Kiss of death: Dvorak likes Apple’s new Mac mini
Wednesday, January 12, 2005 - 11:15 AM EDT"At Tuesday's MacWorld keynote address in San Francisco, Steve Jobs rolled out a slew of upgrades to existing products, a new iPod without a hard disk and a diminutive new so-called headless (no monitor) Mac called the Mac mini," John C. Dvorak writes for CBS MarketWatch. "Selling for $499, this computer will be a significant entry into the computer scene, if it works as advertised."
"I have a stand-alone DVD drive that weighs more than this device. The Mac mini is 6.5-inches wide and 2-inches tall and weighs in at less than 3 pounds. Some years ago when an engineer friend of mine was discussing the difference between laptop and desktop designs he said that laptops are different because most of the engineering goes into packaging, not computer science. This mean that components had to be carefully selected and put together in ways which dissipate heat and work well under mobile and often extreme conditions. This is essentially what Apple has done here," Dvorak writes.
"With the Mac mini, the all-aluminum case should help but with a gigahertz processor, a whirring hard disk and a DVD drive all working at once I have to wonder how the components will hold up. We'll know after a few months," Dvorak writes. "The machine in every other sense is close to perfect. It has the right array of inputs and outputs, built-in networking and sound along with a versatile video output that should work with almost any monitor you already own. Once this unit gets into the field and passes the tests of the real world, I'll have no trouble recommending it as a machine of choice, especially to new users. And I haven't done that with an Apple product for years."
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Well, damn, if that ain't the kiss of death, nothing is. What's next, Rob Enderle manning the Mac Genius Bar?
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I suppose now Thurrot will give the mini his approval...