Submitted by Aopen confirmed that it will introduce a mini PC closely resembling the design of Apple’s Mac mini (code-named Pandora) in time for this year’s Christmas season. Apparently the device will sell in two versions for $399 (E327), with Linux, and $499 (E410) with Windows. No specs have been released yet.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!
…it doesn’t run mac osx – so, why should i buy one?
Don’t know why should you buy one, but I know why I should buy one (if at least I wouldn’t be waiting PS3 for just the same feature, small compact multimedia center for my room)
Why should I buy one? Because it doesn’t run osx, that’s why.
p.s. Some people do not like osx and do not like Apple, I’m one of them. And yes, I have G4 and G5 but I don’t like them
Some people do not like osx and do not like Apple, I’m one of them. And yes, I have G4 and G5 but I don’t like them
If you don’t like your G4 and G5 send them to me =)
Damn! You beat me to it!
🙂 Would love to. But as I whine all the time, those two are unfortunate need for part of my bussines. If I could avoid that, I wouldn’t need to buy them:)
Now, somebody put out a laptop with perfectly working onboard wifi with Linux… Plz, I’ll pay extra!
Commercial versions of Mandriva 2006 are Intel Centrino certified – any Centrino laptop’s wireless will work 100% out of the box.
And WIFI support for my Acer (Centrino) laptop is also flawless with the latest Ubuntu. Including 128-bit WEP support in the installer intself.
Apple didn’t grab market share by quality only…marketing…AOpen means what to 99% of people?
Apple didn’t grab market share by quality only…marketing…AOpen means what to 99% of people?
Good point!
Why do so many PC/component manufacturers have similar names : AOpen, Asus, Acer, Advent….
It will have to be quite something to stand out from the crowd/Mini – the only difference I can see from this is that it is slightly faster than your run of the mill Mini-ITX PC…..is there something more?
Ben
25% more for Windows installed. This is cool. This shows how much Windows costs but everybody has to pay “anyway”. Here you’re free to get a fine cheap PC with FREE software on it and you don’t have to pay a “freedom fee” to Microsoft
Btw its clear that this isn’t anywhere close to the mac mini in coolness, etc.
As usual, Apple innovates and everybody else imitates. It’s rather pathetic.
Move along folks, nothing new to see here.
Pathetic?
Small form factor PCs and Macs exist since stone age, do you remember Cappuccino and Espresso line of palm sized PCs in late 90s and the Mac Cube of the same ages?
Noone is copying from other ones when selling small personal, if you remember personal started as Atari, Amiga, Commodore etc and since the very beginning of the *concept* of “personal” were smaller and quieter than “professional” computers of the same ages.
With Apples and IBM PCs this *initial* concept of personal computing was increasingly sacrificed in the name of more expandible, powerful and flexible machines, in other words making the personals gradually looking more and more like the professionals computers.
So, if Apple or any other x86 (hey!) reseller features a line of small sized personals is simply providing to the consumers the same stuff of *personal* as it was intended in good, golden ’70s.
Peace and love anyone!
ACtually, I’ve seen specs floating around the net. A 1.3GHz Celeron is one of them, 256MB RAM is another. If those are true it’ll have less power than a Mini.
ACtually, I’ve seen specs floating around the net. A 1.3GHz Celeron is one of them, 256MB RAM is another. If those are true it’ll have less power than a Mini.
Actualy in the article
In contrast to Intel’s Mac mini clones, the Pandora most likely will include a single-core 90 nm Pentium M chip with Dothan core.
So I wouldn’t agree about having less power
True about 256MB
There was no mention of the type of video card in the pandora either, although the video card in the Mac mini was mentioned. I hope it’s going to be a good video card.
I agree about the ram too, it would be better if it had 512 Mb.
So Intel are going to begin reproduction of the now extinct celeron 1.3 just for a few boxes? not a chance
The article says it will be based on Pentium M which makes far more sense and will leave the mini standing.
Some company cloned the iPod Shuffle in Taiwan or someplace too, didn’t get them anywhere.
