First look: Apple' new unibody Mac mini - Page 4

The only hardware you can't get on less expensive Dell or HP computers is the optical audio ins and outs. Since I'm not doing music recording those features go unused on my Mac Book. If you are curious about configuring an HP or Dell you can visit their sites and configure your own towers. It takes a while to do and I'm not doing it again just to post it here. Just visit their sites and look at the available hardware.

Regarding putting Snow Leopard on my Mac Book, your powers have failed you. You are not yet a Jedi.

I don't know.

I'm not sure how Apple authors the installation recovery disks that ship with a system (i.e., whether or not they're only compatible with the latest hardware or not). Without a doubt, they are not generic OS X installation disks.

That's not the only HW difference, by a long shot. I assume your comparison was based on rudimentary performance and capacity specs, not actually comparing the HW.

What I don't get about this argument is if you are going to go that route then why not just build your own machine. You get even better HW for even less money. The idea of having a vendor build you their PC adds substantial cost and it appears by this thread that making a profit is the work of the devil.

You didn't as you said,
Because you can't. Without the parts list, let alone the Schematics, detailed block diagrams, and detailed operational descriptions,* you can't even start. Only Apple or the FCC could.

*Items the FCC usually keep confidential and surely Apple is not about to disclose them http://ts.nist.gov/Standards/Global/...ity_policy.pdf

And regarding Snow Leopard, have you not installed it on your MacBook?

I like how the new mac mini looks and stuff inside but its highly overpriced here in Europe. It cost here 800. Roughly 1000 US$.

Apple mostly knows what a highly skewed 5% to 10% of the computer market wants. This group largely seems content with whatever Cupertino sees fit to send their way. Apple Fanboi perception of the world is often a little arrogant in that they forget that they are about 40% of 10%.

The Mac Mini was originally intended as a sort of loss leader / intro Mac for the PC crowd in order to get them to try Apple. It is the market that turned the Mini into a home entertainment PC just as it was the market that began using it as a server. These uses were not originally on Apple's drawing board or they would have designed / redesigned before now.

Apple's greater market awareness and success has been fueled by the iPhone, iPod and now iPad, product types it essentially invented. Their computer customer is often a much different animal. Yes Macs have gained market share but I have to believe a lot of it has been driven by iPhone, iPod and iPad. Given the overwhelming success and long coattails of these completely revolutionary products, Mac market share growth is actually a little dissapointing.


Completely disagree. I am using 2 Mac Minis as home entertainment PCs and have for some time. Started with a hacked AppleTV (ATVFlash). It was decent out of the box, post hack as a media device it was just ok. Have run Boxee and XBMC on the Minis and now am very happy with PLEX. My experience and skill set may be a bit atypical but my use of the Mac Minis is not. Where it comes to home entertainment I'm totally set it and forget it.

See my quote from Jobs' mouth below...

solipsism stated Apple knows its consumer base better than we do. I disagree. Nothing to do with logic. If someone at Apple could magic up a way to increase Apple PC sales three-fold Jobs would be all over the idea in seconds. Truth is, he only sees what he wants to see. Which is fine, but limiting.


It was Steve Job's who Dellesquely said "We're coming after you, you're in our sights."(Dell), not I. I pointed out that Apple have failed to sell as many PC's as Dell as they don't understand the PC consumer market as well as, say, Dell.


My comment makes no such qualitative statement of intent to purchase. The reasons are manyfold. However, at the end of the day one is just a consumer and manufacturers want you to purchase their product in preference to a competitors. To them you will always be nothing more than a consumer.


Yawn...I've been an Apple consumer since 1978. If they archived details, my name will be found amongst the very first Apple (then) Mac owners. I almost bought a Lisa, but sense got the better of me. As it will with Iteration One of the iPad. I still refuse to buy a smartphone as all the telecoms companies are making arses of all their customers.


As I implied, Jobs can't stand the smell of lower paid plebs.


ZZZzzzzzzzzzzz

You're the only one.

It looks too wide with the SuperDrive on the front \

Hmm, I don't see any evidence that Apple took a loss on each Mac mini simply to get people on Mac OS X. Perhaps you actually mean they sold the Mac mini at a lower profit margin then their average Mac sale to encourage switchers. If what you claim is true, that reinforces their decision to raise the price after 5 years since it's introduction and well after Switchers have come to the platform. they already make 1/3 of the PC market's profits and have apparently stopped doing Mac v. PC ads geared toward encouraging switchers. It shouldn't be so hard to assume (especially with your loss-leader comment) that Apple changed the focus of this machine after a 1/2 decade on the market.


