This Is Going To Be A Good Year For Apple

January 12th, 2005 · No Comments · Apple, Hardware, Mobiles & Gadgets

The year has just started and already apple is about to release two mouth watering pieces of hardware.

First of all the the much anticipated Mac mini which I have written about before:

Mac Mini

Here are some specs:

Processor and memory

1.25GHz or 1.42GHz PowerPC G4 processor with Velocity Engine
512K on-chip level 2 cache at full processor speed
167MHz system bus
256MB of PC2700 (333MHz) DDR SDRAM, expandable to up to 1GB⁵

Storage

40 or 80GB Ultra ATA hard disk drive¹
One of the following optical drives:
- Slot-loading Combo drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW): reads DVDs at up to 8x speed, writes CD-R discs at up to 24x speed, writes CD-RW discs at up to 16x speed, reads CDs at up to 24x speed
- Optional SuperDrive (DVD±RW/CD-RW): writes DVD-R discs at up to 4x speed, writes DVD-RW discs at up to 2x speed, writes DVD+R discs at up to 4x speed, writes DVD+RW discs at up to 2.4x speed, reads DVDs at up to 8x speed, writes CD-R discs at up to 16x speed, writes CD-RW discs at up to 8x speed, reads CDs at up to 24x speed

Audio

Built-in speaker
Headphone/Audio Line-out jack

Graphics support

ATI Radeon 9200 graphics processor with AGP 4X support
32MB of dedicated Double Data Rate (DDR) video memory

Video

DVI video output for digital resolutions up to 1920 x 1200 pixels; supports 20-inch Apple Cinema display and 23-inch Apple Cinema HD display; supports coherent digital displays up to 154MHz; supports non-coherent digital displays up to 135MHz
VGA video output (using included adapter) to support analog resolutions up to 1920 x 1080 pixels
S-video and composite video output to connect directly to a TV or projector (requires Apple DVI to Video Adapter, sold separately)

Peripheral connections

One FireWire 400 port; 8 watts
Two USB 2.0 ports (up to 480 Mbps) on computer

Communications

Built-in 56K V.92 modem (RJ-11 connector)
Built-in 10/100BASE-T Ethernet (RJ-45 connector)
Optional internal 54-Mbps AirPort Extreme Card (based on IEEE 802.11g standard; Wi-Fi Certified for 802.11g and 802.11b interoperability)³
Optional internal Bluetooth module

Size and weight

Height: 2 inches (5.08 cm)
Width: 6.5 inches (16.51 cm)
Depth: 6.5 inches (16.51 cm)
Weight: 2.9 pounds (1.32 kg)⁴

At 499 euros, I really hope that this performs decently with OSX doing day to day stuff as this would definatley make a sweet workstation. I guess we’ll have to wait until the first reviews trickle out until we find out.

Also released is Apples new iPod shuffle, a flash based mp3 player the size of a pack of chewing gum. The thing doesn’t have a display and plays songs in a random order every time you switch it on. Specs follow:

iPod Shuffle with Gum

Capacity

512MB or 1GB USB flash drive
Holds 120 or 240 songs in 128-Kbps AAC format
Stores data via USB flash drive

Audio

Skip-free playback
Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz
MP3 (8 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, AAC (8 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Music Store, M4A, M4B, M4P), Audible (formats 2, 3 and 4) and WAV
Upgradable firmware enables support for future audio formats

Headphones

Earbud-style headphones with 18-mm drivers using Neodymium transducer magnets
Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz
Impedance: 32 ohms

At 99 euros for the 512 MB version (and 149 for the 1 Gig version) the price isn’t bad at all. If it proves stable enough I will definately get one of thes e for jogging.

Sexy Jihad

Lock your doors. It's HIM!