CLOSE, BUT NO CIGAR?
It was bound to happen, and it did, finally. The Register in the UK reports that Evesham is the company that's come out with a clone of Apple's Mac Mini, called of course, the Mini PC. They like how it looks on the outside:
"this is a really cool-looking little machine - it arguably looks even better than the Mac Mini, mainly due to its aluminium case."
As I've outlined in previous posts, I'm a big Mac Mini fan, classifying the product a "Thriller!".
Back in October, in a post titled "On a Windows Mac Mini?", I'd talked about another box that 
came close to the Mac Mini, and I guess this one comes closer, at least in how it looks vs. the Mac Mini. You can judge for yourself from the accompanying pictures. You can still tell which one is the Mac though, even without the Apple logo.
The Register goes on to say:
"Evesham has pre-installed Windows XP Media Center Edition on the Mini PC, although no remote control was supplied, so don't expect to be able to sit in your sofa and control it. You can get an external TV tuner as an upgrade option, but oddly no remote or USB receiver seems to be on the list of accessories. Evesham doesn't supply a keyboard or mouse either, which makes this look more and more like a Mac Mini in terms of what you get for your money".
A fly in the ointment is the price:
"At £699 inc VAT it's £200 more expensive than a Mac Mini that has both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth included. The Mac does have a slower CPU, but it also has a dedicated graphics chip."
So the Register review concludes (SPOILER ALERT):
"The Evesham Mini PC Plus is the Intel-powered alternative to the Mac Mini. It looks good, but doesn't offer enough to be a Mac beater, at least not at its current price."
Back to the drawing board, guys.
In the mean time, Apple is reportedly cooking up a beefed up version of the Mac Mini for early next year, so everyone will have more catching up to do on the Windows side for most of 2006 and probably into 2007. By then, hopefully, we'll have moved onto Windows Vista based "Mini PCs".
In the meantime, if you're wondering about what all the fuss is about the Mac Mini, check out this "Big Ideas" page at Apple (via 123MacMini), that chronicles some of the crazy things that impassioned Mac Mini owners are doing with their Minis. Only at Apple.
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