To be correct Movie Maker came with Windows ME (a long time before XP). In my eyes that's a moot point though. If I find a decently priced matching display I'm switching.

Since I probably will get a refund for my faulty Ibead 256MB I will throw in a Ipod shuffle as well.

WSJ Article on Power Adaptors
 

From today's wsj.com (Sorry... no free rides, here). Thought it was helpful for the conversation.

Timothy

Kinda makes me wish I had seen the fizzle. Sounds really cool. I have to blame the user, though--I ALWAYS read the machine's power configuration.

Electronics With Borders: Some Work Only in the U.S.

By DAVID PRINGLE and STEVE STECKLOW
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
January 17, 2005; Page B1

To save money, Chris Caine, a resident of Fiji, always orders computers made by Apple Computer Inc. from the U.S., where they are significantly cheaper. Recently, he purchased Apple's newest desktop, the iMac G5.

Soon after the computer arrived from the U.S. he plugged it in. There was "a big bang, like an explosion, and white smoke out of the speaker grilles," he says. The machine then died.

Mr. Caine didn't have a defective unit. It turns out that, unlike the 17 other Apple computers that he had purchased in recent years for his DVD-rental business, the new iMac G5s sold in the U.S. are designed to work only with the electric power systems in the U.S. and Japan, which pump out a lower number of volts than in most other countries.

Mr. Caine fell foul of a little-noticed trend: Some consumer-electronics companies are designing products so they will work only in the U.S. For example, some of the latest printers from Hewlett-Packard Co. refuse to print if they aren't fed ink cartridges bought in the same region of the world as the printer. Nintendo Co.'s latest hand-held game machines are sold in the U.S. with power adaptors that don't work in Europe.

I have always found it a disgrace that appliance connectors (like on the back of most PC's and laptop power bricks) are the same, no matter what input voltage they are made for.

Plus around the world are all different, a US plug isn't made for 220, and a European plug isn't made for 110, but on the back of the box they are all the same, it's just asking for trouble.

It would be no more than $4 in parts to built some kind of protection into them to prevent stuff from blowing up, and Apple is absolutely not alone in this.

Gee
 

gee, I wonder where I heard that warning.

:rolleyes:

Pictures of the mini along with packaging and size comparison.

http://www.uneasysilence.com/mini/

My Mini just arrived (hooray!), and it did come with a 110-240v power supply. The brick is a bit bigger than the ones for my Cinema Displays, but it's not obese, and it'll be hidden away, anyway.

Chris

I am considering the mini! My current environment at home is:

1. Win98 - not really used much - mostly sits there occupying desk space. It is probably 4 years old (Tiger Direct). 1x 80 gb hard drive, CDRW

2. WinXP 3 years old (?) Tiger Direct AMD - my primary computer - 2x80 gb hard drives DVD

3. Red Hat 9.0 Linux Tiger Direct AMD - 2x80 gb hard drives, php, apache, mysql, perl.

4. Panasonic Toughbook CF51 - just switched to this laptop since it has Centrino and the battery lasts 4+ hours versus the HP 17" laptop I had when the battery would last 1.5 hrs (usually it would die before my flight requires laptop to be turned off).
(http://catalog2.panasonic.com/webapp...l=Toughbook-51)

5. Apple 2e - 80 column card, 2400 baud modem, external floppy drive, purchased December 1983.


Considering the mini just to mess around with a Apple again. Its been a long time.

So this means that I could buy one in the US, and use it in the UK? If so, what else would I need to purchase?

Also, could I avoid the costs of the wireless and bluetooth by purchasing usb adapters separately?

an appropriate cable or adapter for the wall outlet.

you may be able to save a few bucks by doing that but is it really worth it to have two external usb devices and a hub along with necessary drivers, instead of the internal which 'just works' ?

just splitting a hair here...

Like nearly any peripheral plugged into a Mac, USB bluetooth adapters won't require installing any drivers. I've had about three, and all have worked out of the box.

I'm guessing you can pick up USB Bluetooth adapters new/retail for about $30-$40 now. To have a Mini configured with one is $50. If it were me, and I didn't have three lying around, along with a USB adapter, I'd probably go for configuring the mini with BT built-in.

Then again, you could probably find a USB hub for around $5 and a used BT dongle on ebay for $25...

... my point exactly! I've got them already, so there's no real point of having it built in and paying extra.

One other thing. Will my wifi dongle work with the airport express thingy that apple do?

The Airport Express should work with it, as the streaming technology is a proprietary protocol that runs over standard TCP/IP, which allows iTunes to stream from both PCs and Macs.

Timothy

My Airport Express arrives later this week. I'm still pondering the Mac Mini.

splitting hairs again, only peripherals that comply with industry standards do not need special drivers. the internal bluetooth adapter connects via usb, it shows up as a standard human interface device (hid), there are drivers already built into osx, and the apple adapter is really a d-link in drag anyway. that is why the external ones work fine.

the 802.11 usb adapters do require additional drivers, and most do not have mac support.

if one is set on using an external 802.11b/g add-on, then the best choice is a wireless ethernet bridge, such as the linksys wet-11. it will work on anything with an ethernet port. however, they are generally more expensive than the internal apple airport card.

airport is just apple's name for 802.11, so whether you get the internal airport card or an external solution, it will connect with any 802.11b/g base station, either apple's or third party. there may be a slight issue with using passphrases (i.e. wep key conversions vary across different vendors), but that is about the extent of it.

Interesting Positioning Article on DVR and Mac Mini
 

http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20050120.html

Thought this was relevant to the material. What I'd love to have is something likea Mac Mini that could take in external input, like the video rentals, and burn to DVD with rights management for my travels. Kind of an iTunes for movies.

Timothy