Apple’s Mac Mini has always been a great combination of affordability and performance in a small package. The newest model lives up to the Mac Mini name with a complete redesign, an HDMI port, and increased graphics performance. However, these changes do come at a price.

The price of the new Mini is $700, which is $100 more than the previous model.

The new Mac Mini features a design similar to the MacBook Pro. The body is made of one carved piece of aluminum, and I must say, it looks beautiful. The form factor has also changed a lot from the previous model. It is about half as thin, but has gained about an inch around. This makes it perfect if you want it to sit under your monitor or TV, but still want it to have breathing room. The power supply has also been put inside the computer, so the power cord no longer has a huge brick on it.

The internals have changed a lot from previous models. On the back, many inputs have been changed around. There is a FireWire 800 port, an Ethernet port, Audio In/Out, an HDMI port (Apple includes an HDMI-to-DVI adapter in the box), a Mini Display port, 4x USB ports ( down from 5 in the previous model), and an SD card reader (previous models did not have this). There of course, is a SuperDrive in the front on the regular model, not the server edition. Inside is also a 320GB HDD that clocks at 5400RPM. I do wish Apple gave us a choice to put in an SSD or at least a 7200RPM hard drive. The one in it currently seems a little slow for a desktop. The base model also only comes with 2GB RAM. This is completely unacceptable for the $700 price point. If you are going to be running Windows in a virtual machine, you’re going to need much more than that. Luckily, Apple finally made it easy to upgrade the RAM.

There is a door on the bottom of the machine and all you have to do is turn it and remove it, and you have easy access to the RAM. The memory itself however, isn’t cheap. a 2GB stick is going to cost you around $100. Apple are kind of ripping you off with the performance of the computer, going down from a 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo to a 2.4GHz and Going down from 4GB of RAM to 2GB. This is all made up for though, with the new GPU, the NVIDIA Geforce 320M. Apple claims that it is twice as fast as the 9400M. I must say, I was impressed by the speed of the chip and if no one told me, I would never be able to tell that it’s integrated. I am able to watch YouTube videos at 1080p with no lag whatsoever and I now use this as my primary gaming computer, it’s that good. On Windows 7 with BootCamp, I am able to play games such as Guitar Hero III, Halo 2, and Modern Warfare 2 at 1920×1080 at med-high settings at around 40-70fps. It is capable at handling Crysis at High settings with ~20fps, but the computer seems to get very hot and loud. I was able to play some older games like Half-Life 2 at 1920×1080, all high, and 6xMSAA at 100+ fps. Seriously, this thing is powerful. If you are a casual gamer this computer is perfect for you.

As for normal business/web use, this probably isn’t going to be as good as the previous model because of the slower
processor and less RAM, but I haven’t been disappointed when it comes to speed. I really don’t think it’s worth buying this computer to use as a home theater PC, despite it’s HDMI port, simply because there are much better uses for it, it’s a very powerful machine. It’s a solid computer and a perfect choice for anyone who wants a Mac but doesn’t want to pay too much for one.

David – Senior Editor

Firefox has for me, always been my browser choice behind Safari on a Mac or Chrome on Windows. It’s always fast and it just feels right. I have some strong feelings about the latest beta release of Firefox 4 and I would like to share them with our readers with a review. This release has a lot of changes, especially when interface comes in play.

One of the first things I noticed when I started it up, is that the tabs are on top of navigation bar, and the tools menu has been replaced with an orange button that has “Firefox” written on it. The “Firefox” button does stand out quite a bit, though it hasn’t really bothered me, I do wish Mozilla did what Google did with Chrome and put a tools button next to the navigation bar. Hopefully in the final release, it will take place of the “Feedback” button. There is a whole video explaining their reasoning for putting tabs on top, so I’m not really going to get into that. One of the new features I absolutely hate is the way Firefox groups tabs into the taskbar on Windows 7. This was a “feature” in Opera that I disabled. I’ve never really understood the purpose for this in Opera and I don’t get the purpose in Firefox. I primarily use the taskbar to switch to applications, not switch to elements within an application. Isn’t one of the main purposes of tabs to replace windows? If the tabs act like windows, then really, what’s the point of even having tabs? Imagine how obnoxious it would be  if you’re trying to switch to a specific window in Windows Explorer, and it showed you a bunch of different previews for items like Computer, Documents, etc.. I’ve seen a lot of bad feedback on the Mozilla site for this and I hope they get rid of it in the final release.

