 "Great with my Sony HD set" | 2009-11-17 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1Q1ILEBQELM5W |
| I bought this to be a media center for my 52" Sony HD LCD set. My media is stored on a NAS device and includes movies, TV shows, photos, home video, etc. The Mini with Front Row does a good job of giving the family a dead-simple way of accessing all of this content. Plus we can do some fun things like create music using Garage Band and play it through the surround sound system. The Apple TV is cheap but also very limited. With a little knowledge the Mini provides a very flexible alternative. Video and sound (using the mini TOS cable) are outstanding. Not seeing any stutter or delays. I run mine without a keyboard or a mouse. On the rare occasion when I want one I just use the Mobile Air Mouse on my iPhone as a combination keyboard and mouse. |
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 "Folders drive you crazy" | 2009-11-11 |
| - Reviewed By proustian |
A problem with the 1gb Imac and the Mac Mini (but not the Macbook, I am told) is folders.
You set your folder with small icons, hiding the toolbar. You come back later, the toolbar is back, the icons are now large, falling all over each other like poker chips -- or, your icons have turned into a list.
You patiently put it back the way you had it, and you click the button that says "Always open in icon view."
You come back later -- the folder has gone crazy again. The toolbar is back, the icons have become a list, the icons are too big -- something.
You end up sighing ten times a day as you use the computer.
Very annoying. |
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| "My First Mac" | 2009-11-01 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1O6CKY8A1DNTG |
This is my first Mac so i can not compare it to others but I do like it. I have been a long time HP man and have been having problems with the HP I have right know. I had my HP custom built from HP a year and a half ago with all the highest performance parts and spent quite a bit on it. It has had a problem from the first week where it runs really slow one day every one or two weeks and none of the programs will respond, I believe it has something to do with a bad install from the factory and I am working with HP to get it fixed. For the amount I spent and the fact that it is not out of date performance wise I am not ready to give up on it and spend big money on another one. I figured I would invest in something cheaper and just use it for my web browsing and leave all my financing, gaming and music to the HP.
As far as the Mac goes I a impressed with it. I like how fast it starts, shuts down and comes out of sleep. The size is really nice since it doesn't take up alot of desk space. The 2GB of memory seems to work good but I will probably upgrade to 4GB in the next few weeks. I like the dashboard more than I liked the sidebar on vista and Snow Leopard more than Vista performance wise. The built in speaker is nice which I didn't realize it had before buying, I didn't really want to have to sets of speakers or switch back and forth between them. The speaker isn't much maybe about like laptop speakers but better than my Samsung netbooks speakers. Some of the thing I didn't like are Safari which was and easy fix with installing Firefox. I didn't give Safari much time since I have heard its security isn't any good and I couldn't get it to maximize to the full wide screen it was just square and had about 2 or 3 inches of open screen on the sides. Probably the only other problem I have found is I don't feel like I can multitask my web browsing like Microsoft. I like to have 3 or 4 Firefox windows opened and have a couple of tabs in each one when I am researching stuff and they are not all spread out on the Mac making it easy to switch from on the the other, instead you have to minimize them to switch. That my be something that can be changed but I have only had this for a couple of days and haven't figured it out. I had a spare Kensington SlimBlade keyboard and mouse that I hooked up to it. I didn't care for the mouse it just seemed to bulky and had bad response so I hooked up a spare Microsoft Arc mouse, which has to be one of my favorite mice. I have both it and the HP hooked up to a Samsung T220 with the HP using the DVI port and the Mac using the VGA port, and just switch back and forth with the source button.
I have not gave up on Microsoft yet either, I have a copy of Windows 7 that I had installed for about a half a day using the upgrade option and had the same problems with it as Vista. It started acting up a couple hours after being installed so I had a chance to test it out and liked it way more than Vista. HP told me to recover my computer to see if that would fix it and I am waiting for it to act up again to contact HP and let them inspect it. I purchased the in home protection plan with HP and they have been really helpful. The DVD-RW went out and they sent a guy that week to replace it at no cost, and the slow running problem they have spent over an hour on the phone with me with no rush to get off.
