Mac Mini

Quote:
Mr jobs has declared them illegal......

Today was the first time I ever had to ring Apple, I thought it was funny how the sales guy spoke about Jobs like he was some form of God. I got the impression they all sat around together to watch the keynote speech, hanging on ever word. Nice guy though, one of the best sales experiences I have had in a long time. It took me a whole hour to realise what I had just done, very very good (not so good for my bank balace of course

).

Overall I am happy. I have always wanted a mac, I have never really been interested in a full blown G5 type of thing and the laptops are out of my reach, but the mini will sit in well with my existing hardware, which I think is the market Jobs is after.

Imagine if they make a decent Media Centre front end for this thing, then Mr Gates will have something to worry about. Does Jobs have the same vision for the future as Gates? A mac under every TV in the world? He's already got 10million music players in our pockets already, I don't think that would eb too far away.

Cheers

Cris.

Posted by: Waterman981

Re: Mac Mini - 13/01/2005 04:32

The page I found is: http://www.mythtv.info/moin.cgi/MythOnMacOsx
I didn't see anything about what they are using for the capture though.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Mac Mini - 13/01/2005 05:42

Nightmare. Enough reason to buy something pre-built. Myth users make the mistake of thinking because something is open that it's someehow more powerful than something that isn't. Infinite "configurability" isn't always a good thing - most pre-built solutions have already figured out some of the things that don't work and removed them.

It also amuses me that for a "program" supposedly centering around TV, there's no mention of what TV hardware you'd use with the Mac. Plus a mySQL install when someone could write something with SQlite instead... And then you're left with something that will only frustrate the hell out of you if you've ever used a finished/polished product like a TiVo or ReplayTV - or even BeyondTV or SageTV for Windows.

I suppose it's a suitable alternative for the 0.5% of people who like to roll their own - with a baseball bat while wearing baseball gloves (yes on both hands - implying it's not at all an elegant solution).

Bruno

Posted by: andym

Re: Mac Mini - 13/01/2005 06:43

Quote:
The page I found is: http://www.mythtv.info/moin.cgi/MythOnMacOsx
I didn't see anything about what they are using for the capture though.

Currently Myth on Mac is frontend only. The backend will compile, but there isn't the code in there to talk to Mac compatible capture hardware. All I'd use the Mac for is as a silent (nearly anyway) frontend to sit under my TV. The PC would live in my study with the two DVB-T cards in it.

Posted by: andym

Re: Mac Mini - 13/01/2005 06:55

I'm not familiar with SQLlite but does it network? I was under the impression that it didn't, which is of no use when you want to have the same configuration across three frontend machines and one backend. Myth was never built to be used on a Mac, and very few people use it on one. Therefore documentation for it rather thin on the ground.

In the UK buying TiVo or Replay is not an option and I used windows applications like Showshifter and SageTV and found them lacking the features that I wanted. Also paying $80 for software that can found on other platforms for free. I'm sorry I'd rather just cvs, ./configure and make and have a free solution that I can lift the lid myself, and that's being continually improved by people with much more programming expertise than myself.

Posted by: drakino

Re: Mac Mini - 13/01/2005 07:33

Quote:
You should also be able to use third-party WiFi PC-Card. I'm not too certain about BT - maybe a CF card (but then you might be SOL for driver support).

I don't think a non Airport card will work in the slot for wireless lan (Airport Extreme moved away from PCMCIA like slots to miniPCI like slots). Even if it did, drivers may be a big issue. Lastly, the antenna connector on my Airport Extreme card is completly different then the typical miniPCI card PCs use.

Bluetooth on Apple systems is usually done the same as Bluetooth on PC systems, it's hooked internally somewhere to a USB port. Finding the right module to keep it internal is going to be a challenge though, and again drivers are a concern. Best bet for Bluetooth as an addition is a USB Bluetooth device compatible with the Mac. There are quite a few out there as I have a DLink one on my Cube, and a friend has a differen vendor one on his eMac.

Quote:
Regular usb keyboard and mouse combos are supposed to work though, but you can imaging the support call.... you mean you are not using an apple keyboard sir.......I'm sorry, the extra mouse buttons aren't supposed to work sir, Mr jobs has declared them illegal......

Right from the Apple site:
And yes, Mac mini will take advantage of your two-button USB mouse with scroll-wheel and your favorite USB keyboard. Just plug them in.

