AnandTech’s Mac mini Review

Three Cheers!!! for the Mac Mini.

But only Two Cheers!! for the Mac Mini HTPC.

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Don't get me wrong. I own one, and truly love the Mac Mini HTPC that sits next to my TiVo, with a 2ft Ethernet cable marrying the two.

But the Mac Mini HTPC, unusually for OS X Apple, falls short of its potential on software grounds. The hardware makes mostly perfect tradeoffs.

I know Apple has had other priorities of late, but it depresses me just how few unallocated resources would've been necessary to dramatically improve the lean-back usage of the Mac Mini HTPC.

- I know they've given up on Front Row, but how hard would it be to just port BackRow over from AppleTV as an app? It'd be good for Mini sales.

- And if that's too much work, just outsource it to third-parties! I think it would take even less resources to put the proper API hooks into CoverFlow and playback, to thus allow third-parties to make OS-wide UI consistent lean-back software? There should be easy ways for a third-party cocoa developer to reuse Apple's work and make Plex and Boxee irrelevant. It'd be good for Mini sales.

- And even more simply, why not spend the absolutely trivial resources of supporting MPG2/AAC media playback through QT, which is the default cableco media source that many enthusiasts want to playback, and which Perian is constrained from interpreting without the necessary QT hooks? It wouldn't move the Mini sales needle all that much, but it'd grab the HTPC enthusiast leading-edge market onto the platform, which is a quite nice ally to have in an emerging market.

I could well be wrong, but my guess is that Apple's abhorrence of encouraging lean-back software possibilities for the Mac Mini HTPC has more to do with marketing concerns than with resources. They see iOS AppleTV as a much bigger priority, and don't want to the Mac Mini HDTV to cannibalize it, or they have their own OS X lean-back system in the works for release in the FUD-land of 2013. In either case, I think it's a short-sighted view that leaves them missing out on properly approaching a market which is best won by throwing lots of stuff up at the wall, and seeing what sticks.

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Of course, I also use that same Mac Mini as a Time Machine Server, ARD Server, bare and enclosed FW hard drive server, 5hgz WiFi to ethernet bridge (!), and it does micro-PBX functions connected to my analog line telephone to boot (!!). So it's also a wonderful full-on multifunction lightweight home server for those who can't quite justify the price of a headless Mac Pro. (And I can do all that without having to learn and run OS X Server. Kudos, Cupertino.)

But it only gets a 7 out of 10 as an HTPC, and those three lost stars are all on the software end. And they seem so non-resource intensive to fix...

"I could well be wrong, but my guess is that Apple's abhorrence of encouraging lean-back software possibilities for the Mac Mini HTPC has more to do with marketing concerns than with resources."

And I'll further note that, if I am correct here, it is the first example of the wedge that makes me fear for the future of OS X.

If I am correct that Apple is intentionally crippling OS X lean-back video software capabilities in order to leave the market open for iOS lean-back video, how long until that line of thinking ripples out to other areas of OS X vs iOS development?

I continue to worry that Gruber's "OS X as the new Apple II" snark really is the view in upper management at Cupertino. I'd love to be wrong. I don't particular want to migrate to Redmond, but I'd prefer it to working on a 'managed' platform or an EOL'd platform...