Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said that Apple retail stores are having a very hard time keeping up with demand for the new Mac mini and iPod shuffle. Elsewhere, C|NET News.com has a two-page report on the much-anticipated PowerBook G5 and the fact that it will take a while to materialize in the market.
Apple Stores show zero availability of Mac mini, iPod shuffle
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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127 Comments
2005-02-02 2:30 pm
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2005-02-02 3:25 pm
Anonymous
my favourite part of the review:
The OS X comes with some system maintenance utilities, but essentials such as a defragmenter or a or registry cleaner are notably absent. I would expect a Mini to get really slow and unstable within a couple months if you can’t perform any routine maintenance tasks on it.
bwahahahah…there is no registry in OS X…i wouldn’t want this man around my computer in any way! 
just a note…HFS+ doesn’t fragment as much as that crap that NTFS is (FAT is not an option here) so you don’t need a defragmentation utility.
Just low level MSCE….
(sorry for my english, i’m a lazy italian) 
2005-02-02 3:26 pm
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2005-02-02 9:39 pm
Anonymous
The issue isn’t over laptops or desktop replacements. Its having a secure product that reassures the person that when using it, you’re not going to be bombarded with port scans searching for access, privet sensitive information that’s for sale to anyone one that wants it, virus’, spyware and all the other hidden dangers that Windows OS has to offer you. No, no matter how many countless patches/updates MS may release you know it’s still not fully secure. The thought of your system being compromised lingers in the back of your mind, always.
That’s the opposite feeling you get when you’re running on a Apple computer.
And this is just the begining of a long line of cheap PCs that will come from Apple so expect the Mac market-share to increase and things change–more so then they already have–when Apple reachese fifteen or higher percent market-share. It will happen and you’ll be the one that will help us. :p :lol@U:
2005-02-02 10:34 pm
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Even the Mac faithful are getting impatient. It looks like Apple’s underpowered laptops will continue to lose customers to the growing market of desktop replacement systems offered by Dell and Sager.
I don’t know what others think, but I’d rather have an underpowered PowerBook than anything from Dell or Sager.
I’ve gotta ask, given that you’re so quick: do you just constantly hit reload and wait for an Apple-related article to appear so that you can inject your usual bit of negativity here? Is there anything about Apple or its products that you don’t view in a negative manner? Especially curious about the second.
Relevant to the topic at hand, it’s hard to judge the context of the shortage without knowing how much of these things Apple had stockpiled, and what rate they’re shipping out at. Apple tends not to build inventories in advance, and plan their production rate for the long term, rather than the initial rush, so these sorts of shortages are somewhat typical. If they’re still in short supply in another month or so, then we know they’ve got a hit on their hands.
Maybe you are right. But I will not change a powerbook for any other laptop, specially a Dell. Dell with the P4 extreme has the same problems that Apple is trying to avoid: Heat and Weight. 110 Watts. 9 something pounds. I dont think so.
> Even the Mac faithful are getting impatient. It looks like Apple’s underpowered laptops will continue to lose customers to the growing market of desktop replacement systems offered by Dell and Sager.
How are the new PowerBooks underpowered? These are the fastest OS X notebooks you can buy, this constant comparing Apple to x86 hardware is so pointless unless of course you’re buying an Apple PowerBook to install Linux on it.
At the moment I’m just waiting on my work to approve my purchase of a new 15″ PowerBook on salary sacrifice, it’s a great looking OS X notebook, but like most Mac users I look forward to the Dual Core Freescale or the G5 PowerBooks when ever they turn up.
I ordered my Mini from the Apple store the day after they were available and mine still isnt set to ship for another week.
Maybe you are right. But I will not change a powerbook for any other laptop, specially a Dell. Dell with the P4 extreme has the same problems that Apple is trying to avoid: Heat and Weight. 110 Watts. 9 something pounds. I dont think so.
Read my post again. I said “desktop replacement”, not ultraportable. If I wanted the ultraportable I would have gotten something with the P4M processor or would’ve taken a second look at the powerbooks, but Apple doesn’t even offer the type of machine that I need.
