“When Steve Jobs held a mini Mac on his fingertips Tuesday, what did you see? A low-priced ‘crippled’ version of its bigger brothers? A device designed to lure away budget-minded consumers from Windows machines? Maybe. For now,” Tom Steinert-Threlkeld writes for Baseline. “What I saw was the future of Apple Computer: A device that fits anywhere in the home and hooks up to any screen that can handle digital input.”
Steinert-Threlkeld writes, “Lots of Windows-side executives are making big noise about producing machines for the living room. They call them ‘media centers.’ A few are on the market. Some get good reviews. But Jobs is the first executive, in the view from here, to really give a carrot that will pull along the move to convert the living room to digits.”
“The Mac mini now becomes the platform that can slide directly under the TV, even if Jobs isn’t saying so. As it surely adds storage capacity and memory capacity, it will soon be in position to replace the cable TV box, the stereo receiver box and the VCR/DVD player on the shelf under the big screen in the family fireplace room, the playroom or the basement. Jobs does not leave much to the imagination to see how this will take place. Apple is also the only company in the digital industry to really begin to solve how all sorts of new forms of digital content will be organized, presented and easily retrieved by everyday users,” Steinert-Threlkeld writes.
“In this case, the product, already delivered, is iLife, Apple’s pretty ‘seamless’ software suite that allows the average person to manage huge digital playlists of music, create and sculpt large libraries of digital photos, develop and edit digital movies, and even build professional sounding songs from scratch,” Steinert-Threlkeld writes. “So look at what iLife really is, sitting on a Mac mini under the TV. It is a digital content manager, connected to the kind of screen that is used outside the corporate and home office. You’d be a fool, were you Jobs and his cultural as well as product design accomplices at Apple, not to turn iLife in future incarnations into a channel switching and storage management system for the rest of our electronic lives.”
Another great read, the full article with much more, including Apple vs. Google thoughts, here.
Stick MacOSX Server on it and it’s a good workgroup server for a small office!!!
Imagin if you could record anything on your mac mini just like a Tivo, then have it cataloged in an iTunes-like program that sincs with your iPod photo. Last nights episodes on the go anyone?
That would fulfill Steve’s vision of the digital hub.
Look at http://www.elgato.com Here is your tuner, video recorder, and link to your TV and stereo to remote control all the media on your Mac. Supports Airport Express as well.
Jobs will still have to be carful with the mac as a tivo like device. There are a lot of large companies lurking to smash Apple in the entertainment community, so Apple will have to convince the TV/Movie industries that it is a good idea. iTunes for video recording = iVideo.
I was just discussing this with a couple of Japanese Macheads today. You could have Remote desktop in the Mac mini and run it from your regular computer with wifi. You would not even need another keyboard and mouse. Apple should consider putting a very simple version of remote desktop in the mini as it starts to function as a media center. Also a TV recording program and video in so you could record TV. Right now it can act as a slide show presenter and DVD player through your TV and can also stream music to your stereo via wifi and Airport express. All the pieces are there, Apple just needs to add the “glue” of a great overall managing app to pull it all together.
brought to you by the magic word “programs” – go figure.
Yeah, we call them computers here.
Its the perfect media center except for games. Im getting down on the mac games market, but you need a real connection, nintendo or sony, and Apple just needs to buy elgato, they make the final pieces of the puzzle
I ordered a Mac mini Tuesday night. It was not ordered to replace a Windows box but, rather, an aging PowerMac 7600. I ordered the 1.4ghz model and bumped up the memory to 512meg and added an AirPort card.
For just over $700 I was able to get a very capable replacement for that PowerMac at a fraction of the cost of the iMac G5.
I may be wrong but I figure Apple took the basic motherboard design out of 2003’s “desk lamp” iMac and slapped it in a new box. Who cares? It’s cool. Compared to the iMac G5, I realize I’m not getting the latest bells and whistles hardware-wise but, then again, the Mac mini is for my 5 year old daughter!
