Apple Mac mini to Become a Media Center?

By | November 29th, 2005 comments icon (4) Comments


mac miniThink Secret, the infamous Apple rumor site, has the rumor mill running again. This time, it’s about taking the mini straight into the living room as Apple’s long rumored competitor to Microsoft’s Media Center PCs. Given the recent introduction of FrontRow and Apple’s adoption of video distribution through iTunes, the rumor is not without some merit. It’s been rumored that the new mini would sport a built-in iPod dock, which if combined with a DVR application and iTunes, could make for a formidable living room DVR appliance. Additional rumors have said that talks between Apple and TiVo fell apart, which lead to TiVo announcing iPod Video support apart from Apple. Additionally, the coming introduction of Intel based Apple computers brings the possibility even further toward truth, with Intel having better support for devices that will facilitate video recording and playback.

However, current Mac mini specs have a few choke points – namely, lack of expansion (for TV tuner cards) and slower, smaller capacity hard drives used in laptops. If the mini is indeed headed for the living room, then the existing specifications will almost certainly have to change to accomodate the higher demands of video recording and playback. These changes, according to Think Secret, would certainly lead to a larger Mac mini.





Filed in: Industry Buzz

  • aarond

    As posted on other blogs today…

    Disclaimer: I’m the project manager for Microsoft’s Media Center PVR features.

    I always thought that Apple avoided PVR consciously. Too many parts of the experience would not be under their direct control. I’m excited to see what they come up with. It’d be good to rev up a fun rivalry.

    Having worked on 3 PVR products to date (Dishplayer, UltimateTV and MCE) the amount of work required is pretty massive, and I’d be surprised if it didn’t feel more ‘v1′ than most of Apple’s debuts.

  • http://www.alexandergrundner.com Alexander Grundner

    Michael Gartenberg stated the following today after hearing about the rumor on Think Secret:

    While I won’t comment on how likely this rumor is, I will comment that if Apple does introduce this machine in January, it will be a huge success. This is exactly the type of medai hub that could gain the acceptance of the mass market. It’s interesting to speculate how the press would cover the introduction of a machine like this. I suspect they would totally igonre the MCE story that’s been on the market for all these years.

    I agree with you aarond. Apple has a lot catching up to do when it comes to all the features MCE 2005 offers (and even with PVR apps like Beyond TV, Meedio, Sage TV, etc), and wonder if the lead will just be too great after Vista MCE is launched. But I can guarantee you that if Apple does come out with an HTPC of sorts, the media will be all over it, praising its virtues. The media isn’t just slanted with politics, you know? ;)

    In any case, it would be nice to see a friendly rivalry in the fight for the living room. But I have a feeling that since Apple has now partnered with Intel for its chipset technology, I can only assume that they will offer similar features (technology wise) to anything Microsoft and its OEM partners put out. The critical difference will really be between the software’s ease-of-use, presentation, value-add features; and on the hardware side, design and price point.

  • http://www.thomashawk.com Thomas Hawk

    The press certainly does love the Apple. Still, it will be interesting to see how well their product fares when (by the time they get it out next year) MCE has a CableCARD HDTV unit to contrast with their non-HDTV unit… unless they are working on something truly top secret that will blow us all away.

  • todd

    I am a total devotee of the MCE/PMC thing Microsoft has going on right now, and even I’m a little excited about the prospect of a Mac Mini PVR system. If Microsoft rolls MCE into Vista, though, and the XBOX 360, with its integrated media center extender, sells well, I just don’t see how Apple could hope to suceed in this business.