I don't think Jobs has ever really harped on the one button mouse thing since returning to Apple. He did after all start NeXT and NeXT boxes all shipped with two button mice. I think the one button thing is just a holdover from the old Apple days where having two buttons wasn't necessary. By sticking to that, applications have to expose functionality that may be hidden. Even Apple learned this with 10.3 adding a lot of "extras" menus in programs that used to contain items hidden in context menus.

Posted by: andym

Re: Mac Mini - 13/01/2005 08:21

Oh well, it's a £500 minimum spend to qualify for 0% finance. I didn't feel the need for any of the upgrades so finance would actually cost me £100 which doesn't really seem very cheap at all.

Posted by: peter

Re: Mac Mini - 13/01/2005 09:49

Quote:
the so called options [...] $425 for 1G

So how much memory do I want to specify on this thing for MacOS use (and possibly development)? If it were Windows, I'd probably go for 1G, but for Linux I have to really try hard (make -j4 kde) to get a 512M box to swap. I don't have any feeling for how much MacOS needs...

Peter

Posted by: Cybjorg

Re: Mac Mini - 13/01/2005 11:07

Quote:

I still have crap on my empeg, but at least it's hand-picked-by-me crap

Hey, those Olivia Newton-John tunes are your own business.

Posted by: mschrag

Re: Mac Mini - 13/01/2005 11:28

Quote:
So how much memory do I want to specify on this thing for MacOS use (and possibly development)?

I would go 512M and I think you'll be comfortable. I have 1G on my laptop, but then I AM a Java developer

I think I'm going to go 512M just because the $ jump to 1G is pretty crazy -- I'll buy the 1G myself and put it in if I find that I need it.

By the way, if you have access to an Apple Enterprise Rep via your company or something, you can get some pretty decent discounts (up to 30% on the memory, about 10% on the Mini itself). iLife 5-pack under Apple Enterprise costs less than the single user license non-Enterprise.

ms

Posted by: SE_Sport_Driver

Re: Mac Mini - 13/01/2005 12:05

Posted by: mlord

Re: Mac Mini - 13/01/2005 13:00

When doing kernel development, I often run recursive diff on a pair of similar kernel trees. With 768MB+ of RAM, both trees get cached, and subsequent diffs are VERY fast. With only 512MB, there's some thrashing, and the diffs take much longer.

For the Hijack kernels, I've stripped the trees of unneeded architectures, so that my 512MB laptop machine can diff them from cache.

My only other big motivation for more memory, is running VMWare. It can pretty much chew up whatever I throw at it. I imagine that virtualization programs on the Mac platform would benefit similarly.

Lacking the need for either of those scenarios, I imagine 512MB would be fine for today's stuff.

Cheers

Posted by: Roger

Re: Mac Mini - 13/01/2005 13:09

Quote:
My only other big motivation for more memory, is running VMWare.

Yeah, I can't comment on OSX (or VMWare), but I run MS Virtual Server on my box here, and I'm using something like 1.8Gb of RAM (admittedly, that is 4 W2K3 virtual servers).

Posted by: rob

Re: Mac Mini - 13/01/2005 13:32

A 1GB DIMM for the mini from Crucial is £130 - half the price of Apple.

Rob

Posted by: peter

Re: Mac Mini - 13/01/2005 13:40

Quote:
A 1GB DIMM for the mini from Crucial is £130 - half the price of Apple.

But it doesn't sound like minis are easy to take to pieces. Again I think I'll wait for Hugo's to turn up and then the about fifteen seconds he'll be able to resist taking his to pieces, to see how easy it is...

Peter

Posted by: mschrag

Re: Mac Mini - 13/01/2005 13:43

By the way, it's actually kind of hard to get a good read for memory usage is OS X, because it will almost always allocate all your RAM (except for a 3 or 4 meg safety net) with various file caches etc. However, at the moment, I've:
1) got Mail app open
2) got Safari open (doing this)
3) stripping DRM off iTunes music and converting to MP3's w/ JHymn
4) got a Terminal open running top
5) running Stickies
6) running Eclipse (pretty massive Java IDE)
7) always running QuickSilver (baddest-ass mac app ever, by the way)
8) running FrontBase (database)
9) running Apache, and all other misc services

My memory stats are:
PhysMem: 108M wired, 403M active, 448M inactive, 959M used, 64.3M free

So that's 108M wired, which means it can't be moved in memory, 403M active which means it's been touched relatively recently, and 448M inactive, which means it's just chilling and is a good swap candidate. So what you REALLY care about is wired + active. Used = wired + active + inactive, but inactive is really misleading since it's almost always going to roughly equal total - (wired + active).

