Apple Inc (AAPL)

[KCMW]

- obj view of the mini -

interesting read and interesting perspective so far (I'm half way through). A couple things stand out:

1) Don't use it with less than 512MB. He gives good objective reasons for this, points out where OSX memory swap to disk hits you - not that stupid 'more-is-always-better-argument'.

2) ? Slow video import? Importing any video into iMovie HD frankly takes too long for the mini to be used often as a video editing box. I'm confused - I've imported mini-DV video on this old iMac G3, 400MHz in real time, and on a 1Ghz iBook - no problem on either. A 15 min video clip takes 15 min to import. Is he talking encoding it to DVD or QT format - yeah that can be an overnight process on slower machines. But getting it in and even editing it was really no problem, even on my old 'T-Model-Ford' of an iMac. transitions might take a minute or so to do, but what do you expect from a five year old machine? The mini is many X more powerful, I would think it would be OK for this for most people.

3) He is less than helpful in describing SW install times as 'decent' on a PowerMac and taking 'forever' on the mini.

4) he does say that video to a 23" display was getting choppy.

All-in-all, I think the iMac G5 was the right choice for me. The mini is probably a little weak at present, and will probably get overtasked with SW developments over the next few years. I'll bet their rev B will be a killer though, and will make a nice second system to replace my iMac G3 as a second system in a year or so.

-KCMW