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Uh yeah.. PC users sometimes try and come up with ways to explain why Apple is still in business.. like... "I guess Mac users just love the way the computer hardware looks"

Yeah. That's it. I'm gonna drop anywhere from 600 CDN-2000 CDN on a sexy piece of plastic..

Well surely it's not the machines performance, and included software (including OS X)... nooo it couldn't be that.. software, the reason you got the computer in the first place

Allan Jackson writes: "I'm a PC user and I CAN"T THINK WHY I WOULD WANT ONE, but I do, they're that cute.

(w/tongue in cheek...) Well, isn't he just too precious?

Ditto on MDN's take.

Totally unrelated, but very amusing nevertheless…

[I]Some say the Cupertino, California-based technology company has a prestige with consumers and marketing know-how that has revved up the music industry, and others are hoping to ride along.

"There is a 'cool' factor" at Apple, said Ted Cohen, senior vice president of digital development for music publisher EMI. "They could come out with soap _ and people would buy iSoap."[/I]

From various syndicated sources discussing Midem 05 at Cannes this week.

>>I'm a PC user and I can't think why I would want one, but I do<<

My gosh, dont' they see how %$@$%@! stupid they are? That sentence tells the man everything he needs to know about why he should want one.. "I'm a PC user". Putz.

Shouldn't it be illegal for someone to call themselves a journalist if they've never used or experienced the products or companies they write about? These people are the eyes and ears of their readers and yet they are basically talking out of their asses!! Isn't that slander? Or Libel?
Magic word is built... This guy's built a carreer out of talking through his ass!!
I'm glad he may become converted, but then again, maybe I'm not...

MCCFR.. well obviously Apple is pure marketing and nothing they make is particularily advanced or useful... er.. so when is Tiger coming out... aaaaaand when is Longhorn coming out...and when will LH catch up?

Oops.. Bill Gates just got caught in his own web of bs

"The Mac is only safe because no one uses it... now if you'll give me a minute, I have to go inform my drones to imitate OS X security...again. SP2 was supposed to be the nail in the coffin."

While I'm dissing Gates, a man who I admire and is without peer as a businessman, he's gonna have to stop talking about 'betting the company.' LH is officially an upgrade of XP, and NOT a 'from the ground up' new release. Soooo.. basically, it will be a fully backwards compatible upgrade of XP. Not a 'bet the company' leap of faith. Pffft. How bold.

That's too bad, a lot of PC users were hoping to duck the security disaster that is XP in 2008. Hmm.

Can't remember where I saw it but there was a short interview with Steve Jobs after the keynote and he showed the two newscasters the Mac mini and the look on the guy newscaster's face was priceless; "THATS it?" he asked "THATS the computer????" You could see that the form and size just blew him away. I think that is going to be happening a lot. Apple products are just too cool and the Mac Mini is going to take the market by storm. I sold a bunch of my other stocks and bought more AAPL right after that (and luckily before they announced their Q4 results).

The female newscaster was much more cool about the whole thing. Turns out she has an iPod so she must be getting used to insanely great products.

I'm with you on that, Tyk.

Maybe I'm spoiled by my dual 2.5 which feels perfectly adequate after switching from a G4/500 on OS 9. In contrast, the 1.8-iMac-20 feels a bit sluggish. So how does the mini feel and will that provide enough of an experience to lock-in these people?

Curious that many of those who mightn't have touched an eMac are going for the headless-eMac, as AppleInsider describes it. The experience will be good for those upgrading from older Macs and Wintels, particularly if the latter are saddled with malware as they are bound to be. But for those adding the mini to a fast PC....

I guess you can polish a turd.

Hee! I love it! Let him buy a Mac mini because its "cute". Once he tries it, he'll be blown away, and cuteness will no longer be the primary source of appeal.

It's exactly like how people bought iPods because they were hip and cool, then went raving ga-ga over them onece they actually used them. Let the masses buy Apple products for the wrong reasons. They'll become Mac users for the right ones.

It is funny how so many seem to believe that because something has design appeal it must be devoid of substance.

HOW ON EARTH CAN THIS GUY GIVE ANY SORT OF BALANCED VIEW UNLESS HE'S ACTUALLY USED A MAC?

This is typical of the 'non reporting' that seems to be commonplace on the internet.

This guy wouldn't last 5 minutes as a reporter for a national newspaper!!

I don't like windows and prefer a mac BECAUSE I have used windows and have not come to my opinion through computer industry gossip, lies and mistruths about the windows OS.

