[MW Forums]

Apple Computer Inc. on Tuesday ended rumors that it would offer a low-priced Macintosh by introducing the Mac mini. Measuring 6.5 inches wide and long and 2 inches tall, Mac mini weighs 2.9 pounds. The Mac mini starts at US$499, the lowest-priced computer Apple has sold. more

[ep_myers]

I'd love to see the Mac Mini evolve into the Mac MediaCentre! It's all there just begging to be used... Seems all it needs is a nice application wrapper.
-epm
Hmmm... maybe I'll order one and see what I can do...

[dean_o]

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm already thinking about the possibility of setting one of these up in my living room as a media center. I'll have to check into the specs a little closer, but I'm thinking that with the addition of the AirPort and Bluetooth options this would make a fantastic media computer.
It took Apple long enough, but when they finally did the "headless iMac" it looks like they did it right!

[Nobody]

All this hype and lawsuits for NOTHING. I'm real sorry I have to say this, but these two "Astounding" product announcements are DUDS. What a joke? This Walmart Special Mac Mini (batteries, keyboard, mouse and ANYTHING TO VIEW IT WITH ... not included) at $499 it is a farce and an absurd attempt to compete with the "good" quality brand name PC's!
The same goes for the iPod Shuffle's, what a joke ... no display (guess it's a mate to the Mini Mac?) and as usual vastly over-priced. Mr friends daughter bought a 1GB iRiver Player with a LCD display for $129 over the Xmas holidays.
Once again, Steve Jobs gouging the retail buyer and not being competitve. We are doomed, god (not Jobs) help us. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

[d00d]

So basically knowitall, because it doesn't appeal to you, they're both going to fail miserably?
I seem to remember someone making the same claim about the iPod mini. I think we all know how that turned out.

[speleoterra]

Do you know how many Windows users out there have a perfectly good PC monitor, USB keyboard and mouse? Not to to mention Mac users still clinging onto their old systems.
This thing will sell like Hotcakes.
As for the Shuffle, Apple knows the market,..every kid in junior & high school will have one of these in less than a month if supply can keep up!

[lantzn]

My thoughts exactly. With the optional DVD drive, the s-video adapter (for TV), pin to rca cables, airport card (iTunes networked music) and bluetooth, this would do it for me, once somebody made a bluetooth remote control. I saw they had a IR version on the accessories page but I'd rather take advantage of one less piece of hardware (IR hub).

[lhudd]

Why does Apple keep thinking that Bluetooth and WiFi are options? Now that they've finally figured out that powerbooks should come with these things standard, they make them optional on the Mini. Yeah, I get that it's not a power machine, but is offering $130 wireless upgrades to a $500 machine good business sense? I can understand making Airport optional, it is after all a desktop, but with no supplied keyboard, bluetooth should be standard.
I also think it was a mistake to not include a keyboard and mouse. This thing is to compete w/ $500 Dell machines and they come with (crappy) keyboards and mice.
Otherwise a very cool product... i'd like to get one for my girlfriend. Does anyone know if the RAM is standard stuff you can upgrade yourself so you can avoid doubling the price of the computer to get 1G?
L

[Tau_Myx]

This ad wrote itself:
:: Showing a older-looking windows box with monitor. ::
"At last you can put the power and stability of Mac OS X on your existing windows computer!"
:: Hands put the Mac Mini on top of the PC - the monitor switches to Mac OS X. ::
"The iMac Mini, just $499."

[d00d]

In reply to:

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Yeah, I get that it's not a power machine, but is offering $130 wireless upgrades to a $500 machine good business sense?

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Do you propose:
(A) Build the cost of those wireless option into the base price for all users (raising the price) or
(B) Skimp on the other parts, like hard drive, optical drive, USB (use 1.1 instead of 2.0) in order to include those options and maintain the current price or
© Pie in the sky option. It should have everything you expect and available for mere pennies. No explanation of how to do this.

[chewygoat]

Is that iRiver player rechargeable via USB (is it even rechargeable at all?) All the other flash players I've seen require batteries, so the iPod shuffle has a big advantage over those in that regard. I agree, though, that the missing display is a downside from my point of view, but then it is very, very tiny, is very cheap for an iPod and competitively priced versus non-iPods. I suspect it's going to appeal to a lot of people.
Also, the Mac mini isn't bad at all. For budget-conscious Windows switchers and Mac upgraders - people that already have a Mac or PC they want to upgrade from and thus already have a keyboard, mouse and display they can use with it - it fits the bill perfectly. And even if you want to keep the old machine and thus need a display, keyboard and mouse, you can add an Apple keyboard and mouse for $58 (or your favorite 3rd party equivalents, perhaps for less) and get a decent 17" DVI (not just analog!) LCD display and still be in the range of the lowest-end eMac or less, but with a 17" LCD display - way better! Obviously you could go cheaper and get a CRT. How is this a bad deal? In any case I wouldn't buy a low-cost Windows PC even if it were $5 - what a waste of five bucks!

[ep_myers]

I'm grateful the Mac mini comes sans kbd and mouse.... just less stuff for me to toss on the pile of unwanted techno-cruft I've got going in the dark corners of my attic. Apple would have included a stupid one-button mouse and less than stellar kbd anyway... wired no doubt.
Although, for a real media centre I'd need digital audio out (optical or coax). Come to think of it, I think the Mac mini is mute, save for the headphone jack. Well, that sucks. I'll have to find a decent USB audio solution....
-epm

[thekaj]

In reply to:

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Why does Apple keep thinking that Bluetooth and WiFi are options?

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Because, as you put it, they add $130 to the price. Why only one Firewire port? Why Firewire 400 and not 800? Because they wanted to hit the $500 price point, that's why. And frankly, neither one is a requirement yet for the average person. Maybe when Bluetooth phones are the ones you get for free with your service plan, but not for a few more years.

In reply to:

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I also think it was a mistake to not include a keyboard and mouse.

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This is targetted at two types of users: Existing Mac owners and existing PC owners looking to switch. It makes it that much simpler to get switchers to actually switch when you tell them just to unplug their existing PC from their components and replace it with the Mini. All the fear behind thinking that they'll have to buy all new equipment goes out the window when they're told that it doesn't come with keyboard and mouse standard because it will use your existing PC components by just plugging them in.

[jg167]

Looks like a good product to me. I agree that built in blue tooth would be nice mostly due to it being a factory only option (i.e. so you can not add it later). This is very similar in function to a cube but with updated components and crammed into an amazingly small space (I wonder how hot it gets). I use a cube for my stereo and as a home net backup server (with an external pair of 250G 1394 drives) for my macs linux systems, one of which is a 2nd cube for my main system. So as soon as the mini gets a G5, I'm there!
The one thing I would caution "media center" users to look into carefully is that video is a lot harder to do here than audio. The mini has no hw video compression so becoming a DVR will be pretty hard on the CPU if feasible at all.
I'd say the only thing I wold have changed is to add at least a USB port on the front or top for easy plugging in of temporary devices (cameras etc). To really make this a home media device some hw mpeg support will be needed and I think to really distinguish it from others a 2nd hard drive to allow a RAID-1 setup. The more you get to depend on such things, the more a disk failure really hurts and too few folks to backups. Of course the disks would have to be user replaceable as well. I'd imagine swapping a disk in the mini is not much harder than any box you have to open up and root around in, but for a consumer product it really needs to be pluggable (not hot plugable just easy plugable).