Mac mini blog

Instead of a Mac get an OLPC XO or Asus EEE

2007-11-12T19:27:00.001-05:00

I've bought one of each and will do a review when they come in. I've written up a first look on my new blog.

My Other Blog

2007-02-20T09:51:00.000-05:00

Sorry I ended the Mac mini blog so abruptly but I ended up getting a MacBook and never did pick up one of the Intel Mac minis. I would get one right now because I want to have a small server again but I'm waiting for Apple to update the mini to Core 2 Duo.

Anyway to keep up with me you can always read my main blog and check out all my other sites through my portal.

The King Is Dead, All Hail The King

2006-03-02T06:13:00.000-05:00

I'm psyched about the new mini. I'm going to get one next paycheck.

Here's my first impressions:

Price
The price went up but so did the features. It would have rocked if Apple had been able to keep the price at $500-700 but you can tell they don't have a lot of margin because the educational discount is $30.

Duo Core
Love it. I'm glad I didn't buy a MacBook Pro now. I want the new iBook (which will be called just MacBook) because I don't like the aluminum case of the Pro and it's too big. But I want dual core goodness which I thought Apple wouldn't put in the MacBook because they would want to force me to buy the Pro. Now that the mini has it I'm sure the MacBook will as well. Yeah!

Gigabit
This kicks so much ass. Case has a super fast network and now I'll be able to download crap in seconds instead of minutes. Plus I know it's going to be on the MacBook as well.

GMA950
It kind of sucks that its a crappy Intel video chip with shared memory. But on the plus side it's gotten decent reviews and with the f'ing fast memory bus it should be OK. I'll benchmark when I get my mini and find out.

FrontRow
This is going to be so much better than Sailing Clicker and the video streaming is sweet.

I swear I'm not as much of an Apple fan boy as others. When you cut me I don't bleed rainbow colors but this mini is exactly what I was waiting for. Thanks Steve!

Cleveland Tiger Party Pics

2005-05-03T17:11:00.000-05:00

Brad Farnsworth and myself took pictures at our Case party. While Sherrie from the Apple Store at Legacy Village was having a blast with her staff!

Check out this enterprising Apple user who brought his tower in style:

Humor: Cult Meeting

2005-05-01T14:18:00.000-05:00

I though this was really funny.

News: Tiger Doesn't Work With Cisco VPN

2005-04-29T05:38:00.000-05:00

Tiger is not compatible with the Cisco VPN Client. The fix is supposed to be out in May. Until then if you need VPN do not upgrade to Tiger. If you would still like to try it out you can repartition your hard drive and dual boot Tiger, or install it onto another drive such as an iPod. I have had bad luck with the non destructive repartitioning software on the Mac. If you've used something that works reliably and quickly please let me know. The best solution I see right now is to backup your data and wipe the drive and then create the partitions.

News: Tiger Party Details

2005-04-28T07:06:00.000-05:00

Come one, come all, to the Tiger Release Party at Case's Thwing Student Center. It's open to the public and there will be drinks, food and giveaways. And if your a Case student we will help you install Tiger after 6PM when its released. Let's see how many systems we can get installed!

ACM and SIGMAC are the student groups that setup the event. Apple and PerceptIS (my employer) are sponsoring the event.

Much love to all the people that have helped make this happen. And a special thanks to Samer Karim one of our great student employes. Without his help I couldn't have made this happen.

There is also a party going on at the Apple Store at Legacy Village. I'm sure they'll have more giveaways but we'll be installing more copies of Tiger!

News: Tiger Release Party @ Case

2005-04-28T07:03:00.000-05:00

News: My New blog

2005-04-09T19:03:00.000-05:00

I've put up a personal blog. I will keep updating the Mac mini blog. I just wanted a place to put things that are not about the Mac. Let me know what you think.

News: Where I've Been

2005-03-29T19:32:00.000-05:00

Hello gentle readers,

You've sent me more than a few emails asking where I've been. Has Microsoft silenced me? Have they got me in a South American torture compound reconditioning me to recant my love for the Mac and conform to the Windows world?

Turns out nothing quite as exciting. I just got a new job. It is a really cool gig working for PerceptIS which is kind of like Case's outsourced IT department. I'm working in the Weatherhead School of Management's crazy Peter B. Lewis Building which is quite cool since I've long admired it's kooky curves.

I'm splitting my time between SysAdmin and General Tech work, which unfortunately means I have to deal with Windows on a daily basis. But I have to give them points for giving me a PowerBook G4 800 for my work computer and having me co-admin a Xserve G4 cluster.

I really like everyone I work with. They are a motley crew so I fit right in. I just hope my big mouth doesn't get me in hot water, but for once it seems like a large company actually wants to hear what it's people think.

We've got some cool things coming up like a Linux Install Fest this weekend. I'm going to take my mini and show it off running Linux. There's free food so if your in the area drop in and say hey.

And I'm working on a review of my new external Western Digital Hard Drive, which I'll try to post tomorrow.

Link: My mini Overview

2005-03-21T09:39:00.000-05:00

Checkout my overview of the mini over at Sudhian.

I want to thank everyone at Sudhian for their help including Joel, Jasper, Adam and Paul.

HowTo: Download TV Shows

2005-03-17T11:06:00.000-05:00

First off you should only do this if you have legal access to the shows by subscribing to cable or satellite TV.

