| Author |
Message |
    
monster
Supporter
Username: Monster
Post Number: 2246
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 28, 2006 - 1:18 pm: | 
|
New Mac mini
Based on Intel
Single and dual-processor chip versions
2.5x - 3.2x faster
Same exact form factory
Front Row software
IR sensor on right of disc slot
Six button Apple remote
..... |
monster
Supporter
Username: Monster
Post Number: 2247
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 28, 2006 - 1:19 pm: |
|
Front Row now has a new feature -- the ability to support shared music libraries accessible through iTunes. So using Front Row, you can listen to the contents of other machines running iTunes on the same subnetwork.
The redesigned Mac mini features gigabit Ethernet, a total of four USB 2.0 ports, analog and SPDIF audio outputs and more. |
monster
Supporter
Username: Monster
Post Number: 2248
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 28, 2006 - 1:24 pm: |
|
Share Music - Bonjour technology, allows devices to find themselves automatically over a network.
Shared Photos - Same idea only for photos.
Can stream iTunes TV shows.
Media from any other mac or windows computer running iTunes will be piped over to the Mac mini hooked up to your television set.
Mac mini comes with iLife '06.
|
monster
Supporter
Username: Monster
Post Number: 2249
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 28, 2006 - 1:24 pm: |
|
The Mac mini appears physically the same as it did before, but it's 2.5x to 3.2x faster than its predecessor (using the same benchmarks Apple offers for the iMac and MacBook Pro), thanks to the inclusion of the new Intel Core Solo CPU, depending on clock speed. For the Core Duo models, it's 4.8x or 5.5x times faster on those tests. |
monster
Supporter
Username: Monster
Post Number: 2250
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 28, 2006 - 1:25 pm: |
|
Standard features: Tiger + iLife '06, Apple Remote + Front Row, Airport Extreme + Bluetooth, DVI Video Out, USB, FireWire, Gigabit Ethernet.
Price: $599
If you've got a Mac mini hooked up to a television in your living room, you'll be able to see the media that you've got on every machine you've got hooked up to your network in your house. And, of course, the Mac mini comes with iLife 06... widely regarded as the best in the industry. (SHOWING OFF iLIFE APPS) Let's look at the standard features in the new Mac mini, Tiger and iLife 06, Remote and Front Row, Airport Extreme and Bluetooth, DVI video out, SPDIF and analog in and out. |
monster
Supporter
Username: Monster
Post Number: 2251
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 28, 2006 - 1:26 pm: |
|
Second model with Core Duo - 1.67, 80GB drive + SuperDrive - $799
Both available today. |
monster
Supporter
Username: Monster
Post Number: 2252
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 28, 2006 - 1:28 pm: |
|
So, the new Mac Minis feature iLife 06, Apple's recently refreshed suite of applications that includes iTunes, iPhoto, iDVD, iMovie, GarageBand and iWeb. Also standard is Mac OS X v10.4 "Tiger," a remote control, Front Row, AirPort Extreme, Bluetooth, four USB 2.0 interfaces, FireWire 400, GigaBit Ethernet, DVI video out, and Dolby Digital 5.1 and analog audio in and out.
The entry-level Mac mini system, available starting today, is a 1.5GHz Core Solo system with 667MHz bus, 512MB RAM, 60GB SATA hard drive and "Combo" DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive for $599 -- $100 more than the previous base model.
The 1.67GHz Core Duo-based model features an 80GB SATA internal hard disk and 8x "SuperDrive" that can burn DVDs as well as CD-Rs, for $799. |
Rastro
Citizen
Username: Rastro
Post Number: 2435
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 28, 2006 - 1:51 pm: |
|
This makes the choice for my daughter's next computer rather simple. Now, how am I going to convince her to take my old desktop, and let me have the mini? |
Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 12676
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 28, 2006 - 2:27 pm: |
|
Not a chance, Rastro.
|
monster
Supporter
Username: Monster
Post Number: 2278
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 28, 2006 - 11:46 pm: |
|
the one bad thing about the Mac Mini, integrated graphics, what the heck is this, pc land? |
Earlster
Supporter
Username: Earlster
Post Number: 1469
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 1, 2006 - 8:01 am: |
|
The other bad thing is the laptop form factor hard drive. I understand that they are trying to make it small and cute, but desktop harddrives make a huge performance diffenrence. That's the one thing that bugs me most about the mini. I've been thinking of getting one as a cheap, easy to set up and reliable unix box, but not with a 2.5 drive. |
Eponymous
Citizen
Username: Eponymous
Post Number: 121
Registered: 6-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 1, 2006 - 8:18 am: |
|
Earlster,
I haven't seen complaints about the drive, other than it being slower than a full-sized one. Friends who have the mini love it. |
monster
Supporter
Username: Monster
Post Number: 2281
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 1, 2006 - 11:55 am: |
|
For most users, it's still a kickass computer |
kdm
Citizen
Username: Kdm
Post Number: 80
Registered: 10-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 1, 2006 - 1:00 pm: |
|
Makes me wish I didn't by a Mini a few months ago. |
Eponymous
Citizen
Username: Eponymous
Post Number: 123
Registered: 6-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 1, 2006 - 10:16 pm: |
|
Macintouch.com has some comments today, including a bunch saying that the new drive is actually 5400 rpm and SATA. Seems to be a big improvement. |
Earlster
Supporter
Username: Earlster
Post Number: 1473
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, March 2, 2006 - 7:59 am: |
|
A 5400 rpm 2.5 inch drive might be quite the improvement to a 4200 rpm drive, but it's nothing compared to a 7200 rpm 3.5inch drive.