How are the new PowerBooks underpowered? These are the fastest OS X notebooks you can buy.
Hehe, compare powerbooks to other powerbooks. Now that’s funny.
> I ordered my Mini from the Apple store the day after they were available and mine still isnt set to ship for another week.
Welcome to the wonderful world of Apple pre-orders I had to wait 8 weeks for delivery of my PowerMac G5 when I ordered it, it’s an Apple thing you’ll get used to it one day
>How are the new PowerBooks underpowered? These are the fastest OS X notebooks you can buy.
>Hehe, compare powerbooks to other powerbooks. Now that’s funny.
Really I had no idea these other notebooks could run OS X, can you please paste a link so I can get a Dell with OS X installed?
I want a Dell with OS X give me a link please?
http://www.opendarwin.org/
Good luck getting it working but maybe someday.
It does work on x86 hardware, I have just never really gotten X working well.
how are they under powered? if you buy a dell with a intel pentium m your only going to get about 1.6 Ghz which is what apple is offering in their 15 and 17 inch note books, i know i shouldnt be comparing the PPC processors to the x86 since both archetectures are different, but you also have to consider that you will get many more programs ready to run with your apple than with your windows notebook, also apple notebooks usually have better battery life, so you have to take everything into consideration, not just hardware.
OpenDarwin isn’t OS X. I know for a fact that Lumbergh can’t give me a link to an x86 box running OS X, I just don’t understand his fanning the flames for his own personal reasons which have no basis in reality. The current PowerBooks are the fastest OS X portables you can buy, comparing them to x86 hardware is utterly pointless.
> Before I bought my Sager I looked at Apple notebooks for a desktop replacement.
Apple notebooks aren’t desktop replacements… they are portables, and engineered to be as portable as they can.
This mean:
– Long battery life
– Light weight
– Small formfactor
And, as far as I can tell the Powerbooks excel at those qualities. So, don’t blame the Powerbooks for being something that they aren’t.
You have a very strange point of view.
(PS. Sorry my poor english, I’m no native speaker)
Apple notebooks aren’t desktop replacements… they are portables, and engineered to be as portable as they can.
Uhhh, yeah and that’s why I said it was a problem for me.
. So, don’t blame the Powerbooks for being something that they aren’t.
No, I wouldn’t blame a Vic20 for being a AMD64-3200.
That would be so awesome. A Dell with OS X.
/me drools….
Based on the mhz numbers? Heh?
I still have my 500 mhz G4 Powerbook that’s 5 years old still going real strong. I use Photoshop, Illustrator, VPC, Safari, Email… all at the same time and still runs faster, get more things done than my 3 ghz G4 Shuttle I built to play games.
“That would be so awesome. A Dell with OS X. ”
Ok, you have got to be kidding. The last place I would want to see my beloved OS X is on some fugly Dell black plastic monster.
Steve Jobs is just a person Lumbergh, he doesn’t have a distortion field around him. Seriously he doesn’t. No human does.
Ok, you have got to be kidding. The last place I would want to see my beloved OS X is on some fugly Dell black plastic monster.
I’m sure you would be forced into buying an ugly black Dell monster to run OSX.
apple could make the powerbooks slower and i’d still buy them. want to know why? because they run os x, and no POS dell or sager will.
After the weak response to the Cube is it wise for Apple to overstock the Mini? As an APPL stockholder I am quite happy that they didn’t build a few million of them initially.
Is that on the front page of Apple.com they have a picture of the mini with the text “now shipping”.
Better to have a demand than to build to many. I’m guessing that’s Apple’s business model. Building to many Cubes probably did it to them. I do think the Cube looks better than the Mini. Where is the Dual 3gig promised last summer?
