(edited by Battlezone on 11.1.05 1124) "It's the four pillars of the male heterosexual psyche. We like naked women, stockings, lesbians, and Sean Connery best as James Bond because that is what being a [man] is." -Jack Davenport, Coupling
I was kidding about that whole "Fire Jim Tressel" thing. Really. I was.
My first impression of the Mini is that it reminds me of the Cube, only far more powerful. Too bad they couldn't figure out how to fit a G5 in there. The price point is nice, but only if you have they keyboard, mouse, and display already. I tried customizing one in the Apple online store (more memory, SuperDrive, Airport card, etc.)but their servers are understandably swamped. Oh well.
The Shuffle looks like fun, but they're not offering the educator discount on them. Bummer.
Hierarchy of Deities: Sarah Vowell > Roger Ebert > Albert Pujols > God
So, um, I don't want you to believe everything you hear at the parent-teacher conference, okay, 'cause...they lie. And they exaggerate. That's why they're teachers, right? Those who can't, right, Mom? Those who can't.
I think the Mini Mac is pretty cool (almost as cool as the G4 Lamp-Mac), but I'm kind of lukewarm on the Shuffle. I know the shuffle thing is supposed to be the gimmick, but I'd like to have an LCD on it to know exactly what song I'm playing. I really don't care about FM Tuners,etc. Looks nice though.
The MacMini looks nice, but my problem with it is that at least in my field of work, Adobe is porting over more to PC, which unfortunately makes having a Mac irrelevant for me for now.
At the same time, being able to fit all of the hardware in appx. three pounds hopefully is a wakeup to the industry.
OTOH, I could care less about the iPodShuffle; look at the price point, for one. $99 for 512M, yet I could get 20Gb for $150 more? WTF?
Originally posted by Teppan-YakiOTOH, I could care less about the iPodShuffle; look at the price point, for one. $99 for 512M, yet I could get 20Gb for $150 more? WTF?
That's the brilliance of the Apple's pricing scheme. You keep asking that question, and you keep moving up that line.
I love the Mac Mini, if only because it gives Apple something they've never really had: an entry-level line. Apple detractors always point to the Mac's price point as a deterrent-now they can't do that.
I could see myself picking up an iPod shuffle just for working out-I can load up half a gig of music, and throw it in my workout bag. It's light, it's sturdy, and-most importantly-it's small. I can strap it to my arm and go.
"It's the four pillars of the male heterosexual psyche. We like naked women, stockings, lesbians, and Sean Connery best as James Bond because that is what being a [man] is." -Jack Davenport, Coupling
I was kidding about that whole "Fire Jim Tressel" thing. Really. I was.
Originally posted by Teppan-YakiThe MacMini looks nice, but my problem with it is that at least in my field of work, Adobe is porting over more to PC, which unfortunately makes having a Mac irrelevant for me for now.
At the same time, being able to fit all of the hardware in appx. three pounds hopefully is a wakeup to the industry.
OTOH, I could care less about the iPodShuffle; look at the price point, for one. $99 for 512M, yet I could get 20Gb for $150 more? WTF?
You're not the intended target for the mini. The mini is for people who would have looked at one of Dell's or another company's sub-$500 PCs. It's also well-aimed towards those people who might consider "switching" from PC to Mac (i.e. those who already have a monitor/keyboard/mouse kicking around).
The specs on them aren't that great: even if Adobe weren't picking it up on the PC side, you wouldn't be buying a G4 in 2005 to do Photoshop. Nor is 256MB enough RAM to do anything useful in Photoshop (or any of Adobe's other programs). Meanwhile, however, compare the look of a mini to any other PC in its price range on the market. It's a "computing appliance" just like the iPod. So all those PC users who never considered switching to Mac before because of the high-priced hardware stigma now have a real decision to make.
And if Apple drops the price of the low-end model just $100-150, they could have significant market share in the PC market for the first time in 20 years. I say they do it by June.
Apple has managed to hang on until hardware starts to matter less; even if Moore's law continues to hold, we're already seeing the point where people don't feel like they need the fastest computer out there. Now the strength of Apple's interface and its ease-of-use could very well make them a contender again.
And "for $150 more I can have a 20GB iPod" makes no sense when "$150" is more than the price of the device you're discussing. That's like saying "why by a $20,000 Honda, when for $25,000 more I can have a BMW?" Well, not exactly, but there are people who can justify spending $100 or $150 for a music player, but can't justify $250 or $300. Also, the Shuffle is smaller, lighter, has no moving parts, has no display (this is a feature to some: no display to break).
