Mac mini specs: 1.42 GHz, 1 GB RAM, 80 GB Hard Drive

Mac OS: 10.4 (“Tiger”)

Uses: web surfing, email, tweeting, blogging, text editing, weather forecasting, To Do list creating, appointment checking, haiku generating…

Software:

• Camino 2
• Thunderbird 3 (Mozilla email client)
• Twitterrific
• MarsEdit
• WriteRoom
• iCal
• Apple Address Book
• dWeather
• Davtri Haiku Generator 2.0
• Acorn (photo editor for humans)

The Mac mini’s built-in Airport card found my refurbished linksys router without any issues.

This Mac mini is by no means a computing powerhouse but it’s proven to be peachy-keen for Word Processing, Text Editing, Web Surfing, Chatting, Photo Editing & Email.

NOTE: Tiger is not the resources piggie that Leopard and Snow Leopard are.

Keyboard:
Pint-sized, aluminum Apple keyboard (sans numeric keypad).

Mouse:
Apple Pro optical mouse (which I think originally came with my late, lamented flat-panel iMac).

External speakers: None whatsoever.

Display:

I connected the 2005 Mac mini to an old 15″ Acer Display (which has a VGA input) with the mini’s included DVI to VGA adapter (shown in the picture below):

After you start the program, this is the screen that will appear:

After the DVD is inserted into your Mac’s superdrive, you’ll have all of two (2) options.

Both are pretty self-explantory:

Here I’m selecting the “Movies” folder on my Seagate external hard drive:

Rip in progress:

All done:

You can double-click the ripped DVD to play it:

Here’s the menu for the ‘ripped’ DVD playing in the Apple DVD player:

[ Macs do cost more than PCs but the software that comes bundled on newer Apple computers more than compensates for the extra cost.

Plus you don't have to worry about viruses, spyware, adware and things of a similar ilk. ]

Just off the top of my head, here’s 5 things you can do with your Mac mini amigo that can truly broaden your horizons:

1) Organize & edit your digital photos with iPhoto (and quickly upload them to Flickr and/or Facebook if you so desire).

This digital camera is on my Christmas wish list:

Canon PowerShot SX120IS 10MP Digital Camera with 10x Optical Images Stabilized Zoom and 3-inch LCD

2) Organize and edit your home movies (i.e. digital videos) with iMovie ’09 and upload them to Youtube with a click of a button.

This is the camcorder that I use:

Flip MinoHD Camcorder, 60 Minutes (Black)

3) Download music (and/or import your CD collection) into your iTunes library and play them from your couch through the Front Row program.

I love these speakers:

Altec Lansing FX3022 Expressionist BASS 2-Way Speaker for PC and MP3 (Black)

4) Use iCal (an excellent productivity application) to schedule appointments and special events (with alarms to remind you of them) and to create To Do lists.

NOTE: iCal and Apple Mail have a nice rapport with each other (which we’ll discuss soon).

5) Use GarageBand to compose original music; create podcasts; digitally enhance the voice-over narrations on your home movies; add a soundtrack or music loops to your videos; and more!

I wish I were more musical but GarageBand has been very useful in the creation of my computer help DVDs (for Macs & PCs).

I was an Adult Services Librarian / Computer Technologies instructor for 10 years.

During that time, I had many people approach me at the reference desk and say something like: “My son / daughter got me this computer and I don’t know what to do with it”.

Trying to find appropriate resources (in vain usually) for these “computer shy” folks inspired me to create my own line of instructional materials.

Additionally, our “How to use a Mac” titles will also benefit not-so-shy computer users who are switching to the Mac platform after years of Windows use (abuse).

Therefore without further adieu, Help for the Computer Shy proudly presents…

(drum roll…)

The table of contents for the upcoming “Okay, I Bought a Mac Mini! Now What?” instructional DVD / e-book / printed manual:

1. introduction
2. what can you do with your mac mini?
3. how to attach a compatible display to your mac mini
4. how to attach a compatible keyboard & mouse to your mac mini
5. how to setup your mac mini
6. how to connect your mac mini to the internet (wired & wireless)
7. mac mini registration & personalization (or “the first time your turn your mac mini on”)
8. how to use an Apple computer keyboard with your mac mini
9. how to use a Windows computer keyboard with your mac mini
10. how to use a (one-button) Apple computer mouse with your mac mini
11. how to use a two-button mouse with your mac mini
12. a guided tour of your mac mini
13. basic mac computer operations
14. email on your mac mini made easy (or as easy as it can be)
15. how to surf the web on your mac mini
16. how to download and install software on your mac mini
17. how to install software on your mac mini from a CD / DVD
18. where to go from here

This program is designed to get the computer shyest of people (even
my Mom!) up and running with their new Mac mini pals as soon as possible.

More good news: similar titles for the Apple iMac and MacBook are imminent!

NOTE: I’ll actually be writing the e-book on this blog!

