The Official Headless iMac Thread

[Ramuman]

Well it seems to almost be a certainty that Jobs will debut the headless iMac for HTPC applications in a few hours. Let's discuss it here. Early speculation from thinksecret.com:
http://www.thinksecret.com/news/0501expo6.html

[MrDigital]

I'll discuss it when I see it. A $500 play-Mac would be neat though, depending on the speed. I'm assuming it will have at least a 1.2ghz G4 and 256MB of RAM. Say a 40GB drive?

Depending on how cool it looks (and I have high hopes given that it's coming from Apple) I might buy one just for shiz and giggles, but I wouldn't spent more than $500 on one.

This is a long time coming.

-MrD

[Ramuman]

Yup...I agree...except the buying part (no money in the piggy bank ). I know if Apple does it, they'll do it right.

[ImaNihilist]

It's hard to beat the cool look of some of the SFF HTPCs out there and the kinds you can build with say, an AHANIX case. I also love some of the new IWILL SFFs.

I'm not sure this is really Apple's market. Maybe if they can produce an OS or OS variant that beats down Media Center 2005. That wouldn't really be to hard to do...

Time will tell.

[MrDigital]

Originally posted by ImaNihilist
It's hard to beat the cool look of some of the SFF HTPCs out there and the kinds you can build with say, an AHANIX case. I also love some of the new IWILL SFFs.

SFF PC's are neat, no doubt, but not really my thing. They are certainly cute but I wouldn't consider them stylish. Certainly not in the realm of Apple.

But we'll see how Apple fares. What time is the keynote presentation?

-MrD

[Ramuman]

I agree, a lot of SFF cases are just gaudy to me but then again I'm not one for case windows, lights and what not. Apple, imho, designs the best looking computers and peripherals in the world.

Keynote won't be shown live (it's over already), but www.apple.com/store ....flash iPod and iMac Mini - good luck actually getting into the site.

[MrDigital]

from MacCentral.com
Encased in brushed metal, the new Mac mini features a square shape with rounded edges and is somewhat similar in appearance to an Apple AC power adapter. It features a slot-loading CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combo drive, USB 2.0, FireWire 400, DVI and VGA connectivity and a headphone jack.

Jobs describes the Mac mini and BYODKM: Bring Your Own Display, Keyboard and Mouse. The Mac mini works just fine with Apple's peripherals, of course, or you can use other industry-standard peripherals.

The Mac mini comes in two models -- a 1.25GHz, 40GB G4 system for $499 and an 80GB 1.42GHz G4 system for $599. Both are coming on January 22, 2005.

Damn, I was close. 1.25ghz and 40gb. No specs for the RAM but in that price range 256MB is almost guaranteed.

Now to get a pic of it.

-MrD

[MrDigital]

Apple Press Release
The 1.25 GHz Mac mini, for a suggested retail price of $499 (US),
includes:
-- 1.25 GHz PowerPC G4 processor;
-- 256MB of 333 MHz DDR SDRAM, expandable to 1GB;
-- 40GB Ultra ATA hard drive;
-- Combo (DVD-ROM/CD-RW) optical drive;
-- ATI Radeon 9200 graphics processor with 32MB video memory;
-- One FireWire 400 and two USB 2.0 ports;
-- 10/100 BASE-T Ethernet networking and 56K V.92 modem;
-- Internal support for AirPort Extreme wireless networking and Bluetooth;
-- DVI or VGA out (adapter included), composite/S-video out with optional
adapter; and
-- Built-in speaker and headphone/line out.

The 1.42 GHz Mac mini, for a suggested retail price of $599 (US),
includes:
-- 1.42 GHz PowerPC G4 processor;
-- 256MB of 333 MHz DDR SDRAM, expandable to 1GB;
-- 80GB Ultra ATA hard drive;
-- Combo (DVD-ROM/CD-RW) optical drive;
-- ATI Radeon 9200 graphics processor with 32MB video memory;
-- One FireWire 400 and two USB 2.0 ports;
-- 10/100 BASE-T Ethernet networking and 56K V.92 modem;
-- Internal support for AirPort Extreme wireless networking and Bluetooth;
-- DVI or VGA out (adapter included), composite/S-video out with optional
adapter; and
-- Built-in speaker and headphone/line out.

I wonder if 197mhz (weird upgrade) is worth an extra $100.

EDIT: "two-inches tall and weighing only 2.9 pounds"

I saw a small pic of it on the Apple Store but now I can't reconnect!

-MrD

[Ramuman]

Originally posted by MrDigital
Damn, I was close. 1.25ghz and 40gb. No specs for the RAM but in that price range 256MB is almost guaranteed.

