at without worrying to much about where it's going to be in a year... without worrying about viruses, without worrying about maintence. Something your kid can IM on, send email to their friends, play with photos and video, do their homework, watch a movie. What computer can give a reasonable amount of control to the parent and freedom to the kid? What computer not only will look good in every kids room in america but is safe enough to go in every kids room in america.
You might need to disable software downloads and get some nanny blocker software on the web browser, but that's it! I think you're looking at the first computer that can and will make it into the rooms of every kid in america.
It's got the garage band and all the editing software you need for music, photo and video. It can come with the
Dude kids are going to grow up on this shit the way we grew up on atari and nintendo and I'm fuscking jealous!
I am a monkey. This is slashdot.
That would probably because 10.4 isn't out yet, so nothing ships with it.
If you can hold out for a bit longer, and Tiger actually ships in the first half of this year, I'm sure that it'll come with the Mac Mini.
The 'special apple [command] keys' are used to actuate keyboard shortcuts (command-c for copy, command-v for paste, etc.) like the CTRL keys on a PC keyboard.
The control keys on a Mac keyboard are used to call up the contextual (right-click) menus.
Plug a PC keyboard into a Mac, though, and the ctrl keys will work like command keys (or something like that, IIRC.)
Sorry, dude. I wasn't trying to be condescending but I just don't think that's a) the best use of a Mini and b) Apple's idea of its use. I don't think it will happen--though there are USB/Ethernet adapters that might help you have your router afterall! (Just don't tell Steve!)
The BriQ" might be a better choice for this application. They list for $1400 but I bet you can find 'em on eBay for the price of a new Mini. There's also some other small, cheap, and quiet x86 boxes out there for about the same price.
I might know what I'm talkin' about, but then again, this is Slashdot...
Lindrone from the ipod studio created a very extensive gallery of the show.
? ca t=544
http://ipodstudio.com/photopost/showgallery.php
There's nothing wrong with anything - Phillip J. Fry
Waiting for the iPod mini to come down to $99 didn't work, you get a Shuttle instead.
For $249, don't ever expect more than an iPod photo (okay, maybe one with video) and that won't be until MWSF 2007.
If you haven't figured out the pattern yet, Apple only rarely lowers prices. They much prefer to add features at a given price point. The Mini Mac is the wonderful exception! What proves the rule before that was the Bondi iMac.
Do you really want to wait another six and a half years to have a good excuse to try OS X? Buy a Mac now already!
I paid the going retail price for a Windows screen reader and got a free Unix computer!
The really inexpensive Apple keyboards use an ADB connectors. Those will not help you at all!
I am using a Windows USB keyboard on my G4 Mac. It is no problem at all.
I paid the going retail price for a Windows screen reader and got a free Unix computer!
Get one and run linux on it too... you can even do some GNUStep stuff in Objective-C and have it run on both (bit limited though).
Try Ruby too if you're learning a new language.
I have an external USB mouse by now and no, it is still crap: The second mouse button is next to useless compared to what KDE offers, and the middle mouse button is totally useless. The ability to add an external mouse with more than one button is clearly an afterthought, grudgingly supported.
This simply comes nowhere near what KDE lets you do with the mouse: Most of KDE is a series of right-button, left-button combinations that let yo do almost everything, and let you do it fast. All X normally lets you mark (left button) text and paste (middle button) with the mouse, which Apple has decided to kill with OS X -- stupid, because you now have to used Command c and Command v and such. Takes for bloody ever.
I've come to the conclusion that the single mouse button is actually something of a marketing issue that is kept in the face of switcher exasperation to give the Macs their own character. Apple has gotten rid of the ADC interface in favor of DVI -- it is time they admitted that more than one mouse button lets you get stuff done faster, too, and stop this kind of "different for its own sake" crap. Just about everybody grows up with more than one mouse button these days. It's a standard feature. People want it. What do see more of, new Mac users running around saying "thank God, that second mouse button was just too confusing" or new Mac users running around saying "wait a minute, what happend to my other button?"
Ah, that's good. So at least the iMac Mini can use a High - end TV as a monitor. I still would have liked to see some kind of TV in, so that you could manipulate it to be a tv (or HDTV) recorder.
I can't get past the feeling that the current design doesn't meet its potential. It seems like they made some sacrifices to keep the price down. I suppose though that if there is a demand for more technology its possible that Apple will get there.
Go Gusties
Some doofus will have posted a page about how to take it apart and put a pentium in it ....
I am delighted that there is no screen, nor even an LCD display. The LEDs bother me a little, but they are probably redundant. Why you ask? I have several friends and collegues that are blind. Short of reloading the OS, no MP3 player has support for speaking menus.
I paid the going retail price for a Windows screen reader and got a free Unix computer!
Something like this, but a tad bigger, more powerful with more A/V connections and wireless keyboard/remote and some slick Apple media PC center software.
I would buy one in a heartbeat and I haven't used a Mac since University and they were 68K machines.
I kept telling myself.
I don't need one.
I Don't need one. I just got a 20" iMac G5.
I Don't need one, my kid uses my old 15" iMac 800MHz
I don't need one.
Then you got to go and post a damn reason I need one now!!
