Mac mini

#1 Oh - my - god - Becky! Its like soooooooo cute!

Not a bad machine, too bad I lost all respect for Apple when they started their Ipod/VW Beetle commercials - I cant respect any car (or affiliation with) with a flower vase built into the dash....

Apple has some great ideas, they just need to either get out of their femme target audience, or also target the more masculine side. I mean do I really want to buy something that has "Enchanting Enhancements" and "Live the digital life in stylish simplicity" on its page? But then there's this "Everything you ever wanted, nothing you don't need" - me like, me like.

I do like the size and plainess of it though, all in all, an interesting computer that might be worth buying if Apple can get away from its teeniebopper girl audience.

#2

Quote:And when you want to take a break, play the 3D games Nanosaur 2 and Marble Blast Gold.

I guess that's reason alone for buying this baby ....

:)

#3

Quote:
might be worth buying if Apple can get away from its teeniebopper girl audience.

I'm not quite sure how to say this, other than, 'I don't think you could possibly be any more wrong than you currently are about this.'

#4 Then what would you call it? Sensitive male audience? Men-in-touch-with-their-feminine-side audience?

Like I said they have some good products out, and I especially like the OS theyre using - MUCH more stable than Windows. But just give me a plain old box, plain OS where I dont have to go configuring it so it doesnt look like a multimedia presentation, and no 'enchantments' or 'stylish' crap. Something 'small' not 'petite' and 'upgraded' not 'tricked out'.

Im not trying to bash Apple here even though Im kind of doing that. When I first built my current system, I turned it on and the case lit up like a UFO, I was convinced that I could have put it on my porch to attract the local aircraft flying around. I also had to literally rip this absurd door off the front so I could get to the CD drives without having to screw around with the door and it being in the way when open.

@Charlie
Apple isnt the only one doing this stuff. I had switched to cable internet from DSL and the modem they sent is all curvy and crap instead of boxy, kind of messes up stacking and such on a desk!

#5 Apple had been doing plain boxes for years and for years they where struggling. Now they have these fancy new designs and things are picking up.
So, where is the bad in this??

#6 @Nate: I'm in touch with my masculine side and I WANT the Mini. I agree with Pat, that you could not be more off base if you tried. Real men just want beige boxes with no style? Hmm, wonder most men like cool cars, fancy television sets and stereos, and cool phones. Glad you aren't in my marketing department.

#7 Cool cars - usually fast; less to do with looks; have two - '86 300ZX TT and '02 Desert Runner w/nasty mods
TVs/stereos - own a couple cool ones, still just plain boxes though
Phone - never saw the point, still have my first one I bought under my own contract when I moved out of parents house

Let me try to be a little more clear with my OPINIONS.

I see a lot of jokers driving around in little irritating Hondas, Pontiacs, etc with gaudy body kits, huge 'shopping cart handles' screwed to the trunk, and loud fartcans. For the price they paid for their "fast" cars they could have bought a luxo Audi with AWD and four seats- thats right, FOUR seats with room for five. This car smokes those "ricebois" as we call them, in good weather, and can still be driven in the snow with no problems.

Whats this got to do with computers you ask? Not much, but theres a comparison here. Why worry about making something LOOK good/fast when you can MAKE it good/fast? Now I know that Apple makes some pretty nice machines, but cant they just make one thats a box and stacks nicely with other boxes (such as the new mini mac), and doesnt appear as its marketed to teen girls (as the texts suggest)?

#8 This looks cool. I have been trying to figure out how I could do mac development on the cheap.

#9 The video card is an ATI 9200... which basicly means a DX8.1 level card. That in itself sounds disapointing. On the other hand if i wanted to get into mac development cheap this would be one way to do it.

#10 Definitely looking like a well priced dev/port box to me as well...

And for the record, I've always had a negative gut feeling impression from Apple's marketing style as well--probably not to the extent he has, but with the way they have always tended to attach to their target market, I just never felt the interest to consider myself part of that market--and I can't really explain why.

Then again, at least 70% of the commercials I ever see on TV simply guarantee I will never buy products knowingly from that vendor!

#11 I'm just not getting the teen girls thing. They are marketing simplicity.

Quote:
Live the digital life in stylish simplicity. Just 6.5 inches wide and 2 inches tall, Mac mini provides what you need to have more fun with your music, photos and movies right out of the box. And it boasts a miniscule price to match: Mac mini starts at $499.

Of course, if that is the feeling you get, then there isn't anything I can do to change it. Beside, what am I doing defending a billion dollar corporation? :)

BTW, I'll put up my "ricebois" against yours any day of the week. My Japanese choice for the street is my FJR 1300, and to take on your nasty desert runner, I''ll just use my YZ 250F. Let's go:)

#12 Oh wait, let me get my bikes out - Honda 200 & 250, and my favorite Ye OLDE Yamaha 125 two stroke. Crap! I dont have a road bike though, oh well. I'll just use either of my two mopeds, would you like to race the Puch or the Peugeot? You'll have to give me a head start though, 'cause to start them I gotta pedal. I think my cylinder-to-person ratio is the highest in the city at 22:1 (soon to be 30:1 with the addition of a Titan).

When I said ricebois I meant cars Jeff, a bike will beat just about any car out there, whether its riced-out or a real sports car.

BTW if anyone doesnt know what I'm talking about, visit the following funny site:

Bryan's Rice-Boy Page

#13 ATI 9200 used to be really hot.

Does mini run TGE?

How 'bout TSE?

#14 It should run TGE just fine. TSE won't build on the Mac at the moment, but the 9200 can do 1.4 shaders... so it could work once the GFX layer supports OGL again.

#15 Hmm... I like Macs. I like their design. I like Apple's marketing campagins. I like things that LOOK good/fast in addition to going fast.

I guess that makes me a teeniebopper girl.

Oh. My. Gawd!!!!!

:P

#16 I like that but I've been thinking of getting the iMac with the 20" screen ... hmmm ... I guess the little one would be the best for on the cheap ports.

#17 This new mac looks quite G4 Cube-esque, but more like a G4 Rectangular Prism... Anyone know how the cooling is done on this thing? Apple's cooling is generally very very well done from what I've seen. I've heard you can overclock certain models of eMac by about 300MHz or so (which means a lot more on a mac than a PC) on STOCK COOLING. I'd be interested to see how they can cool a 1.4GHz G4 and still have room for other things in a box that size.

#18 Sign me up with the teenieboppers, this thing's hot!

#19 The only things I don't like about Apple:

1) High Cost - *Now seems not to be an issue :)
2) Hardware support.

I was working for a local college last year and someone brought in a 23" LCD that cost $2100 at the time. Apple was going to charge $2300 to fix it. We had issues with Apple care where they did work when it was noted not to do anything if the cost was above something like $500. It ended up being $900 and when asked why they did the work after it was clearly noted not to if the cost was above $500. The response was "The tech's don't pay any attention to that." So basically they were saying tough titties for you.

#20 I just bought one for my mom. She's a bit old to be a teenie bopper.

She just likes her desk space.