Low End Mac Reader Specials

TypeStyler For Mac OS X is Now Shipping! Download The Free Fully Functional 60 Day Tryout at www.typestyler.com

Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how to download and install a native Mac poker application such as Full Tilt Poker Mac.

Compare products like desktop computers, apple laptops, apple macs, and LCD Monitors side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for new mobile phones, sat nav systems, or MP3 players. The Ciao online shopping community makes searching products easy for you.

The Practical Mac

MacHome Magazine: 1991-2006

- 2006.09.18 - Tip Jar

I'm surprised to have read very little about the recent demise of a pillar of the Mac community: MacHome magazine. Closing its doors after publication of the June 2006 issue, the Macintosh community has lost a valuable citizen.

I have subscribed to all three (now two) of the mainstream Mac-related magazines - Macworld, MacAddict, and MacHome - since the late 90s. Each magazine has a slightly different target audience.

MacHome aimed squarely at the consumer, with substantial content directed toward the beginner or casual user who just wanted to know how to design a newsletter in Word and had no interest in soldering the motherboard in order to achieve a 10 MHz speed gain. Here is an excerpt from the single paragraph dedicated to MacHome's closure on Bacon's Media Update:

...the monthly technology magazine was written for Macintosh consumers. Editorial content provided practical advice for those who used Macintosh computers for their personal needs, whether playing games, creating music and art, or running a home or small business. Each issue contained technology tips, expert buying advice and detailed how-to articles.

The key phrase in the above description is practical advice. Every month, MacHome seemed to have a couple of tips that made you say, "Hey, I can use that." Articles I recall through the years dealt with topics such as how to do a simple mail merge in Word, basic photo manipulation in iPhoto, and designing and publishing a newsletter. It was nothing fancy - just useful and, well, practical.

The most disappointing part of the loss of MacHome is that there is no longer a publication that a beginner can pick up, read cover to cover, understand most of the content, and even find a lot of it useful.

The prototypical consumer I have in mind is my wife, Kay. She glances at each Mac magazine we receive every month. As entertaining as I might find reading about Niko taking something apart and putting it back together in a disturbing and unnatural way (in order to, for instance, power your iPod with a car battery while walking around town), such things just don't interest Kay.

However, she always read MacHome cover-to-cover, and I often find the magazine or a how-to article torn from it sitting beside her PowerBook.

I don't know why MacHome went under. One can suppose it was probably for the usual reason a business fails: not making enough money to pay the bills. But as to the reasons why it didn't make money, I haven't a clue.

MacHome was founded as, literally, a mom and pop operation. In 2002, the husband and wife publishing team sold the magazine to MacHome's former Director of Advertising, Kevin Octavio. I interviewed Kevin for a weekly newspaper column I write back in 2003. It seemed like things were going well at MacHome.

After buying the magazine, Kevin's team had given it a much-needed and impressive makeover. The content and the approach had been refreshed. But somewhere along the way, something apparently went wrong.

The magazine's demise comes, ironically, at a time when its fortunes should have been on the rise. Finally, after years of fighting the good fight, Apple's market share is rising - significantly. As a result, Apple has acquired a constant stream of users who are new to the Mac.

MacHome would have been the perfect magazine for introducing these users to the simple wonders that are Macintosh.

In many ways, the MacHome saga is reminiscent of what Sears went through over a decade ago. Faced with declining sales, Sears discontinued its venerable catalog. In the couple of years immediately following, however, a phenomenon called the Internet exploded onto the stage. Sears' catalog business was tailor-made for online ordering. If they could have just hung on a little longer....

Rest in peace, MacHome. You will be missed.

Steve Watkins is the Vice President for Information Technology for a mid-sized bank, an attorney, and an Army Reserve JAG on extended active duty. He has been a Mac user for about 12 years. He has owned some PCs along the way - but always came back to the Mac. If you find his articles helpful, please consider making a donation to his tip jar.

Recent Practical Mac Columns

How to Zoom Your Browser for a More Readable Web, 03.18. Instructions for zooming text and pages in Safari, Firefox, Camino, and Opera.
Take Off Your Glasses and Enjoy the Web, 02.16. Whether it's aging eyes or the ever inceasing pixel density of new displays, Readability can make reading website content much easier.
The Road to Obsolescence: Intel Core Duo Users Will Be Left Behind, 01.19. Mac OS X 10.7 may well be the version that leaves behind those with 32-bit Core Solo and Core Duo Macs from 2006.
A Tale of Two Cases, 01.11. The OtterBox iPhone Defender and iPod Classic Defender cases provide excellent protection, but each has a significant drawback as well.
More in the Practical Mac index.

Links for the Day

Mac of the Day: Lisa, Jan. 1983 - The ancestor of the Macintosh had a mouse, a graphical interface, and a $10,000 price tag.
Group of the Day: Unsupported OS X is for those using OS X on unsupported hardware.
March 21 in LEM history: 00: The compelling Mac - 01: All that for $129? - PowerBook 100 - 02: Improving AppleWorks - 03: The G3 ain't dead yet - Pismo a good value - Western Digital drive issues - 05: iPod halo effect - 06: Rip DVDs so you can watch them on your iPod - 07: Maximum drive size in older Macs - 08: Safari 3.1 fastest browser?
Support Low End Mac

Recent Deals

Best Intel iMac Deals, 03.17. Used 17" from $600; 20" from $750; 24" from $825; refurb 21.5" nVidia, $999; new, $1,099; refurb Radeon, $1,299; new, $1,399; refurb 27" 3.06, $1,499; more.
Best G5 iMac Deals, 03.17. 17" 2.0 GHz, $380; 1.9 GHz iSight, $479 shipped; 20" 1.8 GHz, $509 shipped; 2.1 GHz iSight, $549 shipped.
Best Time Capsule Deals, 03.17. Close-out 500 GB, $140; new 1 TB, $279; used 2 TB simultaneous dual-band, $400; new, $455. Shipping included.
Best iPad Deals, 03.16. 16 GB iPad, $499; 32 GB, $599; 64 GB, $699; 16 GB with 3G, $629; 32 GB 3G, $729; 64 GB 3G, $829. Free ground shipping.
Best iPod classic Deals, 03.12. Used 20 GB, $119; 40 GB, $139; 60 GB, $159; 30 GB video, $129; 60 GB, $159; 80 GB, $169; refurb 120 GB, $189; new, $214; 160 GB, $228 shipped.
Best G3 iBook and AirPort Card Deals, 03.12. 366 MHz 12" clamshell, $89; 466, $125; 500 white CD, $100; 600, $199; 800 Combo, $239; 14" 900, $225.
Best Xserve Deals, 03.12. Used 1 GHz dual G4, $499; 2.0 dual G5, $599; 2.3, $749; refurb 2.26 4-core Nehalem, $2,499; new, $2,699; 8-core, $3,449; refurb 2.66, $4,299; new, $4,799; more.
More deals in our archive.

About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts

Practical Mac articles copyright ©2001-10 by Steve Watkins. Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2010 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.
Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.
Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, iPhone, PowerBook, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.