The Mac mini may be pronounced dead as soon as today’s Apple earnings conference call, as two major retailers in Europe have confirmed to me that they can’t order any more of the little computers. While this could signal an updated model coming in, they have been told by Apple to expect no more of it. Their impression is that—once again—the Mac Mini may be dead dead DEAD for real, even while you can still order it at the Apple Store.
It would be weird to see it go in this time of crisis, but being their worst-selling computer, I’m not surprised.
The Mac mini was first introduced in January 2005 at the Macworld Conference & Expo. Labeled by Steve Jobs as the “most affordable Mac ever” it was well received by the critic and public. Apple positioned it as a cheap alternative to the Mac Pro for every PC user who wanted to switch to the Mac without having to buy new peripherals.
However, the son of the Apple Cube failed to grab traction, just like its predecesor. As the iMac and MacBooks kept being the number one sellers for the Cupertino company, the Mac mini kept receding into the background, even while receiving six hardware updates since its introduction. The last one was in November 2007, and it’s quite outdated compared to the current hardware: Unlike the rest of the Mac hardware, it lacks 802.11n support, uses the older 667 MHz front side bus and 945GM chipset, which is two generations behind everything else.
If the termination of the Mac mini is finally confirmed, it will be sad to see it go. Hopefully, this may mean that a new update is in the works or that it will get replaced by something else, but seeing how most people don’t seem to give a damn about the Apple Tax, judging from the MacBooks selling like hot cakes at the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue, I won’t count on it. [Thanks Conito]
If the Intel-based GX620 and GX720 were too, um, Intel-y for your liking, how’s about a fat slice of AMD? MSI has just announced the availability of its freshest duo of AMD-powered gaming notebooks, the GX630 (shown above) and GT735 (shown after the break). Both units pack a Turion X2 Ultra dual-core processor and possess the ability to be overclocked by up to 15% at the touch of a button with the Turbo Drive Engine technology. The former also boasts a 15.4-inch LCD, NVIDIA’s 512MB GeForce 9600M GT, up to 4GB of RAM, gigabit Ethernet, WiFi, optional Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, integrated stereo speakers, a 4-in-1 card reader, VGA out, a 2-megapixel webcam and a DVD writer (Blu-ray optional). The brawnier GT735 steps it up with a 17-inch panel, ATI’s 512MB Mobility Radeon HD 3850, a five speaker system including a subwoofer and most everything else already found on its partner in crime. Snap either up now for $1,049.99 / $1,249.99 in order of mention. Full release is after the break.
We all know that plants tend to grow towards the sunlight—but plants fixed with a set of these robotic legs would actually be able to walk around and find the light as it moves around the room. So, despite your best efforts to kill them, robo-plants will be stayin’ alive (too bad there is no automatic watering system). Unfortunately, the device is only a concept, and there is little information on how it actually works—so your plant’s dreams of making it big on Broadway may be dashed.
If Yujin Robot has its way, cafes the world over will someday replace their waitstaff with robots like CAFERO (shown above at Robot World 2008 in Seoul). Details are scarce, but apparently the automaton takes orders on a touch screen and fills them with the help of a human operator (though it’s only a matter of time before the carbon-based barista is obsolete). Robot waitresses don’t flirt and they don’t ask for tips: does CAFERO represent food service utopia or a chilling vision of the future? Only time will tell.
Earlier this week, Elbot made a fairly impressive showing (comparatively speaking, at least) when fooling three judges into thinking it was human; had it fooled one more on the dozen deep panel, it would have successful passed the famed Turing test. Auntie Beeb now has a report on what exactly Elbot said when asked a litany of questions away from the competition, and there’s also a video with the related experts dissecting its performance. To be totally honest, its responses weren’t too far from being completely passable as ones from a tired, potentially inebriated Earthling (in our humble opinion), but we’ll leave the final determination to you. Touch the read link for a one-on-one with ones and zeros.
