People who are "tech support" for their computer-maintenance-challenged parents and other family members.
I keep hearing the refrain in reviews and commentary articles (of which there are a lot, the MM is generating quite the buzz) that the reviewers or interviewees are planning on buying one or more for their parent/children/relatives because they are tired of dealing with repairing the constant Windows virus and spyware attacks and general Windows cruft that builds up and takes out a Windows box.
Add that to the Unix techies all flying to the Mac because it is absolutely THE best Unix-oid laptop bar none AND it runs MS Office apps and all the other popular mainstream apps like Quicken and Photoshop and so on.
And there is a lot of curiousity among the other computer-techies to buy one to "check it out." I just hope most folks get it with at least 512MB RAM (another $75 from Apple or less if you do it yourself...hopefully the mail-order folks like Mac Connection and such will give you free RAM upgrades as they often do. Heck, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see the Mac mini show up in PC oriented mailorder catalogs. Apple would be stupid NOT to purchase placement for the mini there; I think they'd done so for the iMac and Xserver and stuff!)
There's also a lot of even the computer techies who want a system at home that's powerful and that they don't have to spend huge amounts of time maintaining.....because they too are tired of having to screw with Windows at work all day. I know I love to go home to my Mac from my Windows PC at work all day. Windows has it's points.....but none that don't make me far prefer the Mac. None. In fact, some of the things I like (Visual Basic for example) now have better products on the Mac....RealBasic is just as good, just as well supporte by third-party developer add-on libraries (check Versiontracker and see) and unlike VB, it's cross platform -- you can compile for MacOS X, MacOS 9, Windows, AND Linux. And soon you'll be able to develop in RealBasic on all of those platforms (or at least MacOS X, Windows, and Unix too). And it supports Windows versions back to 98 I believe.
Oh yes, the folks who make the decisions about computer purchase are about to get a wakeup call. IT folks can always use more time; I'm not so sure that making desktop computer require less support will mean they'll have any less work to do. The other folks at work always seem to be able to find more for you to do....and hopefully that "more to do" will be more fun and interesting than fighting virus and patches and spyware and other Windows crap you have to put up with. Most folks I work with use Word, Excel, a VT-100 terminal program (just use Terminal on the Mac) to connect to our Alpha minicomputer, e-mail, and a web browser. If we didn't have a bunch of databases I developed in MS-Access (the one thing that is NOT in MS Office for the Mac) then we could pull out their PC, give them an Mac mini with Office and they'd be fine. And I'm trying to move away from Access dbs, as it's too easy for people to go in and screw around with them and screw them up, switching to using VB interfacing with a database backend (preferrably Oracle or someting similar instead of a local database, with no interface they can use to screw things up.)
Oh yes, the next few months are going to be interesting....if you are thinking about a Mac mini and haven't placed your order.....you better do so NOW. It may already be too late if you want to get one anytime soon. I think we'll have them backordered for months before they even start shipping, I do.
2005-01-13
Why the Mac Mini is going to be a huge success
Why? Because the head IT honcho at my office, a man who lives and breathes Windows all day, is going to buy a Mac mini.
This seems to be a common refrain in the news reports.
And I think a whole "Mac mini" economy like that which sprang up around the iPod and the Palm is going to develop too. Lots of little USB2 or Firewire or other add-ons that stack underneath the Mac Mini (or beside it; have several stack) with things like hard drives, video switchers, memory card bays, PVR boxes, and on and on, despite that's not being the target market for Mac minis.
Apple may have a bigger market (and additional markets) for the Mac mini than it assumed.
Or maybe it DID know what it had after all. Home entertainment Mac. Home Mac server (get your own domain name here! No more e-mail address switching when you move or switch ISPs!)
If my PowerBook G4 ever needs to go in for a service, I can now go get a $499 or $599 unit to use with an old monitor and keyboard and mouse to tide me over. Much cheapter than a low-end iBook even!
I'm also seriously thinking about using this as a home Internet (web/ftp/mail/news/dns/dyndns/etc) server since it's likely to have a low power options because it uses a laptop drive. I used to use an old PowerBook Duo 2300 as a server because the hard drive could spin down and it could turn off the screen backlight to reduce power usage. I'll betcha the Mac mini can do that too.
This seems to be a common refrain in the news reports.
And I think a whole "Mac mini" economy like that which sprang up around the iPod and the Palm is going to develop too. Lots of little USB2 or Firewire or other add-ons that stack underneath the Mac Mini (or beside it; have several stack) with things like hard drives, video switchers, memory card bays, PVR boxes, and on and on, despite that's not being the target market for Mac minis.
Apple may have a bigger market (and additional markets) for the Mac mini than it assumed.