THAT is the difference between an accurate opinion/reporting and the crap this guy writes.

Unfortunately everyone these days thinks that they are reporters even though they have no qulaifications, training or skill in doing the job correctly!

Such is the terrible state of reporting on the internet - I personally don't believe anything written on a website as you can make anything up and slander people how you like with not threat of being sued!

If this guy wants to write an accurate opinion about Apple and Macs, then he should buy one and use it for a couple of months before writing a single word.

What a tosser!!!


The magic word is 'required' - as in to be a 'real' reporter qualifications ARE REQUIRED!

He writes for the Jo-berg Tribune in South Africa. He is paid as a newspaper journalist. It doesn't make him right but it does make your argument look foolish.

Go on, keep you mindless hyping going. The Mac mini is a failure and a joke.... useless piece of crap. It does nothing well, won't draw PC users, and may be a cure distraction for Mac users who honestly could use a second computer in the home.

Hey, pump it though, morons.

This is THE STANDARD of "journalism" now a day!!!! Critical to something with out any knowledge of, desire to learn, nor experience of the VERY thing they criticize!!!! SAD!!!!

If you're a journalist and want to show how little you understand computers, show the world by writing an article about the Mac mini and only talk about it's price, size and looks.

At the moment, the vast majority of those writing about the Mini have failed to get beyond those three factors.

Fortunately although those journalists are shallow and ill-informed, many of the public are equally shallow and ill-informed so they will buy Minis because of the price, size and looks.

Once they start using them and overcome the 'problem' that some things are not the same as on a PC, they'll actually start appreciating what it is about Macs that makes them different and accepting that sometimes, different can mean better.

The real increase in sales isn't going to come from shallow journalists writing superficial articles. It will come when people's friends and workmates start telling them that they're using Macs and never have to worry about viruses, key loggers and pop-ups. They do everything they ever did before, but without the hassles and do new things like compose music, edit video, exploit digital photos and create DVDs, again without any hassles.

Word of mouth is the sort of publicity that can't be bought. It's the best publicity possible.

I got my 1.42Ghz Mac mini yesterday from the Twelve Oaks Apple Store in MI. Thanks to Smash's World I took it apart and stuck in a 60 GB 7200RPM drive from OWC (previously in my 12" PowerBook and 512MB ram I yanked from my PC.

The external power is annoying. I don't understand why they had to make it separate. Sure it's neat that the main computer unit is so small and light, but it would have been almost as small and light with the DC converter inside. Maybe the next version with have a combined unit.

The biggest surprise inside is that the chassis is made of plastic and not metal like every other Mac (I've opened) since the beige-box days.

It's very easy to poke around and replace stuff once you are brave enough with your sharpened putty knife to crack it open. That is, unless you have Airport or Bluetooth inside, then it becomes a hairy mess with cables and bits of circuit boards all over the place that you have to untangle to pull out the hard drive or optical drive.

Quiet? I never heard the fan run once in hours of operation so far. The Combo drive is VERY loud, especially when reading the iLife DVD. The drives they put in portables are much more quiet.

It is much more difficult than operating on a PowerMac tower or a PC for that matter, but a whole lot easier than opening an iBook or PowerBook, unless you have the wireless bits. I can see why Apple recommends using Apple certified technicians for this work.

My old rusty putty knife left the barest of knicks in the plastic underneath and you would have to know what to look for to know it was opened.

You can't install your OS X Panther DVD or CD right onto the mini, you'll have to use the recovery DVD that came with it to reinstall Panther if you choose.

I give the mini an A- as an Apple product. I don't get the external DC converter. Performance felt pretty good. I'll have to spend more time with it before I can give a final grade, but so far it feels very Apple and what you would expect.

Apparently, Hypesters, you've never used one either.... moron

These poor PC souls, they're like guests on The Jerry Springer Show that just found out that their Mom is actually their sister, and on top of that, actually a man!!! They just can't comprehend that M$ isn't the best platform available like they've paid to appear.
They fear that trying it will work and so it's best to just stay in their little hole yelling obscenities and calling us names, lest they realize that they've been spending years of their lives and thousands of their dollars on a platform that is vulnerable and uncoordinated.

I understand why people would need to use PC for proprietary applications, but, I'm tired of journalists acting like M$ Office is PC only!! I lost a couple of small applications in my switch to Mac, but there weren't any that I couldn't find suitable (and more often better) replacements for (and either free or very affordable as well).

