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December 2016
Shopping lists no longer have to be handwritten. Your smartphone can take over this role too.
News of Pebble being taken over by Fitbit had been rumoured, but now it’s official – what does that mean for loyal users?
Keeping in contact with people has never been so instant, but with so many services available, it can be hard to remember who uses what method.
Due to some changes in the household, Low End Mac needs to get rid of one big debt fast. The business, such as it is, owes the IRS just under $7,000, and our monthly payment is $250. In recent months, donations have been short of our budget, and I’ve made some adjustments. The biggest thing […]
Is the Kickstarter smart watch manufacturer about to be taken over and shut down?
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November 2016
Selfie sticks are nothing new. Would you believe a photo was taken with a selfie stick in 1925, back in the era of box cameras? And would you believe that the modern selfie stick era began in 1983?
Powerful computing doesn’t come much cheaper than with a ChromeBook. I take a look at Acer C720 from 2013.
Working at the local Meijer store earlier this week, I noticed that they now have a pack of 8 store branded LED light bulbs for $11.99 – just $1.50 each. (Black Friday pricing: $8.00!) I’d say we have now hit the tipping point where it makes little sense to buy CFL or traditional incandescent bulbs […]
Intel’s next generation CPU architecture, replacing the Skylake chips in most current Macs, is known as Kaby Lake. This 7th generation Intel Core i design provides up to 8 MB of Level 3 cache and is already being used in some PCs. We should see it in Macs in 2017.
A funny thing happened to Mac performance: It stopped making those big strides forward that it used to. Like 1987, when the 16 MHz Mac II blew the doors off the 8 MHz Mac SE with 2.4x its performance, or when the 25 MHz Quadra 700 arrived with over twice the raw power of the […]
Something odd has happened over roughly the last 5 years. Moore’s law is hitting a brick wall (or at least it would seem so). As a result, the difference in a 5 year old Mac today versus a 5 year old Mac from 1995 in the year 2000 or a 5 year old Mac from […]
There has been a lot of hand wringing over the new MacBook Pro with its Touch Bar – and complete lack of legacy ports. I understand. We’ve been here before.
Some of you may remember seeing one of the first personal computers at a Radio Shack store in the latter part of 1977. Although there were three competing “home computer” systems on the market, only the TRS-80 was widely available – it was on display at 3,500 Radio Shack stores throughout the United States!
The Commodore Amiga began its life at Atari. Jay Miner, an engineer at the enormous video game company and the creator of the Atari 800 personal computer, wanted to create a console centered around a 16-bit processor and a floppy drive, which would make development for the new console very easy and inexpensive.
I love a good burger, a good pizza, a good beer, a good computer, a good TV show, and writing. One thing I find almost irresistible is a good bargain – which raises the question, What is a good bargain?
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October 2016
Do you want to use your Windows Phone under macOS Sierra? You are in luck – there is now a fix.
Last week, Apple unveiled three new MacBook Pro models – an entry-level 13″ model with traditional function keys, a more powerful 13″ model with the new Touch Bar, and a 15″ MacBook Pro with Touch Bar. What kind of performance can we expect from the new models?
After a year and a half, Apple has updated the 13″ MacBook Pro, dropping “with Retina Display” from its name and adding some new features – most notably the Touch Bar. There are two 13″ MacBook Pro models in the line now, which is bound to add some confusion among buyers. The entry-level model does […]
With the Late 2016 refresh, Apple has dropped the words “with Retina Display” from the names of its MacBook Pro models. Retina displays are standard across the board on all MacBooks. What’s new is the Touch Bar, which replaces the dedicated row of function keys that have been present on Mac notebooks since the 68040 […]
October 2016 – Yes, in moderation, beer is good for you. It can help you sleep better, increase bone density, help prevent kidney stones, and help you avoid diabetes and dementia, among other health benefits.
October 21, 2016 will go down as one of the biggest cyber-attacks in the history of the Internet – perhaps the biggest ever. We’re going to learn a lot from this one, and we need to be sure to take steps to avoid it happening again.
If you’ve been following the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 nightmare, you know it’s given Samsung a serious black eye. Kudos to Samsung for doing the right thing and recalling the entire production just weeks after its introduction.
Apple and Samsung have had an interesting relationship over the years. On the one hand, Apple buys a lot of components from Samsung Electronics. On the other, Samsung is a leading competitor in the mobile market. Some might call them frenemies, others see it as a symbiotic relationship.
