So today I bought a Mac Mini

[pammy]

im currently on my Ibook 12" , browsing using safari and airport 10 min after turning the mac on

How cool is this

cool - you did it than :bannana: you'll have to show me

 

[sportyreptile]

Mac's are Tres Cool!

Always have been, just been a little overpriced, however that's changing.
The Mac Mini looks great - pity it doesn't have built in sound though.

G5 iMac looks the dogs as well

 

[sportyreptile]

If your considering switching to a Mac from a PC, guess what's your best friend?

Yup, your iPod!

Take a look at this link, very interesting.

http://www.apple.com/switch/howto/ipod/

 

[scotth_uk]

pity it doesn't have built in sound though.

??? It has a built in speaker, a stereo audio out which sounds very good. Just missing a mic input.

 

[sportyreptile]

So it does.

Sorry, I read your post wrong. I thought that was strange, as the very earliest Macintosh had sound built on board.

Must put brain in gear before engaging gob/typing fingers.

 

[Bugblatter]

im currently on my Ibook 12" , browsing using safari and airport 10 min after turning the mac on

How cool is this

That was how I experienced it. It really does work like that!

 

[scotth_uk]

Please note that you can not add wireless yourself internall to the Mac Mini. You can purchase the Airport Extreme wireless internal card, but it doesn't come with the aerial.

The kits including aerial are only available to Apple service centres and whilst not difficult to fit, are best left to them.

If anyone wants the 15mb service guide for the unit, or the video of how to open it, please PM me.

Sending the AE card back today for a refund after the happily sold it to my wife even though she stated it was for a mac mini. :-(

 

[johnpritt]

Having used a Mac since 1990 all I can say is what took you guys so long?

 

[fuzzer]

Having used a Mac since 1990 all I can say is what took you guys so long?

ok , thats taking it a bit far macs only got good with os X.

 

[scotth_uk]

Fuzzer - for general use I couldn't agree more. For media use though, they have always been excellent regardless of o/s.

 

[johnpritt]

ok , thats taking it a bit far macs only got good with os X.

Hmmm...when I moved from the bank I was working at in 1990, they were running DOS. Went to another company, they were running Macs (can't remember any more which OS, 6 maybe?). A revelation. Want to print something in the Hong Kong office, no problem, go to the Chooser, select the printer, print. And they had this wierd thing called a mouse. And some really nifty software programmes calld Word and Excel that didn't exist in the MS-DOS word.
I'll admit that with the recent versions of Windows, let's say from 98 on, Microsft has got it's act together and has a good platform. But then, like you say, along came OSX.

Interesting: your Jason doesn't say which OS I'm running when I access the forum from home. But I'll give him a good mark because he does recognise Safari

 

[fuzzer]

Interesting: your Jason doesn't say which OS I'm running when I access the forum from home. But I'll give him a good mark because he does recognise Safari

i hadnt noticed that... im loving this mac , the battery lasts forever

 

[Aswall]

That was how I experienced it. It really does work like that!

Maybe I'm missing something but I switched on my new XP laptop and was surfing wirelessly within 60 seconds, what's so great about it taking 10 minutes?

MACs are nice and all that but not really worth the extra money over a PC, and since XP I have never had any probs with crashing or system stability

 

[Shude]

...since XP I have never had any probs with crashing or system stability

I have never had any problems with crashing or system stability ever. The only reason you will ever experience that kind of behaviour is if there is rubbish or badly supported hardware in use. Macs are reliable because someone already chose the good hardware and made sure it worked with the software, that's it

 

[scotth_uk]

There is probably another contributing factor - the fact that the basic may machine is tightly controlled and varies very little. Unlike the PC where you can choose from 8 gazillion bits to get a machine together.

A bit like a console - you only have to develop for one setup.

 

[scotth_uk]

If anyone wants to know what kind of performance difference is available by changing the drive:

http://eshop.macsales.com/Reviews/Framework.cfm?page=/Benchmarks/12705/minihd.html

Owner reports:

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/feedback/mac_mini_owner_reports.html

 

[scotth_uk]

The owner reports link above now details a cheap/easy solution for 54mbps wireless - the DLink DWL-G122 has an OS X driver which very few people seem to have found. They are about £35 from http://www.ebuyer.com . Seems a lot cheaper than the airport extreme retro-fit, but you do lose a USB port.

I have now successfully tested remote control from

PC to the MAC using VNC
MAC to the PC using RDP

Both work extremely well.

RAM upgrades - best purchased from http://www.crucial.com/uk with lifetime warranty. About £50 for 512MB and about £135 for 1GB. Many programs won't run very well with the standard 256mb. :-(

 

[Bugblatter]

Maybe I'm missing something but I switched on my new XP laptop and was surfing wirelessly within 60 seconds, what's so great about it taking 10 minutes?

MACs are nice and all that but not really worth the extra money over a PC, and since XP I have never had any probs with crashing or system stability

I think the point is that we have changed from Micro$oft to Apple and it was easy, not that Mac OS X is better than Windows. I have nothing against Windows XP, but I stuck my neck out and bought an Apple laptop and I wasn't disappointed. In my case, when I began to use the Apple, the actual process of identifying the connection to use for internet access was as simple as clicking the option for Airport and Mac OS X just sorted everything else out within a few seconds. I think 10 minutes includes everything else which you can set up when you first switch on the Apple PC.

 

[scotth_uk]

Got the DLink adapter today. Works well until you reboot or come out of sleep mode. Can't be ar*ed with it. Taking the adapter back tomorrow and going back to wired until proper drivers come out.

10.3.8 OS X update came out today.

 

[scotth_uk]

Went to the Tottenham Court Rd computer fair today looking for some RAM to beef up the mini. Managed to get my hands on a 1GB CL2.5 Infineon PC2700 stick for £120 inc VAT, which is now installed. Machine is running a little quicker on the day to day and a lot better with apps like Garageband.

Hoping to get some time tonight to install Virtual PC 7, so that I can also see how fast Windows XP Pro runs on this little thing. I read this morning that a US based bloke is claiming that Excel for Windows inside an emaulator, runs faster than the native Excel for Mac!

Still haven't been able to get my hands on the DVI to AV adapter, so it's still on my desk and NOT under the TV. Grr!

Also got a Belkin KVM switch today, one of the 'all-in-one' units. £35 from Argos and works very well. Each machine connects with just a VGA and single USB. You then plug a USB mouse, keyboard and monitor into the other end. Just press the button to switch - easy!