So basically I have a pretty heavy load going right now and I'm right about at the 512M mark, so I would think 512M should be sufficient. 768M is probably a little bit better sweet spot for a REALLY used dev box, but they don't offer that config. So yeah, I would go 512.

Posted by: JeffS

Re: Mac Mini - 13/01/2005 14:14

Quote:
then the about fifteen seconds he'll be able to resist taking his to pieces

LOL. The first empeg I ever saw was a mark 2 (no a) that I believe was opened up and the guts exposed before it was ever plugged in by the excited new owner. The whole office who'd been ridiculing him for spending > $1K on an mp3 player (myself included) was looking on as he studied every component, nodded, and smiled. Then he put it all back together and plugged it in. Needless to say we had to eat our words.

Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Mac Mini - 13/01/2005 14:37

On Solaris, a good metric for if you need more memory is the "sr" field in vmstat. This says how hard the kernel is looking for pages to swap out. If it's consistently high, that means that the kernel is under constant pressure to swap and is having a hard time finding appropriate pages.

Maybe there's something similar in MacOSX?

Posted by: mschrag

Re: Mac Mini - 13/01/2005 14:46

Quote:
Maybe there's something similar in MacOSX?

"vm_stat" on OS X, but I need to read up on how to interpret the values ... I suspect they're also "since the machine restarted" which is a really long time in my case (it usually just goes to sleep), so these might not be fair numbers (i'm sure i've done some mean things to this machine in the past week or so).

Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Mac Mini - 13/01/2005 15:04

Try giving it a number as an argument. It should then loop every that many seconds, reporting stats for only that time period. And ignore the first line because you're probably right about the "since the computer started" thing, and that first line will always be that.

Posted by: mschrag

Re: Mac Mini - 13/01/2005 15:38

Quote:
but doing it yourself does not void the warranty unless you damage something

So I ran that blog quote by our Apple Enterprise Rep and he asked about warranty to the people actually responsible and there is some bad news:

"I don't know if we have an answer to is it easy or hard, I assume it's hard, but the service manuals don't seem to be posted yet. But it will void their warranty.

Ed"

So much for trusting random blog entries and/or booth people.

Posted by: g_attrill

Re: Mac Mini - 13/01/2005 15:57

Quote:

"I don't know if we have an answer to is it easy or hard, I assume it's hard, but the service manuals don't seem to be posted yet. But it will void their warranty."

A bit odd considering the G3/G4's were designed to be easily upgradeable, with the neat handle that cracks the case open.

Gareth

Posted by: mschrag

Re: Mac Mini - 13/01/2005 16:45

Quote:
A bit odd considering the G3/G4's were designed to be easily upgradeable, with the neat handle that cracks the case open.

G5's too. I think this is just more like the desk-lamp-iMac where it's more about form factor and price than upgradeability.

Posted by: ashmoore

Re: Mac Mini - 13/01/2005 16:59

My brother has the "desk lamp" mac (is that the iMac G4 with flat panel?). It does look way cool, as usual.
He is a photographer and is constantly whining about the perfomance out of 512M system, especially with lots of edited pics open with his ever changing customer albums. Of course he is always running iTunes and other stuff at the same time.

He is also whining now because he wants a mac mini but has no display for it because each of his last three macs had integrated displays

Posted by: loren

Re: Mac Mini - 13/01/2005 17:25

The reps I overheard at MW yesterday said that opening it up voids the warranty, and that they had designed "special tools" just to access the RAM in the mini. Take that for what it's worth. It's damn sexy... I found myself trying to figure out what I needed it for. They aren't super speedy. My Powerbook feels more responsive than the maxed out minis i was playing on. Should be perfect for most people though.

Posted by: mlord

Re: Mac Mini - 13/01/2005 17:44

The photograph on apple.com clearly shows the SDRAM dimm in a very accessible location on the perimeter of the innards. I wonder how difficult it is to open the case to reveal it?

Cheers

Posted by: peter

Re: Mac Mini - 13/01/2005 19:14

Quote:
The photograph on apple.com clearly shows the SDRAM dimm in a very accessible location on the perimeter of the innards. I wonder how difficult it is to open the case to reveal it?

It also shows nine sort of peg clip things that look to me very similar to the things that make the Rio Central so hard to open -- and that has only four of them and is plastic and three times the size.