The personal computing revolution started in 1974 with the 2 MHz Intel 8080, Intel’s first 8-bit CPU capable of addressing 64 KB of memory. (The earlier 8008 from 1972 could only address 16 KB.) But there was a parallel path, a new CPU family that Motorola launched in 1974.
Believe it or not, word processing predated the personal computer revolution by over a decade. In 1964, IBM combined its Selectric typewriter (1961) with a magnetic tape drive in the IBM MT/ST, making it possible for the first time to edit text without having to retype everything.
The personal computing revolution began with the Intel 8080 CPU. This 8-bit CPU was introduced in 1974 at 2 MHz and was the heart of the first kit computer, the MITS Altair 8800. But it was the far less costly 6502 CPU that drove the home computing market.
Mac users have had networking since 1984 using Apple’s 230.4 Kbps LocalTalk hardware and AppleTalk protocol. However, there was an older networking standard with roots at Xerox PARC (which also inspired the Mac’s look and feel) known as ethernet that was destined to become the networking standard.
The following collection of articles is adapted from postings by Scott L. Barber, an all around Mac geek, on our Quadlist email list circa 1998. Although a few of these are specific to 68040-based Macs, most have much wider application (or, at times, much narrower), and in some cases these look at technologies long since […]
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September 2016
The World Wide Web is a vast place, and not all of it is suitable for children. I take a look at the Supervised User option in ChromeOS, aimed at keeping them away from the nasties of the Net while on a ChromeBook.
With the October 2005 introduction of the 2.5 GHz Power Mac G5 Quad, Apple had introduced the most powerful PowerPC Mac ever. Whatever was to replace it had to be a real powerhouse – and the first Mac Pro certainly was.
I take a look at Chrome OS and the 11” Samsung ChromeBook Series 3 XE303C12 from 2013.
With macOS Sierra, Apple has once again raised the bar on which Macs can install and run the newest version of the Mac OS. But as sometimes has happened in the past, there are workarounds that make it possible to install Sierra on some unsupported Macs.
I’ve been running iOS 10 for a week now. What do I think of it on my iPhone 5?
For the first time since Apple released OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion in July 2012, Apple has dropped support for a number of older Macs that had supported OS X 10.8 through 10.11 El Capitan. No MacBook and iMac models prior to Late 2009 and no MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and Mac Pro […]
Trevor Wale shares his thoughts and experiences of this Macintosh world that we all know and love.
Tommy Thomas shares his interviews with some of the people who keep the oldest Macs – those built around Motorola 680×0 CPUs – alive and useful.
I take a look at the EnerPlex Surfr battery case for the iPhone 5/5s with a built-in solar charger.
Apple has just released iOS 10 – but how does it fare on the lowest supported iPhone?
Until 2001, September 11 was just another day on the calendar. The unexpected terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center shocked us and had us glued to the news throughout the day. Except for the heroes and newscasters, almost all of us stopped what we were doing, watching in shock and horror and […]
There are three different business models in the PC, smartphone, and tablet industries. The most widely used model is for one company to make the operating system and license it to a host of hardware manufacturers. This has given us the Windows market where no matter how badly PC makers do, Microsoft remains profitable.
Apple just announced iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, but will you be upgrading just because they are new?
One of the greatest games ever created, Doom. I check out the iOS port.
The big stuff first: The iPhone 7 is waterproof, no longer comes with a built-in headphone jack, and adds Jet Black to its color lineup. It’s the same size as the iPhone 6 and 6S, and there is no longer a 16 GB model – choices are 32 GB, 128 GB, and 256 GB, but […]
There are several kinds of Duo Docks of two main types: The full docks, such as the Apple Duo Dock, take the Duo inside much like a tape into a VCR; full docks provide ADB for keyboard and mouse, video, floppy, SCSI chain, two NuBus card slots, and two serial ports.
The Apple Power Mac Processor Upgrade (APMPU) is a PowerPC 601 upgrade for 68040-based Macs that have a 32-bit LC processor direct slot (PDS) – the Quadra 605/LC 475/Performa 475-476, LC 575/Performa 575-578, LC 580/Performa 580-588, and Quadra 630/LC 630/Performa 630 series.
