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frankly wrote:

ScifiterX wrote:

It was a good system just limited & overpriced for what it was.

I thought the cube was overpriced but I don't remember thinking it was limited. What wasn't it capable of doing?

Frank

There was a video card slot but you couldn't really upgrade because the only card available was more or less the BTO standard, The RAM and HD were moderately upgradable but it was a relative PITA. You couldn't really use analog speakers, headphones, or microphones without adaptors.

ScifiterX wrote:

frankly wrote:

ScifiterX wrote:

It was a good system just limited & overpriced for what it was.

I thought the cube was overpriced but I don't remember thinking it was limited. What wasn't it capable of doing?

Frank

There was a video card slot but you couldn't really upgrade because the only card available was more or less the BTO standard, The RAM and HD were moderately upgradable but it was a relative PITA. You couldn't really use analog speakers, headphones, or microphones without adaptors.

So not much different from many Macs over the years then? Don't you think it was the cost that gave the cube a bad rap more than anything??? If it were priced 300 - 500 lower I doubt those other things would have gotten much notice. None of them made the computer not work. In all my years of using Macs I've only upgraded one video card, and that was my G4 dual 450 that I used for almost 7 frickin' years. Besides, making upgrades harder does not equal limited. If upgrades weren't possible or if it weren't possible to do certain things on the machine then I would say it was limited.

Frank

To be fair, the mini has a power brick.

Since no one seems to have noticed this, I'll highlight it:

Why did Apple and Intel opt for a hotter than necessary chip for use in the MacBook Air? Here's where our trail goes cold but we suspect that in order to bring the smaller CPU/chipset packaging to market earlier, some tradeoffs had to be made. Remember that CPU packaging controls far more than how big the chip is, but also governs FSB frequency, power delivery and getting data in and out of the chip itself.

The shiny die connects to hundreds of pins on the bottom of the package. The more pins that need to be connected, the higher the FSB frequency and the smaller the chip the more strain this puts on the packaging technology itself. It's quite possible that one side effect of the small form factor CPU package is worse power delivery, requiring that the chip be given a higher than normal operating voltage.

The bigger concern however has nothing to do with packaging technology or operating voltages, but overall thermals. The MacBook Pro runs very hot and while the 20W TDP of the MacBook Air is significantly lower than the 35W TDP of the Pro, it's high for such a small chassis. We won't know for sure how hot the Air will get until it's in our hands but the SSD route seems like an even better bet now that we know a little more about what we're dealing with. Cutting down heat in that thin chassis will be very important, and moving to solid state storage is the only real option you have there.

http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=3203

frankly wrote:

MacZiMiZer wrote:

I'll agree the lack of ethernet was an odd scarifice, and would seem much more important than a DVI port

No way. You can NOT have a laptop without some way to get video out to a projector, etc.

Ok great, so I can hook up to the HDTV in my hotel room, but not to the internet.

MacZiMiZer wrote:

frankly wrote:

MacZiMiZer wrote:

I'll agree the lack of ethernet was an odd scarifice, and would seem much more important than a DVI port

No way. You can NOT have a laptop without some way to get video out to a projector, etc.

Ok great, so I can hook up to the HDTV in my hotel room, but not to the internet.

Yet another add-on, but the AirPort Express has always been marketed for exactly that purpose.

my old 12 inch MBP literally had flames on the power cord (no joke).  Granted I'd cracked the mother board at one time, and the power cord was getting a little worn, but hey, I could make an omelet off the bottom of that sucker if I wanted

Doesn't run as reliably with WiFi as on might hope according to many of the reviews. Still the fact that there is even that much of an option is a pleasant surprise.

Tom_N wrote:

frankly wrote:

Don't you think it was the cost that gave the cube a bad rap more than anything???

There were other strikes against the Cube besides expandability and cost.

If I remember correctly, the ports were on the underside of the machine (this being an attempt to improve visual aesthestics).  It's not very convenient to turn a running machine upside down just because you want to plug in a card reader or whatever.

There was some problem with control placement and/or sensitivity on the top of the machine that made it very easy for some users to accidentally power-down (reset?) the machine.  Oops...

Also, while the Cube itself was small, part of the way they achieved the size was by shipping a separate power brick.  That is, they didn't really solve the problem of the power supply taking up space (as on a flat-screen iMac); instead they just shoved the problem under the table (so to speak).

Aside from the power switch, which I believe was corrected under warranty, those are issues that if they were important to you would probably  have led you to never consider the cube in the first place. If every computer were manufactured to appeal to the greatest number of people then we wouldn't have computers that met the needs of some minority of users. To me one of the greatest appeals of the Mac is that they do sell some computers that may not appeal to the masses but appeal to me (or to someone else a great deal). The iMac is an example of one that appeals to me a great deal but that others abhor. The Mac Mini is one that many people find ridiculous and others really enjoy. The MBA will be another example along these lines.

The intent is for you to use the wireless when you want to connect to a network, including the internet.

Not all businesses have WiFi due to security concerns. The dongle was necessary. Funny how the Ethernet dongle is cheaper than the modem. Also if you want to connect to say a router, you need Ethernet. Hopefully the reviews will tell us whether or not the adapter will work with a hub. You can pick up a small hub pretty inexpensively.

A cool idea (though cribbing from MS) would be for Apple to combine the mini, Time Capsule and a slimmed-down version of OS X Server and possibly AppleTV. You'd have your wireless router, backup storage and a home file/calendaring server all in one. Not just homes, but small businesses too.

ScifiterX wrote:

frankly wrote:

ScifiterX wrote:

And like the Cube, it's power brick is roughly a fourth to a third the size of the associated computer.

No different than laptops either. It is sometimes better to have the external power supply due to the heat it can generate and the ability to replace it if needed.

Frankly, no offense, but I don't think you caught a subtle nuance somewhere. If you note I compare the size of the brick to the size of the computer it goes with, and while the size ratio is similar between the Cube & the Mini, the size is definitely not.

So which were you trying to say, that the Cube power supply was much closer to the size of the cube or much smaller compared to the cube than the ratio of the Mac Mini and its power supply?

Frank

ScifiterX wrote:

I'm saying the Cube's brick is between 1/4 & 1/3 the size of the Cube and while the Mini's brick is proportionately similar in relation to the Mini but since the Mini is about the size of the Cube's brick, the Mini's brick ends up not being nearly as large.

Well, I'd agree that the Cube's power supply is wide and long but the Cube was 10 inches tall so I'm not sure I agree that it is 1/4 to 1/3 the size of the Cube. But I do get your meaning that it is large. However, are you going to see either of them in practice?