*DAMN R6 Forum

Here we go hehe ;)

latest rumor which i would love to see come true was this:
New Mac-- Core Solo. sub 800 US... black.
Stereo Station...Airport, Ethernet, 3 inch LCD...standard remote...
There may be an update to iPod Shuffle and iPod Video. Not screen size but capacity.
Also the new Mac will be available in April or May only. It seems the new Mac has "interesting software"...????

I will not reveal any more and I believe my source.
Personally I am very happy with the new Mac and can't wait to see it. I hated the mini. Stereo Station must be seen


Wayheeey 2 minutes to go!! :D

(http://static.flickr.com/51/105891178_01b877178d_m.jpg)

(http://www.engadget.com/media/2006/02/IMG_1928.jpg)

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"Good morning, thank you for joining us this morning. We've got some fun things and some medium scale things. All of us want all of them, we hope our customers do too. Let's start with the Mac, biggest thing these days, transition to Intel. We're ahead of schedule, we're converting entire product line to intel over this calendar year."

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New Mac mini
Based on Intel
Intel Core Solo, Intel Core Duo versions
2.5x - 3.2x faster
Same exact form factor
Front Row software
IR sensor on right of disc slot
Six button Apple remote

Jobs introduced the new Intel-based Mac mini, Apple's low-cost consumer desktop system. The base model features an Intel Core Solo CPU -- a single-processor, single-core CPU. But the company is also introducing a Mac mini that features Intel's Core Duo processor -- the same kind of CPU that powers the iMac and MacBook Pro.

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Lovely Lovely mac mini. Allready seriously considering picking up one of the DP ones. what a great start :D

Also comes with Front Row software... AND a Six button Apple remote hehe... wish they would do a few more buttons on those things if they really gonna let us use them as DVRs

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The redesigned Mac mini features gigabit Ethernet, a total of four USB 2.0 ports, analog and SPDIF audio outputs and more.

"And, of course, you can also hook it up to televisions," Jobs told the audience. It's been widely speculated that Apple might use today's event to introduce a Mac model with better home entertainment integration.

The new Mac mini, like its iMac sibling, features Front Row, an application that makes it possible to view movies, listen to audio, watch music videos and more from your Mac, in full-screen, using an infrared remote control from across the room. The Mac mini now sports an infrared sensor in the front of the Mac min, next to the machine's optical disk drive slot.

As demonstrated by Jobs, Front Row now has a new feature -- the ability to support shared music libraries accessible through iTunes. So using Front Row, you can listen to the contents of other machines running iTunes on the same subnetwork.

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Gigabit Ethernet is fantastic, another step in the direction as a media hub... really pleased to see the expanded audio ouptuts. (not to mention the TV hookup)

- Just shared music librarys i wonder? what about video too?

-- New Features --
Shared Music - Bonjour technology, allows devices to find themselves automatically over a network, access music library wirelessly.
Shared Photos and Video - Same idea only for photos and videos.
"Front row with Bonjour" is the software's name.
Media from any other mac or windows computer running iTunes will be piped over to the Mac mini hooked up to your television set.
Mac mini comes with iLife '06.

Can stream iTunes TV shows. Ok hehe So in theory it can stream any movie media thats gone via itunes... awsome :)
- Not so awesome considering the res of the iTunes TV shows and how they are going to look on large hires screens though

- looks like the chips will be clocking as high as the ones in the new macbooks if they are quoting the same speeds... pretty inpressive.

Standard features: Tiger + iLife '06, Apple Remote + Front Row, Airport Extreme + Bluetooth, DVI Video Out, USB, FireWire, Gigabit Ethernet.
1.5ghz Core Solo 667 mhz fsb, 512mb memory, integrated graphics 60GB drive, combo drive - $599
Second model with Core Duo - 1.67, 80GB drive + SuperDrive - $799

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'Let's talk about music.'
Jobs discussing iPod and iTunes numbers.
"It took McDonalds 8 years to sell a billion burgers."
Leather iPod cases - black for 5G and nano - $99 each - mid-March.
No screen or control access.
$99 each - mid-March.

... Um Integrated Graphics and only a 60 GB HD? I can understand the small HD if the idea is that you can stream media from elsewhere... Ok so you could put an external HD in but its FW400 and not 800 so its not going to be super fast... and what if you just wnat to use it as a mac and not a media hub box type thingy eh? I really don't like the sound of 'integrated graphics'

Nice to see the 80GB HD is SATA and that its a 8X Drive


.. The Graphics card inside the new MacMini appears to be the ATI Radeon 9200 graphics chip with 32MB dedicated DDR.. Thats pretty painful. Not even a 64MB card im pretty shocked!!

