8BitDo Pro 2 Bluetooth gamepad with PowerPC OS X Leopard in wired mode

Official documentation says this controller requires at least macOS Ventura 13.2 or above, and that USB wired connection is only available for macOS or iPadOS with USB-C ports. Even if you can adapt a USB port to a Type-C on a PowerPC Mac and get a peripheral connected, a newer device is overwhelmingly likely not […]

Trying out USB-C on a PowerPC Mac

More than an interesting thought experiment or project, the idea suddenly returned when I saw two USB-A to USB-C style adapters at a convenience store of all places and thought: “Why not”..? For a while I’ve thought about adding USB-C ports to my Power Mac G5, although I never thought to pick up or lookup […]

WWDC ’25: New message stickers today, and what to expect then

We’re halfway through may and this year’s World Wide Developer Conference at Apple is set to kick off in roughly a month, and the latest update dropped for the Apple Developer app contains new WWDC ’25 stickers. As rumors circulate online about what’s potentially on the horizon between devices and operating systems, one thing has […]

Adapters, accessories and cases: What do I use with my M4 MacBook Air?

Time and time again, the ports on our devices change – prompting many of us to consider at one point or another whether or not to start buying USB-C accessories. Back when the TouchBar MacBook Pro came out, I held out for a while as accessories in general felt overpriced.. not that I was looking […]

macOS Catalina 10.15

Right after the start of fall on October 7th 2019, Apple released macOS Catalina after having been announced June 3rd that same year at WWDC 2019. This version of macOS is named after the Santa Catalina Island, a place off the coast of Southern Cali. This the 7th version of macOS with a California themed […]

Apple Silicon – M1 chip specs

This page details the full hardware profile of the Apple Silicon M1 chip.   Name: M1 Chip Released: November 17th, 2020 Codename: APL1102 Part Number: T8103 Fabrication Process: TSMC’s 5-Nanometer Transistor Count: 16-Billion CPU ISA: ARMv8.5-A . . Memory Bus Width: 128-Bit Total channels: 2 Bit per channel: 64-Bit Memory Type: LPDDR4X-4266 (2133 MHz) ~Bandwidth: […]

Apple device images wallpaper collection

Over the years of being a technology enthusiast I’ve had the opportunity to snap photos of many different electronics, with quite a few close-ups that seemed wallpaper-worthy in my opinion. So went into my photo collection, grabbed up a few I thought were best, and wanted to share them here with everyone. Click on the […]

The New Low End Mac Tech Spec Index: Re-engineered

What originally started as a way to reorganize the splash page for the tech spec index quickly evolved into a deep-dive into every tech spec article – turning into a multi-week long retooling and design project that culminated into a completely re-engineered tech spec index. It seemed like there was a good amount of positive […]

Which PowerBook?

1998: In the computer world, it is all too easy to get so bedazzled by the latest and greatest that one’s vision becomes clouded. Currently, the latest and greatest PowerBooks are the G3 Series II “PDQ” models, and they are indeed fabulous machines.

A History of Video Game Systems, the 70s and 80s

The first video game console, the $100 Magnavox Odyssey, was released 45 years ago in September 1972. The Odyssey had up to three square dots on its black-and-white screen controlled by wired controllers. Plastic overlays were used along with dice, cards, play money, poker chips, and other board game accessories along with 12 different game cards (the […]

Converting HTML Pages to WordPress

Editor’s note: Back in 2013 when Dan Knight still ran Low End Mac, it was around the time our website was transitioning over from HTML to WordPress. This article documents his experiences and some of his tips for others looking to migrate to WordPress. This article was complete, pulled out of our draft archives from […]