I think its a wise move to not include the built-in doc. Sure, some people would use it, but they can also buy a dock or just use the iPod cable they already have.
Switching to desktop drives has a few other pluses including reduced costs and increased performance. If the revamped mini uses standard SATA drives I'd be more inclined to pick one up as a central file/dev server. With decent RAM and the Core Duo its a fantastic MAMP server (Mac OS / Apache / MySQL / PHP).
Then again, this might be a reason to not use desktop drives. If a $600 mini can takeover for a $2000 desktop you know Apple will lose some sales.
If you look at LaCie's Mac Mini hard drive stacking case and Newer Tech's Ministack you will see the width of Mini itself will be fine for the 3.5" HD but the height will have to increase by like 1.5"
I say even with a taller case the new Mini will still be tiny
If you look at LaCie's Mac Mini hard drive stacking case and Newer Tech's Ministack you will see the width of Mini itself will be fine for the 3.5" HD but the height will have to increase by like 1.5"
I say even with a taller case the new Mini will still be tiny
I was actually surprised by how small it was when I saw it in person. The photos online made it look quite big (comparatively). Even with a 3.5" HDD, it's still tiny.
No mayor changes in design will come to the mini... More of everything maybe.. and it can only get smaler not bigger.. The "Mini" is a portable MAC looking for any type of screen you have, TV, LCD, Plasma you name it... Home entertaintment comes to mind, as simple as that, well that, and also the fact that you have a beauty of a machine to do all the stuff you do in the confort of your bed (if you like) and enjoy!
All I want is a 11 or 13" Mac Book pro or not & voila!!!
What is everyone's deal with Front Row? Front Row is awful...just awful. The remote is not responsive, the GUI is just an iPod interface blown up, and 320 x 240 [iTMS videos] looks like crap at full screen. While I don't care for CenterStage much either, I'd use it before Front Row.
My God [check my stats folks b4U trip], this goes beyond the 'fanboy' crap I read over at Engadget. Front Row is not good. Please, lets move on.
Besides, if it's 'marginally' responsive on a Core Duo iMac, why would anyone be salivating over this running in a Mini with half the power?
You wouldn't have to raise the enclosure 1.5", more like 1" IF you used a thinner drive.
Normal 3.5" hard drives are "1/3"-height, but when I upgraded my Replay, I noticed the 40GB drive in there was significantly thinner, more like "1/4"-height, that 1/3-height.
Obviously, those thinner drives are sold for media centers, so Apple could spec those - even if it might be to our advantage to have a standard 3.5" hard drive for upgraders.
Without a 3.5" drive, the mini will never be a media center, Intel Core or G4.
Possibly a dumb question here, but wdo larger HDs run any hotter? Could they be sticking to the small enclosure for heat reasons?
The reason I ask is my LaCie HD inclusures sound like a hair dryer compared to my Powerbook & Mac Mini.
Some LaCie enclosures are fanless. I have an external fanless WD drive too. It is possible to design a fan cooling system that is pretty quiet, it seems to be one of those shortcuts that everyone takes.
Quote:
Originally posted by starwxrwx
I think an iPod dock would ruin some of the 'stackability' of the mac mini.
Apple didn't design the mini to have anything stacked on top of it. There is barely any structure on the top face and it could press the optical drive. Metal objects on the top would block the wireless signals.
That said, I don't think it makes sense for a dock to be there, the mini would just look like an oversized dock for those that use it for iPods, or just be a very large empty hole for those that don't.
So it seems all this talk of an Apple DVR was just a fantasy.
No, not a fantasy. I don't believe this "talk" is just talk. I personally believe it WILL be a reality, just not as soon as some people suggest. If you look at the pieces that Apple has available currently (Mac Mini, Front Row, remote, etc.) you'd be hard pressed not to think that there will be an Apple DVR. Whether it is just a glorified Mac Mini or not is irrelevant.
Nice mockup, i prefer the ports on the right hand side and power as well something similar to Cinema Display power button
oh yeah i like to see a mini APPLE logo in front of Mac mini something similar to logo in the Cinema display, and remove the Big logo on top of the machine which is going to be covered by External HDD or something else
Single core in the mini is fine. The target audience is not buying this computer for performance.
