Apple announced today that the new Mac Mini has been launched - and wonderful news it is because the idiosyncratic little Mac lives on as the ideal home media server.
But what is really wonderful, and very interesting, is that the brand-new Mini uses the old school mini-DVI port rather than Apple's latest display-port adaptor. This is a huge boon for media centre use as a DVI to HDMI adaptor is a simple (and cheap) accessory - in fact DVI-D (the digital derivative and the only one used for ages) and HDMI are identical standards except the former will not carry audio. But that is taken care of by the optical 3.5mm jack straight to the surround amp. And as we all know there ain't an HD TV sold without an HDMI input - whatever Apple says it is the de facto high def standard at the moment, and will be for quite a while (because consumers are in the middle of a compelling TV upgrade cycle right now, and won't be in 2 years time).
So all good - a triumph of practical necessity and clever thinking. But why all of Steve J's posturing about DisplayPort on the MacBooks: "As you know, HDMI is limited in the resolution it can drive." and going on to state that "Steve Jobs says that Apple will be building the Mini Display Port into every product the company makes" (from this Ars Technica article).
Can it be this decision was reversed because Steve is not at the helm?? NO, absolutely not - this was my hateful little shot at tabloid/internet forum, baseless, tittle tattle. But it's so easy to write, eh?
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