Apple's new strategy for Mac Mini

Yesterday I posted (together with other 49.379 bloggers, and counting) about the "strange" launch for Apple's new iMacs and Mac Minis.

Weird as it may seem, the buzz hasn't been about these new Macs, but about what's going to be unveiled during Apple's keynote that is going to be held on Sep 12th in San Francisco. That is, what has such an importance for Apple's future plans to keep out of the show two of the best selling products for the company (all indications point to a movie download service, but there could be more).

But I also see a dramatic change for Mac marketing in the Mac Mini (non) announcement: since its first release in January 2005 the Mac Mini has been marketed as the "little brother" of more advanced Macs (iMac and PowerMac), meaning both smaller AND less powerfull (it always had lower performing processor vs the iMac).

Today, comparing the Mac Mini in its cheaper configuration with the cheaper iMac (see below), the Mini doesn't look so small anymore.

Other than the "DNA difference" of the iMac having a built in LCD, they both have new generation Dual Core processors (with a slight advantage for the iMac), enough RAM to run TWO widgets at once, and so many connection options your neighbor won't have any problem watching movies stored in you hard disk (you know... those movies).

Speaking about HD, that seems to be now the main difference, with the 60 gigs of the Mini clearly not enough to handle today's amount of media content stored in your computer.

Even the point of the Mini being a cheaper/stripped down version of the iMac can now be argued.

400 bucks difference isn't that much to have the privilege to enjoy your 17" screen, 100Gb more space in your HD, and the cool enclosure (ok, it's no cheap either, but let me get to the point).

It looks like Apple understood the main reason people bought the Mini isn't just about money (you can still get much better bargain with the same old boring windows-based machine in the shopping center near you).

Almost every Mac Mini owner I knew (myself included), bought and Apple screen to go with the Mini. That's hardly a money-saving choice. What I've seen in the Mini is the chance of getting a tiny, cute, design oriented Mac that you can easily place in your living room without having to feel ashamed.

Ok, you might say, then buy an iMac! No, because a built-in monitor isn't necessarily an advantage. First, I liked the Apple screen design more than the iMac's. Second, I wanted to retain some flexibility not to trow away the poor (and expensive) monitor when I wanted to change my computer just because Steve rolled out the new, beefed up, Intel based version of the Mac (ok, I didn't know that it would have happened, but you know this business works like this).

Personally I think that's a bold move. They now have two "consumer" desktop lines that satisfy different consumer needs, both extremely consitant to their brand equity. That usually pays out.

So, what's next? :-)

Become a del.icio.us power user

Blogger David Brunelle posted a great article on how to become a Delicious Power User.
For those of you who don't know what Delicious is, it's a social bookmarking site or, in plain english, a place where you can:
1) store your bookmarks so you can access them on multiple computers;
2) share them with your friends or just anybody;
3) discover new stuff;
The last one is in my opinion by far the best feature of Delicious.
Basically the fact that a lot of people bookmarked a site/blog/wiki/whatever is a "signal" that it may be an interesting one.
No matter who you are or what you do, I strongly recommend you try it out!

New iMac and Mac Mini unveiled

With an extremely unexpected move, Apple quitely introduced a significant upgrade to their iMac line.
Main changes are:

1) 24" version (to go along with 17" and 20");
2) 64-bit Intel Core 2 Duo processor (with clock speeds from 1.83GHz to 2.33GHz);
3) Brighter screens;



The weird thing is that this upgrade was widely thought to be unveiled during the media event that Apple is holding on September 12th 2006.
Now the event seems to be fully focused one the big news, that should be the introduction of a movie download service for the iTunes store.
New iPod Nanos with colored metallic enclosure are also expected for the event.

Update:
Right after the iMac appeared on Apple’s site, new Mac Minis also popped out (biggest upgrade here being the Intel Core 2 Duo).
These moves make me wonder what the hell Steve Jobs has in store for keynote in Frisco (Sep 12th). Is it really just the Movie download site (as bold a move this would be in my opinion)? Can we expect the long awaited “true” Video iPod? Whatever it is, I get this strange sensation that it’s gonna be BIG…

How to upgrade RAM for your Mac

One of my favourite lifehack blogs, Lifehacker, has posted this useful article on how to upgrade your brand new Mac's memory without having to sell your car to afford Apple's premium price.
If you're going to buy a new Mac I strongly suggest to take the smallest possible amount of memory and upgrade yourself following these great tutorials.
To be perfectly fair, always check your countries laws about warranties and the Mac warranty (or just ask any lawyer friend you have - and you definitely should have at least one) for some of these procedures may void your warranty in some cases (weird, but true...).

Web 2.0: Google's Market Research Agency

For those of you living on Pluto (RELOCATE!!!) Kiko is - was - a neat ruby on rails web-based calendar. For the average Joe, not that far from GCal. Long story short, by the time GCal rolled out the nice guys at Kiko were pretty much f**ked up.
The guys were smart enough to realize they were done and decided to call it quits, blaming Google to be as a treath as MS for young internet companies (many agreed, many others did not).
The company was placed on an auction on eBay and sold for about $ 250K.
Now, I have no idea what the plan was: whether they simply wanted to sell (writely anybody?) and make some money or they felt they could really lead the web calendar scene for years to come. What's worth noting, in my opinion, is that many of the thousands web 2.0 companies risk to die of the same disease. Will Yousendit survive "Google Send" or whatever they call it? Right. What this crowd of little guys is doing is basically serving as a market research agency for Google and Yahoo. For free. Either there's a market there, and the big guys are jumping in, or there's not, and you're done anyway. So the point isn't much about Google or Yahoo being evil, as much as it is about: shouldn't a start up have a strategy that goes farther than simply gathering users?
Paul Graham (partner at YCombinator, VC from Mountain View [!!!] that funded Kiko) said in his interview to Techcrunch:

What I tell founders is not to sweat the business model too much at first. The most important task at first is to build something people want. If you don’t do that, it won’t matter how clever your business model is.

Great quote, isn't it? :-) But even when you have something people want AND a business model, you're not done yet. Well, having those 2 pieces together may as well make your life shorter, for it makes your research so much clearer for anybody. Simply eniugh, you've gotta build your barriers to keep people put of your garden(take Squidoo, Feedburner and Ask.com as examples of good barrier building sites other than the obvious ones). So my 2 cents for anybody working on a start up (and for myself!): Build a wall or you'll end up playing Google's game.

Free Mickey!

Celebrate! This is my first post in my personal blog!
I thought it should have been something worth remembering. After a couple of tries, I understood I'm not good enough to write something so remarkable this late at night. Beers don't help either. Therefore I'm feeding you with a link to a speech from Lawrence Lessig I strongly recommend (I got the link from this page here, check for more wonderful presentations).
For those of you who don't know, Lessig is one of the main voices in the media rights discussion (yeah, like there was a discussion at all), as well as founder of the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford.
Simple, clear, strong. This is the perfect example of how any public speech should be.
And, by the way, he's right. :-)

Lessig's Free Culture Speech

Simone