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Apple Businesses Hardware

Accessories for Mac mini 615

Posted by CmdrTaco from the that-sure-didn't-take-long dept.
pentae writes "BYODKM are featuring some of the first in line to serve up Mac mini accessories. Exactly how much market share will this buy Apple once the affordable, stylish Mac steals the Windows users who love their iPod?"
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Accessories for Mac mini More

Accessories for Mac mini

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  • iPod (Score:5, Funny)

    by RicJohnson ( 649243 ) * on Sunday February 06, 2005 @09:48AM (#11589375) Homepage Journal
    Which has more hard drive space - the iMini or IPod? They have almost the same price point

  • Wasn't (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Prince Vegeta SSJ4 ( 718736 )
    the base of the monitor designed to sit directly on top of the Mini? I guess the grandstand would allow 'room for error' in case you bumped the table or computer, the monitor wouldn't fall. Seems they also missed the most obvious color as well, which would be my choice for the grandstand - white.

    Now the skirt, and tower look pretty cool as is.

  • Stealing Windows customers? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by agraupe ( 769778 ) on Sunday February 06, 2005 @09:52AM (#11589395) Journal
    I'd be worried about this, if I were Microsoft. But I would also be worried about this if I was distributing a desktop linux distro. Now that Apple hardware is (relatively) cheap, and damn sexy, I might have to buy one. I'd probably dual boot OS X and Gentoo, but there are others who will probably go for the nice look of OS X, along with BSD under the hood, and leave Linux/*BSD for ever. The only thing that is working in Linux/*BSD's favor is multiplatform compatibility (i.e. you can run the same OS on x86 and PPC), and selection of application. Fink (is that it?) is working on taking one of those away. All this being said, is it necessarily a bad thing if Linux is relegated to the server room with a small percentage of workstations, with Apple picking up the rest?

    • Re:Stealing Windows customers? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Whafro ( 193881 ) on Sunday February 06, 2005 @09:56AM (#11589420) Homepage
      As far as I'm concerned, just because OS X is developed by a big corporation doesn't put it outside the sphere of *BSD. If you're using OS X, you haven't "left Linux/*BSD" forever.

      • Well, you know what I meant. I meant the "free" BSDs (not to be confused with FreeBSD).

        • Re:Stealing Windows customers? (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Whafro ( 193881 ) on Sunday February 06, 2005 @10:38AM (#11589632) Homepage
          Yeah, I know what you meant, but I don't see why it matters. OS X is based on free software, plays well with other free software (x11, etc), is relatively easy to use and has fewer "gotchas" than do Linux and *BSD.

          This isn't like someone put a bash shell in windows and is calling it "Winix" or something... This is an OS that claims to have the best of both worlds--the availability of using open source and open standards while being accessible to even the newest of users. If you're a nerd who cares the way you seem to, you're still going to use Linux/*BSD, but I don't see how it hurts the community if you switch to OS X.

          If I were someone who was a strong BSD proponent, I, for one, would welcome our rich, talented, and innovative overlords.

          • Re:Stealing Windows customers? (Score:5, Insightful)

            by Ohreally_factor ( 593551 ) on Sunday February 06, 2005 @11:12AM (#11589889) Journal
            I don't see how it hurts the community if you switch to OS X.

            If anything, it will help the community over the long term, especially if you are a developer. I think far too many developers are saddled with diminished expectations, a result of their roots in the Windows world. Developers should be shooting for "better than OS X" instead of "as good as windows".

            I know that I'm generalizing, and that there are lots of developers that aren't ham-stringed in this way. I'm just saying.

        • Re:Stealing Windows customers? (Score:5, Insightful)

          by b1t r0t ( 216468 ) on Sunday February 06, 2005 @10:59AM (#11589792)
          Well, you know what I meant. I meant the "free" BSDs (not to be confused with FreeBSD).

