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Apple Releases Mac Mini
cranesan writes "The rumors of Apple releasing a small PC are confirmed. The Mac mini can be found at Apple's website. As expected, the box uses a G4 processor. You can order one today; estimate 3-4 weeks shipping date. Base unit starts at $499."
Anyone notice that all the stories on the front page are now listed as posted by 'samzenpus'? The fact that such a glaringly obvious dupe was posted kinda raised the 'this website has been hacked' alarm.
Yes, the Mac is more expensive in terms of raw computing power. But, a lot of people consider Mac OS X to be worth a significant premium over Windows XP.
But, most importantly, what tasks can you, as a user, do with a $500 PC that you can't with the $500 Mac?
All the price comparisons I've seen, including the 'in-depth' analysis on CNet, talk purely about the value of the hardware. (BTW, theirs is bogus, because they compare to boxes with crappy integrated graphics and no DVD player). The attraction of the Mac is in the software, mainly iLife. This is why people buy computers - to do stuff. Of the news site anayses I've seen, most of them don't even mention the bundled iLife software at all, yet it's the core of the digital lifestyle that Apple are selling. This is why comparisons of Windows PCs and Macs are nearly uniformly missing the point. A Mac isn't realy in the same product category as a PC. It's more like the product category of digital cameras, synthesisers and DVD players. Simon Hibbs
I bought one as soon as they were announced.
I'm a PC person really but have been looking to do the mac-thing for a while... at this price it's definately a winner.
Who in their right mind buys memory from an OEM? Don't get on Apple's case about expensive memory, because it's true in the PC world too! Whether it's Dell, Sony, IBM, whoever - you're almost always better off dollarwise to buy your system with the least available memory, then buy the upgrade from someone else. With the exception of the occasional special deal, this has been true for as long as I can remember.
...?
Of course, this begs the question: does the mini allow user upgrades? Can't check because the Apple site isn't responding at the moment, but that little box looks to be shut tighter than a virgin's iPod.
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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.
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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.
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Another thing to note. A DIN slot (car radio standard size) is 2"x7", the mini mac is 2"x6.5".
If it had a radio faceplate and a laptop drive, this would be the best car stereo ever.
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Say hello to *real* "Media Center" Machine
(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!
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INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Select proper post
2. Copy and paste into the reply box
3. Submit (no need for preview!)
4. Profit
That the machine has sold very well, and that the shipping date for new orders are no longer Jan 22nd, but 3-4 weeks.
Luckily, my order got through early, so mine is expected to ship Jan 28th or earlier. This is pretty good since official release in Denmark is 29th.
I have always been a sucker for the coolness factor in Apple products [but I didn't buy a Lisa!] and this has me drooling.
SLASHDOT: news for people who can't concentrate on work or have no life at all and got tired of yelling back at the TV.
Of course, that's assuming that Amiga gets over their "Our OS can only be ran on our hardware" mentality.
I've been a vocal critic of Amiga for going this route, ever since it was announced, but here's yet another example of why their plan is dumb: You can now buy a complete PPC machine (sans mouse, keyboard, and monitor) for less than you can buy an Amiga OS 4 board!
Yes... They'd have to get their OS to boot on the machines, but as a growing number of Linux distributions prove, it's not too hard to do.
I think, after seeing this machines price, and the price of the (yet unreleased, other than in alpha/beta form) Amiga board/CPU combo, that there must only be one or two nails left before the Amigas coffin is finally sealed shut.
This isn't intended to be flamebait or a troll (sorry if you thought so): I can't imagine this device finding a market niche as a personal computer. Here's why:
I was thinking about buying myself a second hand G4 Cube from ebay, but thought better of it when I heard about this (because it's an up-to-date design that is comparable in size to the Cube).
Then I realised that it's not a hugely powerful machine and is intended perhaps as a second-machine for the iPod users who are inerested in OS X. But it's not really got enough meat to it to compare with its PC contemporaries (and I wouldn't make the mistake of comparing its 1.42 and 1.25GHz G4 chips with a Pentium 4 at 2.8, 3.2, 3.4 etc. GHz), and its G4 chip already looks outdated next to its G5 PowerMac brothers. I understand that the PowerBooks and iBooks contain G4 chips at present, and it appears to me that this Mac mini might be a laptop-derived design. I think it may end up lumped in the 'great for e-mail and web' trough. I expect people will find ways to turn these pretty boxes into PVRs (hacking a video-in) or expensive STBs, silent home servers and the like, but will not use them for second computers.
I don't want to spark a Mac-antiMac flame war, but do think that these questions remain outstanding. Please honour my non-troll intentions by replying...
When I first saw it, it said "Estimated arrival by January 22", now it says "3-4 weeks". I assume there was a rush early on.
It'll be interesting seeing whether it can be easily set up for TV out.
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Firewire? USB HiSpeed? DVDROM? DVI?
How about size? (The Dell is the size of 50 Mac mini's)? How about noise? My Dell Dimension at work is louder than the HVAC.
And on the model with the free monitor you get less memory, slower memory bus, and smaller hard disk...
And the "on site" warranty only applies to the one with the free 17 inch monitor - but not the other two (the other two are better computers but come with not as much stuff).
Those aren't bad deals - but I think they are in an entirely different market or demographic...
