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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
.. they went to all that work to make an extender box for the mac mini, and ship 'standard' firewire/usb cables .. 7" and 9" long, respectively.
..
pfft. if they were a real Apple accessory company, this box'd have its own little, short, 'smart'-looking cables which are neat enough, and only long enough, to stretch from mac mini port to hub port.
niggly point, but a point nevertheless. if i'm going to buy one of these things for my mac mini, i want it to be -neat- and not end up promoting ratsnest cable propagation
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
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?
Apple might have a case that the MiniMate infringes on the trademark it has established with the Mac mini on the grounds that it has copied its trade dress.
Looking at the front of the machine, there are no markings on the Mac mini to let you know that it is an Apple product, whereas Micronet is emblazoned on the front of its MiniMate. If the Mac Mini is covered on top by the MiniMate or the pair are stacked in a rack/cabinet/cubbyhole, one might think that both boxes are made by Micronet, effectively causing a likelihood of confusion "or to deceive as to the...origin...of the goods." (this last language is taken straight out of Section 43(a) of the Lanham Act.)
I know most /.'ers won't have this problem of confusion but I believe that the standard is according to some "reasonable person of the community" standard, and whether they would be confused by the trade dress...
I think Apple went after a Chinese (or Taiwanese?) company a few years ago for its bondi blue iMac lookalike....but they seem to have a more favorable view of add-ons like this one that resemble the original product without performing the same functions (the huge iPod accessory market is further proof of their leniency to accessories that piggy-back off their designs without directly competing with them).
They really should have included an USB Sounddevice with optical Audio in and out and an analog Audio in. That's really missing.
Otherwise, this is an expected product.
Isn't this just an outright advertisement posing as News for Nerds? You think I could get an 'article' into slashdot if it was just touting a 30% sale at DealRam or Newegg or something?
... "new external firewire drive that stacks perfectly with Mini, 3 additional USB2, 2 additional Firewire 400, 250 GB for $99!" Maybe with some more exclamation points so it looks really news-like.
:-)
The only time I would think a product like this was news was if the price was stupidly low. Like
Sorry for the rant. Glad to see there have been so few dupes (possibly none?!) in the last two weeks.
Read Heinlein's 1953 Revolt in 2100, now more than ever.
User #38 and this is the first time you've noticed a blatant Slashvertizement?
Are you a new user who bought this account from somebody else, or have you simply not been paying any attention?
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
From their specs page:
-OS Support : Mac OS X v10.1.5 & greater, Windows 98SE, 2000, ME, XP
Mexico: 100% conservative's America now!
Maybe you are right, but this is the first device I see that integrates an USB hub and a Firewire hub (to be honest, I didn't know that it could be done) in a external hard disk enclosure. I live in Mexico, the price for these things are:
-USB hub: US$ 15 -38
-160 HD: US$ 90-120
-FireWire Hub: never seen one here
-External HD enclosure: US$ 60-100
Really, the price of this unit is low, if the quality of the enclosure is similar to the case of the Mac mini, then it is cheap.
Mexico: 100% conservative's America now!
Guess you didn't notice the caveat about how no one else has bitched yet.
Of course it happens regularly, but you have to speak truth to power... You have to stand up and shout "damn you slashdot for posting an advertisement as news!"
Additionally I'm not even that pissed about the 'ads as news' in and of itself... it's just stupid that it's not even like a newsworthy ad. It's just "ho hum, another external hard-drive that isn't worth it". A dollar per gig?! Even with a 10 dollars worth of USB/FW hubs? It's a fucking travesty. ('Course now I'll get 5 posts saying "it's a great value having those hubs and stuff built into something that costs 50% of the machine in the first place; I'll then have to retort, ad nauseam, about how "it leaves out some of the glaring oversights of the Mini itself, notably, a line in." Why are you going to spend that much money and not want the sockets on the front? )
Anyway, if you were a subscriber you could see this surely isn't a purchased account, but it's more fun to troll, isn't it? Fortunately your comments usually add to a discussion, so we don't all have to write you off for this one lame post.
Sorry to rant, I guess you asked for it.
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.
They clearly aren't paying attention to what people who don't already own Apple hardware, and some that do, want. External hard drives and hubs are easy to come by, but a Video IO packaged into a Mac Mini sized device with IR would be *perfect* for all those people looking to turn the Mac Mini into a media center, or generaly integrating it into their AV setup. I'm sure there's a market for this, especially since it adds hard drive space without having to go inside the Mini, but as far as a port replicator solution, it's only got half of the ports that a great many would-be customers would like to see.
When trying to load the HTML presentation, I get this:
This presentation contains content that your browser may not be able to show properly. This presentation was optimized for more recent versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer.
If you would like to proceed anyway, click here.
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.
I have a KVM switch which is USB based.
It supports 2 VGA monitors, and has 4 USB ports on the console.
I have my wireless keyboard/mouse from Logitech plugged into it.
It is hooked up to a Windows XP machine and a PowerMac G5.
It works well, EXCEPT I dislike the delay when switching from one computer to the other. For general use I run a program called Synergy (available on sourceforge) which allows you to drag the mouse from one computer to the other, with keyboard focus following the mouse.
Cut & paste of plain text works reasonably well and it makes having a Mac, and PC on the same desk a dream to work with.
If all that's holding you back from buying a MacMini is the thought of adding a second keyboard and mouse, forget it, go out and buy one. USB based KVM switches are readily available.
(If you need one with PS/2, and USB support you might have to look harder).
I recommend both a switch box for those circumstances when synergy doesn't work, and synergy for all other times.
Dragging a mouse from a PC running Windows XP to a machine running Mac OS X is sure to impress your friends, and you can throw a linux box into the mix too!