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August 2016
The Apple Power Mac Upgrade Card (APMUC) plugs into the 68040 Processor Direct Slot (PDS) of the Centris 650, Quadra 650, Quadra 700, Quadra 800, Quadra 900, and Quadra 950 and provides PowerPC 601 power. With an adapter, it also works in the Centris 610 and Quadra 610. It is not compatible with 68040-based Macs […]
The DayStar Turbo 601 provides full PowerPC 601 performance and compatibility – it even provides faster performance for 680×0-based applications. The Turbo 601 was available in 66 MHz and 100 MHz versions for the Mac IIci, Mac IIsi, and Mac IIvi/IIvx/Performa 600.
Getting an old (2002) 700 MHz iMac G4 with just 512 MB of memory up and running reminded me of what a nice – and still useful – operating system Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger is, especially on that old Apple PowerPC hardware.
Yes, Android is the top selling mobile platform around the world. Yes, Android dominates the low end of the smartphone and tablet markets. So why do you see so many iPhone and iPad cases and accessories when you go shopping?
The Google Chrome story began when Google introduced its new Chrome browser in September 2008. Initially it was Windows only, for XP and later, and Chrome was only for Windows until 2009. It was finally released for Mac OS X and Linux in May 2010.
The Quadra 840av has no system memory on its motherboard and has four 72-pin SIMM sockets for memory expansion to 128 MB.
The Centris 660av and Quadra 660av are identical except for the name plate. They have 4 MB of RAM soldered to the motherboard and two 72-pin SIMM sockets for memory expansion.
Whether marked Quadra 630 DOS Compatible, LC 630 DOS Compatible, or Performa 631 or 640, these models have 4 MB of RAM soldered to the motherboard, two 72-pin SIMM sockets for memory expansion up to 52 MB, and usually a DOS Compatibility card as well.
This page provides information about modifying the motherboard in your Quadra, Performa, or LC 630 series computer. Such modifications are not authorized by Apple. Any modifications you perform on your Mac may damage it. Modifications are done at your own risk.
In recent weeks we’ve done an in-depth look at Mac floppy disk formats, published a 5-part series on Palm, launched a Facebook group for Newton users, looked at memory upgrade options for long-discontinued Macs, talked about the Mac Color Classic, and looked at some of the more obscure Mac clones from the mid-1990s. Earlier this […]
The Color Classic has been lauded by many Mac faithful as what the original Macintosh should have been. The computer was made available to the general public on February 10, 1993, and was received well by reviewers.
Earlier today in the Apple Macintosh Enthusiasts Facebook group, Charles Lott asked if an OS X Mac with a USB floppy drive could write disks that a Mac running System 7 could use. The short answer is, it depends.
On August 2, 2016, Firefox 48.0 was released. It is scheduled to be replaced by Firefox 49.0 on September 13, 2016. At that point, Mac users using OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, 10.7 Lion, and 10.8 Mountain Lion will be left behind by the current versions of Firefox. It will be a sad day, as […]
This Old Newton is Low End Mac’s user-to-user Facebook support group for Apple Newton users, including MessagePads, eMates, and licensed devices. The group was begun on 2016.08.09 and is meant to replace the defunct Apple Newton group on Facebook.
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 […]
Apple released the first Mac mini with a 64-bit CPU in August 2007, although the Mac OS that shipped with it was a 32-bit operating system, whether OS X 10.4 Tiger or 10.5 Leopard. It wasn’t until OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard arrived two years later – in August 2009 – that we had the […]
Pokemon Go officially requires iOS 8 and an iPhone 5/5c – but it does run on an iPhone 4s. I check it out.
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July 2016
Life was so much easier in the olden days of the Classic Mac OS. Every PostScript printer worked with Apple’s standard LaserWriter driver. That’s not true in the world of Mac OS X, where you need the correct CUPS printer definition to take advantage of all your printer’s features.
I think I’ve wanted to have a fisheye lens since I was in high school. A fisheye lens usually covers a 180° angle, although some are 150-170° and a couple very expensive Nikkors managed to cover 220°! To cover such a wide angle, these lenses introduced a curved distortion that is instantly recognizable.
We love old technology, especially old tech that worked well. That’s why we’re passionate about Mac – and big fans of Palm OS PDAs and smartphones. This page lists all of our content about the Palm OS and the hardware that ran it.
Palm had started as a software company that decided to make its own PDA because nobody else saw what Palm’s founders did. Palm dominated the PDA world and was one of the strongest players in the smartphone realm as well. So what went wrong?
