[3g-g]

Grr indeed as the title says!

At the moment I'm desperate to buy a Mac mini for the living room, so that I have all my music downstairs and can surf the net and do everything I do on the iMac while sitting in front of the TV, perhaps with a little picture-in-picture of the news in the corner, or something recorded on Sky+, it's a little thought I'd had. A new Intel powered Mac mini is still a bit overpriced for my liking, especially as it'd really only be sitting looking pretty under the TV. So I'd been watching a few of the older IBM powered ones on eBizzle, again, still going for stupid money, so I'm trying to be patient.

Another thought I'd had was to get Apple TV, the main reason being I want my music through the surround sound when I'm entertaining... again, brand new it's far too overpriced for a WiFi connected HDD! Some of the ones on eBay are the same, but it looked more realistic buying one from there. That is 'till Xmas came along and the wife went all mental buying everyone and their granny a Christmas present. Back burner for A.T.V. at the moment.

So where does this leave me? Drooling at the Apple store I found a new component video cable... which goes along with the new Apple universal dock. "I have that dock" I thought, and my TV has a component input. In the meantime, and to placate me 'till I can get a new toy, I'll buy the cable, hook it up to the TV and the surround sound and I'll be able to listen to my music and see beautiful pictures on the TV!

Or so I thought. In my haste, and inability to RTFM like most of the people on here do, I didn't realise that the 5G iPod video only has S-Video out capability! And even if you only want the sound from your iPod 5G you need to get rid of the dock as it doesn't pass S-Video through it!! So at the moment, to make everything work the way I want I need to get an iPhone, iPod touch or a Classic, God damn it!

The wife suggested that I just take the dock and cable back, but that would be losing, why don't women understand this?! So I'm hoping, with fingers and legs crossed that Santa head my screams of rage in Lapland and has taken my new leathers back and exchanged them for a Mac mini and a iPod touch! Here's hoping!

[Hands0n]

Apple have done some odd stuff with their docks and cables of late, and for no good apparent reason other than to make people re-buy these connectivity items. Not too long ago Bigpockets.co.uk were flogging G5 Mac Mini well cheap, not sure if they have any left. But you would find a G5 very underpowered compared to an Intel based Mini. In time G5 apps will dry up although that is likely to be some time off.

I'll warn you now, once you're hooked you'll be hooked :) unless you develop a streak of Miffed's luck ;)

[Ben]

Old Mac mini is G4, btw, the G5's run too hot, so they're pretty underpowered.

That said, they're no slouch. A friend of mine found theirs noticeably better for everyday use than their Pentium 4 machine. I guess all that really shows is what an abomination the Pentium 4 became :D

I feel your pain, 3g-g. Apple make doing some things very easy - the things it wants you to do. An Apple product's will, however, is not easily bent to the purposes of whatever term accurately describes technophiles like us these days. So, have fun, but don't expect it to be easy!