Apple should create a small tower with dual core. Something larger than the mini but smaller than the Power Mac. No monitor and at least two exansion slots.
may be over the period of time, small tower could eventually replace PowerMacs ... if Heat and power consumption of CPUs/Pheripherals keep going down ... RETURN of CUBE then?
If you look at the pieces that Apple has available currently (Mac Mini, Front Row, remote, etc.) you'd be hard pressed not to think that there will be an Apple DVR.
A critical component you (and others) have omitted is the tuner. Elgato's EyeTV has over a half-dozen different products that support:
Analog
DVB-C
DVB-S
DVB-T
ATSC/Clear QAM
How do you propose Apple would handle the different signals for an international DVR product?
Personally, I'm glad to keep the tuner component external like with EyeTV. That makes it's portable and upgradable.
Another little-discussed issue is the program guide (from different providers). Elgato finally integrated one with its recent EyeTV 2 software release but there's limited provider support so not every customer can use it.
I'm still not convinced Apple intends to delve directly into the DVR market even if it has solutions for those and other issues.
Single core in the mini is fine. The target audience is not buying this computer for performance....Apple should create a small tower with dual core. Something larger than the mini but smaller than the Power Mac. No monitor and at least two exansion slots.
Tell that to their laptop designers. They could hide the ports in the back, but they don't.
Actually, if you look closely, the screen covers the back when its open, so putting ports there isn't an option unless they redesign the screen. picture
I still want a docking station connector on the bottom ala IBM Thinkpad.
If I remember rightly the rumours of the Mac Mini iPod dock came about because of the unused firewire connections on the riser card inside.
It's a good job they didn't include the dock - a firewire connection would be next to useless with the 5G and iPod nano! Perhaps this is why they're shying away from the idea - if they keep the connector external they can still change it about when they need to (or when they just feel like getting everyone to pay up a bit more money).
Comments
Switching to desktop drives has a few other pluses including reduced costs and increased performance. If the revamped mini uses standard SATA drives I'd be more inclined to pick one up as a central file/dev server. With decent RAM and the Core Duo its a fantastic MAMP server (Mac OS / Apache / MySQL / PHP).
Then again, this might be a reason to not use desktop drives. If a $600 mini can takeover for a $2000 desktop you know Apple will lose some sales.
I say even with a taller case the new Mini will still be tiny
Originally posted by Leonis
If you look at LaCie's Mac Mini hard drive stacking case and Newer Tech's Ministack you will see the width of Mini itself will be fine for the 3.5" HD but the height will have to increase by like 1.5"
I say even with a taller case the new Mini will still be tiny
I was actually surprised by how small it was when I saw it in person. The photos online made it look quite big (comparatively). Even with a 3.5" HDD, it's still tiny.
Now for that extra RAM slot...
All I want is a 11 or 13" Mac Book pro or not & voila!!!
Love my iMac!!!
http://appleinsider.com/article.php?id=1524
wouldn't it be possible that they scraped the dock in favor of another kind of connection?
What is everyone's deal with Front Row? Front Row is awful...just awful. The remote is not responsive, the GUI is just an iPod interface blown up, and 320 x 240 [iTMS videos] looks like crap at full screen. While I don't care for CenterStage much either, I'd use it before Front Row.
My God [check my stats folks b4U trip], this goes beyond the 'fanboy' crap I read over at Engadget. Front Row is not good. Please, lets move on.
Besides, if it's 'marginally' responsive on a Core Duo iMac, why would anyone be salivating over this running in a Mini with half the power?
</rant>
That being said--never mind, I'm done.
Normal 3.5" hard drives are "1/3"-height, but when I upgraded my Replay, I noticed the 40GB drive in there was significantly thinner, more like "1/4"-height, that 1/3-height.
Obviously, those thinner drives are sold for media centers, so Apple could spec those - even if it might be to our advantage to have a standard 3.5" hard drive for upgraders.
Without a 3.5" drive, the mini will never be a media center, Intel Core or G4.
Originally posted by Chris Cuilla
Whew! That was a good one...ohhhmygosh...
( don't you know that things like convenience never ever get in the way of aesthetics on Apple computers! )
Tell that to their laptop designers. They could hide the ports in the back, but they don't.