If you are trying to figure out if the Mini Mac has the performance to run some games or other stuff this is not a review for you. I may try to play some games or start doing my quickbooks on it but like I said I will leave the most of that to the HP. If you are wanting to give Mac a chance without spending alot of money then this is a good choice. Im not a big fan of the all in one PC's so I don't really ever see an IMac being something for me and the desktop mac towers are way more than I would want to spend on a Mac. The Mac notebooks seem to be overpriced since trying to get a decent sized screen cost over $2000. I don't know what the life expectancy is on the mini mac personally but I have read it will last until it is out of date. I just think Macs have been overpriced and are finally reaching a point of lowering their price so in another couple of years they will have something other than the Mini that will be at a decent price. I have never had any problems with viruses on anything running Windows since I run good virus protection and have never had any personal information stolen. There have been times I've done a recovery if I did feel I had a virus just to make sure, but nothing that has ever ruined one of my systems. So either way with a PC or Mac I feel you get the same life out of it which is a year and its out of date and a couple of years and it just can't run the modern programs. Technology moves to fast which is not a bad thing but after a year there is something twice as good as what you have pretty much. I figure three years is my limit and then its time for something new. Just figure up how long you plan on keeping it 1,2,3,4 years and the price as for this I look at about two years which will cost me about .82 cents a day and I spend over a $1 a day on my internet why not have a computer that is that much. As for the HP its about $2.30 a day which is something I think is worth the money. Dishnetwork cost me about $3 a day I spend way more time on the computer then watching TV and there seems to be more to do on here than what there is to watch on TV. Thats just for the Dishnetwork not including what you spent on the TV to watch it.
I hope this helps you decide and I realize I began to ramble. I am happy with my Mini Mac and plan to use it regularly. Sorry if my review has to much Microsoft stuff for you but I am a technology nut and like the Mac and Microsoft worlds both in their on ways. I am also sorry if I had a sentence run on to long, used a comma where I shouldn't have, used bad grammar, paragraphed my review wrong and if reading this gave you a headache. I am aware that I have that problem and try to make it look as good a possible but I was not the smartest kid in my English class. I just know and like electronics and technology and was probably the top of the class on that. I like to research it and try what I think is best. |
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| "The Mac mini is a great little computer for the money." | 2009-10-25 |
| - Reviewed By User: AS6JXCUIIRBZ5 |
| I have always used macs because they have the most sophisticated and user friendly operating system available. The problem is that most of their stuff is overpriced. One exception is the mac mini which gives you a lot of computer for the money. It is all the computer that most people will ever need. Now that the latest model takes up to 4 GB of ram, it is even a better. It's compact size is also a plus. I don't like the i-mac and the Mac pro is too much computer for most people. It would be nice if Apple would come out with a mini tower as an alternative to the i-mac. Also I would like to see Apple produce a net book for 300 or 400 dollars. As it stands right now if want a net book then you have to put up with an inferior Windows operating system. Of course Apple is making a lot money selling a bunch of overpriced toys that in a few years will be obsolete. In contrast the mac mini is a good solid value. |
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| "Excellent product" | 2009-10-24 |
| - Reviewed By User: A384CE7SWOTOXS |
This is my second Mac Mini. I bought my first Mac Mini when they were first introduced. I have been using that same Mac mini for about 5 years with no problems. I finally decided to get a new one because more and more of the internet features wouldn't work anymore because I needed software upgrades that didn't fit the specs I had. However, I didn't want to make the same mistake I made the first time and buy it right before a software upgrade. This is the perfect time to buy this Mac Mini. Snow Leopard is pre-installed, and there's roughly about $150 worth of extra memory and speed for the same price as the previous model that was just released about 6 months ago.
One complaint I did have with my old Mac mini was that it was a pain to configure my internet connection. The internet setup for this new model is simply plug and play. Absolutely no configuration is needed if your plugging in an Ethernet cable, whether it's hooked up to a router or not.
I basically only use my Mac Mini for the Internet, downloading music and video for my Ipod, digital picture storage, and occasionally typing and printing a paper. If that's all your going to use it for and your sick of all the viruses and hidden internet files that slow down your computer when you use a PC, then buy this entry level Mac Mini. |
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| "Makes a great media center" | 2009-10-23 |
| - Reviewed By digitalrenaissance |
I attached the mini to my HDTV (using mini-DVI to HDMI cable) and an optical digital audio cable. Picture and audio are perfect. It's great.
Let's start with the basics. It's whisper quite, and it uses about as much power as fluorescent light bulb when idle.
I can watch or listen to anything in iTunes using an IR remote (I use a "Logitech Harmony XBox 360" remote) via the built-in Apple Frontrow software or using Apple's magical Remote app for the iPhone (or iPod touch).
Or I can control the mini media center from my laptop across the room using Mac "Screen Sharing" (or VNC on any PC) to watch any video or audio source from the internet (Hulu, Silverlight, Flash, Amazon VOD, Netflix VOD etc.) or use the Apple DVD Player to play VIDEO_TS folders. (Please respect filmmakers and don't pirate movies.) You can watch what ever you want. You name it.
Although it's an option, it really doesn't even need a dedicated keyboard and mouse.
Other non-computer media boxes that are available can only play a fixed set of sources -- e.g. iTunes and YouTube (AppleTV). Netflix or Amazon VOD (Roku) or ripped or downloaded video files (WDTV). Support for anything outside of what those devices do today is just a wishing game or requires a lot of painstaking media format conversion.
The mini as a media center is pretty much obsolescence-proof. So while it may seem a lot more expensive than something like WDTV today, I'll bet I'll still be using the mini media center long after that WDTV has joined the pile at the back of the closet. |
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