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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Hardware, iMac

FrontRow seems custom made for the Mac mini

frontrowI've finally had a chance to read up on FrontRow at Apple's site and watch the demo Quicktime movie. As you know, it allows you to share your movies, music and photos via your iMac with the help of a little remote control.

The key is "share." While watching the demo I began to think about actual, real world usage. Ideally, FrontRow would liberate my Mac from the computer room and get it out to the living room, where I most often enjoy my entertainment. Even if the experience is just too cool for words, no one wants to stand around my computer desk for fifteen minutes watching home movies. No, we want to sit on the living room furniture and sip iced tea while we watch home movies. More after the jump.



So I haul the iMac out to the livingroom and place it in the entertainment center, next to the TV. Everything is great until I want to use the iMac as a computer, and I discover that no one wants to watch me type with my back to the room (which is why the iMac was sent back there in the first place). So what's the solution?  The Mac mini.

The mini is a Trojan horse. It arrives at your doorstep disguised as one thing, when really it's another. This thing is a home entertainment center waiting to happen, now even more so. We've seen countless examples of people connecting their minis to their televisions. That tiny little box could fit inside a drawer of your entertainment center (though that's not recommended), and when equipped with FrontRow, the Apple Remote, iTunes 6, a wireless keyboard and mouse and an Airport card, you'd have one rockin' Mac-powered entertainment center. Create content on your desktop Mac and upload it to the mini over a home network. Now everyone can grab their iced tea as well as their favorite seat and watch little Johnny score the winning goal.

Maybe the mini's hardware would prevent FrontRow from running well (or at all). It is the bottom of the line, after all. I say, let's pop a G5 in there and get FrontRow installed. I'd buy that rig in a minute.

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Tip of the Day

Holding the Command key (aka the Apple key) and pressing Tab will cycle through your open applications. It's easier to Cmd-Tab if you are Copy (Cmd-C) and Pasting (Cmd-V) to and from various applications.


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