News Mac Mini & iPod Shuffle Announced

As was widely rumored, Apple have announced their headless iMac and flash based iPod - the Mac Mini and iPod shuffle respectively.

The Mac Mini is a G4 based computer, the base model will ship with a combo drive, 256Mb of memory and a 40Gb hard drive. It will cost £339. So pretty damn cheap for an iMac. Looks quite cool as well.



http://www.apple.com/uk/macmini/

The iPod shuffle is the Apple answer to the endless flash based MP3 players out there. As reported before Macworld, It will only play back tracks in album order or randomly. But it looks as cute as anything and at only £69 for the 512Mb version, GOO forsees it selling like hot cakes.



http://www.apple.com/uk/ipodshuffle/

I think Apple are on to another couple of winners. What do you think?

 

They both looks like winners to me.

The Ipod shuffle looks great ...

 

nice price for the mac. not so sure about the ipod though, not quite my cup of tea on design

 

The shuffle will sell - ipods always do to the "fashion craze" they are.

As for the mini-mac, even for a PC junkie i gotta say it looks pretty nice but id want at LEAST 512meg ram in it (i know MacOS or whatever uses ram better blah) and id swap out the 40gig for a 80/120gig harddisk i have spare. Spose opening it up voids all warrenty though.

Good time to buy shares in apple?

If it had Svideo/composite out and SPDIF that would make one hell of an SFF. Although, i bet apple has ANOTHER model in the works just for that to combat windows entertainment media pc thingys.

EDIT:

I knew it, that also charge an arm and a leg for it too. Yet, people accept this from a Mac but if it was from a PC everyone would be up in arms at the extra cost.

And he'll charge you through the nose for it too - PCworld esk "upgrade" cost no doubt, for unpopping 1 DDR stick and popping in another. "That'll be £30 please."

Looking at it more, its a bit too minimalist even though it's nice. Only stereo audio out and 2 usb ports - VIA epia's pack more into a similar size although they arent 9200 ATI graphics.

As for the imin ipod - you can get flash drive mp3 players since.. forever. Just cause this one is white and a fashion icon everyone will buy it in droves.

 

Ooh, i want a baby ipod...

Definately onto a winner with that one i reckon...

 

A lot more macs will be in homes this year I think, not mine, but that mac mini will sell.

 

£15 isn't an arm and a leg...

 

Damn it now I have to buy one


EDIT! DAMN IT THE WEB STORE IS DOWN!!!!!

 

iPod shuffles look a bit overpriced for a product without any sort of screen, trying to be a bit too simplistic there

<A88>

 

The iPod Shuffle is a pointless waste of space, and the same is true for the Mac Mini.

Considering Dell will sell you a full featured PC with a monitor for the same price it looks like an especially bad deal, add in the cost of the (somewhat expensive) Apple displays and you have a very expensive under powered box.

Might look good as a door stop, but I can't see any other use for it.

 

Hi

I think apple is determined to rule the mp3 player market. With the iPod & iPod mini already being hit sellers. Recently they brought out the iPod photo, wich is a bit expensive, but its only the same price that I paid for my 3G iPod.

And now with the iPod Shuffle, they will also dominate the other smaller (&cheaper) mp3 players. 512mb isn't that much, but a memory stick of that size already costs around 60-70€. So with 100€ for the iPod Shuffle 512mb, I think this is definatly a hit.

I know pc alternatives for all mac products are cheaper. But its not a mac.


The mini mac.
I think this is going to be a hit aswell. The G5 is still very expensive so your general public isn't intrested in that. You do have the iMac G5, but they come with the monitor built in. So people can't choose in price/quality there. With the mini mac, people can decide on their own. And they can later replace the pc alone, and get a new version. For 520€ its not that expensive at all.

I do think that 1.25ghz G4 is not enough. But now we just have to wait for a G5 model.

Looking at the specs, the mini mac is basically an ibook, without screen/keyboard/mouse. For half the price.

It does however, remind me of the Mac Cube, and what a failure that was. I sure hope this dosn't turn out this way.

The mini mac is perfect for the general public that only does : emailing/surfing/dvd watching/music listening/iPod updating/office programs.

You really don't need more. I definatly see a bigger and brigther future for Apple. Their prices are really becoming exeptable. Looking at iBook.

Even on software terms they are doing their absolute best to give you alot of free tools with your Apple computer. Wich are suit for most of us.
They recently had iLife, wich does very well. And the also intruduced iWorks '05 today. Wich should countain more then most users need. Although I still think they need to except that Office is the winner here, and will stay that way for a long time. But they sure do make an effort to bite back tot he office hype.

Just my thoughts.
I don't know about you guys, but I have been excitingly hitting F5 for the last few hours. Reading about these new wonderfull products. What a great time we live in!

L

PS: Yes I'm olmost emotionally from hapiness.
PS2: No, I don't own a mac.. yet.

:edit:
At 519€, you can't afford NOT to buy a mini mac.

lol


:edit 2: (no I can't shut up).

The Digital Lifestyle, that bill gates talked so much about on CES. Well, I think iLife, is that digital lifestyle... why is bill gates talking so much about it?

 

I'm going to buy one so I arse around with OSX [SIZE=-3](and probably kill it)[/SIZE].

 

I want a Mac Mini. I've always wanted a Mac to try, and at £399 that will fit in with my current desktop setup, it's a good price imo.

The Shuffle also looks a good price for a 512MB player. Not my cuppa though, tempted by an iPod Mini meself (to complement the Mac Mini I can see me spending some money on. )

 

The shuffle isn't good money at all. At aria you can buy a 512mb flash player with radio and a decent screen for £43. IMO, it looks cooler as well - I'm bored with the plain white-ness of macs now.

And i bet that little mac will be underpowered in all but the top-end models.

 

For a minutes work it is.

Considering that's then £900/hr they would make out of it i call that a rip off.

JADS - you dont have to use an apple display, and Dells arent "fashionable". If Dells decided they wanted to be a fashion icon like Macs and marketed appropriately then they would sell even more.

Jeeez apple could pack **** into a white case and label it ishit and it would still be fashionable. U2 would be jumping around with ishit all over their hands and people would love it.

Read above comment on ishit.

I think itll definately sell, even if the cube was a failure - cause im sure you can use any keyboard/mouse and monitor with it right? How fast are G4s? i know you cant make a comparison but we arent talking P4 3.2Ghz here are we, even if they are more optimised and the OS is all hardware accelerated. Also, you need nice new software for it, which is a pain in the arse cause i own all the windows software i need and then you have to worry about compatability and does firefox and winamp work with it? Or.. uh? Bit torrent? I need a mac client right? Adobe? Macromedia? Its-all-so-confusing!

 

It says on the apple site that it comes with a 1.2ghz or 1.46ghz processor, so not too bad for everyday use. Not like you're gonna be playing that many games on this thing. I might even buy it to completely replace my current PC, as I have a powerful PC but play no games from after Y2K on it.

 

What spec do you have atm and what would you use it for?

<A88>

 

I'm thinking you used the wrong word its not winners its weeners.

 

Bests thing i've heard all day!!

 

It's gotta be said, when will Apple come up with something NEW for once?

It's just mutton dressed as lamb, people only buy it because they are gullible enough to believe Apple's claims that their product is superior. In truth, Apple products (especially iPods) lack functionality and are over priced.

All of the new iPods that have been release lately sport 'new' features which in fact have been long introduced by the likes of Creative and Archos. The iPod Shuffle is essentially a MuVo rip-off, and the iPod Photo wants to be an ancient Archos device. Apple should at least have more features in their portable media players, and the ones that they do include should be up-to-date.