Peter

Posted by: ricin

Re: Mac Mini - 13/01/2005 19:18

http://www.macworld.com/2005/01/news/minioverview/index.php

Posted by: Waterman981

Re: Mac Mini - 13/01/2005 19:48

According to that article the hard disk is a 2.5" drive, but only 4200 RPM.

Posted by: adavidw

Re: Mac Mini - 14/01/2005 03:14

Quote:
The photograph on apple.com clearly shows the SDRAM dimm in a very accessible location on the perimeter of the innards. I wonder how difficult it is to open the case to reveal it?

With Dremel or without?

Posted by: gbeer

Re: Mac Mini - 14/01/2005 04:52

Quote:
On Solaris, a good metric for if you need more memory is the "sr" field in vmstat. This says how hard the kernel is looking for pages to swap out. If it's consistently high, that means that the kernel is under constant pressure to swap and is having a hard time finding appropriate pages.

Maybe there's something similar in MacOSX?

I remember an article in Sun Expert saying that anything over about 15 was a heavly loaded machine. Mine was running in three digits. It took a long time to convince the holder of the purse strings that there was economy in reducing that number.

Posted by: andym

Re: Mac Mini - 14/01/2005 20:10

Whilst we're on the subject of upgrading memory. If I wanted to upgrade the memory in my iBook where can I get it done in the UK without screwing my warranty? There's only one apple store in the UK and that's in London.

Posted by: drakino

Re: Mac Mini - 14/01/2005 20:21

Anyone listed here under "Find Service" can do it with Apple's blessing. Expect the additude to be not so friendly about Apple though, since it seems they are now starting to screw over the independant resellers in the UK much like they have here in the US. The same resellers that kept Apple alive in the early to mid 90's now get to compete with Apple stores that have nearly unlimited money to make a nice store. The best idea I saw as in Amsterdam where Apple worked with one of the resellers to remodel into a "Pro" store. It looks much like an Apple official store, but still is owned by the reseller and the employees with years of Apple experience.

Posted by: DLF

Re: Mac Mini - 14/01/2005 20:21

Seriously, Andy? One Apple-branded store or one brick-and-mortar retailer selling Apple, PERIOD? Either way, makes one question the corporate U.K. commitment, doesn't it?

Posted by: g_attrill

Re: Mac Mini - 14/01/2005 20:26

Quote:
Just to add another confirmation, the Screen Savers had* someone at MacWorld, and he asked a rep on air if it was upgradeable. The rep didn't say whether or not it would violate the warranty, but he did say that only those authorized should upgrade it.

Just seen this linked from /.

http://tuaw.com/entry/1234000917027372/

Gareth

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Mac Mini - 14/01/2005 20:57

You can upgrade memory and disks and airport in any Apple machine without voiding your warranty. I suspect this will also be the case for the new Mac Mini, regardless of what some people are being told. They simply suggest the upgrades be done by authorized reps. Too bad most authorized reps are completely clueless tools who may or may not completely f*ck your toy. I know I have to take my PowerBook in for repair specifically because the asshats at TRG Computers (Newmarket, ON Canada) screwed up my enclosure and keyboard. (You may notice a lot of doublle characters in what I type as ony one symptom of this problem.)

Confirmed upgrading memory doesn't void the warranty (unless you break something): http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300572

They wouldn't (and can't) use a word like 'should' if they had a warranty voiding policy in place. it would be mandatory to have this clearly spelled out.

Bruno

Posted by: andy

Re: Mac Mini - 14/01/2005 21:14

Quote:
One Apple-branded store or one brick-and-mortar retailer selling Apple,
PERIOD?

One Apple branded stored, it opened in November last year. They are opening another one, just outside London (at Bluewater) this year.

http://www.apple.com/uk/retail/regentstreet/

But heh, they have a genius bar !

http://www.apple.com/uk/retail/regentstreet/genius.html

Macs are sold lots of other places now, even in normal high street stores. Back in the nineties they were pretty much only sold by independant Mac specialists.

Posted by: DLF

Re: Mac Mini - 17/01/2005 15:36

Good find, Bruno.

Posted by: drakino

Re: Mac Mini - 17/01/2005 21:48

Quote:
7) always running QuickSilver (baddest-ass mac app ever, by the way)

I finally installed this after having a Powerbook owning coworker tell me a bit about it. Now I have it bound to my F16 key (Since Apple decided to add another F key on the newer keyboards). The quick access to web bookmarks alone is worth it here.

One thing it made me realise, the site icon for here could use some work instead of being the UBB lightbulb.