Apple introduced the Mac mini in January 2005 as the smallest consumer computer on the planet. The original version ran a 1.25 GHz or 1.42 GHz G4 CPU on a 167 MHz bus and accepts a maximum 1 GB of system memory. It shipped with OS X 10.3 Panther and also supports 10.4 Tiger and […]
Downgrading from iOS 10 beta is easier than you think. I take you through how to complete the process and return to the latest official version.
Handspring had been founded by several members of Palm Computing in June 1998 and was the second Palm OS licensee to ship product – and probably the most successful (see Part 3). In 2003, Palm Inc. merged with Handspring in a mutual agreement by both companies. This marks a new chapter in the story of […]
Apple took a nice step forward when it introduced the first Aluminum iMacs (iMac7,1) in July 2007. The logic board uses the Santa Rosa chipset, and it has an 800 MHz data bus, up from 667 MHz on earlier Intel-based iMacs. The CPU sits in a socket (Socket P), so you can upgrade it!
The first three generations of Intel-based iMacs use the same Socket M to mount the CPU and have a 667 MHz system bus. The CPU is not soldered in place, allowing the Early 2006, Mid 2006, and Late 2006 iMacs to take the same CPU upgrades, bringing speeds as high as 2.33 GHz.
The first three generations of Intel-based Mac minis used the same Socket M to mount the CPU on a 667 MHz system bus. The CPU is not soldered in place, allowing the Early 2006, Late 2006, and Mid 2007 models to take the same CPU upgrades, bringing speeds as high as 2.33 GHz.
The Treo revolutionized the PDA market. Earlier attempts at wireless PDAs failed to make an impression on the market – the Motorola Marco and the Qualcomm pdQ were notable examples. They were much larger than their non-wireless counterparts, were expensive, and had only limited wireless functionality.
With the release of the first PalmPilots on March 10, 1996, Palm finally addressed issues it had been dealing with by making software for other people’s hardware since 1992 (see Part 1). For the first time, Palm had its own hardware and software, and the Palm brand became synonymous with PDA (Personal Digital Assistant).
This page lists some of the best software for the Classic Mac OS – System 6 through Mac OS 9.2.2 – in my admittedly biased opinion. Listings are alphabetical, and some programs have OS X versions as well as classic ones. Many links are to archived files in my Dropbox.
Palm Computing was largely the creation and vision of one man, Jeff Hawkins. Palm first brought tablet computing to consumers in the form of PDAs (but was beaten by Apple and its scions). The later – and more momentous – goal was to bring consumers to PDAs through simple and very fast user interfaces. This […]
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.
For nearly as long as I’ve published Low End Mac, we’ve had the “Road Apples” category for Macs that we felt didn’t live up to their potential (here’s an archive link to the 1998 Road Apples index). Sometimes it was because of hardware architecture. Sometimes it was because of unnecessary memory ceilings. And much of […]
I’ve been using a standup desk in my home office, and my recent job manufacturing high pressure air hoses required me to stand most of the day. A standing desk makes it easier to move around than sitting in a chair, but it can be hard on your body in other ways.
Prior to 2006, PowerBook was consistently one of the most respected and lusted after brands in the portable computing market.
While most early Mac clones depended on Macintosh ROMs to function, NuTek spent four years reverse engineering the ROMs in a clean room in its quest to produce a legal Mac clone. It didn’t exactly succeed.
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.
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.
One of the less well known Mac clone lines, MaxxBoxx was released in Germany in July 1997 to fill the needs of users with very demanding applications.
