Yesterday, I asked what was next for Apple, and I hypothesized that it was the living room. Yesterday, Apple came one step closer to making that a reality.
It’s a new Mac Mini, all freshened up and what-not. The case is all new, whittled from a fresh piece of aluminum like the MacBook Pro and iPad, and has a rubber pad on the bottom that untwists for easy access to the ram. It comes in 2.4 and 2.66GHz flavors, NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics, and anywhere from 320 to 500GB. They upped the price a bit too – $699. But the big talk here is about the HDMI port that’s been added to the back of the device, making it perfect for a living room computer.
I’ve been tossing around the idea of buying a Mac Mini for the living room, because it’s a built-in DVD player, and if I continue my home theater project – which isn’t going well, btw – then it’s the perfect fit. After all, the AppleTV doesn’t have enough built-in storage that can handle my collection, and I Handbrake isn’t working well for me for certain DVDs. It’s leading me to heavily consider Plex or something else, making the Mini more apropos than the AppleTV.
I’m guessing I’m not in the minority here, either, otherwise, Apple would’ve passed on the HDMI option.I’m not sure if the extra $100 is going to put off potential buyers, but I do think that there’s going to be an increase in sales on these things. Maybe one in my house, too.
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