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I think it will be surprisingly snappy for being "crippled."

consider the source... you truly expected nothing different did you?

LOL MDN!

He'll come around - as soon as he sees no one wants to listen to his drivel anymore. But I don't care as to when. Just stop reporting on him, please. You give Enderle attention he doesn't deserve. He's just farting in the wind.

another great MDN take.

I agree the memory slot sucks but the rest of it seems A-OK to me. Hell I did an hour long iMovie on an 800 MHz eMac two years ago and it did not seemed crippled. Gimme 1.25 MHz any day.

Good Grief! The guy finds 7 flaws with the product in the first paragraph and then opens the second paragraph stating this model is his preference. Somebody find this tool a 32 step program to get him out of this mental straight jacket.

To be serious, he does marginally have a point. The Mac mini does have an extremely small hard drive (40 GB holds relatively little; I have that amount in music alone). 256 MB of RAM is nowhere near enough to run their next generation of operating systems, as well as most of their future programs. Limited upgradeability also risks this computer becoming obsolete quickly, and that's pretty apparent considering it's running on a G4 (and we are all on our knees waiting for Powerbook G5's). And there are a few other minor flaws...

On the other hand, this computer is intended solely as a Trojan Horse type thing. SJ is looking for people to try it out for their simple practical applications: listening to music, surfing the web, doing their e-mail, and writing up reports. If you want a serious computer for multimedia, large quantities of music, productivity, etc., then this is certainly not the way to go and you should get an iMac or a PowerMac.

But either way this computer offers relatively little for what a Macintosh typically can do. Considering a 12" Powerbook runs faster than the entry model, I'm not sure if this product is truly the Mac that everyone wish it could be.

P.S. Eeek! Why is my MDN Magic Word "window"?

MDN is behaves like an Enderle Puppet.
Enderle pulls the strings and MDN dances.
When Enderle trashes the Mac, MDN gets all riled up, and when he comes out with something positivve, MDN dances with jubilee.

Stop paying attention to this guy. He's got you on a string.

The Mac mini has a FireWire port. Add a FireWire external hard drive of however many GBs you need - very large drives of this sort are available for low prices. Case closed (pun intended).

Just because he is an idiot does not make the complaint about RAM any less valid. Apple could easily have done one of 2 things:

1) Provide 2 RAM slots instead of just 1

2) Put the 256 MB factory RAM on the motherboard, leaving the 1 RAM slot open. That's what they did with the iBook.

Some people like to point out that some resellers will provide a free upgrade to 512 MB. For other computers like iMacs or Power Macs, they only have to add an extra 256MB to the existing RAM. But for the mini Mac, they will have to give away a 512 MB stick because there is only 1 slot. I think fewer resellers would be willing to give away a 512 compared to a 256. Even if you can find one who will give away a free 512 MB of RAM, what if you want a SuperDrive or Bluetooth? As far as I know, these options are available only if you buy directly from Apple.

I hadn't quite realized it before, but looking at this article and some of the others on this site, it becomes clear: Enderle is in fact not all that literate, in terms of being able to write in English without comma splicing, misspelling basic words like "than," and the like.

This piece reads a lot like something written by a high-school student--not just for the poorly-informed warmth of its opinions (what are his qualifications, exactly, for second-guessing the strategy of what is currently the highest-margin computer company? Self-publishing an amateurish web site?), but for the sloppiness of its prose.

It seems likely that, like Paul Therrott, he got to be so often quoted simply by spewing out prose reliably, with a clear, punchy, anti-Apple angle, in large quantities, which is to say, pretty much just by being there--not by being right about anything in particular over time. But at least Therrott's prose is better.

wait wait wait, doesn't like crippled products!!?!?! What the hell do you call a WINDOWS PC??? jeez, how much more crippled can you get. Take decent hardware from a pc maker, and put WINDOWS on it, ew.

Well this product is already a raging success and it's not even out yet.

In 3 months we'll be hearing about how this is the best-selling Mac..

and the AAPL story will go into overdrive...

This guy is way to cozy with MS to even be seen with a Mac mini at his place. Surely guys like Rob Glaser come over all the time drinks.

"Apple does have a very strong marketing program which mitigates some of this, but in the end, buyers often aren’t as ignorant as we often think and betting on that ignorance has never been, in my experience, a long term path to success. "

He gets sarcastic/ironic near the end there...

