BEGGARS CAN'T BE CHOOSERS
I've been a fan of the Mac Mini from day one, for its deep-in-the-box design design and 
beauty. Had to go run out and get one as soon as possible.
But I've also wished for a Windows version as well. Because much of my computing interests (aka games) are in that world as well.
No luck so far, even though it's been some time since the Mac Mini was introduced. You'd think it wouldn't take that long to copy a cool idea. But that's been the case of most Apple innovations, from the iPod, to the 17" screen, 1" thick Mac Powerbook (just refreshed as well), as I noted in a post a while ago.
Well, it doesn't have the head-turning design of the Mac Mini, but this design for a complete 
Windows PC built into the footprint of a keyboard, did catch my eye.
Called the "Zero footprint PC" (catchy, isn't it?), this product by the equally snazzily named company Cybernetman, does seem to offer the economy of space afforded by the Mac Mini.
Depending on the configuration, this gizmo will set you back anywhere from $70 to $499 dollars, with the "fully tricked out" configuration (luxuries like 2Gb of RAM and a 300 Gigabyte hard drive, Windows XP Professional and Microsoft Office pre-installed), will set you back some $1700, including an extended warranty, much like a regular desktop PC.
An equivalent Mac Mini tops out at $1300 with Microsoft Office, and if you want Windows software compatibility with the Virtual PC software, the package starts to nudge $1500 with the extended Applecare warranty. But the Mac Mini tops out at 1 GB of maximum RAM and 100 Gigabytes of hard drive storage space. So $200 more for the max on the PC, and both top of the line configurations are within spitting distance of each other.
And by the way, both these prices are without the display, keyboard and mice.
And unlike the "BYODKM" Mac Mini ("bring your own display, keyboard and mouse"), this PC is "BYOD" only, since, well, it is a keyboard of course, and it has a touchpad mouse.
I'm still thinking about it. What do you think?
yowzer, we've rediscovered the commodore ... where's my vic20?
Posted by: David Gibbons | Tuesday, October 25, 2005 at 05:33 PM