stock is at $70? Geesh.

I agree. The mini will create many switchers that before hesitated to the large price tags.

I know I bow down to my Mac everyday for allowing me to avoid the Windows hegemony.

Just like the iPod, when people hold a Mac mini in their hands they are going to want one. It's the Apple magic in the design area that is going to wow them. Then have someone do a little "show & tell" on iLife and a unit will be sold. Some will get the Mac mini and some will go for something else, but the mini is going to be a killer for getting people interested.

The iPod shuffle is also going to get a lot of people into the Apple Store, just like the mini.

Unwary Windows users will try a few of these $499 wonders thinking Apple wouldn't sell a computer that didn't work reasonably well. When iLife starts dying with only 256MB and not even simple games will play, these new to the Mac users will realize they've been had. Their Windows friends will all say I told you so Macs are toys.

It's vital to have a sales person there to explain what the Mini is and what it isn't.

I can just imagine some guy picking up a mini for his first Mac because it's affordable.

He gets it in, plugs in four cables and is on the Web in 10 minutes.

Then his kid gets on the machine and starts bitching about it being a piece of junk because it's not as good a gaming machine as the PIII Dell with 2Gb of RAM that's in the next room.

That experience could turn a lot of people off and IMO buyers need to know that they're getting a great machine for $500 ... but they're getting a bottom-of-the-line machine for $500.

Will it do a hell of a lot? You bet.

Will it compete with a top-of-the-line Windows-based machine? Only in many areas (OS and included apps), but not all (speed).

Quote

RealitySchmuck wrote:
Their Windows friends will all say I told you so Macs are toys.

But it's hard to resist...

"When iLife starts dying with only 256MB and not even simple games will play [...]"

First, iLife is quite happy with 256MB. It is faster with more memory, but it certainly doesn't "die." Hell, I used iLife with 128MB of memory on my old Blue & White G3 and it went quite well. Did about 2 hours worth of wedding video editing for my sister.

Second, the people who bought a $499 Dell/HP/Gateway PC will be surprised with what they can do with their Mac mini versus what they can do with their cheap PC. No iLife on those machines. And while it might be a little slow, it might provide further inspiration for their next machine to be a faster Mac. For people who complain about the speed, you point them at the G5 iMacs. Just like in the PC World--people who complain about how slow their $499 machine is get pointed to the $999 machine.

Third, I'd like to point out the games issue. I looked at some benchmarks the other day for Unreal Tournament 2003. According to barefeats, the eMac with 256MB of RAM and the Radeon 9200 achieved frame rates of 42 frames per second. Not awesome, but playable. The Dell Dimension 3000--at $499--got 13 frames per second on the same test. Again, the fact the 3D games go from unplayable to playable on the Mac mini is a big plus right there.

My iBook has similar specs to the low end mini - same clock speed, same video, same 4200 rpm hard drive. I can play World of Warcraft, UT 2004, Command and Conquer Generals, not exactly lightweights in the gaming world.

That the Mini will suck for games is hogwash.

It won't do Doom 3, but it should handle pretty much any existing game on the Mac platform, albeit with some eyecandy turned down. 512 of RAM would aid the cause as well.

Quote

RealityCheck wrote:
... Their Windows friends will all say I told you so Macs are toys.

RC, if you're gonna troll, at least use a Mac once in awhile and know what you're talking about.

I have an iBook with 256MB of RAM. It works fine. 512 would be nice, but it's far from mandatory. Go look up iLife's sys requirements... it runs fine with 256. Chump.

Oo, Reality Check's getting even more unhinged. Windows users will call Mac Minis "toys" because they AREN'T gaming-machines? That's some good thinking.

Almost as good as being delusional enough to think that the bundled software for Apple's big bid to gain market-share won't even be able to run on it without choking. Nice try, there, but Apple has more business sense than a cabbage. Something like that takes Microsoft levels of stupid, whose share price is falling in the toilet, by the way.

If want you just need games, though, the Mini can run plenty, although not -the- most recent. I have a Windows PC with comparable specs, and it's my PC dedicated to gaming. The computer I use for everything else is a 500MHZ Celeron with 128MBs of RAM and an Nvidia TNT2, because it does everything else without a hitch, and I use it for much more intensive things then the average user ever will. And even then it's stuffed with games. If you want the Mini to be obsolete, then tough luck - it's more than the average user even needs.

Or, not -the- most recent games with prohibitively high system requirements, I should say.

I am running OS X Panther with all the latest updates on my G3 333Mhz PB with 192MB of RAM. It works fine for me. I use it for email, websurfing, word processing, and spreadsheet. I do not need that much power. I do not do any video editing or listen to music on my computer. I still have my Stereo and Cable TV with digital channels for music.

90% of people who use computers do not need the latest and greatest processor and oodles of RAM.

Granted, I would love to get a G4 PB, but I really don't need it. And I would really be tempted to get a G5 PB with Tiger when it comes out. I might actually buy it since Tiger may not work on my computer.

I think the mini is great. I just wish there was a video-in as well as audio in. It would make a great DVR/computer. I would have bought it by now.

Quote

Anonymous wrote:
... I think the mini is great. I just wish there was a video-in as well as audio in. It would make a great DVR/computer. I would have bought it by now.

Quote

Mace wrote:

Quote

Anonymous wrote:
... I think the mini is great. I just wish there was a video-in as well as audio in. It would make a great DVR/computer. I would have bought it by now.

There are firewire-to-video converters in the market.

I'm tired of everybody knocking the mini for not being a gaming machine. How many $499 Dells are sold as "Gaming Machines"?!?! These idiots need to use the damned platform they are condemning and they'll realize just how frigging moronic their petty pleas are. I have a PM G5 Dual 2.0 with 512 Mb RAM and I run the entire Adobe Creative Suite with mail, messenger, safari, Quark, iPhoto, iMovie, iTunes (pretty much the iLife suite, too) all running at the same time with dual monitors (VGA) and rarely even experience lag, let alone "dying". I say use a Mac for a while first, if you don't fall in love with it, or at least realize the productivity enhancements, then I'm sorry to hear that.... but until the SHUT UP!!!! RC, you need some counseling. The first stage is always denial, and it looks as though you've got a terminal case (or so we should hope).

... and then they complain that it can't even run their favorite game. As said above, not all of us game anyway. I'd take iLife over noLife any day.

I've sold my G4 AGP Graphics,(upgraded to 1.0GHz), 640mb PC133 SDRAM, w/60gb 7200rpm Hard drive, with a new Superdrive for $600 to a PC user, switching to Mac!!! He explained his troubles to me about spyware etc, etc, etc. I'm taking that money and some of my own and buying the 1.42GHz Mac Mini+superdrive, and will be booting from an external 160gb firewire hard drive with OS X.3 and a seperate NTFS partition with WinXP for my PeeCee. With the 7200rpm firewire drive, recording will work great, and I'll use the 80gb internal for storage. I hope the Las Vegas Apple Store has them instock.

i've been playing unreal tournament all evening. and now i'm stuck in nanosaur.

oh, i was ripping a dvd while playiing nanosaur

all on my new mac min