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Back to the Mac: unboxing and setting up the Mac mini
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NewsPoster
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Feb 21, 2015, 08:18 PM
 
Two weeks ago, staff writer and long-time Windows user Malcolm Owen returned to Mac following a five-year absence. Back to the Mac is a series of posts where he charts his progress in introducing Apple to his working environment once again. In this second installment, Malcolm goes through the unboxing ritual, and sets up the machine for daily use.

The happiest moment of any geeky person's life is when they get to unbox some new toys, and if I said I wasn't excited about getting my new Mac mini out of the box, I'd be lying.

The main event, the Mac mini itself, was a distinct change from any previous hardware unboxing I've gone through. For a start, there is precious little actual packaging, with only a small amount of cardboard for protecting the sides and top of the tightly-packed Mac. Once out of the box, I saw precious little accompanying the new computing device: a plug, a small package containing important documents, and that's it.



I know Apple has been working on minimizing the amount of packaging used for its products, but the Mini only takes up half the height of the box, leaving a lot of empty space for one power cable. Maybe Apple will decide to supply the cable in a separate container, making the mini's box even thinner -- though it's easy to assume that such a proposal would cause debate.

Included paperwork from 2006 (left) and 2015 (right)
Included paperwork from 2006 (left) and 2015 (right)


While we're on the topic of box contents, Apple is supplying only a tiny amount of printed documentation with the Mini. I still have the supplied manuals and CD that came with my old Macbook from 2006, and both the documentation box and the paperwork itself are massive compared to the modern version. A definite improvement.

Included Apple logo stickers from 2006 (left) and 2015 (right)
Included Apple logo stickers from 2006 (left) and 2015 (right)


The sought-after Apple stickers that inevitably arrive with hardware have also received a slight change over the years. The newer stickers arrive on a smaller slip of paper, with the stickers themselves marginally shrunk down from those provided a decade ago. A cost-saving measure, or just a change to make it easier to insert with the manuals in the documentation box? Could go either way.

The Mac mini is a dense bit of kit. Despite its size, it has a significant heft, and with the gorgeous metal casing, I immediately thought it could be used as an impromptu weapon, and still manage to work fine. My experience with PCs has made me wary of the lack of upgrade options, and no immediate way to get inside the shell -- but that's something I've lived with before when using notebooks and tablets, so I will probably get over that soon.



The collection of connections on the back are welcoming, but also raise an issue. I'm fine with the four USB 3.0 ports, the Ethernet, HDMI, audio inputs, the power, the SD card slot and so on -- though outside of using one Thunderbolt port for my second display, I doubt I'll be using the other one any time soon. When it eventually gets put in its final operating location, I fear I will have to place it with the back facing me, so I have quick access to insert USB plugs or a memory card, ruining what could be a very stylish addition to my office.



Opening up the (wired) Apple Keyboard box, I was greeted by another heavy hardware item. I didn't know the keyboard would have a metal plate, though I am used to the style of keys Apple is using on it. Immediate observations include the fact it goes up to F19, some of the keys have some unusual symbols, and that it has two USB ports built into it, presumably for a mouse and the track pad accessory.



The only real major issue I have with the Apple Keyboard is the company's refusal to acknowledge the UK keyboard layout properly. Typically, Shift-2 would provide the quote marks on other keyboards, but here it has swapped with the @ instead. Oh, and there's also no pound/hash symbol (#) immediately viewable. Apple did manage to include the British pound (£) in its normal place, so that's something...

UK keyboard, with minor differences from the US version
UK keyboard, with minor differences from the US version


The initial yet familiar start-up chime immediately brought back memories of the easy set-up process I went through with the Macbook, something that has not really changed that much. The setup assistant was straightforward, with the only hiccup being a 10-minute period where I tried to remember what the Apple ID I had set up on iTunes was, followed by eventually giving up and resetting the password on the PC to something new. It was nice to go through an initial installation without having to search the box for the Windows product key for once.

Actually heading into OS X "Yosemite," the feeling of familiarity continued, with relatively few immediately-noticeable changes made in that five-year gap. The dock, the top bar, and all the windows looked just like they did before, though with added transparency. The top left window closing and resizing dots work mostly like I expected them to, the dock had the same customization options, and the System Preferences menu looked as easy to understand as I remembered.

The less obvious changes are welcomed, but with doubts of their utility to how I usually work in Windows. The side slide-out notifications bar may be useful, but since I usually glance at my phone's home screen for similar widgets, I'm uncertain if I will use it all that much. The new Spaces experience is well-ordered, though I don't usually use anything similar to virtual desktops on my PC, so it may take some getting used to. F4 on my keyboard brings up Launchpad, which I immediately considered to be the Apple version of the oft-complained-about Windows 8 Start Screen. Since even in Windows I stick my most-used apps in the taskbar, I'll probably be doing a similar move and putting my most-used apps in the Dock.

