Finally saw the Mac Mini in the flesh last night (cheers Graeme) and it was very impressive. The first thing that strikes you is the size – it really is small. Certainly a lot smaller than the standard Shuttle pc cases that have been doing the rounds for the last 18 months or so. When switching the Mini on you get a nasty sound playing (like a chime) which was slightly disappointing but then the second impressive feature hits home – it makes no noise. When up close you can hear a small noise and certainly when the superdrive is accessed it makes a din but in normal operation….silence.
The Mac OS itself looks jaw dropping. Through the 17inch TFT the OS looked amazing. It initially was quite confusing compared to the Windows OS but I’m sure after a few days it will feel normal. The speed was also impressive – the Safari web browser opening quickly and displaying web pages with ease. iTunes opened in a comparable time to my pc as did Photoshop – this really is a great machine for under £400.
After 40mins the third impressive feature hit home – the case of the Mini was still cool to touch. This was partly down to the aluminium case but is still tantamount to great design and the careful selection of components. The overall impression is of a good personal computer that will definitely meet anyone’s needs as long as they aren’t a gamer. I still maintain that this hooked up to a plasma/lcd tv would be a great way of browsing the net/checking e-mails from the sofa. If I had a plasma I would be buying one without hesitation – as I have a pc (and no plasma) I’ll be leaving it on the shelf but make envious glances from time to time.
Yup – LCD TV, bluetooth keyboard and mouse. Widescreen net surfing!!!
(God, just think of the por… er.. artistic photographs…)
The only fly in the ointment with these things, is that by the time you plug in all the stuff you really need to use it effectively in the living room. It is no longer a nice neat little box.
There’s no doubt that a mac mini has overtaken shuttle on my wish list. Up until now, value for money wasn’t available in the Apple range as far as I could see. THe mac mini changes all that. Now if you could get a wireless video connection you wouldn’t need to plug anything in. ..
I have been playing with some of the new “Windows XP Media” PC’s recently, one by Sony, another by HP. All the software you need to use can be driven intuitively by remote control and was very easy to use, loading video, music, or pictures took only seconds, similarly to record TV, or to watch recordings. This allayed my fears about going the PC in the living room route. I really didn’t want to have to reach for the keyboard whenever I wanted to do anything.
I have also seen a nice PC case (full size), which wouldn’t look out of place amongst the Hi-Fi, as well as a half decent radio remote plus associated controller. Just need to source a decent twin tuner TV card now and I will do the necessary. If you haven’t seen one of these things in action, I recommend you take a look.