Apple Announce New Mac minis – Media Player Perfection

March 3, 2009

New Mac mini

A few minutes ago Apple released a raft of updates to its hardware on the Apple Store.   But what most interests us here at AutomatedHome.com is the new revised Mac mini . After what seems like an endless wait, Apple have finally released the new version of what is quite possibly the best basis for a home theater system ever invented.

The mini is small, near silent and with it’s Core 2 Duo, powerful enough to playback anything you care to throw at it – including 1080p mkv files.  We’ve just ordered ours so we can use the fabulous Plex media player for the Mac as the center of our Home Cinema.  Read on for all the specs and prices of the new mini and the rest of the Apple updates…

“Faster. Greener. Still mini. – High-performance NVIDIA Graphics – Up to 5x faster NVIDIA graphics performance.  The NVIDIA GeForce 9400M brings up to five times faster graphics performance to Mac mini. Perfect for your photos, movies, games, and applications.

Faster Intel Core 2 Duo – Now there’s even more power inside such a small space. With Intel Core 2 Duo processor speeds starting at 2.0GHz, blazing fast comes standard.

Mac mini uses 45 percent less power than the previous model — less than 13W while it’s idle. This makes Mac mini the most energy-efficient desktop computer in the world.”

New Mac mini Specs at a glance

  • 5 x USB 2
  • 1x FireWire 800
  • 1x mini DVI
  • 1x Display port
  • NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics
  • Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0Ghz or 2.26Ghz
  • 1 or 2 GB DDR3 memory (max 4 GB)
  • 120 GB, 250 GB or 320 GB hard drive

Apple have released new version of the following products:

New Apple Max Mini

6 Comments on "Apple Announce New Mac minis – Media Player Perfection"

  1. Jamie Bennett | March 3, 2009 at 12:56 pm |

    But the price hike, ouch! £391 to £499.

  2. Otto-Mate | March 3, 2009 at 4:06 pm |

    Yup, big increase – mostly to do with the exchange rate with the dollar though I’d guess.

    £15 extra for the remote control too.

  3. Aaron | March 3, 2009 at 6:51 pm |

    But can it play ripped blu-ray files? TrueHD? DTS-MA? I’m wondering how you would get uncompressed 7.1 audio to a receiver…

  4. Otto-Mate | March 3, 2009 at 7:03 pm |

    Blu-ray integration would be nice. I guess we’re going to have to wait a little longer for that though. Mind you, physical media is on it’s last legs. Even with the failure of HD DVD, Blu-ray sales are poor.

    Like with audio and MP3, the masses will probably accept a small decrease in quality for a large increase in convenience and streaming over broadband (a la Apple TV) will be the future.

  6. gary | March 20, 2009 at 10:28 pm |

    > But can it play ripped blu-ray files? TrueHD? DTS-MA? I’m wondering how you would get uncompressed 7.1 audio to a receiver…

    I use the digi out on my last-gen Intel Mac Mini to get 5.1 to a receiver. 720p ripped content is just about workable, forget 1080. THe new machine should be fine with just about anything you might want to throw at it…

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