Most early Mac clones were built around 8-16 MHz 68000 CPUs or 16-40 MHz 68030 chips, but the 68000 Dash 30fx ran its 68030 at a blazing 50 MHz – 25% faster than the “wicked fast” Mac IIfx, which was the fastest computer on the market when it went on sale in March 1990. The Dash […]
In addition to building the first commercial portable Mac, the WalkMac, Chuck Colby also developed the first Mac tablet, which he called the Colby Classmate™ Portable Computer. It was introduced at the August 1991 Macworld Expo in Boston. The Classmate is built around a Mac Classic logic board. It has a built-in trackball and membrane […]
You may not remember the Atari ST family, a series of computers based on the same 8 MHz Motorola 680×0 CPUs as the early Macs. They never really carved out a niche in the US, although they were moderately popular in Europe. The STs offered PC compatible floppy drives, a DOS-compatible filing system, and GEM, […]
Perhaps the best known early portable Mac clone came from Outbound systems. It was announced in August 1989, just weeks before Apple unveiled the Macintosh Portable. The Outbound Portable Plus uses the same 68000 CPU as the Plusand SE, but runs it nearly twice as fast at 15 MHz. It has a unique built-in pointing […]
Thanks to Richard Savary for sending information about the Dynamac. Mentioned in Byte (May 1988), the jet black Dynamac EL weighs 18 pounds, uses an 8 MHz 68000 CPU, has an 800K floppy, and shipped with 1 MB RAM (expandable to 2.5 MB or 4 MB). It was essentially a portable Mac Plus. The electroluminescent (EL) screen supports […]
In the era of the Sony Walkman™, it was inevitable someone would create a WalkMac. That’s what Chuck Colby called his portable when it was introduced in 1987. The Colby WalkMac was the first portable, battery-powered Mac. It was available in two configurations: SE ($4,498) and SE/30 ($6,798). Battery life was about three hours. For […]
This could be the rarest Mac compatible ever made. Outside of a few prototypes, only about 100 McMobiles were ever made. The first prototype (pictured here) used Mac Plus parts in a Plexiglas case to produce a 15 pound laptop with 15-30 minutes of battery power – that’s a bit lighter than the Mac Portable […]
Since Brazil didn’t allow the import of microcomputers until 1993, anything users wanted had to be made in and for the local market. For those who wanted a Macintosh, Unitron created the Mac 512, essentially a clone of the 512 KB “Fat Mac”. Unitron Mac 512, the first Macintosh clone. Rainer Brockerhoff from Brazil writes, […]
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June 2016
Honestly, if they didn’t keep dropping support for OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard in new versions of Chrome, Firefox, and Flash, I’d have almost no reason to have OS X 10.9 Mavericks on my Late 2008 13″ Aluminum MacBook (that’s a 2013 OS on a 2008 computer). But my Mid 2007 Mac mini is limited […]
The scroll wheel came late to Macs. In fact, although every version of Mac OS X includes support for a scroll wheel, no Apple mouse has ever had a scroll wheel. The closest they ever came was the scroll ball in the Apple Mighty Mouse.
I will be the first to admit that I have always considered the iMac G4 to be an odd looking computer. A coworker gave me an old one a few months ago, and I finally got the right power cord to set it up. It’s changed my opinion of the machine.
We’re sounding like a broken record here, but what was Apple thinking by offering a 4 GB Early 2015 MacBook Air that shipped with OS X 10.10 Yosemite – an operating system that limps along with 4 GB of system memory and cries out for 8 GB? I hope most users had the sense to […]
Macintosh games do not come more classic than the Marathon series. And now you can play all three on your modern Mac courtesy of the Aleph One project.
15 years in the making, Duke Nukem Forever brings back classic first person shooters and over the top sexism to the gaming world.
At Worldwide Developer Conference 2016, Apple reveals a new name for OS X. Hello, macOS.
The iPhone 5 and 5c will both receive iOS 10, making them the lowest supported iPhones in the new iOS version.
Playing older PC games on your modern Mac used to be tricky. Boxer takes the hassle out of it.
Apple corrects an error on their website which caused confusion over which iDevices would receive iOS 10.
Apples 2016 Worldwide Developer Conference has just finished – what does it mean for your iDevice and Mac?
Apple really messed up with the Early 2014 MacBook Air. The base version had just 4 GB of memory, and it shipped with OS X 10.9 Mavericks, the last version of OS X to run comfortably with 4 GB of memory. It’s a good thing Apple also offered an 8 GB option for those planning […]
Apple messed up with the Mid 2013 MacBook Air. It shipped with OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, and the base version had just 4 GB of memory. That was enough to run Mountain Lion and OS X 10.9 Mavericks, but OS X 10.10 Yosemite and beyond really want more memory. It’s a good thing Apple […]
Apple updated the MacBook Air again in June 2012, moving to faster Intel Core i5 and i7 CPUs, making 4 GB of memory standard, and gaining USB 3. For the first time, the MacBook Air had an 8 GB option.