Or maybe I'm just giving him to much credit.

Touché.

Okay, what is with people and the "upgradeable" thing. Who the heck upgrades computers these days among the consumer market for which the Mac mini is targeted? I mean, my parents have had a Dell with Windows 98 for like 5 years now. Do you think they have ever upgraded it? Nope. Do they want to now? Nope. This Mac mini is perfect to get them off of Winblows 98 and onto a real OS with real security. They can't afford any of the other Macs and quite frankly don't need what they offer. They have a good monitor, keyboard, mouse and great stereo speakers. All they need to do is kick out that Dell tank and add an elegant Mac mini. It will save them space and a ton of money and will do more for them than they will probably ever need. This product is perfect **for the intended target market**.

these stupid lamer bill gates loving fools... GET A CLUE

Rob sounds... what is the word? Oh, yeah:

beleagured!

If Dell made a bargain basement PC with only 1 RAM slot, I doubt that Mac users would be as forgiving as they are with the mini Mac's 1 slot. If cheap bargain PCs included the Radeon 9200 with 32 MB dedicated memory and Apple only included "shared graphics", would Mac users be defending it with the same "average consumers don't need anything else" defense?

MS Blaster, give it a rest ... the fact that there is only 1 RAM slot is much less of a problem than having "shared graphics" ... fortunately Apple includes real video cards ... a Radeon 9200 with 32MB memory is nothing to sneeze at. I'm pretty happy with my 4 year old Pismo running on an 8MB video card ... of course I have 512MB RAM ... but it
is pretty cheap to buy RAM these days ... I remember paying hundreds for a mere 8MB not that long ago (well about a decade ... no time at all on geological timescale ... I managed to survive the impacting comet thing!) ...

What Apple should do is supply the Mac Mini with 0 (zero) MB of RAM and allow the user to source the RAM elsewhere ...

I think the machine will be a success regardless ... and maybe Apple may see fit to include more RAM by default (or a lower price) at a later stage ... early adopters will have to bite the RAM so to speak unless they can get some sort of deal for bulk orders ... e.g. replacing an old computer lab of PC's (or even Macs!) with these nifty space saving beauties!

I do wish the mini was available with no memory chip at all. Buying a 1 GB chip from Apple is extortion--more than $400!!!!!!!#@$@#~~~~~!!!! On the other hand, if you order the base model then you end up tossing out a 256 MB chip. So I would bet most people would just pay the extra $75 and live with 512MB.

I know I've picked up the phone a couple of times today thinking of changing my order to just 256...but tossing out 256MB just bothers me!

I knew the PCjr and the Mac Mini is not PCjr. It was a joke on all levels including the marketing.

Uh oh. Brought to you by the magic word church.

Hey, four of my PC friends are now actively looking into the "crippled" mac over there mangaled PC's?! Hey, they think its great and now want to try the Mac line of computers because they find it tooooooo damn hard to do what I tell them I can do on a 800mhz iMac with ther 1.6 to 3 ghz PCs.............but it nice to know we still have educated nimrods welling to expose themselves for others to see!

I guest if he "purchased" a mac then he would have to admit how wrong he has been and its hard to eat crow!

Why does Enderle fail to mention that the $500 Dell also comes with a "small" 40gig HD & 256 MB of RAM, although I doubt it's as quiet. Not to mention no DVD drive, no FireWire, no modem, no iLife, and no OSX!
It also doesn't come with a floppy drive. OK, Dell did something right!

Enderle sounds like an unhappy person. My main disappointment with the Mac mini is that Apple's cheapest monitor (20") is $999.00. Why Apple didn't include a smaller/cheaper monitor option for those who want to pair the mini with a gorgeous Apple display is beyond me. But I don't think Apple is catering to Mac enthusiasts as much as it's catering to PC users who are willing to chuck their tower and move their monitors, keyboard and mouse to the Mac mini. That much is brilliance. If I didn't have an iMac already, I would want the Mac mini but would never pair it with a butt-ugly mismatcher monitor, etc. I wish Apple would have a $15 LCD display for $299.00 or something like that. Oh well, I got most of what I wanted from Macworld so I'll focus on the positive. Apple is kicking butt!!!

MS Blaster
If Dell made a bargain basement PC as SMALL as the Mac Mini for $500, I doubt anyone would complain about the one slot. But you do have a point, I would have perfered the RAM sodered onto the mother board and one empty slot.