Posted by: DLF

Re: Mac Mini - 19/01/2005 18:05

You could at least color it to be more like an empeg. Not that I even own one, but bright BLUE would be pretty....

Posted by: mlord

Re: Mac Mini - 19/01/2005 20:58

Presumably the future mac-mini owners here have now found and downloaded the short video showing exactly how to open the case (for upgrades) in 20 seconds flat?

Cheers

Posted by: BartDG

Re: Mac Mini - 19/01/2005 21:09

Mac mini in car ?

Posted by: RandallFarr

Re: Mac Mini - 20/01/2005 01:06

...and for those that are wondering, it can be found here, at least for the time being.

It appears that the video could be part of Apple's official 'take-apart' guide. Interesting.

-Randy

Posted by: rob

Re: Mac Mini - 22/01/2005 14:13

Well I got one, and the good news is the AC adapter is auto ranging so the weak US dollar came in handy (the higher end model ended up costing about the same as the lower end model would have in the UK, after tax).

Oh it's cute... now to work out how to take it apart!

Rob

Posted by: DWallach

Re: Mac Mini - 22/01/2005 17:38

Here's another Cringely article on the Mac Mini. He sees it as the ultimate home theater PC and suspects Apple is cooking up some kind of HD movie downloading scheme as part of some future iTunes variant. Cringely feels that this will be part of the big roll-out surrounding OS X 10.4. He also feels that it's all about movie downloads, not prime-time HD. It would be extra cool if I could rip my DVDs into iTunes just like my CDs.

Posted by: drakino

Re: Mac Mini - 22/01/2005 17:58

I have several problems with that article. First off, any movie file is going to be a minimum of a gig or more of data if it doesn't comprimise heavially on quality including subtitles and 5.1 surround sound tracks. So downloads are not going to be quicker then just going to Blockbuster.

The Mac Mini also lacks 5.1 surround out, and a component video out. He seems to think DVI will be good enough, but many US TVs still only have analog inputs. Sure, an optional adaptor can add composite and S-Video, but the 5.1 problem has to be addressed via a USB sound card.

Lastly, the 40 or 80 gig hard drive could be a limiting factor as well. If they release HD movies, it could be a minimum of 4 gigs per movie. And since not every Mac Mini comes with a DVD burner, people would have no way to back up these files.

I guess some people expect something more then a basic computer. I guess everyone expects Apple to follow Microsoft since MS seems to be hyping Media Center systems every chance they get, even though the media center boxes aren't selling all that well.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Mac Mini - 22/01/2005 18:45

Tom, your points are pretty much on the money (except the sub-title part*

). This system is not intended to be the next big thing in the living room. It wasn't intended for the living room at all. If it had been, the requests would have been different for the support and hardware we supplied. The chip in it cannot do analog component output, even with an adapter. But anyone familiar with the product line knows there are other chips that would fit the form-factor and power requirements that can. Just wouldn't fit the same price. Everyone also knows Apple has digital audio output on other computers as well as higher-speed ethernet (which would be a good idea for moving HD content around).

I'm not saying that a revision won't make these things happen, nor that software isn't around the corner, but all this would be based on all the interest in the current machine and lateral thinking. It wasn't conceived to fullfil that need and it's not being marketed that way (yet).

As far as I've heard, this was actually a project that had the support of only *some* people at Apple, and actually lacked that of Mr. Jobs himself. Look how much time he gave the system during the keynote. Look how the iPod Shuffle commands the vast majority of front-page time at the website.

Bruno

*you can compress the video without affecting the subtitles.

Posted by: DWallach

Re: Mac Mini - 22/01/2005 19:27

With appropriate component upgrades, it's not too far-fetched to imagine a "Mac Mini AV" of some sort or another. The engineering problem for Apple will be keeping the price tag down. Still, even in its present, minimal configuration, you get a machine that can usefully replace a DVD player and add other useful features (iTunes, iPhoto, gaming).

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Mac Mini - 25/01/2005 14:59

And now someone's working on the missing piece for using the Mini with a TV: A Media-Playing front-end.

http://mrzippy.org.uk/macmediacenter/

Bruno

Posted by: schofiel

Re: Mac Mini - 26/01/2005 05:32

New prices announced.

Posted by: andy

Re: Mac Mini - 26/01/2005 08:48

I think whoever updated the prices on the UK store got things very wrong. It used to cost £290 to go from 256MB to 1GB. It now costs £561 !