The Mac mini will make a perfect children’s computer. It’s accessible and friendly and makes her happy using it (at least the PowerMac does!). As an IT guy who has seen and used it all, I refuse to bring her up as a Windows user! Linux maybe … definitely the Mac.
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Seeing the Mac mini in the flesh yesterday, I was struck by what was left out. The top of the machine is the same white plastic that is used in the iPods and powerbricks. Why didn’t Apple add a dock slot for the iPod directly on top? There must be plenty of room inside for this little connector. Next model, perhaps?
I’m sure they thought about it (putting a dock slot for the iPod directly on top). They probably thought it would ruin the design aesthetic.
For me, the Mac Mini is a great computer that’s come along at just the right time. Now i’m getting impatient to see Jobs turn this into a fully fledged media center device with TV recording features
The Mac mini is a worthless POS.
The processor is ancient and crap, 32 megs of video ram a joke, hard drive too small for serious video editing or storing movies, and try to soup it up and it gets too expensive.
And eveyone is excited about it. NO iPod users in the PC world want it or need it …. why …. they have iTunes on their PC, they have access to the ITMS store from their PC, all iPods are compatible with their PC, hell, even Airport Express is compatible with their PC. Stop kidding yourself.
What it might do is cannabalize iMac sales some, incent some Mac users with extra peripherals around to buy it.
But it won’t bring Apple lots of PC users, and as their CFO hopes, it may, just may, MAINTAIN their market share.
Too underpowered for serious use, wrong configuration for media center use, not interesting to PC users who love iPods ….. a waste of time.
Why didnt Apple roll out something insanely cool for the living room.
I think the mini Mac is great but… For those that look at price only it is great. It will be a terrific entry level computer so we must all remember that is what it is for when we compare it to PCs. What I am waiting for though, is the midi Mac, a mac with a 1.6Ghz G4 at least, 1GB memory (that doesn’t cost $475), 80GB drive, super drive, many more than just 2 USB ports and upgradable graphics or at least 5200. If it was in a package twice the size of the mini and cost $1000 I would still be happy. But this summer when Tiger comes out and the first upgrades are done, I’m in.
Why worthless, it sounds like you’re not the target audience for this beautiful computers.
I won’t buy one, I already own a PowerMac G5.
Worthless
The mini isn’t supposed to be spectacular. It isn’t a PowerMac, it isn’t even an iMac, and that’s exactly why it’s $500 rather than $1500. It’s not been released so that people throw out their PC, it’s meant for those Windows users who want to use iLife apps, but want to keep Windows for other things. That’s why it’s so tiny.
People aren’t going to switch just because of Mac mini, but a lot of people are going to finally get a taste of OSX for the first time, and a few of those will switch later.
Why are the PC folk finding this difficult to understand?
I spent about �2200 on my 1Ghz TiBook around 1 and a half years ago – it still rocks and still lets me do everything from video editing, to DTP and webstie design.
The faster G4 Mac mini at �339 is a steal! What a bargain computer.
Oh dear, Worthless – or should that be Clueless,
You utterly fail to understand the importance of Mac mini, and even worse you fall victim to that most pernicious of modern consumer ailments, namely believing obsolescence mythologies created by marketing departments and advertising agencies.
The Mac mini can answer the call of duty for any number of target audiences�
1) The 63-year old grandmother who would never play a video game, and merely uses the computer to pick up e-mail and book the odd flight to Portugal. Doesn’t need a faster processor, barely understands why we moved away from golfball typewriters.
2) The middle-aged father who wants to pick-up e-mail, surf the Web, type the odd letter, manage their digital photo collection, manage their digital music collection. Don’t tell me that they need an up-to-date video card, because I won’t believe you!
3) The school board in some rural backwater where IT support in each school is probably the head of the maths faculty. They bought a shedload of Dell crap and have been regretting ever since. Now they get to retain their existing screens, but get a system that can stay upright for longer than 24 hours.