I don’t want this review to be only about interface, so now I’m going to talk about something just as important as interface: speed. I could tell this is one of the things that Mozilla really focused on when making this build of Firefox because this thing really is speedy. In a Windows 7 virtual machine on my Mac Mini, this was able to load Google faster than running Safari natively on my Snow Leopard partition. It feels a lot like Opera in terms of performance and looks. It’s a whole different experience from previous versions of Firefox. In fact, It feels a little too much like Opera. Both browsers have tabs on top, their “New Tab” buttons look very similar, the way the tools are grouped at the top of the window is the same, and tabs are grouped in the taskbar on both browsers. It’s all very suspicious.

So the final verdict:

PROS:

• very fast
• new interface is very appealing to the eye
• surprisingly stable, even at a beta release
• nice aero integration

CONS:

• Mozilla seems to have copied Opera in a lot of ways
• tab grouping in the Windows 7 taskbar can get annoying
• navigation and search bar should be unified like in Google Chrome
• orange “Firefox” stands out too much, should be integrated in the navigation bar

David – Senior Editor

Continuing their free iPhone game spree, ngmoco:) has released a new app on the App Store called “We Rule“.

Essentially, this app is like Farmville for the iPhone and iPod Touch, as it’s a click-and-wait/ social networking game.

It takes place during the medieval times, in which you are a king. The goal of the game is to design a great kingdom and to rack up on experience points. In order to do so you must achieve a higher level, through experience points, which takes some time.  This makes the app highly addictive.

“We Rule” is powered by the plus+ network, allowing users of this application to connect with their friends. The problem with this: you must be connected to the internet, to play.

The app can be a bit buggy at times, especially with the current popularity. Many players have experienced crashes throughout this game. The ngmoco:) team is currently working on this issue.

This game is definitely worth a try, especially with the low price tag.

“We Rule“ is available on the iTunes App Store for Free.

What is Colorsplash?
Colorsplash is an app for the iPhone, that you can use to to take regular photos, take the color away, then put some of it back in, but only in specific places that you choose. This effect makes a specific element of your picture “stand out.”

Photo credits to: http://www.touchmyapps.com/

Recently I purchased the Sony Webbie HD camcorder. Like many other pocket camcorders, it has a sleek, slim design which allows it to fit right in your pocket.

Just a few days back, Kodak showed off a new pocket HD camcorder called the “Playsport” at CES 2010. This camera featured ruggedness, waterproofing and the Zi8′s sensor, capable of 1080p video.

Today, we found a release date on the camera’s Amazon page!

It is set to be released April 5, 2010!

Lev – Founding Editor, TechReevu.com

If you were expecting an update to the Kodak Zi6′s firmware, you’re out of luck.

According to the Kodak booth at CES, there will no longer be anymore updates to the Zi6′s firmware, due to the release to the Kodak Zi8. Meaning, you can either purchase the Zi8 or, figure out how to hack the firmware like these guys tried to over at the Vimeo forums – “Editing the Zi6 Firmware”

That’s about it for Kodak’s very first pocket camcorder.

Lev – Founding Editor, TechReevu.com

Sony has announced that they are no longer using the Memory Stick Duo as the only storage device in their cameras! You’ll soon be able to chose between using the Duo or an SD card!

This change will occur to the parts of the Handycam and Cybershot lines this year!

If you’d like to read my previous rant on the Memory Stick Duo, read it Here!

Lev – Founding Editor, TechReevu.com

Image Courtesy: Memorystick.com

Sony has been around for decades. Their products are usually reliable and powerful. But, to make this “possible,” they needed a new way to store files. The Memory Stick Duo.

What’s the problem with the memory stick?

This storage device costs $30, just for 1GB! Even when purchased from a reseller! Plus, it’s almost impossible to find this product direct, let alone find the product at all.

And what about transferring? It’s one of the most complicated things Sony has ever done. Transferring only occurs through the whatever is using the memory stick! Meaning, you can just remove the card and put it into a card reader.

Probably the most major problem with this memory stick though, is the speed. It’s has possibly, the slowest transfer rate I have ever seen, in any device, since USB 1.0. Actually, in some cases, it’s even slower.

Basically: this product is garbage. It’s almost impossible to find, and complicated to use.

All I think is: Sony, do you really have to make saving files on your devices, any more complicated and, expensive? Just go with the universal SD card. Then we’ll buy your products more often. :)

Lev – Founding Editor, TechReevu.com

Happy Holidays :)