(this is on the lower spec machine, on the higher spec machine the same upgrade is now listed as £220)

Posted by: Cris

Re: Mac Mini - 26/01/2005 15:53

Quote:
Dear Apple Store Customer,

Thank your for your recent Apple Store order.

Today Apple unveiled a price reduction and we are pleased to report that the price of the product you purchased is less than previously indicated.

Accordingly, we are delighted to revise your recent order and offer you a refund of the difference in the new pricing.

If you are paying by credit card, loan, or leasing, the price will be adjusted automatically.

Kind regards,

The Apple Store

I am impressed

Cheers

Cris.

Posted by: rob

Re: Mac Mini - 28/01/2005 16:09

Better than the video is the PDF of (I assume) the dealer service guide. It's big (22MB) so here's a torrent link.

Rob

Posted by: andym

Re: Mac Mini - 28/01/2005 18:45

I find it quite amusing that a putty knife is a required tool and can even be ordered from apple. I'd always assumed the knife was a bodge.

Posted by: Cris

Re: Mac Mini, Now shipping to UK... - 29/01/2005 14:05

Looks like Apple have started shipping for the UK today, I got my shipping confirmation from the UK Apple Store this afternoon

CAn't wait for it to get here now! Eventhough there isn't any where to put it yet, as I still haven't managed the time to build my desk yet, I best get them woodworking tools out and make a start...

Cheers

Cris.

Posted by: andym

Re: Mac Mini, Now shipping to UK... - 29/01/2005 17:05

Cool, if you want to upgrade to 1GB give me shout, I had to do some polyfillering a while ago and I've still got the appropriate apple memory upgrade tools.

Posted by: Cris

Re: Mac Mini, It's HERE !!! - 01/02/2005 12:10

So what is the first thing I do with my new Mac mini ???

Post on here durrrrrrrr!

I can hardly get my head around the fact this is a fully functional computer system, it's tiny! Doesn't seem all that quick to me, but it is installing all the latest updates as we speak.

I will post some pictures if anyone is interested, and if I can figure out how to load pictures onto this thing

Cheers

Cris.

Posted by: msaeger

Re: Mac Mini, It's HERE !!! - 01/02/2005 12:29

What's the noise level like, does it have any fans ?

Posted by: andym

Re: Mac Mini, It's HERE !!! - 01/02/2005 13:29

Quote:
What's the noise level like, does it have any fans ?

Looking at the service manual it certainly has one, wether it runs at full speed all the time I'm not sure.

Posted by: andym

Re: Mac Mini, It's HERE !!! - 01/02/2005 13:31

Quote:
I will post some pictures if anyone is interested, and if I can figure out how to load pictures onto this thing

Simple, plug your Camera in and let iPhoto do the rest. No drivers needed, it certainly didn't need any for my Ixus.

Posted by: Cris

Re: Mac Mini, It's HERE !!! - 01/02/2005 13:36

Quote:
What's the noise level like, does it have any fans ?

I think it does have a fan, it kicked in while I was installing iLife 05. It's very very quiet, the harddrive noise and DVD Spin Up are much louder. During normal use it is almost silent, the fan must run at very low RPM, there is almost no wind rush, you are just aware there is something moving inside when you put your ear close to it.

The DVD drive is quite noisy, I have the superdrive so maybe the Combo may be a little quieter, this doesn't bother me as it will only be used for the odd archive disk.

I had about 1 1/2 hours playing about time with it until I had to get back to work, first impression is very good. OS X is very slick, it's going to take some getting used to, are there any good (read: cheap) welcome to mac books out there???

Cheers

Cris.

Posted by: BAKup

Re: Mac Mini, It's HERE !!! - 01/02/2005 14:04

I got one myself last week with the combo drive, and it's also pretty loud reading discs, so it's not just the superdrive that's noisy.

So far after playing with it for almost a week now, I'm loving it, I'm also a PC person who decided to get a Mini since the price was right, and now I'm starting to drool over those Powerbooks since I'm really starting to like OS X.

I'm just amazed that I'm able to do stuff like plug in my camera and it just works, or connect to my bluetooth phone, and was able to sync with the address book without tearing my hair out like with the PC.

Who knows I might just switch, my Mini is able to play World Of Warcraft, well, much slower than my AMD64 system.

I did pick up Mac OS X Panther Hacks, it's not an intro book, but it's got a lot of neat tricks in it.

Oh, and another thing, Mini + GarageBand + GuitarPodXT == Nice little recording studio.

Posted by: Cris

Re: Mac Mini, It's HERE !!! - 01/02/2005 19:23

Quote:
What's the noise level like, does it have any fans ?