1. Download Azureus and RSS Feeds.

2. Drag Azureus to your Applications dir. Next launch it and then quit. Now you will have an Azureus folder in ~/Library/Application Support. Drag the rssfeed_1 folder into ~/Library/Application Support/Azureus/plugins.

3. Restart Azureus select Azureus>Preferences. Under Connection set a high port number like 49167 and make sure this is forwarded through your router. Select Transfer and set the global max upload to something less than your upstream. For example if you have a 1.5/768 DSL connection set the max upload to 50. Otherwise you'll over saturate your upstream and kill you downstream speeds. Next choose Files>Torrents and select your Save Directory. Close options.

4. Now it's time to configure the RSS Feeds. Goto the Plugins menu and select RSSFeed. Then click on options and set an RSS Feed URL by click the + sign. Enter in BTEfnet as the name and http://www.btefnet.net/backend.php as the URL check Enabled and click Accept. Now click + next to filters and enter The Daily Show for the name and daily as the filter. Then check Filter searches title and Enable then Accept.

5. Enjoy your shows with VLC or MPlayer OS X.

Screen Grab of RSS Feed URL and RSS Feed Filter.

News: I'm Alive

2005-03-13T14:17:00.002-05:00

Sorry for not posting in a long time. I've been busy writing a review of the mini for a major hardware review site.

I finally got around to installing my RAM upgrade.

This video makes opening the mini easy but I found a better technique to put it back together. Put the back on first then use the putty knife to clip on the front.

BTW I used Kingston Value RAM and it's working great. Maybe it's just me but the mini feels a little bit snapper and I think it may be due to the fact the Kingston RAM has a lower CAS Latency of 2.5 vs the Hynix's 3.0.

Someone asked for a HOWTO on downloading TV shows. I promise I'll post one tonight.

News: No Doom III

2005-03-08T14:16:00.000-05:00

Always trying to hold my title as master of the obvious it looks like Doom III will not run on the mini. But when Apple shoehorns a 64MB video card and a slightly faster G4 in the next gen mini it will.

For Sale: Sharp PG-M10S DLP Projector

2005-03-04T23:33:00.000-05:00

I'm selling my Sharp PG-M10S. It's not getting much use anymore. I prefer my BenQ PB2120 but the Sharp is a great little projector and deserves a good home. The lamp was replaced and the current one has less than 100 hours on it. All reasonable offers will be considered. Of course if I don't get a decent offer I'll just keep it as a backup.

News: Here Come the Knockoffs

2005-03-03T13:26:00.000-05:00

Intel has been showing off this concept PC that looks a lot like our favorite computer.

Link: Switch Guide

2005-03-03T01:41:00.000-05:00

In his normal zen way The Tao of Mac writes an excellent guide for newbie mac owners.

Humor: mini Slowest Super Computer

2005-03-02T23:24:00.000-05:00

But it now comes with cheese.

AV: syncOtunes

2005-03-02T22:38:00.000-05:00

syncOtunes is a great way to sync iTunes between different Macs.

Link: MacGamer

2005-03-01T09:08:00.000-05:00

While the Mac isn't going to get anyone to switch based on it's game selection you can still have fun. MacGamer has enough news and reviews to keep you happy.

Switch: uControl

2005-02-26T18:35:00.000-05:00

If your using a Windows keyboard on the Mac the Alt/Option and Apple/Command keys map the opposite of a normal Mac keyboard. uControl lets you change the key mappings and reverse them to their normal Mac order.

AV: ANT

2005-02-25T09:16:00.000-05:00

ANT stands for ANT's Not Television and it sure isn't. While a little ruff it's "good enough". This is a great way to download a ton of vlogs. My favorite is RocketBoom.

The community needs to do more of this rather than just recirculating what the media industry gives us.

HowTo: Shrink Videos

2005-02-24T22:47:00.000-05:00

I have a fast 5Mb cable modem but a lot of my friends around the globe are still on slow analog lines. So when I want to send them a video clip I need to shrink it as much as possible.

Thankfully a underused feature of QuickTime does this in two easy steps.

1. Open video in Quicktime click File>Export

2. Select new filename, codec, and quality settings. For this example I'm using

Export: Movie to MPEG-4
Use: Modem (Quality)

Click Save.

Your done. Here's an example where I shrunk a 1.6MB clip to an amazing 184KB!

Humor: G5 mini

2005-02-24T22:45:00.000-05:00

Now in colors.

Deal: Logitech Wireless Keyboard and Mouse $33

2005-02-23T13:00:00.000-05:00

I have the black version and love it. This white one looks like it will match the mini perfectly. The best part is it has Mac as well as Windows keys and the driver works great.

Cordless Navigator Duo Keyboard and Mouse $32.79 shipped

If you buy one let me know what you think.

News: HD Lottery

2005-02-23T09:49:00.000-05:00

Seems that some mini owners got lucky and instead of a 4200RPM drive got a 5400RPM one. I was one of the lucky ones. How about you?

AV: mini HTDV Pics

2005-02-22T17:35:00.000-05:00

CIMG0822
Originally uploaded by jsares.

My mini hooked up to my roommate's RCA HDTV via DVI. Sorry for the low quality of the pics. I'll try and get some better ones soon.

Link: Woz and I Agree

2005-02-22T12:59:00.000-05:00

Over at drunkenblog Woz says Apple needs to drop the suit and he gave the kid a grand for his defense.