A good hack would be to change that sign on the front page to read “Out of Stock”.
didn’t G4 powerbooks come out c.2000-01, way after G4 powermacs were out? I remember reading a CompUSA ad with a 667Mhz powerbook G4 around that time. I also remember that when I saw the ad, I thought to myself ” Didn’t the first powermac G4 w/dual 450Mhz chips come out a long time ago?” I figured that the powerbook in the ad was the first our second Rev. with a G4. I’m probably realy wrong, it was a long time ago (I’m just 17) a year felt a lot longer back then. But am I at least a little bit right? Did the G4 books come way later than the G4 powermac?
I hope no one is surprised by this, this always happens. Not really apples fault, it’s just the simple matter that apple people pounce on stores when even a simple update comes out. Only in apple world can something like the tweak to the powerbooks yesterday be considered “new powerbooks” when it was a update that any other company in the world makes every other day and no one cares.
I am bummed about the shuffle, since they are something that can be punched out like nothing. I went to the apple store a few days after they were announced and they were sold out. They said they had a waiting list going, and that they had got a shipment of 512meggers the day before and were already sold out (curious how much a shipment is). I delayed but did order my 1 gig, it’s set to be shipped the 24th. What a bummer, really could use it for moving files around at work, and the music is a good plus. I’m sure they got a massive demand for them, but seams like they should have been able to build up production of them very well before launch. A robot can build the whole thing.
I think apple often makes sure not to have enough on launch to cause this to happen to some degree to show how great they are selling “hey look, we can’t make them fast enough, we got a block buster here”
apple could make the powerbooks slower and i’d still buy them. want to know why? because they run os x, and no POS dell or sager will.
Oh, so now Dells and Sagers are POS because they don’t run OSX?
Here ya go. http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/images/iProduct.gif
I think that Apple needs to take some lessons from Dell in filling out orders. I have been buying Apples from way back in the days of the original PPC 601, and Apples distribution system has all ways been ham and egg. They never have enough to satisfy demand, and if they do, somehow they screw up the delivery. I wish that in all this time, they had learned how to get this problem fixed. On another note, I am still waiting for my Mac mini to arrive too. Damn, the anticipation is killing me!
During the early days of the ThinkPad laptops, IBM used to plan a cycle of machines and *expected* constrained supplies knowing that corps would order them, it’s cheap advertising, all the news site reporting that supplies are tight hints that it’s a *hot* product, then they’d flood the channel in catch up before shutting down manufacturing to start ramping for the next model revision at about 4.5 months, in a 6 month cycle.
Considering that the Mini is clearly a Rev A device, I’d expect that in about 6 weeks, the Mini supplies will be same day on stock machines, 3-5 days on BTO’s and in 6 months, say @ WWDC, the Mini Rev B boxes will be announced with near immediate availability and have some upgrades to make Video with H.264 a reality.
The iPod Shuffle is a different baby. I think they hedged on the off chance it’s limitations prevented a rapid uptake. Considering it’s design, ramping up it’s manufacturing shouldn’t be a major hurdle, so an early supply constraint is a good thing in the marketing.
On the subject of under powered, there is no argument, the G4 PowerBooks are little bit slower than the current crop of x86 hardware (raw #’s). So what. By the time all the necessary precautions are installed (adaware, AV, etc) the usable performance levels out. If you are a hardcore gamer, no powerbook laptop will suite the demands, nor would a G5 in a laptop configuration.
I have a desktop replacement Toshiba and a PowerBook. You know where my Toshiba stays ? on the desktop, 1.5 hours of battery at best, terrible screen (high res, poor contrast and brightness), and my god it gets hot. 90% of the time I use it via Remote Desktop from the PowerBook either local or over the VPN. My PowerBook goes everywhere with me, and while it’s a touch slower, I’m more productive on it. It doesn’t help that Windows has destroyed itself twice this year, eating 3 full days each time to get it fully restored. That’s significant lost time that the 10 or 15% speed boost doesn’t make up for over the course of a year.
The reality is, if you want to justify your purchase, it’s easy enough to justify either side, use what suits your needs and let other people make objective decisions based upon their needs, not your own.
D
I think, atleast at one time, Apple’s mobile products out-sold their desktop products.
Well, they used to sell their G4 laptops in some big volume compared to everything else.