Ok, I have now been using my Mac mini all evening, having just loaded 1500 photos into iPhoto the machine must be running very warm, because the fan has kicked upto full speed for the first time.

At first I thought I had left a DVD in the drive, but it is the CPU fan, it is about the same volume as my PC at idle at this point. I can hear the RPM dropping as the machine cools, so it is very hot on reducing fan noise as much as it can without frying itself.

iPhoto alone makes the purchase worth it. The new book templates are just what I have been looking for.

Cheers

Cris.

Posted by: andym

Re: Mac Mini, It's HERE !!! - 01/02/2005 19:27

Pictures, we want to see pictures!!!!

Posted by: drakino

Re: Mac Mini, It's HERE !!! - 01/02/2005 20:15

The good think is Apple learned from a few mistakes on the Cube. While the case looked good, the acrylic shell often transferred drive vibrations from both the hard disk and cd-rom right into the desk it was sitting on. Most people who had problems with this isolated the cube base with rubber. Seems Apple paid attention to that with the Mini, since the base is rubber.

Posted by: Cris

Re: Mac Mini, It's HERE !!! - 01/02/2005 20:48

Quote:
Pictures, we want to see pictures!!!!

OK OK

You will have to excuse the lack of a desk in the photo, but I have included both the empeg and Karma for scale. A desk is being built this weekend, final plans are being made at the moment, some changes are being made so I can show off the mini

Just for info, if you include the dock connector on the back, the mini almost sits INSIDE the empeg's footprint (hangs over the back by approx 10mm).

Loving iPhoto5, plugged in the card reader, in goes CF Card, creates a roll and uploads photos to HD! Great!

Cheers

Cris.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Mac Mini - 03/02/2005 19:45

Here's something they don't show in the guide... How to overclock your Mac Mini:

http://dialspace.dial.pipex.com/prod/dialspace/town/pipexdsl/q/aqza37/macmini/index.html

Bruno

Posted by: RandallFarr

Re: Mac Mini - 1969 MacNova - 05/02/2005 00:25

Here's the latest example of a MacMini being installed in a car, a 1969 Nova. Not too many details at this point, just that they're using a 7" touchscreen and a usb hub to facilitate the car's owner being able to record musical ideas (I presume via MIDI adapter) to the Mac. There is a short video of the iTunes visualization on the installed screen and more details to be added in the coming weeks.

This is looking like a very cool setup for an In Car Entertainment. Don't get me wrong, I love my Empeg, but maybe in my next vehicle (in another 4-5 years) I'll be installing a MacMini that will somehow emulate the Empeg software- version 3 or 4, of course.

Posted by: andym

Re: Mac Mini - 1969 MacNova - 05/02/2005 11:52

Hope the finished version looks better than the photos.

Posted by: matthew_k

Re: Mac Mini - 23/02/2005 03:10

Quote:
Here's how powerful OpenBoot is: ...

Bumping this... I've just discovered a cool feature of the Apple implementation of openfirmware. Holding down the T key durring boot will cause it to go into Firewire Target Disk Mode, making it pretend it is an external firewire drive instead of a computer... Convenient should you hose your OS install, I would think.

Matthew

Posted by: BAKup

Re: Mac Mini, It's HERE !!! - 24/02/2005 00:33

Well, this is not fun, I stopped by the local Apple store asking to get the bluetooth and airport installed since I didn't get those when I bought it. They told me that they have no way to install Wireless or Bluetooth after the fact. The salesperson even told me the only way to get it that way was to ebay the old one and buy one with it already installed.

I'd like to call *censored* on this, and would like to know where I should go to find out if this is possible.

Posted by: tman

Re: Mac Mini, It's HERE !!! - 24/02/2005 00:49

Hmm. Apparently the service manual that was leaked contains details on how to perform the upgrade and specifically states that Apple will provide an upgrade kit for service techs.

Posted by: robricc

Re: Mac Mini, It's HERE !!! - 24/02/2005 00:50

From the dealer service guide linked by Rob V. in this thread:

Posted by: BAKup

Re: Mac Mini, It's HERE !!! - 24/02/2005 02:53

Thanks for pointing that out, I just snagged a copy myself, and read over it...It seems the salesperson was blowing smoke up my...

Ok, if my local Apple store isn't being helpful, should I go straight to 800-My-Apple and find out what it'll take, or does anyone know of a good Apple dealer in Houston.