AV: HDTV

2005-02-21T09:33:00.000-05:00

My roommate has an RCA Scenium rear projection HDTV with a DVI port. I bought a DVI cable from BestBuy for $50 (which I think is way too much since you can get them for $15 online) and hooked up the mini. The picture is fantastic. I couldn't believe the quality of the playback of downloaded TV shows. I had a ton of different resolutions available including 720p and 1080i. I found 720p was the best overall. The only downside is the overscan area is quite large so it's hard to use OS X.

Opinion: What's In My Dock

2005-02-20T20:40:00.000-05:00

Safari, NewsFire, Mail, Adium X, Azureus, Stickies, Sofa, iTunes, iPhoto, Alias Folder (Common Apps and Servers)

Link: IOGEAR Line of mini Accessories

2005-02-20T12:56:00.000-05:00

IOGEAR is marketing a line of accessories for the mini, including KVMs, hubs, and external drives. Now if they had an affordable DVI KVM they'd have a sale right now.

AV: iDVD 5

2005-02-20T10:08:00.000-05:00

Since my brother still has my miniDV camcorder I decided to use clips from the internet for this review. I got four funny parodies from Sequential Pictures and started up iDVD 5.

I played with the new themes but went with Drive in One a 4.0 Theme. I dropped the first video on the drop zone and previewed the effect. Very nice. Then I imported each of the clips. One thing I wish I could do is rename the titles of the clips after importing them. The only way I can find to do it is rename the file before importing.

I switched to status and saw the background encoding was already 25% through the first clip. Overall it took about 40 minutes to encode all the videos. Burning took about 10. Not bad at all.

Everyone I showed it to was really impressed with the quality especially considering the source video. Which if you haven't done so check out the Star Wars 3 parody. It had people on the floor.

When encoding anything over an hour you need to use Best Quality which takes forever.

I'm going to try encoding a few long XvID TV Shows overnight and I'll let you know the results.

Overall the mini is fast enough for most people's DVD creation needs and with the bundled iDVD 5 it can't be beat.

Link: Tom Hearts mini

2005-02-19T06:55:00.000-05:00

Seems like all the big hardware sites love the mini. Tom's Hardware gives the mini a glowing review. They where really impressed with the 20W power draw which should save on your energy bill and the enviorment.

News: About Time

2005-02-18T14:19:00.000-05:00

I should have taken my own advice but I was a little shy on cash and wanted to find out more about the mini before ordering one. By the time I was ready Apple had a two week delay so I ordered one from InCompetentUSA but they screwed up the order.

I was starting to lose hope but the guys at the local Apple store came through for me and now more than a month since it was introduced I have my mini!

I got it home and within 15 minutes had the OS updated, drivers for my Logitech keyboard and mouse, iSynced, iPhoto 5, and Casio Exilim EX-S3 hooked up with only one restart. That's what I call a great out of the box experience.

I love the new straighten feature in iPhoto but I'm annoyed they got rid of the ~~export where you could specify the dimensions~~ it's still there just in a different spot.

This is the first pic I've taken in the mini's temporary home on a TV tray.

Now that I've got it are there any things you would like me to test right away?

AV: Great Backgrounds

2005-02-17T21:42:00.000-05:00

Mando Gomez has the best desktop backgrounds I've seen on the web. Best of all they are free and he has rss feeds. If you love the images as much as I do please consider donating.

Update: Apple Holds Subpoenas

2005-02-17T20:17:00.000-05:00

In my earlier post I wanted Apple to back down. Hopefully this is a first step in the right direction.

Link: Safari and Firefox Cracked

2005-02-17T19:59:00.001-05:00

Some websites seem to have cracked Safari and Firefox's popup blocking.

I've tried it on the Mac and Windows with the same results. It seems to only happen on the first visit.

Any other sites you've run across?

Link: People Keep Their Old Macs

2005-02-17T15:03:00.000-05:00

I've said before that one of the reasons Apple has low market share is there are a lot of old Macs still in use.

The Low End Mac has this musing about their web site stats showing the number one system is the Beige G3 made in 1997.

I don't think as many Pentium 233 systems are still being used by the public.

Link: Firefox 25 Million Downloads

2005-02-17T10:21:00.000-05:00

Firefox has hit the 25 mill mark.

The OS X version is ok but I've found some enhancements that really make it sweet.

I don't care for the default theme. Seems like it's trying to rip off Safari a bit too much. Qute looks great and has a nice balance.

I love having my bookmarks synced between systems. Bookmarks Synchronizer takes care of that. studio2f shows you how to configure it with your iDisk.

SpellBound takes care of the typos and DictionarySearch helps look things up.

Congrats to the Firefox and Mozilla teams!

Link: DF Names Top Apps 2004

2005-02-17T07:54:00.000-05:00

John of Daring Fireball has put up a list of the best apps of 2004. It got me to thinking about my own list and wondering, what are your favorite apps?

HowTo: Make a Readable eBook Redux

2005-02-16T22:24:00.000-05:00

Cory asked me to use one of his Creative Commons licensed stories and I'm glad he did.

I forgot to mention that some text files you download have end of line characters that will screw with the formating.

To clean them up get SmartWrap. It works like magic. Once installed in your Services menu just highlight the text and click SmartWrap from almost any app.

One of the things that sets SmartWrap apart from the rest is it doesn't limit the amount of text it will correct until you register it. Please support the authors for their work. I will be registering ASAP.

As promised here is the link to the new PDF for Craphound and a bonus link to the Pages file in case you want to mess around with it.

Thanks again to Cory for his stories and all of his other work. He's my favorite blogger/author/EFF activist even if the Disney thing creeps me out a bit.