          Everything that's in BSD is also "free" in OS X. The non-free parts of OS X aren't in Darwin or BSD. There's no Quartz, Aqua, Quicktime, iTunes, etc. in BSD. You also don't get Apple's particular packaging of the OS for free either, but that doesn't stop anyone from making their own distro of Darwin/BSD.

          Just because someone charges money for a distro that comes with non-free stuff doesn't make its core less free (as in speech). I don't hear people bitching about Red Hat Enterprise not being a "free" OS, especially now that the "free version of Red Hat" doesn't exist any more (yes, I know they renamed it, but there's more to it than that).

      • It doesn't matter ... as long as Apple is a small minority.

        If, however, you have a longer memory, you may remember that when Apple was a large player in the personal computer market, that it was more hostile to linking to other computers than MS is today. On the AppleII, e.g., the built-in basic refused to generate program text files. The floppy disks were of a totally non-standard format (and they patented the chip used to read those disks, and refused to license it).

        So while I'm glad that MS stands to

    • I honestly think... (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Faust7 ( 314817 )
      But I would also be worried about this if I was distributing a desktop linux distro. Now that Apple hardware is (relatively) cheap, and damn sexy, I might have to buy one. I'd probably dual boot OS X and Gentoo, but there are others who will probably go for the nice look of OS X, along with BSD under the hood, and leave Linux/*BSD for ever.

      All it would take would be for Apple to release OS X for the PC. Any chance Linux had at serious penetration of the desktop market would evaporate.

      • Re:I honestly think... (Score:5, Interesting)

        by FLAGGR ( 800770 ) on Sunday February 06, 2005 @10:04AM (#11589458)
        Except that'll never happen.

        Imagine how much money they would make selling their OS for ~200$. Now imagine what they make now, even with their tiny market share, selling 3000$ minimum machines :) Apple would lose so much money moving the PC platform, its not even funny.

        • Re:I honestly think... (Score:2, Informative)

          by Anonymous Coward
          > 3000$ minimum ...

          RTFA

          It's $499 minimum.
      • I dunno... I still would go for Linux because I like total control of my system (I'm a Gentoo user, surprise). If there were a "power user" version of OS X, where the system is built more like a typical linux distro (i.e. you *can* have no graphics, and so on), OS X would *kill* linux (if it were on the x86).
    • I seriously think it won't be too long before Microsoft are in serious trouble over their market share.. Lets just think about it:

      Firefox has come along, its much better than IE and IE is starting to lose a relatively large part of its market share. IE was left too long to be fixed up and now MS are paying for it.
      Google (not like it ever didnt, but still) owns the shit out of MSN search, although MSN is getting better and better. Macs and Linux are much much cheaper and more secure (or less exploits\viruse

      • Re:Stealing Windows customers? (Score:5, Informative)

        by evand ( 2571 ) <esd.cmu@edu> on Sunday February 06, 2005 @10:38AM (#11589637) Homepage
        Since no apps that run on 9x\nt\xp\etc will run on Longhorn, I think Microsoft are going to really start to lose market share in everything.
        From Microsoft's Longhorn Developer FAQ [microsoft.com]:

        Will my existing Win32 and .NET apps continue to run under Longhorn without modification?

        The goal is that apps written against the documented Win32 APIs and the .NET Framework will absolutely run well without any modifications under Longhorn when it ships.

        • Re:Stealing Windows customers? (Score:5, Insightful)

          by daviddennis ( 10926 ) <david@amazing.com> on Sunday February 06, 2005 @10:58AM (#11589780) Homepage
          A closer reading of that FAQ answer would make me a bit alarmed if I were a Windows user.

          They are saying that "the goal is", not that it will happen.

          I could say today that my goal is to create a pig that flies over the moon, and that wouldn't make it happen, even if I were Microsoft.

          I was a MacOS X early adopter (perhaps was is the wrong word; I use it on my primary computers to this day), and I still remember how MacOS 9 applications ran under MacOS X. That is to say, not all that well. Everyone who was running X, including myself, absolutely longed for native applications in the first year or so. After Photoshop and Final Cut Pro made it to X, pretty much all was bliss, but it took us a year of pain to get there.