After a brief exploration of the new working environment, I quickly set about recreating my Windows-based workflow on the Mac, since I had to spend the next week working just from it. Sure, there's built-in apps, but I needed to concentrate on doing actual work, rather than spending too long trying to learn the ins and outs of alternative software.

Cue a quick spell of installing OpenOffice with the American English dictionary by default (Since I'm British, having the spellchecker removing the extra letter U from words or replacing -ise with -ize for my news copy on Electronista is very handy. Though I could set the system language to American English to solve the issue, I prefer to keep the Americanisms to just one writing program), Gimp, Dropbox, Google Chrome (with all work-related links ready to use), Skype, and TweetDeck. My normal RSS reader of choice, FeedDemon, had to be replaced by the similar Vienna, and my heavy use of Image Resizer in Windows was replicated by the lightweight and also-free ResizeIt.



In under an hour, I had managed to replicate my usual workflow, suggesting that a PC user switching to Mac may have a far easier time changing than they think. By the end of the first week, I should know whether that remains true.
( Last edited by NewsPoster; Apr 10, 2015 at 11:20 AM. )
     
Inkling
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Feb 22, 2015, 09:08 AM
 
Any unboxing of the current Mac mini should be handled as a wake. It is that sober and event. With this model Apple took the most adaptable of the Mac line and turned it into an out-rsized Apple TV. The company's hardware decision makers seems to regard their customers as techno-illitearates, incapable of dealing with any computer that's not plug-and-play. They think we're too stupid to swap out RAM and only grudgingly, with the Mac mini, even concede that we might know something about displays.
Author of Untangling Tolkien and Chesterton on War and Peace
     
Charles Martin
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Feb 22, 2015, 10:05 AM
 
You may have missed our editorial on this exact topic, Inkling, so let me refer you to it:
In defense of the new $499 Mac mini

The author (not myself) was exactly in your shoes on the subject, but came to figuring out why Apple did what it did. I think you'll find it illuminating.
Charles Martin
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chucker
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Feb 22, 2015, 10:24 AM
 
It's interesting to read that the writer thinks that in 5 years, the mac interface has hardly changed.

When you compare this to all the belly-aching that goes on here about the Yosemite interface and how Apple has ruined the best operating system ever (iei Snow Leopard) then hopefully that puts things into a little perspective.
     
Malcolm Owen
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Feb 22, 2015, 10:55 AM
 
Originally Posted by chucker View Post
It's interesting to read that the writer thinks that in 5 years, the mac interface has hardly changed.
To someone used to working away from OS X and having to refer to five-year-old memories, the core basics of the interface have remained the same. Sure, to people who have used it constantly over the last five years, they may be able to see small gradual changes that could have a positive or negative effect to their Mac usage. To someone like me, stepping away for a number of years before returning, the fundamentals (Dock at the bottom, the menu bar at the top, the Window management bits on the top-left rather than top-right, etc) are still easy to see.

Originally Posted by chucker View Post
When you compare this to all the belly-aching that goes on here about the Yosemite interface and how Apple has ruined the best operating system ever (iei Snow Leopard) then hopefully that puts things into a little perspective.
While I may have been ignorant about the changes of OS X over the years, I can certainly appreciate the experience of having to put up with people being unhappy about changes to the operating system, at least from the Windows side.

The introduction of the Start Screen caused so many complaints that it started to feel absurd to me, not least because I'm used to hitting the Windows key and starting to type in the name of the app I want to load it, instead of searching through the Start Menu/Screen. I'd guess the majority of people complaining primarily used the mouse for navigation, and just didn't want to change their ways after years of using that method...
     
techaholic
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Feb 26, 2015, 01:28 PM
 
I remember the first time I used OS X after installing them over OS 9 (some were set to dual boot because I couldn't let go) and hating it. 10 reiterations later, I can say that aside from cosmetic and usability changes, the core is experience is the same and still relevant. I think the reiterative changes Apple has done have worked well, and while some take time to get used to, I cringe whenever I have to open my Win 7 laptop or bootcamp. I use them both extensively, but won't go back to Windows for daily use if I can help it. JMHO
     
jscotta
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Apr 30, 2015, 10:02 AM
 
I see, Malcolm, that you are used to hitting the Windows key and then typing in your desired application. So...I'm curious as to why you want to populate your Dock with often used applications when a simple CMD-[space bar] will bring up spotlight so you can quickly launch whatever application or document you want? Personally, my Dock has virtually nothing on it permanently. I do have Automator workflows that I use when I want to open several applications, at once, for a particular project or environment. And, yes, they are named so that I can quickly launch them from Spotlight. And, my Dock is hidden on the left-hand side of my screen. This give me the most about to distraction free work-space. One more thing, Spaces is amazing.
     
   
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