It's 1.22.05, where's my mini mac?

Thought I had heard that I could get one of these lil suckers today, but everywhere I look, no store has gotten their first shipment in..

store.apple.com is telling me 3-4 weeks now...bah.

Anyone have any insight as to when these might be available?

It's an Apple product that was just announced no less than two weeks ago. In the tradition of most Apple launches, you will first need to endure the initial artificial shortage, ensuring that only the rabid and devoted hipsters obtain the product. Once popular support has reached a certain critical level, probably within 3 months, the flood gates will be opened and a torrent of mini macs will issue forth.

Unfortunately, it will be revealed that the first batch of mini macs possessed a relatively minor flaw that will in some way degrade the user experience, much like the batteries in early iPods. However, there will be a period of approximately 6 months during which certain users will complain about these flaws while enduring the shrill defenses of the Mac crowd. Apple will eventually cave in, and users will receive proper recompense. Following these initial problems, the headless Mac will enjoy a number of revisions and variations, each better than the last, and will greatly improve the reputation of Apple. Eventually, Apple will do something stupid, promulgating the endless cycle of boom and bust which describes Apple's entire corporate history.

lol Ardith. That about sums it up

iPods even work with windows - and so does iTunes.

Apple did what for the music industry via. the iTunes Music Store?

Created the most insanely successful LEGAL music download venue in the history of both the computer and the music industry. And made a major dent in the illegal download ripOff situation ala. Napster and others.

And they just introduced the only digital music player under $99.

If Apple is such a numSkull company why once again, did they have the best 1st quarter in the history of the company, which predates 1984.

What, oh what, is it that Steve Jobs doesn't get?

iTunes is about the first thing they've done right. I have a lot of resepct for Apple, particularly their designers. Apple products are always gorgeous, and always overpriced and underpowered compared to the rest of the market. For as good as their products actually are, the tiny percent of the market they control is no one's fault but their own.

I suppose all of the other sub-$99 MP3 players must use some super-advanced analog technology. It's a wonder how they were able to shrink those vacuum tubes down to such a minute size, no?

The iPod Shuffle is not a MP3 player.

Trash apples and apples, not apples and oranges.

Though your pedantry is much appreciated, since it's a vital fact that Apple uses the inefficient and encumbered AAC format. However, I don't understand why you think this bolsters your cause. Apple has selected one of the worst available formats solely based on greed. What's good about this?

Besides which, the lack of an LCD on the Shuffle is really a mortal wound. I don't want to blindly listen to my collection. every other low cost audio player at least provides the basic courtesy of an LCD readout. Sadly, Apple advertises this flaw as a feature, something which the majority of Apple fanatics probably lap right up.

Apple lost me as a customer when they just abandoned the Apple 2GS. They didn't even bother to phase it out, they just dropped it. That MIGHT have made sense if it was a money losing franchise, but it wasn't. They simply didn't want it to compete with the Mac.

I think you overemphasize the importance of an LCD.

I bought my wife a Shuffle for her birthday. She hasn't complained once about not having an LCD on it. Of course, having grown up with cassettes and CDs, we're accustomed to just hitting FFWD and recognizing a song by the first couple notes. Since it's flash memory, the song loads instantly, so scanning songs by sound isn't very difficult, especially when they're familiar songs from your own music library. I daresay you could scan songs just as quickly by sound as you could by reading an LCD.

Or maybe she's just an Apple fanatic.

Whee! Hating on Apple is cool!

Hey, while you're at it, make some cracks about the one button mouse, that's always fun.

The one button mouse sucks. It really does.

I've been sitting on the fence when it comes to Apple. I don't own one, but when I pass an Apple Store, I usually drop by to look at the Macs. I've always considered Macs to be sort of the luxury cars of computing: Elegant design, quiet and costly. Had the new Mac come out a couple of months earlier, I might have bought one. Instead, I got a HP laptop, which is just doing fine. Oh well, maybe in another couple of years...

Not one of the Mac faithful, but I do like the look of those Mac-minis. Would they be able to run Second Life, with the visuals turned up a bit? Say, draw distance to well over 100m, shiny/bumpiness on, etc?

It's always so easier to dismiss criticism as being nothing more than an inherent bias, than to actually consider the possibility that people object to something because it actually is crap, isn't it?

Let me break down my interest in Apple products, so that you'll not have any valid way of writing my dissent off as being fervent anti-mac ranting.