          If I had to guess, I'd assume that Win32/.net applications would have a similar trajectory of doom, and if there are significant differences between Win32 and Longhorn APIs, I'd be pretty alarmed by that paragraph if I was relying on non-Microsoft Windows software, or if I was developing same.

          Microsoft might be counting on Office to hold people in the new environment. They'll build a version of Office for Longhorn with lots of spiffy features. The old Office won't work well on Longhorn. So someone buys a new computer with Longhorn (probably not compatible with XP), and they have to upgrade Office so they can run Word. This is just what Microsoft wants.

          Microsoft has on its side the makers of commodity computers, and that's a powerful friend because many people like having interchangeable computers where nothing is particularly special but you can build interesting things out of components. I don't like that at all - I like my computers being special and unique, like Apple's - but I recognize much of the world loves it. I also think most of the world hates change and so really has to have a powerful jolt to switch.

          Because of this, I think there's about a 10-15% ceiling on Apple's market share even if things go outstandingly well. Of course that would mean a 3-5 times improvement over the next few years. I think that's very doable, and I think some of the lovers of commodity computers might go for Linux as a commodity OS. That might mean there would be a world of 10-15% Apple, 10-15% Linux and the rest Microsoft.

          I don't think Microsoft's majority of computers sold is in danger, but they're in deep danger of slipping significantly if they don't improve their products dramatically, even pre-Longhorn.

          D
        • ...will absolutely run well without any modifications...

          If that really does happen, then the new flavor of Windows will STILL be insecure and users will have to contend with all the malware that currently can and does afflict Windows. Many programs for Windows are written with the assumtions of the user having unfettered access to every bit and byte on their PERSONAL computer. Personal computers were meant to be used by ONE user only and that user has total control over ALL of their machine.

          UNIX flavored

    • Re:Stealing Windows customers? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by doon ( 23278 ) on Sunday February 06, 2005 @10:12AM (#11589500) Homepage
      I've gotten rid of windows a long time about, and the Mac Mini, finally allowed me to get my wife off windows also. It wasn't for lack of trying, it was just that the pricetag made it ok (My wife is an accountant by day, artist by night). So the mac appealed to her artistic side, and didn't upset the accountant side. So with her pc scheduled to become another small server, we are down to 1 box @ home that has Windows on it, and that box dual boots FreeBSD 5.3 (where it spends most of its time).
      As for it stealing Linux/*BSD users away. I can see this sort of happening. My primary workstation now is an 17" Al powerbook, It replaced a Dell Inspiron running slackware. I still use various forms of *nix everyday. My firewall @ home and my other laptop here are OpenBSD. My file server and workstation run FreeBSD (5.3 on workstation, 4-Stable on the file server). At work all 36 Servers run FreeBSD 4-Stable. So while it might not be on our desktops everyday, we still use it.
    • For Gentoo fans how about skip the dual boot and install Portage in OSX: http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/macos-guide.xml [gentoo.org]

      You could use the GNU OSX archive: http://www.osxgnu.org/ [osxgnu.org]

      Of course as you mentioned there is Fink [sourceforge.net] which lets you do things like this [xdarwin.org] relatively easily [xdarwin.org] ...

    • I am amazed you aren't being flamed to death yet here by the rabid linux zealots. damn I wish I had mod points right now. This is one of the MOST REALISTIC comments about the future of Linux I have ever read here...
    • Companies using Linux don't care about OS market share, they care about services, they don't sell the distro, they sell computing platforms that have the hughe advantage that are completely open.

      You may not care about this as a geek in your basement playing games and pretending that you are a hacker or cracker (fscking root kits ...) but it is pure gold to have access to the source code of an application for unncountable reasons that would be too long to describe here.

      And I am not talking about small com

    • Re:Stealing Windows customers? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by ThousandStars ( 556222 ) on Sunday February 06, 2005 @11:14AM (#11589905) Homepage
      I already addressed part of the "MS better fear Apple" idea in this [slashdot.org] post. You may want to read the post and replies.

