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Not all Macs meet Vista requirements
Julio Ojeda-Zapata of the Pioneer Press points out the system requirements for Microsoft's latest piece of vaporware soon-to-be-released update to Windows, Vista. According to Microsoft, Vista may run on machines that don't meet their "Premium Ready PC" requirements (which referees to machines that can handle all of the eye candy...if you can call it that), but those users won't be able to experience all the ways Vista rips off Aqua and Mac OS X many of the innovative UI features of the OS. The "Premium Ready PC" requirements for Vista are: 1 GHz 32-bit or 64-bit processor 1GB of system memory (!) A graphics processor that runs Windows Aero 128MB of graphics memory 40GB of hard drive space with 15GB free DVD-ROM Drive Audio output capability Internet access capability Hmm. Seems the MacBook and Mac mini fail to meet the video RAM requirements. Not to mention that you're going to need at least a 60GB hard drive. Also note, as Julio points out, that the mini and MacBook share system and video memory, so Vista may be a drag on those machines. So, if you plan on running a dual-boot machine once Vista is released, you may want to look towards a MacBook Pro or iMac.
More integrated graphics from Apple
Apple released the MacBook, its new consumer laptop, today. The full tech specs -- which are over at Apple's site -- mention that the MacBook features an Intel GMA950: in other words, an integrated graphics chip identical to the Mac mini. Previously we've summarized the disadvantages of integrated graphics and we've moaned about the poor graphics performance of Apple's line-up in an attempt to force someone at Apple to listen, but it was all in vain. Apple's supposed "gaming solution" (Windows) is hardly a solution now that Apple's consumer line-up (MacBook, Mac mini) doesn't have a dedicated graphics card, the prosumer line-up (MacBook Pro, iMac) features a low- to mid-range mobile chip and the remaining top-of-the-range machine (PowerMac) is stuck with PowerPC processors, crappy default GPUs (GeForce 6600s, yuck!) and a largely unobtainable price.If Apple one days wakes up and realizes that there are a load of potential gaming switchers sitting on the fence it would either: tell, no, force Intel to make some integrated chips that aren't "virtually unplayable for anybody that cares about gaming" or provide the option of dedicated graphics cards for gamers, even if it costs us more.
Order a pre-painted Mac mini case
If you're the instant gratification type who is sick of white, check this out. FastMac is selling Mac mini cases in your choice of seven colors. For $69.95US, they'll send you a pre-painted case and a video that shows you how to swap the painted case for the boring white one that your mini is currently sporting. Once you've made the switch, you send your old white case out to them. I guess it's easier than shipping your computer out for a couple of weeks, but opening a mini isn't for everyone. Let us know if you try this out.
Rig of the Day: Clean desk
After all the great vintage rigs we featured in April, we thought it would be nice to post a clean and contemporary shot to start off May. Spring is all about new beginnings, right? Flickr user Owall posts a nice shot of a Mac mini and thin display (is that mounted on the wall?) on his new desk."My new desk" posted by Owall. If you'd like to see your own rig featured here, simply upload photos into our group Flickr pool. We'll select an image every day to highlight.
Apple Keyboard Update 1.0
An odd headline, I know, but it's true: last night Apple released Keyboard Update 1.0 for their Intel-based Macs including the MacBook Pro, iMac (Early 2006) and Mac mini (Early 2006). From Apple's site: "The Apple Keyboard Update 1.0 addresses reliability of keyboard and mouse functionality."You can grab the update either through Software Update or from Apple's Support Downloads.
Mac mini "bundles" at Costco
ifoAppleStore is pointing out a pretty good deal discovered at Costco. A Mac mini, wireless keyboard and mouse and Apple Care plan are all bundled together in one big, plastic package for $699US. Compare that to $847US for a similarly equipped, low-end mini (we don't know the stats of the mini in the package. Has anyone seen one of these?). We suggest you get in your car right now and drive to Costco!
Apple posts firmware update
Earlier today, Apple posted a new firmware update for Intel-equipped Macs. According to Apple, this update will bring your Intel Mac to firmware version 1.0.1. You can find the update for the Mac mini here, the iMac here and the MacBook Pro here. Apple didn't provide a whole lot of detail about these updates, so let us know what your experiences are.
YAMMMC - Yet Another Mac Mini Media Center
That little white box from Apple sure is loved. It must be its great size but yet huge amount of power that is drawing so many people to it. TUAW caught wind of another Mac Mini Media Center project using Front Row and EyeTV. Chris, the owner and builder, also added on to the Mini's small hard drive with an encloser that clones the Minis footprint and size. From the looks of things, everything turned out just peachy. The system works great for him and although this system is not on an HDTV, the setup he describes would work on one as long as you upgrade the tuner. The Elgato EyeTV EZ does not do anything digital or high-def but the EyeTV 500 does. If any of our readers has a great setup like this one, drop us some pics at our Flickr pool!