I have no doubt that the PowerBook G5 will likely increase Apple’s marketshare as Apple has established itself well.
As for the product shortages – That is bad planning with their management – what a shame. I know it may be unexpected for a lot of people that these things are selling like crazy but I would think that apple’s management would know this.
I’m loving Apple more and more everyday…
I understand that PowerBooks are not what you want. That’s fine.
You want a desktop replacement, they are not that. That’s a valid point, too.
They may be underpowerd for what you want.
Is it overpriced? It is, if you buy them to meet your needs.
The key here is that you are barking at a wrong tree.
Your real complaint is that Apple does not make a type of computer you want, namely a desktop replacement laptop. But you are blaming a different type of products not being another type.
It’s like you are complaing that Lexus (or any other company) does not make a pickup truck, and calls their SUV overpriced and underpowered. The thing is they are made for different needs.
The key here is that you are barking at a wrong tree.
Your real complaint is that Apple does not make a type of computer you want, namely a desktop replacement laptop. But you are blaming a different type of products not being another type.
I’m not the only one that would consider a powerbook G5 at a reasonable price. Read the article.
It’s like you are complaing that Lexus (or any other company) does not make a pickup truck, and calls their SUV overpriced and underpowered. The thing is they are made for different needs.
The first part of your post was decent, but then you jumped the shark with the tired car analogy.
That said, I’m about “this” close to picking up a mini if I can find a cheap panel.
Well, mine was “shipped” last Friday but still hasn’t left China. I’m a little irritated by that. Apple has reimbursed me my shipping $$$, but FedEx had nothing worthwhile to say when I called. “Customs”. ;( Supposedly it will be loaded onto a plane tonight. Bah. Then it has to go through US customs.
What really irks me is that it will come Friday or Saturday I bet, when I won’t be here. ARRRRGH! What are you doing to me Apple!? I’m getting an ulcer.
Hope you do. That’s how I ended up using a Mac. Bought an iBook (G3/600) as a plaything to check out OS X on the side while I carried a Dell (and later a Compaq) laptop as my primary machine. Ultimately the OS and tools made it easy for me to switch. (http://www.druware.com/articles/switching.html). At that point, an iBook was a decent entry point.
That article was written in almost 2 years ago today, and the downsides then have improved dramatically, and since then I’ve replaced the iBook with a PowerBook and replaced my old home built Dual PIII900 desktop with a PM G5 with Dual 2.0’s in it. I really can’t emphasize enough how shocked I was that I switched, it wasn’t by intent or design, it simply happened…
I wish you luck on your experiment 🙂
D
Risc wrote:
OpenDarwin isn’t OS X. I know for a fact that Lumbergh can’t give me a link to an x86 box running OS X, I just don’t understand his fanning the flames for his own personal reasons which have no basis in reality. The current PowerBooks are the fastest OS X portables you can buy, comparing them to x86 hardware is utterly pointless.
Offtopic but I’ll bite
Incorrect. OpenDarwin is OS X minus the Aqua Layer. So the entire brains, internetworking services, device driver layer so on and so forth is OS X.
Apple does not include Aqua for obvious reasons. What people aren’t grasping is that OpenDarwin a growing release of ports that were previously only available in OS X, like dp-cocoa.
http://www.opendarwin.org/en/projects.html
I used to work with several of these people. They work at Apple and on the GNUstep project.
They have the sources synched up:
http://darwinsource.opendarwin.org/10.3.7/
equivalent to:
http://www.opensource.apple.com/darwinsource/10.3.7/ (Darwin7.7)
Too bad they don’t list a timeline tracking system for people to see how much this project has grown and continues to grow.
Apple has been quite clear that Quartz/Quartz Extreme Window Server and other high level portions of OS X won’t be ported to x86.
Personally, I’d wait until OpenDarwin.org Release 8 and hopefully that’s enough of a timeline to have more device driver support added to the ISO.
Linux works just fine on x86. Or FreeBSD for that matter.