When I’m done, the various relevant ‘how to use a mac mini’ blog posts will be assembled into an e-book / printed manual (with some additional material).

Questions, comments, fawning accolades, scathing barbs are most welcome!

I couldn’t connect my late 2009 Mac mini to the Internet (through AirPort Express) when the mini was connected to a Panasonic HDTV.

I could connect the mini to the Internet through Ethernet but not wirelessly.

At first I didn’t think that the Panasonic was interfering with the mini’s AirPort because I could connect to Internet when I replaced the Airport Express with an older (“flying saucer”) Airport Extreme that my friend loaned me.

I could also connect through my neighbor’s Linksys router.

(But I couldn’t connect with a new Airport Extreme.)

Finally, I disconnected the Panasonic HDTV from the Mac mini and attached it to an Apple Cinema Display instead.

The Mac mini instantly found the Airport Express and was online only a few moments later.

The surprising outcome was that the 2009 Mac mini *could* connect wirelessly to the Internet (while attached to a Panasonic HDTV) through an older Airport Extreme and through a Linksys router but not through Airport Express or a new Airport Extreme Base Station.

Armed with this info, I gambled a bit and bought a refurbished 802.11n Linksys WRT160N-RM router from Amazon for $32 (with free shipping no less).

This router was very easy to set up and works beautifully!

All the computers on my network (including the Mac mini & iPod Touch) found it without any issues.

Now I can use the audio port on the now free Apple Airport Express
to stream my favorite NPR radio shows and classical music station into my “computer free” den.

Thanks for reading, give peace a chance, be kind to animals, Zen your life and stay tooned…

Join the club!

Organization is the key to success here.

Carefully (without damaging the box) unpack your Mac mini and lay everything out in a clean, uncluttered area nice and neat:

What’s in the box:

• Mac mini
• Mini-DVI to DVI Adapter
• 110W power adapter and power cord
• Install/restore DVDs
• Printed and electronic documentation

Tip:

Save the box and Mac mini packaging and keep it in a safe place (in case you want to sell the Mac mini on Ebay some day).

This being the case, if you have one of these babies you may need an adapter to connect it to a display.

The adapter that you need depends on the display that you want to use.

For example, a gorgeous, state of the art 24 inch Apple LED Cinema Display would require this adapter:

http://www.atlona.com/Atlona-DVI-to-Mini-DisplayPort-Converter-p-17859.html

A retro (and still very cool-looking) Apple 15 inch Studio Display would require this one:

http://store.apple.com/us/product/M8661LL/B

To avoid having to use an adapter, you can browse Amazon.com for
VGA displays / monitors

USB technically stands for “Universal Serial Bus” but for our purposes, USB really means plug and play.

Question: What does “plug and play” actually mean?

Answer: You usually don’t have to install any software when you attach a USB device to your Mac.

The bottom line here is that you can quickly and easily attach a wide assortment of digital cameras, camcorders, drawing tablets, printers and many other fun & useful things to your Mac mini through the USB ports without having to jump through any hoops.

FireWire

A type of cable, connector, and software that allows a high-speed connection between two computers, or between a computer and a device attached to it, such as a digital video camera or an external hard drive.

Newer Mac minis
(i.e. 2009 models) have a FireWire 800 port.

Older Mac minis (pre-2009 models) have a FireWire 400 port.

A Mac computer screen has three main areas:

1) program dock

By default, your Mac’s program dock will be screen bottom:

The dock contains a set of shortcut icons to various programs on your Mac such as “Apple Mail” and the “Address Book”.

It also contains shortcuts to several folders on your Mac — as well as the “Trash” can:

The program dock does not have a Windows equivalent but it’s exceptionally easy to use.

If you feel like surfing the Internet for example, you can start the “Safari” web browser by clicking its program dock icon one time:

2) menu bar

At the top of your Mac computer screen, you will see a menubar:

The specific menus will depend on which program is currently active.

In the following screen capture, my Mac’s Dictionary program is currently front and center (so to speak):

NOTE:

You can have multiple programs (or “applications”) open at the same time on your Mac but only one can be active.

(The rest will be inactive.)

When you start a program (such as Apple Mail), that program will immediately become the active program on your Mac.

You can make another open program active by clicking anywhere on its window.

Before window click:

After window click:

You can also make an open program active (i.e. bring it to the forefront) by clicking its program dock icon one time:

You can also hold down the “command” key on your Apple keyboard as you press the “tab” key to cycle through the applications that you currently have open:

NOTE:

The “Finder” program will always be open on your Mac.

3) desktop area

If you don’t have any other applications (besides “Finder”) open on your Mac OR if Finder is the active program — and you have hidden any other open applications — you will have an unobstructed view of your Mac computer desktop.

“Hide Others” menu selection:

Clear view of Mac desktop:

NOTE:

You can click anywhere on your desktop to make “Finder” the active program.

Before desktop click:

After desktop click:

(We’ll discuss why you’d want to make Finder active in a later “Switch to the Mac” posting.)

Stay tooned…