      I don't think MS is worried about Apple overtaking Windows and Office, which are still the crown jewels. Keep in mind that we're talking about a company that just posted $10B in profits [arstechnica.com] last quarter. Reread that statement: $10B in profit, not revenue. Wow.

      MS should be worried about the present media file format wars, which it could very well lose. Overall, I think the number of Windows customers MS stands to lose to Apple is probably negligible. I'd like to see a more open, multi-platform world -- I type this from a PowerBook -- but the realist in me sees predictions of MS's demise as premature.

    • Re:Stealing Windows customers? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by groomed ( 202061 ) on Sunday February 06, 2005 @11:18AM (#11589931)
      A few thoughts:
      • The key advantage of GNU/Linux and the BSD's is the unfettered freedom to do with them as you please. This freedom is important only to a small number of people, and immediately useful only to an even smaller number. Those who use GNU/Linux and/or BSD on the desktop because it's "better" are either deluding themselves or they are very particular about their environment. In any case, the demand for such systems on the basis of the freedom they provide alone will always be relatively marginal.
      • That said, historically open systems have always trumped closed ones. Don't forget that Microsoft's success in the late 80's and 90's is due in large part because their systems (first DOS, then Windows 3.0) were more open than those of the competitors (Atari, Commodore, Tandy, Apple, IBM, ...).
      • It's not like Apple has only just now discovered how to build great products. Apple has always been building great stuff, with the possible exception of the "beleagered" late 90's. The current frenzy around Apple, then, can only be partially explained by the greatness of their current crop of merchandise. Much of their success has to be attributed to fashion and sheer hype, which may evaporate as rapidly as it has come. It may only take one guy in a garage working on something we don't know about yet.
      • Internationally, Apple is a much less powerful brand than might seem the case from an American vantage point. Service can be abysmal, presence is spotty at best. A friend of mine is now on his 3rd or 4th iBook in about 2 years. Each of them has broken down, whether due to the disk failing, the power supply exploding [figure of speech], or the screen/graphics card going bonkers. Each time it means he has to take the iBook away and wait 2 to 6 weeks for it to come back: no substitute on loan, no brand new replacement, not even so much as a sympathetic nod.
      • The FOSS desktop has made immense progress over the past few years and continues to improve. Progress may be fitful and slow, and detractors may argue that it won't ever lead to something as polished as Mac OS X or even Windows XP (and I think they're probably right), but these people forget that it was the truly horrible system called DOS which ultimately left all others in the dust.
  • I'm contemplating getting one of these for my mother (okay... and one for myself...) but I'm wondering if this is a case of form over function?

    I'm totally new to the Mac world, save from a few experiences with an iPod which I found to be totally unfulfilling, so is the Mac Mini really a good place for me to start, or is it much like the iPod, and just another fashion accessory with secondary consideration given to functions?

    • Re:Computers, or fashion items? (Score:5, Informative)

      by remahl ( 698283 ) on Sunday February 06, 2005 @09:58AM (#11589432)

      Read the review from AnandTech [anandtech.com]. It is very comprehensive (18 pages!) and doesn't fail to point out the design features Apple put in to enhance the user experience. Nor does it fail to hilight the weak points of the design.

      In my experience, it is very rarely "form over function" with Apple, it's function intersecting form.

