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Apple slips out Mac Mini
WHILE THE IPHONE 4 was introduced to the world during a two hour worship service, the latest incarnation of the Mac Mini has slunk into view with little fanfare.
That doesn't mean that Apple has chosen not to try to blind us with fluffy language, so we learn that the Mac Mini is "sleek, elegant and amazingly compact".
In fact, presumably only pausing to wipe the saliva from his lips, Philip Schiller, Apple's senior VP of worldwide product marketing opened his mouth to let these words fall out, "The sleek, aluminium Mac mini packs great features, versatility and value into an elegant, amazingly compact design. With twice the graphics performance, HDMI support and industry-leading energy efficiency, customers are going to love the new Mac mini."
Maybe they will. Small things are often more beautiful, unless you are an lovelorn whale, and the Mac Mini is just that - mini. Its 'compact aluminium enclosure' is just 7.7 inches square and 1.4 inches thin - picture the size of one of those user manuals you've never read, and all the annoying bits like SD card slots are hidden away behind a little cover. Adding to its appeal, for tidy freaks, is its integrated power supply - which reduces the Mini's volume by 20 per cent.
Techwise the Mini comes in two different versions, which are separated by £300 and a couple of hardware tweaks. The cheaper of the two costs £649 and comes with a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, a 320GB hard disk and 2GB of RAM, the more expensive will lighten your bank account by £929, and ups the stakes with a 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, two 500GB hard disks running at 7200RPM and 4GB of RAM.
Both include the Snow Leopard OS, Nvidia GeForce 320M integrated graphics, four USB slots, and all the wireless connections you can shake your fist at. It's also pretty green, despite the inclusion of the Nvidia card, and consumes less than half the power of competing systems, according to Apple.
Both are out now and will be appearing in an advertising company's meeting room near you. µ
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As I thought I'd successfully posted yesterday:
No eSATA;
No ExpressCard;
No USB 3.0
.. No sale. "But at least you get a SD slot!"
Rather than reiterate the overseas price disparity, let me say again that Apple has backed itself into a corner since the only selling point for the $N,000 Mac Pro is expansion.
USB 3 would've been as "not quite, but you can live with it" as USB 2 on the original Mini..
[*Not looking forward to having to upgrade a relative's Mac.]
The Mac Mini claims "When idle uses less than 10 watts - something no other desktop can do.".
This seems to imlpy it is very efficient well the Fit-PC 2.0 uses 10 watts when it is RUNNING not idle so that claim is just plain false.
My PC uses zero power when it is idle as I turn it off at the wall switch!
I am running a dual boot Win 7 / OS X 10.6.3. The first month I booted into OS X now and then but recently only each time I want to watch a Quicktime stream (during each WWDC) e g once a year :)
OS X feels akward - besides the Desktop Zoom function which works better in OS X than in Win 7. I prefer Windows 7 for its superior file and window handling, superior media support, looks (yes, OS X looks like Windows 7's old sister) media support, compatibility et al. Front Row is a joke, it cannot hadle most media formats and cannot be used for recording. That rules out the Mini w OS X as a HTPC (besides the lack of large storage, bluray etc) It seems as if Apple have totally ignored their computer OS division in favor of the Phone/Ipad development, and it shows.
Apple design beautiful hardware, though.
did you see the price of apple tv ? 600 for basic 900 for the server model!!
man i can build a Htpc for half the price and put a tv card in it as a windows box
OK, let's get this straight. They do a redesign of the Mac Mini, raise the price by $100, but keep the on-it's-way-out Core 2 Duo processor in it, instead of switching to the i5 or (at the very least) the i3?
Does Mr. Jobs know how to spell "arrogance"?
No, I haven't tried running one as a media server. This is for numerous reasons:
- You've already stated that the Mini is too pricey for what it is: yesterday's Intel hardware inside a small box. And you'd be right.
- Windows Media Center on today's Intel hardware has felt pretty much complete for some time now, and edges closer to perfection as part of Windows 7. Scoff at Vista if you must, 7 fucking owns.
- The Media Center hardware I use at home includes two dual DVB-T tuners to accommodate all the family's viewing, plus two 2TB hard drives now: it's been delightfully expandable without resorting to the mess and headache of external USB devices. Tell me how I might achieve the same with the more expensive Mac Mini as my "media server"?
I also plain don't get along with the Mac OS, which to me seems thoroughly backward in comparison to Windows. By way of a tiny, simple example: no cut and paste in the Finder. Combine curious usability omissions such as this with that huge price tag and nasty, faux-industrial themed interface that only ever looked stylish next to Windows 2000, and strangely I'm not sold.
And neither are most people - let's be honest, it's a bit of a flop, isn't it.
The more expensive model comes with Snowleopard server, so your £929 buys you a small business server with unlimited CALs for file, email, web, wiki and VPN. It also works with PC clients, so it's not a bad deal as these things go.
You've obviously never tried running one of these as a media server heading your TV in the living room; silent, stable, non-obtrusive, practically maintenance free (on either OSX and LINUX).
Well worth the cash, frankly. When they were < £400 though...
Apple really are taking the piss with the price though; £929???? WTF??? Anyone told them it's a recession?
Nobody buys the Mini because it doesn't have an "i" in front of it. Apple should have used this opportunity to rebrand their little biscuit tin as the "iMini" (possibly also making the attractive fruit logo on the top around 25% larger - flies to a turd and all that), thereby making the device appeal to many more nutjobs whose consumerist urges drive them to spend the last gasps of their meagre pay packet on i-Toys as a pick me up. Frankly, NOT spending £929 on a box containing last year's hardware and seeing the amount still in my bank account would make me feel chipper.
Also, unless you're living out of the box your 27-inch iMac came in, computers simply do not need to be this small. Bigger means you can fit in one or more PCIe- or PCI-based tuner cards, for example, and make a really decent rather than half assed PVR system out of it. They also don't need need to have the Apple logo on the top as a symbol of your contribution to the company's profits, when a fraction of the price spent on PC components at Ebuyer gets you twice the machine. And not running that ghastly Mac OS.
I really want a Mac. I'm not a Mac zealot but I would enjoy the opportunity to play with all three major platforms and I would really like to try Logic Pro.
Unfortunately for Apple I just can't even force myself to justify the price for what I get. Their arrogant attitude really does not help their case. If the new high end Mac Mini could be had for $699 then I would go for it.
I'm not willing to go through the extravagant effort to build a hackintosh that fully works. Used Macs command the same ridiculous prices that new ones do.
I see why apple isn't making a big deal of this launch.
it's low end,boring,under-featured and overpriced.
You know, the sort of thing Jobs wouldn't even get out of bed for.