Microsoft copied the Mac OS long ago and it s*cked royally, was dead in the water for years and only became dominant because of illegal behaivor and the treachery of John Scully (may he rot in hell with a 2 liter bottle of Pepsi stuck up his anus)
we don’t need trolls like you around here. please take your garbage elsewhere.
your clear bias against mountain dew is indicative of your ignorance.
Hum.. I would have said coke. Probably be more painful.
Hum.. I would have said coke. Probably be more painful.
<flame-on>
You can’t waste Coke – it kicks Pepsi’s ass in the flavour department!
</flame-on>
It’s no secret that the Wintel industry has been caught by surprise by the success of Apple’s Mac mini and has been working overtime to catch up.
They can’t catch up, because it isn’t the hardware, it isn’t the way it looks, it is the fact that the Mac Mini is the smallest, cheapest Mac availible. Finally someone can afford a cheap, second computer, and stay with OS X. Any small, underpowered PC won’t sell, even if it looks cool, because it isn’t a Mac. You can get much more out of a $399 Dell, and any PC user knows it. Apple has a monopoly on OS X, and thus can sell something like the Mini effectively. Copying the Mac Mini form is no way to make money. There is no hole in the PC market base waiting to be filled by a Mac Mini look-alike.
“Any small, underpowered PC won’t sell, even if it looks cool, because it isn’t a Mac.”
What’s wrong on a Suse 10 (or other good Linux distro at your choiche) workstation small like a brick, capable of running Posix compliant software compiled for linux as well the majority of Win32 software with Wine libraries?
Having usually better support than other *x with drivers of general purpouse hardware and having usually earlier and more mature releases of best open source projects?
Ah, of course “it’s not a Mac”… I understand…
“You can get much more out of a $399 Dell, and any PC user knows it.”
Certainly, the world is full of <400$ PCs with silent and cold hardware and sold without Windows, with at least one distro of linux fully certified on it…
Are you joking or what?
“Apple has a monopoly on OS X,”
I thought that monopoly was bad, that collaboration was good and that concurrence was better…
Oh, enlight me, Master!
“Copying the Mac Mini form is no way to make money.”
What are you saying?
Personal computers started in ’70s with Atari, Commodore, Amiga etc with small factor machines as paradigm in contrast with professional, bigger and more expandible, machines.
Apple and IBM (and clones) altered that paradigm in ’80s selling bigger and more expandable machines but since then in many occasions (i.e. in late ’90s Cappuccino PCs and Apple Cube) they returned to the ORIGINAL small-forma-factor paradigm of home computing as it was intended in the golden ’70s.
“There is no hole in the PC market base waiting to be filled by a Mac Mini look-alike.”
Any small form factor personal, with reasonable (price / performances / cluessness) balance had sold very well in last 30 years, so, what’s up with you?
Will people stop selling these computers with only 256MB of RAM? Make it 512MB so that the people most likely to buy these will be able to enjoy the experience of owning one. I cannot help but to imagine how much of the cost the Pentium M in this must account for, and then look at the penny-pinching on the memory and scratch my head.
Saving a $100 by skipping the OEM license of Windows will certainly be nice for the more proficient shoppers with existing licenses, though.
It’s same mistake that C= did ages ago. You cut price by few dollar and loose half of experience (think 68030 instead of 68020EC in A1200). Also, most of people would have to pay extra for putting memory inside of case becasue
a) they can’t do it
b) it will void warranty
But I agree that dumping the OEM Windows is a good move. I know you can get refund if you’re not using it, but why I should go with the hassle of getting my cash from MS, if I could just not pay the price in the first place? If I’ll be intrested in Windows, I can buy a copy.
You can already get similar PCs…
http://www.logicsupply.com/product_info.php/cPath/49/products_id/39…
for e.g. Logic Supply have a bunch of neat small PC designs.
I like a lot the Sumicom S625F, but it has a HUGE disadvantage: price. If you kit it out with the smallest hard disk, the smallest amount of memory, the cheapest CD (that’s right, not even DVD), no operating system and no accessories, the price is…. $968.00 !!!
That’s just crazy. Now take into consideration that you probably want at least a DVD, and 512 MB RAM is pretty much standard nowadays, and you’re well over a grand.
That’s not good.
