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Today we’re kicking off a new Applelinks feature -- Mac mini Muse -- a forum for news, views, commentary, tips, questions, ideas, links, and more about Apple’s tiny new computer.

It’s a bit early to predict that the mini will become Apple’s “next big thing,” a la the iPod, however, I can’t recall as much excitement and buzz over any new Mac computer since the original iMac in 1998. Love it (as most of us seem to do) or hate it (there’s always a few ) no one can deny that the mini is generating a tremendous amount of interest. Apple’s Taiwanese subcontractors are reportedly gearing up to build one hundred thousand minis a month, and orders are already four weeks backlogged. I’ll be surprised if they don’t have to boost production capacity to meet demand.

On the other hand, some folks just don’t seem to get it about the mini. They complain that it comes with no keyboard, no mouse, that there’s not enough RAM with the standard configurations, that the hard drive is too slow and puny, that there are not enough I/O ports, that there are no expansion slots, no FireWire 800, the video card and 32 megabytes of video RAM are not enough to satisfy gamers and may not support the Core Graphics function in OS 10.4 Tiger, that when you add even a modest monitor, the price is the same or more than an eMac, and so on and so forth.

All of these criticisms are of course true, but they miss the point about the mini. It isn’t intended to be a contemporary replacement for the full-featured Mac desktops of yore. It’s really a new concept -- a crossover between desktop and laptop technology. Engineering-wise, it’s closer to a laptop, with a 2.5 inch, 4200 REM hard drive, a laptop-style allotment of ports, an external power brick, and a motherboard that owes more to the iBook than to the eMac. The mini is a “transportable,” with a CPU module nearly two pounds lighter and much smaller than the smallest Apple laptop. Add a lightweight LCD monitor, a compact keyboard and mouse, stuff them in a backpack or case, and you have a package that will be pretty easy to carry and use wherever there’s an available power outlet.

But that’s just one aspect of the mini. As a reader pointed out, the mini concept makes it possible to use it as the CPU module of a desktop setup that can be easily and reasonably inexpensively upgraded every two years or so while retaining the perfectly good monitor, keyboard, and mouse components.

Others have suggested using the mini as a low-cost server module, although Apple does not recommend using computers with 2.5” hard drives for server duty. Time will tell how this works out in practice.

Underwriters Technologies has launched macminicolo.net: A high speed Mac mini colocation service. mini servers are rack mounted in custom racks, with multiple high speed connections to the Internet.

“The Mac mini has more than enough power to handle the web needs of 80% of the businesses in the world ” says Jay Menna President of Underwriters Technologies. “The low price and small footprint brings it into direct competition with virtual private servers and blade servers: none of which are available to the Macintosh community. We believe the mini has created yet another new market niche for the Mac.

For more information, visit:
http://www.uwtech.com
http://www.macminicolo.net

Several automotive custom shops are working on getting Mac minis into vehicle dashboards.

And then, of course, there are the hundreds of thousands of future Mac mini owners who will just use their minis for everyday computing -- email, Web surfing, word processing, digital photo editing, etc. It should be superb for that sort of service. Early reports from folks who have taken delivery indicate that performance of the 1.42 GHz mini for these run-of-the-mill computing tasks is about on par with a 1.5 GHz PowerBook.

Some will be switchers from the Windows platform, who will plug their minis into their existing monitor and input devices (some will need PS-2/USB adapters, which are available for under ten dollars at Radio Shack). Others will be migrants from other Macs, and still others will be first-time computer users.

The mini is not for everyone. If you need power, ports, and expandability a G5 tower will serve you nicely. Like all-in-ones? The eMac and iMac have that base covered. A serious road warrior? There are lots of iBook and PowerBook choices. But if you’re a mini person, you know who you are, and I hope you’ll be checking out the Mac mini Muse for keeping up to date as the mini story unfolds. And if you have something to contribute for comment on, say, a report on how you like your new mini or a cool idea for how to use minis, or just a general observation, let’s hear from you!

Charles W. Moore

Mini ideas
Mac Mini Ambivalence
mini review[/url]





Mini ideas

From Harold Thompson

Charles,

I just did a mock up of a mini and it's about 2/3 the size of my external HD which measures 6.5" x 2.25" x 9".

It really IS mini . Lots of ideas emerging about how to use the mini; it might be interesting to compile a list of these for everyone to ponder....

Harold

___

Hi Harold;

Sounds like another department for Mac mini Muse. See below.