Or maybe it DID know what it had after all. Home entertainment Mac. Home Mac server (get your own domain name here! No more e-mail address switching when you move or switch ISPs!)
If my PowerBook G4 ever needs to go in for a service, I can now go get a $499 or $599 unit to use with an old monitor and keyboard and mouse to tide me over. Much cheapter than a low-end iBook even!
I'm also seriously thinking about using this as a home Internet (web/ftp/mail/news/dns/dyndns/etc) server since it's likely to have a low power options because it uses a laptop drive. I used to use an old PowerBook Duo 2300 as a server because the hard drive could spin down and it could turn off the screen backlight to reduce power usage. I'll betcha the Mac mini can do that too.
Steve Job's Master Plan
I've always thought that Steve Jobs and his minions had a long-term master plan to bring back Apple and eventually screw Microsoft at it's own game.
Looks like, based on this article that I'm not the only one who thought that (or at least has realized it).
When the XServe was announced, I was pretty sure my hypothesis was coming out in the open. With the Mac Mini, I'm even more sure. Not to mention that Apple is out-Sonying Sony in the media market. I especially liked that Steve-o managed to get the head of SONY to kowtow to him publicly.
Now we just have to make sure that Steve doesn't go too far in his pride. This is the man that told Disney to "shove it" after all. But then again, he never has suffered fools gladly, has he?
Looks like, based on this article that I'm not the only one who thought that (or at least has realized it).
When the XServe was announced, I was pretty sure my hypothesis was coming out in the open. With the Mac Mini, I'm even more sure. Not to mention that Apple is out-Sonying Sony in the media market. I especially liked that Steve-o managed to get the head of SONY to kowtow to him publicly.
Now we just have to make sure that Steve doesn't go too far in his pride. This is the man that told Disney to "shove it" after all. But then again, he never has suffered fools gladly, has he?
2005-01-11
Hot damn...Apple makes an iCheap!
...and an iPod cheap too
And they're starting to encroach on MS Office's turf more too.. Last year it was a PowerPoint replacement (done better) and an Explorer replacement (done better). This year it's a Word replacement (done better). Anyone want to be there's an Excel replacement waiting? And of course, they already have an Access replacement (sort of) in FileMaker. I think this is Steve Jobs saying to Bill Gates "don't thing you can hold Office over our head...we've got a replacement for your crappy Office stuff now."
And Windows Server's turn
Hell, and Cray's turf with all the K's of Xserve's being clustered these days!
Steve's doing a stealth-end-run around Microsoft in the business market. Cheap servers and cheap clients. Cheap server OS's. And if all else fails, an Intel version of OS X is a few compiler-switch settings away, remember. If MS does ever kill Apple (not likely) then all Steve has to do is open source the REST of OS X (the part other than Darwin, i.e. the GUI) and make it available for Intel hardware....and watch all of Microsoft's market share (and Linux too) run (not walk) to OS X!
Heh.
And they're starting to encroach on MS Office's turf more too.. Last year it was a PowerPoint replacement (done better) and an Explorer replacement (done better). This year it's a Word replacement (done better). Anyone want to be there's an Excel replacement waiting? And of course, they already have an Access replacement (sort of) in FileMaker. I think this is Steve Jobs saying to Bill Gates "don't thing you can hold Office over our head...we've got a replacement for your crappy Office stuff now."
And Windows Server's turn
Hell, and Cray's turf with all the K's of Xserve's being clustered these days!
Steve's doing a stealth-end-run around Microsoft in the business market. Cheap servers and cheap clients. Cheap server OS's. And if all else fails, an Intel version of OS X is a few compiler-switch settings away, remember. If MS does ever kill Apple (not likely) then all Steve has to do is open source the REST of OS X (the part other than Darwin, i.e. the GUI) and make it available for Intel hardware....and watch all of Microsoft's market share (and Linux too) run (not walk) to OS X!
Heh.
Paintable solar cell material discovered!
Scientists have discovered a more efficient solar cell material that converts up to 30% of light (including infrared) to electricty; two to five times more than current solar cells do.
And you can paint it on, incorporate it into clothing, whatever. Your clothes could recharge your cellphone or PDA. Your walls could power your house. Your car's paint job could charge your battery, crack water into hydrogen to run you car....you get the drift.
Another interesting link.
I wonder what happened to the flexible/moldable plastic solar cell material that someone at a university here in Iowa was working on?
And you can paint it on, incorporate it into clothing, whatever. Your clothes could recharge your cellphone or PDA. Your walls could power your house. Your car's paint job could charge your battery, crack water into hydrogen to run you car....you get the drift.
Another interesting link.
I wonder what happened to the flexible/moldable plastic solar cell material that someone at a university here in Iowa was working on?
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