“One’s first reaction to seeing the Mac mini face to face is: surely you can’t get a whole computer in that? A metal-and-white enclosure the size of a sandwich box – but far more elegant – packs up to 1 gigabyte of memory, fast Wi-Fi networking, Bluetooth connectivity, a DVD-burning slot-loading drive and an 80-gigabyte disk. But what makes the Mac mini appealing to any Windows user is not its compact size, but the software that comes with it and the price,” Charles Arthur writes for The Independent.”

“Once you’re plugged in, the fun starts. Along with Apple’s e-mail, calendar, address book, synchronisation and browser programs, the Mac mini comes with a program suite already loaded, called ‘iLife ’05,’ which includes a movie-making program called iMovie HD, a photo organisation package called iPhoto, a DVD-making program called iDVD (you’ll need the DVD-burning drive for this to work), a music-making program called Garageband, and the iTunes program that’s familiar to Windows users who own iPods, for music organisation,” Arthur writes. “There are programs for Windows that perform many of these functions; Roxio’s Creator 7 Suite for Windows runs music organisation, disc-burning, film and photograph editing. But it’s not as elegant or as integrated.”

“The second reason for trying the Mac mini is that you won’t be troubled by spyware and viruses. So far, Apple’s OS X operating system is virtually a malware-free zone. The peace of mind that brings is hard to overestimate, though Apple keeps quiet about this because hackers are expected to break through its security system eventually,” Arthur writes. “One final point: if you decide to switch to a Mac, get a program called Move2Mac (http://www.move2mac.com), which will save you a huge amount of tedious poking and prodding with machine settings to try to get Windows to talk to OS X – something it’s reluctant to do. Given that big threats can come in small packages, perhaps that’s appropriate: the Mac mini certainly makes using a Mac more affordable and more attractive than ever to Windows users.”

Full article here.