Apple’s Mac Mini turns commodity computing into fine computing

“The conventional way to produce a PC for users with shallow pockets is to start subtracting features from a more expensive model until you reach the price point you want. Then toss the works into the same dull cabinet as the pricier offering,” John P. Mello Jr. writes for The Boston Globe. “But Apple has shown over the years that it doesn’t have a penchant for conventional thinking or for anything dull. Priced at $499, the Mac mini turns commodity computing into fine computing. Moreover, it makes it affordable for many PC users enamored with Apple’s iPod to test the OS X waters.”

“If you’re new to computing, that $499 price tag will start moving upward when you have to buy a monitor, keyboard, and mouse. And even if you have extra parts collecting dust in a closet, you’re probably going to want to upgrade the Mini’s paltry 256 megabytes of memory to 512 megabytes immediately,” Mello Jr. writes.

“One way to reduce costs when producing an economy PC is to skimp on software. That’s not the case with the Mac mini. It includes the iLife ’05 suite of programs that Apple bundles with its higher-end machines. iLife’s applications let you manage and edit digital images (iPhoto), manage, play and purchase digital music (iTunes), edit video (iMovie), author DVDs (iDVD), and create music (GarageBand),” Mello Jr. writes. “Another shortcut taken by computer makers is to unload the burden of processing graphics onto a system’s main processor and memory. That’s not Apple’s style. The Mac mini has a dedicated graphics processor, the ATI Radeon 9200, and 32 megabytes of dedicated memory to handle its graphics chores.”

Mello Jr. writes, “While the Mac mini’s $499 price may smack of advertised prices for new cars, the additional $100 or $200 — if you have a spare keyboard, display, and mouse, or have better luck with a switching cable than I had — is a worthwhile outlay for a machine that can bring so much fun to your computing experience.”

Full article here.

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