Apple Mac mini M9687LL/B (1.42 GHz PowerPC G4, 512 MB DDR SDRAM, 80 GB Hard Drive, DVD/CD-RW Drive) Review

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(More customer reviews)The Mac Mini was released in January 2005 at Mac World, and was then updated, for the first time, in July 2005. This Mac Mini is the result of that update.
Improvements - The $599 Mac Mini now sports 512 MB of DDR SDRAM, which is twice the memory the original Mac Mini included. This is a significant upgrade. The majority of users can now buy, out of the box, a machine that performs beautifully and allows a fair amount of multi-tasking. The Mac operating system, Mac OS X Tiger, thrives on memory, and 512 MB helps to create a speedy experience, for users.
Bluetooth - Bluetooth is a great wireless technology that Apple heavily backs, and it is included with this Mac Mini, an addition, from the original Mac Minis, when bluetooth was an optional add-on, at Apple.com, for $50 more. Purchase a bluetooth keyboard or bluetooth mouse, and they will work wirelessly, with your Mac Mini. It makes for a very clean and uncluttered desktop. There are also many mobile phones and PDAs, which utilize bluetooth technology, which you can sync to your mac using isync, included with Mac Mini.
Airport Extreme - This is the wireless networking card now included with the $599 Mac Mini, after being a $70+ upgrade at Apple.com, on the previous model. Do you have a wireless-b or wireless-g network in your home? If so, the Mac Mini will be able to connect to it, without problem. Again, making the computing experience simpler and less tangled.
The Good Things that Continue to Shine with Mac Mini - A buyer of the Mac Mini will continue to enjoy Mac OS X Tiger, which is the best consumer operating system in the world. It works with the hardware beautifully to provide a simple, fast, elegant, and reliable experience. One of the favorite descriptions of Mac fans, to describe Macs, is simply, "it just works."
The Mac Mini continues to include iLife '05, with great applications such as iPhoto, iMovie HD, iDVD, iTunes, and Garageband. These are all included, with every Mac Mini. You will be challenged to find any PC that includes applications that come anywhere close to the iLife suite. Manage thousands of your digital images in iPhoto, create home movies in iMovie, and create professional music in Garageband.
Appleworks is included for simply word processing, spreadsheets, etc., but you might want to pick up Microsoft Office for Mac. A student/teacher edition is available, for just over $100.
Speed - The 1.42 GHZ PowerPC G4 processor makes the Mac Mini a very capable machine. This will satisfy the horsepower needed to complete tasks in the iLife suite, included with your Mac Mini.
Hard Drive - 80 GB is a significant-sized hard drive, so you will be able to store thousands of photos and songs.
ComboDrive - The Apple Combo Drive allows you to burn music and data CDs, plus you can watch DVDs!
Drawbacks? The $599 version of the Mac Mini no longer includes a modem, if you want this version of the Mac Mini with a modem, you will have to custom-order it at Apple.com. However, the ethernet port is included on the back, to plug into a DSL or cable modem, plus you have the Airport Extreme, for wireless connections. However, if you don't have broadband, you'll need a modem for dial-up, so you will either need to order a custom-built Mac Mini at Apple.com, or buy the stock $499 model, which includes a modem, but lacks the wireless components.
Overall, Apple has created another fantastic product, with the Mac Mini, and the July 2005 update only made it better. You get more memory, plus wireless connectivity via bluetooth and airport extreme. This Mac Mini really includes everything the average user needs to enjoy the internet, manage his or her digital life, and have fun doing it all.

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Includes: VGA/DVI adapter, Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger, iLife '05 (includes iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD & GarageBand), AppleWorks, Quicken2005 for Mac, & more. Apple Mac Mini - Incredibly inexpensive, but definitely not cheap, this miniature Apple Macintosh Computer is perfectfor handling your day to day computing, and then some! The main feature is it's petite exterior. The Mac Mini is only 6.5" square, 2" high, andweighs only 2.9 pounds. Its attractive platinum and white, rounded square design gives it a sophisticated modern look that can't be matched. Italso has the convenience of having all of its buttons and ports placed in the back, so cables are kept tidy and neat, giving you a clean overallappearance. But what's even more amazing than its good looks, is the shear amount of technology Apple has packed inside! Slot-Loading CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combo Drive - up to 24x CD-R, 16x CD-RW, 24x CD-ROM, & 8x DVD-ROM Ports - 10/100 Ethernet, 1 FireWire 400, 2 USB 2.0, DVI Out, VGA Out, & Headphone/Audio Line Out Built-in AirPort Extreme (802.11b/g Wi-Fi Wireless Network Adapter) Bluetooth Support