From what we can tell, Fujitsu’s spent the industrial design budget for the LifeBook P8020 on one thing and one thing only: trimming those sides. We really do love to see a laptop with a keyboard and screen flush with the edges, seemingly wasting zero space. The resulting product is a tad chubby (1.1- to 1.5-inches) and lacks a certain charm, but there’s all sorts of goodies under the hood, and the 2.9 pound weight is certainly passable. The 12.1-inch ultraportable packs a Centrino 2 processor, 320GB HDD (or a 64GB or 128GB SSD), 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth, gigabit Ethernet, a fingerprint reader, DVD burner, gesture-friendly trackpad and a 1.3 megapixel webcam. There’s also a 6-cell battery and no 3G to drain it, so you should be able to expect some decent battery life when this hits in November, with a starting price of $1,799.
It may look all innocent, but this little logic circuit is made from organic molecules that lined themselves up to form 300 transistors, without the need for machine production. This kind of chip-in-a-test-tube approach to creating semiconductors, demonstrated as effective for the first time by Philips Research, could cause a big leap towards cheaper, more flexible electronics—in a word, to quote The Graduate, “plastics.”
We may think of “plastic electronics” as any Chinese-made product that needs to be plugged into the wall, but in this definition, it means the circuitry itself that’s plastic rather than silicon, and can be used to create things that require flexibility. Today, as we’ve seen firsthand with OLED production, plastic circuitry can be made using inkjet printing. Another technique is lithographic etching.
Self-assembly is more practical, but Philips’ breakthrough needs to be worked on before it can be put to use in a factory. One researcher, Edsger Smits, told Technology Review that the goal “is to be able to throw molecules in a beaker and let them organize into desired structures.” Yeah, great, but desired by whom, Edsger? [Technology Review]
While it looks like an UFO from Area 51, this is just the bottom part of the Mars Science Laboratory Rover aeroshell, the largest aeroshell in the history of space exploration at 15 feet of diameter, bigger than the almost 13 feet of the Apollo capsule heatshield. However, this is just not a simple protective device. This aeroshell will actually float in the middle of Mars’ atmosphere, using a crane to softly land the rover itself in a complete new approach to planetary touch downs.
According to Steve Jolly, from Lockheed Martin, “the biggest challenge for the MSL aeroshell is its gigantic size. It’s almost double the size of our Mars Exploration Rovers’ [Spirit and Opportunity] aeroshells. When you are building a structure that big, there are many considerations we had to take into account, including the fact that this is a lifting capsule that is steerable.”
It was delivered last week to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and it’s just half of the two-part shell that will encapsulate the rover during the travel to Mars and the descent. You can bet that a lot of dumb crazy martians—wearing their silly tinfoil hats—will be thinking this is actually an UFO while, obviously, it is just a exploration spaceship from another planet. [Lockheed Martin]
Improv Everywhere, the pranksters behind such internet classics as the Grand Central freeze and the No Pants Subway Ride, recently did a tour of four North American cities to hold their MP3 experiments. These consisted of thousands of people getting together, each with a special MP3 loaded up on their portable audio players, and then following the instructions en masse. What resulted was a bunch of completely insane battles between huge groups of people wielding balloons, all listening to headphones. Only in the age of the internet could huge groups of strangers get together to participate in such well-organized lunacy. Be sure to sign up for IE’s mailing list if you want to get on board for the next one. [Improv Everywhere]
We all know that plants tend to grow towards the sunlight—but plants fixed with a set of these robotic legs would actually be able to walk around and find the light as it moves around the room. So, despite your best efforts to kill them, robo-plants will be stayin’ alive (too bad there is no 
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It may look all innocent, but this little logic circuit is made from organic molecules that lined themselves up to form 300 transistors, without the need for machine production. This kind of chip-in-a-test-tube approach to creating semiconductors, demonstrated as effective for the first time by Philips Research, could cause a big leap towards cheaper, more flexible electronics—in a word, to quote The Graduate, “plastics.”
While it looks like an UFO from Area 51, this is just the bottom part of the Mars Science Laboratory Rover aeroshell, the largest aeroshell in the history of space exploration at 15 feet of diameter, bigger than the almost 13 feet of the Apollo capsule heatshield. However, this is just not a simple protective device. This aeroshell will actually float in the middle of Mars’ atmosphere, using a crane to softly land the rover itself in a complete new approach to planetary touch downs.
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