Right - Here we go with the full article. I stand by my promises!

Let me just make one thing clear. This isn’t going to be an objective, unbiased review of the Mac Mini. Sure I could have done that, but I would just have been repeating what hundreds, no, probably thousands of people have already said across the Internet. I know you good people know how to use Google. I’m going to look at the package, the hardware, the software and the general experience I have had of the Mac so far. What has impressed me, and how the process of switching from Windows XP has gone.

So far, my experience with the Mac has been incredibly positive. What I have downloaded, used and seen has turned me into a completely dedicated switcher (I know, in just under a week?!). I’m blown away by the quality of the software apps for the Mac, the operating system (soon to be even better) and the overall user experience.

Part 1 - The Package/Cables/Setup

I’m a gadget freak really. I love new toys, and there is always a certain excitement and thrill when you open the box on a new gadget. Granted, this was escalated slightly with the Mac Mini - It’s more than just a new phone, or an MP3 player. I went to pick the Mac up from a TNT delivery centre in Bradford, after tracking it’s progress through Prague, an Airport and then the UK all the way back to my house. Here are a few photos of the package:

It took a lot of self control to take those without ripping the package off! I then proceeded to take the various cables out of my Windows machine, and plug them into the back of the Mac. Plugged in there (left to right) I’ve got audio out, an iPod, Logitech Keyboard/Mouse, a TDK Bluetooth adaptor, VGA-DVI adaptor/monitor cable, an ethernet cable ad the power.

Much to my delight, I can’t see any of these cables from where I’m sat - everything looks nice and clean. I wouldn’t recommend putting the Mac Mini in the centre of a desk though. You wouldn’t want it’s tiny size to be extended by wires trailing across your workspace.

Turning the Mini on greeted me with a friendly chimes noise, then the Mac boot-up screen. After playing with a few options (which used the cube transition effect) I was sat in front of Panther. Obviously, it was a mad rush to try out everything at once. Thankfully, the network worked out of the box - I was on the net straight away. Here are a few photos of my setup:

Part 2 - The Software

Here, I’m going to go through every piece of software I’m using at the moment. It’ll be good for me to remember in the future, and might be a good guide for you if you ever switch. I’m not going into iLife 05 - It’s amazing (especially iDVD) but it’s already been covered a thousand times.

	First off, I wouldn’t recommend buying a KVM switch. They are very expensive, and not really all that necessary. If you can have both machines running on the same network, then Chicken of the VNC should work well. It allows you to view the monitor of another computer on the network and control it as if you were sat in front of it. It’s perfect to save you having to mess around with all those cables every 10 minutes.
	NewsFire is the first application I bought for the Mac. It’s an aqua-licious RSS reader, which looks great on a Mac. It gives you lots of different ways to display feeds, you can organise them into categories etc etc. It looks fantastic, and costs under a tenner. I know that NetNewsWire is the latest big craze on the Apple news reader front, but it was too complex for my needs. NewsFire serves me well!
	I’ve got lots of bluetooth equipped things, the most important two being my Sony Ericsson K700i and my Tungsten T. With iSync, both of these, along with my iPod all sync happily with the Mac. What I really love about this program is the simplicity. One simple click will make my calendars, addresses, everything concur across the various different devices. I know of no other software which can do that.
	What can I say? Having an operating system built on Unix is fantastic. The security and reassurance it brings is great. The thing even comes with Apache installed for goodness sake! Terminal is much, much better that PuTTY, and I’m happy to be using something which resembles more of a Linux machine.
	Transmit is a fantastic FTP application. Much more advanced that WS_FTP which I was using previously. It’s child’s play to create accounts on there, and (my favourite bit) it reconnects silently to a dropped connection. With WS I used to lose my position in the folder structure and other horrible things every time the connection timed out.
	Adium is the best chat application I have used. I didn’t even try iChat, I just went straight for the little green duck. There are some great customizing options available for it, and the way it organizes your contacts on your desktop is great. It makes talking to people much simpler, and much more enjoyable to look at.
	Quicksilver is a great app for searching and performing actions on items. It might be outstripped by Spotlight when that comes along, but it’s a worthy addition to the software collection.
	If you own a bluetooth equipped phone or PDA, Salling Clicker is an absolute must have. It lets you control your Mac wirelessly. You can navigate your iTunes library, rate songs, make playlists. You can setup a slideshow in iPhoto. Control DVD’s, TV - everything. If you want, you can even use it to move the mouse around (albeit a little wildly though…). There is a great option where if you go out of range (leave the house for instance), it puts the screensaver on, pauses iTunes and does anything else you ask it to. Superb.
	Shapeshifter, Candybar and Pixadex combine to allow you to customize your Mac desktop to an incredible degree. Change icons, the overall look and feel and keep everything really well organised while you do it. There are so many different themes to be hunted and found across the net. It’s a much better system than the one available on Windows XP.

Part 3 - The Experience

Moving to the Mac Mini has been easier than I ever thought it would be. I’m still struggling with certain aspects (getting used to moving around apps quickly, the slight dip in speed from my other machine etc). iLife integrates so well, and other apps have cottoned on. You can control photos, music and everything from many of the different apps I use. It also seems to be the case that most (all, for me so far) the apps which are developed for Panther are much better quality than their Windows equivalents.

On example of the ease of setup was my TDK Bluetooth adaptor. I wasn’t sure whether it would work with OSX, so I was searching around the internet for drivers or something. Looking at the TDK website, I found that support for Mac OS wasn’t mentioned. I presumed the worst, and opened up System Preferences to see whether anything had appeared there out of interest. I found a little Bluetooth icon and realized, much to my amazement, that the moment I had plugged the adaptor in, the Mac Mini had silently recognized it and Bluetooth enabled the machine. Amazing.

On the whole, I’m incredibly impressed with Panther. I’d recommend anyone (except people who develop Windows applications for a living ) to at least buy one of these on a provisional basis. Even if you get it and decide you hate it - there’s always eBay (and you’re likely to make a profit - these fellas are in heavy demand). You won’t hate it though - it’ll be the best decision you ever make.