Mac mini on my mind (and apparently a lot of other minds too)
I was going to blog about my first day of implementing Getting Things Done (which is going really well), but the Mac mini is too much on my mind now. Plus, combing through my blog feeds in NetNewsWire, I notice that a bunch of bloggers are getting them:
BMann, who is going to use it as a Media Center Mac by attaching a Plextor ConvertX box to a huge 23" LCD monitor.
Logemann is going to buy it for testing out Java apps and for "fun in general." Cool.
David of Loud Thinking is going to use a Mac mini + an external firewire drive + an EyeTV 200 to make a PVR. Oh yeah, David's company, Next Angle, does Ruby on Rails work, specifically Basecamp. Also Instiki.
Dave, who works on Roller, is going to get a Mac mini for his wife (what a nice husband!) He's going to give his old Windows PC to his kids, but will
"disconnect it from the Net so they can use it safely. ;-)"Hilarious, yes sadly true.
Frank of Nicest of the Damned just bought one...with change? :) He's getting 1.25Ghz upgraded RAM, bigger hard drive, and Bluetooth. Probably what I'll get...
A friend of mine has already ordered a 1.25Ghz one w/upgraded RAM and an 80GB hard drive for his sister, to replace her aging Quadra (from 1994!)
I'm personally getting it so my kids can have a nice, powerful, modern, stable, and secure computer for educational use. My wife will probably continue to share the PowerBook with me, since its nice to use while sitting on the couch. Like I said earlier, my aging PC is on its last legs and probably needs a complete reinstall of Windows + all the apps + backup/restore data. That's a painful undertaking. As a bonus, I'll be able to test out these Cocoa apps that I've been creating on my PowerBook on another Mac. Maybe I'll also use it as a distributed Xcode compiler unit. I think I'll get one of those Apple one button mice since my kids always seem to press the right-mouse button by accident, causing their Macromedia Flash/Shockwave games to display a control panel that interrupts the proceedings. Oh yeah, $499 (Mac mini) + the necessary upgrades is a lot easier on the budget than $1299 (17" 1.6Ghz iMac G5) + the necessary upgrades. Hmm... maybe I'll spring for 2 iSights so I can video-chat with my family while I'm at work or on the road.
I'm also trying to figure out how I can get enough money together to buy a Mac mini for each member of my extended family. Since I'm the computer expert in the family, I get a lot of tech support calls ranging from "I get a virus alert", to "my machine takes 15 minutes to boot up", to my personal favorite, from my dear departed grandma Sarah: "Microsoft Word is too small", even after I told her to maximize the window. That last problem was caused by the Windows Taskbar in Windows 98 having the "feature" that it can be resized at will, which my then 90 year old grandma accidentally dragged to fill up half the screen.
Anand (of AnandTech) agrees with my "buy a Mac mini for your friends and family" plan:
"A lot of PC users who are tired of giving tech support to friends and family members will simply have them go out and get an Apple Mini. At the same time, those who have never used OS X but are intrigued by it are finding that the barrier to entry--cost--has been lifted," wrote Anand Shimpi, editor-in-chief of AnandTech, an online review and benchmarking site.
To top it all off, Dvorak is going to recommend the Mac mini, especially to new users, with the caveat that it doesn't have heat issues once it ships. Dvorak hasn't thought very highly of Apple products in recent years. I've got faith that the Apple engineers have a handle on this, especially considering their experience with compact designs with the PowerBook and the iMac.
Hmm... I wonder if corporate IT departments will consider buying Macs minis...
Update: James Duncan Davidson is also going to buy one as a Media Center Mac to hook up to his brand new 32" Samsung LCD HDTV which has a max resolution of 1280x768. I hope he'll put up some pics of his set up.