Everything you've stated backs up my statement that the Mac mini has no "decent media center software" and "those who want to buy any Mac Mini for a media center aren't your typical consumer and therefore not Apple's focus for this machine." My comment made no statement that is was not possible. Clearly it is. You can turn any PC box into a media center, but these are not desirable by the average person. For this reason, Apple will continue to make an AppleTV and the Mac mini is not that device at 3x the cost and with less out of the box functionality.

They should put the SuperDrive on the back? Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if they did that, too.

lol, I wasn't suggesting they put it on the back, I'm just saying I think it looks very wide with nothing but a SuperDrive on the front, and larger gaps at the side of it.

Now, if they'd put the slot on the top then Jobs could have said 'It's magical' whilst demonstrating his justification for the inflated price.

I doubt if it's tied to the hardware, but you could ask at your Apple Store.

The server software IS licensed to the hardware you buy it with, though, so you'd be violating your license.


And I can get a Kia equipped with just as many wheels and seats as a BMW, so the Kia must be every bit as good, right?


The Mini was never meant as a loss leader, so you're imagining things. It WAS an entry level computer to get people using Macs without spending too much money. Oh, wait. It still is.

The fact that YOU can't afford $699 doesn't mean that no one can.


An Embraer is just as good as a Boeing 777 - it's just quite a bit smaller.

The fact that you're ignoring size is pretty good proof that your comparison is flawed. This is designed as a tiny 'living room' computer. You can't compare it to full sized machines.

You CAN compare those full sized machines to a Mac Pro if you wish. The comparison would show that Apple apparently doesn't have any desire to make entry-priced full sized machines. But stop making stupid comparisons.


Tiny hard drive? The Mini has a 320 GB standard drive with option of 500 GB. How many 2.5" drives are larger than that? And how much do they cost?

Anemic CPU? Please explain which CPU has more power but fits into the power envelope available.

NAS? Not necessary. If you're using this as a home server, it's probably over WiFi - and even the stock hard drive is fast enough to keep up with the network.

This will replace the AppleTV in my bedroom... can't wait.

The OP was proposing the use of the Mini for commercial colo servers. My questions were within that context, in comparison to other choices for colo servers.

Please try to keep up.

I think they just don't give a fcuk about the price anymore. With their cash flow & profits these days - if you wanna go mac just pay for it.

I see. So you have some magical power to be able to determine what computer hardware someone needs for their application without having any idea whatsoever what their requirement is?

Amazing.

Possibly because it's an incredibly obvious, gaping hole in the spec sheet of every Mac? Or are you happy with standard def video? Personally I'm used to 45mbit 1080p now, and there's no going back.

What else is there to say about the mini anyway? Okay, I'll indulge, let's do a side by side with the Dell Zino HD.

Dell Zino HD - 1.8ghz AMD X2, 8gb RAM, 1tb HD, Radeon HD 4330, Blu-Ray Drive -- £588

Mac Mini - 2.4ghz Core 2 Duo, 8gb RAM, 500gb HD, GeForce 320M, DVD Drive - £1129.

Interesting, no? What does all that extra money get you beyond a nice metal case, a faster CPU, a smaller hard drive, and a missing BD drive? (and also no equivalent for Windows Media Centre) I'm not really seeing much reason to choose the Mini over the Zino...

Glad you were able to clear that one up on your own. Your original point was that Apple knows it's customer base. Mine was that it doesn't know it's base as well as some may think. Yes, if an overwhelming portion of sales is model X then it makes sense to focus on model X.


You're assuming that Apple has decided that it has grabbed all the "switchers" it can grab. If 10% of the market is Mac (notebook and desktop) then the remaining 90% of the market would have to be non-Mac or a potential switcher. Oh, and I never said anything with respect to pricing, old or new. Has Apple figured out that the Mac Mini has found a niche among home entertainment PC types? Has it determined that switchers are just as likely to go for a lower end Macbook or iMac? Probably yes to both.


Really not sure where you were headed here. Did you mean to denigrate Boxee, XBMC or Plex? All three work fine (in that order) for the non-technical members of my family. Unboxing and connecting the Mac Mini took about 5 minutes. Installing Plex and a few other tools was another 15 minutes. Many well written articles on the intraweb on best practices. If someone has made the decision to acquire a media center computer (much less knows what one is) they're motivated and are doing some homework. And I think one of the pitfalls of the technically minded (us) is that we underestimate the ability and understanding of the "non-technical".

I would argue that Mac Mini's are an even more attractive option than a Windows PC for folks that want their media center computer to "just work", although Windows 7 does seem to be a major step forward for MSFT. The Mini is physically attractive (or at least not unattractive) and has a very small form factor. My only gripe is that I bought my last one 60 days before the refresh.

