Apple completely overhauled the Mac Pro in 2013, eliminating things like drive bays and expansion slots in favor of a radical new design that includes two video cards along with the fastest SSDs available. For those who need drive bays or expansion slots, there are lots of older Mac Pros to pick from starting below $200!
Monthly Archives: January 2016
Apple last updated the Mac mini in Late 2014, moving to a 1.4 GHz dual-core low-power Intel i5 CPU that can Turbo Boost to 2.6 GHz on the entry-level model and a very powerful 2.6 GHz i5 on the “better” Mini (power hungry users can upgrade that to a 2.8 GHz i5 or 3.0 GHz i7). System memory can no longer […]
Apple reinvented Apple TV in Late 2015, no longer hiding the fact that it has an operating system. The 4G Apple TV has a 64-bit A8 CPU and a full-fledge operating system, known as tvOS. It’s also designed to run games and includes Siri.
Although the Classic Mac OS remains useful, it’s getting hard to find at a reasonable price. We hope these links help you do so, whether for System 6, Mac OS 9.2.2, or something in between.
Personal computing never would have gotten started if not for the invention of microprocessors, which puts a computer’s CPU (central processing unit) on a single chip – sometimes with companion chips. Intel released the first commercial CPU in 1971, and the first 8-bit “home computers” arrived just a few years later.
Prior to 1986, the best Mac had 512 KB of memory with no expansion path, a 400 KB floppy drive, and no standard way of connecting a fast hard drive. The Mac Plus, introduced on January 16, 1986, changed all that.
Apple broke the speed envelope with the Mac IIfx – the 40 MHz 68030 CPU on a 40 MHz data bus left everything else in the dust. Because it needed faster memory than any previous Mac, it used a special 64-pin dual-ported SIMM. It was the first Mac to ship with 4 MB of RAM.
The Mac IIci took the popular Mac IIcx design and replaced its 16 MHz logic board with a 25 MHz 68030-based design. New features included built-in video and a Level 2 (L2) cache socket. The IIci was the first Mac with “32-bit clean” ROMs.
The PowerPC platform had a long life on Macs. The first Power Macs arrived on March 14, 1994, 10 years after the first Mac – the Power Mac 6100, 7100, and 8100, running the PowerPC 601 CPU at speeds of 60, 66, and 80 MHz respectively. The PowerPC G5 came to the iMac in August 2004, over […]
Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History is one of my favorite podcasts. Then again, I majored in English, history, and philosophy in college, so I like history to begin with. If you enjoy history at all, I think you’ll find this podcast a treat.
So, recently I learned that Apple, as much as I love them, may be thinking of ditching the ol’ headphone port on the iPhone 7. I don’t know how to feel about this, as I once believed the iPod/iPhone to be one of the best media devices on the planet.
I love the original iPhone – but at nine years old, it really has had it’s day.
Gone are the days when television was controlled by a few big players. There is so much more competition. I check out the streaming Now TV box from Sky.
I’ve been using smartphones for years, starting with a Palm Centro during my last months with Verizon, just before we switched to AT&T and my wife and I each got an iPhone 3GS. Modern smartphones go through batteries much more quickly than old “dumb” phones ever did.
We’re expanding Low End Mac with new recommendation articles, which will generally be shorter than full fledged in-depth reviews. We’ll be sharing our thoughts on what software, services, games, podcasts, devices, accessories, and more items we think might benefit you.
Ever wanted to combine several MP3s in to one file? Now you can with MP3 Trimmer.
Back in the days of reel-to-reel tape and tape hiss interfering with high frequency sound, Dolby Labs made a name for itself with Dolby Noise Reduction, which recorded high frequencies at a higher volume and played them back with an equivalent amount of volume decrease to reduce the impact of tape hiss. Now Dolby wants […]
The PowerPC platform had a long life at Apple. The first Power Macs arrived on March 14, 1994 – the Power Mac 6100, 7100, and 8100 running the PowerPC 601 CPU at speeds of 60, 66, and 80 MHz respectively. The ultimate Power Mac was the G5 Quad, which had two 2.5 GHz dual-core CPUs […]
Apple introduced the $10,000 Lisa in 1983 and the $2,500 Macintosh in 1984. Both used the 68000 CPU. The Atari ST, based on the same processor, arrived in 1985 at just $799 – or $999 with color, which the Mac didn’t have yet.
Back in the early days of personal computing, benchmarks were usually written in BASIC and tweaked for each competing brand of computer and BASIC in use. This article looks at some popular benchmarks from the 8-bit era of home computing.
The most important development in 1983 was the Personal Computer Price War. Texas Instruments had nearly destroyed Commodore International when TI began selling fully assembled calculators for less than Commodore and other calculator makers paid for components. Jack Tramiel, Commodore’s founder, vowed revenge.
Apple shook up the Mac world when it announced in June 2005 that it would switch from PowerPC to Intel CPUs within a year. A lot of longtime Mac users felt betrayed. And when Apple introduced the first Intel Macs at the January 2006 Macworld Expo, we were shocked at how soon Apple had begun […]
Is a customer’s happiness important to companies these days? For Pebble it seems so.
The Apple Display Connector (ADC) was Apple’s proprietary modification of the DVI (Digital Visual Interface) connector that combines analog and digital video signals, USB, and power in a single cable. Apple’s goal was to reduce cable clutter and simplify the process of connecting a new monitor to a Mac. This was especially nice with monitors […]
If you’ve never heard of the Motorola 68060 CPU, there’s a good reason for it. Apple never used it. Atari never used it. And the only Amiga that used it only did so after Commodore had gone bankrupt and been acquired by another company. There have also been some processor upgrades built around the 68060.
We are embarking on a new project, bringing our LEM Swap group, an email list we launched over 15 years ago, into the Facebook era. We started with LEM Swap UK and have since added LEM Swap Canada and LEM Swap Australia so we can learn from a smaller group before launching other national or regional groups.
