Mac mini: Creative Uses for the Little Mac that Could
Last year, AppleInsider claimed inside sources foretelling the forthcoming discontinuation of the Mac Mini. This year, they are claiming that not only is it going to stay around, but that it is going to get a big bump in specs, including 45-nanometer 2.1 Ghz Intel processors and Intel XMA X3100 graphics controllers. So, not only has the Mac mini not been discontinued, it looks to have a long life ahead of it.
Many people have done some very creative things with the Mac minis, and while I don’t have any sales numbers from Apple, it is possible that all these creative minds have helped Apple decide to keep this machine on. After all, we know what happens when you see that prominent Apple logo on the top of the Mac mini.
For instance, Peter Green made a Mac Mini Laptop. Not quite as svelte as the MacBook Air, but you can’t hate a man for trying.
Someone made a Mac mini robot, with a now-extinct iSight.
If you got really crazy, you could make it a toilet paper dispenser (what?):
In addition, Macminicolo.net is there to provide you with a place to store your Mac mini as a server. They are running a contest to give away a year of colocating and a Macbook air. [Full disclosure: I entered the contest, and I really hope they pick me as the winner!]
Matt Burriola even installed his Mac mini in his Mazda 3. It sits over in the glovebox and is controlled by a 7″ Xenarc touch screen. Adding it to your car is not for the newbie; it takes a lot of time and know-how to be able to do that.
My personal favorite is the Mac mini Millennium Falcon. Derrick Hixson took the shell off the mini and put innards inside a toy replica of the Millennium Falcon. Then he added an iSight in the turret as well.
What other creative uses have you seen for the Mac mini? Sound off in the comments.
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Yeah, my old Mac Mini just died. It smells like burnt toast, and won’t turn on, and I have absolutely no clue why.
Hey. I would love to have it if u dint want it or don’t mind! E-mail me at caseyrox95@yahoo.com
Well, a Santa Rosa Mac Mini with 4 GB of RAM and 7200rpm Hard Drive attached to a 23″ Cinema Display ist a very, very fine graphics work station.
Really all you need!
My Intel Core 2 Duo Mini is the hub of my home theatre system. I have a keyspan ministack v2 HD attached to it with about 100+ MP4 movies all running thru Front Row and displayed on my 80″ projector screen!
Typical small Windows developer has a few old displays/mice/keyboards lying around, so mini is perfect for trying out OS X. Mini gets no respect, but it fills a lot of roles.
Like Matt says above, but in corporate America. Big companies that wants to see how Apple Mac OS X can work within their Windows network buy it. Mini has a low enough price to warrant the cost for it.
All I need is a Firewire 800 or eSATA mini.
Well I think it’s safe to say every commenter so far has missed the entire point of this post. :)
LOL.. your right. I think I focused in on too much with the story of the mac mini demise. Or prediction of the demise. But yeah, I’ve seen a lot of mod that people have done on it also. For awhile there were lots of stories with people putting it in their cars for movie playback.
I switched to Mac with the mini (G4).
It’s still a capable machine even with a 3yr old PPC architecture. It’s not my main workstation anymore, but it is on 24/7, and still clocks up more hours of use.
I personally hope the mini stays part of Apple’s product line.
The MacMini ThinClient. A little more speed and power, and I’m there.
Wow.
After all, what do thin clients do? Some small software package, already supported by Apple, on top of something fast and configurable, that lets a user establish an ICA connection to a Citrix farm, or RDP to a Windows Server, or establish a remote connection to a unix host.
After 30 + years of something other than MacOS ??, I am absolutely delighted with my experience behind my Imac. And I would love to go to work, sit behind a macMini, establish an ICA or RDP session whereever in a multi OS environment.
Truly fabulous.