4) The small business owner setting up in some strip-mall. Needs a reliable system to run the accounts and POS system.
Do I really need to carry on?
Apple needs to have properly segmented product groups in its computer offerings, just like it has with iPod, namely systems for�
3D professionals (As yet unfilled)
2D professionals (Power Macintosh)
Committed hobbyist (iMac)
Small business/Occassional user (Mac mini)
I only stopped using a 500MHz TiBook last year because my business partner dropped it on its head. With 768MB of RAM in it, it was a wholly acceptable machine for my needs as a business owner. So to criticise even the entry-level Mac mini for being a “POS” is a truly ill-informed generalisation.
For most of the people out there, the Mac mini is plenty powerful enough to handle most of they want to do. For me, that would be for email, browsing, word processing, iPhoto stuff, and even playing games like Warcraft III. I think it’s only the gamers that are complaining about the specs. There’s still hope for the rest of the PC users out there.
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if Jobs and Apple dont market the snot out of the new Mini and just OS X.3 in general im gonna drive to Cupertino and smack him in the head.
If Apple would just run some damn TV ads and let people see there products working and point out that you dont get viruses, or spyware, or adware, or all that bull they would ‘switch’ so many. people dont know whats out there. every time someone sees my iBook running they are astonished at the pure beauty of the OS and then when i tell them that i dont ahve to worry about anything and it ‘just works’ they just stand in awe.
To steal a line from good ol’ Balmer, its not “developers developers developers”. Its “marketing marketing marketing”. and i dont mean these damn shadow person ads, i want to see the product being used. that works fine for the iPods in any flovor but they need to push the OS and enlighten people.
Apple has gotten the masses to sip the Kool Aid, now show them how good they can have it and let them chug away.
I think you can tell that the gamers are sick of their crappy Windows boxes and want Apple to save them.
PC users are just now asking about the Mhz myth. Dear God. What an idiotic way to ‘prove’ that Macs are overpriced.
What? It’s made by Motorolla.. ahh whatever.. I’m pretty sure I know what I’m talking about.. Dedicated Graphics.. bah.. can’t be that good.
Here’s a thought: USE ONE.
MCCFR hit on a very good point – many schools have bought Dells in the last few years. Many of these same schools must live with their decision for 3-4 years which is eternity in the Windows world.
Schools with tight budgets can look to update machines to the Mac mini while retaining the existing dell screen, keyboard & mouse. They could then begin to budget for newer monitors, keyboard and mice in an off cycle from the CPU. Smaller expenditures are easier to get approved.
What was Apple’s budget for designing the mini Mac? Who thinks Apple could have reallocated some of that money away from fancy case design and put that money into offering more powerful or expandable hardware?
How much more would an analog mic input jack add to the cost? How would putting the factory RAM on the motherboard and leaving that 1 slot empty affect the price?
The Mac mini is the perfect base computer! I already ahve a few friends who want Macs either because they bought iPods and the halo effect worked on them or because they are just tired of crappy Pee Cees being full of viruses. Now they can easily switch and not have to drop a lot of cash on an iMac G5 or (not so much) on an eMac. Most of them already have a monitor and keyboard, so they could use a KVM switch and use both or jutch chuck their Wintel box and switch completely. A Mac’s price has usually been the defining point in whether people will do the switch or not. And amazingly so many people still think that Macs won’t run programs they are used to or read Word files. And NO, Mac’s aren’t that expensive, look at the specs of any of the consumer Macs (Mac mini, eMac, iMac G5, iBook) and try building a Dell with those specs and see how much you’ll spend. Dells at the $500 level don’t even have FireWire or anything close to iLife ’05! People who don’t push their computer that hard will find the Mac mini more than fast enough. 256MB of RAM is ok…personally I’d upgrade to 512MB, but for most people 256 is enough. And seriously, how many people NEED Bluetooth, AirPort Extreme, a SuperDrive, or any of the other luxuries you can put on a Mac mini?
