"Why?" my wife asked when I got home, holding my son with one hand and my "headless" Mac--in its own little box with a handle--in the other. (No need for a bag--that's my style).
"Oh, why not. Look, one of my favorite mottos is "spon-tan-e-i-ty."
It didn't break the bank, either--for $499, I got a computer and a DVD player, and I quickly built a home media center with our existing HDTV. (Oh, and I got to download iLife '05 on my other Mac, a $79 "value.") This toy also fulfilled my curiosity--as a consumer and a journalist.
My 2-year-old son, Mitchell, and I showed up at the Apple Store in Marin County, Calif., at 8:45 a.m. It opened an hour earlier than usual--at 9 a.m.--to begin selling Mac Minis and iPod Shuffles.
It was cold and foggy, and the mall was deserted--except for about 20 people waiting in line at the Apple Store. These Apple faithful were a motley crew: an older woman who wanted an iPod Shuffle ("I want to play books on tape"); a man and his daughter ("My cousin works at Apple, but I don't need his employee discount at this price"); and a teenager ("I want the Shuffle"). And I wanted the stripped-down Mini.
The line quickly shortened, and I found myself at the front. I paid for my Mini and was home in half an hour. I plugged my headless Mac into the Sharp HDTV in the living room, and in no time, Mitchell was watching "Finding Nemo" and "Dora the Explorer" on the "big screen." The DVI connection heightened the picture quality. Later, we listened to music from "Ralph's World" from the pint-size Mac, courtesy of an iPod. We navigated with a wireless keyboard and mouse borrowed from my desktop Mac.
Our home media center was hardly complete: We wanted to surf the Net, and share music and photos from the home Wi-Fi network, but this off-the-shelf model had no wireless card. I knew that, but I wanted to get started right away. ("Spon-tan-e-i-ty," remember?) I'll get the card installed for an extra $79 next week, and we'll be in business. In the meantime, we can surf the Web by taking the 3-pound Mini (I've already nicknamed it "Mini Me") to the den, where I have a cable modem.
Mac Mini review
- Thumbs up:
- Compact, good-looking design
- Easy to set up
- Good price
- Can buy more PC at this price
- Wireless requires dealer install
- Still a lot of cords
Thumbs down:
The Mini isn't for everybody, however. Some would call it too small--even the familiar ring you hear when firing up a Mac sounds muted on the Mini. It's not that much of bargain, either. You can buy a fully equipped Dell desktop PC, with a flat-panel monitor, for the same price, according to Dell's Web site.
I'm not going to trade my IBM laptop for a headless Mac, either--I like its substance and style.
Most of all, my latest purchase reminded me of " The Cult of Mac," mocked by Gizmodo in a recent posting that is fun reading. "Will it be merely an incremental improvement?" reads the ad, titled "Announcing the Apple iProduct."
"It doesn't matter," the posting continued. "We'll still trumpet it as a brand-new product, and you'll buy it. You'll know you want it."
You don't need to spin Wall Street; the iPod--barely three years old--accounts for a third of Apple's sales.
That's some feat. Ten years ago, Apple was almost out of business: It was losing hundreds of millions of dollars and laying off thousands of employees. As Bill Gates put it, "They had a hit with the Apple II, they had a hit with the Macintosh, and they have a hit with the iPod...and that's very impressive. There are a lot of companies that don't have three hits."
Apple isn't the only one generating buzz in the technology business--and God knows, the industry could use more. In the interest of equal time, the release of "Halo 2"--the follow-up to the most successful title ever for Microsoft's Xbox--was a smash hit.
I'm going to sit on the sidelines for a while and let others do the buying. But looking around the house, one innovation would get me back into the mall: a computer shaped like a Faberge egg.
Any takers?
Jeff wonders if he can staple this column to his tax return and get a deduction for buying a Mac Mini as a "business" expense.
Mitchell Pelline gives his approval to his father's purchase of a Mac Mini.
Biography
Jeff Pelline is editor of CNET News.com. Jeff promises to buy a Toyota Prius once hybrid cars are allowed in the carpool lane with solo drivers.
36 comments
Join the conversation! Add your comment (Log in or register)
thanm her brand new IBM thinkpad. I fear if I brought home a
mini I'd probably never even get to play with it before she co-
opted it!
Cheers
Rod
built to order mac mini which does not have blue tooth?
BlueTooth USB plug. I have to of them, and I simply plug it into
one, of the two, USB ports on my iBook. That's about it. They
range in cost, you can get them for around 39 to 50 dollars. I
bought mine for 39.