About the external power brick: Having the DC converter be external allows for minis to exist where AC power may not be a given -- such as in car stereo slots. Classic Resorations is already advertising "Mac mini installs to begin soon!" (http://www.classicresto.com/macmini.html) I won't be at all surprised to see other creative uses of the mini being announced in the coming months. I agree that having one more brick lying around by the computer may be a bit of a hassle, but it may be a trade off that will pay off handsomely.

re: loki..

I totally agree!

I would also add to say to our windows 'friends' is that the first EVER version of Microsoft Office was writen for MAC OS!

And Bill Gates has been quoted saying that the "Mac version of Office is far superior to the windows version".

So suck that windows sheep!

Get a life - get a Mac! And start living!!

Solarflare:

And once, back in the mists of time (mid-80s), Gates once referred to the x86 family as being "brain-damaged".

It was a long, long time ago - but it's worth searching for if you could find it as a quote.

Trojan Pony.

And here's my advice. People should start creating Mini-sized stackable units to go under the Mini. These could be USB/Firewire Hubs (preferably combined), alternative power bricks (better form factor, less cable hassle), media readers, etc.

Jack A.. that was CNBC..

Maria Bartiromo etc lmfao

The funny thing was Maria was totally acting like a groupie.. "HIII STEEVE I LOOOVE MY IPOD"

And the guy was acting like a Dell asshole.. he was basically pissed cuz he'd just got some of his kids an iPod mini.. and he was like, thinking the shuffle was the same thing but like 150 bucks cheaper.. so he felt that Steve had just ripped off 4.5M iPod owners.... you know, 'Thanks for waiting until AFTER Christmas to release this Steve'

Yeah, they were pretty blown away

With regard to the extra connections in the power connectors, I doubt that they are for some announced product. They are probably for different voltages required by the mini without having any power components in the mini. Different components may need +5v, -5v, +2.5v, etc

Say anything you want, just spell Apple's name right. The worst thing in the world is obscurity. Just keep writing. When people see the shuffle and mini on a Mall shelf, enough of them will take it home on impulse, (and price) OS X will do the rest.
The cute little mini cardboard box with a handle on top is more important than we think. You can put the thing on a 7-11 shelf and it will sell.
Again, OS X will do the rest.

Note to Apple -
Come up with OS X for Windows switchers QuickTime movies ASAP!!!
Your QuckTime tutorials are great.
Don't hide it on that "Pro" page. (I have know idea why you put your other QuickTime tutorials there.) Put it PROMPTLY on your Switchers page and have a box link on the bottom of your home page.
And for god's sake, don't make it only available on .mac! I'm a paid .mac subscriber and I would be VERY happy if ALL your QuickTime tutorials were available on Apple.com.

The more they learn about OS X (from your wonderful QT tutorials) the happier they will be, and the more likely they will stay!

Theres another good reason to switch ... This Article is one written for our resident PeeCee trolls (pumper and NoMacForYou) in mind !!

Actually, given events of recent years, how can anyone actually argue that "journalists" are more accurate and truthful than those on the net?

I think there is the same percentage of bs on both, and if you read a great deal of the "journalism" published in at least the last 200 years, print "journalists" may just have more practice creating the bs.

Look at it all, both print, tv, and internet and ask yourself whether whatever you are told makes basic common sense. If you can't do that, well..................I don't know what to say to you.

The guy who wrote the article on the Mac Mini shot himself in the foot without any help from us, so no problem from my point of view. We need to know who the idiots are in the world so that we can avoid them, and he just identified himself.

Apple needs to bit the bullet and start offering 2-button scroll mouses. Yeah, they're available already from 3rd party companies, but they ain't Apple now are they? I hope we see a trend to reel in Windows users with these and other enticements. Regardless, it's all looking very sweet for Apple

I don't think that marketshare would go up if Apple suddenly made a 2-button mouse. What I think they SHOULD do is advertise the fact that Macs can use 2-button mice.

Why make an introductory Mac with a G4 chip? When you want to make a first impression you show up with your best--dont you? Let me also ask while the asking is good why Apple doesnt ship all computers wireless ready and let those people who want to save whatever the wireless costs special order?

Amazing, insightful, and probing analysis: Apple's marketshare will go up because the Mac mini is sooo cute. Man, I'm in the wrong business. I should start selling bullshit.

To lisa:

Apple doesn't need to make a first impression - they did that in 1984. They need to make a low-cost impression. That's why the Mac mini doesn't come with Wireless built-in. It costs money to add those things, and Apple isn't in the business of losing money just to impress.