They met once a small Mac Mini, a large Japanese TV and Magic Trackpad

Releasing the 2005 Mac mini, Apple has opened to consumers cheap little gate into the world of Mac OS. At the time, this device is not perceived by the public seriously, some large companies do not profit It brought, and a special role in luring the mass of consumers in the Apple ecosystem of products it is not played. Much more in this regard make the iPhone two years later. However, a niche in the market and took a computer actually was the ancestor of modern nettop. In addition, this device has been and remains a relatively inexpensive option for developers to test their strength in Xcode. As for the modern Mac mini, the ability to attract users and functions he has become much more. What are they - let's get together in this review. And at the same time we will test and Magic Trackpad.

Unboxing

In this case, "a stationery knife" were immediately sealed tightly two devices from Apple. It is, in fact, a hero of the review Mac mini 2010 release and the new manipulator Magic Trackpad.

Miniature computer packed with tradition in high-quality cardboard box of dimensions not much exceeding the device itself - only the thickness of it anymore. On the one hand shows Mac mini, with its other back panel on one of the faces - PC configuration.

The box contains the computer itself, occupying all the upper part (there is a plastic strap for easy retrieval device) power cable, documentation, with a pair of discs (Mac OS X 10.6.4 and iLife), warranty card and that is nice - with adapter HDMI to DVI.

Unlike its predecessor, the device has received all-aluminum body Unibody format became significantly thinner and lost monstrous external power supply, which is now embedded within housing. In addition, he has got an HDMI port, which is quite an achievement, since in fact it makes mini-PC complete home mediatsenr, which is ready to use just out of the box. Actually, as such, I have it in the ground and had since played the role of the display 37-inch LCD TV Panasonic TX-R37LZ80. Also on the back panel has four ports USB, Ethernet, FireWire 800, the DisplayPort, an SD card slot, audio in, audio out and the ventilation gap.

At the bottom of the computer is a plastic cover, giving access to an electronic tender insides of a PC. To remove it very easy, simply insert your fingers in the intended places and a little crank. As seen in the photos, a plastic cover is a metal plate, which gives rigidity. Under the cover plate can be seen a pair of memory modules (funny that they were different - different in color PCB), active system cooling and Wi-Fi adapter. For him part of the lid had to be left entirely plastic, otherwise the radio signal was shielded.

Mac mini is unpacked and now you can pay attention to the Magic Trackpad. Packing for registration is similar to, but one of the parties is a reminder to the user, telling about the actions that can be performed with a manipulator. Together with an external trackpad comes only a set of "recycled paper", plus batteries that are already installed in the device.

Manipulator itself looks like a MacBook Pro touchpad only larger twice. On the reverse side it is the same as the branded keyboard, and the shape is similar. It can be put close to the Apple Wireless Keyboard and Magic Trackpad will be harmonious its continuation. Hardware buttons, with one button or rather, a pair of duplicate Mikrikov are rubber pads on the reverse side. Thus, by pressing on the bottom of the trackpad, the user causes the trigger button. On the side faces positioned power button and a cap for the battery compartment.

So, everything is ready for general testing. The mouse, however, a few drops out of the total, so to speak, the style - this is not Magic MouseAnd banal Logitech MX nano, but for me it was more convenient to use. And the display is also not Apple LED Cinema Display, As I mentioned above LCD TV, although it is also the matrix IPS (proprietary Panasonic IPS Alpha), plus quite a decent resolution of 1920x1080 pixels.

Turn

To TV Mac mini has been connected over HDMI, as an ordinary media player. Problems with the definition of the computer display does not arise. Immediately after turning on the same familiar background boot Mac OS X.

Once again, pleased the Apple product and a proprietary operating system. Immediately after starting the operating system for the maximum resolution of the TV turned automatically put the image output "in a point to point" and picture pleasing to the eye, plus it was proposed to connect the detected wireless keyboard (Magic Trackpad was connected before the test PC houses). Fast, easy, convenient and no "dancing with a tambourine."

Me to the test got a younger model with an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz processor, 2 GB of RAM and hard drive capacity of 320 GB. As the graphics adapter acts NVIDIA GeForce 320M with 256 MB of video memory. Nothing like? In fact, this MacBook Pro 13 " the year of release, only the RAM is less.

I decided not to bother with installing the necessary software for my work, but simply moved their workplace space from your laptop to your PC via the "Migration Assistant" - another big plus Mac OS X compared with Windows. In contention environment is not so easy perenesesh all its data, software, settings and documents from one computer to another. Only if they are identical, then will something like Norton Ghost, or similar tools from Acronis, but it's still difficult. There is also a system of the Windows settings and transfer of user data, but as far as I know, works there all is not as smooth as in Mac OS X.

working

The transfer of your account on your Mac mini has also been made for the complex testing of two devices: the PC itself and Magic Trackpad. I was wondering, how will react to the body for the presence of two friends manipulators. On the trackpad, I talk every day at work with the MacBook Pro, with the mouse - when I sit at the big house Windows-based PCs, and it also occurs frequently.

