Q: How do you upgrade a MAC?

A: You don't. You pack up the old one and throw it away and then buy a new one.

http://rochess.net/?p=Apple

I am a big Mac fan, having two iMacs at home but was really disappointed in the Mac Mini. First, still pricey for what you get. You can make points and counter points all you want bur you still get a better deal with a Dell. The processor is might be comparable to a Celeron but 256 mb of Ram is a shame. The 32 mb video card will probably make the beauty of the Mac OS X look like most Windows machines. Second, it is still not a complete system that most people want. Buying a monitor for it will cost more by buying separately than as a package. Finally, warranty is still not up to par with most Windows systems. So for now, we will wait.

But you (like many people here it seems) aren't seeing the big picture. Apple has no incentive to outprice Dell. The point is that they have lowered the entry price for users are are interested in the platform and want to see what else Apple has to offer.

Comparing a Dell and an Apple machine is like comparing apples and oranges. The Dell is a big desktop with 15-inch monitor running Windows. The Apple is a small box without monitor that runs Mac OS X. If you have two iMacs you should know that it's not just about price - otherwise you would own two Dells.

I was hoping that Apple would go for the gold and really be competitive enough to gain market share. Mac OS X is clearly the superior operating system but most people don't know that. Given a choice of a Dell or Mac mini they will general opt for something known or something cheaper. Apple needs to go after those people unless they think and hope the Mac mini will bring more people to iPods...

The MAC mini looks just like a smaller version of the Cube that Apple had a few years back which was a big flop.

You can still get a complete PC system for the same price or less. I don't think the $499 for the MAC mini is a good deal concidering that it doesn't even come with a keyboard.

Apple still doesn't get it, they are no longer the #1 computer maker in the world (Haven't been for over 20 years now), yet they still mistakenly believe they are. Apple's have always been over priced.

$499 isn't a good deal because it lacks a $20 keyboard that most users have anyway? Most OEMs include junk keyboards. The Mac mini is entirely different from the Cube, which was way too expensive and released during a time when iPods didn't even exist.

Apple doesn't think it's the #1 computer maker, it just thinks it makes the best products. And apparently so do most users based on iPod sales. Now Apple has removed the major barrier of entry for those users: price.

Who knows if it will succeed, but claiming $499 is overpriced seems a bit of a stretch. Apple flamers need to come up with a new complaint. How about: "It doesn't have a microphone plug!"

$499 is too expensive for what you get. You can tell that it is over priced that they couldn't even include a "junk keyboard" with it.

Since the iPod is a USB device it can be used on a PC as well so that is kind of stretching it a bit by saying that it is a sign of how good Apple is. There are now other options in MP3 players which come at a better price. Who has 10,000 songs? Who has actually listened to 10,000 different songs in their lifetime?

No, the MAC mini is just as lame as the Cube was.

Apparently MAC users are just as fanatical as religious fanatics are. Alterall, there are so few of them around. The way things are going with Apple's computer line, and it being such a distant second, they may have to drop it and just be a music player manufacturer.

I don't think they were flaming the Mac. It is an aweful price for what you get in comparison to Win based machines for the same price. I can buy a Dell for the same price and get a monitor, keyboard, mouse, and faster processor. So...it is a terrible deal. I have contemplated moving to a Mac to test drive it ever since this was announced, but, no way unless the price comes down. I mean, who the hell buys a PC/MAC without a monitor? That is like buying a car without wheels.

Anyone who is upgrading their PC (which is a large number of people) probably wouldn't need a new LCD. 17-inch LCDs have been around for years, but people may want a computer newer than a Pentium 3.

Not everyone who buys a PC doesn't have a PC currently. Plus, with the price of LCDs these days, its usually even cheaper to buy them separately.

Again with the $499 being overpriced? Anti-Mac zealots really need to work on a new complaint. The cheapest Dell advertised on their Web site is $499. And even still, the point is not that you can buy a cheaper Dell, but that now it's easy to become a Mac user for people who like Apple's software.

My references to the iPod aren't about my opinion, they are about the sales figures. Apple is dominating all competitors with the iPod, so obviously they did it right.

Seriously, open your eyes a little bit and take a trip down to the Apple Store. You may find that it's not so scary. The iMac mini isn't for everyone, but it lowers the bar of entry for people who may be interested in trying the Mac platform - plain and simple.

