MacDailyNews - Where Mac news comes first

realist:

what step backwards did they make? name one?

the video is better so that doesnt count...

Remember all the whining and complaining about the orignal iPod, the iMac G5, the iPod mini, the iPod nano...

Of course not! We're all Kool-aid-drinking Mac zealots who never have the slightest criticism for Apple! All the complaining above is just joking around!

(Sorry, but a recent spate of "If Apple did [some stupid crap their competitors did], you zealots would all support it" posts has rubbed me the wrong way. Todays comments have disproved that about a million times over!)

I don't think gamers should, in general, be using Macs.

this sucks! i wanted to buy a cheap mac for people who have no use for bluetooth, no use for airport and no use what so ever for anything faster than 1.25Ghz, guess i'll have to hurry and pick one of the old ones up.
This is really dissapointing apple!

John and Mike,
In the technology world, everything moves forward. It is always getting better, faster, and cheaper. It's quite obvious this machine would have technologically better parts than its predecessor, but that's not the question. The debate is about whether the parts in the mini have improved at the same rate as the rest of technology. Comparing technology in one system to an older system is not that useful if you're going to completely ignore how technology in general has changed.

Nick:

You obviously did NOT read my post becasue I didnt provide any lame excuses... it comes down to this...

The video in the new mini is better than the old one.

Any other stupid remarks you want to make?

"When someone came on this board and said that the price Apple pays for powerPC processors is/was cheaper, sometimes half the price of equivalent intel processors, most people laughed. I haven't been able to find out how much Apple pays for the PPC's because neither IBM not Apple has released anything, but seeing how the machines aren't getting any cheaper, haven't added any features, have lost some features, and the only change has been the processor, I'm tempted to think he was right."

I've read many times before that the PowerPC was cheaper to produce. It's cheaper, because the PowerPC is less complex to manufacture, I believe. It was the people from the PC camp who thought that going Intel meant going cheaper, because everything PC is cheap, right? PowerPC was a very cost effective chip. Those damn PC journalists!

thanks for answering my question before I asked it guys!

the new mini supports core image! yay!

that was the only thing preventing me from buying the G4 mini!.

good god, all this bitching about integrated video is pissing me off. AFAIAC, integrated video is good for 420p, 720p, and even 1080p, as the ram required for throughput can be leveraged up to 224megs! If you're bitching about losing that to system memory, I wonder how you run photoshop while you're running a 720p mpeg-2 stream. Maybe you're just too cool for the mini.

going to the apple store right now!... wait is it there yet?

"(Sorry, but a recent spate of "If Apple did [some stupid crap their competitors did], you zealots would all support it" posts has rubbed me the wrong way. Todays comments have disproved that about a million times over!)"

That is because these critical comments are not being made by the zealots. Once these rational minds get bored with this site and leave, the zealots come back in full force.

Additionally, you're also kind of implicating yourself as a zealot by once again defending all things Apple.

I wonder if this chipset allows for hardware accelerated H.264???? Also, could this box run a Plazma at 1080P? If it can, there are some compeling uses for this little box. (altho it feels like an interim product to be sure)

$600 - $800 isn't bad for the computer, not great either, but Apple seems to be really pushing this for the living room. For there it's too expensive. I was hoping I could put this next to my TV, and just use it for media viewing and streaming. But it's too expensive just for that. People don't want a full fledged computer for their living room. I'm not going to edit movies, surf the web, shop, email, quicken, garage band, iphoto (editing), ichat, write letters, write exams, solve complex math problems, etc., on the TV.

I agree with others, that for a computer, the imac is a much better deal.

There is a logical explanation for the integrated video...

Apple is obviously trying to market the mini as a media center... Using integrated video is the only way to keep costs at $600 yet still allow the graphics engine to use as much Ram as needed for HD video content...

Movies are the next step for Apple folks.. And hi-def movies require alot of RAM.. Apple is certainly not going to include a 256 mb graphics card and still keep the price at $600... Integrated video with shared Ram was the solution...

How can anyone in their right mind think that this is not a worthy upgrade over yesterday's G4 MacMini??

For the same reason the same people screamed and bitched when the original Mac mini was introduced!

