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Mac mini's New Friend
Thijs van As writes "The miniMate, MicroNet's new external disk drive and port replicator, is created specifically to complement Apple's new Mac mini. With available storage up to 400GB, 4 USB 2.0 ports and 3 FireWire ports, the miniMate extends the capabilities of the Mac mini. Looks impressive if you ask me."
That's slightly misleading, since you have to use one of each of those to connect the unit to the mac mini and use those ports as a hub. Still seems pretty neat though. 2 firewire ports can be very handy.
-1 (Troll) is antihammer
From the website:
MM80 $149.00
MM160 $179.00
MM250 $249.00
MM400 $499.00
As much as I like the form factor I would have a real hard time buying one of these, but if I did it would have to be the 250. Can you stack 'em and get an extra 100GB + twice the ports for $500?
Like this?
A kit that does exactly that would be great, like the Marathon kits, like the iRack. Sure, it's warranty-violating activity, but when has that stopped anybody?
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Cheese it! It's the FEDS!
This is a little prettier. Still not the Mac mini style you want, but at least its kitschy.
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Cheese it! It's the FEDS!
From their specs page:
-OS Support : Mac OS X v10.1.5 & greater, Windows 98SE, 2000, ME, XP
Mexico: 100% conservative's America now!
Well it's surely not cheap... because 15 (times 2) plus 90, plus 60 is $180 -- incidentally the price they are selling it for. So this assumes that the manufacturer couldn't get volume discounts or Asian fabrication to reduce costs AT ALL.
Frankly, going with just the numbers you've given me, I'd say the unit could cost 15 to 20% less than it does. But screw them, let 'the market' decide. If people are willing to pay a dollar per gig just to have 5 extra ports on the back then let them. Just as I prognosticated in a previous post, I'll now have to mention that if they really wanted a killer app, something you would bare to stack your mini on (and to increase your expenditure by 20 to 50%), they would have included the ports the mini DOESN'T have: crappy old 1/8" line in, optical in/out, and then why not, a couple extra firewire sockets.
Cheers.
Read Heinlein's 1953 Revolt in 2100, now more than ever.
So then everyone who doesn't need that KVM ability still has to pay for it? Great idea!
If you're too cheap to buy a USB KVM and a couple cables (and you're running XP Pro), why don't you just set up your PC so you can operate it via RDC, and use the Mac RDC client? Then you can leave the Mac connected to your keyboard, mouse and video, and still use the PC normally. This would work perfectly for pretty much everything except gaming.
Just scratch it off with a cube of sugar. Good old trick works always.
How does the eyeTV 500 work with the Mini? I've heard the peanut gallery say the Mini doesn't have the horse power to do HD...
Far exceeds expectations.
On 1080i broadcasts, there is some (very rare) frame-dropping which can happen during very fast camera-pans, but otherwise it does rather well. Even when it does happen, it's subtle enough that most house-guests don't notice it unless I point it out to them.
720p broadcasts, such as "Tru Calling" on FOX, play smooth as silk, as long as I'm not running other stuff in the background or moving anything else on the firewire bus.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
The shape of the hard drive accessory is functional as it reduces the foot print of the hard drive to match the same shape as the mini mac. Trade dress cannot be functional. Coca Cola bottles can be trade dress because the shape of the bottle is not functional and the coca cola shape is a distinctive shape. A rectangular shaped hard drive enclosure does not in itself show that Apple made it as hard drives were often enclosed in rectangular boxes. There aren't that many alternatives. Some companies have trade dress for color like UPS has for brown. But it's unlikely that Apple can claim white as trade dress, as white is used by other companies in their computer products.
The Mini is 6.5 x 6.5 x 2 -- I used to work on a Titanium PowerBook G4 with ports that were more out of reach than those on a Mini.