davidbau.com

New Mac Mini

I'm gradually converting my family to Mac. This week I replaced our kids' Cappucino PC with a brand-new Intel Mac Mini. If you're a switcher like me, you should know that although the Mini comes with a DVI/VGA adapter dongle, it doesn't have a USB/PS2 adapter. So you'll need to pick up a USB to PS/2 thing like this one.

Of course the other thing we needed to do was stick some "essential" software on it, including Anthony's current favorite game and Piper's current favorite. And Firefox for Dad. And Google Earth for kicks.

The Mac Mini is a wonder of engineering. A couple observations.

1. It is much quieter than the Cappucino PC that it replaces. The Cappucino PC had an intolerably loud fan, and the DVD drive was incredibly noisy. The Mini is basically inaudible on both counts. Although the Mini's onboard speaker is just as tinny as the one on the Cappucino, you can actually hear the one on the Mini.
2. OS X on Intel just works. I am most impressed by Rosetta, which is completely transparent to me as a user. None of the third-party software I installed was written for Intel Macs, but all of it, from Age of Empires to Google Earth, works flawlessly and quickly. I'm looking forward to true universal binaries which should work even faster, but Rosetta did not disappoint.

I hope to try a bit of video editing with iMovie. So now I am waiting for Amazon to ship me a firewire cable to connect my GS150 with the Mini. Too bad all these gadgets don't just already come with the needed cables. I have a huge pile of old extra cables, but never the one I need.

Posted by David at March 12, 2006 10:58 AM