"Oh, it's sooooo slow!"
"I can't play games with this!"
"Photoshop won't run worth crap!"

Get it through your thick skulls, people! This is an ENTRY LEVEL MAC. If you care about speed, this is not for you! If you care about graphics power, this is not for you! Sure, people come up with all kinds of innovative uses for this tiny computer, but that's all beyond Apple original target market: beginning non-techie Mac users.

I bought an original Mac mini for my terrified-of-computers aunt. I could never use it -- it's too slow for me. But she loves it! For her needs, it's perfect! She doesn't need speed, it's easy to use, and it doesn't take up much space on her office table!

My only worry here is the $100 bump in price. That could scare off part of their target market, which often looks for the cheapest deal. But if the $500 model wasn't selling well anyway, there's little to lose -- plus we might see a price drop later.

b says "People don't want a full fledged computer for their living room. I'm not going to edit movies, surf the web, shop, email, quicken, garage band, iphoto (editing), ichat, write letters, write exams, solve complex math problems, etc., on the TV."

Why not? If you've got a hi-def tv.. I think a Mac Mini would be ideal.. Especially with a wireless bluetooth keyboard on the coffee table..

Imagine going to the iTMS to buy a movie or a tv show, switch on front row and begin viewing immediately on a 42" hi-def LCD tv.. Brilliant

Additionally, you're also kind of implicating yourself as a zealot by once again defending all things Apple.

Heh? How am I "defending all things" Apple by pointing out that, yes indeed, Apple fans will criticize the company?

I'm not completely satisfied with this new mini. I think it's $100 too expensive. There, am I cool now?

Mike,

That would be nice, but only if I had two living rooms, each with it's own 42" hi def TV and so my wife could watch TV in the other living room. She definitely isn't interested in watching me surf the mac web.

The pricing on the mini is all psychological..

Nothing is more expensive.. In fact you are getting a heck of alot more today than you did yesterday for the same price point of $599..

The only thing that has changed is Apple took away the $499 entry level model which did not include bluetooth and airport... Partly because Apple is now targeting the mini as a media center and partly because the $499 model did not sell well.. The best selling g4 mini was the $599 model..

B,

I'm not talking about surfing the web although it certainly is an option, I'm talking about shopping the iTMS for a movie or tv show from your sofa and then bam.... switch to front row and begin watching..

There are so many possibilities with the mac mini and front row hooked up to your living room hi-def tv!

b:

Sounds like a personal problem.

really what in the world does you not being able to afford or have space for or whatever 2 tvs have to do with ANYTHING that relates to the mini?? wtf is wrong with peoples heads?

TT,

It's no problem for me, I'm not going to buy one.

Mike,

my point is that it's expensive for doing that. Not that you wouldn't want to do that. And you can do that if you like.

Sheesh. No wonder Apple stock is dropping.

---

Huh? Typical for an event like this. You must be joking.. they just announced a billion songs sold and a 78% share for iPods..

MAYBE THATS THE REASON THE STOCK IS DROPPING!

See? See how easy it is to spout nonsense?


Buy on hype, sell on arrival, remember? You should have sold shares just before the event. How many times have you had to learn this?

The 1.5Ghz Core Solo model actually slower than the old 1.25Ghz G4 at running non-universal binaries. Apple could have gone with the Core Duo, since it costs $32 more.

The graphics performance is the worst you can get in a new computer, and causes the Mac mini to have less memory than it used to. TT's mother even told me so.

Hardly anyone is going to need the wireless that they are paying $100 for. It's a desktop computer.

Once you add a display, keyboard and mouse, you might as well spend a few hundred more for the WAY better iMac.

1. Smoking processor twice as fast
2. Faster Ram
3. iLife 06
4. Front Row
5. Bluetooth 2.0 (standard)
6. Airport wireless (standard)
7. Gigabit ethernet
8. Digital audio in and out
9. DVI out for HDTV (media center)
10. Apple Remote

---

THANK YOU!

