The Tuesday Apple Event!!

[:MoD:Shade]

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.

[BTs_Mysterio]

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.

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.

[BFG]

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

[BTs_Mysterio]

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."

[BFG]

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.

[:MoD:Shade]

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.

[(SiX)Sheixhundt]

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....

[Civrock]

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.

[(SiX)Sheixhundt]

OK, 64.

A non-upgradable 64.

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

<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/>

[Civrock]

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

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

[BFG]

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.

[Ethion]

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

[BFG]

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

[BTs_Mysterio]

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

[BFG]

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!