The RackMac mini Xserver gives the Mac mini Server the ability handle a new range of services.

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This program will set up a mini web server that uses the same kind of special urls to send commands to the Winamp player running on your computer.

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That'll pit it against offerings from VIA and others, while offering considerably more oomph in a similar form factor -- though a mini-server slaying Core i5 option originally proposed by Intel was dropped.

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According to Google, thousands of enterprise customers have already purchased and deployed the Google Mini, a small server that companies, governments and schools can use to search through their own systems.

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In some cases, the user account can also act as the main server for a private mini-network.

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The Mac mini also fell short of being a media server that can be a video recorder as well as a store for all the digital music, movies and images people accumulate, said Mr Fogg.

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Nokia's Xpress Browser and Opera Mini do this through extensive use of compression that relies on a middleman server operated by those companies.

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If the server machine is running OS X, getting it to talk with your Mac mini is easier than selling a marked up iPod shuffle on eBay - your success is assured.

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