“By far the world’s most popular design for a personal computer is a box for the processing unit with a separate monitor and keyboard. Strangely enough, it has been seven long years since Apple Computer offered such a computer aimed at consumer and educational markets. But having finally done so, Apple has come up with a product worth the wait,” Stephen H. Wildstrom writes for BusinessWeek.
“The new Mac Mini, starting at an impressively low $499, brings Apple into the consumer mainstream. As you would expect for a product from Steven Jobs’s Apple, it is utterly unlike anything else on the market. Most desktops, even high-end ones, are metal boxes with the style and grace of a gym locker. The Mini is a square box, 6 1/2 inches on a side and 2 inches high, with brushed aluminum sides and a white plastic top… The PowerPC G4 processor is a lot slower than the G5 in current Power Macs and iMacs, but it’s speedy enough for most typical uses,’ Wildstrom writes.
“I used the new Mac with Microsoft and Logitech keyboards and mice with no problems; the alt key corresponds to the Mac’s ‘option’ key and the Windows key to Mac’s ‘command.’ Mice, including wheel mice, work without additional software,” Wildstrom writes. “Lovely as the Mini is, software is the more compelling reason to buy it. Mac OS X offers the best combination of elegance and stability of any operating system. And Apple bundles some very good software, including the iPhoto picture-management program, iMovie video editing, and GarageBand music-creation software… I don’t know if the Mini will increase Apple’s market share, but it should. It is all the computer most homes, schools, and small businesses need in a tiny, elegant package. The only wonder is that it took so long.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: One of the best articles you’ll ever read describing Apple’s Mac mini, Wildstrom even gets Mac OS X’s inherent security advantage over Windows pretty much dead on in the full article. This is definitely one to send to Windows users who are wavering.
It’s fast. About three times as fast as the G4 Mac mini, judging by the load factor and perceived speed. But it’s still not nearly as fast as a Linux box with similar horsepower. At least it went from totally frustrating to mildly disappointing..Fat loss 4 idiots