As a rock-in-roll Physicist once said, No matter where you go, there you are.
build a PC bigger, better, and faster than this for $500? I dunno. You'll no doubt be stuck w/ _something_ that is significantly under any one component in this box. It might not have Firewire, or the CPU will blow, or it'll be light on RAM, or, most likely, it'll have shitty integrated video. Remember that the Mac mini has a full-tilt Radeon 9200 with it's own dedicated 32MB of DDR. Now, that's not a particularly spectacular setup, but it'll murder the integrated SiS or Intel solutions.
Also, consider that this system is as small as a stack of CDs, and nearly silent. Even the SFF PC's are hard-pressed to manage that.
I find it amusing that you complain about the marketing when that was basically the deciding factor that made the pc popular in the first place... ah well.
I shant bother addressing your other "points". Most of them are countered somewhere within this thread, have a browse.
Virtual Surround Sound USB Audio Adapter for your PC or Laptop
I can't wait to get it all wired up and on to my network!
That would have been problematic for a G4 Mac Mini. And for the the G5 iMac
But isn't the G5 suppose to be less expensive (for Apple) than the G5?
I paid the going retail price for a Windows screen reader and got a free Unix computer!
Disclaimer: I'm a developer of OpenOffice.org for Mac OS X and a founder of the NeoOffice project
;)
I've seen this mentioned in a number of places now. I just watched the QuickTime feed of the keynote for the iWork section (starts at about 1hr 3 mins) and heard no mention of spreadsheets or "Cell" in that section. It goes straight from pages to the Mac mini. Did I just miss it?
Also of note: while it appears iLife is going to continue to be bundled with new Macs, it is unclear if iWork is going to be bundled at all. I don't think Keynote is presently bundled with any configs, but they just may not have yet updated the Apple store. It would truly honk for low-end Macs if the death of AppleWorks meant that users had to pay for software. Kinda funny since, after all, they include GraphicConverter but don't bother to preload a FOSS office suite
ed
I was seriously looking at building a Shuttle, but let's compare it to the Mac Mini
For the Shuttle, you can either buy a complete system from them and spend twice as much or build a system. Don't forget the CPU. And the RAM, and the hard drive, and the DVD drive. At this point, it's about the same cost as a base Mac Mini.
Even if you add the Mac Mini DVD burner, larger hard drive and extra RAM, you're still not saving much with the Shuttle. I'm not even going to mention the operating system and having to set it all up...
Please don't counter with a el cheapo price quote from some other scum dealer either, just Newegg... If you counter, make sure it has the same features also...
Or buy the Mac Mini, with the OS installed, plug it in, and have it up and running.
The mini has a DVI output for an HDTV monitor and Firewire for either DV or cable box (MPEG-TS) input. I personally think the Mini price is great for what you get. Especially if you want it in your living room next to your HDTV as a Media Center...
Intel Extreme. Lame.
So what happens when the battery in this thing bums out? That's a pretty expensive pack of gum to replace.
Evidently Apple only offers this feature in association with the iPod Shuffle. Damn it.
Shuttle XPC Model SN41G2V3 - Item#N82E16856101460 $269.00
AMD Mobile Athlon XP 2500+ - Item#N82E16819103401 $88.00
Geil 512MB(256MBx2) - Item#N82E16820144309 $80.00
Western Digital 80GB - Item#N82E16822144122 $60.33
NEC 16X Double Layer DVD±RW - Item#N82E16827152037 $67.99
Logitech diNovo Cordless - Item#N82E16823126166 $125.00
NETGEAR Dual Band Wireless PCI - Item#N82E16833122126 $71.99
Innocom V.92/56KData/Fax/voice Modem - Item#N82E16825100103 $21.50
ATI RADEON 9200 128MB DDR - Item#N82E16814102287 $93.50
Windows XP Media Center 2005 - Item#N82E16832102311 $131.00
Office Small Business 2003 - Item#N82E16837116148 $331.00
Intuit Quicken 2005 Basic - Item#N82E16832109137 $36.00
total: $1,374.81
the mac is a BTO, added BT, AP, BT-keyboard and mouse
Mac mini 1.42GHz Accessory kit
Internal Bluetooth + AirPort Extreme Card
80GB Ultra ATA drive
SuperDrive
56K v.92 Modem
512MB DDR333 SDRAM - 1 DIMM
Mac OS X - U.S. English - P/N: Z0B8 $903.00
Wireless Keyboard & Mouse Set - P/N: B9396LL/A $99.00
Office 2004 for Mac - P/N: T9189LL/A $399.95
:-( (that would be a LACK of games, although that's changing, slowly)
total: $1,401.95
differences for the shuttle:
DVD burner(the only silver ones were 16x).
Modem(has to be external if you want PCI-802.11a/b/g)
summary:
shuttle pluses
- you can build it yourself
- you can upgrade it yourself
- games(!)
shuttle minuses
- you can build it yourself
- you can upgrade it yourself
- Windows
- finding drivers, updating patches
- fan noise
mac mini pluses
- its very small
- its very quiet
- it looks nicer(subjective)
- the software is preinstalled
- there's more software included(appleworks, iLife, garage band, iMovie, iDVD)
mac mini minuses
- you can't upgrade it
- you can't make it faster(see previous)
- it's easy to steal(not showing up in any offices anytime soon)
- games
so once you've added up all the stuff you need to match the mini, you end up darn near close;
a $27.14 difference in favor of the Shuttle.