Posted by: canuckInOR

Re: Mac Mini, It's HERE !!! - 24/02/2005 04:55

Quote:
Thanks for pointing that out, I just snagged a copy myself, and read over it...It seems the salesperson was blowing smoke up my...

Ok, if my local Apple store isn't being helpful, should I go straight to 800-My-Apple and find out what it'll take, or does anyone know of a good Apple dealer in Houston.

Go back to your Apple store, and talk to a manager. Tell the manager what the sales person told you (and who the sales person is, if you can remember). Then tell the manager that you did a little research, and found this in the service manual, and that you're extremely disappointed that you feel the employee was blowing smoke up your wazoo to get you to buy a new machine. Keep talking long enough, with threats to escalate to Apple HQ (or wherever), and you might be able to get the upgrade/installation for less than normal. Let the manager try to fix the problem before jumping ship.

Posted by: David

Re: Mac Mini, It's HERE !!! - 24/02/2005 09:27

Quote:
Well, this is not fun, I stopped by the local Apple store asking to get the bluetooth and airport installed since I didn't get those when I bought it. They told me that they have no way to install Wireless or Bluetooth after the fact. The salesperson even told me the only way to get it that way was to ebay the old one and buy one with it already installed.

While this is completely wrong, it is understandable that if he had only received basic retail training on the product why he thought this.

While an Airport card can be purchased separately, on Apple's other machines, the Bluetooth adapter is a BTO option and isn't usually available separately, even to authorised dealers to do upgrades. It seems that Apple have made an exception in the case of the mini as they are probably aware that many people will buy one off-the-shelf and then realise they want the upgrade.

If he didn't know about this upgrade kit, then he might have assumed that if you wanted internal Bluetooth, you'd need to buy a new machine.

Posted by: BAKup

Re: Mac Mini, It's HERE !!! - 24/02/2005 12:19

Let me add this in, forgot to say it at the time, but when I asked him, he went to the back, came back a minute or so later, and that's when he told me the only way to get bluetooth and airport in a Mac Mini was to buy one with it already installed.

I did tell the salesperson that I wanted both the airport and the bluetooth, so I don't think it was any confusion on his part thinking I only wanted one, and the upgrade only has both.

I think I'm going to take a long lunch today and stop by the store and get some real answers.

Posted by: tman

Re: Mac Mini, It's HERE !!! - 24/02/2005 13:32

It is possible that Apple changed their mind about offering an upgrade kit after the service manual was written.

Posted by: andy

Re: Mac Mini, It's HERE !!! - 24/02/2005 13:59

Quote:
It is possible that Apple changed their mind about offering an upgrade kit after the service manual was written.

Perhaps there is a world shortage of appropriate paint scrapers

Posted by: BAKup

Re: Mac Mini, It's HERE !!! - 24/02/2005 14:35

Ok, I just got of the phone with another dealer, they had to call me back, but before they did, he did say they can do it, but the don't have the part yet. He then called me back about 20 minutes later and said that Apple isn't going to be shipping them out until Early March, but he will get back in touch with me when he gets a firm date.

So, it is possible, but the upgrade kit isn't out yet.

Posted by: thinfourth2

Re: Mac Mini - 26/02/2005 07:53

Okay could someone tell Mr thicky exactly what kind of ram i want to be buying to upgrade mine when it arrives

To me memory is the green strips you shove inside the machine.

Posted by: andy

Re: Mac Mini - 26/02/2005 10:09

http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/listpart...9&submit=Go

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Mac Mini - 26/02/2005 16:21

To put it plain and simple: PC2700 (DDR 333) [or better] 184-pin DIMM. This is all Apple specifies - they mention nothing about unbuffered nor CAS timings in their own documentation.

The RAM can be bought from any number of sources and can usually be found for quite a bit less than Crucial's online prices.

Bruno

Posted by: andy

Re: Mac Mini - 26/02/2005 23:43

Fair enough. Years ago I used to keep on top of the whole "what memory goes with what processor" thing. I got bored at some point and now rely on Crucial to provide me with the correct memory for a particular system.

I know I probably pay a premium, but I trade that off with the fact that I could say "you dummies, you sent me memory that doesn't work this this system" if things didn't work out.

Posted by: tman

Re: Mac Mini - 27/02/2005 13:00

Quote:
I know I probably pay a premium, but I trade that off with the fact that I could say "you dummies, you sent me memory that doesn't work this this system" if things didn't work out.

Same here. It's guaranteed to work and if it doesn't then I get to bitch at them.

Mac Mini

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