I want one in my home office, my work place and my living room connected to my projector

And his wife/sis (whatever) wrote that the iMac G5 was a failure as well. Puh-leeeez, no more from this windbag on MDN.
If he were to design a special Enderle edition Mac, I'd hate to know how many units would be collecting dust in Apple's warehouses.
Yaaaaaaaaawn.

-D

For drying out loud - WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE MAC MINI AND AN HEADLESS IMAC????

The Mac Mini IS the headless Imac!!!

It is a mac without a screen! - Call me stupid but isn't that what a headless Imac would be?????

For crying out loud - WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE 'MAC MINI' AND A 'HEADLESS IMAC'????

ANSWER: NONE!

The Mac Mini IS the headless Imac!!!

It is a mac without a screen! - Call me stupid but isn't that what a headless Imac would be if Apple invented one?????

solarflare,

I think he meant a G5 iMac without the screen.
It would cost more of course, but to be honest, that's what I was hoping for - that and the chance to change your graphics card (or have the option to buy one with a better graphics card).
I still believe it's coming; perhaps as a developement of this 'Mini'.

Anyway Apple have, at least, finally realized that people don't want to, or like me, just can't afford to buy a new monitor everytime they want to upgrade.

Heavens above, it took them long enough!

I was under the impression that MS and Intel were promoting the view that Longhorn will need a dual-core CPU to run effectively.

On that basis, [B]NONE[/B] of the Wintel PCs being sold today are currently capable of running MS's next-generation OS whilst - simply by choosing the 512MB option, or getting you local Apple Authorised Service Centre to fit a stick of their choosing (probably cheaper) – this thing will run Tiger.

Doofus…

Charko...

It took em 20 years!!!

I think Apple should announce a higher spec model later in the year with maybe a 10gb hd, better 64mb graphics card and a bottom end G5 porcessor!

Now that would cool!

Opps - I meant 120gb hd!

Not 10gb!!

MS Blaster
Even if you can find one who will give away a free 512 MB of RAM, what if you want a SuperDrive or Bluetooth? As far as I know, these options are available only if you buy directly from Apple.

While I can find no flaws in your logic, nor your arguments, I still have to say that your and other arguments against this little gem seem very reminiscent of all the bitching and whining about the original iPod, the iPod mini.. heck a whole slew of other run away successful Apple products.

I'm not saying that this computer will be as successful as the iPod, but it's already got more buzz than the iPod did, Apple has had a stream of successes of late.. it could flop but given all the people I've read about who are considering or claiming to be certain to buy one...

I admit it's not flawless. It's not for everyone. It remains that it's the cheapest Mac ever, and it doesn't get that way by cutting corners on necessary components besides memory which *can* be upgraded if necessary.

I predict this product will not only do well, it will pick up customers Apple had no hope of getting any other way. That's good for Apple, that's good for Mac developers. I'm optimistic.

We'll see tho.

(magic word "forward" this has got to be an omen!)

Crippled he says? So how come its specs are pretty much the same as the powerbooks for a lot lot less $$$.

A 15" Cinema Display in say 6 months time - when the public has got used to the Mac mini concept - would rock. I think that if Apple had launched a monitor along with the mini it would not have had the same impact as folks would imediately look at the price for Mac mini + monitor ...

The real question is the weighting of the "3 Kisses of Death." Is Rob's track record so utterly and pathetically poor that his karma will cancel out the damage John and Paul have done by praising the Mini?

HI

If you really want the monitor for that mac mini, you can get any cheaper CRT secondhand monitor from pc secondhand shop, Any CRT monitor would be AcerView, Sony, etc. if they are compatible with it. It will get DVI to VGA adaptor to work with vga monitors. And you can get Apple usb keyboard or mac compatible keyboard from either from http://www.ebay.com or some retail shop. It easy rather spending for the expensive monitor if you can't afford it.

And any usb mouse would be OSX Logo for to work with mac like Logitech, Belkin, etc.

Hope this helps.

Regards

AussieDownUnder

<irrelevant comment>

Rob needs to change his name to George, and we have to find an analyst called Ringo.

</irrelevant comment>

I love Apple and I have purchased ten Mac's (two powerbooks, two ibooks, two iMac LCD's, and four 15" iMac's) since its introduction some five years ago..

