http://www.forbes.com/technology/2005/11/11/apple-macintosh-intel-cx_mr-1114apple.html

Don't spend all of your holiday money on a video iPod--Wall Street analysts and Mac experts are predicting a surprise announcement of a new Intel-based Mac at MacWorld this January.

If they introduce that Intel-Mac in January, I sure hope most of the important applications one needs are recompiled/updated for the Intel chip.

Otherwise...there is going to be a performance hit running it under "rosetta" [the on the fly PPC to Intel translater technology]

It's smart on Apple's part to introduce on the consumer Macs first,[with iLife applications ready to go etc.]

Professional users are going to wait till the stuff they need run as fast can be.

For a guy using Macs since 92, I can't believe there is going to be another transition.

68k to PowerPC. OS9 to Mac OSX. Now PowerPC to Intel.

woo-hoo!

So will they be better? I'm planning on buying a new iMac in the next month or so, but I guess it will be some time before the new chips hit and I don't think I will wait either.

Professional users are going to wait till the stuff they need run as fast can be.

And "professional users" probably aren't going to rush out and buy a mini either. This makes sense to me. If someone comes up with a way to run Windows on this box as well as MacOS (Apple has said they won't, but won't stop another company from doing it) then I think it could be hugely successful.

I also suspect that software companies are already well into the process of porting their applications to intel.

Why Intel and not AMD?

One thing is for sure, Virtual PC's next release should run a heck of a lot faster! :)

The Intel MacMini would make a lot of since along with an ibook, as those were the only items not updated before xmas. Also the mac mini supposedly has been shipping with higher then reported specs (1.5ghz instead of 1.42 etc.) and there still hasn't been an official release from apple. The yonah (?) chips from intel are also supposed to be ready. Combine that with the target end user of the typical mac mini (hopefully someone transfering over from windows) and the incorporation of the media center apps, as long as those are set up and ready to go most people won't be using them for anything else.

My question is if it's a dual core yonah chip will it be able to take on full fledged HD DVR functions made available by elgato (but currently only limited to the dual g5's) How cool would it be to just have a small mini sized box working as your tivo, safari browser (on your tv no less) and music and dvd player. Probably would need a bigger hard drive but that's about it.

Ever since its introduction there's been speculation that the mini would morph into some sort of DVR/Home Media Center. Perhaps we'll see that finally come to pass?...

I think it sure seems to make more since to use front row with a mini then with an imac. Not that front row is the end all or anything, but it sure seems like it would play well with I don't know a DVI TV or something along those lines.

Who knows. I guess we'll find out (and be blown away) in february.

Ever since its introduction there's been speculation that the mini would morph into some sort of DVR/Home Media Center. Perhaps we'll see that finally come to pass?...

yeah...let it play High Definition H.264 HD files on burned on regular DVD's hooked up to your HDTV set months before HD-DVD/Blu-Ray is introduced...

That would be sweet.

WAHOO! This was posted at a semi reputable rumor site. It seems that the mac mini will sport an intel chip (and my guess instant on technology) with frontrow 2.0 and DVR technology along with an ipod doc for importing ipod video. There's also speculation of a 3.5' hard drive to take the place of the smaller one and meet the more demanding needs of a dvr.

http://www.thinksecret.com/news/0511macmini2.html

They don't say exactly where they got there info but it sounds like my hypothesis from this thread.

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=54828

This was posted at a semi reputable rumor site.

Well their info was good enough to get them sued by Apple recently ;-)

Very interesting stuff, guess we'll know before too long. That article says people have been installing Mac Mini's in their cars. In their cars???

Yeah, there was this one dude who had an awesome interface set up in his VW golf. I can't find the link but googling it or any "mac mini car" will give you loads of hits.

My question is this though.

How strong would the processor have to be to convert incoming HD signal into something that can be recored on a 3.5 (or even 2.5) drive? I mean supposedly HD is only broadcast at 25Mbits per second, but I'm still curious as to whether or not it can be done, and if it can, how many minutes it could hold.

I believe Comcast (and maybe other cable/satellite providers) are already offering packages with HD capable DVR's. I read an article recently which pointed this out as another negative for TiVo which can only record SD.

And it seems like this rumored Intel Mac Mini has the potential to be one of the final nails in TiVo's coffin. But time will tell I suppose.