HowTo: Make a Readable eBook

2005-02-16T19:01:00.000-05:00

I try to read long docs on the web but I can never read more than a few pages in a web browser. Now I think I've perfected the way to turn plain text into a nice readable eBook free of any annoying DRM.

First you'll need some text. Let me recommend Cory Doctorow's newest story I, Robot.

Copy the text into a word processor. Almost any should do but for this example I'm using Pages.

Delete any text that isn't part of the story. Then click Edit > Select All. Open the Font Panel and set it to Times New Roman Size 16. Also highlight the title and set it to Size 48 Bold and the author to Size 24 Bold. Then set the alignment by selecting Format >Text > Justify. Next I like to add page numbers by clicking View > Show Layout and clicking in the footer then select Insert > Page Number. Select the page number and make it Times New Roman Size 18 Bold Italic and Right Justified.

We're almost there. Open the Inspector and set the margins to .5 all around. Next hit File > Print and click Copies and Pages and select the Layout menu. Set it to Pages per Sheet: 2 and Border: Single hairline. As the final step Save As PDF.

Now your ready to open it with Adobe Reader 7. BTW I recommend keeping Preview as your default PDF viewer since Reader 7 is much slower. Then select View > Full Screen and use the mouse or arrow keys to advance the page.

For an example download my ~~PDF of I, Robot~~ removed at Cory's request. I'll have another guide up ASAP. I don't think Cory will mind me posting this.

Let me know how this works for you.

HowTo: Convert AVI to DVD

2005-02-15T12:22:00.000-05:00

I download TV shows off BitTorrent and sometimes I want to share them with friends.

First you need to convert them to quicktime. So you'll need a quicktime codec like 3ivx.

Then use Divx Doctor to convert it to a .mov. This takes a minute or so. When your done preview it in Quicktime.

Next open Toast and select Video and drag and drop the files. If you are putting multiple files select Create DVD Menu in the Advanced Options. It takes a few hours but when done you've got a great quality DVD.

The only downside is it's limited to about an hour of video so if you have a large file you might have to split it with Split me.

Opinion: Death of Small Mac Shops?

2005-02-14T11:02:00.000-05:00

Apple has slowing been killing off it's independent stores by opening it's own. Now with the mini costing less than the cost to fix older Macs how can small Mac shops survive?

My friend Adam works at MacExchange and their in shop business has dropped off the map as of late. They still get work from large clients such as schools but if things don't pick up I can't see how they'll be able to keep the public store open.

Opinion: Ripping Off Apple Twice

2005-02-12T14:20:00.000-05:00

Sonos is the first company I've seen to rip off two Apple products at once. Their digital music system looks like an iPod and mini tied together. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple decides to sue.

Link: Feng Shui

2005-02-12T14:06:00.000-05:00

While I don't believe in Feng Shui I do agree with CE Lifestyle's suggestions. Such as getting rid of all these ugly black electronics and using smaller components. And of course the mini fits all the above.

AV: Mini Projector for Your mini

2005-02-10T13:47:00.000-05:00

This is an awesome little projector. The Mitsubishi 8482 fits in the palm of your hand! I've got two DLP projectors right now a BenQ PB2120 and a Sharp PG-M10S. These are some of the smallest projectors out and they are double the size of the Mitsu. And what's really awesome is the LEDs last four times as long as the lamps in my projectors which will really cut down on the operating costs.

Humor: Switch Gamer

2005-02-10T13:36:00.000-05:00

Thanks to the guys at Red vs Blue for this bit.

Opinion: Windows Only Good for Games

2005-02-09T17:59:00.000-05:00

Recently my roommate and I have been comparing tasks between Windows and the Mac. Things like instant messaging, file sharing, web browsing, etc. The Mac wins in most areas hands down. The only category where it's weak is games. Not that there aren't any. Just not as many and they take a while to come out.

This isn't a problem for me because I don't play games any longer but if you're a hard core gamer your going to want to keep your x86 system around. But when you start to think of the costs of keeping a modern gaming system up to spec when a video card can cost as much as a whole system, you really have to ask yourself if it's worth it.

Switch: p2p

2005-02-08T21:48:00.000-05:00

Legal issues aside p2p is the reason most people have broadband. The Mac used to be a bit weak in this area but now there are many great apps available for all the major networks.

I primarily use two. Azureus for large files and Poisoned for smaller ones.

Opinion: Widescreen

2005-02-07T11:24:00.000-05:00

Where are all the widescreen LCDs? I've been looking for one to go with my mini and haven't been able to find many. The only one I can find under $300 is the ProView 15.4" and this is from an off brand and doesn't have DVI.

Widescreen is so much better than the standard 4x3 format. I don't mind scrolling up and down but I hate to scroll sideways for some reason. I know a lot of notebooks are coming out in widescreen so why the hold up with desktop displays?

Apple has been using widescreen LCDs for a while now. When is the rest of the world going to catch up?

News: CNET Names mini #1 Gadget

2005-02-06T18:04:00.000-05:00

CNET has a list of 10 must have gadgets. They named the mini number one. What's most interesting to me is that the mini is the only computer to make this 'gadget' list. It seems Apple's work to redefine the market for the mini is working. Also showing up at number five is the iPod.

Link: Mac minis In the Wild 2

2005-02-06T08:03:00.000-05:00

The Center
Originally uploaded by Emerald2098.

It struck me that this guy has treated his mini like another of his game consoles. He even has a game controller for it.

