Beware the Thinkbook x10 ‘Laptop’

I don’t know if you’ve seen the ads on Facebook for a 9″ Windows 10 notebook selling for $120 and up (advertised as 80% off), but if you’re looking for a Windows notebook computer, it may not be for you. And if you’re the PC go-to guy for family and friends, you need to know […]

Does Hard Drive Orientation Affect Performance?

About a week ago, someone in the Low End Mac Facebook group posted the following question: Obviously we’re all used to the horizontal drive orientation, and the externals tend to have vertical orientation, but is the vertical really a safe orientation? Obviously there’s the chance of it being tipped/knocked over, but even a mild tilt […]

CPUs: Intel 80186 and 80188

The Intel 80186 is based on the earlier 8086 CPU with the same 20-bit address bus as the 8086, allowing it to access up to 1 MB of memory. Introduced in 1982, the 80186 and 80188 are fully code compatible with the 8086 and 8088, but they also introduced 10 new instruction types.

Personal Computer History: 1995-2004

Although the World Wide Web had been created many years earlier, it was in 1995 that it rocketed into public view. Window 95 shipped in August, and Intel unveiled the Pentium Pro in November. Apple used the new PowerPC 603 CPU in its Performa 5200 and 6200 models, both running at 75 MHz. The 603 […]

Personal Computer History: 1985-1994

Microsoft first shipped Windows 1.0 in 1985, and this DOS shell was content to run even on old 4.77 MHz PCs, albeit slowly. That was also the year Aldus invented the fourth major productivity software category – after word processing, spreadsheets, and databases – by releasing PageMaker. Desktop publishing was born, and Apple found a […]

Using the Emtec P600 Wi-Fi Hard Drive

In an update to my article, Low End Wireless Hard Drive Review: The EMTEC P600, I have been able to discover some of the more intricate features of the wireless hard drive and how it can fit into a variety of “real world” usage cases. Here are some of the things of note after learning more about […]

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.

Toshiba Laptops

When IBM introduced its first PC in August 1981, it created a new standard for desktop computers in the business world. However, IBM didn’t address portability, which created an opening for Compaq and Toshiba to enter the PC market. This is Toshiba’s story.

Compaq Portables and Laptops

When IBM introduced its first PC in August 1981, it created a new standard for desktop computers in the business world. However, IBM didn’t address portability, which created an opening for Compaq and Toshiba to enter the PC market. This is Compaq’s story.

Run Windows on Your Mac – Without Boot Camp

I was playing my favorite game the other day,  Star Trek Armada II Fleet Operations. It is, in the words of the developers, “a popular skirmish and multiplayer orientated total conversion modification for Activision’s real-time strategy game, Star Trek: Armada II.” It is a Windows game, and for that I was booted into Windows 7 via […]

What’s Up with Flash on Firefox?

The big news this morning was that Firefox was suddenly blocking all Flash content by default. Flash is frequently used for streaming video, ads, and interactive media on the Web, where it is heavily used for video games on Android devices. (Flash is not supported on Apple’s iOS.)