You are correct in saying that it isn’t OS X in the sense of what people think OS X is (i.e., Aqua, iLife, MS Office, etc.,) and it does take effort to install a binary 10.3 release equivalent and if you want to be current on the low level you have to rsynch and build the source tree to have it updated to 10.3.7.
And like I said, for x86 we have several options already. For PPC we can run Linux or we can run OS X that was designed specifically to leverage the PowerPC chipsets.
Ontopic:
Apple has resolved its ordering infrastructure issues. Believe it or not they have a 1-3 day maximum stock business model they adhere to, regardless of how potentially popular a new piece of hardware may become.
It doesn’t mean they haven’t planned for this potential backlog of orders. The Mac mini will do much in terms of future develop projections making the next revision instead of seeing 4 week backlogs a more typical 1 week backlog, even if it is in high demand.
Apple wouldn’t be signing contracts with outfits like Best Buy if they couldn’t agree to a target Best Buy predicts they can sell or that Apple needs them to meet or exceed.
The new powerbooks are nice systems. I want to develop in Xcode and have the elegance of UNIX for my work in areas like LaTeX. I have Linux for my x86 UNIX needs and the Penguin works admirably.
When I use PPC hardware I know my investment in code on Linux will be transferable to OS X, including ObjC using GNUstep. With a few IB modifications from Gorm I can work in either environment.
I’m just waiting for Tiger to buy PPC hardware. I get ObjC++ for both x86 and PPC at that time as Apple mergers this into GCC.
I don’t play games on my computer: I use a Playstation for that.
I don’t write in Word I use LaTeX and export my options of dvi, ps, pdf, eps and other stuff as I need it.
Productivity to me is multitasking, not game playing and having the latest device driver for a GPU that was designed for gamers and not other specialized industries.
I can see people being upset about the PowerMacs not being 3Ghz and above, or having the option to purchase the variety of GPU add-ons as they can in the x86 world.
At least ATI is starting to step up.
http://www.ati.com/support/drivers/mac/macosx-jan-2005-update.html
I’d personally be buying the X800 card.
In the meantime, Apple should update its G5 PowerMacs with either 512MB Ram or 1Gig Ram before BTO, while at current prices.
I was about to make a point about the constrained supply .. but you’ve worded it much more eloquently. I guess the problem for Apple is wether or not this will lead to a loss in sales.
I haven’t ordered a Mac mini but from impulse buying experience (which dwells on the public at large too), that if I don’t have it right away, I get frustrated. This not only could cause some to cancel orders but lead to a ‘negative’ experience with Apple. I think its a risky business move (and old tactic).
“I guess the problem for Apple is wether or not this will lead to a loss in sales.”
As history shows, usually not. Take a look at ipod sales, circa Christmas 2003. Mass shortages, long delays, retailers of out stock everywhere, and what happened?
apple sold 8+million ipods in 2004, or about 80% of the 10million ipods apple has sold since they were introduced in 2001.
I really like the new PowerBook, prices are getting better, and they are offering more. If they could get prices down a few more hundred dollars Apple would see much better sales.
LOL. Yes Apple will keep loosing customers. Just like in the past two years. LOL. Please, it is the best stock out there.
Nice writeup regarding your Mac experience. You didn’t gloss over the problems that you’ve had with OSX.
I noticed that you had some templates for C#/Mono on Xcode? How extensible is Xcode? Does it have a powerful plugin system like eclipse? If Apple would have gone with Dylan instead of Objective-C I would have had an OSX box years ago.
As you can probably figure out, I’m a developer too. Now for work-work, I just use Linux because everything we sell runs on Linux, but at home I like to experiment with various languages and development environments and I’ve found that windows still has the best selection unless you think that Emacs is the epitomy of a great development environment.
Just my 2 cents regarding the apple powerbooks being underpowered. Yes, I agree it might be somewhat underpowered but, the it just works(TM) experience and the fact that the battery seems to last forever … I love mine.