Apple updated the MacBook Air in July 2011, migrating to the far more efficient Intel Core i5 and i7 CPUs, adding Thunderbolt connectivity, and going to a 6 GBps SATA Rev. 3 drive bus to further improve SSD performance. Sadly, Apple continued to sell a 2 GB version, which was scarcely adequate for the OS […]
In October 2010, Apple added an 11″ model to the MacBook Air line – and a new low in CPU speeds for the line. On the plus side, the pokey 1.8″ hard drives were history, and the line was now 100% SSD – and it had a 4 GB memory option plus a new graphics […]
The Mid 2009 MacBook Air was essentially a speed-bumped version of the Late 2008 MacBook Air. It runs at up to 2.13 GHz – almost 15% faster by clock speed – but it is still limited to 2 GB of RAM.
Where the original MacBook Air was a certifiable Road Apple due to its slow PATA drive bus, horribly slow 1.8″ hard drive, and fixed 2 GB of memory, the Late 2008 MacBook Air isn’t quite as bad. Yes, it is still limited to 2 GB of RAM, but at least it uses SATA for its […]
When Apple introduced the original MacBook Air in January 2008, 2 GB seemed like plenty of memory. This was the era of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, which ran very comfortably with 2 GB – even with graphics eating up 144 MB of system memory. But limited memory was not the MBA’s only problem.
Doom and Doom 2 were amazing. How does the follow up a decade later compare?
There are lots of convenience and “smart” features these days when it comes to your TV viewing experience. One of the greatest features has traditionally been the ability to control a wide variety of devices with one. This began with the time tested universal remote control that still dominates many home theater set-ups today.
Low End Mac is a community-based resource with a website containing thousands upon thousands of articles, lots of support communities in Google Groups, and a very active, very helpful Facebook group. Our goal is to help you get the most life and value from you aging Macs.
Can you remember a time before pervasive wireless Internet access? I can. On June 21, 1999, Apple’s Steve Jobs introduced Apple’s consumer laptop – the iBook – during his keynote address at that season’s Macworld conference.
Apple is expected to announce iOS 10 in the next few weeks at the WWDC – but what could it mean for existing iDevices?
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May 2016
One of the finest gaming experiences you will ever come across, Quake 2 is still a marvellous example of the first person shooter genre nearly 20 years on.
Feature phone or dumb phone? Apple Phone or iPod Phone? The chances of Apple producing either is slim, but it has opened up a great topic for debate.
Simon Royal suggested that Apple might make inroads with a non-smartphone, which he labelled the iPod Phone. It’s an interesting idea, but Palm had an even better nearly 10 years ago.
Apple are well established in the smartphone market – but could the iPhone giant branch into the budget basic phone arena and put its own spin on it?
Douglas Adams is best known as the author of The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which originated as a radio serial on BBC Radio 4 in 1978. In 1979, the first novelized version was published, followed by The Restaurant at the End of the Universe in 1980 and Life, the Universe and Everything in […]
Apple surprised everyone by giving the iPhone 4s a fifth major iOS release. How does a 2016 OS fare on a 2011 phone?
It was almost two years ago that Apple announced it was acquiring Beats by Dr Dre, and by the end of August 2014, the acquisition was finalized. The most common rumors were that Apple was going to use a digital headphone jack instead of the traditional round analog headphone jack in all future iPhones – […]
Thank you for your ongoing support of Low End Mac, a community-based resource. Last month, Low End Mac entered its 20th year online – and Apple began its 40th year in business. From the start as a hobbyist website, we advocated the use of older Macs. I remember designing a booklet using PageMaker 1.0 on […]
By the early 1990s, the Macintosh was moving away from its black and white roots and into the world of full color. The last of the compact black and white screen Macs, the Classic II, ceased production in 1992. A few years after that, Apple closed out the last production run of grayscale PowerBooks. With […]
The development of MacPaint 2.0 changed the way the average computer user used his or her machine for all time. Instead of just having a typewriter or number crunching machine, the Macintosh could do work in the visual area as well
Although it has been a while in terms of the life span of the typical child growing up in the computer age, the year 1984 was a highlight. Besides the fact that 1984 was the year the first Macintosh was introduced, the year marked a change in the way computers were used.
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April 2016
Not everyone needs a brand new iPhone, but which model you pick will depend on what you want to do with it.
Despite the best efforts of Microsoft, its consumer mobile platform just can’t break through. Does it still have a chance, or is it dead in the water?