I like that if you have a DVI enabled HDTV or TV with S-Video you can hook up you Mac mini. I’d rather get a Mac mini and an Elgato and external Lacie FW400 Drive than a $3000 Windows Media PC or TiVo and still have to pay $13/mo for service. Plus then you can surf the net from the couch if you get the Bluetooth keyboard or some other wireless input device(s).
Yep, worthless can’t connect the dots…but those of us in the Mac community can. I guess Worthless has too narrow a range of vision.
Let’s see if we can help.
1. Mo get’s it in the above comment…connect the Mini with an Elgato/ We can pipe the TV signal into the Mini’s HD. Why ask you – it’s so limited or Worthless? Part of my life is serving as a political activist. Now I can pull political video and create short 60-second clips for political use and satire. We’ll pull the video from the Mighty Mini (Apple’s term on the site and it works for me) using Airport into my videoworkstation powered by a Dual G5 and FCPHD, equipped with a Bluetooth KeyBoard and Mouse (BTKB&M)…walla, expanded clip generating capabilities.
2. Next, when we have friends over, I’ll load some QT clips in progress on the MM HD. If it’s not political, I’ll load an iPhoto album or two and drop these on the HD. Using the $19 DVI adapter, pop the video signal out of the MM and into our family room TV using S-Video. Kind of cool letting the iPhoto album’s cycle as a conversation backdrop…normally the TV is off but now, the clips or albums might create new conversations.
3. Hmmm, next, we are going over to friends home, or maybe a MeetUp. Both locations have TVs with either an S-Video or RCA composite-in block…so we pack the MM in a softshell case, carry my BTKB&M and off we can. When we arrive, connect the TV to the MM, add BTKB&M..and oh yea, since we have Airport I can connect to the Net with WiFi (if it’s a MeetUp location)…yep, those edited political clips are quite funny. Don’t believe my sourcing of some of the comments
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” /> let’s go to one of my Safari bookmarks…yep, here it is in public view.
4. Ya know, even though I don’t travel as much as we used to, I still do some traveling. Not the road warrior that splurged on the first Apple Portable…and would still love to have a G4 Powerbook – if I was a road warrior…hmm, wonder if I packed the MM with the BTKB&M, added an Ethernet cable, and headed off to the hotel for a weekend. Upon arrival, hooked the MM to the hotel room’s TV using the DVI adapter, connected the MM to the hotel’s broadband through Ethernet, and added the BTKB&M and walla…don’t need anything with a lot of power but since since email is configured to our pop accounts…I now have an alternative to taking my Windows XP laptop with SP2 and all the issues on the road…beside this is a lot lighter. If I want to surf, etc, Safari fits my needs….life can be good for the enlightened.
5. Finally, one of our clients wants to talk about eLearning, our day to day business. The problem in the past, this client has a secure area with no net access. We have had to burn a CD with demo or in-progress content (DHTML and JS), take it with us to display on their projectors. All of our serious work is done on Macs so most of this stuff can’t be edited on the fly offsite…and the new Keynote is much more superior to PPT but I couldn’t take that with me on an XP machine…hmm, now I can take the MM with BTKB&M, a preso in KeyNote, and the content…and walla the portable preso machine makes life better and should increase sales.
Well, let’s see, I am switching from Windows XP (#5). I am not cannibalizing an iMac or G5…already have these. I am adding a new Apple Mac to the collection…AND I might just get that Shuffle now..a switch from my Palm trying to act like an MP3 player. Yep, the Mighty Mini may only sport a 1.25 GHz G4 but it fits my needs and will make life easier, increase sales, and entertain friends at a great pricepoint.
Sorry Worthless…you don’t have a clue..but I do
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I’m buying 1500 and making a mini not-so-super computer.