What Does Kaby Lake Mean for Next Year’s Macs?

Intel’s next generation CPU architecture, replacing the Skylake chips in most current Macs, is known as Kaby Lake. This 7th generation Intel Core i design provides up to 8 MB of Level 3 cache and is already being used in some PCs. We should see it in Macs in 2017.

Apple’s Flaming PowerBook Fiasco

If you’ve been following the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 nightmare, you know it’s given Samsung a serious black eye. Kudos to Samsung for doing the right thing and recalling the entire production just weeks after its introduction.

Apple vs. Samsung

Apple and Samsung have had an interesting relationship over the years. On the one hand, Apple buys a lot of components from Samsung Electronics. On the other, Samsung is a leading competitor in the mobile market. Some might call them frenemies, others see it as a symbiotic relationship.

The Macintosh Clone Era

There are three different business models in the PC, smartphone, and tablet industries. The most widely used model is for one company to make the operating system and license it to a host of hardware manufacturers. This has given us the Windows market where no matter how badly PC makers do, Microsoft remains profitable.

OS X 10.4 Tiger Is Still Very Useful

Getting an old (2002) 700 MHz iMac G4 with just 512 MB of memory up and running reminded me of what a nice – and still useful – operating system Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger is, especially on that old Apple PowerPC hardware.

Is Chrome OS the New Low End?

The Google Chrome story began when Google introduced its new Chrome browser in September 2008. Initially it was Windows only, for XP and later, and Chrome was only for Windows until 2009. It was finally released for Mac OS X and Linux in May 2010.

Is Low End Mac an ‘Old Tech’ Website?

In recent weeks we’ve done an in-depth look at Mac floppy disk formats, published a 5-part series on Palm, launched a Facebook group for Newton users, looked at memory upgrade options for long-discontinued Macs, talked about the Mac Color Classic, and looked at some of the more obscure Mac clones from the mid-1990s. Earlier this […]

Last Version of Firefox for OS X 10.6 to 10.8 Available Now

On August 2, 2016, Firefox 48.0 was released. It is scheduled to be replaced by Firefox 49.0 on September 13, 2016. At that point, Mac users using OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, 10.7 Lion, and 10.8 Mountain Lion will be left behind by the current versions of Firefox. It will be a sad day, as […]

Picking the Right 64-bit Intel Mac mini

Apple released the first Mac mini with a 64-bit CPU in August 2007, although the Mac OS that shipped with it was a 32-bit operating system, whether OS X 10.4 Tiger or 10.5 Leopard. It wasn’t until OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard arrived two years later – in August 2009 – that we had the […]

New Printer a Real Learning Experience

Life was so much easier in the olden days of the Classic Mac OS. Every PostScript printer worked with Apple’s standard LaserWriter driver. That’s not true in the world of Mac OS X, where you need the correct CUPS printer definition to take advantage of all your printer’s features.

Fisheye or Panorama?

I think I’ve wanted to have a fisheye lens since I was in high school. A fisheye lens usually covers a 180° angle, although some are 150-170° and a couple very expensive Nikkors managed to cover 220°! To cover such a wide angle, these lenses introduced a curved distortion that is instantly recognizable.

The Sky Is Falling on the PC Market

I’ve just finished wading through 6+ years worth of press releases from Gartner Group, digging out quarterly PC sales results from Holiday Quarter 2008 through 2nd Quarter 2016. Why? Because the global PC market is in decline, and I wanted to see how Mac sales compared to Windows sales.

The Reality Behind ‘Road Apples’ and ‘Compromised Macs’

For nearly as long as I’ve published Low End Mac, we’ve had the “Road Apples” category for Macs that we felt didn’t live up to their potential (here’s an archive link to the 1998 Road Apples index). Sometimes it was because of hardware architecture. Sometimes it was because of unnecessary memory ceilings. And much of […]

OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Is Still Good Enough for Me

Honestly, if they didn’t keep dropping support for OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard in new versions of Chrome, Firefox, and Flash, I’d have almost no reason to have OS X 10.9 Mavericks on my Late 2008 13″ Aluminum MacBook (that’s a 2013 OS on a 2008 computer). But my Mid 2007 Mac mini is limited […]

Hands On with a 700 MHz iMac G4

I will be the first to admit that I have always considered the iMac G4 to be an odd looking computer. A coworker gave me an old one a few months ago, and I finally got the right power cord to set it up. It’s changed my opinion of the machine.

Warning: Apple Music May Delete Your iTunes Library

It was almost two years ago that Apple announced it was acquiring Beats by Dr Dre, and by the end of August 2014, the acquisition was finalized. The most common rumors were that Apple was going to use a digital headphone jack instead of the traditional round analog headphone jack in all future iPhones – […]

Low End Mac’s May 2016 Fund Raiser

Thank you for your ongoing support of Low End Mac, a community-based resource. Last month, Low End Mac entered its 20th year online – and Apple began its 40th year in business. From the start as a hobbyist website, we advocated the use of older Macs. I remember designing a booklet using PageMaker 1.0 on […]

The iPhone 5 in 2016

Like clockwork, Apple introduces a new iPhone model (or set of models) every year. In September 2012, the iPhone 5 was the new one. We’re now three generations beyond that. How viable is the iPhone 5 today?

Thank You for Your Support!

I just have to say Thank You! to everyone who has contributed to Low End Mac in March and April. Both months you have brought us beyond our goal, and it means the world to us. Yesterday we passed our funding goal for April.

Low End Mac: Why We Do What We Do

While reading through The Nehemiah Effect, a book coauthored by a friend, I’ve spent some time musing over things like a vision statement, a mission statement, core values, attitudes, objectives, and goals. It’s really helped me look back over my life to see who I am while I defined these things for Low End Mac.

Give Low End Mac a Hand Up: April 2016 Fund Raiser

Thanks to about 90 readers, we surpassed our March fund raising goal by nearly 20%, giving us enough to cover our 2015 taxes, pay our monthly business bills, pick up a nice used 16 GB iPhone 5S, and acquire a new SSD for one of our MacBooks. If we hit our $800 goal this month, I […]