Link: Mac minis In the Wild

2005-02-06T08:02:00.000-05:00

Mac mini for my living room
Originally uploaded by digitalbear.

People are already putting them in their living rooms and already getting complaints from the wife.

Link: HK Hearts Apple

2005-02-06T07:48:00.000-05:00

Mac mini & iPod shuffle on HK magazine covers
Originally uploaded by kwong.

Why is it that Hong Kong techs mags have hot girls on the cover? And when are we going to get that here?

Deal: Official Putty Knife $6

2005-02-06T01:42:00.000-05:00

This is the official mastic putty knife recommended by Apple for opening the mini:

Stanley Proto 680-28-241 1-1/2 Flex Blade Professional Putty Knife Stanley #28-241

Link: Mac mini Developer in Forum

2005-02-05T23:07:00.000-05:00

Bilbrey is one of the developer's that worked on the mini. He talks about his experience in this Tivo forum. I personally would like to thank him and the rest of the team.

Also interesting to note is the other projects he worked on before the mini "I worked on DMX (Digital Music Express, the music delivery system used by AT&T and Comcast Cable), I did a video board (Video Explorer, that was used for film and television production), and a few other things..."

Link: The Japanese Know the mini is Sexy

2005-02-05T22:47:00.000-05:00

Check out this Flickr post. Looks like the Japanese think the mini and shuffle are two sexy beasts. And they make a comparison to an uSFF PC system. Wish I could get a translation of that.

Opinion: Slot Load

2005-02-05T10:56:00.000-05:00

The design that makes the mini great isn't easily understood by Windows users. They look at the specs and say it's two year old 'PC' technology. I'd like them to tell me where I can get slot load 3.5" optical drives for my x86 system? The only slot load devices I can find are slim notebook sized drives. Even the x86 notebooks I've seen still have tray load drives.

Tray load sucks. The tray takes time to open and close and they always fell junkie. Apple has been using slot load forever and hasn't had a tray load ~~system~~ notebook for years. So if you ask me it's the x86 world that has yet to catch up to four year old Mac hardware.

Opinion: When There's a Problem It's a Big Deal

2005-02-04T23:00:00.000-05:00

On the Mac when I have a problem it really bothers me. With Windows most people just dismiss it and hope it doesn't come back. Some people even learn to live with their systems running like crap. But if I get any error even a small glitch it really bothers me and I try to find the source.

And the problems are very small. I measure my uptime in weeks not days. The only time I restart is when I've done a software update that requires it. My friends on Windows restart at least once a week just to avoid any problems and 'speed' up there systems. They also worry about disk fragmentation, scan disk, etc. OS X works so well most users have never even heard about this.

Same with anti-virus and spyware. I was asked what spyware removal software I use on the Mac but I couldn't answer because there is none. It's been claimed that it's because there are so few Macs. But even if there where an equal number of Macs and Windows systems Macs would still have fewer infections because the system isn't as vulnerable. And when there was a problem Mac users wouldn't stand for it.

AV: Jewel Case

2005-02-03T14:21:00.000-05:00

Optical Alchemy has a great iTunes plugin called Jewel Case. I'm using it now instead of Sofa. One thing on my wish list is for it to download the cover art just like Sofa does. Thanks to Mighty Dave for the heads up.

Switch: IM

2005-02-03T10:11:00.000-05:00

iChat is a great app. But unless all your friends are willing to switch to AIM your going to need some other clients. Yahoo Messenger for the Mac is crap. I suggest a multi network client. There are 4 or 5 floating around but Adium X is the coolest. First thing switch the alert sounds. Those duck quacks drove me nuts.

News: Overclock Your mini

2005-02-03T10:03:00.000-05:00

For all of you crazy overclockers here is the way to mod you mini. I wonder how long it will be to people hack the rest of the hardware.

Link: 13 Things To Do With Your mini

2005-02-02T23:26:00.000-05:00

MIT's Tech Review has a list of uses for the mini. I'm going to use mine for 1, 5 and 13. Got any ideas that didn't make the list?

Humor: Compatable With Orbiting Brain Lasers

2005-02-02T01:25:00.000-05:00

Thanks to the guys at uberGeek for pointing out that I forgot that Linux is compatable with orbiting brain lasers.

Opinion: Less Scary Than Linux

2005-02-01T14:12:00.000-05:00

People want something other than Windows and Linux is a great technology but it's far from a friendly product.

I've tried Ubuntu for PPC and while it's improved quite a bit over other Linux distros it's still nowhere near as polished as OS X.

Not to mention the Linux community is not always as welcoming as they should be of newbies.

Switching platforms is a scary proposition even for experienced users. Imagine what it must be like for your average person. If your in a large organization there should be help available but if your a small business or home user who do you go to for help? I know you can find self help on the net but this requires knowing the right questions to ask.

Apple on the other hand provides support both on the phone and more importantly in person at the Apple Stores. Until a Linux product comes along that can offer something like this I will keep recommending average people don't install Linux.

One exception is a LiveCD but these offer such a poor experience due to the speed of the optical drive it's not going to convince many too switch.

Link: Plastic Goodness for mini

2005-02-01T11:03:00.000-05:00

Heralding the platform the mini will be Plasticsmith has introduced a number of mini accessories. Including the 'mini skirt' (rolls eyes). All of them try to make your mini more like the cube.

News: Apple Number 1 Brand

2005-01-31T18:41:00.000-05:00

Apple beat out Google to be the number 1 brand according to Brand Channel. With that and 10 million iPods sold they should be able to get a few people to try a Mac mini. This reinforces my argument that mind share is just as important as market share.

