Mini

From 9to5Toys:

We noted before the release of the new Apple products that it often pays to wait a week before buying Apple’s new products.  Not only don’t you get “the first ones off the line”, but prices drop significantly over the first week.

A number of Apple Authorized Retailers/affiliates are new selling Apple’s new MacBook Airs and Minis at prices up to $100 lower than Apple.  MacMall and Amazon appear to be the lowest.

MacMall has the MacBook Air for the following prices (note: $30 more is taken off at checkout):

1.60GHz 11″ MacBook Air 2GB/64GB  $940.89
1.60GHz 11″ MacBook Air 4GB/128GB $1,129.07
1.70GHz 13″ MacBook Air 4GB/128GB $1,216.37
1.70GHz 13″ MacBook Air 4GB/256GB $1,502.52

Update: The MacMall deals are over.

Mac Minis are lowest at Amazon, however…

2.30GHz Core i5 Mac mini $569.00
2.50GHz Core i5 Mac mini $769.00

And the 2.00GHz Core i7 Mac mini Server is lowest –  $959.99 at MacConnection.  

For RAM upgrades, you aren’t going to do better than this 8GB for $45

Note: Best Buy will often match these prices.

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We’ve been getting word from some international Apple retailers that not only are MacBook Airs, Minis and White MacBooks getting updated soon, but those Macs are also going to see modest-significant price drops in some countries we’ve polled.  While we can’t get into the specifics of where and how much, we can tell you some models are being reduced more than the equivalent of $100.

A few things to consider: One, the US Dollar has dropped significantly against Pacific currencies like the Japanese Yen and Korean Won (below) in the past year.  Apple has in the past adjusted its products against currency fluctuations.

Also, Apple has been streamlining operations across the globe over the past few years and has been able to bring its prices more in line with US prices.

While these price drops are great news for our friends overseas, it doesn’t necessarily correlate to price drops in the US.

But we wouldn’t rule price drops out either, there have been unreliable reports of a $899 base price of a MacBook Air.
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQg046aoV9Y&w=640&h=390]

For those of us who still use a Mac Mini (or other Mac) as a MediaCenter connected to our TVs, today’s hack from Erica Sadun is a blessing.  She created a Mac Application that can catch Airplay from iOS devices and output the video on the screen.  For all intents, AirPlayer lets your Mac do what an AppleTV does naturally.

You can download the Macintosh Application, called AirPlayer.app here.

The interesting question is: Does Apple want us doing this?  They make much more money selling Minis (and other Macs) than they do on AppleTV units.  However, it would seem easy enough for Apple to include this type of Application with Mac OSX.  So why does Sadun have to build it instead?  Are we in for another cat and mouse chase?

(update: it is a .01 release and we did have some trouble getting it to work with a YouTube video over wifi)
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