I've noticed one consistant theme and one consistant complaint that I have with my machines. Aside from the base memory being too small, Apple really should START at 512 mb... They should also build the airport card (and now the bluetooth) card INTO the motherboard,

That's my two cents worth on the matter. I know at least two family members who'd buy the MacMini at the $500 range if the airport was included..

Christopher

Perhaps Kiss 1 and 2 were due to the fact that Steve's reality distortion field is very powerful and can even work on Trolls for short periods of time. Notice that Troll Dvorak and Troll Thurrott wrote their pieces very shortly after the keynote. Troll Enderle wisely waited so he would not be tricked into issuing a pro-Apple article against his will.

Dave H.

That thought crossed my mind as I wrote my initial comment--I changed Paul and John, to John and Paul and the Beatles thing flashed to me, too.

Aah great minds travelling the same road and all that...

I have a question, I have always started with Macs with greatly increased RAM because everyone recommends it. If someone were to buy the Mac mini with only the standard 256 MB of RAM, what would be some real life examples of how performance would be lower? Would you be seeing the beachball much more often? Would it be less "snappy" and have small delays before a command is carried out? What?

I am asking because I could see a lot of ultra cost conscious, low technoliteracy PC users going for the cheapest config they could get which would be 256 MB. If I buy one I would never go for this and I was wondering what their experience will be.

This guy is trying too hard. The Mac Mini is not a computer so dumbed down that it is unusable. Is the iBook unusable? You, sir, are a fool.

Having 256mb was enough to carry out tasks using Panther OSX. I don't see any beachball going in circles in long delay. Having OSX 10.1 is worst and Jaguar OSX is doing well.

In this mac mini is not PC100 or PC133 but it is DDR which is faster than PC100 or PC133.

I have G4 Cube 450mhz and was 256mb but upgraded to 512mb (2 x 256mb PC133 sticks) because of Iphoto application that importing photos need more MB. And my G3 Blue & White has 384mb (1 x256mb and 1 x 64mb and 1 x 64mb)

only thing I agree with this guy about is the memory

256 is usually fine...it actually works for surfing and writing letters/email.

may be a bit slower for iPhoto but it still works. Remember also that 1.25MHz is NOTHING to sneeze at. That's faster than any of the Macs we own at home and work and we definitely haven't be hindered getting our work done.

as for the HD issue, it's a 2.5" drive...they max out on the market at 100MB...so the 80MB option is actually a good deal....have you priced out 80-100MB 2.5" drives of late?...especially the good ones..expanding with firewire is the way to go...and I'm sure LaCie will be the first in line with a decent matching drive with EXTRA firewire ports

as for RAM stuck at 256MB...lucky for me, I'll be yanking the 256 and putting it into a PC we have at the office running XP with only 256MB (by the way it works fine also with 256)

lastly, graphics is MORE than enough..., the Rage 128 is fine in my Cube ( I don't play games) and PM G4's.

as for the writer and his comments, I only wish he would USE the machine instead of commenting on specs...computers have LONG past their need for speed for most users. I recently started using an old Ultra Light laptop running win98 (PII 266MHz) on the road and it flies when surfing on the web and the machine basically works fine (until I get another virus). I've got it connected to the LAN and external monitor/keyboard/mouse when in the office and a wireless PCMCIA card when I'm on the road.

Mac Mini is named the way it is for a reason. Price and what it is. An entry level headless iMac. If you want a more powerful computer then get an iMac G5 or an iBook. That's why it only has one ram slot and a 40 gig drive. I work for a large Bio company and the users at work barely fill 20 gigs so for someone just starting out on a Mac 40 gigs is plenty and 512 megs of ram would work well. It's a starting point for greater things. It's for switchers to get a taste of the Mac side of things especially OSX and the iLife software suite. And it starts at a really low great price!

Dave H and mac_jcs -

And then they could all sue Apple!

I just read its a 5th of the size of the CUBE! holy crap! everyone that comes in my house says, "WOW, thats yor whole computer? Its so small" I really have to see it in person.

As for the cube failing because of a lack of expandability, thats BS, I bet 1 out of every 500 PCs actually gets opened by a PC consumer. And the last time we tried to add new parts to my in-laws PC it CROAKED! I bet they will never open their computer again!

This is fantastic.