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Apple Mac mini M9687LL/A (G4 1.42 GHz, 256 MB RAM, 80 GB Hard Drive, DVD/CD-RW Drive) Review

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(More customer reviews)For all of the things the Mac mini is, there are some that it is not. As the owner five Macs -- from a iMac G4 to a dual G5 tower -- I'll try to help.
(1) If you need a Mac to surf the Web, send e-mails and IM, write the next great novel or screenplay, organize and fix your photos, encode and hold your music library, and do some semi-serious movie editing, the Mac mini is just your ticket. For these tasks, it's downright snappy -- but, please, bump up the RAM to at least 512 MB. (Remember, the Mac operating system, OS X, thrives on RAM. You'll see a noticeable speed improvement between 512 MB and 1 GB of RAM, for example.) In fact if these are your needs, there is no better personal computer to buy. Period.
(2) If you need a Mac to some serious GarageBand multi-track recording, serious movie-editing with long clips and multiple effects (even under iMovie), or heavy photo manipulation, you probably should look elsewhere. If you want to play serious games on the Mac -- and, yes, you'll be able to do that -- you might also want to look elsewhere. (Doom III, soon to come out for the Mac, requires a G5 processor. The bigger and better games will.) For those who fit these criteria, you should seriously look at the iMac G5, or even a G5 tower. Remember, you can get the iMac G5 for just a little bit more than the Mac mini with a screen, keyboard, and mouse. It's a great computer and a real step up from the Mac mini's G4 processor.
Of course, there are other reasons to want the Mac mini. It's a miracle of engineering -- amazingly small and with so much more functionality than Windows computers costing twice as much ... and taking up five times the space! (Don't just go by price tags. Take a bottom of the line Dell and add up the cost of all the extras that come standard with an Mac mini ... a firewire port (essential for many DV camcorders to off-load video), a CD burner and DVD player (for most PC, you might be able to get one or the other -- as an extra), a full blown graphics card with its own 32 MB of RAM (not one of those "on the motherboard" Intel graphics sets that cannibalizes system RAM and does a lousy job of running even rudimentary games), and best-in-the-business photo and movie editing apps, etc.
And on top of all this, you get the best operating system out there. No viruses. No crashes. No fuss, no muss. OS X is a dream ... built from the ground up on solid UNIX foundations. If you've had Windows PCs, you'll immediately know something's afoot ... an operating system that just ... works. What a wonder! And you don't need to but a single anti-virus program or subscription. Not even a utilities program!
Enjoy!

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Includes: VGA/DVI adapter, Mac OS X v10.3 "Panther", iLife '05 (includes iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD & GarageBand), AppleWorks,Quicken 2005 for Mac, & more. Apple Mac Mini - Incredibly inexpensive, but definitely not cheap, this miniature Apple Macintosh computeris perfect for handling your day to day computing, and then some! The main feature is it's petite exterior. The Mac Mini is only 6.5" square, 2"high, and weighs only 2.9 pounds. Its attractive platinum and white, rounded square design gives it a sophisticated modern look that can't bematched. It also has the convenience of having all of its buttons and ports placed in the back, so cables are kept tidy and neat, giving you aclean overall appearance. But what's even more amazing than its good looks, is the shear amount of technology Apple has packed inside!Slot-loading Combo Drive at the front of the Mac Mini (DVD-ROM/CD-RW - up to 8x DVD-ROM, 24x CD-R, 10x CD-RW, 24x CD-ROM) Ports - 1 FireWire 400, 2 USB 2.0, DVI Out, VGA Out, 10/100 Ethernet, Headphone/Audio Line Out Built-in 56k v.92 Fax Modem Built-in Speaker Unit Weight - 2.9 pounds

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