As for AppleTV, I think it has been a sales disappointment because left unhacked, it's little more than an iTunes device. Not that there isn't a lot of value there for $229, it just doesn't address everything someone would want or soon discovers they want in a media center device.

Hi! Read whole posts much?

And that's an incredibly foolish position to take - even for an AI troll.

Apple earns around 30% of the entire PC industry's profits. They are the most profitable PC maker - by far. They have 90% of the PC sales over $1 K by some reports.

The have released a long string of products which have been great successes and which are widely acclaimed -- and then copied. They haven't had a flop for ages. (Even a flop by Apple standards would be a very successful product by most standards, anyway).

Yet you think you know more about Apple's customer base than they do. That is such an incredibly stupid comment that it doesn't even need a response.

Beautiful little device... and I understand that it would be difficult to fit the board and cooling requirements of a discrete GPU in the tiny case and that they would rather have Nvidia's 9400 than Intel's graphics, but still, spending close to $1000 on a computer with a Core 2 Duo "Penryn" chip which hasn't seen anything but minor modifications since 2007 is pretty bad.

Are you kidding me?!?

Apple's profit margins blow doors on the rest of the industry. The real question would be to all the other companies: "Why aren't you guys as profitable as Apple?"

As a longtime AAPL shareholder, I have decided that it's ridiculous trying to second-guess Apple's senior management team. They do a better job than anyone else in increasing shareholder value. I am happy to receive my annual proxy ballot and re-elect the board of directors every year (including Steve Jobs, the CEO who draws $1 in salary per year).

Apple knows its customer base better than any other S&P 500 or Russell 2000 company.

I think the Mini does a little more than a Boxee box or a PS3. IT'S A COMPUTER!

Build an HP Pavilion with 8GB RAM, Bluetooth, Core i3, NVIDIA 320, 6 in 1 card reader, 500 GB hard drive, and the free keyboard and mouse and compare it to the Mac Mini with the same things other than the inferior processor, no keyboard or mouse. The price is very different.

Try the same with the HP Slimline with nearly the same level of components as the Mini and you will save money. Personally I prefer the AMD chip options, but you can choose Intel chips.

I bet Kias are just as reliable as BMWs or even better. If somebody wants a car to bring them and their family around town, to work, and to do shopping, the Kia can do everything a BMW can do. The difference is the need for attention or status. A Kia can do the same job for much less money. There are several levels of Kias today. They even have adjustable leather seats and AIR CONDITIONING!

My twenty month old Mac Book battery has expanded and is breaking the case. I just discovered it this week. Apple won't accept this as a defective battery. Imagine that! I've used the Mac Book as a desktop since getting it. I discharge the battery once per month as Apple instructed. So when you make the comparison between a Kia and a BMW I tend to want a Kia and keep the rest of the money in my pocket for other things.

I'm really glad I experienced Leopard. It is a wonderful OS. I'm using my HP computer right now running Vista. I've never hated a thing more than Vista. I've found that there are several features of Ubuntu Linux that do some of my favorite things that Leopard does, only better. Once my Mac Book is back in shape I'm moving all of my files off of it and switching to a dual boot Linux/Vista setup. I'm keeping Vista just because I want iTunes for syncing with my future iPad or perhaps a newer much larger iPod Touch (fingers crossed).

I love Leopard OS X not Apple hardware.

You are making some irrational assumptions here. If there is even one person who has not "switched" then that is a potential Mac customer. the problem with your comment is that they have to decide that they have grabbed all they can grab. Why can't the simply be using a more effective method for getting switcher? Do you really think the Mac mini is the most popular machine for switchers when notebooks are the most sought offer type of PC sold and most common Mac sold? I don't. It seems more likely to me that they don't see the Mac mini as the golden child for potential switchers or that, as stated earlier, they simply weren't buying the $600 version. Then there is the cost to profit ratio of going after every last potential Mac switcher. You get to a point that it ends up costing you money, not making you money, which is the point. There are plenty of other possibilities that come before "Apple are big doodie heads that don't know how to run a business" but those are most relevant here.

Even worse is your argument that Apple is going after 100% of the PC market OS marketshare. IF that were true they would have licensed their OS back in the 80's. Even when they were on their last leg and big, rich vendors like Dell and Compaq were begging to get out from under Microsoft's thumb they still didn't license their OS despite it obviously being a ticket to rapid marketshare growth. It's impossible for Apple to ever gain even a 50% of the desktop OS marketshare (beating Windows) with their business model. This should be easily understood without anyone having to explain it. Take what 50% per quarter would mean in terms on OS licenses, now turn that exact number into Macs. That is 2x as many PCs as HP sells and they are number one in the world with budget PCs. now figure how much revenue and profit that is considering the average Mac sale is around $1,200. That's even without figuring the impossible production issues they'd have trying to produce 10x as many Macs per quarter all using the same components that even caused a delay in this last release.