Yes, and so certain are they of the quality of their product that you can choose to pay an extra $45 to ‘build and test’.
That’s awesome. Depending on the options you choose you can pay upwards of 5% of the price of your system just to make sure it works. Uh huh.
If Apple got it in their heads to do that the internet would melt with the outrage.
No way in hell I’d buy some useless apple crap, with their lame OS. But this is cool, it runs linux!
Yes, but those are tremendously expensive!
some of the cheaper options aren’t. I was originally going to buy a Mac Mini to act as a server machine (running MDV PPC), but I can actually price it about CAN$100 cheaper using a mini-ITX setup from logic supply (or a local shop which sells the same stuff), so I’m going to do that instead. I just picked one which is a similar form factor and really neat (pentium M cpu, so it’s powerful, and completely fanless) to use as an example.
(cool as in running cold) I migh just go for the Linux version. And then install Solaris, as I am more familiar with it, than linux. Or else, I might go for FreeBSD.
In any case, this is a solution for a problem, and at least I have a positive attitude towards this computer.
I only hope it boots up fine without a keyboard or mouse attached.
and otherwise you just boot it once… remove the keyboard and mouse… and keep it running untill the end of time! (or the moment the hardware breaks down)
A Serener GS-L01 (the case) running Linux on a Epia MII12000 motherboard. Unlike the Mac Mini, and unlike these probably (but I don’t know), it has no fan and therefore only makes the noise of it’s internal 2.5″ harddrive (very nearly inaudible to me, unless I listen for it while the drive is seeking, in a dead-silent room). It doesn’t overheat (the M10000 used to overheat on me but my MII 12000 doesnt, very happy) even though I live in Hawaii on the bottom floor of a very hot lo-rise in Mo’ili’ili (so, average room temperature is about 81F, with going up to about 86). Running full continuously, no problem.
Case:
http://www.logicsupply.com/product_info.php/products_id/366
Motherboard:
http://www.viaembedded.com/product/epia_MII_spec.jsp?motherboardId=…
OS:
http://www.ubuntu.com
look good in theory if you dont care about the graphic card so far the specs are :
Celeron M 1.3G
256MB DDR II
40G 2.5” HDD
Slot-in Slim Combo Drive
Power Adapter
Power Cable (US type)
DVI Converter
HDTV Cable
Driver CD
Windows XP
Anyone know what the graphic card is in tha thing , the Mac mini is good because it as an ATI 9200 , If this thing as no real graphic card , its just another small form pc.
Anyone know what the graphic card is in tha thing , the Mac mini is good because it as an ATI 9200 , If this thing as no real graphic card , its just another small form pc.
🙂 9200,… ? 9200,… ?? You called 9200 a graphic card? PC version can only be found in some museums. And you called 9200… a real graphic card….
???
“You called 9200 a graphic card”
Yes its the last bottom card I dare call a graphic card. I dont like IGP , Via ( exept chrome maybe ), SIS or Intel. ( There Good if you whant bare minimum computer with 2d for the accountant , but not for general purpose).
“PC version can only be found in some museums.”
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/search.asp?keywo…
I would prefer an X300 or GeforceFX or Geforce 6 at reasonnable price , but ATI and Nvidia did not drop in price too much in those class.
You have to work with the other product to understand not speak from the high end cards.
“You called 9200 a graphic card?”
It’s not a gaming card but it’s more than enough for regular usage as the 2D graphics are good. And I can play HalfLife 2 smoothly with mine so I guess it’s good for some gaming too even if it can’t handle the most demanding games.
So yes, it’s a graphic card.
I’ve been using a 9200 quite happily for a while now.
It plays Civ3 perfectly, Colonisation runs like a dream, my desktop is smooth and crisp.
Here at work I have a Matrox millenium II and I can work just fine in my GUI.
Not every graphics card has to be a power-sucking, heat-expending, wallet-emptying monster. Especially if one is not trying to play silly-buggers with ones frame-rate.
Personally, I can manage quite well without those exra fans inside my PC.
Sigh. Don’t feed the trolls, MadDwarf. Just don’t.
