I just setup my mom with a new PC. Ironically it was an old Mac Mini laying around the office. However, I wasn't going to go through the machinations of teaching her Mac OS so I just ran Bootcamp to boot into Windows XP.

Amazingly, this old Mac Mini is perfect for her small desk. She used to store her massive Dell tower below the desk but it still took up too much space. Also, it had a loud fan that accumulated and swirled a ton dust and lint. When I set it up for her, she thought it was a turbo boosting contraption to make her Dell faster. Imagine her surprise when I told her it REPLACES her Dell tower!

Just did an upgrade to my current home theater setup by replacing my old Mac Mini with the new version. First impressions... Very impressive. Aside from the slimmer design (and included HDMI port), the playback performance was noticeably better. Mind you my old Mac Mini (2ghz - 4GB RAM) performed like a champ but had stuttering every now and then. Not so with the new model even with 2GB less RAM. Another thing I notice when ripping movies with MakeMKV was that I would often get the alert that my hard drive was not writing as fast as MakeMKV was ripping. Not so with the new model so I'll assume Apple sprung for 7200rpm drives instead of 5400rpm ones (can't confirm this though).

All in all, if you're planning to get a home theater PC, the new Mac Mini is the best offering I've seen on the market. To save a few bucks, get it from Amazon where it's $30 cheaper and no tax plus free shipping.

Picked up my iPhone 4 today. Have to say, it does live up to the hype. Gorgeous screen and a solid feeling in your hand (that's what she said). I haven't encountered the two major flaws that have been reported - the antenna hand block issue or the yellow spot on the screen. Guess I'm lucky in that respect.

Photos with flash are really nice. Not great but waaaaaaay better than on the 3GS in low light situations. Haven't done HD video yet but will post some examples when I do.

(with flash)

(without flash)

Guess it does...