Apple Store is up now. Update mini and air

[mmntech]

Too bad they took the DVD drive out of the Mini. Kind of kills it as an HTPC in my opinion, unless everything you've got is already ripped. Apple really needs to jump on the Blu-ray train.

 

[Eug]

The battery life of the 11" Air is still pretty uninspiring. That, and the fact the entry level model still only has 2 GB and 64 GB means that I won't be buying.

Too bad they took the DVD drive out of the Mini. Kind of kills it as an HTPC in my opinion, unless everything you've got is already ripped. Apple really needs to jump on the Blu-ray train.

You can just buy an external slim drive.

 

[runawayprisoner]

Somehow I'm underwhelmed by the new Macbook Air update. Was kind of expecting more battery life out of all things.

But improved performance might be good for some.

 

[ponyo]

Yeah apparently the old host my blog was on is blocked. Just google "weaksauce12 99% rule" :awe:

The AppleTV does price better than a Mini. But imo, Plex is far superior. I have an AppleTV and it's pretty decent, but I mostly just use it for Netflix. I will definitely be picking up a new Mini soon for my HTPC, especially since Boxee released their Boxee Box remote for PC/Mac for $39!

http://www.amazon.com/D-Link-DSM-22-...dp/B00480OSVK/

What's so great about Plex? Is the OSX version on the Mac that much better? I tried to like Plex on Apple TV but it's just so inferior to XBMC. And XBMC doesn't need a server software on my computer to work.

 

[TheStu]

Air is not a production machine.
it's an executive or highly portable machine.

Care to explain that position? That is like saying that the iPad is only for consumption.

Remember, it is the artist, not the tool. The new ones have dual core sandy bridge cpus with hyperthreading (meaning they can execute 4 threads simultaneously, and it actually works), gorgeous high density (not the highest, but still good) displays, and SSDs. Hook it up to the new 27" display and you have all you need (except an optical drive)

 

[Ns1]

Air is not a production machine.
it's an executive or highly portable machine.

depends on what you're doing with it.

i don't think you need 8gb of ram and top of the line i7 to run microsoft word.

 

[Kadarin]

That new Mini looks really good, and is seriously tempting me to upgrade from my '09 Mini. I wasn't expecting an i7 or the AMD 6630M graphics. And it comes with an SSD option.

 

[Young Grasshopper]

wow $600 just to add SSD to the mini mac. youd might as well get a macbook air for that

 

[XJustMeX21]

I just wish the default drive was 7200rpm. Now either way I have to tear it apart.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Pretty beasty little computer for the size/power ratio. I wonder if the quad shows up as 8-cores with Hyperthreading...because if so, that would really be a nice tie-in with FCP-X...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Bridge#Mobile_processors

Should be either the 2630QM or 2635QM...or at least they're the only 2.0Ghz mobile i7s listed. Both use 4 cores/8 threads.

edit:
http://www.apple.com/macmini/server/

thanks to innovations like Turbo Boost 2.0, Hyper-Threading, and ....

 

[lokiju]

I have to say I'm kind of more impressed by the new Mini's than the Air's and I was/am buying a new Air when they're in the stores (called local store and they said they'll have them in tomorrow btw).

The AMD video card is friggin sweet and it's a little power horse now.

I really would love one. To bad I can't afford both...

Or could I

I have about $1,500 saved now that I've been holding for the refresh. Not that far off from getting a base air and mini.

 

[Wonderful Pork]

My next computer will be a 13" air, but that's at least another year out. Just upgraded my 2009 13" MBP to 8GB RAM so need at least that much for the Air to consider. Plus another year = another refresh!

 

[RichUK]

I can't see mention of the 1.8Ghz i7 for the Macbook Air on either the UK or US sites... am I being blind?

 

[suklee]

It's an upgrade option:
http://www.apple.com/macbookair/specs.html

... configurable to dual-core 1.8GHz Intel Core i7 with 4MB shared L3 cache, only at the Apple Online Store.

 

[RichUK]

It's an upgrade option:
http://www.apple.com/macbookair/specs.html

Ah... you can only get the i7 upgrade option when you select the 256GB SSD MBA - that's shit because I only want the 128GB version.

 

[dighn]

how good is OS X with memory? I've been wanting to get a MBA as my first mac but not sure if 4 GB is good enough... this won't be my primary computer but I still want enough juice to do some coding and maybe some light virtualization.

 

[runawayprisoner]

Just about as good as any other OS.

4GB should be enough for one VM and some codes. Plus SSD helps with swapping and indexing a lot so it wouldn't feel as sluggish.

 

[postaled]

depends on what you're doing with it.

i don't think you need 8gb of ram and top of the line i7 to run microsoft word.

You also don't need a $1000 machine to do that.

 

[Ns1]

You also don't need a $1000 machine to do that.

not gonna start this debate up again

 

[mugs]

edit: don't need an answer to this anymore

 

[Ns1]

rest can be found here:

http://9to5mac.com/2011/07/20/detai...nd-old-macbook-airs-and-mac-minis/#more-84287

 

[silverpig]

What's so great about Plex? Is the OSX version on the Mac that much better? I tried to like Plex on Apple TV but it's just so inferior to XBMC. And XBMC doesn't need a server software on my computer to work.

Plex is awesome. I've got an appleTV2 and the plex implementation is very very barebones. XBMC isn't as nice as plex when you have it running fully.

 

[ultimatebob]

Does it bother anyone else that you need to pony up $1,800 for a Macbook Pro before you get an Apple laptop that doesn't have lousy Intel integrated graphics?

Hell... Even a $500 laptop with AMD's new Llano integrated graphics would outperform the new Macbook Air models in most newer games.

 

[Eug]

Just about as good as any other OS.

4GB should be enough for one VM and some codes. Plus SSD helps with swapping and indexing a lot so it wouldn't feel as sluggish.

I didn't like running 1 VM on a 3 GB machine. Maybe ok on 4 GB, but much, much better with 8 GB obviously.

That said, my solution was just to scrap VM's altogether and buy a Windows 7 desktop to run along side my iMac.

BTW, with 8 GB in my iMac and no VMs, I haven't had a good reason to upgrade the RAM yet. I have two empty slots and it'd be a cheap upgrade to 12 GB or even 16 GB, but I don't really need it.

 

[bart1975]

The base mini only has 2 gig of ram? Is that even enough to run OSX smoothly?