I was praising this thing on #m_d last night. Soooo many uses and only 500$. Only small (and I do mean small..) downside is that it is only a G4 processor.
And 256mb of ram, also a bummer. Reminds me of the old Apple Cube, wich I seem to remember failed badly. It'll be interested to see how this unit sells. I'd love to get a Mac, but when you can get PC hardware of comparable power for half the price...
vermillion: while it wasn't a big hit right off, the cube has a serious cult, with resale values that remain high. given that mac users are already pretty cultish, cult within a cult status is pretty impressive
the new imac i was not a fan of, but the mac mini scores another design home run for apple. they've got some of the best designers in the industry and it shows. the only apple computer product i'm using is their wonderful 23" cinema display... but if i ever went for a mac for webbrowsing/media center type stuff, i'd take one of these.
Unforunately I'm with fordy, but then again I use Macs weekly. I was even stuck using one for 6 months. Easy to use, no! Works with PCs, sortof. Doesn't crash, HAH, right!!!! My Mac usually crashed multiple times a day and was a nightmare in a support setting. The only thing I've found going for ir is the use of BSD as its basis. I'd really like a nice little nonfluffy linux install instead of OSX GUI. Sorry got off topic. Bus is a bit slow, video card just soso, and still a bit overpriced. Cute and space efficient though.
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vermillion: while it wasn't a big hit right off, the cube has a serious cult, with resale values that remain high. given that mac users are already pretty cultish, cult within a cult status is pretty impressive
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Oh, I know all about them - my old boss at the university was a Mac zealot and bought himself one (with uni funds) shortly after the announcement. It was 'cute', but not really upgradable, and I thought it to be a pretty bad investment (though he was constantly blowing budget on toys for himself and the office). We always referred to it as 'the toaster', due to it's shape - alas, it made no toast
i dont think so. NT stands for New Technology and it strikes me as a conflict with MS's general direction at the time NT was concieved that they would take any Unix solution as a direct basis for their new tech. but i dotn have any facts here. just sharing general opinion.
It looks pretty great. If I didnt have to pay a fortune on some dental work this month, I'd consider buying one.
I have been accused of being an anti-Mac guy, but thats not really the case. What I dislike are the Zealous Mac Cultists(who sadly seem more the rule than the exception) not the device itself. The holier than thou attitude and delusional qualities that accompany such fanatacism are pretty grating.
That said, we use Dual Mac's G5s for our Final Cut workstations and now the new IMac's for our on-site digital event photography (against my recommendation). They seem to have some good software going for them.
They crash just as often as our PC's, and dont really seem any faster though I do love thier aesthetic. Some of the features Im used to in windows are missing, and that is the cause of some frustration occasionally.
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I have been accused of being an anti-Mac guy, but thats not really the case. What I dislike are the Zealous Mac Cultists(who sadly seem more the rule than the exception) not the device itself. The holier than thou attitude and delusional qualities that accompany such fanatacism are pretty grating.
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I'd like to second this. Saves me the trouble of typing it.
Macs are great if you like playing all 3 games ever released for them, using Photoshop or buying music off iTunes.com for your trendy iPod.
Also macs are great if you are a trendy fag that has to have something for the way it looks, not the way it functions or for having some sort of stability.
love my little ibook. runs great. has never crashed on me. even the campus macs crashed far less often than windows does.
also love the 'drag and drop' feature of macs, if you know what im sayin.
i think the mini would be great for a college dorm room enviroment where you never really have much room.
if it wasnt for the price tag and lack of gaming options i would almost convert to mac full time.
/me waits outside gauss' room until he sleeps. must gets the precious cinema display.. yes must get the precious
The design of this new mac is once again awesome and nothing less.
The specs however worry me. It has only very little RAM and you cannot increase it by yourself. For no keyboard, no mouse and no display 500$ is still pretty much. The system bus is at 167MHz, which I think is pretty low (I could be wrong about that though). The GFX card comes with only 32MB. Only two USB ports, one of them has to be used for the keyboard AFAIK. And strangely the maximum operating temp is 35°C (95°F) - I get that on a hot summer day without even turning on the computer.
While things such as "'nuff said." have rarely ended an intelligent discussion or monologue, i'd like to point out that in this case: its not the dramatic break with tradition Slayerjetman was most likely going for.
People who praise Macs are generally uninformed, and the same goes for people who have nothing but negative commentary.
