Apple's Mac mini - Tempting PC Users Everywhere
by Anand Lal Shimpi on January 25, 2005 7:39 AM EST- Posted in
- Mac
iLife '05
The Mac mini ships with the latest version of Apple's iLife application suite on DVD-ROM (it is a relief to actually have applications come on DVD; thankfully, it's always easier to turn a smaller ship). The application suite is nothing short of massive, at just under 4GB for iPhoto 5, iMovie HD, iDVD 5, GarageBand 2 and iTunes 4.7. Now, iTunes is free and is available for download outside of the iLife '05 package, but it is included on the DVD just to make sure that all OS X users have a copy installed, which is nothing to complain about.
The relative sizes of the individual applications are as follows:
iPhoto 5 - 163MB
iMovie HD - 63MB
iDVD 5 - 1.46GB
GarageBand 2 - 63MB
iTunes 4.7 - 30MB
As you can see, the individual applications themselves aren't terribly big; however, it's all of the extras that come with the applications that really drive up the total install size. Apple has been touting iLife as the "suite of tightly integrated applications that continues to lead the digital media revolution" - think of them as the digital media version of Microsoft Office. Instead of creating documents and presentations, you're recording music and making DVDs.
The first several months of my Mac experience didn't really involve any of the iLife applications with the exception of iTunes - the rest simply didn't entice me. But with the latest update of iLife, it was time to give all of the applications a try to see what all the hype was about. Unfortunately, due to the length of this article, I've restricted comments on iLife '05 to brief statements about all of the applications, with a longer focus on the one application that I've had the most experience with lately - iPhoto 5.
The application suite does take a pretty long time to install on the Mac mini, thanks to its 2.5" hard drive. On a G5 system, the suite doesn't take nearly as long, but it's still longer than any other individual application that I'd ever installed on the G5, including things like Photoshop CS or even Microsoft Office 2004. On the Mac mini, all of the applications run perfectly fine assuming you heeded my warnings about using less than 512MB of memory. The projects in iMovie HD do appreciate more memory and importing video does get faster with faster CPUs, especially when comparing the mini to something like a G5, but you can use all of the applications in iLife '05 with the mini.
I won't talk much about iTunes, since it's a freely available download and it's been around long enough that there's not much value that I can add to the discussion out there already on it. And regrettably, I'm not much of a talented musician, so GarageBand 2 isn't something that I'm qualified to comment on; although, the more musically-inclined friends of mine seem to be rather impressed with it.
iMovie HD is an application that I have played around with a little bit, but one that I fully plan on using more as soon as more time frees up. Before AnandTech, I was heavily into Video Editing, so there is a bit of a personal attraction to iMovie HD. From my limited experience with it, iMovie HD already seems infinitely easier to use (especially to the first-time video editor) than the professional packages, yet isn't dumbed down like most of the free or equally cheap video editing software solutions out there. The actual process of editing is extremely painless. Although, I am afraid that it makes implementing the Ken Burns Effect a little too easy, and I'm worried that far too many first-time editors armed with iMovie HD will produce movies with an overkill of the effect. On the Mac mini, importing movies takes a significant amount of time. The shorter clips aren't a big deal, but the longer, 30+ minute clips might require a trip elsewhere to heat up a pop tart or two (or ten) to pass the time.
iDVD 5 works along side iMovie HD quite well as it is a nice, equally easy-to-use, DVD authoring application. My experience with iDVD 5 was even more limited than iMovie HD (I figured that I should master creating content before trying to burn it), but from what I've see, you can actually get some pretty professional looking results extremely quickly out of iDVD 5. The main thing here is that it is extremely easy to use and has a number of very professional looking, non-cheesy themes that you can choose from for title screens and menus.
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linuxOwnzIfUrLeet - Wednesday, January 26, 2005 - link
#104"
better in the long run when you consider the big picture of computing"
Buying and running a crap is better for computing?
Can you pass the pipe? That must be good $hite.
What has crapple given back to computing since they raped freebsd to magically come up with
os suX?
the mac cult act like they did something grand...
aPple and really any Evil corporation ( iBM, miCro$oft, sUn, etc ) are trying to bring a spoonfeed computing to you. Do as I say you will my slave. Do you want to hear music? Just buy
my black box and don't touch the music you already
paid for. It's not yours you're justing renting
it from me.
