News Mac Mini & iPod Shuffle Announced

P4 2.8ghz, 512mb, 120gb sata, radeon 9600se.

I don't play games, all i do is browse the net, use msn and office apps.


EDIT: Hmm it has 2 USB ports... but won't those both be used by keyboard and mouse?

 

I like the marketing bullcrap they are doing on the website. Ohh what will play next. Its a mystery. yea cause its got no fooking screen lmao. they are pulling a volkswagon bug advertisement. Basically admitting its obvious faults up front so people will concentrate on its good points.

I see it as being huge regardless. My bet is something like a million units sold the first week.

 

If you've got specs like that, then there's no point in downgrading at all! Even if you don't think you need that extra power, there's no point in blowing £400 on a system that has no obvious benefits over a similary priced pc

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Mac mouse plugs into the mac keyboard. Either that or use a Hub.

 

You're missing the point, mike, only techies want functionality but the general public just want a fashion icon. As far as average joe or joe-ett is concerned ipod is another word for portable music. They dont want anything else cause it aint advertised on TV, it isnt white and swooshy and you dont turn siloett with any other brand.

The mini mac works because it looks good, its weeny, its a cheap apple that will do your emails and word documents and any one who's used the Mac OS has to love it, its just so smooooooth. You can replace that crappy black Dell box and MFI chipboard computer desk with an Ikea "real pine" desk and "cheap but fashionably minimal" lamp with a cheap TFT, wireless keyboard and mouse and mini-mac and be happy in the minimalism that your house looks like something out of a scandinavia.

Why do people buy expensive jeans when Tesco do them for £7? Answers on a postcard...

/Bindi redoes all the WoooWooooWOooo icon/window min-max-min-maxing in his mind.

EDIT: ****, i read the last reply on page one thinking it was the last on page 2 and now it looks like ive just replied to myself

 

Bindi, whose side are you on excactly?!

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Im just saying, there's no point in bitching about how "unappealing" it is to us when it isnt aimed at us, it's marketed to fashion victims who dont know any better or those who like that sort of thing /runs from the flames of GOO and Kevo.

I type this on a Dell lappy, but i still like the Mac OS' hardware acceleration.. dont like anything else about it.

 

more like "woo, wait this is ****ing annoying. how the hell do i turn this crap off!! argh!! die you crappy white block of doom!!"

 

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Bindi's right - (partly) - you are missing the point. It's not just that the apples look beautiful - (and they do,) - they also have the BEST UI available. There are some people out there who don't care about UI, but if you want to build a mass market piece of consumer electronics hardware, it must be easy to use.
(side note - Don't forget, apple was the first to bring a HD audio player to market)

Apple can beat Microsoft (os), archos and creative (hardware) and anyone else hands down. That is why the masses like them - because they are easy to use and the masses don't have to spend time studying a users guide.

 

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(after 4 months, im back!)

Ok, you guys keep forgetting that 1.25ghz on a PowerPC is actually quite good. Thats comparable to about a 2500+ AMD, which is MORE then enough for what "ordinary" people do.

In my graphic arts class i use an eMac w/ a 1.25ghz ppc proc, and i am constantly using photoshop CS, illustrator CS, and indesign CS at the same time, and it handles it with ease. Safari pops up almost as quick as IE + Firefox, and there is never any waiting time. And games? My teacher was cool enough to let me toss UT2k4 on there, and that runs smoothly.

Now, the 256mb memory might be an issue, but you can replace that w/ normal ram should you feel the need to.

And as others have said, this will be great to put Apple in the media market, becuase this thing is TOTALLY SILENT. See any room for a fan? NO! with a standard CD-RW/DVD drive, its ready to be pluged into your tv.

Firefox = Yes, infact Camino is firefox for OSX
Thinderbird works too
Torrents? Damn right they work! They make the client themselves!
Winamp = beta testing, buy the mac and help
Adobe = they STARTED on mac, and Preview does PDF's
Macromedia = YOU BET! Everything works, and safari has flash player preinstalled

Lastly: this is aimed to be the PERFECT spur of the moment, "damn that is COOL" product at the apple stores. People walk in for an iPod, then see this. "Woah, a great computer for less then $500?" Can you go "cha-ching!" as the cash registers bring it in. Gotta love the compulsive shoppers.

 

I think Soda and Bindi really hit it spot-on.

Mac stores are all done up completely flashy and pretty, with all white and shiny displays. The outside walls are all glass, with the white Mac logo in frosted glass, backlit white (naturally). iPod's on displays that light up with music, and bright, vivid LCD's displaying wonderful landscape pictures and cool technology images.

My point being, they appeal to the average shopper. So, they get the money of the average shopper.

