First, lets start by making it clear that the Mac Mini has been one of Apple’s greatest ideas.  When the first Mini came out you could buy it for $499.99 and it came with a 1.25GHz G4 CPU W/ 512MB ram, a 40GB hard drive as well as a CD/DVD combo drive.

Ever since it’s inception we have seen the Mini’s price, and feature list get bigger. Today with Apple’s announcement of the new Unibody Mini we also see, yet again, another bump in price. This time all the way up to $699. In my opinion this is a big blow to the target market of the Mac Mini. The idea of  “value” is now somewhat lost in this $699 product.

But lets get down to what really matters, is the new Mac Mini really worth $699?

The stock CPU is a 2.4GHz (up from 2.26GHz) Core 2 Duo. This CPU, tied with the integrated NVIDIA  GeForce 320M GPU actually make for a decently capable machine. (We watched a 1080p video clip with a bitrate of 7.5Mbps and CPU usage stayed below 10%). It’s no HD authoring studio or extreme gaming machine but you will find it has more then enough power to tackle your HD video editing as well as fly through almost any game you can throw at it. The new SD card reader and included HDMI port really go along ways in adding value to the Mini, especially in it’s common role as a home media device.

To continue on it comes with a 320GB (for $699 we really should be seeing 500GB as stock) hard drive, 2GB of DDR3 RAM (up to a total of 8GB) and all the while sucking down less than 85 watts of power.

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Coming in at just over six and a half pounds, the new 17″ MacBook Pro packs quite a few nice new features and enhancements over the previous model.
While it doesn’t feature Intel’s new quad-core cpu, Apple is offering a 2.93GHz Intel Core 2 Duo as a BTO (Built to Order) option.

Here are the top features:

1. 8 Hrs standard battery life (WiFi enabled)
2. 4GBs of DDR3 SDRAM standard
3. 320GB HDD
4. 1900 x 1200 LED HD display (Anti-Glare screens now a BTO option)

The battery is, in my opinion the highest point of this laptop. 8hrs of battery life and the ability to provide power after 1000 charges is amazing. Most other features are already present in the 15″ model. The included NVIDIA 9600M GT W/ 512MB of GDDR3 memory is more then enough power for most applications.

Interested? pick one up here. Apple Store

What makes you choose Apple? Is it the operating system? Is it their style of product? is it their devotion to excellence in every product? What makes you pick Apple when there are several other choices to choose from?

Why do I buy Apple?

I buy Apple because of the operating system. OS X is the perfect mix of flexibility, reliability, style, and power. Technologies like Grand Central will help optimize the operating system to new hardware by making every part of OS X Multi-Processor aware. From the UNIX core to the UI. Every part of 10.6 will be able to take advantage of multi-core processors and all that they have to offer. It’s scheduled to receive the 64 bit streamline in the near future. This streamlining will also accompany a complete re-write of Finder in the Cocoa language as well as general code optimization and other enhancements.

The second reason I have for buying Apple is because of product design. Laptops made out of aluminum and elegantly simply iMacs are why I buy Apple. The level of thought that goes into every aspect of every Mac makes for an exceptionally pleasing experience regardless of what Mac you are using. They look nice and they feel solid.

Those are my reasons, what are yours?

–Update–
Zelda Classic 2.5 build 1304 Released <-Article
This is the newest working version and you should try this one first.
Zelda Classic 2.5 Build 1304 (Intel Only) <-File
Zelda Classic Build 895 (PPC/Intel) <-File
–/Update–

I have always been a very big fan of the original Zelda game, The Legend of Zelda. I have played it through out my life on my NES and I still play it at home, But I have been looking for a way to play it on the go, like on my laptop without having to find a NES emulator and ROM.

I knew it had been ported to the PC under then name Zelda Classic a few years back. So I did some searching and I found a dedicated group of workers who still maintain working ports for OS X and Windows.  One of the cool things about the ported version is it comes with a quest editor that allows you to essential add your own levels and story to the game. That’s purely optional though. If you just wanna play the good ol’ Zelda. Then go right a head with Zelda Classic for OS X.*

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