"...that's as white as it gets; all the bits are on..."
clones? here is why not:
1) Apple makes a profit on every single Mac mini. trading profits for market share is dot-bomb era style. Apple won't do it.
2) Apple makes almost all of their money from hardware.
3) Apple is distinguished by design. Their industrial design dept. is about 10 years ahead of everybody else. It follows: Clones will be ugly.
4) clones will eat into market share in the high end. doh!
there is no benefit that Apple could gain from clones. if person A buys a clone instead of a mac, it doesn't increase market share. it just decreases sales.
The irony here being that click and hold does nothing in Safari.
COMPUTER! Whatever happened to Blueberry Muffin?
I haven't seen this mentioned so far:
Think of all the instances where you have a customer who needs an inexpensive processor/controller similar to an industrial PC, or an "adjunct device" to add functionality to another system.
For example infrastructure in commercial buildings (HVAC control, energy-systems control, security & access control) and residential equivalents, various types of process-control, science lab applications, etc. All of those industrial use-cases that currently tend to default to Windows machines (which in turn go buggy when some nitwit pops in a CD full of infected games they downloaded) or where you want to (or have to) scratchbuild a machine to run an open-source OS.
In the past you'd assemble a PC from parts (about $250), compile and/or load your preferred OS, test & debug, etc. (a few hours' labor, often non-billable time). Then you load your custom apps and connect it to (whatever) at the customer's site.
Depending on how you value your labor, the Mini ends up being the same or lower cost than the custom-built PC by the time you're done. A more profitable way to use your time and your customers' money than troubleshooting, debugging, or fixing stuff that breaks.
Think of it as a compact, inexpensive BSD machine, with a clean user-interface, that can be stacked, racked, or wall-mounted if need be. A standard little box you can get off-the-shelf from a local supplier, load your custom apps, install quickly, and never have to worry about. Less hassles, more time to develop new apps and bring in new business.
I think the Mini is going to become a regular part of the geek toolkit immediately, and we're going to see these things popping up in plenty of (previously) unexpected places.
Now imagine what a beowulf cluster of mac-mini's could accomplish.
yea i know... someone always brings this up.
vik
[all generalizations are untrue except this one]
I honestly don't know where people come up with these silly ideas. Look how well clones worked out for IBM's PC dominance or for OS/2.
evil is as evil does
I was looking at building a mini-itx system myself just to run freebsd as a small silent server. I no longer see any point to that. This box costs about the same but way more horsepower. Yowsa!
evil is as evil does
iBrator
Gentoo and Mandrake have PPC ports (but Mandrake's might be out of date).
Hmmmm, now I'm thinking. Isn't the mini going to hurt their upgrade sales margin? Why would any non-professional who already owns a monitor and keyboard ever buy another new desktop model? I wonder if they'll come out with new versions of the mini that only interface with newer monitors... Seems odd, but I'm sure SJ has a strategy. Looks like they're going for consumer volume over their traditional showcase niche product strategy. (1500 other posts already on this story, why am I writing this?)
For one thing, I would say most people going to the lengths of creating a capture box like this are going to have a larger more modern set where DVI is OK - or be using a monitor and be OK (or more than OK) with VGA. And as you mention there is an S-Video dongle that adapts everyone else (not sure why a dongle is that bad, essentially a small adaptor at the end of the cable). The main problem I could see is I'm not sure all the sets with DVI are that great at displaying computer output, but perhaps the Mac can adapt somehow in that regard to supply better output.
The other part is the capture. Sure you can't expand the box internally with a capture card, but it's wide open for external firewire devices. One idea is to start making use of the firewire ports on the cable boxes (required by law to work, you may have to ask to get a functional box though) to capture video that way. It seems the best way since you get the raw feed, although the downside is I don't think you can share that with other people easily (encrypted feed only playable by the box that generated it? I seem to remember something like that).
Another possibility is the EyeTV commercial device, a fair compromise that costs around what a capture card would cost ($199) and does about as good a job.
Sure it takes away a little of the coolness to start adding extra devices but considering how small the Mini Mac is, at least there will be room.
So now what OS X needs is a port of MythTV that focuses on other capture means but adds the rest of the features.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Sure it does, it has three Audio in ports and they're daisy chain-able... 2 USB2, 1 Firewire. You can go to Fry's and get an audio block for $35 and up.
Repetition does not transform a lie into the truth. - FDR
If you were nice to them you'd give them a Microsoft Natural or something along those lines. Personally I've been using Natural KBs exclusively for the last 5 years or so. They don't come with USB connectors.
That is kind of cool, though the device as a whole is a lot larger than the Shuffle.
Carrying the shuffle around really is more like just carrying a memory stick with extra features.
Probably though I'll be buying the Sanddisk CF card that has a built in USB connector, as I could use photo memory cards more than another music player...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Yep, see also my thread on using these as standardized adjunct devices for custom industrial process control applications. I see these Minis proliferating into all kinds of use-cases that previously called for custom scratchbuilt PCs. Steve's just given the world a great little geektool there.
