Mac Mini, Apple Stuffs

[Hussein Baghdadi]

Hi.
I have a question about Mac Mini.
Mac Mini -as I understand- just provide the hardware that is compatible with apple architecture.
To use Mac Mini, we can use keyboards, mice, screens of PCs.
1. How is it possible to use PC's keyboard on Macs ?
AFAIK, apple's keyboards is different than PC once, apple keyboards have buttons other than control, shift and .....
Any ideas ?
2. Do apple computers have special types of Printers ? or we can use any Printer ?
3. Same as the previous question but for web cams.
4. What are AirPort ?
5. http://java.sun.com/products/j2mewtoolkit/download-2_2.html
contains no J2ME toolkit for Mac OSX, where can we get it ?
6. Any storeis about Mac Mini ?
Thanks guys and sorry for questions but I like people who have experience with such things...
[ April 23, 2005: Message edited by: John Todd ]

[Bear Bibeault]

1. The keys are simply mapped to other keys. It's a bit of a pain though, in my opinion. So even though it's quite possible, I'd spring the $10 for a keyboard with Mac-labeled keys. The real savings is not in the keyboard and mouse, which are inexpensive commodities, but in being able to re-use already-owned monitors (or buy new, but inexpensive, monitors).

2. I've never heard of a compatibility issue with any USB printer. I've even hooked up an old parallel port laser printer though an adapter.

3. Unknown, never used one.

4. Airport is the name of Apple's wireless base station. You can also use other wireless stations.

5. Unknown. There may not be one. Someone who does J2ME dev might chime in.

6. Beautiful machines for someone who isn't worried about expandability (the vast majority of the home market). I don't have one personally, but know many who do, and have helped family/friends/neighbors set up theirs.

[Hussein Baghdadi]

Thanks alot
Ok, I'm looking at :
http://www.apple.com/macmini/
look at the image at middle of the page.
You will find that there 2 UDB ports -one for mouse and one for keyboard, I think-.
What if I have a thrid or maybe a forth device that it should use USB ports, How can I plug them ?
Can I use ISDN or DSL connections with Macs ?
Can we connect PC to an Apple computers ?
I mean, I have an application server and a database server on my PC and I want to use an apple computer as a client, is it possible ?
As a Java programmer who uses Java tools like Tomcat, JBoss, Eclipse, WebLogic, IntelliJ and all other stuffs, Do you think that Mac Mini is suitale for us ? or we have to use eMac or iMac ?
Sorry guys for silly questions but I have no backgrounds on Apple.

[Lasse Koskela]

Originally posted by John Todd:
What if I have a thrid or maybe a forth device that it should use USB ports, How can I plug them ?

You can buy an adapter which multiplies an USB port to 2, 3 or 4 USB ports. Those can be found in any decent computer store or online.

Originally posted by John Todd:
Can I use ISDN or DSL connections with Macs ?

Yes.

Originally posted by John Todd:
Can we connect PC to an Apple computers ?

Yes.

Originally posted by John Todd:
I mean, I have an application server and a database server on my PC and I want to use an apple computer as a client, is it possible ?

Well, if I told you that www.cnn.com is running an application server on PC hardware, would you be surprised that you can actually browse the website with a Mac?

[Bear Bibeault]

You can buy an adapter which multiplies an USB port to 2, 3 or 4 USB ports.

Also, if you get a Mac keyboard, they almost always have USB ports on them as well. Most people plug their mouse into the keyboard so that it does not tie up one of the system ports.

[Bear Bibeault]

As a Java programmer who uses Java tools like Tomcat, JBoss, Eclipse, WebLogic, IntelliJ and all other stuffs, Do you think that Mac Mini is suitale for us ? or we have to use eMac or iMac ?

I think the mini would be fine -- I've done development on a G3 iBook. Faster systems like G5's will be, well faster, but the mini is no slouch.

Sorry guys for silly questions but I have no backgrounds on Apple

I don't find your questions silly at all. They are the types of things I'd want to know before diving into a new platform as well.

[Hussein Baghdadi]

Well, if I told you that www.cnn.com is running an application server on PC hardware, would you be surprised that you can actually browse the website with a Mac?

Yes sure, same is true for Linux servers and PC clients !
My question was about connecting a Mac to a PC physically using an adaptor or hub ...
A question about Inkwell :
This application seems really cool !
"Just write on a graphics tablet, and Mac OS X turns it into typed text at the cursor in any application."
Ok, What is graphics tablet ? a hardware that we have to buy it separately ?
(It is obvious that I'm not a Hardware Guru)
"You can also write command-key shortcuts with the pen"
This means that I can write UNIX's command like ls using Inkwell, then hitting Enter and Mac OSX executes the command ??
seems like a Voodoo !
Well, I have to admit that I'm dreaming about iMac or PowerBook but they are so expensive ...
In addition, I'm thinking to get an iPod mini if possible ...
But the problem is my economy ...
Thank you guys, Gracias !

[Bear Bibeault]

What is graphics tablet ? a hardware that we have to buy it separately ?

Yes, here's a popular one.

My question was about connecting a Mac to a PC physically using an adaptor or hub ...

No worries.
[ April 23, 2005: Message edited by: Bear Bibeault ]

[Warren Dew]

John Todd:

6. Any storeis about Mac Mini ?

Looks like Bear and Lasse already answered the rest of the questions.

One story: the Mac Mini seems to have trouble driving digital flat screen displays larger than 21 inches diagonal. That's not likely to be a concern for too many people, though, since such displays cost several times as much as the Mini.

[marc weber]

John,

I'm also a PC user about to make The Switch (probably to a PowerBook, as early as next week). In response to one of my questions, Bear posted a link to this mac forum, which I've found very helpful:

http://forums.macrumors.com/

(I've read some very good things about Mac Mini there... )

[Simon Brown]

I'll take a couple of the original questions...

3. webcams
Getting webcams, particularly USB ones, to work is hard. Harder still is finding decent conferencing software. Yahoo! messenger works well, but you don't get audio on the Mac OS X version. I have an Apple iSight now which is great and works with Apple's iChat software. The downside of this is that it can be a pain to configure through firewalls and iChat/AIM isn't as popular as other chat networks like Yahoo.

5. J2ME development
Basically, you're pretty stuck here. As you've noticed, Sun don't provide a Mac OS X version of the wireless toolkits and neither do the handset providers (last time I looked). There is a toolkit available (http://mpowers.net/midp-osx/) but I've only ever used the MIDP 1.0 support.

Hope that doesn't sound too negative! Macs are great and I use one most of the time. However, you have to realize that there are a few areas in which they don't excel at the moment. Unfortunately webcam support and J2ME are two of them!