It's simply foolish to remove Apple's HW aspect from their Mac sales and then imply that they want to overtake MS' Windows monopoly yet ignoring that they could license their OS to any and all OEMS if they wanted to.


You overestimate the the technical abilities and desire for the average to tinker with their system. They want it to work. Based on your statements above it's clear you don't think the iPhone shook up the iPhone business by making a simple device that the average person could understand. Or you probably think that they bought it because its pretty because they are sheep. Who the hell knows, but I'm not going to tell my mother or grandmother that the Mac Mini makes a great HTPC or MEA for $700 and then have them figure how to search for, install and run MC software. That's insane on that face of it. The AppleTV, PS3, XBOX, TiVo, Popcorn Hour, Scientific Atlanta, etc. all are designed to interact with your TV out of the box using a 10-Foot User Interface. You can pat yourself on the back and say how easy it is all you want, but we both the reality of what you're talking about.


It's expensive and you can buy Windows Media Center that is designed with the HTPC in mind and you build your own for $700 with a BRD, Core-i7, tuner card, etc., so no, I don't think many would find it a more attractive option. Apple simply doesn't play in that market with their Macs.


I'm sure it's been a dissapoinement yet I think it's also by far the most profitable MEA that has been release. It's 2010 and that 1GHz Pentium M processor and anemic GPU have got to go. Remember it hasn't been updated since it first debuted. It seems obvious that the next one will be much smaller and use an A4 with iOS sans Cocoa Touch.

Note the unusual way the AppleTV was brought to us. Jobs offered a teaser demo in late 2006 for the AppleTV, then know as iTV. When have they ever done that? Sounds to me like this was for the content owners to show that they had a secure method for digital distribution. For comparison, Google didn't even buy YouTube until the month after 'iTV' was demoed. Then they showcased it in 2007 right before the iPhone announcement. Another failure here because it was bound to get overshadowed by the iPhone. Then it was delayed a month and year after it as released we still only had the Disney umbrella for content distribution. To me this speaks volumes as to why it has never gotten out of "hobby" mode and why it's only "hobbled" along. The content owners played hardball and won, so Apple was never able to come to the living room as planned.

But they can't give it up. Even if they have to create another place holder for 3 years they have to have something there, which is why the AppleTV has been set to rot. it's still a great interface (v2.x notwithstanding) and now there is enough focus on that segment and enough has changed that I think they can make it work. I expect something out this Fall during the iPod/iTunes Special Event.

Except that it fails dismally at "low price". And for the price it's woefully underpowered.

And why does apple even think that the "role" of a compact desktop even exists? I'm not sure if apple is obsessed with size, even when it's irrelevant, or if they are just using "compact" as an excuse to jack up the price and ship a machine that's a MUCH worse value than comparable hardware on the PC side.

$500-$600, this would be an easy buy. In this economic climate, I do not plan on buying a new computer any time soon. the specs looks great on this machine though, and the case looks great too! anyway, cutting back on the apple spending. we have to survive, and save cash.

What I meant by the 12-year reference is that today's good quality LCD panels should have a life span of about 12 years, if not longer. In other words, you're combining an LCD panel capable of lasting about 12 years with a computer that will not, that is provided you don't sink serious money into periodic maintenance. If you're OK with the iMac being your computer for more than a decade and are willing to spend money to keep the thing current, then the iMac makes sense.

For me, it doesn't.

Well, since I don't use my computer as my home entertainment system, yes, quite happy.


I believe the specs of the Zino were reviewed against the Mini in a thread the other day and found to not measure up at all. But, I definitely think the Zino is probably the perfect machine for you.

Silly argument. An office desk costs less than an HDTV. Would you like to compare any other dissimilar objects?


You were responding to someone talking about the Mini server. The Mac Mini server is $999 including full unlimited client licenses. For Windows, you're going to pay $2200 just for the client licenses - not counting hardware or the server software itself. So exactly which Windows system can you get that's more powerful than that for $999 with unlimited client licenses?

Yeesh, what was that all about?

No, I don't expect all of Apple's hardware to meet everyone's expectations.

BUT I do question relegating a desktop model to a laptop processor and a slow HD because the case just had to be impossibly small. Seriously, why?? The next thing Apple's gonna obsess about is the weight of their desktops (which might not be a bad thing with the Mac Pro topping 41 lbs).

