iPhone 4 price plans

OK, so the HTPC link here is slightly tenuous, but the iPhone does have a place in any hi-tech home as a media controller, and I need a place to share some numbers on the UK iPhone price plans. Here are the numbers:

16GB	Provider	Up-front	Monthly	Term	Total cost	Monthly cost
1	O2	£279.00	£25.00	24	£879.00	£36.63
2	Orange	£169.00	£30.00	24	£889.00	£37.04
3	O2	£179.00	£30.00	24	£899.00	£37.46
4	Orange	£119.00	£35.00	24	£959.00	£39.96
5	O2	£209.00	£30.00	18	£749.00	£41.61
6	Orange	£229.00	£35.00	18	£859.00	£47.72
7	O2	£179.00	£35.00	18	£809.00	£44.94
8	Orange	£169.00	£40.00	18	£889.00	£49.39
9	Apple	£499.00	£15.00	24	£859.00	£35.79
10	Apple	£499.00	£15.00	18	£769.00	£42.72
32GB	Provider	Up-front	Monthly	Term	Total cost	Monthly cost
1	O2	£323.00	£25.00	24	£923.00	£38.46
2	Orange	£269.00	£30.00	24	£989.00	£41.21
3	O2	£279.00	£30.00	24	£999.00	£41.63
4	Orange	£219.00	£35.00	24	£1,059.00	£44.13
5	O2	£299.00	£30.00	18	£839.00	£46.61
6	Orange	£319.00	£35.00	18	£949.00	£52.72
7	O2	£279.00	£35.00	18	£909.00	£50.50
8	Orange	£269.00	£40.00	18	£989.00	£54.94
9	Apple	£599.00	£15.00	24	£959.00	£39.96
10	Apple	£599.00	£15.00	18	£869.00	£48.28

Notes:
1) 100 minutes, unlimited texts.
2) 150 minutes, 250 texts.
3) 300 minutes, unlimited texts.
4) 600 minutes, unlimited texts.
5) 100 minutes, unlimited texts.
6) 150 minutes, 250 texts.
7) 300 minutes, unlimited texts.
8) 600 minutes, unlimited texts.
9) Potential £50 quidco cashback. Could save £19 (16GB) or £29 (32GB) buying through Orange.
10) Potential £25 quidco cashback. Could save £19 (16GB) or £29 (32GB) buying through Orange.

Also worth noting for options 9) and 10) is that any contract obligations involved are over 12 month periods, so sign up now and come WWDC 2011 or WWDC 2012, you'll be out of contract and free to upgrade ;)

Apple redesigns the Mac Mini line, reduces spec levels???

Well well, the long-standing rumours of a new HDMI-enabled Mac Mini were true! Apple has released a new range of Mac minis with very clear aspirations for making it an even stronger contender for the corner of your living room.

Having invested in a shiny new Mac mini only a couple of months ago, it was with a certain amount of annoyance that I noticed this update on Apples website earlier today (whilst struggling to get my pre-order for an iPhone 4 through). But after plowing through the specs, I can't say I'm dissappointed to have picked up the previous model. Don't get me wrong, there are some nice new elements of the new range. However it isn't all a step in the right direction.

So, good things first: Apple have reduced the size of the box, and also done away with the external power supply. They've also replaced the DVI port with a full HDMI port (and thrown in an HDMI to DVI adapter). Most significantly, they've updated the graphics cards from NVidia's 9400M to the 320M. Now, I haven't been able to find any 3rd party benchmarks of these two cards, but according to Apple, you're looking at a 1.8 to 2 times performance increase in terms of graphical power. Not too shabby...

However, it's not all good news. The biggest gripe I have with the new range is that they have done away with the entry level price bracket, leaving just the two models. Price-wise, they're equivalent to the previous mid-range model and previous server model. However, the new £649 entry level model doesn't stack up that well when compared with my MC239*/A model. Ok, the new model has mine beat on a few areas mentioned above, but the processor is down from 2.53GHz to 2.4GHz, and more importantly the RAM is now down to 2GB from 4GB. The new specs do represent a small performance increase when compared with the previous base model, but that doesn't count for much when the price pitches it against the previous mid-range model with beefier specs.

It's a shame to see the entry-level Mac now priced at £649, that's going to put it out of reach of a lot of people wanting to build an HTPC around these things. I can't see this being Apple's only strategy for living room domination, and given the now even greater overlap between the Mac mini range and the Apple TV, I think it's now even more likely we'll see the Apple TV take the iOS appliance route I talked about earlier.