All of the new products have similar silly disclaimers. The mini mac has a disclaimer stating that hands are not included. This silliness should only be discouraged. Let the stuffy ones grow cunts and fuck themselves.
Marxism is the opiate of dumbasses
I hadn't thought of it until somebody started talking about stacking up Mini's into a cluster, but that's precisely what IBM is talking about doing (albeit a different processor, and with correct interconnects etc)... thoughts?
Repetition does not transform a lie into the truth. - FDR
When you change your iPod from PC to Mac it will delete all of the songs you've put on it.
p ?app=iPodRip
I've had iPodRip recommended to me as a good solution. You can find it on the link below
http://www.thelittleappfactory.com/application.ph
I just checked out the ipod Shuffle. It's super cool! I can't wait to get my hands on it :-)
Is it possible to use multiple tuners with eyetv? MythTV's ability to use multiple tuners is excellent for not having to choose which show to record.
In an better world, Apple would release a real PVR product, possibly using MythTV.
Definitely I'm aware. There's a reason why some slack COO (or whatever title he has now) of Sun wouldn't open source the source code for the old Lighthouse suite of apps (Create and friends, I understand why FrameMaker couldn't be licensed even though I wish it was). And Schwartz is even COO or whatever other title of the week he has. Sun should own the Lighthouse source code from their buyout in the previous age of this world, but that code has just magically disappeared despite a number of folks asking if they could open source that instead of the non-native OOo code.
[tinfoilhat]Sun may very well be the new cloakroom wheeling-and-dealing Satan of our time![/tinfoilhat]
ed
PC keyboards' "logo key" (usually Windows key) remains a logo key on the Mac, except it's marked with an Apple logo on Apple keyboards - wotta surprise! ALT becomes Option, and CTRL remains CTRL.
On a Mac, the second mouse button displays a contextual menu, just like in Windows. Scroll wheels behave the same.
The Ctrl and Logo keys play different roles under Mac and Windows. On Windows, the Ctrl key is the main modifier: Ctrl-C to copy, Ctrl-S to save, and so on. You need Control if you want to use menu commands in Windows. On the Mac, however, the Logo key is the primary modifier: Logo-C, Logo-S, etc. while the Shift, Ctrl and Option (Alt) keys serve as modifiers. Apple puts an Apple key on either side of the spacebar, a good ergonomic decision, becuase contrary to s_mencer's post, most users will use the Logo key extensively - Logo-Tab to switch apps, Logo-Q, etc.
The Mac tends to use modifier keys more fully than Windows, no doubt due to the single mouse button. Need a (tm) logo in your text? Alt-2. The mnemonics are also better overall - Close Window is Logo-W instead of Alt-F4, and the Process Manager is Logo-Alt-Esc instead of Ctrl-Alt-Del so you can execute it with one hand.
Wrists killing you? Not in 2 weeks. Learn Dvorak.
I'm getting one too. I have never had a desire to own a Mac until about a year ago when I really got a good look at OS 10. I came super close to purchasing a G5, but backed off because it seemed an awful lot of money to plunk down for a machine to "test drive" the Mac. Now, good ol' Steve has taken away my last excuse. Nice to see someone in the computer industry with both creativity and the balls to back it up. God listen to me, I sound like a Mac fanboy already and I don't even own the damn thing.
Dual processors? Dual core processors? How quaint. I'm thinking, dual computers. Surely you could find a way to fit a Mac mini inside a PowerMac G5 and use it as an ancillary computer with some form of remote desktop.
English is easier said than done.
One problem I see with the Mac-mini is the
...
amount of video ram -- 32 MB. From some of
the early info regarding OSX 10.4 (code named
"Tiger"), the minimum spec for video memory
is 64 MB.
Besides main memory upgrades, and scrounging
a keyboard and mouse, a video board upgrade
may be on the list of "Things to Do".
Other than that, damn I want one
You could always generate a smart playlist of n-MB of music which has not been played in the last n-days selected at random. Setting iTunes to synch that playlist would effectively duplicate what AutoFill is doing.
No. Those are Apple's second worst enemies. Apple's worst enemies are the people who predicted Apple's demise when they stopped shipping with floppies. Then predicted Apple's demise when they started using USB.
What a load of crap, revisionist history. The complaint was not that Apple dropped the floppy, the complaint was that the rev A iMac had no removable media. No zip. No CD-R. Nothing. Apple solved this deficiency and eventually added a CD-R. If I had to guess I would say they wanted a CD-R all along but had to go to plain CD to make their price point.
I've been using Apple's since 1981, Mac's since '83 (developer - Lisa actually). I'd comment on your other nonsense but I've fed the trolls enough tonight.
Just a couple days ago, Palmer wrote:
Naturally, being so colossally wrong is tough on the average egomaniac. So today, his headline is,
followed by something like 2,000 words of RSI-inducing keyboard mashing. I'd never heard of the guy before; heh, now I know why.
And so it begins: the Toppling of the Snobs as Apple tells its limousine class they now have to share company with average Joes. Oh, boo hoo. ;-)
Unlike your Linux PC, my PowerMac's keyboard does include a shift key.