Originally posted by Bulky Cranium
Possibly a dumb question here, but wdo larger HDs run any hotter? Could they be sticking to the small enclosure for heat reasons?
The reason I ask is my LaCie HD inclusures sound like a hair dryer compared to my Powerbook & Mac Mini.
Some LaCie enclosures are fanless. I have an external fanless WD drive too. It is possible to design a fan cooling system that is pretty quiet, it seems to be one of those shortcuts that everyone takes.
Originally posted by starwxrwx
I think an iPod dock would ruin some of the 'stackability' of the mac mini.
Apple didn't design the mini to have anything stacked on top of it. There is barely any structure on the top face and it could press the optical drive. Metal objects on the top would block the wireless signals.
That said, I don't think it makes sense for a dock to be there, the mini would just look like an oversized dock for those that use it for iPods, or just be a very large empty hole for those that don't.
Originally posted by 1984
So it seems all this talk of an Apple DVR was just a fantasy.
No, not a fantasy. I don't believe this "talk" is just talk. I personally believe it WILL be a reality, just not as soon as some people suggest. If you look at the pieces that Apple has available currently (Mac Mini, Front Row, remote, etc.) you'd be hard pressed not to think that there will be an Apple DVR. Whether it is just a glorified Mac Mini or not is irrelevant.
Originally posted by G_Warren
Nice mockup, i prefer the ports on the right hand side and power as well something similar to Cinema Display power button
oh yeah i like to see a mini APPLE logo in front of Mac mini something similar to logo in the Cinema display, and remove the Big logo on top of the machine which is going to be covered by External HDD or something else
that will be clever marketing ....
Apple should create a small tower with dual core. Something larger than the mini but smaller than the Power Mac. No monitor and at least two exansion slots.
Originally posted by initiator
If you look at the pieces that Apple has available currently (Mac Mini, Front Row, remote, etc.) you'd be hard pressed not to think that there will be an Apple DVR.
A critical component you (and others) have omitted is the tuner. Elgato's EyeTV has over a half-dozen different products that support:
Analog
DVB-C
DVB-S
DVB-T
ATSC/Clear QAM
How do you propose Apple would handle the different signals for an international DVR product?
Personally, I'm glad to keep the tuner component external like with EyeTV. That makes it's portable and upgradable.
Another little-discussed issue is the program guide (from different providers). Elgato finally integrated one with its recent EyeTV 2 software release but there's limited provider support so not every customer can use it.
I'm still not convinced Apple intends to delve directly into the DVR market even if it has solutions for those and other issues.
Single core in the mini is fine. The target audience is not buying this computer for performance....Apple should create a small tower with dual core. Something larger than the mini but smaller than the Power Mac. No monitor and at least two exansion slots.
And the ability to BYO graphic card!!!!!!!
Originally posted by JeffDM
(about side ports on a mini)
Tell that to their laptop designers. They could hide the ports in the back, but they don't.
Actually, if you look closely, the screen covers the back when its open, so putting ports there isn't an option unless they redesign the screen. picture
I still want a docking station connector on the bottom ala IBM Thinkpad.
It's a good job they didn't include the dock - a firewire connection would be next to useless with the 5G and iPod nano! Perhaps this is why they're shying away from the idea - if they keep the connector external they can still change it about when they need to (or when they just feel like getting everyone to pay up a bit more money).
Neil.
a.k.a. Arnel
Originally posted by sjk
A critical component you (and others) have omitted is the tuner. Elgato's EyeTV has over a half-dozen different products that support:
Analog
DVB-C
DVB-S
DVB-T
ATSC/Clear QAM
How do you propose Apple would handle the different signals for an international DVR product?
Well, this is not a prime problem i guess. They managed to
develop different types of keyboards and OSs and such to match
different needs by different countries. So probably no big deal.
Personally, I'm glad to keep the tuner component external like with EyeTV. That makes it's portable and upgradable.
Imagine a BTO option with Elgato inside, i wouldn't hesitate
a split second to order such a beast, would i not?
I'm still not convinced Apple intends to delve directly into the DVR market even if it has solutions for those and other issues.
I believe Apple is urged to get into this DVR market, - better yesterday
than tomorrow. Otherwise a whole vivid (profit-wise) market just pass by.
(Do they want to slip this DVR oportunity by? Seemingly...)
My 2 cents.