How on earth could it be cheaper to buy a 499.00 Mac without monitor and then buy a monitor and still beat the Dell system for the same price point. Impossible. For Apple to compete here, they must drop the price of this new Mac atleast another 100.00 to compete. They need to cut the potential customers some slack so they have enough left over for a downpayment on a monitor. I wouldn't expect any pc manufacturer to break a sweat from Job's announcement here. He comes in with a cheap Mac but isn't going to win anyone over because of the hardware cost after the sale. Now, on the other hand, if he came in at 399.00, PC manufacturers might wake up and take notice...hence starting a pricing/options war between the two. Also Apple would win over a ton more PC users. Even a 50.00 drop would do it. Smple marketing yet Apple somehow want to maintain this mystique that they have a system beyond the reach of the simple people. Kind of like the Marines..."The few, the proud, the marines". Job's is brilliant in his own right but better get off the high and mighty horse and come down to earth to meet the masses.

Just because you're use to paying too much doesn't mean that the rest of the planet has to.

I wonder if the majority of iPod owners actually use them on PCs? iPod is currently just a status symbol, but once the market is flooded with less expensive models you will see it wain. Apple maybe a leader in the MP3 player market, but hardly in the computer market.

I have gone to the local Apple store, but I was usually the only one there and not too long after it opened they went out of business. It is not as if there wasn't a market for computers concidering that there are 4 or 5 other computer stores in a town of around 7000 people. Though, they sell PCs only, and one of them even sells iPods alongside the PCs. The few Apple owners have to do to the city (350km+-) away to get service.

The Dells come with a 15-inch monitor, which is just sad. But my point was LCDs are so cheap, you might as well just buy one separately than buy a whole new computer to upgrade your screen.

Apple is a 26 billion dollar company, the largest computer manufacturer Dell is only a 100b dollar company. Mac mini isn't designed for, nor does it need to compete with, the mass market - you are missing the point.

Apple bases everything it does on the fact that it is a higher-quality brand with better software and products. It has no incentive to compete with Dell. Mac mini is designed to bring in users who are interested in the platform, but could not spend $2,000 just to play with a Mac.

I bet a large percentage use them on Windows. And this Mac mini is a great opportunity for those users interested in Apple's software to try out a Mac without breaking the bank.

The market has been flooded with MP3 players for years, even before the iPod's arrival. The problem is, most of them sucked. Apple got it right, no matter how much people want to complain about batteries or elitism.

Apple is a 26 billion dollar company, the largest computer manufacturer Dell is only a 100b dollar company. Apple doesn't need, nor want, to become a mass market computer manufacturer.

Only $26 billion? Bill Gates alone is worth around $50 billion and at one time $100 billion.

What Apple software? What was on the PC 7 years before?

I have a MP3 player with 128 megs and it plays the music I like just fine and I only paid $60.00CAN for it and it even came with a LCD display. It is also a voice recorder and a flash drive.

That was obvious from the start when they overpriced their systems. Didn't they win the shooting one's self in the foot award at one time? :)

Comparing any company to Microsoft is a waste of time. Microsoft can buy small countries in cash. There is a reason why Mac OS X isn't for x86 machines - Apple doesn't compete directly with Microsoft.

It can't. That is why it is such a distant second and much of that is its own fault.

Great, glad to hear you are happy with your audio player. I was happy with my original Diamond Rio back in the day as well. But different players serve different purposes and obviously millions of iPod users don't agree with you :)

Hard to call it shooting yourself in the foot when you've quadrupled your earnings and are only 1/4th the size of a company who sells 1000 times as many computers.

If you don't like it, don't buy it. But you at least have to admit Apple has been incredibly successful and people do like its products.

Being #2 doesn't mean you haven't succeeded. Sounds like someone has been drinking a little too much Redmond kool-aid :)

It is a status symbol mainly. People use to buy cabbage patch dolls and Rubic's cubes for the same reasons.

Apple is primarily a computer maker and at that it is a failure in comparison to PC manufacturers.

As are BMWs, Mercedes, big houses, attractive wives, Prada, credit cards, and... computers.

Welcome to capitalism my friend. It works.

That's consumerism. Capitalism is something else. Capitalism is the outsourcing of the manufacturering of these products to places like China and India where the costs are dirt low. It mainly works for the top percent of the population.

Success is when you have a majority of any given market. Of the 1 billion computers in the world how many of them do you think run a version of Windows?

Well it's a bit moot since the point is seemingly lost on you. But if you don't think building a $26 billion company is success, I worry about how you will evaluate your own future accomplishments.