I've got news for you. His keyboard has a shift key too. He chose not to use it (and yes I realize you know this but your ahh, clever, response doesn't make much sense, or perhaps I'm just dense). And he could be using a Mac based Linux machine no?
or the CPU will blow
The G4 in this system definitely does just that, along with a horrible amount of default memory and the 9200 is nothing special, as you say. But to each their own of course.
Apple's server offerings have always been pretty good. I had some porno on my old G3/266 running 9.x and AppleShare IP 6.x get listed on www.thehun.net before. The box got the crap smacked out of it, but faithfully served up porno long after the traffic died off.
/. effect - perverts galore!)
(fyi, getting listed on thehun.net is almost *worse* than a
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't OGG a more computationally intensive codec, hence lowering the battery life. Maybe that's no longer the case.
...the tamPod? ;-)
a mic would have been great - even my dad is into skype, and trying to get him to switch with one more thing he cant use... well, that makes it harder :/
I was thinking about how I'd hook this into my current setup, with a PS/2 keyboard and trackball. I think I'd use a PS/2 KVM, and use a PS/2-to-USB adapter only on the Mac side.
Share and Enjoy: 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
-PDA.
-Digital camera.
-Card readers.
-Mobile phones.
-Bunny forbids, other music players different to the iPod (you know, not everybody is that gullible having some better music players out there).
-DAB radios.
-Network cards of all denominations.
-Speakers.
-Audio cards.
-Monitors.
-External storage devices (DVD, disk, tape, you name it).
And the list could go on and on.
2 USB ports is not good enough, but having to buy a USB hub is not such a drawback, after all this is an low level entry machine.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
PNG files, wherefore art thou?
With all this talk about compatibility, and "playing nice with others" . . . with all this hurrah about alpha transparency . . . I still haven't heard or read anything about how Pages or the other "new & improved" apps can play nice with PNG files.
Now that I've gone PNG, I don't wanna go back, baby.
Somebody give me the straight dope: does OS X and the Apple apps play nice with PNG files?
I knew that they had to gimp the system somehow. and all of you fucking morons complaining about a 1 button mouse get over it anyone who says macs are poorly engineered because of this ( you are showing that you have no concept of computers, you are showing that you are an ignorant moron, and you should kill yourself before you accidentally procreate, we don't want any more idiots on this planet we have too many of them already)
i looked at the specs and i found what i was looking for, the mac mini has a 126MHZ bus, compare this to an ibook with a 133 MHz bus and you will quickly see that this thing will be slower that an ibook, or even an Emacs. don't get me wrong it will probably work great, apps wont be as snappy but mom and pop can do their stuff on it and be happy with it. i would assume that in 2006 the will bump the bus speed but this thing will probably always be slower than an ibook, but then again this is a gateway drug and not a number cruncher. ignore the Ghz rating anyone who is not an Intel zombie shill can tell you that GHZ means nothing its bus speed, and cache that really matter.
You can buy memory from many manufacturers for PCs, install it yourslef and if it does not work they take it back and replace it, no questions asked.
In the early PC era, with the exception of Macs, you could open your own PC, replace components, and still expect that a guarantee on the machine would be honoured if something went horribly wrong.
Nowadays when comoditazation of everything is common place is ludicrous to insist in the user not opening a machine to upgrade something that traditionally is upgradable in all the industry.
If people whine about certain Apple's ideosincracies sometimes is for good reasons.
After 10+ years of not working with Apple's machines professionaly I would have expected that they would have wisened up on this particular aspect, but alas, they have not.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
duh, just buy a usb hub (20$). also my M$ keyboard has two extra usb ports on it.
"I keep looking in the want-ads under 'revolutionary' but there don't seem to be any listings.. "
"Designed With Exquisite Finesse
Most low-cost PC manufacturers slap together Frankenstein machines by hacking away features from the high end (of three years ago, anyway) and putting the warmed-over parts in ill-fitting cheap plastic boxes. They don't really have a choice, since they don't design any of the parts, from operating system to motherboard. That's why most budget PC cases seem to be littered with a mish-mash of uncoordinated stickers from every component vendor on the planet."
heh. I like that bit.
they do job for 98% of ./ Apple posters
r s. gif
g if
http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/images/AppleHate
http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/images/iProduct.
.... or are Apple's fanboys completely delussional?
You can google the answers yourself. You will be suprised!
And people thought Linux advocates were zealots. At least the penguinists are not paying for the privilege of been part of a cult.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
I feel bad about it. It looks awsome, does everything anyone would want in a computer, and it's dirt cheap. It's also really, really small. Anyone remember the TurboGrafx-16? Ever see its Japanese counterpart the PC-Engine? The American version was 2.5 times bigger for no other reason than that to an American Big == Good. Oh well, maybe it'll do better in Japan and Europe. I can't wait to get one. But heck then again I thought the PC-Engine was cooler than the TG-16, and I still remember being amazed how small Sega Genesis cartridges were...
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
with more than 2100 posts already chances are noone is going to read this. Who cares, I'll just listen to myself then.
The presentation app, keynote, appears to be a godsend. It has a number of features that I always wanted (but was too lazy to code):
- a dual-monitor setup so that you can have a presentation on the beamer and an overview on your laptop. Do modern laptops carry dual-out, by the way?