Charles






Mac Mini Ambivalence

From Jos Lussenburg

Hi Charles:

I read your article on the Mac Mini as well as those of others commentators, pro and con. I have to say that my reaction to the Mini remains quite ambivalent. Like many I was an advocate of a low end "headless" Mac and when the rumors started to fly, I was very much hoping they were true. However, on the unveiling you might say my expectation did not quite match reality.

My expectation was for a pizza box / X-serve form factor with a G4 running @ 1.25 - 1.5 GHz and at least two memory slots, i.e.: one open. In addition, I was expecting a conventional ATA 100/133, 7200 rpm hard drive, a 4X or 8X AGP slot populated with whatever graphics card Apple could source cheapest and perhaps one or two open PCI slots. Certainly it would have been a box you could open yourself allowing for a certain amount of upgrading/customization by the owner. Whether it came with a keyboard and mouse would have mattered little.

Reality on the other hand has delivered us something entirely different; a new form factor with a largely closed architecture albeit in a stylish package. This leads me to believe that Apple wasn't in the slightest bit interested in giving its existing user base more choice. Nor were they really interested in enticing Wintel users given the price point chosen. Instead I think Apple is betting on the Mac Mini becoming a fashion statement like the iPod.

There you have the crux of the matter IMHO. If the Mac Mini attains the same cool factor that the iPod took on, it'll be a hit. If the Mini doesn't attain that cool factor, it'll go the way of the Cube and the Newton.

Will I buy one? Who knows, maybe my wife's old PM 7500 with the G3 upgrade will die soon and a Mini will be all I can afford. On the other hand, maybe the price of early PM G4s will drop to point where putting in a G4 upgrade equals the price of a Mini. Come to think of it, perhaps now I will have more choice!

Enjoy your writing, regards,

Jos

___

Hi Jos;

I agree with your analysis pretty much, albeit from a different perspective — that of a laptop aficionado.

The cool factor is definitely in play, at least in the early going. Heck; I'm smitten. The Cube was the last desktop Mac I really salivated over, and I like the mini better.

For the past six years or so I've been contending that PowerBooks (and later iBooks too) are "the logical Mac." I think that applies to the mini too. It is, in my estimation, a "headless laptop." As such, expandability and upgradability are not deal-breaker issues for me. I use an iBook as a workhorse.

I also agree with you that the mini (despite its somewhat illusory price — in practical terms it's not cheaper than an eMac or iMac unless you already have peripherals to go with it) is going to put downward pressure on used Mac prices.

Thanks for reading.

Charles






mini review

From Harold Thompson

Just read this Mini hands on review from macworld; here's the link if you haven't already seen it: http://www.macworld.com/2005/01/news/macminihandson/index.php

I think the Mini with a flat display is really the ticket; frees up a lot of desk real estate. My CRT iMac with external devices takes up about four square feet on my desk. I am working on a new desk design that incorporates the Mini...

Thanks for all the great input

Harold

___

Hi Harold;

Yes; that was a good review, that confirmed pretty much what I had deduced.

I'm an LCD display fan from way back. I wouldn't even consider a CRT these days.

Charles

With New Mac Mini, Apple Makes Switching Enticing
Mac Mini: a Sea Change In Computing?
Mac mini - The "Just Enough" Computer [/url]

With New Mac Mini, Apple Makes Switching Enticing

The Wall Street Journal's Walter S. Mossberg says:

"If my e-mail from readers is any indication, more Windows users are thinking of switching to Apple Computer's Macintosh models than at any time in a decade. A significant minority of Windows users are so fed up with battling viruses and spyware, or so impressed with Apple's iPod music players, that they are seriously tempted to jump to the Mac.

"....this weekend, Apple will start selling its lowest-priced Mac ever, a tiny but full-featured desktop computer called the Mac mini, priced at just $499. But there is a catch. The mini doesn't include a monitor, keyboard or mouse. Apple says it was designed to work with the monitors, keyboards and mice from Windows PCs that it assumes switchers already own.

"I've been testing the Mac mini under just that scenario for several days, and it does indeed work, quite well. I connected a mini to a Dell flat-panel screen and a Hewlett-Packard keyboard and mouse, all about three years old. The little Mac fired up and worked perfectly at every task I threw at it.....

"Overall, the Mac mini is a good choice for Windows users on a budget who are tempted to switch. It's not a technological breakthrough, but it may just be one of Apple's smartest business moves."