    • Re:Computers, or fashion items? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Sunday February 06, 2005 @09:59AM (#11589437) Homepage Journal
      As long as you put 512MB of ram in it, the mini should be capable of running anything your mom wants to run for the next few years. If you want to do video editing or something, well, the G4 can do it, but you'd be better off with a G5. Frankly no 1+ GHz computer is really a toy, ANY of them can run the office apps and such. To me, 1GHz was the line that had to be crossed to get decent performance. Sure, most of us said this kind of stuff when the 386DX came out - it's a 32 bit processor! blah blah blah! And of course, not all 1 gig chips are created equal, compare via to an athlon xp sometime, but I've never met a 1 gig chip that couldn't do everything the average user needed to do with a modern operating system slowing it down :)

    • Re:Computers, or fashion items? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by jxyama ( 821091 ) on Sunday February 06, 2005 @10:00AM (#11589440)
      >is it much like the iPod, and just another fashion accessory with secondary consideration given to functions?

      can you explain how iPod is "form over function"? i find it to be the most usable mp3 player out there. about the only thing i feel it's missing is a radio.

      in any case, Mac mini - what you see is what you get. if you want expansion, then it's "form over function" for you and the machine will not serve you well. otherwise, it's as capable as any other desktops out there - it's got USB ports, firewire ports, DVI (VGA adapter included), Combo drive, etc. (i personally don't consider lack of p/s, parallel or serial ports "lack of function" as much as keeping the legacy ports. similarly for floppy disk.)

      • i find it to be the most usable mp3 player out there. about the only thing i feel it's missing is a radio.

        I too found the iPod to be a perfectly usable device. I also consider "missing a radio" a feature. That is one things Apple and its fans have right. I suppose it would be nice to have for NPR but those dozens of stations with dozens of transmitters are serving up "material" I don't want.

        The Mac mini is decently upgradeable, save the video card and CPU. The options are more limited than would be fo
      • The bundled ear buds make a pretty crappy sound and yet are almost a trademark of iPods. I'd say that is form over function...
    • I think it's a great way to start- I am running an eMac which is basically the same hardware in the mini- and the system is great- My only suggestion is add at least 512 Mb of RAM.

  • Pretty weak accessories (Score:5, Interesting)

    by agent dero ( 680753 ) on Sunday February 06, 2005 @09:54AM (#11589409) Homepage
    These accessories I'd think can be useful, but not *that* useful. I mean, what is the point of the 'Mac Mini skirt?'

    I'm really trying not to troll here, but I think worthwhile accessories would be to the tune of, a dock type thing, that has a built-in USB pro-audio card that looks kind of like this "Mini Skirt."

    The Mini is already stylish enough, and I think the only merit of the two latter products is stylistic, if they expanded the usefullness and capacities of the Mini, then i'm all for it ;).

  • That "Grandstand" looks like a Mini oven (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Dammital ( 220641 ) on Sunday February 06, 2005 @09:54AM (#11589411)
    They've got a monitor pedestal that closely encloses the Mini. As densely packed as that Mac is, there is probably a reason that the case is made of aluminium. I'd be careful about insulating that box.

  • Don't count your chickens... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Faust7 ( 314817 ) on Sunday February 06, 2005 @09:54AM (#11589413) Homepage
    once the affordable, stylish mac steals the Windows users who love their iPod

    Bit of an assumption there, isn't it?

    True, this is the first Mac to be within an average joe's price range -- and the fact that it includes no keyboard, mouse, or monitor doesn't matter because it's aimed at potential switchers. Whip out the PC, slide in the Mac Mini.

    All the conditions are there. But does the Mini offer enough to get people to climb out of their boxes of complacency and tolerance, and actually switch?
    • Heh, it's just more editorializing in the stories, nothing new. I really wish they would keep their opinions out of the story submissions.
      (Btw, yes I am a mac lover, I would get the mini cept for I don't like the G4 bus, so I'll be going for an iMac G5)
    • I don't think it's so much that the Mini offers enough to entice people, but that all the various Windows malware and other Windows headaches will entice some people "out of their boxes of complacency and tolerance".

  • Market share (Score:4, Interesting)

    by MattGWU ( 86623 ) on Sunday February 06, 2005 @09:56AM (#11589421)
    Exactly how much? That's a tall order. A percentage point...maybe two. Not much more than that though, I wouldn't imagine. It looks like a nice system, but I wouldn't imagine that the iPod set Apple seems to be targeting would see the value in having multiple computers. I don't mean geeks with iPods, now, I mean the people who bought an iPod as much because it was the thing to have and be seen with as it was a nice piece of useful technology. It's harder to be seen on the Metro or walking around campus with a Mac Mini. Maybe if they made distinctive earphones for it.

