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You can burn a DVD with it. You just need to choose a Superdrive when you order it.

My first Mac mini has been burning DVDs very nicely since I put it into service. The SuperDrive option I ordered it with has been working marvelously.

What are these "smaller windows and linux" boxes he talks about? Is he trying to compare like a PDA or palm-pilot thingy to a fully-functioning computer?

what? no MDN take?

you boys get lazy when there is nothing to sensationalise...

And no, you can't find a PC smaller than the Mac Mini. You can find Small PCs, you can even build a Micro PC, but it's still about 8"x8"x9" (or so).

Read his article, it is very very good. Quit whining about a few little mistakes.

The DVD comment is pretty stupid.

On the other hand, unless you do a special BTO order from the online store, it can't burn DVDs. And since Apple bunged by online order, I'm stuck with retail unless I want to wait a month.

Private whine: I ordered a BTO mini with Superdrive on the day they were announced. I then was reminded by my wife that Apple uses UPS for a lot of deliveries, that at least our area doesn't deliver after 5 p.m. and won't drop off without a signature--tough when someone's at the house only after 5. So I called to switch the delivery address to my wife's job, and the genius on the phone somehow recoded my Mac mini into a PowerMac G4. When I informed Apple that I in fact wanted a mini, they recoded it again--with late February delivery.

MDN's eerie code word is "get"

good article. and an intersting idea about the future of the mini. though I think his problem with quicktime not playing trailers for a while was a fluke, not a harbinger. quicktime is a core component of iTunes, so if it'll play in iTunes it'll play in quicktime.

It's all about QT 7 and H264! I reckon that's when we'll see what Apple's real video strategy is. The scalable codec of H264 will enable a credible range of video products in the same way that AAC enabled iTunes/iPod etc....

He may have a point in the HD part but no analog TV output from the Mac Mini? He did not do his home work. You can order a adapter cable for that!!!

I agree with Jay, quit whining. You're missing the point.

The article, I believe is completely on target. It's the dawning of the virtual cable company completely independent of DVD standards or distribution channels. Of course one does not need a Mac mini (any Mac would do), but to do it with mass appeal, you need an inexpensive device. And considering some iPods cost at least as much and the mini, I can't imagine people balking at $500 or so to download HD movies long before we have the DVD standards in play (and long before BlockBuster, et al, can get into the fray). The new players will be at least $500 initially. The movie houses don't even have to start producing discs yet to take advantage!

What an end run!

However, I wonder if you'll be able to burn the download content to DVD with any semblance of quality?.... Converting your ACC to MP3 isn't exactly preserving audio fidelity.

There are smaller PCs.

the OQO UPC comes to mind... comes with a screen too, and docks to become a fully blown PC running XP.

the FLipstart as well.

These are "Pocket PC" size units that run XP.

BSOD

Hoe did you get a Mac mini so soon? I thoughht they were not supposed to start shipping them until the22nd (tomorrow).

MacOS X is highly scriptable. If you were to develop a bluetooth "remote" for the Mac with preprogrammed scripts for various media tasks (as well as user programmable features), then that would work very well for controlling the recording and playback of digital audio and video content. Any auxiliary devices that could attach to the Mac via USB or Firewire could potentially be controlled through the Mac, as well. If the auxiliary components also include bluetooth then they could be directly controlled from the remote, as well, given the proper firmware.

P.S. What's with the "magic word" anyway? What purpose does it serve?

Just read that the Mac mini is going to be sold at Target. This is huge I think, but we'll see how the numbers turn out in six months.

"You can buy smaller Windows and Linux machines. You can buy cheaper Windows machines from all the big brands."

But you can't buy smaller AND cheaper Windows and Linux machines. That's one of the things that makes the Mac mini interesting.

Look at some of the small PCs. They're selling for $700-$800, though they might come with a keyboard and mouse . We've all seen the cheap PCs in "standard" tower enclosures.

He's right that it doesn't come with the things that a full-blown "Media Center" comes with. But I think Apple is wise to stay out of that market--for now. The do-it-yourselfer can build a Mac mini media center for a little over a thousand dollars. The truly enterprising may even try to make some money off of it--Assemble all the parts in a bundle, write some simple installation scripts and maybe a bit of code and ship that puppy.

"You can buy smaller Windows and Linux machines"

REALLY????

I DON'T THIK SO SOMEHOW!

Anyone here seen a windows pc smaller than the mac mini??

If so give me a link - I want to see this extremley rare beast!

Beryllium,

Despite accepting the free shipping from Apple, my first Mac mini arrived a few days ago via FedEx Express in one day from Shenzhen, China. Total shipping time was amazingly less than 24 hours door-to-door.

The Mac minis are supposed to arrive no later than January 22nd if you ordered on-line when I did. Not ship after then.

Dammit, the Target links are only dynamic. Just do a search on "Mac mini" from the front page of target.com and you'll come up with it right away.

The site also says "Availability: Item arriving in 2 to 6 weeks. Order now."