Link: Nano ITX Too Big

2005-01-31T08:48:00.000-05:00

Kevin Rose is a really cool guy. I loved The Broken. Enough with the gushing, let me get to this point of this post.

Kevin was able to get a Nano ITX board (I thought these things where vaporware) from VIA and tried to fit it in the mini case. Turns out even the Nano is too big and Kevin had to whip out the dremel to get it to fit. And even then he couldn't get the optical drive to fit.

AV: Sofa

2005-01-31T06:57:00.000-05:00

I use Sofa to display album art on my desktop when I'm listening to music and have my Mac hooked up to the TV. I love the zoom out transition between album art. Here is a screen shot.

AV: Salling Clicker

2005-01-30T13:09:00.000-05:00

For my "Media Center" needs I use Salling Clicker with my Sony T610. It's one of the few pieces of shareware I've ever registered (the other being SideTrack) and I'm very happy with it. I use it to control iTunes and VLC. It gives me 90% of what I want.

For the other 10% you can add on scripts like Snarb's VLC Controller which works better than the one included with Clicker. I normally have iTunes running and when I want to start a movie I select the file right from my phone and Snarb's script pauses iTunes and sets my iChat status to away with the title of the movie! Then when the movie's done it unpauses iTunes and the song is right where I left off.

Switch: Video Players

2005-01-29T16:33:00.000-05:00

If your like me you've got tons of videos encoded using god knows what. Unless you need QuickTime decoding (I'll cover why you might in the future) don't worry about codecs. Get a player that does the work for you.

The best are VLC and MPlayer OS X. I use MPlayer most of the time because I prefer it's keyboard shortcuts. You should have both just in case either one has a problem with a certain ~~porn~~ I mean comedy clip.

The only other one you should ever need is Windows Media Player which really sucks on OS X but gets the job done when the above two don't work on newer WMV vids. Microsoft should be embarrassed by WMP on the Mac and come out with a real application if and when they update it to version 10.

Link: Ars mini Guide to OS X

2005-01-29T14:34:00.000-05:00

The fine fellows at ArsTechnica have put up a guide for "adders" to help you get used to OS X. I'm still trying to come up with a good term for people who plan on trying the Mac before switching and "adders" doesn't cut it. Any ideas?

Opinion: I Want Apple to Lose

2005-01-28T22:16:00.000-05:00

In their lawsuits against several people. They are suing the blog ThinkSecret for well secrets and a couple kids for Tiger betas on BitTorrent.

Nicholas Ciarelli of ThinkSecret was a huge fan. I understand that if product secrets are released early it can hurt business. So can bullying your fan base. And in the end Nick was just acting as journalist. If Apple doesn't want it secrets shared then they need to do a better job of keeping their employees and partners quiet. Microsoft wishes they could generate this much excitement. Apple should drop the lawsuit and find a way to make use of it.

Now for the Tiger beta kids. Sure what they did was wrong. But has it really hurt Apple? This was an early beta and it's not like it would keep the people who downloaded it from buying the full version. Get them to commit to doing something good like teaching kids about the Mac.

I hope Apple reads what people are saying and changes their course. If not I'll continue to buy their products but I won't feel quite as good about it.

Link: HP Hearts mini

2005-01-27T11:17:00.000-05:00

According to ZDNet HP loves the mini and hopes it opens up a market for small Windows PCs. Of course a lot of the excitement for the mini is because it's not a Windows PC. People really want to try something different. And the mini fits that bill nicely. I'm sure tons of Windows copycats will be out in six months or less but I don't think they'll capture peoples interest the way the mini has.

Opinon: Copying Apple

2005-01-27T06:03:00.000-05:00

Here is a sneak peek at the new iBook. Or sorry I mean Asus. You'd think since Asus makes the iBooks they could just copy the molds. But I'm sure this will be a bad photocopy. It will have too many buttons, too many lights.

Deal: Three Different KVMs Starting at $20 Shipped

2005-01-26T20:11:00.000-05:00

Plug in your PS2 keyboard, mouse, and VGA monitor to control your PC and mini: Trendware TK-206I ~~$20~~ $24 Shipped

Plug in your USB keyboard, mouse, and VGA monitor to control your PC and mini: Zonet Technologies KVM3112 ~~$29~~ $34 Shipped After Rebate

Plug in your USB keyboard, mouse, VGA monitor, to speakers and control your PC and mini: Belkin F1DL102U ~~$46~~ $50 Shipped

Sorry for the price increases. Shipping was free when I first listed them.

Deal: PS2 to USB Adapter $9.50 Shipped

2005-01-26T19:45:00.000-05:00

If you are planning to use a PS2 keyboard and mouse with your mini you will need this. It's the lowest price I could find with shipping.

Link: Smash Has Done It Again

2005-01-26T19:25:00.000-05:00

I don't know how he does it but I'm just glad he does. He has a torrent up of a great PDF file for taking the mini apart.

Opinion: PC Held Back by Past

2005-01-26T13:14:00.000-05:00

x86 Windows based systems are always being held back by the past. When the iMac was introduced people questioned it's lack of ports and floppy drive. They pointed out it didn't have serial, SCSI, and ADB ports. They said that because it didn't have a floppy there was no way to backup your data. But they were wrong.

I loved the fact that the iMac lacked all legacy ports and didn't have a near useless floppy drive. If Apple had worried about people's reactions the iMac would not have been as elegant as it was. And the mini could never exist.