Just as another, somewhat relevant point, I just watched an AOL commercial, in which people were saying things such as "I want my hard drive to fry. I want catastrophic system failure. I want to lose all my family photos.", and then the flashy AOL logo came flying across pointing to features provided by AOL, namely their "Virus Protection" integrated into their browser. Now, all computer-literate people agree that AOHell is the worst thing to put on your computer, as it takes complete control of your internet connections and fills your hard drive and OS with features that horribly lag it. But, they have been around forever (as has Macintosh) and have established themselves, through tons of advertising, as "the best" internet service, complete with browser, and features that will open up your computer, replace the CPU/RAM/HDD with better ones, and completely optimize your system. Oh, did I mention it keeps your computer absolutely, 100% secure? , but it's still the most used internet provider. Why?

Because of savvy advertising. When's the last time you saw ATi or nVidia run a commercial advertising only their newest gpu, not their newest gpu as a part of anoter system. When did Corsair run a commercial for their XMS series? Never. But, hardware enthusiasts all know those names.

I guess my long-winded point is, if you want the general public, you need to advertise like a banshee. But, does the general public really matter to us? I mean, we fiddle with RAM timings for fun

 

I think Zephyr hit the nail on the head. spec wise and price point wise a Pc would probably win. For the average Joe both have the same software but the mac "experience" (there's no pc experience you just use them) It seems to go a little smoother not to mention its cute compulsive looks that fit in next to your never used exercise machine and obtusey big tv. For the techies and Modders Pc's seem to be the weapon of choice. I for one just was tinkering with my Ram timings and O/cing on my water cooled rig a min ago. As far as all the creativity stuff; yah yah, You can do it all on a mac but actually in my experience a lot of the graphic artists I know are switching back over to high end Pc work stations as they generally are cheaper and faster. Basically it doesn't matter if they are Ishit or not I dont have to buy one.

 

We use "sportscar" computers.

We are specialists that want complete control over our system. Even if it means we spend more time under the hood sometimes than we do actually using the thing. Because that is what we love!

The rest of the world just wants the stinkin' thing to work. That is what you get with a Mac (as compared to a PC). It is easy and fun to use for day to day stuff. Sure sometimes Macs lock up - but not nearly as often as PCs. The only reason our PCs run as well as they do is that we actually know what we are doing.

And Dream has it right. The Mac UI beats the stuffing out of Windows in terms of usability and accessibility. As user interface specialist and I can tell you this: you may think the Mac UI is candyass or "fluffy" looking - you may even hate it. But as far as the nuts and bolts of a usable system go it is a MUCH better interface. Windows is a less intuitive system than is the Mac OS.

I think there are going to be a lot of Mac Minis with the heads and hands of old Dells in the near future.

 

i'm a PC man. i have a few of them and even more bits waiting to be used for something. i like fiddling with computers. but i would buy a mac. i work in a school so i have had plenty of exposure to osx and it's good, very good. there's some things about the interface that are still a bit slow but overall it's very good. i'd be quite happy to have a mac to email and surf the net, right letters and all the usual things. and video editing is very good on them too. and i use itunes anyway on my pcs. and iphoto is very good. basically lots of goodness with osx. os9 sucks big time.

so i would definitely consider a mini mac and use one of my existing monitors and get a wireless keyboard and mouse. would just probably put more memory in it.

and the ipod shuffle is very well priced when you take into account the fact that it is not competing with the cheap as chips players from aria but with the creative players etc...

 

If this is your second computer, or a replacement for one where you're going to reuse an existing monitor, keyboard and mouse it's perfect. Even upgrading the memory and adding wireless and bluetooth and superdrives isn't too expensive. However, as soon as you want to add a swanky matching Apple display and input peripherals, BANG. There goes your budget.

I just had a look on the Apple store. An upgraded Fast (1.4Ghz G4) Mac Mini with 512Mb, Superdrive, BT & Airport Extreme and a keyboard and mouse pack comes out £640. Not bad, I suppose but then you add a monitor - Wow. The cheapest option is £700 for a 20" cinema display. So £1300 for an all in package, which would make it more expensive than a 20" G5 iMac.

I still think I'm going to get one to replace my server...

 

Oh, admit it, y'all. Mac Minis are just damn sexy. It's what a computer should be like: small, quiet, powerful and perfectly formed, not the big ugly noisy temperamental mofo towers that we have to contend with on a daily basis. It's a glimpse of what computers could be like. The only reason I have a midi tower at all is because I have to, in order to accomodate a halfway decent system. Even then I went to great efforts to cram a dual CPU watercooled system in as small a space as possible, and make it as quiet as possible.

Ideally it could be stackable: add expansion boxes with the same look/ dimensions but which you could stuff with whatever components you like, to get your own taylormade system. Dare to dream...

 

I think I may be succumbing to the powers of the dark side...

I think this is the perfect opportunity for me to own a Mac.

Oh and I disagree with everyone who says Macs and osx are more stable than a pc and windows, I have done video editing on both Macs and pcs and my pc never crashed while video editing, however the Mac crashed three times while editing. While this is by no means a scientific or exhaustive test it does mean I am going to have to buy a Mac to further test the stability claims

 

Got my main system downstairs, but want something small quiet and decent for my room, the Mac Mini is perfect for this.


Good Move Apple.