B. Mann Consulting

Yes, I think I'm getting one.

I'm looking at the Mac Mini to be our new desktop, stay-at-home machine, as well as to form the basis for a media center.

Mike Davidson has a good outline for the Media Mac that he wants to see from Apple, but I'm going to outline how I think the Mac Mini (plus a few other pieces) is going to work for me today.

Yes, this is very much an "Apple rumour", just ahead of Steve Jobs' keynote address to MacWorld on January 6th:

The iBox plugs into your TV and acts as a hub for your digital devices and computers. Unlike the EyeTV from Elgato, the iBox is a standalone machine, not something to plug into an existing computer. The iBox can be scheduled to record TV, but unlike TiVos it does not serve as a "what's on and when" service rather a hard drive / media based recording device (new aged VCR). With its built in 802.11b & 802.11g from its AirPort Extreme card, one can access the home folders of any user on any wirelessly networked Mac or PC. The iBox has its own version of the popular iPhoto and iTunes software which is a welcoming plus to Mac OS 10 veterans and easy for Windows users to adopt as well.

MacOSX.com, "Exclusive Insider Information: Apple iBox in production"

I see this as being a very plausible device, although it's not clear to me how the OS would differ. I would expect the same BSD-base to be used, and then (I guess) a slightly modified version of Quartz, optimized for a "10 foot interface" of being displayed on a TV.

Well, it happened. My thrown-together home server had a hardware failure last night. I have no idea what time it was, but I woke up to a high-pitched squealing noise.

The first result of this is that all of my "other" *.bmannconsulting.com sites are currently offline. Plus the new domains as well.

I want to keep some sort of track of the tiny boxes that are floating around out there, but apparently somebody has decided that this is the way of the future (actually, I agree). So, a bunch of links to reviews about various small form factor (a.k.a. SFF) PCs. Some are nothing more than small cubes, while others are leaning more to the "stereo component" look.

After reading through the articles and the specs, my 1Ghz Duron seems pretty low-powered. Well, it is low-powered! I'll get a new PC for testing in 2006, when Longhorn ships. Now click the read more link for the article URLs.

Tech Report has a quick blurb on the new MSI MEGA PC:

The MSI MEGA PC train is gathering steam. We liked the MEGA PC when we reviewed the first model, but we wished for a less dated chipset. Looks like we'll get our wish in late September, when the MEGA 180 debuts. Based on the nForce2 with the IGP northbridge, this box will have one each of AGP and PCI slots. What's more, with a new black finish, it looks even better than its predecessor.

Be sure to check out the picture.



Dave -- I think we should base your multimedia PC on this.

ExtremeTech reviews the two newest Shuttle offerings. Shuttle is now offering both P4- as well as AMD/NForce2-based systems, although as mentioned at the end of the article, choosing a P4 system means at least a $280US price differential.

You can think of the Shuttle XPC line as the Mini Cooper of the PC universe. Yes, there are other small form factor PCs out there, some even appearing to be near-clones of the XPC line, but none have achieved quite the cachet of Shuttle's cute aluminum cubes. While there have been other compact PC's in the past, Shuttle pioneered the idea of small form factor PCs with large PC performance.

I think it's great that Shuttle is continuing to come out with these powerful little boxes -- it means the less-powerful, slightly older barebones systems will continue to get cheaper.

I have finally found a supplier of mini-itx things in Canada. In Kingston!

http://kingstoncomputerplanet.com/

They have mini-itx, they have slim cdrw drives (that fit in the Casetronic cases), they have it all at comparable prices to what I paid from big008.com in the States.

Wooot!
[Ed: Made links live]

The full article has a nice run down of everything you need, including a components list and step by step instructions. This is for making that box that is connected to your TV and runs all your multimedia systems.

From the article, it sounds like the Freevo project has come a long way.

Somewhere on this page (just below the mobo picture) is a picture of a new computer from MSI done up to look almost exactly like a mini-Hi-Fi system receiver. Very interesting. A shame to see Apple missing this boat, when it should have been remarkably obvious for them when they came up with the digital Hub concept to take it one step further.

osOpinion has an article that Lindows is releasing their own software/hardware bundle targetted at being used as a multimedia PC, much like WinXP Media Center Edition:

For its part, the Lindows Media Center combines the functionality of a standard PC with that of a DVD and CD player, and is compatible with MP3 and VCD formats. Lindows said the device boots in less than 10 seconds.
Full article on osOpinion