Now to get a pic of it.

-MrD

There's a pic of both on the front page. I'm sure sure about the idea of a shuffle only iPod, but hey if it works, it works. The iMac mini is sexy, and frikin small...much thinner than any SFF PC. It's less than half the size of the G4 Cube

EDIT: The iPod shuffle is the sleekest thumbdrive as well...I didn't realize it was that small.

EDIT2: $100 is sorta pricey for a 512MB mp3 player considering such options exist for thumbdrives already, but I'm sure its integrated and designed well.

[MrDigital]

Originally posted by Ramuman
There's a pic of both on the front page. I'm sure sure about the idea of a shuffle only iPod, but hey if it works, it works. The iMac mini is sexy, and frikin small...much thinner than any SFF PC. It's about half the size of the G4 Cube

So there is.. and you had me going through the store.

http://www.apple.com/macmini/

-MrD

[irwincur]

No component out. When are these companies going to learn. Up to this point the great majority of HDTV sets sold are component only, some with DVI, few that are soley DVI.

[Ramuman]

Originally posted by irwincur
No component out. When are these companies going to learn. Up to this point the great majority of HDTV sets sold are component only, some with DVI, few that are soley DVI.

DVI has component analog built in. Something like this does the trick:
http://www.svideo.com/hdtvaiwr8500.html

For S-Video and Composite:
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPL...nMore=M9267G/A

I would have liked to have seen digital audio out (Toslink or Coax), oh well.

A pretty good price when you consider its a full featured computer in a very very small package.

[Mr Cherry]

Looks like an update to their Cubes. Except price is much better this time.

The Ipod Shuffle is also incedible small and stylish.

[ImaNihilist]

It's neat, but I can't really see the purpose. It seems like a product with an identity crisis. Don't get me wrong, I'm no Apple basher, even though sometimes I think I come off as one. I am in LOVE with the Apple design team. Sometimes I just think that maybe they shouldn't be designing computers...maybe they should make TVs or refrigerators--or something.

I mean, I like the idea of a $500 computer. That's fantastic. The cheaper computers get, the more people that can afford them and I really think that's a great thing. Kudos really to Apple for trying to reach out there. It's got some performance in it's own right too. The thing is, it's got a DVI connection, and doesn't come with a monitor, mouse, or keyboard. That strikes me as strange. Think about it for a second. Anyone who can actually USE a DVI connection would probably want a better PC. After all, they have that expensive HDTV or really sweet 23" LCD. I would think that in a $500 system they would throw in something like S-VIDEO and composite connections. That just seems more logical to me. Sure, you can buy adapters for this and that, but that's just more money. Seems to be that by the time you are done getting the things needed to make this thing into a full-functioning system, you are slowly creeping up into iMac prices. It seems ot have a strange spot even in Apple's own lineup, at least to me.

I mean, it's got a small HDD, so you aren't really going to make this into your Tivo box for the TV. There's no video input. You can't play games on an ATI 9200. It's like a HTPC that can...browse the internet? Maybe I'm missing something.

It almost strikes me as a gimmick in a way. You've got this basic system for a low price, but there is a catch: all the accessories to take advantage of it and make it work, cost extra. In some cases, the case of hooking it up to an HDTV, the extra cost is more than the unit itself. Sure, I know someone is going to tell me, "But I can get a cheap 17" with DVI, blah, blah, blah." That's true, but why would you really want to do that? Why not just get an eMac, or maybe a less physically attractive Dell deal with a 17" LCD? This strikes me as an Apple product that won't be around for long.

When I think HTPC, I want something I can hook up to my TV. I want something with a big hard drive so I can use some kind of Tivo functionality, or maybe just watch those illegal DVD rips I might have. Maybe I want a great soudcard with digital outputs to hook up to my home stereo. I'll probably want to see what it looks like to play Half-Life 2 on the big screen TV. Maybe that's just me, but that's what I think about when I think HTPC and the like.

This Mac mini just strikes me as nothing more than last years iMac...without the monitor.

[MrDigital]

Originally posted by ImaNihilist
This Mac mini just strikes me as nothing more than last years iMac...without the monitor.

Didn't last year's iMac cost $1300? I guess it's cheaper.

And aren't most Tivo's only 40GB? At least they were at one point. So I'm not sure what the beef with the storage is. 40GB will hold a decent amount of videos, especially with illegal DVD divx rips coming in at around 700MB.

I'm not entirely sure what I'd use it for, but that hasn't stopped me from buying crap in the past.

-MrD