Whew. That was a close one, but I think I’ve finally been able to pull free of the gravity well that Steve Jobs is able to create whenever he announces something new. Don’t get me wrong, I still believe that the Mac Mini is a pretty awesome idea and will sell well, but I think I realized late last night (while writing in my Moleskine, no less) what the attraction was for me: The Mac Mini is one step closer to ‘The Exploding PC‘.

Huh? Hear me out.

1) Killer Small Form Factor: 6.5" wide, 2" tall and 2.9lbs in a sexy package. It’s interesting that I’ve seen comparisons of the Mac Mini to a Dell Dimension and other claims that it’s underpowered, etc. While Apple is certainly marketing this at PC users who want a cheap way to ’switch’, I think it’s more interesting to think of the Mini as the beginnings of an embedded appliance, like this comparison to an Airport Express. I never really considered using the Mini as a replacement for my desktop (or laptop), but was more interested in it as a ‘media device’ (or a media hub). A cool ubiquitous device that could be plugged in, was completely silent and provided a pleasurable ‘experience’ for creating home movies, editing photos, sharing content, etc.

2) The Pleasure and Experience. I talked about this the other day, but want to add something. The other night, I resurrected my old G4 from the garage and installed Panther on it. After an hour of fighting with the installer (it turned out that I had a hard drive jumper in the wrong place, doh!), I was able to get OS/X fired up, bouncing icons in the dock and all. And you know what? I surfed the web a bit, wrote a few emails, and haven’t turned it on again since. Why? Frankly, I don’t want another box in my office - I’m trying to get rid of machines, not add more machines to the mix, no matter how ‘cool’ the experience is. See #1 - form factor.

3) "The Art of Playing". There’s been some discussion over on gaping void about Microsoft and The Creative Age, Microsoft Needing To Play More and the "next big idea". I totally agree with Hugh (and Kevin) on our product naming, it sounds so ‘corporate’. As I’ve said in the past, I love Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005: "Starting up Media Center feels like I’m about to experience something cool and I’m in complete control of it." I just wish it was presented to the world with more pizzazz and less ‘corporate marketing’.

With this in mind, I was thinking some more about it on my early drive in today at 5am (I hate it when my brain is working overtime):

What I really wanted was a form of an ‘exploded pc’. I want a small, quiet, sexy form factor machine that I can easily plug into the TV or stereo, throw it in a bag or place in a closet. One that I can connect to ethernet, usb, firewire, etc and if I connect a display to it, I want a pleasurable UI and an easy to use ‘experience’  for getting the things done that I do today, and it works with all my ’stuff’.

I want a ‘mini media server’ appliance.