    As cynical as I'm being here, I would like to see the mini both on my desk, and putting a dent in the market!
    • i think the population that had their iPods bought (it is quite expensive, afterall) - teens, college kids with well to do parents - and i'm sure there are lots of them - have no particular affinity towards windows. it's something they have because it was something gotten for them.

      when they are ready for an upgrade, i'd imagine some of them will be curious what Mac will be like and look at Mac mini and iBook. if their parents can be convinced, which has been made easier with $499 Mac mini, they will switc

  • Dude, I think I've got some of the Plasticsmith's other work in my closet. If you get the 18-inch Acrylic model, he throws in an extra bowl for "Tasting and testing fine tobaccoes".
    Combines portability and durability into a classy package. I knew this dude who made his own homemade stand, and it broke right in the middle of a party. his room still smells like bongwater.

    So yeah, dude, this guy's stuff for the mac mini will be like killer.

  • win2*nix (Score:2, Informative)

    by lanc ( 762334 )
    Thats the way. If someone didnt switch yet from win to a clickety-click-self-everything-autoconfigured-and - managed linux, because 'linux? thats a complicated hax0r-system!', then here's the opportunity. a nice and powerful, and not expensive mac. And of course it does run linux if you want :) Its little, silent, powerful (no I am no apple representative) - and it just workz. Viruses? Ha. Ha. Ha. And you still can use the MS office things, until you get seomething better. OOo [openoffice.org] for example. Throw out your w

  • Fashion Accessories (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Orinthe ( 680210 ) on Sunday February 06, 2005 @10:02AM (#11589451) Homepage
    A bunch of plastic cases and monitor stands? Surely there must be something better than this out there. I was expecting mini-footpring accessories to be more than a block of clear plastic. Why would someone waste their money on something like this for a $500 computer? The iPod is a luxury item, and people who buy it can usually afford $30 iPod socks [apple.com] and the like.

    Can these kinds of fashion accessories really sell for the mac mini like they do for the iPod, given their totally different price points relative to their respective markets?

  • I picked up a Mac Mini Last Weekend but.... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ttlgDaveh ( 798546 ) on Sunday February 06, 2005 @10:07AM (#11589473) Homepage

    I wandered down to the Apple Store in London last Sunday and came back with the base Mac Mini and am extremely impressed with it, this being my first foray into the Mac world.

    Anyway, having just looked at the accessories (Coral link [nyud.net] as the original is /.ed) I wouldn't pick up any of them, they look a bit crap and the Grandstand appears to be the only one with any use and then only if you have very limited desk space.

    From the story title I was hoping for something a bit morethan bent plastic/metal.

  • My mini mac (Score:2, Interesting)

    by jbb999 ( 758019 )
    My mac mini is great. I really like it. But it doesn't replace my windows PC. It's very much a second computer to do different things on. If I only had one computer it would be my PC still.

  • Better link. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 06, 2005 @10:14AM (#11589506)
    BYODKM is slow ... try...

    http://www.plasticsmith.com/ [plasticsmith.com]

  • Mirrordot link to story... (Score:3, Informative)

    by kikensei ( 518689 ) <<joshua> <at> <ingaugemedia.com>> on Sunday February 06, 2005 @10:15AM (#11589508) Homepage
    Since the origiinal story must be hosted on a mac mini, its already down for the count...: http://www.mirrordot.org/stories/c5e2ce0f2841a64d8 a5f9e8b9b0c97bd/index.html
  • Why does this look like an ad for the plasticsmith to me? Sure, yay, lets put products for the mac mini up, but FFS, folks, it's a single company even. This is just blatant advertisement.

  • Copycat? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by rjasmin ( 104868 )
    Ok, but how long will we have to wait before there are MM-copycat designs out there, with lower price point and PC hardware in them? When iMac came to the market we had bloody iEverything in transparent plastic, including toasters, and all that in a few months.
    I doubt that MM will become more than an niche market gizmo, like it already is..