In the past month, I’ve gone from only using an iPhone 4S to setting up an iPhone 5S for my wife and an iPhone 5 for myself. Looking back at iPhone history, there have been some big leaps forward in power – and some small ones.
Like clockwork, Apple introduces a new iPhone model (or set of models) every year. In September 2012, the iPhone 5 was the new one. We’re now three generations beyond that. How viable is the iPhone 5 today?
I just have to say Thank You! to everyone who has contributed to Low End Mac in March and April. Both months you have brought us beyond our goal, and it means the world to us. Yesterday we passed our funding goal for April.
Just over a year ago, Apple introduced a whole new model under the MacBook name – barely a half-inch thick and just a touch over two pounds. The Early 2016 model takes the next step forward with Intel Core m3, m5, and m7 processors and Intel HD Graphics 515. Also new for 2016 is rose […]
The way we talk on the Internet fundamentally changed over the past 20 years. When I came online through AOL in the mid 1990s there were chat rooms and instant messaging clients. I still remember the *beep* of my ICQ client when receiving a message all those years after.
After months of warnings every time I launched Google Chrome on my 2007 Mac mini running OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, Google has finally abandoned that platform. And OS X 10.7 Lion. And OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. (Not to mention Windows XP, which isn’t a Mac OS but definitely has a lot of users […]
Commodore was the third player in the 68000-based personal computer market, going up against the Apple Macintosh and Atari ST. Commodore had acquired Amiga in 1984.
Frankly, we can only think of one good reason for running OS X 10.5 Leopard on an Intel Mac: You don’t have enough system memory to run OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard decently and you’re not willing to invest in more RAM.*
Macs tend to be pretty trouble-free, but sometimes things happen. Maybe you had to force-quit an application, or a program refuses to launch, or the spinning beachball of death won’t stop, forcing you to manually power down your Mac. All of those could mean it’s time to do some hard drive and system checks.
I can’t believe how affordable SSDs have become. Last year I put a 256 GB Samsung SSD in my 2.0 GHz 2007 Mac mini for $90. This time I put a 480 GB Crucial SSD into my Late 2008 Aluminum MacBook (also 2.0 GHz) for $110!
Today’s Mac computers are amazing. They’re sleek, slim, extremely powerful, and filled with features like iCloud, AirPlay mirroring, Notification Center, and so on. So why are old Macs holding more value now than ever before, and does it make more sense to buy a new machine or a used one if the cost difference between […]
While reading through The Nehemiah Effect, a book coauthored by a friend, I’ve spent some time musing over things like a vision statement, a mission statement, core values, attitudes, objectives, and goals. It’s really helped me look back over my life to see who I am while I defined these things for Low End Mac.
Last week, I looked at whether partitioning or formatting USB flash drives in other ways made a difference, and I found out that the stock FAT format tends to produce the best results overall. Today I’m testing striped RAID arrays using the same flash drives in 2, 3, and 4 drive configurations.
Thanks to about 90 readers, we surpassed our March fund raising goal by nearly 20%, giving us enough to cover our 2015 taxes, pay our monthly business bills, pick up a nice used 16 GB iPhone 5S, and acquire a new SSD for one of our MacBooks. If we hit our $800 goal this month, I […]
The iPhone SE seems to have been an instant hit, but what – if anything – will Apple follow it up with?
When you buy a USB flash drive, it comes preformatted for use on Window PCs. But will it work more efficiently if its reformatted in a Mac-native format? We just had to find out.
In late 2015, I reviewed the budget Microsoft Lumia 435 handset. Now its 2016, and I check it out upgraded to Windows 10 Mobile.
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March 2016
I take a hands on look at the new ‘budget’ 4” special edition iPhone.
If you’re a loyal Low End Mac user, chances are you’ve heard of TenFourFox, the popular Firefox fork for PowerPC Macs. Few, however, have heard of TenFourFoxBox, a program for your OS X 10.4 or 10.5 PowerPC Macintosh that turns ordinary websites into web apps. While it does not require you to run TenFourFox alongside it, […]
Microsoft just released Windows 10 Mobile to existing handset owners. I check it out and give you my initial thoughts.
I hadn’t realized how much work it would be to move my wife from her iPhone 4S to an iPhone 5S. The project took many, many more hours than anticipated.
Recently announced, the iPhone SE is the much rumoured return to 4” iPhones. So what do I think of it?
