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Small. Stylish. Elegant. The Mac Mini is all of these things and more. The only drawback I can think of is a lack of “horsepower.” At its most stout configuration from Apple, its ships with a 2GHz core 2 duo processor, 2GB of RAM, and a 120GB hard drive for $799. Combine this with the dated Intel graphics GPU and you have a decent little machine for everyday tasks. I would not recommend using one for video editing or anything else graphics intensive because, although capable, you would experience frustratingly low speeds. My first Mac was a Mini that I picked up when they first hit the shelves. It is still kicking, and my kids love it.

What you don’t have is a machine that has seen any updates such as better processors or bigger hard drives in quite some time. This leads me to believe that the Apple research and development dollars have been going somewhere else. Is Apple finally going to give us a machine without a monitor that is equal to or better than the processing power of the iMac? Maybe they are going to discontinue the line all together for something completely new and innovative like we have come to expect from Apple.

I can tell you this much. If they announce something at the Macworld Expo in January that is along the lines of a more powerful Mac Mini (which I think they will), I’ll be first in line to get one. Will I see you there?