For this purpose it was decided to write a news story than I usually do for a laptop. I had lost the habit to work sitting at a computer and keyboard, though virtually copied as such in a laptop, but still takes some getting used currently. Besides, I could not decide what is it that is more convenient to work - with the trackpad or with a mouse. Hand constantly tossed it to one manipulator, then another. Taking into account the fact of familiarity with both, I concluded that I would be comfortable with any of them. That is, an active member in laptops MacBook trackpad problems with the transition to a handler when working with a desktop PC will not. Especially a lot of things easier to do it with the help of, for example, scrolling, zooming of images, the use of gestures to control the windows and a work desk, and so on. D.

In general, the Magic Trackpad works completely identical to its brother in the MacBook laptops, but it is twice the size that only adds to the convenience of the operation. It's a great accessory for the Mac users, although Windows driver too. But it is only a complement, without which you can easily do without. For $ 70- $ 80, which is the unit cost in the US, it is quite possible to buy to make it. In the reality of my country have such an accessory will cost $ 125 and more. For the money you can buy a cool wireless set 'keyboard + mouse', so I have to think twice before deciding on such a purchase. But such an accessory can act as a class gift.

As regards the work of the PC, its potential buyers I would advise first of all to increase the amount of RAM. Launch Safari with a dozen tabs open, Adium, iTunes, Mail.app, Pages, Numbers with several large tables (am in such a reporting job), a couple of working tools like Pixelmator and the dictionary, and 2 GB of RAM is not anything will remain. Of course, wildly slow down your computer will not, but the decline in operating performance in general will be noticeable. Slowly open new tabs in the browser, documents, run applications and so on. D. In my case, even 4GB enough butt. As cheaper DDR3 memory, be sure to overbuilt its volume in the laptop up to 8 GB.

Of the benefits was a slight heating of the PC and its very quiet operation. Processor warmed to not more than 55 ° C at room temperature 22 ° C, and in this case the cooling fan rotates at minimum speed - it practically inaudible.

Summing up on the work on the Mac mini, I note that this device is perfect for all office applications, photo editing and, of course, programming in Xcode. He still remains the cheapest computer Mac. In the US, this model without taxes is $ 700, in Ukraine and Russia officially - about $ 1,000, but in the "gray" deliveries of such a device will be cheaper.

entertain

Once I bought myself an aluminum remote control Apple Remote. Frankly, until recently, he was just lying dead load, but it was useful during the test component of the multimedia Mac mini. And for the MacBook Pro it is already too would not be superfluous, because, finally, I got the adapter to the Mini DisplayPort to HDMI and can connect your laptop to your TV at least for viewing digital photos with guests. With the help of Apple Remote make it more comfortable than sitting in front of laptop.

Watch videos including movies in 1080p resolution via the VLC, a small computer problems did not cause - the performance is sufficient. And control the player with a miniature remote control was very convenient. As a media center in my favor large Windows-based PCs, and if watching a video being lying belly up on the couch, you have to drag along at least a wireless mouse. This is especially true in the use of time series, anime and anime series. On the Mac mini via Front row and do so much more comfortable with the aluminum remote control. By the way, the sound is output via HDMI to the TV speaker system without any problems, but to be so, it is necessary to clearly specify in the "System Preferences" in the "Sound" output device.

To summarize

Mac mini is the cheapest computer Apple, but given its official price in the native land, he miserably loses a price war Windows-based PCs. For the same money you can collect a very good gaming computer. On the other hand, in the face of Mac mini user receives as a handy tool for the job, as well as a full-fledged media center in a beautiful and very compact package. He will fit into any interior, will not take up much space and will not create excess noise, for example, that hard and with passion makes my Windows-based PCs. And besides the fact that it makes a noise, so more and it consumes a lot of electricity, operating around the clock (torrent, rating - all as usual).

If I was not an avid "zhelezyachnik" who spent a PC for more than 15 years, I would have long ago sold his large and buzzing (or most sizzling run through a housing airflow) Windows-drawer and would have bought him to replace the Mac mini, but for games - PS3. But sometimes I like to dig deeper into his iron inwards, replace the hardware platform, the graphics card, after What to test the resulting PC, launch brand new games, to admire the polygonal Beauty. Yes, and I would like to maintain flexibility in the work, having at hand as the Mac OS X, so and Windows. Although, again - it's just my particular case.

Mac mini for review given store "America"