Brought to you by MDN magic word "later" - no joke.

At the end of the day if you want to build a computer you are restricted by the fact that it has to have a dvd/cd srive built-in.

Apple could have made the mac mini a quarter of the size it is IF it didn't a cd drive.

So, I cannot see any computer manufacturer building a pc as small as the mac mini - considering they would have to buy expensive custom made parts/motherboards etc.

Just look at the Imacs - Dell or Sony could never build a machine with that forma factor purely because the windows market is dictated by low profit margins on pcs!

Wow, everybody is talking about the size of their PC, and nothing about far-reaching comments Cringley makes in his article. I'd think that is more of a discussion point than DVD burners in Mac minis, or whether it could be made smaller....

Interesting article. I hope he's right. Perhaps we'll see Flicks and Flix melded together for iFlicks, iCinema, or iTheater?

As for a remote, I guarantee there will be Bluetooth remotes coming out in droves soon. My T68i can already control iTunes and the DVD player. Further functionality would be a snap.

KingMel - P.S. What's with the "magic word" anyway? What purpose does it serve?

It is for the transfer of cosmic messages from beyond. Ignore them at your peril.

They are all butt ugly but these are pretty small and there is one PC on this page which is actually smaller than the Mini.

http://www.cappuccinopc.com/mocha.asp

But that is not the point. The point is this is an incredibly small, low priced MAC (caps intentional). As MDN is so fond of pointing out "Its the OS, stupid"

I think Cringely might have something here. But there are a few issues which are of concern.

Does anyone know if the audio output port is really an optical out in disguise (and just not activated yet.) No surround sound with HD picture will be a total waste of time. Maybe they'll make a breakout box which will also include alternate video outputs, a remote control receiver as well as digital audio.

Also, is a 1.25Ghz G4 really fast enough to decode HD video?? Especially with only 256Mb RAM. Has anyone tried it on a similarly equipped machine yet?

notatotalsucker,

The audio out port doesn't matter. The content would come off your Mac through the ethernet port or FireWire. HDTV set-top boxes have cable modems build in, USB and IEE-1394. The Mac wouldn't need to do any of the conversion. The TV or set-top box would.

The HDTV stream off the cable plant doesn't have a separate audio conductor, does it?....

I would imagine that the Mac mini is really just storage with software to manage the DRM and protect the studios' intellectual property and had the proper data stream to the cable box or proper TV. Apple has already demonstrated it is capable of doing that with music to the RIAA.

Cringely uses Sony's presence at Macworld, among other things, to predict an iFlicks like Apple movie store a la iTunes Movie Store.

Not saying that is not the most logical next step but Sony could just be after HD iMovie 5 software for Windows for it's soon to be released consumer HD movie cameras. Apple is all about the software to Sony's Pres.

What I find interesting:

"Here's my thinking, and it is just thinking -- I have no insider knowledge of Apple's plans, I haven't been diving in any Cupertino dumpsters, and nobody who knows the truth has told me a darned thing."


Looks like Apple's ThinkSecret suit is already having a cooling effect

Cringely's article is one of the most insightful ones that I've read concerning the Mac mini.

In a previous topic on MDN, I suggested that the Mini should be thought of as a new platform and Cringely is developing that point with far more eloquence than I could muster.

It saddens me when people talk of the Mini and only discuss it's price tag or it's physical size.

The exciting aspect of the Mini is it's potential.

It's so obviously a part of a greater whole. Much of what Apple has produced recently has been able to be used as part of the digital hub.

The monitors are perfect for the job.

iTunes could just as easily store and deliver video rather than just audio. The same goes for iTMS.

Even Airport Express wasn't left to be merely a portable WiFi unit, or a wireless USB printer. It also became the means to let you stream content from your main computer to elsewhere in your house.

Each of those parts is great in itself, but collectively their significance becomes greater.

Clearly the Mini further extends that potential, but we can be quite sure that there's much more to come.

It would take *days* to download an HD-encoded movie. iTunes songs, by contrast, download in under a minute. This is a major barrier for Apple to overcome if they plan to enter the business of Video-On-Demand, a la "iMovies" / "iCinema" / whatever.

Ryan, I don't know all the details but my understanding is that the new h.264 video that be heavily implemented in Tiger and Quicktime 7 will drastically change that.

Ryan,

Are you talking about dial-up? If so, then you are correct.

If you are talking braoadband, then 'days' is quite the exageration. Also consider the numerous FTTx projects being undertaken by Verizon, SBC, etc. Cable modem service isn't getting any slower. Comcast has video-on-demand already in most major markets and it doesn't take all that long to download the content.

Apple is about the future. They could be a little early on this one, but somehow I don't think so.

I hope Apple (and its resellers) make it loud and clear that to burn DVDs users will have to BTO, and that iDVD will only work with an internal SuperDrive. We don't wanna tick off too many switchers.

zupchuck.. please.. do we have tread old ground here?

How many times do you want to watch your favorite movie?

Ahh SJ has already dismissed movie downloads, saying that kind of thing is already in place.. Blockbuster, etc..