It's not just the rotational speed, but a bigger platter also moves more data at the same rotational speed.
SATA is good, since it's the new standard, however the higher throughput of the faster bus is not used for most larger read write operations, since the disc isn't fast enough.
I just don't get why they didn't make it a little big bigger (not a lot) and put a cheaper and faster drive in it. |
TarPit Coder
Citizen
Username: Tarpitcoder
Post Number: 50
Registered: 12-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, March 2, 2006 - 8:17 am: |
|
Earlster:
Heat. |
monster
Supporter
Username: Monster
Post Number: 2292
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, March 2, 2006 - 11:21 am: |
|
fans
noise
you have to remember, these are consumer computers, not geared towards the professional. |
Earlster
Supporter
Username: Earlster
Post Number: 1474
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, March 2, 2006 - 11:46 am: |
|
I understand that, that is why I'm talking about 7200 rpm drives, not 10k rpm drives. There are some very quiet and not to hot 3.5inch drives out there.
And the micro form factors PC show that you can achieve all that, and they even do it with super power hungry P4's. (I really like that apple is putting low power mobile processors into desktop systems.) |
TarPit Coder
Citizen
Username: Tarpitcoder
Post Number: 51
Registered: 12-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, March 2, 2006 - 12:06 pm: |
|
Earlster,
Didn't mean too sound too harsh there mate! I agree with both of you that these new SFF machines rock.
I really like passive cooling vs fans myself - and I miss the days of really well designed passively cooled machines.
My ideal fun computer would be:
1) All Solidstate - no moving parts. A couple of gigs of NAND flash for storage would be plenty for me. If I want to watch movies on it I will stream them from my server.
2) Battery backed up RAM too.
3) Metal construction with good passive cooling.
4) Built in Ethernet,USB,Firewire and DVI, SVIDEO IN/OUT, HDMI maybe.
5) Genlocked video in too.
6) Fun to program with something like ANTIC or a cool blitting finite-state machine.
7) Fast power-on / off. I don't want to wait more than a quarter of a second. Processor going to sleep is OK if it can do it in say 1/10 sec.
Anyway dreams are free(ish).
Not to beat a dead horse - but if it has to have a hard drive I would vote for a Seagate Momentus. They rock - really cool - really quite speedy - and really really quiet.
--Tarp
|
monster
Supporter
Username: Monster
Post Number: 2296
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, March 2, 2006 - 12:49 pm: |
|
I have a feeling that this all a precursor for the upcoming PVR from Apple, and yes I believe it's coming.
Apple has even hired the top tech guy from ElgatoTV.
Read more about the intel inside here, http://www.intel.com/products/chipsets/gma950/
The GMA950 should be able to encode 3 or more streams of hi-def, then compress and write them to disk while decoding another stream of hi-def and outputting it. While it's doing this you should have no problem encoding an mp3, etc.
It's the Tivo killer, now if only they will strike a deal with ReplayTV, or D&M Holdings, the owner of the brand, since they have discontinued the stand-alone boxes and are opting for having their Replay software bundled into the new Hauppauge WinTV-PVR tuner/encoder PC card.
D7M Holdings own Denon, Marantz, McIntosh Laboratory, Boston Acoustics, Snell Acoustics, D&M Professional, ReplayTV, and Escient brands.
But, it's just wishful thinking.
|
TarPit Coder
Citizen
Username: Tarpitcoder
Post Number: 52
Registered: 12-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, March 2, 2006 - 12:58 pm: |
|
Monster,
From that article it seems like playing 3D games at least (if not encoding) on a GMA950 would be a pretty sad experience....
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1821808,00.asp
--Tarp |
Earlster
Supporter
Username: Earlster
Post Number: 1475
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, March 2, 2006 - 2:16 pm: |
|
No more Seagate drives for me.
- My neighbors, pooped out just after the warranty was over.
- My other neighbors, pooped out 1-month old.
- One of mine, pooped out 5 days after warranty. Grrrr.
- Just started a new job, got a brand spanking new machine with a Seagate drive. Guess what, drive errors after 3 weeks.
No more Seagate for me. |
Eponymous
Citizen
Username: Eponymous
Post Number: 125
Registered: 6-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, March 2, 2006 - 4:33 pm: |
|
Earlster,
If the mini had a 3.5" drive, it wouldn't be a mini. Ever see the insides of one of these? The apple engineers are geniuses at cramming stuff into a small space. If they could have gotten better performance, they would have. Again, have a look at the comments at Macintouch.com; they're quite positive. |
TarPit Coder
Citizen
Username: Tarpitcoder
Post Number: 53
Registered: 12-2004
| | Posted on Friday, March 3, 2006 - 7:57 am: |
|
Earlster,
Interesting about the Seagate drives. The only drives I've had die on me were:
IBM 75GB Deskstar (Remember that nightmare?)
A Quantum drive (Can't remember size)
Maxtor 60 GB
I've got a couple of WD's and a Maxtor running in my machines here and they have been fine.
Did the Seagate drives have the 5 year warranty? Or was it shorter?
--Tarp |
Earlster
Supporter
Username: Earlster
Post Number: 1477
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Friday, March 3, 2006 - 8:00 am: |
|
I bought mine before the 5 year warranty  .
All the others were OEM drives already in machines, so that changes the whole warranty anyway. |
TarPit Coder
Citizen
Username: Tarpitcoder
Post Number: 55
Registered: 12-2004
| | Posted on Friday, March 3, 2006 - 8:24 am: |
|
Bummer. |
Closed: New threads not accepted on this page