The initial headline stated you would weigh the "plusses and minuses of your most recent computer purchase".
I see no plusses or minuses listed of any kind. All I see is "People wanted the Shuffle and Apple didn't have it. I stood in line. I bought this toy, hooked it up, and it works. Dell offers a full PC for the same price. I move it to the den for net access. Blah blah blah. I like eggs."
Some describe this as a fun story (a lot like saying "pencils are fun!"), but I found it to be lacking focus.
I'm glad to know your new purchase makes your son happy and entertains both of you, but I would've appreciated an article based more on comparitive perspective, and not based on lack-of focus.
the opinion of the author, and not a review. Sorry you didn't get
the facts; there are dozens of other articles that would give you
more nuts and bolts information. Columnists have much more
latitude to write about products, especially as lifestyle choices,
which was obviously the goal of this article.
I used to be a PC user and fanatic all the way until, through my studies, I got to know Macs. Those were the PowerPC types (mainly 8100s) with OS7 on them.
What a pleasant surprise these Macs were! Sure, they crashed just like PCs did and sure, you sometimes wanted to chuck 'em out of the window like any computer user, but man was that machine a pleasure to use. The PC alternative was Windows 95 - a cheap rip-off of OS7, but it lacked the functionality. Using both PCs and Macs I have seen both operating systems progress and it's SO clearly Apple inventing, Microsoft copying. Only recently did the SP2 installation on XP introduce 'My recent items' in the file selection sidebar. Apple's finest idea since 1985. I would say that OSX and XP are now on par when it comes to functionality, speed and ease of use.
When it comes to hardware you actually do get an equal amount of power for your money with PCs as with Macs. In your article you compare a Mini Mac to a complete Dell system and this is where youre right; its the latest lines of products that are something of a rip-off by Apple. I never touched i-Macs for that exact reason; youre not paying for computing power, youre paying for a cool looking computer that equals PC power standards of that moment. But a PC one can actually upgrade without having to fork out double the money for the exact same components! Think also Rio vs. Ipod. The hardware manufacturers are in on the Apple scam, or maybe Apple makes em pay a LOT for Mac compatibility (often little more than a firmware change). In one instance I encountered the same 9800 ATI Radeon card that cost 300 Pounds for PC going for 3000 Pounds for Mac. Say what?!
Its like Apple is milking its followers (you cant help it, it happens to you) for all theyre worth. Its that all controlling hardware-software monopoly (Linux for PPC is not really an option yet). Luckily, when I really need a certain piece of hardware and I dont have the money for the Mac variant, I can always buy the normally priced PC version and put it in my home-built PCenstein.
P.S. I own and have owned a G5, 8100, 6400, Classic Mac, an Athlon XP system, Pentium III, Pentium II, Pentium, 386, and a 8086. And I have loved and hated them all!
par....please!! u must me crazy....lol...
Read the facts on a comparison with the dell price equivalent
and see if you still feel its a rip off.
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://news.com.com/5208-1041-0.html?" target="_newWindow">http://news.com.com/5208-1041-0.html?</a>
forumID=1&threadID=4351&messageID=25399&start=
-1&reply=true
From my point of view, Apple has already established itself in the consumer electronics world. The MAC mini with the DVD player looks more like a game console than a computer makes you
wonder if Apple will compete with PS and Xbox in the future. Also Apple is also looking to expand it s market share in the OS world with OSX.Deep inside, I think Steve Jobs is still an OS guy.
The MAc mini, which, yes-might cost 500.00, is still 100's cheaper than an equally equipped PC with the kind of software that's provided, free of charge.
Try getting photo management, a jukebox, a High Def movie editor, a music generator, and a DVD authoring application, to all work together, on Windows for less than 500.00. You can't do it.
with iLife you can. And retail it's only 79.00 for those who choose to buy it.
Then you chalk up the price of Anti-virus software and subscriptions. There's another 80.00 for the software and 60.00 a year for updates.
Dell and HP have as equally equipped for the same money? I don't think so.
1.) Would the dell be that price if it wasn't for the mac mini? (I'm
not sure if it was that cheap b4, please clarify) if not then u can
thank apple for that.
2.) The software you get is WordPerefct, and Windows Home
edition ooohhh!! lets face it how much money would you spend
to get the equivalent software for a p.c and have it work and be
stable?