Macs are overpriced, and lacking in functionality, i think we can agree on this (this computer, when you upgrade it to something remotely decent costs 1000, instead of 500.), but they're also quite stable, user-friendly in the way that you can't do much wrong with them as a noncomputer-savy person, and they're appealing in design.
If you are a computer-savy person though, i would recommend you use a pc, personally. the prices are becoming fairer, but they're still mildly overpriced in my opinion.
i am the king of coherence ladies and gentlemen, i prove it again and again!
edit: it also irks me that they advertise it as being the tool that you can "plug your electrical guitar into" without actually having a sound in.
You have to buy a peripheral for that, which plugs into the usb, and costs 35, i think.
For someone with a real machine I can't see much of a use for one of these. However, if I knew someone who was in the market to buy an inexpensive PC and was not interested in games I would recommend it.
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the new imac i was not a fan of, but the mac mini scores another design home run for apple. they've got some of the best designers in the industry and it shows. the only apple computer product i'm using is their wonderful 23" cinema display... but if i ever went for a mac for webbrowsing/media center type stuff, i'd take one of these.
I hate macs
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Give it up for this informed opinion on the subject everyone! This is stuff worth reading!
as far as a media player goes, I'm going to get myself this:
http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10481
vermillion: while it wasn't a big hit right off, the cube has a serious cult, with resale values that remain high. given that mac users are already pretty cultish, cult within a cult status is pretty impressive
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Oh, I know all about them - my old boss at the university was a Mac zealot and bought himself one (with uni funds) shortly after the announcement. It was 'cute', but not really upgradable, and I thought it to be a pretty bad investment (though he was constantly blowing budget on toys for himself and the office). We always referred to it as 'the toaster', due to it's shape - alas, it made no toast
I have been accused of being an anti-Mac guy, but thats not really the case. What I dislike are the Zealous Mac Cultists(who sadly seem more the rule than the exception) not the device itself. The holier than thou attitude and delusional qualities that accompany such fanatacism are pretty grating.
That said, we use Dual Mac's G5s for our Final Cut workstations and now the new IMac's for our on-site digital event photography (against my recommendation). They seem to have some good software going for them.
They crash just as often as our PC's, and dont really seem any faster though I do love thier aesthetic. Some of the features Im used to in windows are missing, and that is the cause of some frustration occasionally.
I have been accused of being an anti-Mac guy, but thats not really the case. What I dislike are the Zealous Mac Cultists(who sadly seem more the rule than the exception) not the device itself. The holier than thou attitude and delusional qualities that accompany such fanatacism are pretty grating.
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I'd like to second this. Saves me the trouble of typing it.
Thats why I don't like them.
Also macs are great if you are a trendy fag that has to have something for the way it looks, not the way it functions or for having some sort of stability.
'nuff said.
also love the 'drag and drop' feature of macs, if you know what im sayin.
i think the mini would be great for a college dorm room enviroment where you never really have much room.
if it wasnt for the price tag and lack of gaming options i would almost convert to mac full time.
/me waits outside gauss' room until he sleeps. must gets the precious cinema display.. yes must get the precious
The specs however worry me. It has only very little RAM and you cannot increase it by yourself. For no keyboard, no mouse and no display 500$ is still pretty much. The system bus is at 167MHz, which I think is pretty low (I could be wrong about that though). The GFX card comes with only 32MB. Only two USB ports, one of them has to be used for the keyboard AFAIK. And strangely the maximum operating temp is 35°C (95°F) - I get that on a hot summer day without even turning on the computer.
People who praise Macs are generally uninformed, and the same goes for people who have nothing but negative commentary.
Macs are overpriced, and lacking in functionality, i think we can agree on this (this computer, when you upgrade it to something remotely decent costs 1000, instead of 500.), but they're also quite stable, user-friendly in the way that you can't do much wrong with them as a noncomputer-savy person, and they're appealing in design.
If you are a computer-savy person though, i would recommend you use a pc, personally. the prices are becoming fairer, but they're still mildly overpriced in my opinion.
i am the king of coherence ladies and gentlemen, i prove it again and again!
edit: it also irks me that they advertise it as being the tool that you can "plug your electrical guitar into" without actually having a sound in.
You have to buy a peripheral for that, which plugs into the usb, and costs 35, i think.
I'll be using Maya 6.0 on a G5 Mac at School Starting Jan 21st.......Last Mac OS I used was 8.5....OS 10 might freak me out.