Anyway I can only conclude that Apple's engineers are masochists. Why else would you make each & every product the mother of challenges?

Then why are you spending so much time and energy railing against the Mini because it doesn't meet YOUR expectations of what a computer should be?


What part of 'different computers for different customers' don't you understand?

Some people apparently like the Mini's feature set, including its size. Apparently, there is a significant number of people who want a tiny computer - and are willing to pay a premium for small size. The fact that YOU don't like it is irrelevant. Get it?

That you didn't buy a Lisa wasn't "sense" as much as a lack of need for one. When we bought our Lisas we saved a significant amount of money vs the old way of doing things. So even at the rather high costs it was a good investment for us. It may have been $10,000 each, but a contemporary Wang word processor station was $5000...and with LisaDraw and LisaProject we were doing significant engineering as amazing as that sounds.


Which is pretty bogus given that Jobs' intent has always to build computers "for the rest of us."

That doesn't imply build computers at the lowest price possible but to build computers more easily accessible to non-nerds. Hiding complexity has a higher cost than not hiding complexity.

With the iPad he's finally gotten very close to achieving his goals with the original Mac. In a couple revs of the hardware (A4 and SSDs) and it may have enough computing/storage power to be master device without any serious compromises.

Will it be cheaper than the scads of Android based tablets? No, but it will be far more usable in my opinion. The TCO of the Apple ecosystem should actually be lower in the long run given the lack of hassle. Unless you feel your time is a zero cost item.

Even lower paid plebs don't believe that.

And as "expensive" as folks make Apple products out to be even a burger flipping high school kid can make $3,400 over the summer at minimum wage. Yes, he or she may have other plans for that money but $699 for a computer is certainly not some unobtainable goal for "normal" folks.

What's wrong with your mind? The Mini with added 8 GB RAM, the same NVIDIA 320 video chip, the larger (inferior 5400 RPM) hard drive, Bluetooth, Wireless LAN /N are the same things offered on the HP Pavilion. Just because they are different shapes doesn't mean they are different things. THEY ARE BOTH DESKTOP COMPUTERS!

The Mini configured that way costs approximately $1450.00 without a keyboard or mouse. The Pavilion costs just under $1000.00 and comes with a newer Core i3 processor, a full size 7200 RPM hard drive, a keyboard and mouse. That's a huge difference.

Configure a basic Mini and a basic Slimline HP and the HP is less expensive.

Whatva rip off. Cmon. Make a $1499 core i7 machine with express and pci express slots for the gamers, musicians, editors in the making. Headless. Apple would dobver well. Regardless off what people say about desktops as it would kill off a lot if c desktop sales if it had sli video as people would use bootcamp.

Time to get with the time and stop BEng afraid of losing you 2% pro market.

The best disks to have, I have like 3, are the genius install imaging disks.

That's very nice, but they're not available to Joe Consumer.

Would you like to tell where he/she can find a copy? Or are you gonna be a prick about it and say "sorry, these are mine"?

So I point out that you didn't read (or comprehend apparently) my post and now I'm an AI troll? Nice. What do we call people that don't read posts before they comment / respond incompletely and incoherently? And then make a bad situation worse by doing the exact same thing over again?


You're right. Your post doesn't deserve a response but I'll humor you. The whole Apple vs. PC argument is beyond old and tired. I own and use both and like both. Do your homework and breakdown meaningful Apple computer sales and computer market metrics and we'll talk. Maybe you should throw in percentage of sales of computers in an aluminum unibody case too. The context of the comment and the discussion was about computers and not the complete Apple enterprise. You could (and should have) distilled down even further and realized it was all about the Mac Mini and the AppleTV.


See above


Apple are not "doodie heads". They have enjoyed phenomenal overall / global success for a variety of reasons as I touched on earlier. We're talking about the Mac Mini and its original main purpose. To get non Mac types to sample Apple. Only they know how effective the Mini has been as an intro Mac.

I have to assume that with the addition of the HDMI port to the Mac Mini, (the only Mac and the 2nd Apple device to have one) Apple now also believes and recognizes that the Mac Mini is a popular home media PC.


Apple is trying to grab as much market share as it can possible get. Only they are doing so on their terms and they're only willing to go so far. If 1 in 10 people use your product then the market breaks down as 10% customers and 90% prospective customers. It's that simple. Will Apple ever achieve anything close to 100% market share? Of course not. Even if such a thing were possible they are not willing to do the sorts of things (and risk its core business / customers) necessary.


Umm... Ok.