The smallest sibling of the Mac family just graduated. Little brother has some new smarts and a sharp new suit.
I’m talking about the Mac mini, and the “sharp” part is literal: this tiny desktop computer now has an elegant aluminum case with edges so defined they can scrape your skin off.
Apple Inc. released a new mini on Tuesday, and it’s the biggest redesign of the product since it was launched in 2005. It adds some much-needed features and a less-than-necessary, but very appealing, design flourish.
So why would you get a Mac mini? It doesn’t have the horsepower of the full-sized Mac Pro desktop, or the portability of the MacBook.
Well, for one thing, it’s still the cheapest way to get access to Mac software. If you want to do video editing or graphic design, the Mac rules. The new mini starts at $699, up from $599 for the previous model. That’s without a keyboard, mouse or monitor, but it’s still a pretty good value.
It could also be a “home base” computer, acting as a backup and file server for the household’s laptops. The basic model now comes with a 320 gigabyte hard drive, enough for most purposes and twice the size of the old basic model.
Third, the mini is a great option if you want to connect your living-room TV to the Internet and your collection of movies, music and photos. A few months ago, I looked at several PCs for this role, and concluded that the Mac mini of the time was great, except that it lacked an SD card slot and an HDMI jack for easy connection to the TV and/or receiver, and that the power button was in the wrong place.
The new model addresses two of those three concerns. It has an SD slot, which makes it much…