They say less is More. I say less is Perfect!

By Luis Sosa LD Writer

The Japanese believe in the power of minimalism. If the world made sense the Mac mini would come from Sony, a Japanese company. Instead, however, it is a product made by Apple Computers out of Cupertino, Ca.

The mini reflects Apple's understanding of a fundamental truth in computers: people are no longer swayed to buy a new computer simply because it is faster. During the early to mid 90's, not upgrading your computer meant being relegated to obsolete, slow-running software and much less usability. These rules are gone (for now at least). The adoption of the Internet shifted the importance of "megabytes" and "gigahertz" to the importance of bandwidth. This shift is now being followed by a shift towards the concept Apple embraced at the beginning of this century: the digital hub. The Mac mini is the perfect digital hub and here's why.

First of all, it's tiny, about the size of three CD cases stacked on top of each other. It is also very quiet (except when using the Combo Drive, which can get little loud), a key factor in new PC purchasing decision-making. Good design makes technology seamless, invisible in everything except result. The perfect digital hub is one that is not seen or heard but felt. It is measured by the impact it has in complementing our life.

We live in a world of information and in looking at the Mac Mini we are really looking at the perfect hardware to compliment a very solid operating system. It is ultimately this combination that allows the Mac mini to be so effective. You are not simply buying a 1.42ghz g4 with and 80gb HD (which, some critics point out as being old technology) you are buying a solution. A full package that allows you to use its included software to manage everything you need to live digitally. The Combination of hardware and software is quite good enough for anything the average user can throw at it.

I have been using the Mac mini for a little over a week. I am by no means an average computer user. I do photo editing, video editing, and even some occasional gaming. The mini has done everything I have asked of it, and gracefully. Granted, it is not a G5 and doing comparable photo editing and video editing tasks on one is obviously a different experience. But this is like comparing a Honda Civic to a Ferrari, and frankly, the majority of PC owners out there would be thrilled to use a computer as reliable as a Civic!

The average user is not looking to edit a feature length film on his computer. What he does want to do is make slideshows of his photos and order prints of his vacation pictures. An ambitious user might want to play the slideshow on his or her dvd player. He wants to have a way to manage the overwhelming amount of digital information we accumulate with our digital cameras, the thousands of songs he wants to listen to with a moment's access, and the ability to take full advantage of the internet and email (without fear of being crippled by a sixteen-year-old in Sweden writing malicious virus code just for the heck of it). And he wants to do this without spending a lot of money.

Realistically the $499 base price is not what the average user will end up spending. Even assuming the user is switching from a PC and has a monitor, keyboard, and mouse handy he should still drop the extra $125 to double the hard drive and memory. So for $624 plus tax you get more than a computer, you get a solution.

The true genius of the mini is that Apple figured out what is needed to run its OS and the amazing suite of included software (iLife). That is what the Mac mini is: the bare necessities to manage a digital lifestyle. The performance is solid. The operating system is years ahead of Windows XP (editor's note: I'll have my rebuttal to this comment shortly, thank you very much...) (writer's reply: I look forward to it ;-)) and runs free of the security holes that have plagued Windows users non-stop for years (editor's note: DOH!).

I give the Mac mini a solid recommendation across the board. It is one of the most thoughtfully designed pieces of technology to come out of Apple (and the entire computer industry) since the original iMac.


Buy a Mac Mini from Amazon