Low End Mac Archive for February 9

February 9 in Low End Mac History

Think choices, Dan Knight, Mac Musings. Apple needs to offer consumers more model choices.
Promoting the Macintosh, Jerry Rogers, iMac Musings. Seven reasons to buy a Mac instead of a Windows PC.
Feedback on 'Killer PowerBook', The 'Book Page. Several readers wrote to say that they, too, want PowerBooks with bigger screens.

Apple vs. Mac clones, Adam Robert Guha, Apple Archive. The lessons Apple never learned from Power Computing and the other clone makers.
A Mac education, Tony Petramala, My First Mac. His parents kept buying Windows computers, but what he really wanted was a Mac.
SmartDisk VST FireWire CD-R/W Drive, Dan Knight, MacUSB & FireWire. One pound, 1" thick, a FireWire powered - the perfect portable CD-RW drive?

Apple and the $100 laptop, Dan Knight, Mac Musings. "Apple could leverage their technology to create a $100 handheld computer because they've already paid the cost to develop so much of the technology."

If iPod/iTunes Music Store is anticompetitive, Microsoft's PlaysForSure is even more so, Dan Knight, Mac Musings. If Apple can be sued over the iPod/iTunes/iTMS connection, surely Microsoft's PlaysForSure initiative is worse because it ties you to the Windows platform as well as PlaysForSure players and services.
Yojimbo: A powerful, easy to use information management tool, Ed Eubanks Jr, The Efficient Mac User. Yojimbo "offers a good balance of powerful capabilities and simple user-friendliness that will fit the needs of many."
Intel Core Duo vs. PowerPC G5, time to buy Macintel? Adobe apps coming to Intel late, and more, The Macintel Report. Benchmarks compare Macintel to G5 models, when is it time to switch?, Apple's ads make things awkward for Intel, and Adobe in no hurry to support Macintel users.
Hearing loss 'beside the point' in lawsuit, iPod updater asks for FireWire on USB-only iPods, new cradles, and more, iPod News Review. Also Apple intros 1 GB iPod nano, Royal Navy preps iPod-ready warship, forensic access to iPod's hard drive, high capacity battery for iPod nano, 'impossibly cute' cases, and more.

Aggressively Stupid: The story behind After Dark, Tommy Thomas, Welcome to Macintosh. Interview with Jack Eastman, the man who dreamed up After Dark and its ubiquitous flying toasters.
Microsoft Office 2007: More Mac-like than ever, Adam Robert Guha, Apple Archive. You can teach an old dog new tricks, and Office 2007 shows that Microsoft knows how to build user-friendly software.
Mac market share grows, upgrade iMac with Core 2, 802.11n AirPort benchmarked, and more, Mac News Review. Also Switch to a Mac Guides launched, Vista Home not allowed with virtualization, Happy Hacking Keyboard for Mac, and more.
Faster MacBooks in May?, new EVDO hardware, Wake Assist fixes sleep problem, and more, The 'Book Review9. Also Cree backlighting may appear in next gen MacBooks, Vista/OS X showdown, new Quicky perfect for TiBook, bargain 'Books from $200 to $2,299, and more.

First impressions of the Unibody MacBook, Charles W Moore, 'Book Value. Construction is sold, size is just right, the keyboard and mouse require a bit too much pressure, and just two USB ports is impractical.
Getting more Macs in the workplace despite the recession, Tim Nash, Taking Back the Market. Although Windows is entrenched and IT is slow to change, the reduced costs and increased productivity of letting employees use their own computers a work could change the balance.
Today's netbook market is too small to interest Apple, Frank Fox, Stop the Noiz. Looking at Apple's sales growth and profitability, it has almost nothing to gain by entering the current netbook market.
iPhones 'bad for kids', Gmail Tasks for iPhone, next gen iPhone uncovered, Valentines apps, and more, iNews Review. Also Apple and Adobe working on Flash for iPhone, why Apple should sell a crippled iPhone, why Mac users might want Google's phone, and more.

Firefox 3.7 drops Tiger support: So what?, Dan Knight, Mac Musings. Firefox 3.6 is the last version to run under Mac OS X 10.4. Is not being able to run version 3.7 really a big deal?

Vintage Mac workhorse: Mac Plus with System 6.0.8, Adam Rosen, Adam's Apple. The Mac Plus boots System 6 quickly, reads 400K and 800K disks reliably, and networks with more modern Macs.
Dragon Dictate 2.0.2 'a new high water mark in Mac speech recognition', Charles W Moore, Charles Moore's Mailbag. "On the one hand, it's the closest to perfection in Mac dictation software anyone has yet achieved. On the other hand, there is still plenty of room for improvement...."

LogMeIn: Remote Screen Sharing for the Rest of Us, Alan Zisman, Zis Mac. Configuring the Mac's built-in screen sharing to work over the Internet can be difficult or impossible. LogMeIn makes it easy.