Now's time to add In the Home. People like to use iPods with groups inside. Problem with these products - stereo products - is that they don't offer home stereo quality.

here comes the boombox

iPod Hi-Fi
Home stereo. Reinvented.
Looks like a center channel speaker with iPod dock on top.
Comes with inserts for every iPod. Two buttons - volume control.
Pull black grille off of white box to reveal three speaker drivers.
Integrated power supply - no brick.
Power it off of six D-size batteries if you want. "Several hours outside."
Two 80mm mid-range drivers in sealed acoustic suspension.
In center is 130mm dual voice coil woofer, ported bass reflex design.
Great bass, doesn't distort when cranked up.
Universal Dock connector and integrated handles.
It's a sealed resin enclosure, and doesn't vibrate.
IPod integration: there's a software update for iPods that puts a speaker menu item in the main menu.
Tone control, backlight always on or off, large album art on or off.
Screen can go black and just show album art.
Controlled with the Apple Remote.
Price: $349 - Goes on sale today.

Jobs: We have some rooms upstairs - sample a kitchen, dorm room, living room, study.

You know what that sounds like an insanely good price. All depends on the real quality of the audio produced but for £200 quid or so it sounds damn good to someone who's hi-fi recently packed up!!

(pity there is no wireless streaming :( )

It can also accept input through an auxiliary jack and SPDIF optical audio input. Im sold allready :D


Oh wow, apple site has been updated :D

(http://www.apple.com/ipodhifi/images/indexfamilyoff20060228.jpg)

http://www.apple.com/macmini/

http://www.apple.com/ipodhifi/

Who knows BFG.. maybe claim you as a "Family" member and get this to you at cost.

Macuber my brother did i ever mention how wonderful you are? ;)

And how wonderful the costs of the shipping would be... and the customs. :P

The iPod Hi-Fi is nothing to be shocked about.  I personally can't stand personal iPod stereo's because . .

1) iPod sizes change, the base connector does not.
2) A cable connecting the iPod to a set of stereo speakers is not only better sounding quality but also much much much cheaper.
3) Portability maybe . . but not for long on 3 D Cell batteries.
                     - probably not though, who wants to lug around a boombox looking thing that       costs $350 - $350 can get me a pretty massive desktop speaker or surround sound speaker set.
4) Speaking of speakers if Apple is making speakers . . how about some desktop speakers
5) With surround sound
6) About the optical/digital output, again you can already connect the iPod to speakers, connecting it to a DVD player would be pointless since two speakers are better than one center speaker.

I got all worked up about that, all I have to say about the Mini is that it's a "step" in the right direction of living room computer sets.

BFG..I'm sending you my business email addy. We'll keep in touch on this.

It takes more to ship the thing than for him to buy it himself.

Umm, what is this graphics in the Mini? - integrated Intel graphics? c'mon

It's a shared graphics card? so it starts sucking on RAM if it doesn't have enough power.

1) It's a uni dock, different converters are what it uses.. see one of the current iPod docks [with IR] in a store
2) I wasn't aware there were optical audio outputs on any 3rd part iPod docks....
3) Would you prefer cheap sound quality?
4) [No comment]
5)        "
6) High quality digital audio goes through optical audio to receivers, that's why it's on the box.

The iPod Hi-Fi is nothing to be shocked about.  I personally can't stand personal iPod stereo's because . .

1) Myst allready covered that one.
2) He covered that one too.
3) Ho so?... The iPod has its own battery to start with and its six not three Batteries is can run off. Whats wrong with it? looks fine to me... lug around? The thing is toaster sized!!
4) Yeah i know i couldn't agree more... and thats what i really want... desktop speakers but also seperate from the comp.
5) Yes please would be nice thankyou... Look at the macmini though they are bringing 5.1 sound to macs :)
6) Myst covered that one.

I got all worked up about that, all I have to say about the Mini is that it's a "step" in the right direction of living room computer sets.

Mini is huge step in the right direction - ok its not perfect but its a massive inprovment. biggest downer is the appauling graphics option... i can't quite believe it since apple did so well with the intel imacs... sticking a freaking 32MB ATI card just sucks ass.

Hmm the apple page changed.... its a Intel GMA950 graphics processor with 64MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared with main memory

To add to what BFG says about the GMA950, here's the part that the little 1. is pointing to:

"Memory available to Mac OS X may vary depending on graphics needs. Minimum graphics memory usage is 80MB, resulting in 432MB of system memory available."

Horrible horrible horrible. Blagh it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth! Gotta have 1GB of Ram in those minis i think without a second thought, they can take 2GB but i doubt its 'user installable' so i guess thats apples way of saying "hey suckers want it to run well then pay us shit loads for our absurdly expensive ram.. hahaha" ... bastards.

It's a uni dock now - who says Apple won't change the design of the iPod?  Speakers on the other hand doesn't matter what happens to the iPod there's still connectablility.

So the audio connects to the recievers, music is still two channel - iPods can already connect to recievers without this speaker.