This new imini is probably apple's attempt to bring back a divx format.
TCP/IP is what you're running and that's open. We have the internet because TCP/IP is open.
What do we have with appletalk?
If you want to do what's best in the long run,
you need to buy open market x86 hardware and run open oses like freebsd or linux.
crap-ple : think stupid
Jorchi - Wednesday, January 26, 2005 - link
You says that photoshop is a lot, have you try graphic converter? Is a very nice application that can fit yours neededsbluebeetle - Wednesday, January 26, 2005 - link
msva$903 is Way too high, why the Airport card?-$79
sure $200 will buy you a good monitor, and i understand why the Apple needs 512 Ram.
But hey the PC only comes with 256 Ram no wait- less 32mb for it's videocard so you could argue the PC would be sluggish with only 256 too!!! especially as it's shared.
If we're gonna be fair
$499 mac mini
$180 15" monitor (BenQ)
$30 keyboard & mouse from Apple
Thats $709
maybe $750 tops if you don't want the mac mouse and factor delivery in.
Also remember the PC included $50 rebates, no CD-R, only 30 days warranty and FAR less software, no Firewire port etc
mino - Wednesday, January 26, 2005 - link
#110You are too good on DELL. You should have added components of DELL level(DELL has NO WiFi!):
Mini $499
512M RAM Upgrade $75
USB Keyboard + Mouse combo from WalMart or so $20
DELL class 15" LCD $170
that makes $765 for a complete DELL-like system
To put performance into perspective G4 1.25 will put Athlon 1.25 into dust (maybe even A64 1.25). G4 IS more powerfull designg than any X86 (probably except A64) CPU could offer. I will put also G5 into shame at the same clockspeed. The only but very big issue with G4 is that it doesn't scale high enough since Motorola gave up on its development long ago.
Thus 1.5 G4 should be approx. like P4 2.4C (except heavily optimized encoding apps).
mino - Wednesday, January 26, 2005 - link
#105 " Viruses have never been an issue for me, I haven't had an AV program installed since maybe Windows 95..."I'd bet my daily income, that if you would install a good AV SW, many ,even tens of, viruses would be found. And don't say no, because just 10 minutes ago my AV warned about virus that was inside javascript on the site of one PC chassis manufacturer - not a small one (I was looking for server case).
Sleep still;)
mino - Wednesday, January 26, 2005 - link
#96 Just to make things clear:1.) AVG is just a piece of crap(I have my reasons)
2.) AVG is NOT free. It costs around $50 per 2 years
from free avir F-Prot is OK, but from paid ones NOD32 has no competition (as far as avir part goes)
msva124 - Wednesday, January 26, 2005 - link
I forgot shipping for the mouse, keyboard and monitor. If you can find them all at the same place (I refuse to order lcd's from newegg because of their dead pixel policy) it would bring the total up by about $20, to $923.msva124 - Wednesday, January 26, 2005 - link
Mac Mini $499512 MB Ram upgrade $75
Airport Extreme upgrade $79
Keyboard that has apple keys and usb ports $30??
Logitech Wired USB Mouse $20
Decent 15" LCD Monitor $200
Total $903
With all of the above add-ons (which I would consider bare minimum to make this thing usable) it is still well below the $1000 mark.
bluebeetle - Wednesday, January 26, 2005 - link
Walt"Well, let's see...by the time you add for the keyboard, mouse, 15" lcd monitor and the 256-mbs of extra ram Anand states is needed to make the mini something useful, all of which is built in to the compared Wintel box...gosh, I guess we're talking at least $1,000"
What are you smoking walt?
A keyboard 15" LCD and KB&M for $500
try here:
www.newegg.com
they have LCDs for $175 keybord and mouse $20
mmm where did you get $1k from?
did you add the price of both together and chuck the Dell CPU?
Also factor in the software (ilfe & Applworks worth$150) and the fact the Dell only has a CD rom (how do you get your files off)? and only 90 day warranty
Still the mini is aimed at those PC users who already have monitors (KVM anyone)
No wonder Walt feels so threatened, the mini is the fastest selling PC ever!
epiv - Wednesday, January 26, 2005 - link