And PCs still don't come close. Most PCs still come with parallel, serial, VGA, joystick/MIDI, and floppy drives that most people don't need any longer. No one makes any devices that still use these ports expect for VGA. And if PC manufactures had any balls they would switch to DVI and the monitor industry would follow suite. If you do still have legacy devices you can get adapters.

Windows is also held back by the past. A time when a PC was a stand alone system or connected to an internal network and not subject to the hostile environment of the Internet. It's the need for backwards compatibility that makes Windows so insecure and subject to attack.

Apple has been leading the industry. It's time everyone else caught up and let go of the past.

Link: Adam's in the Plain Dealer

2005-01-25T13:57:00.000-05:00

Today will live in infamy as the day of links. But I had to put this one up. My friend Adam Critchfield was quoted in the local newspaper in a story about spyware. Now he knows what I've been saying about being misquoted. But they got the gist of it.

Link: AnandTech Love Fest

2005-01-25T13:41:00.001-05:00

Continuing my love fest with all things Anand. I think he has just posted his best article ever! It's the best review yet of the mini and a good overview of iLife and iWork. What's great is Anand doesn't get bogged down in details like he often does, and best yet not one damn chart or graph! For those of you that like to read the last page of a book here's the end:

"To the rest of us, it’s a small, quiet, stylish looking box that finally breaks down the price barrier to Mac OS X. As a second system for any PC user, the Mac mini can’t be beat."

I couldn't agree more.

Link: Anand Hearts Mac

2005-01-25T08:59:00.000-05:00

Anand Lal Shimpi of AnandTech has a great second article about his experiences with switching to the Mac.

If you could say he liked the Mac in his first article you could say he loves the Mac in this article.

Some great quotes and my comments in italics:

"It took a lot of convincing (as well as some executive privilege) for the establishment of the Mac section, and then came the ... article "
Some of Anand's staff didn't want him to write about the Mac.

"Within the first three days of publication, that little Mac article skyrocketed to becoming one of the all-time most popular articles ever published on AnandTech."
Windows enthusiasts are dying for something new.

"One problem with these types of articles is that they inevitably take much longer to put together, simply because there are no structured tests to run and analyze."
That's why this article is so good."

"At the end of the first Mac article, I came to the realization that what attracted me most to OS X was the way everything just worked the way that you'd expect it to."
Welcome to the Mac, Anand.

I don't want to give away too much so go read the article and give the guy some credit in the comments section and send him some nice emails.

He just put up an article on the mini! I really think he gets it!

Humor: Morning After

2005-01-24T18:20:00.000-05:00

Since the tradition in the US is to get totally drunk on your 21st birthday let's hope the Mac doesn't do something it will later regret.

News: Happy 21st Birthday Macintosh

2005-01-24T14:51:00.000-05:00

21 years ago today, on January 24th 1984, Apple introduced the Macintosh.

Here is a great german site with a lost video.

I've put a mirror up for the video.

If you want to link to the video please link to my post:

http://macmini.blogspot.com/2005/01/news-happy-21st-birthday-macintosh.html

Link: AV Mac Sites

2005-01-24T13:07:00.000-05:00

Here are two more great Mac AV Sites

HTmini is run by Clint Ecker a fellow Ohioan. Checkout this mockup of a potential media center front end:

Mac HTPC is run by by Brian Greenway who is new to Macs but an old hand with Home Theaters. I love this mockup of a mini add-on:

Check em out and let me know of any others.

Humor: Move to Iceland

2005-01-24T13:06:00.000-05:00

Thanks to UberGeek for this funny switch bit.

News: 250,000 minis Sold

2005-01-24T11:22:00.000-05:00

According to this site Apple sold 250,000 minis in 7 days! Breaking the record held by the original iMac.

New Format

2005-01-24T11:06:00.000-05:00

I've written a ton of articles in less than two weeks and I've noticed it's hard to sort through them. So I'm going to add categories to the front of my posts. Here are the ones I'm planning to use:

AV
Deals
Humor
Link
News
Opinion
Projects
Switch

If you have any questions or think of any others let me know.

Apple vs Sony vs Dell

2005-01-23T16:59:00.000-05:00

People love the David and Goliath struggle of Apple vs Microsoft. In the past the two companies competed to build the first popular GUI desktop. Apple won that battle but lost the war. Today the two companies are very different and it's not really honest to compare Apple and Microsoft.

In the digital lifestyle war it's a competition between Apple, Sony, and the new five hundred pound gorilla Dell. Microsoft is in the background still trying to understand the market while Apple is making real money. It appears again that Apple has won the battle. But will they win the war?

Apple vs Sony
Sony has been one of the few computer companies to focus on style as much as Apple. Sony produced the first PowerBooks for Apple and I've often thought if Apple disappeared I'd by a Sony notebook. But they never had the elegance of Apple. They suffer from feature creep. Too many buttons, too many lights.

Sony has competing interests since they own a lot of music. They where afraid to come out with a mp3 player for fear of eating into their music sales. Now they are starting to admit this. They lost the first round to Apple.

Now it seems Apple and Sony might be teaming up again. To what end who knows but it will be interesting to watch.

Apple vs Dell
Dell is scared. Trust me. Smart companies with their heads on straight don't lash out at the competition. Smart companies say their product is nice but ours is better. Dell can't give away it's mp3 player. Why? I think Chris says it best, ugly, ugly, ugly.