Let’s just see, I recently replaced my nVidia TI-4280 with an ATI Radeon 9250 because.. it is a better card for my needs, it’s cheap, it’s passively cooled and it comes with fully accelerated open source drivers directly in X.org.
Now that makes it a better card than any of them darn l33t gamer cards that need closed source drivers to run accelerated, drivers which taint my kernel and cause oddness in X.
Yes it’s slower than your average gamer card, but it’s silent and it’s affordable – please stop this trend of upgrading all the time, it’s just not needed – what the Mac Mini offers in terms of computing power and features is plenty for your average user.
I’d personally love me one of those dual core pentium-m things from Intel, it looks ugly but the specs appeal to me I always wanted an SMP setup and a silent machine to work with that didn’t take up my entire desk.
“the Mac mini is good because it as an ATI 9200”
that was a joke right?
9200 is a good card. you can play smoothly many games. maybe not recently released games but what is the problem. you can always buy game console. i could play need for speed underground on radeon 9000, so don’t be a troll. try play games on 915g. there is big difference in performance between 915g and radeon 9200.
No specs? What?
* Celeron M 1.3Ghz
* 256MB DDR II
* i915 chipset (?)
* 40G 2.5” HDD
* Slot-in Slim Combo Drive
* Power Adapter
* Power Cable (US type)
* DVI Converter
* HDTV Cable
* Driver CD
* Windows XP or Linux
Unlike Apple Mac Mini, the price could include
keyboard, mouse, 17inch LCD. (I haven’t got solid info
on this yet).
It is only to be sold as a complete system.
There will be no end-user version where they just sell
you a barebones solution like Shuttle SFF solutions.
Picts of what the complete system package will look
like can be found here.
=> http://www.legitreviews.com/article.php?aid=249
For $399, I think I would rather just build myself a powerful desktop machine. However, for that price, I do not think that I could manage to build myself a machine with the same features and the same form factor. Even if I could somehow manage it, I doubt it would be worth the effort when I could have somebody else build it for about the same price. I think the color scheme of the prototype is horrendous and they really should think of something that is not quite so offensive on the eyes. All black, all white, or some light shade of blue would probably do it. If they made a pink one, I think they would get a whole lot of women buying them.
Personally, I do not like MacOSX and would prefer to use Linux, given the option. So a cheaper version for $400 sounds great to me. Also, it looks like the prototype is actually smaller than the Mac Mini, which means it already has an advantage in terms of form factor. As for processing power, I am not really sure which I would prefer. Pentium-Ms are every bit as underpowered the Mac Minis, so I guess a direct comparison would be in order.
For the Windows version, another concern would be the graphics chipset. If you cannot play games, you are pretty much right back to where the Mac Mini is in terms of possible software. Though it seems probably, I would hate to have to run an Intel graphics chip on my home machine.
Right now, we are short on details, so all we really have is speculation. Still, I am glad that we have another competitor in the “small, quiet, all-in-one” computer market. If it and the Mini are successful, it might foster a good competetive spirit that could drive the market towards improvements.
I think the color scheme of the prototype is horrendous and they really should think of something that is not quite so offensive on the eyes.
I think you looked at the wrong picture, the ugly one is the one made by Intel, the AOpen looks almost identical to a Mac Mini.
Even though I have very good experience with aopen products I think that the specs aren’t that promising.
I think I’ll stick to the Aopen XCube I have now, it’s rock solid and it’s small enough to fit in a backpack.
If I need a smaller computer I think that the mac mini will give me more value for the money. However, I think that they are pretty much equal qualitywise.
They should go with another color though. Now it just looks like cheap a ripoff, when they could have done something different. Why buy a copy if you can get the real thing for pretty much the same price?
Taiwanese companies have been producing mini-pcs only very slightly larger than the Mac Mini for at least 4 years. I can buy one here at the Guang Hua Market for about $450US (depending on specs).
And this is news because? How does this have to do with OSNews? All it is is a company immitating Appe’s design, nothing new. How about some innovating now?
This is going to be like the 1998 ordeal between Apple and eMachines all over again. If you don’t know what i’m talking about; Apple went to court with eMachines after eMachines released a blue and white all in one Windows machine that resembled the blue iMac. I believe it was called the eOne.
