By Michael Santo
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

Last week Apple sent emails to journalists telling them that today, Tuesday February 28, they should come to a special event to learn about some “fun new products”. One of those “fun” (?) products is a revamped Mac Mini, with either an Intel Core Solo or Core Duo CPU.

Apple also announced its own brand of leather iPod cases, available in mid-March for $99.

Jobs announced two models of the Mac Mini. One, for $599, has a 1.5-GHz Intel Core solo processor with a 60GB hard drive, combo drive that plays DVDs and burns CDs and 512MB of memory. The other, which goes for $799, has a 1.67-GHz Core Duo processor, an 80GB hard drive, 512MB of memory and a SuperDrive that burns CDs and DVDs. Both will be available starting today. Source: Gadgets Blog (News.com)

We Say: I was expecting there would be some sort of Mac Mini update, to flesh out the product line, and here it is. Apple has done a good job of rolling out its Intel-based computers quickly. I wasn’t expecting (nor am I all that excited by) the iPod cases, as there are plenty of those to go around from 3rd-party vendors.