Thanks tarnish for summing up everything I was going to say Another point to make on the "Mini Mac is underpowered" argument:
Mac Mini(499) is a 1.25 G4, 256MB RAM, 40GB HDD, Combo, 32MB Radeon 9200 My 17" Powerbook: 1.33 G4, 512MB RAM, 80GB HDD, SuperDrive, 64MB Radeon 9600
I'm sure there's FSB improvements over mine and the Mac Mini as well, but when you look at those specs, they aren't that much different at all. And my PBG4 runs Photoshop, Virtual PC, Final Cut Express, and Office flawlessly. Just don't ask it to play games
The Mac Mini is one hell of an everyday machine. And (at least until the virii/hackers start targeting the Mac) for $499 you've got a damn near invincible Internet computer. I hope it will sell like hotcakes.
I'm probably not the target audience for a mac since I game quite a bit, but I'm especially not given that Apple is suing journalists (newsday.com) for reporting on and about Apple and their future plans.
Tim
Vocatus atque non vocatus, Deus aderit. -- Erasmus
Originally posted by tarnishAnd "for $150 more I can have a 20GB iPod" makes no sense when "$150" is more than the price of the device you're discussing. That's like saying "why by a $20,000 Honda, when for $25,000 more I can have a BMW?" Well, not exactly, but there are people who can justify spending $100 or $150 for a music player, but can't justify $250 or $300. Also, the Shuffle is smaller, lighter, has no moving parts, has no display (this is a feature to some: no display to break).
Great, there's a no-frills flash memory mp3 player.
However, let's look at the pricing structure here:
512Mb for $99. 20Gb plus frills for $249. I'm getting, what -- a 4000% upgrade in storage for a $150? If you're going to already spend $99, you might as well either save for a price drop or save for $249. If Apple were to price drop it to $49, I think it would sell better.
You're right -- I'm not the demo here, since I already know what I want, but we're talking marketing here, and to me, $99 for 512Mb/no frills would probably be working only on name recognition since other competitors have similar models available with readouts, etc.
Thanks for a great season, Pick of the Week fans...see you next year at Planet Magic in Denmark, WI!
Originally posted by bash91I'm probably not the target audience for a mac since I game quite a bit, but I'm especially not given that Apple is suing journalists (newsday.com) for reporting on and about Apple and their future plans.
Tim
Goddamn it...more big-time money people thinking they can restrict the free flow of information. (I know, CRZ, I shouldn't say "freedom of the press"), but these Big Brother trends are absolutely infuriating. It's JOURNALISM, people. You don't like leaks? OK, then improve your in-house security. Once it's public, lawsuits to tape people's mouths shut is just evil.
Star wipe, and...we're out. Thrillin' ain't easy.
THE THRILL ACW-NWA Wisconsin Home Video Technical Director...& A2NWO 4 Life! (Click the big G to hear the Packers Fight Song in RealAudio...or try .MP3, .AU, or .WAV!)
I'm going to agree that the iPod Shuffle is a good deal. I'm basically looking at iPods here, forgettig all the other brands of mp3 players because I want an iPod, pure and simple. The regular iPod and iPod mini are just too expensive for me to justify purchasing. The Shuffle works at $99. Plus it's extra lightweight, no moving parts, substantial capacity for it's size. Some sort of display would be nice, but it's not meant to be a replacement for your current player. i think less is more here and I'm planning on getting one very, very soon.
The Mac Mini is now available via Amazon.com. This is good for me for a few reasons... 1) No sales tax 2) Amazon Associates program - if you buy from them after visiting through our link, we make a few bucks.
I believe you can purchase an AppleCare package off of the Apple website for any Mac purchased anywhere, but please confirm this with the Apple store or Apple computer before trusting my word on this. I haven't purchased a Mac... well, ever actually - but my family has always had them. I've been the black sheep with a PC, but I think that's going to change here in the near future.
I think I'm going to wait until the first consumer reviews are in, but I am going to pick one of these up. I'm most interested in finding out if all of the features of Tiger are going to work on this box.
Also - interesting note about the mini. There is no line in on it. You have to pick up a separate USB audio device if you want to do interesting things with Garage Band. Just a heads up if you were thinking about that. They are about $30 from what I've heard - I haven't shopped for one yet.
Also, while I'm here, Not all is rosy amongst Mac fans at recent Mac World Expo(wired.com) Sounds like a small portion of every group I can think of, though. It was always better ten years ago according to some of these people, no matter what you are talking about.
(edited by CRZ on 22.1.05 1445) Willful ignorance of science is not commendable. Refusing to learn the difference between a credible source and a shill is criminally stupid.
There's also AVG Free, Avira, and Avast for some free anti-virus, anti-spyware offerings. I've loaded the AVG Free on my home laptop and it's worked just fine.