iPod Hi-Fi and New Mac Mini
Posted February 28th, 2006 @ 01:49pm by Erik J. Barzeski
I'm unlikely to buy either the iPod Hi-Fi or the Mac Mini. Why?
First off, I don't often use my TV/Stereo system for much beyond my TiVo, the DVD player, or some games. I have an AirPort Express hooked up if I really want to play my music downstairs, and I can't see wanting to view movies or photos on the TV. If I really want to, after all, we can hook the 12" PowerBook up to the TV and watch videos that way.
The iPod Hi-Fi suffers from the same problem any set of speakers that hooks to an iPod does: it requires an iPod. My iPod stays in my car, my computer in its office, and my pool table sure as heck isn't moving. Perhaps I should buy a Mac Mini for the pool room, but $599 is a heck of a lot to spend just to get music from one room to another with a screen and a remote for control. Plus then I'm still without speakers and an LCD.
So, as of right now, I don't think either of these devices fits my iLife. It's still early - the event is still going on as I write this - but I don't think my opinion is likely to change.
Donate Life
Posted 28 Feb 2006 at 2:09pm #
And they raised the price of the mini above the psychological $500 barrier. Fooey!
Posted 28 Feb 2006 at 2:38pm #
I may get a Mac Mini to test my app for Intel. It's suspicious how they aren't touting the graphics of this new system, but it does come with twice the video memory than the last one. I don't know much about Intel on board graphics, but I would think they're as weak as you can get. Even so, there aren't many games you could probably play on this new machine. You are right in that they botched the pricing on this one.
I still haven't bought an iPod, so no hifi for me.
Posted 28 Feb 2006 at 3:02pm #
There's an audio in port on the Hi-Fi.
Posted 28 Feb 2006 at 5:36pm #
The audio port isn't going to do much for me. Why would it?
Posted 28 Feb 2006 at 6:28pm #
this guy has a pretty good point:
http://www.friday.com/bbum/2006/02/28/intel-mac-minis-video-card/
Posted 28 Feb 2006 at 6:28pm #
Good question. I'm just saying you're not bound to having an iPod in there, but in that case, you'd probably be better off with other speakers in the first place.
Posted 28 Feb 2006 at 6:33pm #
andy, I just read that and was going to come here to post it: as a stand-in for your DVD player, the Mac Mini might be kind of nice, actually. You won't be able to do ALL of the things you can do with your DVD player (the slow-frames, alternate angles, yada yada stuff via the little Apple remote), but it'd take up no extra space on your receiver and it'd offer all the extra capabilities, too.
Too bad my 5-disc Sony DVD player is unlikely to need replaced in the next, oh, two or three years.
Posted 28 Feb 2006 at 8:27pm #
The addition of gigabit is nice but (and it appears I'm not alone in this) I think the price points are a bit high. I'd really like to get a Intel Mac, but I don't think it will happen until need to refresh my laptop.
As a media center it's decent. Front Row is rather limited but they really need to make a framework so that developers can extend it. I myself would probably end up building a MythTV setup if I ever decided I needed a media center (personalized weather, emulator front-ends, ticker bars, oh yea).
Posted 02 Mar 2006 at 8:02pm #
I look forward to putting the new Core Duo version of the Mac mini in our labs where I work. It will be a big improvement over the G4 model. But that will have to wait until summer.. I'm not going to start supporting two architectures halfway through the semester.