MacMini Portable: the next generation
So instead of folding up his computer and going home like some of our more negative commenters had suggested, inventor, composer, and all around resilient guy Peter Green has been hard at work on the second version of his MacMini Portable. As you'll recall, MMP rev. 1 was basically Apple's diminutive PC stuffed inside a custom enclosure, attached to an LCD, battery pack, trackpad, and thumb board, and occupying a footprint smaller than even the most compact laptop. Well now Green is back to silence the critics who questioned the utility of his first project with the MacMini Portable MkII, which makes numerous improvements upon its predecessor such as mounting the thumb board flush with the case, significantly reducing the overall size of the device, and generally making it look more like something you'd want to take out in public. So once again Mr. Green, we salute you, and encourage you to continue ignoring the haters (and refine your creation to the point that they're forced to come around). Make sure to check out the "Read" link to peep video of the MMPMKII in action, complete with a soothing Green-composed soundtrack.Update: Full website now available; click here for the video, and hit the "Read" link to collect more ammo for your flame war.
Half-Life 2 running on a Mac... and there goes a flying pig
The moment that many Mac gamers have been waiting for has arrived: Half-Life 2 is playable in at least one way, shape or form on a Macintosh computer. The video shows a MacBook Pro booting Windows XP, opening Steam and running HL2 in what appears to be software mode. Full 3D acceleration is still a while off (the hackers have only just managed to get the Mac mini's integrated graphics chip to work, albeit very flakily) but hopefully it won't be long until ATI or another enthusiastic Mac gamer/hacker steps up to the task of providing dual platform video drivers for Intel Macs.[Thanks, Jay. Via TUAW]
EyeTV 2.1 goes Universal
EyeTV reached version 2.1 today, and with the update comes a few nice improvements. EyeTV is Elgato's television playback and recording software for the Mac that makes viewing, recording and transferring shows to an iPod easy. Version 2.1 includes the following changes: Universal binary Full-resolution playback of HDTV has been extended to all Macs with Intel core duos (which means 1080i HDTV on Core Duo Mac minis and MacBook Pros!) Greater speed when transferring content to an iPod EyeTV 2.1 requires a G4 (500MHz or faster), G5 or Intel Core processor, and Mac OS X 10.4 or later.
BusinessWeek seeking Mac mini owners
Mac mini owners, listen up. Peter Burrows at BusinessWeek Online is looking for Mac mini owners. Specifically, he wants to hear from people who are using Intel-based minis as living room media centers. Do you have a setup that fits the bill? You can either leave him a comment here, or send an email to: peter_burrows@businessweek.com. Have fun!Thanks, Todd!
Mac mini Core Solo: The good stuff and a peek inside
Despite my previous two posts on the topic, there are things to like about the Mac mini, and so I've decided not to return the machine. I still think it is overpriced and I also maintain that the Front Row performance over Bonjour is shoddy at best. However, if you keep all your media on the Mac mini, it works nicely as a little media server offering the local media up to my TV. My only complaint about that is that Front Row doesn't recognize my iPod and the content on it when it is mounted on the Mac mini, even though I can navigate and play all that content via iTunes itself.I also discovered that the 512MB chip that I ripped out of my iMac when I upgraded it to 2GBs of RAM fits quite nicely and works well inside my Mac mini, which is now running 768MBs of RAM after an easy bit of tinkering (Photos of said tinkering after the jump). The added RAM has doubled the frame rate at which I can run World of Warcraft on my 32-inch HDTV. It's still a bit sluggish at 16-20fps in crowded areas, but it is playable and overall a cool experience while lounging on my couch with wireless bluetooth keyboard in lap and mouse to my side. Additionally, using this wonderful little program called iRecord, I can hook up my digital cable box to the mini via a FireWire cable and record shows in HDTV. Unfortunately, playing back these HDTV shows with their large 7.35GB size footprint (for an hour of video) via VLC seems a little beyond the capabilities of the mini as the video shows up as an animated series of stills during fast-moving sections. However, I can easily bring these large files over to my iMac where I can watch them and compress them to a smaller, more mini friendly format. Also, as a dev box, I am liking the mini. I can jump into it easily enough using Chicken of the VNC on my iMac and OSXvnc on the mini. I can also ssh in via the command line. Compiling code, while not blazingly fast, isn't snail-crawl slow either. So, I'm enjoying the box for what I bought it for, I just wish it had a Core Duo, came with more RAM, Bonjour video worked better, and it hadn't cost so much.