It is kind of difficult to tell from the pictures. An external power supply (like laptops have) would make a lot of sense. Also it would make the following wishful thinking slightly more realistic:
Imagine a mac mini. Add a battery pack. Add wireless option. Throw it in your backpack. Add wireless screen (sort of like a tablet PC but just enough computing power to be a remote desktop client...for the mac mini you have in your back ack). In your home office, add a dock, and a real screen, keyboard and mouse. And so on.
In my dreams, at least.
.... for a desktop, as they seem to be attempting to pass it off as. Sure, you could use it as one, but it would seem more appropriate to use it as a portable, in which case, why not just get a laptop?
Where's the mic port? Is it just my ignorance of Apple hardware showing, or is there not one?
But God demonstrates his love for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us - (Romans 5:8)
Right, because paying more for a color accurate LCD with built-in firewire and USB 2.0 hubs isn't worth it to some people.
I've been an Apple non-believer for most of my life. Since day one I considered the Apple IIe to be overrated (Commodores were better), Mac's lacked the flexibility and software that the IBM PC/AT/XT/386/486+ did. For the 1990s, Macs were overpriced and lacked software to compete realistically for an PC market share. And don't get me started on games.
I also figured iPods would be doomed to failure. Why would people spend $400-600 on harddrive mp3 player, instead of say $150 on a flash mp3 player? How small could they get those disks anyways? As for Mac OS/X, come on...if someone could put an elegant GUI on a robust unix kernel don't you think Microsoft or IBM would have done it already??? And Apple was clearly doomed financially...has any company ever lasted long after a Microsoft payoff?
Now, in 2005, 20 years after I gave up on Apple, everything is falling into place. They finally have production costs under control, and long term strategic chip partnership with IBM. iPods are more popular than Sony Walkman's in the day. Mac OS/X is perhaps the best operating system in the market.
And now this. Although there's alot of Mini-ITX cases available for the PC (Apple appears to be copying the PC market), this one DOES IT RIGHT. OS is included; several very good tools and software are included. You won't be using this mini-Mac for gaming, but for internet/digital photos/word processing its an awesome setup.
Kudos Mr Jobs. I finally consider Apple a true market player once again.
John Maynard Keynes: "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?"
Are you kidding, this is the best thing to ever happen to us techies! All I need to do is get my mom and my grandparents to replaces their piece of crap, cheap-ass gateways/dells; and all of a sudden, my family tech support responsibilities will drop by ridiculous amount.
With all the new free time I'll have, I'll need a new hobby. Maybe I'll finally start drinking.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
It's more than just your 50 year-old father.
I'm a 24 year-old network admin that's tired of dealing with Windows falling apart, or having to beat my Linux box into submission to make it do what I want.
I've used OSX before, briefly, before; the university was covered in iMacs. But only to print papers, or check a website. Then, just after Christmas, I was house sitting for my sister, a technophobe that manages to use an older G4 iMac. Having a week to sit down with the OS, my reaction now is this:
I'm not running any sort of heavy duty server, so fucking forget dealing with Linux. And if I'm going to pay for an OS, OSX runs rings around the best things Microsoft could even conceive. Now, how can I justify buying a full-priced Mac when I already have a pretty uber gaming PC?
This announcement couldn't have been more perfectly timed. I adore my iPod. I'm tired of PCs. And this thing's affordable and works with the pretty pricey monitor I've already got.
If they had an option to upgrade the video card in this thing to something like a 9600/9800 Pro, I'd be absolutely sold, but as it is, I'll probably buy one, anyways.
> some of the most color accurate LCDs out there
You need to do some more research! My salmon tinted Apple LCD disagrees with you. The color problems with the Apple displays are well-known.
Let's compare the two.
First, let's update the Mac Mini; upgrading to 512 MB RAM and a 80 GB hard drive at the Apple store bumps the cost up to $625.
Now let's update the Dell. Include Windows XP Pro (because the Mac does not ship with a crippled version of OS X), a CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo drive (the Dell only has a CD-ROM), the cheap 56k modem, and we're up to $707.
I can't seem to find any information about the Dell's video card, and there's no option to upgrade it, so it's probably a cheap integrated chipset. It's also pretty unlikely to have a DVI output or Firewire, but I can't find that information anywhere, either. On the other hand, the Dell's processor is probably slightly faster even when you take into account the MHz myth, so we'll call them even.
So, the Dell is $82 more expensive with roughly the same specs. Supposedly there's a $100 mail-in rebate, but I have heard horror stories about how hard it is to get companies to honor those, so take it with a grain of salt. The Dell also doesn't have equivalents to the iLife suite or Quicken 2005, and it's probably about ten times as large. I fail to see how that's a better deal.
Karma: Terrifying (mostly affected by atrocities you've committed)
Hey now! Don't act as if Dells don't come with lots of software. They do come with lot's of software!
- AOL
- MSN Internet
- Branded version of Internet Explorer
- Branded version of MusicMatch Jukebox
- Non-updateable version of McAfee VirusScan (yay says home user! now I'm protected! don't have to do anything else!)
- Crippled version of PaintShop
- Lots of nice icons with Special Offers!
- A program that tells me about important computer stuff (Dell Support Alerts)
- Lots more I forgot to list
Humph! Well you thought wrong! Dell comes with lots of software! And think of it! All this stuff comes with a handy order form for the full version! How conveinient! How dare you say that Mac has a bunch of software and a Dell doesn't???!??!On a serious note: It take me at least an hour to uninstall all the crap that comes with each new Dell system I have to configure.
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