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[perkiset]

... Perk and Pinkhat do. TOTALLY surprised by my Apple rep who managed to snuggle two away for us. Pissed about 90,000 people in line off, since I was there to buy big-box stuff and walked out with the phones as well.

Feels good in the hand. Looks good, the display is freaking gorgeous. Considerably and quite noticeably faster than my 3GS. Haven't loaded it up with apps yet but will this evening. Kept the unlimited data plan. Inside dope is that the jailbreak community is already on it and the wait shouldn't be but a week or so.

Also, the 3GS is still working perfectly except for phone service - essentially a big iPod Touch now. Excellent, as we intend to give them to folks that could really use them.

I'll post more as I get experience with it. Watch now, NBs will probably post next about how he's figured out the genesis of the antenna problem. Awesome.

[isthisthingon]

Is there some reason that you always, consistently need to have the brandest newest Apple products, as soon as they're released?  I'm guessing it's for business recommendation reasons but if it's just cuz you gotta have it right now, well it might be time for a support group

[nutballs]

I habve a new Mac mini :p

[isthisthingon]

$699 for an entry level mini is getting at least closer to Earth in terms of pricing. 

But $500 for 8GB of RAM? 

And of course what's a computer without a display?  Well for $899 you can have one, the only one, that we sell. 

Keyboard?  Use ESP pussy!  Ok hell let's get a keyboard too so we can at least tell the damn thing what to do: $49.00. 

MS Office for $149.95?  Pass.  Entry level printer?  Ok: $99.95. 

Protection plan?  You betcha!  I'm not going to risk this investment! 

Now then what's my total...

$699 Mini
$500 8GB RAM
$899 Display
$49.00 Keyboard
$149.00 MS Office 2008 Home Edition
$99.95 Entry Level Printer
$149.00 Apple Protection Plan
================================
$1895.95 - entry level Mini 


Oh shit I almost forgot, now I need to buy software to actually do anything with the damn thing! Then again it could just be an iTunes server 

EDIT: Before tax.

[perkiset]

@nuts - way cool. Is it as hip as they advertise?

@ITTO - actually, I was not going to do it for a couple weeks, given what a cluster it is. The guy at Apple that handles my account is THE BEST and surprised me with a pair. But to answer your question, first yes - given my client base it is important that i know way more than them on this stuff and than means I get to purchase stuff early. But second, the best way to get your moneys worth from a tech purchase is to buy big as soon as possible, so that you have it as long as possible before you have to buy the next one  

[perkiset]

Re. MacMini pricing - this has been quite an eyebrow raiser. Where it used to be the low cost entry model, now it's almost asmuchasanenttry notebook or iMac. Lot of people are baffled by the decision to go that expensive with it.

[isthisthingon]

>given my client base it is important that i know way more than them on this stuff and than means I get to purchase stuff early

Thought so.  This is actually what I would call a perk    I love to have to buy the latest and greatest for business reasons   Just the write-off makes it worthwhile, but in the name of professionalism?   

[nutballs]

Nah it's the same as previous ones just smaller and faster.

I needed it for two reasons. First was that my prior one was having a hard time with some bluray rips and was pissing me off. Second was that the original was overheating.

Advantage with the new one is that it has hdmi with the sound channel built in. Previous one had optical out.

So to ittos point. I have only need for the box itself, no keyboard or anything. Isctually use my iPad or iPhone as a remote mouse and keyboard. Works great. It actually comes with a free printer, which I didn't take. And the protection plan is dumb in my opinion. Your monitor price is over the top for entry level as well.

I would say more like...
$700 mini
$60 kb and mouse
$200 monitor
So really, $1000 grand at most.

Plus this version is easy to upgrade the ram.
And it's got wifi-N built in.

You are paying a premium for the size obviously. Now it looks disproportionately small in my media center, lol.

[isthisthingon]

I liked the original idea of a $499-ish, cluster node. With the form factor you could get quite a few in a rack.  But at this price I'd go Mac Book for $999 

[nutballs]

mbpro is  mobile proc i think isnt it?
mini is full proc.

at least i think so.

[isthisthingon]

Yep. So it depends on the need/desire to be mobile.

[perkiset]

Zactly. If you need mobile, then you pay more for it (BTW the lowest end MBP is something like 1199 and still not as powerful as the Mini) - the Mini is a more powerful machine in a pretty cool form factor.

Some first impressions of the phone:

• Speed: it is DEFINITELY faster than my old phone. Snappy and quick, really impressive.
• Monitor: Ridiculously great. I mean, really really impressive. Almost unreal.
• Reception: 50-50 - I am at times thinking I have better reception, sometimes worse. Perhaps it's the antenna issue. I'll look forward to seeing if the update on Monday helps.
• Multitasking: Well, most apps haven't been recompiled to take advantage of it, so I don't see a lot of benefit yet. And the task bar is so-so, but I don't know how you'd do it better. On the other side, there are new problems with multitasking that are going to bother Apple. Example: Start "Photos" - it's now in the multitasking bar (all things are, whether you know it or not). Then Sync. The sync may not go well. You need to shut down photos and restart it for the index to get properly updated. Minor pain, but clearly not entirely thought out yet.
• Antenna problem: smaller than reported, but definitely a product of Apple's mind numbing privacy practices. Had they some phones out in the wild without covers they'd probably have found this out. This is a little techKarma if I've ever seen it.
• Form factor: Meh. Not sure if the new design is too my liking yet. Feels good but just don't know if it will stand the test of time. Glass on the back is nifty and beautiful: but will it survive reality? Does slip into the pocket much easier, but that means that it will probably slide out easier as well.

More as I work through it.