- a timer to go with your overview page. The days that I have skipped content just to fit the deadline are nearly over. Finally.
however, there is one feature that I'm still missing. This one is especially useful for technical design, etc: construct individual slides from `master' images that are possibly larger than the slides. In a CAD environment it means flying into a detail of your design.
In general this technique should lead to a more natural progression from slide to slide. Perhaps it can be generalized even. I'm thinking along the lines of first creating a story and only afterwards chopping it up into bytesize chunks. The aforementioned design-issue is just an example. Read "presenting to win" by Weissman (yeah, horrible title) for more useful comments on holding presentations.
.... which normally are USB.
THe beast lead on this one, but now the beast has been left behind.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Do you mean Linux running on the Mac when you talk about external drives and drivers? Actually any USB 2.0 or Firewire drive works just fine on the Mac out of the box, as do just about any USB storage devices on the planets (like thumb drives and so on).
I still think the size is really appealing for a HTPC system and I really like that I'll be able to host iTunes music from it throughout the house (you are right on the money that an external drive is desireable!) and that the DVD player will work really well - also there is a remote for it, though I would prefer to see some kind of bluetooth remote emerge. Basically for a person that has a few Macs already this box along with some good external storage make for a nice compact house server solution to feed media to other boxes throughout the house, as well as the TV (I'm using a projector so the VGA out is perfect).
So, at least one person is crazy enough to try using it for an HTPC... I'll bet there will be quite a few more in the near future. As much as some other PC's might be a little better suited to the task, I'll bet the Mini Mac draws scads of users making it become a really good HTPC solution.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Yes there are a few players that can mount directly, but not many - I am talking about not even needing a cable. As others have said it makes a lot of sense if you are thinking about picking up a USB drive anyway to possibly get music playing capabilities for not much more... And the form factor is pretty good for carrying about.
As to the software/hardware integration - are you really saying that a lot of people do not find that appealing? For a lot of people iTunes is a fine way to load an iPod and will work just as well to select what goes on this smaller device, so already it has a head start with very well integrated software that a lot of people know how to use already. I know because I still use an original 5GB iPod every day with a far larger collection on my computer, and have to manage swapping new stuff in and out every now and then. iTunes is a very good program to address this task. There are other programs that are also pretty good - but are any of the programs even close bundled with other devices that offer similar features to the Shuffle? Once again I am saying that Apple just takes useful features that exist in other products and combines them in appealing ways for a nice comprehensive package.
Is it really that Apple fans are so delusional, or perhaps that people that scoff at Apple are just a touch unwilling to admit something positive about Apple?
So you scoff, let us hear your predictions on the Shuffle sales - flop or not? I predict that it will be another big success. If you predict the same, what kind of argument do you really have?
Note that I am not utterly enthralled by every Apple product, as I still am not totally sure the iPod Photo will do very well in the end (at what it was intended for - I think a lot of people who buy it now just want the larger HD so sales for photo use alone are really masked).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Well what you're asking for already exists, it's called Macromedia Director and its internet plugin Shockwave. Its language is even a heir of HyperCard's language, HyperTalk. Too bad Macromedia insists on killing its greatest software ever though.
£69 for the half Gig and £99 for the gig, pretty reasonable really! (all prices include VAT)
'By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes'
http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/images/AppleHaters. gif
It's on the web store, and is listed as £68 and £99 for the small and big models, respectively.
Just for the record, my Samsung TV has DVI-in, so non-issue for me.
You'll have to excuse me, I'm just off for a quick iShuffle ;-)
Suttree, a weblog about casual games development
uh, OK. Are the hands a BTO-option?
Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
iogear makes some sexay ones, but they're not cheap cheap.
This you should not be talking so much about it.
There are many people making a living exactly the way you are hinting it would not be possible.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
.... it is a matter of punctuation.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
n/t
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Official advice from Apple:
1. Music capacity is based on 4 minutes per song and 128Kbps AAC encoding.
**2. Do not chew iPod shuffle.**
3. Rechargeable batteries have a limited number of charge cycles and may eventually need to be replaced. Battery life and number of charge cycles vary by use and settings. See www.apple.com/uk/batteries for more information.
4. Some computers require either the optional iPod shuffle Dock or a USB cable extender (sold separately).
http://www.apple.com/uk/ipodshuffle/
I for one am very disappointed that chewing functionality has been omitted from the shuffle. I personally was waiting for the blueberry flavored version. Maybe next year....
Chihiro
Memes don't exist. Spread the Word.
Plus, Steve Jobs is a prick...
no, no, no... it's pronounced Bill Gates
'By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes'
Yes !
I think small business or small parts of large business might get impressed with those.
T.
My other sig is Funny.
2 Do not eat iPod Shuffle.
IHBT.
In case you're late to the party, Apple's point releases for OS X are equivalent to most products' full numbered release. See, they're milking the "Mac OS X" brand as long as they can, or can you not see through the marketing-speak? The point-point releases are free and are equivalent to most products' point releases.
Asshead.
...or [shift]+[apple]+[N] ...
It's not my fault - greatness was thrust upon me.
My new Mac mini blog:
http://macmini.blogspot.com/
Come check it out.
