Mac Hater In Daytona Beach—Doesn’t Use A Mac.

The article is titled, “Mac Mini an amazing $499—until you add essentials.” It’s written by Tony Briggs of the Daytona Beach News-Journal. Click Here for the entire article.

As a journalist, I’m inclined to give most publishers and writers the benefit of the doubt when writing opinion pieces. I’ve written my share and been on the wrong side of the fence a few times. A few.

The article is one of the worst pieces of very lazy journalism I’ve read in a long, long time. Now I get to rant.

It’s really sad, but this is just a case of a lazy guy who has a job writing for a newspaper. It’s not a piece from a true journalist.

Based on what’s stated in the article, this poor “writer” couldn’t take his entire inheritance and buy a computer clue at The Free Computer Clue Store in the mall.

Come on. This is just shoddy, inept, sophomoric reporting at best, and an ill formed and poorly presented opinion piece at worst.

A comparison should compare something, don’t you think? There’s no comparison of the Mac mini with say, a Dell or HP in the same price range. There’s no consideration of hardware features. Did I miss the comparison of software? Was that in there? I coulda missed it while my eyes were rolling back in my head.

This article is so obviously a fluff piece that any first rate journalist, even a wannabe journlist still in J-School would not want to be described as belonging to the same class of human as Tony Briggs.

I’m very tempted to do an Open Letter To The Editor of the News Journal describing how poorly their publishing organization looks when printing such dribble.

“Yet another over-priced, over-hyped product from Apple…”

Over priced? Says who? Over hyped? Only by the mainstream press (the writer should try working for one, except he couldn’t get hired).

“...everyone loves the new Mac Mini—except me.”

“a paltry 256 megabytes is standard. Once you add all those essentials, the price tag gets closer to what you’d expect to pay for a Mac—a lot”Hmmm. That says something. Even longtime Mac critics Paul Thurott and Rob Enderle have provided praise for the Mac mini.

“Or even enough memory to run a lot of programs very well—a paltry 256 megabytes is standard. Once you add all those essentials, the price tag gets closer to what you’d expect to pay for a Mac—a lot.”

This is obviously a statement from someone who doesn’t own a Mac, hasn’t used a Mac, hasn’t tried out the Mac mini, doesn’t know how to spell “iLife.”

While I’d probably add more memory, MacsOnly did a nice review of the Mac mini with 256 megs RAM vs 512 megs RAM and there wasn’t much difference in performance for the average user.

“Even if you ignore the fact the Mac Mini is missing a lot of essential parts, it’s really not that cheap. PCs that run the dreaded Windows operating system are quite a bit cheaper. Best Buy recently advertised a desktop computer, with keyboard, mouse, speakers, 17-inch monitor AND a printer for $170 less than the bare-bones Mac Mini. And Wal-Mart sells a stripped-down desktop PC that runs Linux for $200 less.”

Hello. Let’s compare again. Make sure those other computers have the same things as a Mac mini (32 megs video RAM, DVI, Firewire, ethernet), then add a keyboard, mouse, and monitor to the mini’s price.

Da da! They’re about the same, no? Oh, at least he called Windows™ “dreaded.” I assumed that was tongue in cheek.

“Window-based PCs are still a lot cheaper and, let’s face it, they already know how Windows works. Who wants to learn a new operating system?”

What’s a “lot” to you, Tony? A few million people have paid $499 or so for their iPods and accessories. Most of those were Windows users. What’s that say?

Oh, who wants to learn a new operating system? People who are tired of constant security issues, warnings, bulletins. People who are tired of running multiple spyware programs. People who are tired of viruses, worms, trojan horses, and their accompanying monthly updates. People who are tired of the Blue Screen Of Death.

People who want it to “just work” are interested. Too bad your publisher wasn’t interested in a reporter who could do the same.

I’m really tired of articles like that. They’re cheap shots. Fluff. No research. No facts. No comparison. Not even a solid opinion. Tony must be getting paid by the word and that was enough for the paycheck this week.

If he’s paid by the word, I’d give him a paycheck for two words. “You’re Fired.”

update from Tera Well, folks. We scored. Here’s a note from Tony Briggs:

I’m sure they all had a good laugh about it sitting around the office, sipping on coffee and counting the hits on their web site.

Interestingly, there were “no facts” in his column, and the statement “overpriced” isn’t a fact. It’s wrong. As to the “venom” well, it’s not venom, Tony. We’re just setting the record straight.