The next battle is for the living room and Dell is trying to come out in front this time. But unless they take some good advice they will lose to Apple and Sony.

Dell is bound to corporate and small business sales. The digital lifestyle matters little to these companies and probably explains why Dell's media center is buried in their website. Plus Dell is stuck to Microsoft who seems to be focusing solely on passive TV style entertainment while Apple has been building great tools to make content.

Will the mini and some yet unknown product and service from the Apple Sony partnership bring the full promise of the digital lifestyle and win the war? I'm betting they will. Any takers?

Mac Users Computer Bilingual

2005-01-23T11:57:00.000-05:00

On LinuxInsider Paul Murphy has an excellent commentary up. His main point is that most Mac and Linux advocates have used Windows and didn't enjoy it. While most Windows advocates have never seriously tried anything else and so have no basis for comparison. I couldn't agree more. When a Windows enthusiast really tries the Mac they seem to like it.

Another point he makes is that the reason Apple's market share is low is because Mac users don't upgrade as often. I know this is true. I see people using really old Macs all the time. When I ask them why they don't upgrade they say if it's not broke don't fix it.

I've been saying forever that it really isn't market share but mind share that matters. And given all the attention Apple's getting mind share is about 50/50.

Maybe the pitch shouldn't be to switch but just to give the Mac a chance. At least you'll learn to be bilingual. And everyone knows bilingual is sexy.

How Easy It Is To Switch

2005-01-22T22:59:00.000-05:00

Russel Beattie shows us how easy it is to switch. I'm guessing it took him less than 30 minutes.

Let's hope he documents the software side of the switch.

Thanks to Om Malik for the pointer to Russ' site.

Even Snow Storms Can't Keep Me From the mini

2005-01-22T21:17:00.000-05:00

Your intrepid blogger wanted to be at the Apple store first thing this morning but mother nature had other ideas.

After digging my self out, the drive that normally takes a half hour took twice as long. But a little snow wasn't going to keep me away.

They had two minis on display and a few people where using them. I talked to the staff while I was waiting and they said there where six people waiting at 9AM when they opened and they all bought minis.

I asked them if I could upgrade to Airport (WiFi) and Bluetooth after buying the mini. They said yes but didn't have the upgrade modules yet. They also said they would recommend them installing the modules as it's very hard.

Then I asked about the high price for the 1GB module. They said Apple uses the highest quality RAM and was working on finding a cheaper supplier. In the meantime they said it would not void the warranty to upgrade it myself but they don't recommend it for most people.

Next I asked if they got special putty knives. Which made them chuckle and they said they had but they didn't have Apple logos on them or anything.

No one yet had complained about the lack of keyboard and mouse. Overall they where super nice and great guys.

Finally I got to use the 1.42 mini. I picked it up and couldn't believe how light and small it was. You really have to see this in person.

I started playing around with it. It was very snappy until I loaded four or five apps and maxed out the 256MB of RAM. I downloaded VLC and several high quality DivX files which of course it had no problems playing.

The internal speaker isn't very loud. I could hardly hear it in the store. So I plugged in my head phones and the sound quality was very good.

I ran through the iLife and iWork apps and as long as there was free memory things were smooth.

I even downloaded Xbench and ran it. Here is the results file if your interested in that kind of thing. To sum them up it compares very well to a G4 iMac Flat Panel.

It really is a great system for most people and I can't wait to get mine.

Getting the Big Picture On the mini

2005-01-22T20:52:00.000-05:00

Many smart people think Apple has something up it's sleeve with the mini. Om Malik makes the case on his blog that the after market will come up with products to turn the mini into the ultimate HTPC. As this happens Apple and Sony will team together and offer movies online.

Will iTheater revolutionize the movie industry the same way iTunes has for music? I know I'd rather pay $10 for new movies than buy the DVD at Best Buy. Plus don't forget that a lot of iTunes business is in obscure titles. This could mean you'll soon be able to watch almost any film you can think of. And with cheap HD camcorders coming to market there will be a ton of new niche content. I can almost smell the popcorn now.

NBC Shows Off mini

2005-01-22T14:44:00.000-05:00

Here's a video sneak peek at NBC News' coverage of Macworld Expo. Great coverage from a major network even if they do mispronounce Steve Jobs' name. This will help sell Windows users who are tired of dealing with Microsoft's problems.

mini FAQ

2005-01-22T14:40:00.000-05:00

Check out MacWorld's mini FAQ. It helps answer questions on upgrading the RAM, WiFi, and Bluetooth.

#1 on Yahoo!

2005-01-22T14:22:00.000-05:00

Thanks everyone for making this site the #1 result on Yahoo when you search for mac mini blog.

Plus you can add our Atom feed to your My Yahoo page and see when new articles are posted. This is a great new feature on Yahoo.

Taking Down the Poll

2005-01-21T21:51:00.000-05:00

Sorry I had to take down the poll. Bravenet was putting popup ads on this site! I'll be writing them a nasty email. I'm look for another poll provider. Any suggestions?

Thanks to everyone who voted here are the results:

mini Dissected

2005-01-21T21:14:00.000-05:00

Ai Mark 42 rocks us with a link to John Waller's great disassembly guide. Doesn't seem too hard and you can save a ton if you want 1GB of RAM.

Mac mini for $439 from Target

2005-01-21T21:06:00.000-05:00

Big thanks to Ai Mark 42 who reached me on iChat about this great deal. Check out FatWallet for details. Also thanks to FatWallet for the link to me!