The Intel Mac mini and iPod Hi-Fi

Macworld offers a first look at the new Intel Mac mini, an editor's take of its second coming and benchmarks of the both Mac mini Core Solo and Core Duo. Reference systems include the last PowerPC Mac mini, Macboof Pro, and iMac Core Duo. Macworld also opens up the Intel Mac mini and shows its innards while Applefritter has a take apart guide for those who might want to upgrade the RAM and hard-disk drive.

An anonymous MacDailyNews reader reports that the Mac mini Core Duo plays 1080p 24fps videos fine.

While other reviews look into the Mac mini's processor and graphics capabilities, Michael Greeson takes interest in "sophisticated simplicity" of the Apple remote. But TUAW thinks that the remote should have a Click wheel.

Playlist Mag's Dan Frakes has
his first look and full review of the iPod Hi-Fi. He prefers to call it as a "compact stereo system," and that the Hi-Fi reinvented little. Reinvention would have been a built-in airport express and a video-out port. Frakes gives the iPod Hi-Fi a four out of five rating and offers a comparison with other speaker systems like the Bose SoundDock and Altec Lansing inMotion iM7.

PC Mag gives the iPod Hi-Fi a 4.5 out of 5 rating. Thye reviewer recommends the iPod Hi-Fi but cautions that it's not cheap but won't take the place of high-end speakers, and it's not a 5.1 sound system. The reviewer's minor quibbles include the lack of a video output and the remote's line-of-sight and distance issues. However, the iPod Hi-Fi didn't fare so well with iLounge. The latest iPod accessory from Apple was given a "B" and a follow-up write-up chides Apple for making the Hi-Fi too simple, too incomplete. ILounge found fault with the weak treble response, the lack of video ports, weight, and the overall design.

Denon hits back at Apple's iPod Hi-Fi, calling competitors as "overgrown boom boxes... only work with iPods." Other competitions' reaction on the iPod Hi-Fi. Shaw Wu is "underwhlemed" with the announcements but thinks these are signs of things to come.

An Inquirer writer cries fowl after more than three-hundred emails came flooding in from "Apple cultists" and blames MacDailyNews for issuing the "email fatwa." Writers Nick Farrell and Andrew Thomas have called iPod users as "gullible saps," Apple users as "stupid, brainwashed," and insinuated that the Mac platform has become less stable when it moved to Intel. They both made other outrageous statements even though neither have had any experience using an Apple product.