3.) You only get a cd rom, you have to pay to upgrade to a cdrw
or more for a cdrw/dvd drive, the cdrw/dvd drive in the mini is
standard. It also makes no mention of the graphics card or what
ports it supports (usb2, firewire, wirless, bluetooth etc, where's
that info?)
4.) You still only get 256mb of ram and the following is the dell
recomendations from there site as to what you can use it
for....(pretty lame)
RECOMMENDATIONS:
If you plan to: Purchase:
Run only 1 or 2 basic programs at once. 256MB
Run several programs at once or plan to edit photos.512MB/1GB
Plan to do intensive gaming or complex video editing, or want
headroom for the future. 2GB - 4GB
Now there are options to upgrade on the mini I'm not suggesting
that you edit video with 256mb of ram although I'm sure its do-
able, its probably not the most productive experience. I do
however know that for a fact my mac mini (out of box) can edit
photos whilst playing a dvd and running the internet (something
to do with a well written OS I believe), all at the same time
without a hicup. I didn't have to buy any anti virus software
either.
5.) I have an elgato usb t.v box (a little smaller than the mini)
that takes a seperate video and audio output from my digital
cable box so that I can schedule and record T.V whenever
(turning my mac into a Tivo) i want in the very file efficient
quality retaining mpeg 4 standard, so an hour of high quality
recording for playback on my T.V is only 480 mb.
6.) Its design is perfect for me to sit next to my widescreen t.v
without giving my wife a reason to question my tech obsession,
try puting that dell next to your T.V and see what a great
addition to the room it is (lol).
There are many more facts/reasons but well, to be
honest....these should easily be enough for you to realize that
its not evangelism for the mini, just common sense with style.
From a tax point of view the Mac Mini is going to really be a be success.
Keith
www.techcando.com
than the Ipod itself."
What you read was wrong. Apple has admitted they make very
little money (expected none initially) from iTMS sales and that
they originally intended it to just drive sales of iPods. On a
related note, they just announced today 250 million purchased
songs.
Jeff Pelline
Editor, CNET News.com
Apple wised up (finally) and realized their "lifestyle management" software just IS NOT available on the PC. Google gets it (Picasa) but might be too late to the party. Adobe Album is still a messy marketing mistake on the PC (just put it in everything you sell!!)
Mac Mini = iPhoto = "memories management miracle" Finally you have a system that can store and manage all those digital photos you never printed. Easily.
This 20+ year PC user will be getting one to manage his photo collection.
Although my wife and I have no need to publish our family photos online, we have free web hosting and photo management with Comcast, our broadband provider. Had that for a few years now. They offer free software to manage my photos, but it's web-based and doesn't offer the photo editing ability of Irfan View.
Please stop with the anti-PC F.U.D talk already. Everything new you can do today with your toy Apple, I've been able to do many years ago with my home-built PC. Faster, Cheaper and Better I might add. Depite the Apple-flavored propaganda Steve Jobs would have you believe, the PC world does not revolve around Microsoft. Just because Microsoft doesn't have a particular media software app doesn't mean there aren't dozens of other software companies who have one for sale. (Some expensive, some cheap, some free.)
I was hoping that the upgraded iLife application had a multi-CPU license agreement like MS Office student/teacher edition. This was the tipping point in my son's puchase decision. I was told no so I guess he'll have to delete it from the Mini after he brings it home :(
single-user edition.
And of our, ilife is not available for even thousands of bucks on a PC ... ilife family pack is $99 BTW (5 installs) or $89 at Amnazon.
danger of going the way of Commodore. I'll give you
"beleaguered," but "almost out of business" is a stretch. Quit
repeating the lie.
Yes, there were many things about Apple and the Macintosh that
sucked during those hard times (post-first-jobsian era ;), but
they were never going to close their doors. Not as long as the
only competition were the likes of Microsoft and Dell. Apple
thrives on innovation, and with very few exceptions, there isn't a
lot of that found in the computer industry. Even in consumer
electronics, some of the former giants have lost their mojo (just
ask Sony's "father of the Playstation").
Today is Dad's birthday, so I'm getting him a Mac Mini. He's sick
of all the Windows vulnerabilities, and wants something more
like my wife's iBook, which he can't seem to put down whenever
he visits...
Remember the Apple Cube a total failure, is the same, the Mac Mini is only smaller, but is actually the same thing, and it is going to be the same failure.
So long Mini, in about a year nobody will remember the Mac Mini, and in two years Steve will launch the Simple Mac, which will be the same.