  • EyeTV 500 (Score:5, Informative)

    by nsayer ( 86181 ) <nsayer@MENCKENkfu.com minus author> on Sunday February 06, 2005 @11:35AM (#11590050) Homepage
    I've got an El Gato EyeTV 500 [elgato.com] attached to our mini, and it works perfectly. It's the "maxi" (1.42GHz) mini, so I'm not sure if the cheaper one has enough CPU, but the maxi is routinely displaying 720p on our TV, and in my experiments (our TV won't anti-overscan the picture at 1080i, and the native resolution is 720p anyway) it appears to be able to do 1080i without using all of the CPU as well.

    The combination of the mini and the EyeTV 500 makes for a great HTPC, at least for digital over-the-air TV (and unencrypted QAM digital TV over cable).

  • If Apple's marketing team has any brains... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by NewOrleansNed ( 836441 ) on Sunday February 06, 2005 @11:40AM (#11590082)
    ... they'll start selling these things in college bookstores with a low monthly payment. In high school, kids play with their computers, maybe do some instant messaging and gaming and email. But they don't have to USE their computer very much. Heck, many schools still allow kids to either write or type their reports. College, however, is a whole new ballgame. Students are supposed to start acting more like professionals and they're expected to spend quite a bit of time researching topics and using their PCs for class related activities. THAT is when you get them. Offer packages with the mini along with a 15 inch flat panel monitor, wireless mouse and keyboard, external floppy, 128mb thumbdrive, and a small black and white printer for less than 20 bucks a month, and watch their parents flock to buy em. Seriously, who needs a big, loud PC in college unless you're dealing with 3d software or autocad? And even then, you're likely to use the school's computers for that anyway.

  • Look, I am a mac fanatic... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by barfy ( 256323 ) on Sunday February 06, 2005 @12:05PM (#11590241)
    My main computer is an Ibook, I am going to get a mini, I own an Ipod...

    But... Sheesh, why does EVERY apple article have to hit the front page?

  • What the macmini needs is an external HD (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Ralph Spoilsport ( 673134 ) on Sunday February 06, 2005 @02:17PM (#11591133) Journal
    That looks just like it, only without the CD slit.

    This way, one could stack the MacMini on top of the drive(s), or vice versa, in a neat little pile.

    The mac mini isn't big enough to hold my MP3 collection (right now, teetering around 105 gigs) and certianly won't be big enough to deal with the video I want to run through it. So I need 7200rpm ATA drives in a MacMini box.

    Personally, I would cheerfully build my own using some hideous noisy case - I'm not that picky. But Mrs Spoilsport is VERY picky about that kind of thing - heck: she thinks having visible stereo wires to te speakers is like having one's underwear showing or having toilet paper stuck to one's shoe.

    She tried to get me to go to wireless speakers, and I said "You Buy 'em". We still don't have wireless speakers, thank Bog.

    But, i we could get a MacMini with matching drive(s), it'll make the transition to the full on digital system a simpler effort, as it would please the aesthetes in the home (And to think - I'm the one who makes a living as an artist!)

    RS

    • Oh yeah, and up the network to gigabit. Especially if this thing is supposed to be the hub of an existing home networked type entertainment system.

      And the video should be of the latest generation, not the previous (doesn't have to be high-end, just of current generation).

  • How about a DVI/USB KVM? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Cryptnotic ( 154382 ) * on Monday February 07, 2005 @01:37AM (#11594491)
    A Mac Mini would fit perfectly on top of my PC tower. If I had a KVM that would fit underneath with short USB and DVI cables to the Mac Mini and longer cables to my PC and monitor/keyboard/mouse, I'd be set. The ordinary DVI KVM's are rather clunky. A sleekly designed one made spedifically with the Mac Mini in mind would be a good deal for switchers (or people with multiple Mini's, maybe).

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