He took a known fact (well, a rumour, but a pretty solid one) that Apple plans to release a 500$ Mac. He can't get a credit for this, because it's not his prediction. That's what ThinkSecret told us based on leaked secret info.
Then Cringlely added a lot of his own unfounded speculation, which doesn't make any sense at all (Apple doesn't sell hardware at a loss, not even to piss off Bill). Almost everything he "predicted" was stupid, but he would probably still try to take credit for this one in a year.
Future Wiki -- If you don't think about the future, you cannot have one.
kept SGI around long enough for them to reinvent themselves
SGI's new gig is deploying lots of Intel CPUs on some funky buses. If that excites you, well done.
HP loses money on PC's, so did IBM before they jetisoned that unit. Basically Dell is the only one making any money on PC hardware
All these companies you mention are many times Apple's size and have over the past 20 years produced shareholder returns many dozens or hundreds of times that of Apple's.
Da Blog
Dude, he's parrotting me. *I* was being charitable, seeing that this is an online site with an overrepresentation of Macs. What are the real stats like?
Da Blog
Yeah, well the Amiga never really went away either. But is it "doing fine"?
As for the "wobbles" in sales, what do they look like? If you always tend to wobble downwards, while your competitors tend to wobble upwards, then even during a prolonged steady-state of wobbling around equilibrium it's easy to see the final conclusion.
Da Blog
On the bottom of the design page:
Keyboard, iPod mini, dock, hands, AirPort, Bluetooth and PC sold separately.
On the Graphics page:
Display, The Incredibles game, Finding Nemo DVD and HDTV sold separately.
On the Software page:
Digital life software included. HDTV sold separately.
We're sorry, the phone number you have reached is imaginary. Please rotate your phone 90 degrees and try your call again
I am not familiar with the Shuttle product, but does it include 100Mb WiFi (Airport Extreme) and Bluetooth? If not, I did not see you note either an add-on or those (significant) limitations in your comparison.
Also, Apple is offering free shipping. Since you are positioning your comparison as being acurate to down to two significant digits ($27.14), you need to factor in something that could cost as much as twice your marginal difference.
Bottom line - if you are going to do a comparo, consider all the angles. I don't care how much a fanboy you may or may not be, it doesn't help anyone to get incorrect/incomplete information.
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
90% of the mark-up is actualy British VAT and the rest is probably higher import duties. Don't forget as well that most americans will buy them in store and get sales tax slapped on top of the $499 as well.
The difference isn't that staggering and it certainly isn't Apple's fault. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if they make more on these per unit in the US than they do in the UK!
Price it at 349 and many more would bite.
As it stands it still is outside the range most people will just toss out for a second computer or "an experiment"
Nice attempt but the price is still wrong.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
BTW, it costs $450 to upgrade the mac mini from 256mb ram to 1gb. That's the price of the plain mini. A superdrive upgrade is only $100. Bluetooth and wifi $150
SO, by the time you upgrade the ram, superdrive and wifi/bluetooth, you'll be spending over $1200 for a system with no monitor and a slower processor.
I just don't think this will fly.
It fazes me... why not write AppleWorks documents, do Apple expect everyone to migrate at once? Perhaps they plan to start doing that later, maybe when they get also a spreadsheet and a DB frontend?
As it is really less than AppleWorks, MS shouldn't care... but I guess Apple is only too happy that OOo exists to take care of MS Office users should need arise.
Leandro Guimarães Faria Corcete DUTRA
DA, DBA, SysAdmin, Data Modeller
GNU Project, Debian GNU/Lin
...but it's not an "unabashed ripoff" when 99% of your audience knows exactly where it came from. I'd prefer to call it a "remix". ;)
Sure, Steve was an asshole earlier in life. But he's now accepted Lisa into his family and, as I recall, he also paid for her college education.
Yeah, I know, IHBT, etc.
In Repressive Burma, it's not just your connection that dies. slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=314547&cid=20819199
You misunderstand the problem. The problem is not that a one button mouse exists. The problem is that there is no multibutton w/ scrollwheel mouse available from **Apple**. For a computer that is sold partly on its look and style, ie fashion, not having an alternative mouse is counterproductive. The one button should be the default but a multibutton/wheel mouse should be available as a build-to-order option for when you are buying a system for yourself rather than grandma.
Alternative.
http://www.dvforge.com/themouse.shtml
Bang. Looks factory. Works great. My Bluetooth one rocks.
You can add any of a dozen multi-button mice as accessories from the Apple store. They'll come with your new computer. All they do is not take the one-button mouse out of the box. This is not, repeat: Not a problem.
Come on: When you want to customize your car, do you whine because the body kit you wan't isn't factory?
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
Is it me, or is there no way to lock the controlls on the iPod shuffle ?
Nope. Read the specs. The Mac mini comes with a DVI-to-VGA adapter in the box. So you don't need a DVI KVM; just a USB model.
as mentioned in the forums at sudhian and spcr.com, the mini should really be compared to some of the epia mini-itx systems. i'm off to research those and will post later...
"...that's as white as it gets; all the bits are on..."
Wow, this topic has 2300 comments. I wonder how many the dupe story posted next week will get. :-)
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
I have a scroll-wheel mouse attached to my Mac. No drivers. In safari:
Left button does what you expect.
Right button opens contextual menus.
