Nearly three years ago I laid hands on a 1.66GHz Intel Core Duo Mac mini with the idea of turning it into a media center. This demure little Mac was tasked with playing music, recording and playing TV programs, acting as a radio, and playing DVDs. It also had to be capable of being controlled from my couch.
While I was able to accomplish all these tasks, it took some doing and the results weren’t terribly family-friendly. Smart-as-a-whip though my wife is, when I showed her around the various applications and utilities necessary to bring media from the mini to our eyes and ears she pointedly remarked, “Let me know when our old stuff is back,” and left the room.
And it wasn’t long before the old stuff was back. It was simply easier to use the satellite receiver, TiVo, AV receiver, and DVD player (and, later, an Apple TV) rather than jumping through hoops to make the mini take on their functions.
In the past three years things have changed. Video-on-demand is largely a reality. For example, you can purchase or rent movies from the iTunes Store and purchase TV shows and seasons. NetFlix offers an option that lets you stream some of its TV shows and movies. Content from major television networks and terrestrial radio can also be streamed over the Internet. Free media center clients have appeared that make it easier to watch that content. Apple’s Front Row is more robust than it once was. And, with an iPhone or iPod touch in hand, you can easily control a Mac from the couch–no more Bluetooth keyboards and mice or limited Apple Remotes.
The Mac mini has also recently been improved. The low-end, $599 mini now bears a 2.0GHz Intel Penryn processor (which carries a faster system bus), 1GB of RAM, a 120GB 4500 RPM hard drive, and a faster graphics card–the Nvidia GeForce 9400M. It also offers five USB 2.0 ports, a single FireWire 800 port, both a mini-DVI port and Mini DisplayPort, an 8x SuperDrive, 802.11n wireless networking, Bluetooth, and Gigabit Ethernet.
Via PCWorld.com