Mini Mac: Marvelous idea. By reducing an otherwise overpriced computer to the 500 dollar pricepoint, Apple greatly lowers the hurdle to people experimenting with the Apple platform. Unfortunately, there's yet another shortage of supply. Considering how frequently this happens, either Apple's analysts moonlight as Special Olympics trackstars, their vendors are incapable of meeting demand, or its an artificial shortage intended to bolster demand even more. Regardless, the point is that it's now past the release date, and even if I wanted to, I couldn't get the unit. This doesn't affect me terribly much, as I'll be waiting to purchase it until next winter anyways. Nonetheless, I think Apple's marketing strategies are distasteful.

iPod: Relatively high priced, but far classier than most other audio players. The interface is well-designed, the LCD is crisp. and the hard-drives are high-capacity but ever so tiny. All of this combines to produce a unit which is sexy in the extreme.

iPod Mini: Though it's only 4 gigs, its price is almost as high as a 20 gig iPod model, and nearly double the average price of standard 4 gig player. Nonetheless, the quality is more than high enough to merit buying the unit, if you like how it looks. Personally, the mini's design doesn't appeal to me as much as the full-sized iPod. Nonetheless, it's so small that I would definitely buy it without regret, once my faithful 4 year old Archos dies.

iPod Shuffle: Utter garbage. No LCD, poor capacity, poor design. There's so much empty space screaming to be filled. Even a small one-line LCD would offer me the feature which I so crave, and wouldn't have increased the cost of the unit by more than 1 or 2 percent. When I first heard about the Shuffle, I thought it was a joke. The design even looked like it had been crudely photoshopped from an image of an iPod. Of course, that's my wonderful opinion of the device. If your wife loves it Marcos, then congratulations on choosing a good gift. I myself would rather either spend the 100 bucks on a device that looks good or put it towards getting another device.

Powerbook/iBook: I won't waste time reviewing these separately, since I think either machine looks slick. If I were going to switch, I would probably get the Powerbook, but only because I think it looks slightly better. In fact, the only thing that keeps me from switching software. Not only are most major game releases not available for the Mac, but all of the software which I currently own would be useless were I to switch to a Mac. Though the prospect of getting a Powerbook for portable use and keeping my PC for serious work is somewhat enticing, I haven't yet convinced myself that this is the best idea.

Cinema Display: Sweet bloody Lord, I want one for my PC. Alas, I would be a fool to buy one since I'm but a poor student, and such a luxurious model can not be justified. Nonetheless, if wishes were horses then I'd be knee-deep in crap AND I'd have the 30-inch model.

I love my 20 gig ipod....4324 songs and counting

Coupled with an itrip for the car I never need a cd again

Apple lost me when the iMac came out (I had already been using a windows box, but a mac box as well), and then gained my antipathy when OSX was released.

I apologize for my sarcasm. It's only because 99% of the time, it is because some anti-Apple knucklehead is falling all over themselves to talk shit about Apple. I deal with it on a daily basis. Friday one of my co-workers was asking me to do something with one of the maps I was drawing for him (I'm the graphics guy). He said "I'd tell you to right click on it, but you have a Mac." This is while I'm using a regular ol' Logitech 2-button + scroll wheel USB mouse, right in front of his face.

I avoid mentioning to strangers that I use a Mac unless there's a specific reason to mention it. The myths and misinformation and just plain bias are rampant. I'm not one of the Mac evangelists most PC power users love to hate.

If you do buy a Mac Mini eventually, be prepared to hear all of the "OMG you own a MAC?! THOSE SUCK!!! STUPID ONE BUTTON MOUSE!!!!!11one



Ok I understand that you really want an LCD, but I don't understand why you think it has poor capacity. The $99 model is 512MB, at a price that's right in line with all the other 512MB players on the market. The $150 model is 1GB, that falls right in line with the other comparable 1GB players.

Design is debatable. If you hold the Shuffle in your hand, the controls fall right to your thumb. Up and down controls volume, left and right control FFWD and REV, and the big middle button pauses or plays. You can operate it without even looking at it, or even if it's in your pocket. This kind of simplicity and ease of use is appealing to some people, but usually draws the ire of power users.

somewhere around the same time as gehenna.

It's probably unfair to cite the poor capacity as a problem with only the Shuffle. In all fairness, I think almost all flash-based players lack capacity. 1 gig is enough to hold a good number of albums, but certainly not my whole music collection. That's one of the major benefits of using a digital audio player. If I'm in the mood to listen to Moody Blues one day, and Natacha Atlas the next, I shouldn't have to come back and transfer files to the player to do so. I use my MP3 player when I'm away from the computer, and I want it to be able to handle my entire collection without requiring the intervention of a computer. Even the 4 gig mini is cutting it close: it would only handle ~90% of my current (frequently listened to) musical library.

The capacity issue is certainly not unique to the Shuffle, it's just one of the things which I dislike about it.

Alright...I went ahead and ordered it. I blame Brad Lupis if it's not here in 3-4 days

I use a Mac at work and have 5 PCs at home.. Why? Because I face THIS on a daily basis. I do very much love my 23" cinema monitor at work and I can't live without my ipod!

(Warning: clicking the THIS above will take you to a .wmv)

EDIT: Marcos, lol I'm in the same boat. Except I have a 2 button mouse and my 2nd button is set to option-click. WOOHOO! I tossed my one button piece of crap.. doing so will make you much happier.

Bah! Commadore beats Apple hands down!