There were rumors for the past couple of weeks that Apple would be announcing a new Mac today that would be “headless” (sold without a monitor) and would be the first truly affordable Mac. So, while I was expecting something new, I was not expecting this! What you see in the image on the left is the new Mac mini. It is only 6.5 inches wide and 2″ tall – and it’s a complete desktop computer. You just hook up your own keyboard, mouse and monitor and you’ll be enjoying the wonderful world of Mac OS X. To top it all off, it starts at $629 Canadian (or $599 with the educational discount) which should be affordable enough for many PC users to finally convert over to Mac.
It was very hard for me to keep my credit card in my pocket today when I saw this – I don’t know how long I can last though. I’ve wanted a Mac for a long time now, and this might finally be the one!
In other Apple news today, they released a new flash based iPod called the iPod shuffle. It comes in 512 MB or 1 GB models. The interesting thing about this player is that there is no screen on it and the slogan is “Life is Random”. While I was unsure about the idea at first, I’m sure Apple will sell a ton of these. It will be random like listening to the radio, but no ads and it’s only music you like – sounds good to me!
UPDATE: Apparently, the Apple Store that is only 3 blocks away from the Expo where these announcements were made started the day with 2000 iPod shuffle units – they were sold out by noon!