Briefly: Intel's Mac mini clone, DVD Fest...

Yeah, I guess if you stand accross the room and squint really hard, and maybe turn the lights down really low.

It doesn't come across so much from the picture, but believe me, from the audience it looked like he might as well have been holding up a spray-painted Mini. I was amazed that they hold up such an outrageously obvious clone as an example of innovative new design.

If they were actually *selling* such a thing, you could chalk it up to marketing, but in putting it forth as a concept design they just end up looking stupid.

Mind you, on the *technical* end of things they're doing some very impressive work...

On any of the sides. It's basically a laptop. Cut out the display, floppy, and such and you can get a pretty small motherboard.

It's just innovative packaging, nothing earth shattering like, say the first LAPtop that didn't break your lap!

Here's a funny comment from a ZDNet site:

... Intel can design a PC with a smallform factor, but why bother? Intel doesn't have a worthwhile OS to run on it. Or a decent chip to power it. It's like those "cargo cult" pacific islanders, who, in awe of the airplanes they started seeing in the skies started aping them by making airplane-shaped idols out of palm fronds and sticks.

The entire PC industry runs like this. They wail and sling FUD where the mac is concerned but whenever Apple releases a mind-bending device the PC gang follows...

It reminds me of a scene from Monty Python's Life of Brian...
Brian is fleeing a village, loses a sandal and the crowd chasing him, who believe he is the Messiah, interpret the meaning of the sandal and how best to worship with it. It's both hilarious and pitiful.

He's NOT the Messiah! But Apple really seems to be the PC industry's!

hee hee hee, I had some knock down drag outs with PC heads that claim that ZDnet is NOT on the M$ dole. They say its a straight up computer industry press entity. Why then that prayer at the end of the article? Can Sir Bill slay the dragon and keep the minions free to pay him homage and keep the channel dollars rolling in? They make it seem that it would kill them if they had to write regular articles about Macs… yeeeesh but boy did I like that description of the mini, "it's small, quiet, integrated and, well, gorgeous. Crucially, it is also cheap (although prices do rocket as you add options) and the whole system works better than any collection of off-the-shelf components shoehorned into a case and topped off with a copy of Windows" Ha ha ha, how's that Mikey D's gingle go? I'm lovin' it!

Barely a mock up. No PCB. Nothing inside.