I have had many cheap crappy plastic Dell laptops supplied to me by companies I work for. I travel a fair amount and these pieces of junk die with regular monotony. They are crap. Trying to compare a lowest common denominator Dell anything to a Powerbook is laughable.
how are they under powered? if you buy a dell with a intel pentium m your only going to get about 1.6 Ghz which is what apple is offering in their 15 and 17 inch note books, i know i shouldnt be comparing the PPC processors to the x86 since both archetectures are different, but you also have to consider that you will get many more programs ready to run with your apple than with your windows notebook, also apple notebooks usually have better battery life, so you have to take everything into consideration, not just hardware.
FYI, new top-of-the-line Sonama laptops have 2.13Ghz Pentium M processors with 2MB of L2 cache, 533Mhz buses, dual-channel DDR2 RAM and PCI express. These machines will absolutely *destroy* the PB G4s speed-wise with anything from 25% – 40% greater general performance.
OpenDarwin is OS X minus the Aqua Layer. So the entire brains, internetworking services, device driver layer so on and so forth is OS X.
So Microsoft could take OpenDarwin and make a version of thier Windows over it.
The first part of your post was decent, but then you jumped the shark with the tired car analogy.
You misunderstoo me. That’s not what I meant. I should have not used any sort of car analogy, even if mine was nothing to do with “Apple is BMW of computer” at all.
In my analogy, I didn’t mean to imply “Apple is Lexus (thus luxury product) in computer industry” either. I just chose that one because they don’t make pickup trucks.
Let’s say it’s Hundai instead of Lexus. It’s the same thing. You can complain that they don’t make pickups since they offer longer warranty, which you desire (like OS X).
But complaining that their SUV line can’t do what you want from pickup truck is misguided.
Anyway, Powerbooks might be overpriced and underpowerd for things which you want to do, since you don’t seem to care about other things than horsepower. That’s perfectly fine.
But calling it overprice and underpowered in general term is wrong. To others, what you value most can be non factor or low priority items.
Even without OS X, I don’t think I can find better priced hardeware than Powerbooks for what I want. Since I don’t really care about processing power (G4 1.6ghz is plenty for me), other things Powerbook provides make this machine much better deal than others. So to me, it’s a sweet deal.
FYI, new top-of-the-line Sonama laptops have 2.13Ghz Pentium M processors with 2MB of L2 cache, 533Mhz buses, dual-channel DDR2 RAM and PCI express. These machines will absolutely *destroy* the PB G4s speed-wise with anything from 25% – 40% greater general performance.
Where can one buy said Sonoma based laptops? They aren’t available yet.
When they are available they will probably outperform the G4 based powerbooks. But since they aren’t here yet, the parent post is comparing current systems.
Has anyone tried installing linux on the minis yet? I’d love to know of it runs, and what hardware problems, if any, there are. For $2k a little cluster of 4 of these isn’t bad for $$$/performance.
—
New Equal Opportunity Mac Mini Conga
http://www.fresh83.com/conga
I havent tried linux on my mini yet but I think i recall reading that the fan controller chipset isnt supported yet so the fan will run at full speed (which isnt that loud anyway..)
Apple’s ever present supply problems are a prime reason why they will never compete with the PC market at large.
I pre-ordered iPod Shuffle: picked it up 4 days after it came into the store and was informed that stock had sold out in 2 days, so it was lucky I pre-ordered. They were keeping my order under the counter and using it to show to prospective customers: after I left, they’d have had nothing to show customers.
Apple launched the Mac mini and the iPod shuffle in the UK on the 29th of January, and I went down to the Apple Store to pick up my Mac min. I’m glad I did now!
pac
why is everyone always comparing powerbooks with x86 Laptops? It seems everyone is out in the PC world to BRAG, ” hey i got this sanoma with …….” . Do any of you people actually do REAL work?
I have a powerbook, an old Titanium 1 ghz, 512MB ram. Its a few years old and it still does anything i throw at it. It even runs tiger VERY fast (developers edition). I do all my work on it and it hasnt let me down. Granted, it doesnt speed away in iDVD encoding but it works, no crash whatesoever and no reinstall of anything, even jaguar to panther upgrade worked like a charm.
