Aaron Adams’s Blowhard Blog

Take a look at this screen capture:

The Finder get info command tells me my iPod shuffle has 632 MB free. However, in iTunes, I’ve clearly set the drive to have 652MB set aside for data. The file space is completely blank.

So do I have 632MB, or 652MB? Why aren’t these numbers the same? When I set a file space size in iTunes, that size should be the same as the free space recognized by the finder. In this case, I wanted to copy a 650MB disk image to my iPod. According to iTunes, I should have enough space, but the Finder says no.

Let’s be consistent!

When the iPod shuffle was first introduced, some of my Windows-using friends laughed at Apple’s website which proclaimed the virtues of the “new phenomenon of shuffle”. (At least, that’s the way they tell it. I still haven’t read the page.) They couldn’t understand why Apple would need to go to such great lengths to hype a feature that’s not exactly new. I explained that Apple marketing’s job was to make people comfortable with the fact that the iPod shuffle doesn’t have a screen.

With that in mind, I would like to reproduce a conversation I’ve had half a dozen times during the past couple of weeks:

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Most people I know who want a Mac mini want to run it concurrently with their existing Windows machine. Usually that means you need a KVM switch to change a single keyboard and mouse between systems. If you have two displays, one USB keyboard, one USB mouse, a Mac mini, and a Windows system, there is a free software solution that will spare you the cost of a KVM switch.

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Since publishing my first two Mac mini case studies, the biggest criticism I’ve received is that adding the 512MB DIMM to the configuration is often unnecessary and shouldn’t be so easily added to the cost of the machine. It seems that Apple would disagree with that opinion, because when it sends machines to reviewers, it supplies 512MB RAM.

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Last quarter, Apple saw a 25% increase in shipments, compared to the computer industry’s overall 13.7% increase. That means Apple is gaining market share. I’m noting this for future reference: This growth happened pre Mac mini. At the end of the current quarter when Apple shows yet more growth, some people out there will want to give complete credit to the Mac mini, and it just isn’t so. Apple’s growth has already started. The Mac mini may contribute to that, but it will not be solely responsible.

Addendum: In response to a reader question, these are CPU shipments, as stated in this article.