I just did the coinstar thing this weekend with about 4 years of accumulated change. I got $430 in amazon credit. Took about 15 minutes at the machine, I think. Most difficult was carrying around over 40lbs of change.

Fun fact: any combination of dimes and quarters that weighs 1 lb is worth $20.

http://twitpic.com/e5s9c

I managed to unbrick mine by doing a restore to factory defaults. It wiped all my apps and my contacts, but I can send and receive SMS messages and calls now. Still get an iTunes error when I try to connect the phone to sync up.

So...
- Intel Pentium Dual Core T4200 (2.0GHz/800Mhz FSB/1MB cache)
Minus, less cache, slower FSB

- DVI and HDMI ports
Plus for HDMI

- 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 667MHz (2 DIMM)
Plus for more memory, but minus for making it even slower than the already bad FSB

- 160GB SATA Hard Drive
Even

- Dual Layer DVD+/-RW Drive
Even

- Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
Minus

- Lack of built-in bluetooth and wireless lan
Minus

- The fact the Hybrid doesn't look like ass compared to other mini-wannabes
Even

I'll let you know in about a week :-)

Memory upgrade is tricky, but not impossible. The case is held together by dozens of plastic teeth that have to be manipulated all at once to open it. There are demo videos online.

If you really want into OS X cheaply, start hunting around for the recently discontinued models. While Apple has only dropped the price about $50 in their clearance section, you can be sure that some fanboys will be upgrading older units and hoping to get a return on their older kit.

The graphics on the new Mac Minis are not integrated in the same sense as the older Intel chipsets. They sport their own memory separate from the system's memory.

The $600 mini has only 128MB of video ram, the $800 mini has 256MB of video ram, + 1GB main memory ram + larger hard drive.

The extra memory and larger hard can both be applied to the cheaper Mini, but if you add both of them, you'll wind up paying about $25 more than if you had specced the unit with the larger graphics ram.

This is interesting because in the past the differentiators between the high and low end minis has been a) core solo vs core duo b) dvd/cdrw vs superdrive (dvd+/-R/W) c) bluetooth/wlan and d) processor speed (highest speed was only available in the priciest config)

I bought a $600 one, with the bumped processor ($150 to get to 2.25GHz is expensive, but I find the form factor compelling) and will be adding my own 4GB of ram for an extra $80 from crucial.

It sits under my TV and looks (and sounds) wonderful.

Also, when they ask for your credit card, it's not sent over SSL... I stopped the order process at that point.

You know, if sites like this STOPPED COVERING THESE SUPPOSED LEAKS, then people would be less inclined to fake them.

Just sayin'

JoCo has rickrolled his audiences before, but usually it's during the Mr Fancypants song :-)

XBMC was great on an xbox, but it wasn't powerful enough to run 720 or 1080 programming. a Mac Mini, on the other hand, can do 720p without trouble and most 1080i stuff as well.