Old material here..

Mike,
What SJ dismissed was standard quality TV and movies via entrenched giants (cable companies and Blockbuster). He did not dismiss HD, nor did he dismiss sending HD streams over the Internet.

There are so many signs pointing to an Apple "iFlix Video Store", even as SJ was busy dampening expectations (and hiding real intentions from market competitors) until Apple was almost ready with H.264 and QT7. It is after all "the year of HD."

As there is no doubt that Apple is headed into consumer electronics (Target selling Mac mini) and that H.264 will arrive in 1H05, there are three key threads remaining:
1. Who is Apple getting to provide content for the store? Movie studios, TV studios and broadcast networks, music studios (music videos), sports leagues? (Note NFL audio on iPod!) (Can ThinkSecret break an NDA on this?)
2. Is broadband at up to 6Mbps downstream going to be fast enough for HD-quality H.264? If not, what else might Apple use?
3. What wireless standard will Apple use to move multimedia around the house (802.11a, pre-802.11n, Freescale UWB, etc)? And where's that Apple remote control for the Mac?

Back when SJ said the Mac would be the digital hub, he also said that Apple intended to be one of the ten biggest Internet companies. Now we're just beginning to see what he meant.

Here's to all the people who want Apple to offer a subscription service!

Brought to you by the magic word: learned

Wow, is Cringely smart! I have no doubt after reading this that at least half of it is right. Jobs hates TV and loves movies. Selling or renting movies online is a natural.

The things that leap out at me as confirming Cringely's view are:

1. That *both* iFlix and iFlicks have clammed up. What are the odds on that?
2. That Jobs was making such a big deal of H.264 in general, not just in the context of iChat AV. He did exactly the same thing with AAC, explaining how fabulous it was, 6 months or so before the iTunes Music Store started selling songs in that format.
3. His otherwise mysterious point about how H.264 is Blu-Ray / HD-DVD agnostic.
4. His having already experimented with selling extremely large downloads in the form of the U2 box set, which is the equivalent of about 4 movies (using Jobs's own "a movie is 100 times as big as a song" rule of thumb).
5. His extreme slowness to line Pixar up with another studio--this is extending the golden moment in which he has incredible negotiating power with every movie studio in existence. Being extremely attractive and un-mated gives you negotiating power, and it does seem possible that he means to use it to complete an iTunes-style multiple simultaneous deal.

Anyway, I just think there's got to be something to what the man is saying.

Two things to consider before you agree completely with this article:

First, trailers do not have to be viewed through iTunes, as mentioned by the writer. It is most likely that he selected a particular trailer or size that had to be viewed through iTunes, but most trailers on Apple's site are viewable through the web browser or (if you save the file with QuickTime Pro) through QuickTime Player. For an example of this, check out the Fantastic Four trailer page where Full Screen is viewable through iTunes but the other three sizes load within the web-browser.
http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/fantastic_four/

Second, when QuickTime 7 for OS X is released there will be a version for Windows XP. This is going to happen because iTunes for Windows XP needs QuickTime to function and so far Apple has kept both the Mac and Windows versions identical with every update. My point is that if Apple goes into the HD movie downloads business, a Mac mini would not be the minimum recommended system; any current PC would also do.

I think that people should stop wishing for a Mac Media Center and start accepting the Mac mini as the desktop PC that it is. Just because it can output video to a television does not mean that it is replacing the VCR, DVD or cable box.

Considering the only audio output on the Mac Mini is an 1/8 inch headphone jack I think this video hopothsesis is faulty. No digital output means no surround sound, no hi definition audio.

Sol,

1. Cringely said the Quicktime/iTunes thing was a glitch that was fixed but that he could see that as a glimpse of the future.

2. Just like iTunes/iTMS is for the PC, I would expect "iFlix" to also be available on the PC. But the x86 PC hardware requirements may be steep for HD, since Tiger H.264 will be optimized for the PowerPC/GPU. So that a future Mac mini will not only look better but be cheaper than a HD-capable PC.

Huck,

One other point - Apple's own XServe, XServe RAID, and XSan are perfect (fast and cheap - especially when you buy from yourself) for serving up the iFlix service.

Chris,

The Mac mini is a forerunner of a future box that includes an internal digital sound output. For the current Mac mini, there could be a second box (Firewire or USB) that drives a digital audio output. Apple is just getting people ready to buy "consumer electronics" from them - note that Target.com is selling the Mac mini.

The Cringley article brings up the possibility of movies on demand but assumes the Mac mini is the computer for the job. I don't think so. Maybe the form factor, but there will be a Mac AV or something to do the job. And do it right.

Finally at the bottom of the posts, AlanAudio and Huck start putting all the pieces into place. This year you'll get an iDeck that downloads movies in H.264 while you sleep or are at work, and you can watch them when you wish (and probably on you Sony TV not your Mac).

Just two questions... If you can download tunes and flix, what will the site be called? And can you stram these movies over airport?

Hmmmm?