Scroll wheel scrolls.
Scroll wheel click opens a link in a new tab.
So... what more did you want it to do?
-fred
Sign #11 of Slashdot overdose: You see the phrase 'moderate Republican' and you wonder if that would be a +1 or a -1.
I prefer Keynote to pulling my own head off!
That's just about as good as 'It's like Microsoft Office for the rest of your life.'
-fred
Sign #11 of Slashdot overdose: You see the phrase 'moderate Republican' and you wonder if that would be a +1 or a -1.
Which don't include Apple Store sales. They didn't include online Apple Store sales either, last I checked, but they might have fixed this since then. I doubt it, but maybe.
Gartner's market share polls are paid for primarily by Microsoft. Now, I'm not saying that they're lying, exactly. But they sure do know exactly what their customer wants to hear, and, much like the intelligence agencies and GWB, are quite willing to be very selective about what they say...
-fred
Sign #11 of Slashdot overdose: You see the phrase 'moderate Republican' and you wonder if that would be a +1 or a -1.
Nope. Read the specs. The Mac mini comes with a DVI-to-VGA adapter in the box. So you don't need a DVI KVM; just a USB model.
Thank you but I did read the specs. The point you are missing is that someone who has a DVI capable monitor probably does not want to use the VGA. If they wanted only VGA they could have saved a lot of money.
...... never stop to amaze me.
Many low factor machines (and normal ones to) have USB ports in the front of the case.
The decision to put the USB port in the back is dumb, period.
Oh yeah, I will buy a glorified USB extension cable for 29 when I can go and get a cable peanuts in any computer store. Apple knows its audience: a complete bucnh of techonolical ignoramus who will buy any "approved" shinny Apple accesories before reasoning if it is reasonable to do so.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Are the smaller projectors to big for you *NM*
Little Brother, watching the watchers
What surprised me about this was that despite the quite distinctive build they're not pushing it for a specific purpose. With an 85W power supply it seems to optimised to run 24/7 maybe as a PVR or server but Mac don't seem to be suggesting a particular role, compared to something like the iPod.
project: home server, beyond peer2peer in the
...I guess I'll see you again when it's time to bash the new Apple monopoly...
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
...or [New Folder] from the [Action Menu]...
Interesting. This story has almost enough posts to put it on the Hall of Fame (albeit, the 10th spot). Even the Mac mini duplicate story has over 1000 replies!
Actually, you can run linux on it right now. You can get any number of Linux Distros that work on the PPC chip and last I looked, the Mini is nothing more than a repackaged iMac.
When I got my G5, I went to www.gentoo.org and snagged a PPC distro and bo0otstrapped my iMac just for fun. It now runs like a champ and I can even dual boot between OSX and Gentoo Linux.
With the cost of the Mac Mini, I am seriously looking into using several of them as a personal renderfarm and to add power to Logic via distributed computing.
The question is, for $2.5k, is 5 Mac Minis as a renderfarm faster than one basic Xserv. I'm not talking about the individual computer comparisons but more you have 5 G4 1.2 GHz processors vs. 1 2 GHz G5.
Actually, you can run linux on it right now. You can get any number of Linux Distros that work on the PPC chip and last I looked, the Mini is nothing more than a repackaged iMac.
When I got my G5, I went to www.gentoo.org and snagged a PPC distro and bo0otstrapped my iMac just for fun. It now runs like a champ and I can even dual boot between OSX and Gentoo Linux.
With the cost of the Mac Mini, I am seriously looking into using several of them as a personal renderfarm and to add power to Logic via distributed computing.
The question is, for $2.5k, is 5 Mac Minis as a renderfarm faster than one basic Xserv. I'm not talking about the individual computer comparisons but more you have 5 G4 1.2 GHz processors vs. 1 2 GHz G5
With the US to Pound/eruro exchange rate like it is, I would think if you can order here in the states and get it shipped back to the UK, it might be less expensive.
If you're refering to Windows:
In Windows Explorer highlight the Desktop. Select File/New Shortcut.
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
I think some will still balk at the price for value. It will for sure get into the Windows iPod user's home - but they could have saved $$ by using a LC sized case and a full sized 72krpm drive.
l c. gif
http://www.transintl.com/store/images/applcomp/
Even excluding the cheapie Chinese MP3 players, you can get a 512 MP3 player, with voice recording and an FM tuner, for $91.99. So what's the big deal about the iPod Shuffle?
"Do I dare disturb the universe?"
...laptop is enough for work, PS2 for games, and Mac Mini is convenient for hardcore unix-fan (and admin) type as I am.
In the end a window may only be displaying 5 unique operations, however there are some 30 individual items on the screen. In that sense it's confusing. It's not a zealot behaviour that people assume of macintosh users (sure they exist, windows ones exist too, linux ones, et al)
Much of the debate of the mouse button that spawns is usually based on what it would be like for a windows user to use a sole mouse button. The mac software well demonstrates that productivity doesn't decrease with one less mouse button, it's an evolutionary thing, if only one button existed, then they wouldn't design for one mouse button, and had to place alot of thought into how things were to be laid out on the screen, instead of just tucking things away in the parallel (and dynamic, i.e confusing) menu system that the contextual menu provides