Hey, we outsource to Canada too!

I am not trying to compare Apple with Dell here, but rather all low cost pc manufacturers. There is nothing wrong with a 15" monitor for a new pc buyer. It's all about Bang-For-The_Buck. A few dollars more would get you a 17" monitor and still come in under the little mac. It would only make sense for Apple to want a bigger slice of the pie when it comes to reeling in consumers and taking market share. It doesn't make sense to not want that and make more money. That is ludicrous. Sooner or later this will be there downfall if they don't support the masses. I didn't mean for this to turn into a debate like it has. I suggest you re-read the threads and you will see that PC and Mac users alike are agreeing that the little mac is too expensive for what it packages. Nuff said.

That strategy has worked amazing for Apple so far now that the company has refocused itself. iPod still doesn't support WMA and never will. With the recent earnings numbers, I don't think a "downfall" is coming anytime soon.

Time to buy one, too bad no lcd screen.

I went ahead and ordered the mini today. The price point is definitely right, for an Apple. Haven't played on one since grade school, and I am definitely eager to try something new.

I agree... I'm not a huge Apple fan, but I've always stood on the sidelines and said, eh.. a Mac as a second computer would be nice.

So, I think I'm going to wait a few months, see if there are any bugs... and then get one. I really think it is a cute little thing, ha! ;)

I think it should have included some kind of small screen. Even scrolling text...just something. Also, I would expect the battery life to way increase, but it doesn't appear that is the case. I guess time will tell if it does well or not.

- john

i agree.. but man, is that thing sexy or what???

And tiny. Not a bad player to take on the run. Even the iPod mini is too heavy for the gym, but this thing weighs nothing.

My only concern would be losing it. It's easy to misplace a pack of gum.

Sexy? Is that all people care about anymore?

The device is somewhat reasonably priced for what it does, but there is no way to replace the battery, just like all the other iPods. One would think that, by now, Apple would have woken up.

For someone who wants to have a thumb drive that plays MP3s, this might not be so bad. The battery is not replaceable, however, and no USB cable or charger is shipped with the iPod Shuffle, so some new users may have to shell out additional money to get full functionality.

There are flash-based MP3 players which are around the same size as the iPod shuffle, come with an FM tuner, replacable battery, LCD screen (often backlit), functionality as a removable drive, 512Mb-1Gig of storage for about the same price, and more functionality. If a person wants to spend closer to $200, he can get himself 4 or 5gb of flash-based storage.

I can see that the iPod shuffle will work, but it may not be the best buy, and it may not be a good purchase in the long-run, like the rest of the iPod line. I honestly have no clue what Apple is trying to do here, but it is a big risk.

I will admit that I like the Shuffle's minimalistic interface, as I have used cassette players without LCD screens before, and operated Discmans in the dark just fine. The only really good selling point is that it offers 1 gig of capacity for slightly less than other players do. However, it also offers less features than do other flash-based players.

I think people who will buy this will do so because it is iPod, and iPod is the new, hip thing that everyone must have. I have no idea yet as to how much the "battery replacement program" will cost a person for the iPod shuffle.

I see some major design flaws with the iPods, and I am just waiting for Apple to either have this catch up with them, or finally decide to make improvements.

For $150 I can hop on the iPod train with the Shuffle, but for twenty dollars more or so I can get an FM tuner, backlit LCD, self-replacable battery that has longer life, and additional functionality, all at around the same size as the iPod shuffle.

I guess all that people really do care about these days is how cool something looks.

This iPod will be even easier to lose/steal than its previous versions. If anyone is wearing the Shuffle around on a lanyard, just "whoosh", and it is gone; the lanyard hooks in through the USB cap, which is not a great idea.

How can a tiny box be sexy?

Hey, you can get an ipod shuffle for free.
Last fall I completed an offer from this same company and recieved a free
ipod. I was completely suprised when it came, i really didnt believe it.
Anyways, just follow this link and complete an offer, there are a few free ones
that you should definately choose
Here is your personal referral link:

http://www.FreeiPodShuffle.com/?r=14201417

Oh and heres where I found out about these offers.

www.gearlive.com

go to the forums section then "free stuff"
Theres lots of discussions on these offers and pictures proving they work.
um, thats about it.. DEFINATELY DO IT

oh and if you know kevin rose from techtv he got his free ipod heres his site
as well.

http://www.kevinrose.com/