Apple will do the same thing here, and this computer will be available for a few months before it gets canned.
Am I the only one who saw this and thought it would make the perfect basis for a car PC project? Sure, you could do the same thing with a Mac Mini, but that’s more expensive and comes with a ton of crap that you won’t need for such a project.
I’m sure it will have shared video RAM and all that other crap that keeps PC’s form being BeOS compatable…
…or AROS or any other OS that tries to at least manage it’s resources wisely. If my only choice is one of two bloated OS’s, then forget it!
If it does run BeOS, then that most likely means the hardware is going to die within 2 years like any HP or Compaq.
You get what you pay for in the PC world, wish they were all Amiga.
At least it has a nice design.
Apple’s design looks like something from a hospital, metal and cold.
I will never have something like a Mini in my house, simple to cold and ugly.
Normal people don’t use Photoshop, or Maya, and not everyone plays games. Lots of people just use their computers for word processing, internet, mail and maybe also to listen to music. What do you think they’d prefer:
a) a faster computer that is many times the size of a Mac Mini/Pandora, that sounds more and isn’t as stylish as the small computers (but a bit faster)
or
b) a small, sexy and quiet computer that might no be as powerful as your average 400$ Dell midi-tower?
I’m certain that there’s a market for this kind of product. I for one would love to use it as a server or HTPC. Maybe as a desktop replacement if it had a faster processor and graphics card.
I’m thinking about replacing my white midi-tower with something smaller (maybe a mATX-case).
I actually found that Intel GoldenGate concept design quite sexy.
1. I doubt a company like Aopen can match the quality of an Apple product.
2. Do people buy mac mini, because it is small and cute, or because it is an inexpensive Mac?
3. PCs are traditionally, tinker with add parts hardware. I doubt this will be very tinkerable.
4. Can’t you get a Dell for $500 with a flat panel monitor/keyboard anyways. Who will buy this?
The problem with these small systems has always been the processor, heat and noise. The mini took advantage of the G4, and traded off performance for compactness. Before the new Intel chips, if you wanted to try to do the same thing and run Windows, you had a real problem. You could run one of the Via processors, but performance has always been poor. Look at the Lex: it is not even very quiet. Or you could move up to the Shuttle, in which case performance was way over the mini, assuming a reasonable configuration, but size was a lot bigger and noise was a bit higher. This is really about the new Intel chips, more than anything else.
I do believe there is a large market for a reasonably performant small fanless system, which runs Windows. The problem the Mini has in terms of sales is that it is a Mac. An equivalent Windows machine should do very well indeed.
As for the Apple quality issue. That’s just the usual stupidity. The Mini is not particularly good quality anyway. Its made by one of the usual gang of Far Eastern suppliers. There is no reason why Aopen, or one of 10 other manufacturers, cannot match or exceed “Apple quality”. If you doubt this, read, for starters, the material about which screens will and will not work with the Mini. Shuttle on the other hand, the better Shuttles are really outstanding. The Aopen box will be at least as good quality as the Mini.
1. I doubt a company like Aopen can match the quality of an Apple product.
What makes you think that? Have you actually bought some of Aopens hardware lately? I have, and I think it’s excellent quality for the money. Comparable to Apples low end machines.
2. Do people buy mac mini, because it is small and cute, or because it is an inexpensive Mac?
I’d say it’s a little bit of both actually. Regular users often wants something that is small, simple and fits with the surrounding environment rather than something powerful that looks like a spaceship. The mac mini is fairly discrete and classy looking, not something you’d have to hide under the desk.
It’s the very same reason LCD-monitors are more popular than CRT even though you get much less for the money in terms of quality. They are small and classy looking.
3. PCs are traditionally, tinker with add parts hardware. I doubt this will be very tinkerable.
Not regular users. Most of the addons they want to use are connected through USB or Firewire.
4. Can’t you get a Dell for $500 with a flat panel monitor/keyboard anyways. Who will buy this?
You still don’t get it do you?
On the other hand, this would make a pretty nice mythtv frontend. Hmm. might consider one of these afterall . ..