For the full report, visit here.....
http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/0120wsj-personal-tech20-ON.html





Mac Mini: a Sea Change In Computing?

ComputerWire reports: ��

"After all of the excitement about Apple's new low-cost Mac before it was actually unveiled at its MacWorld show in San Francisco on January 11, it is now dawning on Europeans that the Mac mini does not usher in a new price point in computing at all.....

"What was missed during this early excitement, however, was that when it comes to computer gear, you can rarely use the exchange rate to convert from dollars to pounds or dollars to the euro. And so it came to pass that even though Apple did indeed announce that the Mac mini will be priced at $500 in the US before tax for the basic version - roughly 260 pounds going on the exchange rate - it will set Brits back� 288.51 excluding VAT, which is about �22 ($41) more than in the US.

"But whether or not Apple is overcharging for its equipment is perhaps not the crucial issue, because after all, customers can always let their wallets do the talking and buy a Dell, Fujitsu Siemens, HP, or Lenovo PC instead. But what does seem increasingly clear is that once you add the cost of a monitor, keyboard, and mouse to your Mac mini, it's not really ushering in a new price point in computing at all. Especially not for Europeans. It might still sell by the truckload as eager iPod buyers swarming into Apple's new retail stores decide they look the look of it. But a price breakthrough it most definitely is not."

For the full report, visit here.
http://www.pingwales.co.uk/interface/mac-mini-a-sea-change.html






Mac mini - The "Just Enough" Computer

O'Reilly.net's Giles Turnbull says:

"When I first sat down to consider the merits or otherwise of the new Mac mini, I was disappointed with the amount of included RAM. "A mere 256MB just ain't enough," I thought; 'Steve's shooting himself in the foot. Surely there will be lots of people trying out Mac OS X, just as he predicts, and finding it slow and unresponsive? That won't convert them to Mac users.'

"But then I read the comment by Glenn Fleishman in the post-Macworld issue of TidBITS:

"'Both configurations ship with just 256 MB of RAM, which is a bit of a joke to run Mac OS X effectively, though that amount is enough to play iTunes, CDs, DVDs, and handle other common home duties such as exploring the Web and checking email.'

"And I think, with that statement, Glenn has hit the nail on the head.....

'Nothing fancy. Just enough.

"Which is the Mac mini ethos through-and-through."

For the full commentary, visit:
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/6255

Mac mini How-to Disassembly Video
How to Upgrade a Mac-Mini[/url] mini in a PC tower?[/url]





Mac mini How-to Disassembly Video

Ben Guild has posted a video that demonstrates how to crack open the Mac mini's casing, which makes all parts available to the user via further disassembly screws.

Requires Quicktime to view. it's free

You can check it out at:
http://www.smashsworld.com/2005/01/taking-apart-mac-mini-how-to.php




How to Upgrade a Mac-Mini

creationrobot.com says:

"People have asked me a lot of questions about the MacMini. The number one question they ask is: Can I upgrade it? My assumed answer has always been the memory will be upgradable, nothing else.

"That’s inaccurate, you can upgrade the hard disk too. Apple states that as long as you don’t break the Mini when you open it the warrenty is still OK."

Also, hop over to http://www.mini-itx.com/news/13909018/ for more mainboard shots.

You can check it out at:
http://www.creationrobot.com/index.php?p=710

mini in a PC tower?

From Rob�

Regarding Harold Thompson's comment:

"...the Mini which is about the size of a CDR drive out of a PC unit..."
And
"Mini's are cool... seems you can tuck them in just about anywhere."

Wouldn't it be cool if they could be removed from the case and slid into a PC tower. Then I could stash one in my work PC and finally get something done for a change.

It'd still look like a PC which will keep IT happy, but I could get my projects done on time which would keep my boss happy. Confused, but happy.

rob

___

Fascinating idea, Rob.

Charles





***



Charles W. Moore


Note: Letters to Mac mini Muse may or may not be published at the editor's discretion. Correspondents' email addresses will NOT be published unless the correspondent specifically requests publication. Letters may be edited for length and/or context.

Opinions expressed in postings to Mac mini Muse are those of the respective correspondents and not necessarily shared or endorsed by the Editor and/or Applelinks management.

If you would prefer that your message not appear in Mac mini Muse, we would still like to hear from you. Just clearly mark your message "NOT FOR PUBLICATION," and it will not be published.

CM

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