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Updated Mac Mini Aims For the Living Room
WrongSizeGlass noted that besides the pre-order of the new iPhone appearing on the Apple store today, Apple has revved the Mac Mini and started selling those too. "PC World is reporting on the latest version of Apple's Mac Mini. At only 1.4-inches tall the unibody aluminium enclosure includes an HDMI port, an SD card reader, and more graphics and processing power. Even the power supply is inside now. The base model comes with 2.4-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB of RAM and a 320GB hard disk — for $699. Graphics power comes from an NVIDIA GeForce 320M GPU (as found in lower-end MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops). Apple appears to be aiming for living rooms by including the HDMI port and eliminating the external power brick."
The Mini was always aimed at people who already had a screen and keyboard.
In other words, Apple is jacking up the profit margin. I'll be interested when Apple releases a Mac Mini with an integrated Cablecard tuner for under 1 grand.
Compaq has a machine that only costs $300 (at staples) with 1/3 faster processor, 1/3 more RAM, and 1/3 bigger hard drive
...and shitty OS with a horrible experience for your granpa.
The mac mini is not a "luxury good".
Yes, it is. Apple stuff is all about software. And if you think you can build some Linux-based stuff better than this for your wife/grandpa including all the nice experience OSX offers, then you're clearly not an Apple target audience anyway.