Core solo Mac mini upgraded to core duo
Check this out. Xtreme Systems forum user Fugger bought an Intel Mac mini core solo and upgraded it to a core duo on his own using an Intel Yonah 2.16 Core Duo. He writes:"Once the motherboard is out, flip it over and locate the plastic tabs that hold down the CPU bracket. Squeeze them and it will pop off. I highly suggest using one hand to hold heat sink level as it can and will flop to one side with possible damage to core edges. The same goes for reassembly. You will also see a small connector for a thermal diode attached to the underside of the heat sink once you have it loose, remove the clip if you want to remove it completely."Pictures were up at the time of my sitting down to write this (11:30PM EST March 5), but have since disappeared. Hopefully he'll put them back up.
MacBook Pro: the ultimate portable HD machine!
I have had my MacBook Pro 2.0 for almost a whole week and let me tell you, it is fast! The only way I have been able to max out both cores is by playing a H.264 and HD DivX files at the same time. (If I try two H.264 files QT crashes) The 2.0 Core Duo has more than enough juice to decode any HD files I can find for my computer. It can decode two HD videos at once and watch them in Expose, but not without dropping a few frames
Apple discontinues PowerPC Mac mini
Apple's certainly not wasting any time: They've pulled the G4-based Mac mini from their online store, hammering one more nail into the beleaguered PowerPC's rapidly-sealing coffin.So if you're still lookin' for a mini G4 before making the leap to Intel, you're gonna have to go through a third-party -- and quick.[via MacBytes]
The Intel Macmini is perfect for HDTV
It's finally arrived: the Mac that is made to be used with your HDTV! Browsing through Apple's list of accessories for the new Mac mini reveals just what we have been waiting for. Not only do they list the various adapters that we mentioned in our "How to connect your PC to your HTPC" article but they also mention all the various resolutions. So it doesn't matter if you have DVI, HDMI, or VGA, you are covered. (no love for component video without a converter) I am the most excited about the mention of the resolutions; in the past you would have to use a third party product such as DisplayConfigX to get your Mac mini to output the correct resolution, now it seems it's supported by OSX. This in combination with the overscan adjustment built into to the display preferences is very impressive. Audio was considered as well as the new Mac mini includes SPDIF in and out so you can enjoy DD 5.1 in all it's glory. Now all we need are HD movies via iTunes and life would be perfect. I am of course assuming that the Core Solo 1.5 is fast enough to decode H.264 HD material. Even though I just got my MacBook Pro I am off to Apple.com to order a new Mac mini!
Apple Announces New Intel-based Mac Minis
Well, it's not quite the Apple Media Center that I've been wishing for, but it's close. At today's special Apple Event, the company announced two updated models of their Mac mini.1.5GHz Intel Core Single1.5GHz Intel Core Solo processor2MB L2 Cache667MHz Frontside Bus512MB memory (667MHz DDR2 SDRAM)60GB Serial ATA hard driveCombo drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW)Price: Starts at $599.001.67 GHz Intel Core Dual1.66GHz Intel Core Duo processor2MB L2 Cache667MHz Frontside Bus512MB memory (667MHz DDR2 SDRAM)80GB Serial ATA hard driveDouble-layer SuperDrive (DVD R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)Price: Starts at $799.00Both models come with built-in Airport Extreme, Bluetooth, and integrated Intel GMA950 graphics processor with 64MB of shared DDR2 SDRAM. Each mini also has a Gigabit Ethernet port, four external USB 2.0 ports, a FireWire 400 port, optical digital and analog audio in/out, and built-in mono speaker. Each machine also ships with new Front Row software that uses Bonjour technology to locate shared music, photo, and movies databases on your home network. This means you can store your data on any computer in the house and play it on the mini which can be connected to a standard computer monitor, or to your television.
Apple has halted bulk orders of Mac minis
With next week's press event looming, Apple has halted bulk orders of Mac minis, according to FreeMacBlog. Blogger Brian writes:"Well, today we called to place our order for our next big batch of minis and we were told 'We’re not able to take large orders for Mac minis right now,' and that was it."Is a change in the air for the mini? We'll have to wait and see, but when it does happen, we're pretty sure it won't look like this.Thanks, Brian!
Dual displays with a Mac mini
Aniel wanted to use two displays with his Mac mini. After some poking around, he came across the Matrox dualHead2Go ($169US), which acts as a sort of splitter for a VGA signal. Even though the box says "Windows only," Aniel got it working under Mac OS X.He notes that the dualHead2Go works by splitting your display's horizontal lines in half, and sending those off to each of the two displays. As a result, the mini thinks it's driving a single monitor. Occasionally windows will open in the dead center between the two, but a simple drag remedies that situation. Good work, Aniel![Via 123Macmini]