Overall a powerbook is a machine that packs power not in the raw performance but in the way how its built, and how it performs overall.
My 2c
–FR
http://www.2blocksaway.com/
“Where can one buy said Sonoma based laptops? They aren’t available yet.
When they are available they will probably outperform the G4 based powerbooks. But since they aren’t here yet, the parent post is comparing current systems.”
Dell is selling them right now. Latitude D810 and D610.
Steve Jobs is just a person Lumbergh, he doesn’t have a distortion field around him. Seriously he doesn’t. No human does.
Not true, you can’t see it on the webcasts [maybe it’ll be visible on the H.264 encoding] but a half-second before Steve steps onto the podium, there’s a brief ripple in the space-time continium, like a warp bubble forming. Everybody becomes real exited after that and Steve’s presentations are just awesome.
I’ve been there once myself and it was only by looking for it that I just got a glimpse of it. It’s over in the blink of an eye. When the presentation is over, the field just dissipates and you are left with a really deep satisfied feeling, even though you don’t know quite why.
Rather agreeable though.
I took my POS Dell Latitude D600 home from work. I parked it in the living room. Took it back to the office and started up. The hard drive had died. Years of work, countless files, all gone to the big bit bucket in the sky. That’s the second hard drive in two years time. I had one Mac drive die on me in 10 years.
Which reminds me that I have to do a backup of my data again. Running your machine all day every day for months without a hitch will make you so lax in the follow-up of basic common sense safety procedures.
I can tell from bitter personal experience that you WANT to backup your data. It’s a MAJOR PITA to lose data you can’t replace. Don’t let it happen to you. Backup your data. Do it today if it’s been a while.
Sorry for going slightly OT, but I have a question – I would like an entry level Mac, but am unsure as to whether the eMac is as good as the Mac Mini? I know that it does not look as good (IMO), and I would have a CRT instead of a TFT, since I would not buy a new free-standing CRT, given the choice. However my needs for this box are very limited:
MS office – especially Word and Excel
Web Browsing/email
Educational software
Costing wise, the eMac comes out cheaper, by the time I add a TFT and keyboard + mouse (UK prices).
I did go up to my local Mac dealer last w/e, intent on buying the Mini, but as with everywhere else, they did not have any – now I am torn between my head (eMac) and heart (Mac Mini), and my Dilbertness (iMac – but I can’t really justify that!)
I intend to upgrade any mac to 512Mb though!
“Sorry for going slightly OT, but I have a question – I would like an entry level Mac, but am unsure as to whether the eMac is as good as the Mac Mini? I know that it does not look as good (IMO), and I would have a CRT instead of a TFT, since I would not buy a new free-standing CRT, given the choice. However my needs for this box are very limited:
MS office – especially Word and Excel
Web Browsing/email
Educational software
Costing wise, the eMac comes out cheaper, by the time I add a TFT and keyboard + mouse (UK prices).
I did go up to my local Mac dealer last w/e, intent on buying the Mini, but as with everywhere else, they did not have any – now I am torn between my head (eMac) and heart (Mac Mini), and my Dilbertness (iMac – but I can’t really justify that!)
I intend to upgrade any mac to 512Mb though!”
Go for the eMac. Faster hdd and more upgrade options. The mini is damned sexy, but not as practical.
Thanks for the advice – I had not considered the HD speed.
One thing I forgot to ask, and again apologies for going OT here, but how would you rate the eMac screen? Is it flat or curved? Are the colours/sharpness good?
An interesting review: http://www.divisiontwo.com/articles/MacMini2.html
Aftermarket products and hype starting. I think we are going to see a lot of accessories coming down the road for the mac mini.
http://www.123macmini.com/news/story/1.html
http://www.123macmini.com/news/story/2.html
Objective C isn’t that bad, and XCode also supports AppleScript (cringe), Objective C, C, C++ & Java out of the box. It is extensible, but it’s not well documented as to how yet. It’s certainly not to the level of VS.NET and Eclipse, but it’s improving and XCode 2 looks to be even more so.
An interesting review: