Apple's Mighty Mini
Yeah, the iPod Shuffle is cool, but the product announcement that really gets my juices flowing is the Mac Mini: the previously rumoured "headless Mac", because it just has the guts of the machine. No monitor, no keyboard, no mouse, or anything else. Stack up 6 or 7 CD cases (if you still have any around, now that you're an iPod user). The Mac Mini is that size, but a whole lot better looking.
A $499 little box that holds all the computing power, it's priced just a sliver over a similarly-equipped barebones PC server. As the iPod Shuffle allowed value-conscious music lovers into the Apple family, the Mac Mini is aimed at bringing Macs further into the mainstream. And they've adopted miniaturization techniques from the iMac and from their notebook computer experiences to create the most compact, dense desktop we've ever seen.
But the best part is that I was just thinking the other day that I wanted some way of attaching my external harddrive onto my network (instead of constantly plugging and unplugging it from my laptop). But I figured that while I'm at it, I may as well have the "dumb machine" to act as a fileserver, FTP site, and a downloader machine: that would free up my pb17 for my own work.
Two days later, Apple launches their Mac Mini to answer my prayers. I'm telling you, those guys rock.
[ I just went and priced one, the 1.25GHz : 40GB version. But then I upgraded to "512MB DDR333 SDRAM - 1 DIMM", "80GB Ultra ATA drive", and their "SuperDrive (DVD±RW/CD-RW)". Then I added some wireless options "Internal Bluetooth + AirPort Extreme Card", and the subtotal suddenly grew to "$853". Youch. ]
7 comments:
I really like what Apple has done with this machine. I can't wait to see what it's like in real life (e.g. how quiet it is).
Now, if only it had a digital audio out and a TV tuner....
I'm watching the pre-recorded keynote speech by Steve Jobs yesterday, and I'm in awe. I'm entertained, I'm excited, and I'm even more loyal to Apple than ever!
I need MacOSX Tiger (10.4), and iLife and iWorks. And now I want that Mac mini now, too!
Yeah.. I've been seriously thinking about picking up the barebones mac mini now to use it as a computer to be used in the living room. Used for all the purposes you have listed as well as a DVR and MP3 computer with string of external harddrives attached to it.
But the perfect target market for this little wonder is probably as an iPod accessory than anything else.
I'm actually tempted to buy the mac mini to be used with my 20" Studio display and pickup a 23" for my powerbook now...
Well, as 3M (I'm guessing) above mentioned, it's missing a TV tuner and a digital audio out for funneling TV-ready video and stereo-quality audio. So it's still a little ways away from being a PVR. You could, but you'd need to add something like the EyeTV, and that adds another few hundred dollars to the bill. Plus, then you'd need more than just 40GB space in there, so add another $100 (either for the better model, or for a better 2.5" drive to replace it). And then a USB remote control unit to use the PVR. And ... before you know it, you've forked $1000 USD for a PVR. And Tivo is how much again, even if you get the lifetime subscription?
But the bigger issue is why they weren't included, or why it would cost so much to achieve these possibilities for us geeks. And that's a hand-in-hand question with why they made the Mac mini.
The Mac mini, which some are touting as the "return of the Cube" (I forgot to mention that in my blog entry last time), is really a Mac that is "more like a PC" than other Macs before. It's basically going that extra step over to the PC side so that it's easier for PC people to jump ship. It's a lower price-point items that smooths that "last excuse" from Windows users about making that switch.
The Switch. Take your PC, then do a straight swap out and swap in the Mac mini. Then take your PC, and throw it out the window, or retire it into a closet PC as a file server. Perfect, because Macs can work with Windows nicely (though, not absolutely perfectly, I found) over the network, even with the Mac version of Remote Desktop (which is free from Microsoft).
The reverse isn't true, though: it's not as easy for a Windows machine to remotely admin into a Mac box. And that raises some issues for a lot of drooling Windows-using techies who suddenly saw possibilities of this being a living room piece as a PVR or as a multimedia-centric second machine. I mean, once you're set up with the Mac mini and it's running, there's no problems. You can access it over the network and get files and stuff without a hitch. But if you need to admin it for whatever reason, or tweak some settings, it's rougher if you have Windows. (I have such plans for my Mac mini, but I'm already a Mac user, so I'm safe.)
As a second machine, I think it's winning. If you want to upgrade your old PC, you now had the option of finding another branded computer or you could consider the Mac in this little box. If you wanted a quick second machine that could just sit on the network and serve files or offer backup processing power, this is a beautiful one-box solution. It's ready to use, like all Macs, out of the box. That's thinking out of the box.
Whew, I'll shut up now.
Oops... sorry forgot to sign the first post
=b
As for controlling a MAC from a PC, you can try using the following VNC server.
3m
It has begun, the eddies caused by the Mac mini wave. Those little side economies created by Apple's products are starting now.
Some site in Germany has photos of the Mac mini (including inside), but they didn't seem to work when I tried it.
I know a lot of people have been considering stacking these things -- either with more Mac mini's to cluster them into a computing powerhouse, or by putting other home theater equipment on it. But Apple says here that you shouldn't be doing that. I can't tell if that's only because of heating/venting, since I don't see any venting holes on the top of it anyway.
A ton of people are trying to figure out how to make this marvel mini into a home theatre type unit (like 3M above). I've even considered that (aside from the other plans I have for one), and it seems we're in good company. There's a Mac Media Center project just started, which will be a collaborative effort amongst the geeks of the world in figuring out how to make this thing into the home theatre unit that does "everything". Seems like it will be a software project, and will be completely open source. Gotta love it!
And then, there are already car modders working on put a Mac mini in your car, if you're willing to fork out the cash for them to do it. (If you really wanted to, it wouldn't be too hard to do it yourself anyhow.)
And these tools are about to get much more popular with the people who want to hack their Mac minis, or even just swap out the RAM for an upgrade. (I saw "swap out" because there's only one slot for RAM inside for PC2700 RAM.)
Just you wait. A month or two, and the regular Mac accessory companies will be out with Mac mini-looking devices that you can stack your mini on top of. AV devices, external drives, USB/FireWire hubs, etc. It's gonna be a fun time!
There's a lot more articles out there on the net that are chiming in with what's been said in my blog entry.
In the spirit of Steve Jobs' expression "BYODKM", a website has cropped up, called BYODKM.net, that deals with a lot of possible ways to make Mac mini a part of everyone's life. It's not really directed at your mom-and-pop type of usage, but rather in expanding the Mac mini's role. (Takes some tinkering, of course.)
But here's an article on PBS.org that offers interesting guesses at the future of Apple, or at least another large leg in its possible future for the Mac mini: movies. Robert Cringely is hypothesizing that the Mac mini will be to movies and movie downloads what the Apple iPod (and iPod Shuffle) already is to iTunes.
Yet, I'm not as ambitious with my plans for my own Mac mini when I finally take that step to buy it. So in the limited fashion that I currently intend to use it, things like the Earphoria have me more realistically excited. (It was made by Blackhole Media, currently in beta. Development is apparently being handed over to Rogue Amoeba, but I don't see anything about it on their website yet.)
Enjoy!
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