Mac Mini

“Dear Mr Jobs,

When I said “Your work here was done”, in my previous post about my iPhone, I may have been telling porkies, as I still had a Windows machine in the house, however you’ll be glad to know, that I’ve done the right thing, and replaced it with a Mac Mini. Sorry for the porkie, and I am now 100% Apple.

Your ever faithful disciple

Darren.”

As you can probably tell from the above, I’ve replaced my last remaining Windows machine with a Mac Mini (Really ? No sh1t Sherlock). To be honest I’ve been toying with the idea since getting the MacBooks last year, as essentially all the Windows machine did was act as a server. It was my media server, my iTunes server, my torrent downloading machine (all legal of course) and a way of dialling into my network from the outside world using remote desktop and port forwarding.

As you can probably suss from my ted post, I spent a little time and ensured that I could still carry out the same functions on the Mac.

I’m using PS3 Media Server to stream to my PS3′s and Xbox,I’m using a uTorrents as my torrent client,iTunes (obviously) for my iTunes server and finally VNC to dial it.

All these pieces of software are available cross platform, so all is good.

The Mac Mini turned up on Monday (unboxing below). The thing that got me about this was just how small the Mac Mini actually is, imagine stacking 4/5 CD cases onto of each other, and that it !

This this is silent, so compact, so tidy, and takes up no room whatsoever !.

As this is just going to be used for the same purpose the Windows machine was, I didn’t really need a high spec, as the Dell I was replacing was only a 2Gb Core 2 Duo, with 2Gb of Ram.

I went for the below, which to be honest it more than adequate for what I need.

• 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
• 2GB memory
• 160GB hard drive¹
• 8x double-layer SuperDrive
• NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics
• Mac OS X Snow Leopard

Now unlike the iMac, this doesn’t come with a mouse or keyboard, these are optional, however I had a spare set kicking around. The Mac Mini does have an internal speaker (which to be honest I was a little shocked at, as this device is so small. You do however have the option of connecting external speakers via the 3.5mm jack plug at the back.

The Video out connections are both the Mini DVI and the Mini Displayport adapters, allowing you to connect this to VGA, DVI and HDMI, however you only get a Mini DVI to DVI connecter included.

As with all my apple equipment, I switched it on, entered my details, and done !

This has been the final piece is a very expensive jigsaw, however my household is completely Mac, Goodbye Windows, I hope I never have to use you again ! (well, I do have to use it every day at work…but I don’t really have a choice in that)

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Soon I will be free from the Micrsosoft pain and suffering.

As with most Windows users, we all get used to it’s little quirks, think “oh well”, when you see the BSOD (Blue Screen of Death), hold the power button down when it decided to lock up and show all your open apps as (Not Responding)….well I’ve had enough.

I’ve used non-linux based operating systems for many many moons, since that day that everything was branded as “IBM Compatible”, when DOS was a sold operating system, and DOS Shell was a simple way of managing your files. These days I talk about where when you had an option to fire up windows, or just run at a command prompt …..ah simple times.

I saw Windows 3, then add sound in 3.1, then add network support in 3.11 for workgroups. I saw them make Windows the primary operating System in Windows 95, add 32-bit support in Windows 98 SE, really not sure what ME was all about, apart from it had prettier icons, and a higher crash rate than a destruction derby….NT, 2000, 2003, 2008, XP, Vista…….and with Windows 7, with Direct X 11 on the horizon (I wonder if it’s a sign ….7/11), but I think it’s time for me to leave the Windows gravy train, and head for greener pastures…that’s right people, I’m heading to the dark side.

On Friday, I’ve order myself a new shiny Macbook Pro ! Woot !

I bought an Apple Ipod Touch 32Gb a month or so ago, and had forgotten what it was like for something just to work !

Now I know apple aren’t the cheapest, but you do get what you pay for. The touch is a £250 MP3 player…..I know, however once you’ve got one in your hand and start to add apps, add your own music you will instantly fall in love with it. This I hope is what is going to happy with the MacBook.

Specs are as follows

Intel Core 2 Duo (2.4GHz) processor.
2GB DDR2 RAM.
250GB hard drive.
15.4in glossy TFT widescreen display.
Slot-loading 8X SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD+RW/CD-RW).
nVidia GeForce 9600M GT graphics with dedicated 256MB memory.
802.11 N WiFi.
Bluetooth.
Built-in iSIGHT camera.
MAC OS X v10.5 Leopard and iLIFE 08.

It’s due for delivery on the 14th (don’t ask, I found a bargain that saved me over £200, so willing to wait)

Only 11 days to go

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