Apple's Mac mini - Tempting PC Users Everywhere
by Anand Lal Shimpi on January 25, 2005 7:39 AM EST- Posted in
- Mac
iWork '05
Although it doesn't ship with the Mac mini, Apple's new "work oriented" application suite, iWork, was released alongside the mini. Priced at $79, iWork is cheaper than a single copy of Microsoft Word and obviously cheaper than Microsoft Office, but only comes with two applications - Pages and Keynote 2.
Pages is a document publishing application in its first iteration; Keynote 2 is the second version of Apple's presentation software. I've been mostly using Pages and I don't make presentations too often, so I will save in-depth discussion of Keynote 2 for a later article, but there are a few things that I did find nice about the software that I'll mention here.
The built-in themes are worlds better than what you find in PowerPoint and the user interaction with them is much more simplified. Keynote 2 features handy guide tools that will appear when you're trying to center text or graphics to help you find the vertical and horizontal centers of a text box or of the slide itself. Keynote 2 can import PowerPoint presentations and does so relatively well, although there are going to be some compatibility issues as you can probably expect:
Keynote 2's export capabilities are extremely strong, as you can export presentations to QuickTime, PowerPoint, PDF, JPEG/PNG/TIFF images or a Flash movie.
But now on to the application that interested me the most - Pages.
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karlreading - Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - link
#23:You kick up against mac bashers and then u have a pop at AMD fans. HOW RUDE. It's quiet obvisouse your a intel fan. your no better than the people you try to show up, claiming they do things whilst you do exactly the same things yourself.
Im a AMD fan, but i dont find that i have to have a pop at intel, mac, or anyone else. AMD make fine products. Intel make fines products. Apple make fine products. just each ones products match diffrent peoples expectations and needs.
as for the mac mini, i think its a excellent little machine. As Anand says, more appliance than computer. i think they will do well.
karlos
Dranzerk - Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - link
#2 in response to #1 Im talking about how lots of people will buy these because it's the "it" thing to do, and I will be looking on Ebay for when they are sold cheaper.How was that hard to understand?
michael2k - Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - link
Well, if it's within the return period, you can technically 'return it' and get another, with the Tiger CDs/DVDs, or just tell the Apple person, "It would be better for you to send me the Tiger CDs, wouldn't it, than to return this one to CompUSA and get a new one with the new OS right?"So within two weeks I would expect it free, basically (though it takes some social engineering). I don't know about the 'heavy discount' however.
bupkus - Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - link
Perhaps Apple should have offered the mini with 512MB as standard and then offered a downgrade option rather than their upgrade option.bob661 - Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - link
If you want Tiger, just wait till it's released then by the Mac.msva124 - Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - link
You say if tiger comes out right after you buy your machine, it is heavily discounted. Define "right after".Draco - Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - link
Great article. Very refreshing to see so much Mac coverage. Look forward to more.Ecgtheow - Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - link
#59: If Tiger comes out right after you get your machine, you can get it for $30 through the "Up-to-date" program.sluramod - Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - link
#57: good news for apple then ... $499 now + $100 or so laterBurbot - Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - link
#40: Thanks for correction.#53: Very true. A lot of people do not understand the connection between memory amount and performance. I've seen that more then once - folks have a machine with 128 megs of RAM that is just dying under load, and when I suggest them a memory upgrade they say "But isn't Ghz the thing that makes it go faster?".