ALL NEW Cutting Edge computer technology...

New mac mini SOLO with 60-80 gig hd and 32 meg card...you know..cards that went obsolete over three years ago. Sounds a lot like my first g4 tower....(read: 2001)

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

hahh.....


sigh.... ::)

There's not only a Core Solo version... and it's a 64MB graphics processor, much better than the former Mac mini graphics cards in its specifications btw.

OK, 64.

A non-upgradable 64.

Fair enough...should run Ghost Recon like a charm. ;D

<no sarcasm> Actually, i understand the Logic just fine..and am really glad that apple started releasing machines that would make some converts from Pc on the price point alone... Its been a long time coming, and I know several mac converts who are ecstatic about them. Besides that, a dual core machine for 799 is amazing. <no sarcasm/>

http://www.intel.com/products/chipsets/gma950/

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2427&p=1

Hmmmmmmm okay a few more thoughts post apple event.

On forums people are talking a lot about the Mini and its Media centre capabilities... And like i was, are freaking over the integrated graphics chip. So a few clarifications... Who's gonna buy a Mini so they can play Doom3 for gods sake? And shiex is right - hell it will play GhR pretty fine im sure (if it can manage 11fps on Doom3 that must be somthing like 35fps in GhR! ;)

... Ok no integrated DVR capabilities, but the firewire port is there - nothing stopping folk from plugging in say a Elgato EyeTV box (hmm i keep looking at the 410) and there you have it - networked in to everything.. lovely
Can this mini be a media centre? hell yeah. The GPU has nothing to do with decoding the video: the CPU does all that. So whether the new Mac mini can play H.264 1080p video will depend entirely on the power of its Intel CPU.The 1.66 GHz Core Duo will effortlessly play back 1080p H.264.
OS X uses a lot of memory, the Core Duo mini with its default 512 MB RAM will easily play back a 1080p video encoded with H.264. Playing a 1080p H.264 video (24 fps) in QuickTime uses only about 100 MB of RAM. A new mac mini with 1GB Ram? lovely job.

I like these new minis. These are great little computers packed with everything including FireWire, optical audio, Bluetooth, AirPort Extreme.

http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/28/super-secret-apple-rumors-podcast-071-02-28-06/

Phil has blown all hopes of a Mac DVR out the window :( Pity

But to make up for it, the Mac Mini's CPU is socketed.

After all the complaints, piss taking and arguing about the Apple Hi-Fi ... have a read at one of the reviews to come out (and there are more very much like this one:




Listening to the iPod Hi-Fi, I could clearly hear that Apple paid a lot of attention to sound quality. I put on some music I had encoded in Apple Lossless format, including tracks by Stevie Wonder, A Tribe Called Quest, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Maurice Andre, Yo-Yo Ma, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and Zakir Hussain. The first thing I noticed is that Apple had the presence of mind to shield the dock well, so there is no audible digital noise during play back. On all tracks, the bass was tight and punchy with virtually no muddiness. Mids are prominent but not overwhelming, and highs are very crisp. Detail and articulation are very good, and the stereo imaging is impressive if you have the speaker properly placed (with side walls equidistant). If you've got the speaker in a bookshelf, though, you'll still get very good sound thanks to the double-walled airtight enclosure, which keeps sound from leaking out in all directions. The Hi-Fi definitely deserves its name.


I cranked up the volume a few notches below maximum and I could feel the wind coming out of the two bass ports from several feet away—not to mention the remarkably low-distortion aural assault on my ears. In fact, since it had no problem filling up our 20-by-20-foot audio lab with clear, crisp sound, I took it into one of our carpeted "Town Center" meeting rooms, which can seat a couple hundred people and has acoustical tile on the walls and ceiling. I put Stevie Wonder's Sir Duke on, cranked the volume all the way, and realized that this thing is capable of powering a serious party in just about any size room without appreciable distortion. (The remote, however, stopped working once I got about 40 feet away from the speaker.) On AC power, the Hi-Fi puts out 108dB at 1meter; on alkaline batteries, the output is a bit less at 102dB, but that's still impressive. The output power also doesn't appear to be affected whether you're using the auxiliary input or the dock connector.

I wholeheartedly recommend this speaker if you're looking for an extremely powerful single-cabinet speaker that's portable (runs on batteries as well as AC), because this is about as good as it gets. It's not cheap, you can't throw it in your backpack, it's not a 5.1 system, and it won't take the place of thousand-dollar high-end floor-standing speakers. But it's not intended to be any of those things. It is a compact powerhouse that charges your iPod while it pumps out pristine audio. I'd like to see a video pass-through on it just for convenience's sake, and perhaps a TV-screen interface and the ability to browse your iPod music collection via remote. An RF remote would also eliminate the line-of-sight issues that infrared has. Other than these relatively minor quibbles, this one's a winner.

Pretty good eh!