We never really understood what Apple was up to when it came out with the Mac Mini design, a Mac that looks like a DVD player, just right for the living room. But earlier this week, Apple refreshed the line, doubling graphics processing power, adding an HDMI port and a new SD card slot.
And by giving it support for resolutions up to 1080p, it’s almost as if Apple is saying, put this in your living room, and attach it to your TV. But at $699 it’s way more expensive than the Google TV set top or Apple TV II, so we’re not so sure. This is more of a home media server but just by existing it looks like it will eclipse the Apple TV range.
It comes in two versions. For $699 you get a 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with a 320GB Serial ATA hard drive and graphics is driven by the NVIDIA GeForce 320M. It has AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking plus Bluetooth, comes with Gigabit Ethernet connector, Firewire and four USB 2.0 ports and one each of HDMI and mini Displayport. The $999 version has Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server on it, uses the faster 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, has, not one, but two 500GB Serial ATA hard drives and uses the same graphics engine, WiFi and connectors.
This is so much more than the $250 Apple TV. It can use any browser and can connect a TV directly to Hulu, Netflix, YouTube, Vimeo, Pandora, Last.fm or any other Web video or music service. The existing Apple TV is limited to iTunes, YouTube and Internet radio stations. Naturally being a Mac it supports Adobe Flash video as well.
Make no mistake, it is unlikely there will be any Apple TV like-for-like replacement, because this is so much better, though there may well be an Apple iTunes TV service launched this Summer, it will likely target this device as any other.
The new Mini is slim and square at 7.7 inch and is 1.4 inches high and is designed very much as a home media server. It has its own internal power adapter.
It’s the graphics that is most impressive, and the Nvidia GeForce has 48 processing cores, about twice the graphics performance of its predecessor. The new Mac mini is shipping today available through the Apple’s online store, its retail stores and Authorized Resellers. Apple also pitched the device as being the world’s most energy efficient desktop.