NEWS: Test Drive a Mac Mini

Interesting. IIRC, the first PowerMacs were released in 1993 (the 6100/60, 7100/70, and 8100/80), so the original promotion was quite a bit earlier. 1985, I think---I was 13, and that was the first time I saw a Mac up close. Oh, the memories! *sniff*

I've got one. I've wanted to move to Mac for a while so I could edit footage for my short films faster. for £400 it's the best budget solution to digital editing their is.

Plus Tiger rocks

My Mom wanted one for her own recent, long overdue switch ("overdue" since I've been an Apple user for 23 years now and have been hounding her for every one of them!), but I talked her into a (sweet, top of the line) iMac instead simply because it was self-contained and required even less setup than the Mini would. She's a bright woman but I am her tech support and we live across the country from each other, so the iMac made the most sense - plus it has that great 20" screen. Bonus!

halsparks: I would be curious to know what you've been able to automate in your home with the Mini. Do you use it sort of like a central theromstat / music and light control device, or is it more badass than that? I love that kind of stuff and want details!

[Edited on Sep 01, 2005 3:04AM]

Yeah, a COUPLE YEARS AGO. Oddly enough their development didn't halt there, and they've since improved.

It's also about a zillion times more powerful than the mac mini, but it's nowhere near the only PC that comes close as far as form factor. What about the Cappuccino, which is smaller than the mac mini, and has been available for *years*?


[Edited on Sep 01, 2005 by Helter]

[Edited on Sep 01, 2005 by Helter]

I was gonna get a Mac Mini and set it up for a home entertainment system, all i'd have to do is hook up my G4 now and then and change Playlists, i'm pretty sure you can set it up so that when you turn in on (without monitor or mouse or keyboard) it just starts playing iTunes, and if you insert a DVD / CD it automatically plays, so in theory i coud hook it up to my T.V and my amp and use that instead of having loads of bits all over!

Not eveyone loves it
My problem would be lack of software more than anything else.

Yeah, funny thing that you have no experience with them but don't trust them.
I on the other hand, have both built and used a number of them, and talked to others who have built and used them, and trust them pretty explicitly.

Funny that I'm able to put one together with a competetive chip and ram for less than the mac mini costs... We just keep on running into these funny things in your statements.

Funny that the original cappuccino is 5.74 x 6.18 x 1.77. That's smaller than the Mac Mini, and with a PIII chip will run at a comparable speed. I've used both a comparable mac and a PIII IGHz literally side by side, and if anything the PIII ran faster and smoother than the Mac. And then there's the fact that it's been out for YEARS.

Listen, I'm not saying that hte mac mini sucks or anything, I'm probably going to get one myself. But you made a statement, and it was blatantly and totally wrong. Own up to it. The PC world has had these things for years, and still has them, and has them all the way down at the mac mini price point, and all the way up to the high end. The Mac Mini is neither smaller, nor significantly cheaper, nor faster than what they have in the PC world, and have had for a long time.
What the mac mini has going for it is that it's a mac, not that it's an innovation.


[Edited on Sep 01, 2005 by Helter]

I thought that was funny!

Me too. It makes fun of obnoxious Mac evangelists.

Don't get me wrong, I use Macs exclusively and will laud them if someone asks...but I hate it when people say, "Macs are better," and tell you why you should switch. They're not better, imo.

I think all computers suck. It's just...can you get your computer to suck in the way you need it to?

It is kind of cult-like, the Mac faithful. But I think it's like that only because our computers work like we want them to, and don't give us much trouble. So why wouldn't you like that? It's wonderful.

Um, you are aware that article is a joke, right? The site is like The Onion of tech news.

They have them here in Atlanta.

i've been wanting an Apple for the longest since i'm a Photoshop whore and i've never seen Photoshop run as good as it does when it's runnin on a Mac. i saw that recent advertisement and i was going to get a mac mini. i'm still gonna get one, all i have to buy is the keyboard and mouse, i already have a flat panel screen.

And yet you use a mac? What, you just missed everything after the IIe and until OSX?

and I'm sure they'd be using a two and a half year old processor too, huh...? Oh wait no. You're comparing a shuttle based on a modern chip, to a mac with a processor introduced in 2002. Wow, way to rig the "comparable" column.

yes.

No, $500 more than the mac mini gets you a system that's, well, $500 better. That $500 gets you the equivalent of a G5 mac mini, which I notice Apple doesn't even offer.

That there were no PCs of comparable form factor was the major brunt of your statement. The rest has been your failed backpedalling. Incidentally, the cappuccino still fits that bill, being smaller, pre-built, and available for less than $600... I can also find zero foot print pcs available for less than the mini, and single board PCs that take up approx. 4 inches square that are still in teh same price range.
The reason you don't find much comparable is because 1)most people don't care about the size of their computer. It wasn't until mac came out with this that size was such a trendy feature, PCs have been available at that size and smaller for a long time, and 2) there just isn't a huge market among pc users for an old slow computer, no matter what the size. We'd rather spend the same amount and get a full sized computer, with a keyboard and mouse, and sometimes they'll throw in the monitor too.

So hey, you can keep on hailing the genious of mac for pioneering a form factor that's been around for years if you really want to. Make up whatever superficial criteria to satisfy your need to believe that this is an innovative or original product, despite there being dozens to have come before it...
The rest of us can see what's really going on though.

Of course none of this really matters as Apple is going to start using the Intel chips now.

From apple.com:

WWDC 2005, SAN FRANCISCO—June 6, 2005—At its Worldwide Developer Conference today, Apple® announced plans to deliver models of its Macintosh® computers using Intel® microprocessors by this time next year, and to transition all of its Macs to using Intel microprocessors by the end of 2007.

[Edited on Sep 01, 2005 by Shinigami]

Hmm, to barge in, the cheapest Shuttle I can find fully built is 549$ and it's 3 times taller then a mini. The mini is just a well executed hybrid of a laptop and a desktop. You won't find comparable PCs because no one puts a Pentium-M in a tiny case for ~500$. Anything else then a Pentium-M (or comparable mobile/low power and heat processors) can't be put in a case that small that is not also an heatsink.

A P4 generating 80watts of heat would require a pretty potent blower in a case that small.

If Dell or whomever got off their arses and got Asustek or one of the other laptop OEM to churn out mac mini sized laptop/desktop hybrids, then yeah, 500$ would be expensive. But no one is doing that.