Seriously you geeks are so bitter and negative. Look what Thurrott says: "Intel-based Mac mini comes with $100 price hike" .. That's the headline. As if there's no actual NEW FEATURES. The things like 4 times faster and you cheap bastards are whining about $100? A HUNDRED BUCKS?! Amazing.

Look.. no one worrying about HDTV is allowed to bitch about A HUNDRED BUCKS.. LOOK AT ALL THE FEATURES!

is there anyway for the new mini to run dual monitors?
i doubt it, but anybody know?
thanks in advance.

No, it cannot.

thanks Mike.
i may still get one, but i may wait to see what the new iBooks have.

Any guesses how cool (or warm) the Core Duo mini will run?

After seeing the iMac G5's run plenty warm, I wonder how the smaller case will handle the Core Duo's heat.

So if people upgrade from a 1.25Ghz G4 Mac mini to a 1.5Ghz Core Solo Mac mini, how much worse do you suppose all of their PowerPC-only applications will run?

Man, that graphics chip is junk. What a shame.

Here's another good article comparing it to the Nvidia GEForce 6200.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1821808,00.asp

WHY does Apple constantly cripple great machines with BAD graphics cards? Is THIS the price Apple must pay to suck up to Intel?

Sheesh..............

Excellent! I got an iboner!

Eggs for everyone!

Are you people EVER freakin' happy?

The machine is really decent, get over it already. Or go back to regular Win PCs. LOL.

Jeez....

Despite Mike's helpful and informative comments above, I am leary about the integrated graphics. I agree that it seems necessary to keep the price low (although they did raise the price $100 over the previous model), but I'm concerned about the precedent. I think the money right now should be on the Intel iBook (or whatever they decide to call it) also having integrated graphics. I hope that this is a temporary bridge to better models in the future with separate graphics cards.

Let's keep our fingers crossed!

er a 1080p framebuffer only takes 6MB of ram (1920 horiz * 1080 vert * (24bit color/8bits per byte)), you don't need heaps of memory for that.

Using Intel integrated graphics will actually be better than using a new ATI X1300 for Linux users since ATI refuses to even release binary only drivers for Linux on their updated cards.

I'm going to wait to buy a new Mac Mini until the Merom (amd64) based ones come out next fall/spring. Maybe they will have 802.11n by then as well.

It has an AUDIO INPUT JACK!

Thank you Steve for finally putting an input back on low end machines. I can forgive the video ram issue because of this.

I'm sort of disappointed that this is all Apple decided to announce today. The Hi Fi remains to be heard and tested, but I sure wouldn't be all that interested in paying $350 for speakers to play my iPod. And what's up with the leather cases? A friggin 100 dollars??! Must be the hides from those jewel encrusted cows I've heard so much about. The Mini got some good upgrades, but where's the Macbook? Maybe it'll come out when summer rolls around. Overall, I'd say today's "event" wasn't much of an event.

after reading all this and looking at the specs of the new Mini, here are my impressions:
1) there is not a price hike - Apple has, however dropped the low-end model
2) in principle, I don't like integrated graphics. However, the 9200 wasn't great either. If you're looking for a real graphics card, the Mac mini was never really a good option.
3) there are significant improvements over the previous G4: faster processor, better memory, 4 USB, frontrow,......seriously even if there was a price increase it would be worth it for many people.
4) having said the above, I would agree that the price point is getting a bit too close to the iMac. But the decision as to whether to go with an iMac or the Mini depends largely on one's particular circumstances - and finances: for many people, especially students, 300-400 $ more is significant.
5) if you don't like it, don't buy it. Simple.

add a 20" monitor and it's not far off an imac 20

bluddy daft

Badly need your help. As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death. Help me! Need information about: 101 investing market stock. I found only this - Stock market definitions. This article talks about what constitutes a good system. Unclefesta I a fan of unclefesta I a fan of this user. With best wishes , Lilith from Lanka.

Good afternoon. As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death.
I am from Kosovo and too bad know English, give true I wrote the following sentence: "Twitted by followingautumn am on august permalink reply."

Best regards , Gayle.

I have been here many times and have always found this to be.
I am from Cyprus and know bad English, give true I wrote the following sentence: "Weft and purification should be achieved entirely."

THX :-(, Rhett.