Windows 10 Mobile might be the shiny new beast from Microsoft, but you ought to check if your handset will be eligible for it, as a lot won’t be – and this hasn’t gone down well with fans.
Until yesterday, Apple had never designed a low-end iPhone. Every single iPhone model had been designed as the top-end iPhone and only became low-end as newer models arrived. The iPhone SE changes that.
As a community-based resource, Low End Mac depends on its readers to help cover our expenses. We came to you on March 8 to request $2,000 in support to cover monthly expenses, taxes, and give us a bit extra to upgrade our old Macs and iPhones. You came through with flying colors!
Microsoft is finally rolling out its final release of Windows 10 Mobile to existing handsets, but whether your beloved Windows phone will get it is a good question.
Last Sunday, March 13, we tried to launch a site redesign that had looked just fine on a test server. Well, some problems cropped up, but things are looking pretty good right now.
It’s been rumored that Apple was working on a new low-end model to replace the 4″ iPhone 5S, and that new model is called the iPhone SE. It looks like an iPhone 5S, but it has the same A9 CPU as the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus which gives it double the power of the 5S. It’s […]
If you have an old iPhone or iPod with the 30-pin dock connector, there are some real deals out there for charging on the cheap.
When Apple introduced the third generation iPod in April 2002, it added a new 30-pin dock connector that could charge the iPod from FireWire, as with all prior iPods, and USB, which finally came to the iPod with the 3G model. While the plug and port were unchanged, over time some pin assignments changed.
If you have ever tried to network unlock a phone in the UK, it could be a frustrating experience. Well now it is a little easier.
I take a look at the Lumia 535, the large Quad Core mid-range Windows Phone from Microsoft.
With Firefox preparing to leave behind OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, 10.7 Lion, and 10.8 Mountain Lion after Firefox 45 ESR* is replaced by the next Extended Support Release, I suggested it might be time for the Mac community to develop a branch of Mozilla that continues to support Snow Leopard. But maybe not.
Low End Mac has been on the Web since April 1997, and one of the first community-building things we did was create an email list for Mac Quadra users later that year. While groups already existed for 68030 and earlier Macs as well as PowerPC Macs, 68040 Macs had been overlooked.
Those using G3, G4, or G5 Macs with OS X 10.4 Tiger or 10.5 Leopard are no doubt aware of TenFourFox, a port of the latest Extended Release version of Firefox to these old systems. With Chrome and Firefox due to drop OS X 10.6, 10.7, and 10.8 support, perhaps it’s time for a similar […]
The Intel iMac Group is a group for anyone using an Intel-based iMac. Group begun 2016.03.16.
I’ve been using an iPhone 4S since the days when the iPhone 5 was the top-end model, so sometime in early 2013. That replaced an iPhone 3GS, which was the entry-level model when I got it in late 2010. And with iOS 9.2.1, the 4S has become remarkably sluggish.
The goal of each of our groups is to create and maintain helpful user communities. The following policies have been established for Low End Mac’s Google Groups. They may be revised as necessary.
There are informal rules of Internet communication which are termed netiquette to help people use proper etiquette within forums and email groups. Some examples of poor netiquette are not signing messages, sending unsubscribe messages to the posting address (instead of the administrative address), or TYPING IN ALL CAPS (which is the equivalent of yelling).
Low End Mac has been online since April 1997 and is composed of thousands upon thousands of pages. Everything from 2013 and beyond is in WordPress. Our most popular content from before 2013 is also in WordPress. But thousands upon thousands of articles are still in HTML files.
I’ve been publishing Low End Mac for nearly 19 years. We’ve had our good years, which peaked around 2007. And we’ve had our bad years, one after the other ever since. We no longer pay our writers, myself included. We are a community based organization staffed by volunteers. We have expenses – hosting, phone, Internet, […]
2012 saw HTC release its first flagship Windows phone, the HTC 8x, but will it see Windows 10 Mobile?
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’ve already launched LEM Swap UK, LEM Swap Canada, and LEM Swap Australia. Today we start LEM Swap USA.
Okay, for those of you unsure about The Rumor Mill, here’s the lowdown: it’s a farce. There are no contacts at Apple Computer. There are no leaks from anyone reaching us. There is no Anne Onymus.
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’ve already launched LEM Swap UK and LEM Swap Canada. Today we start LEM Swap Australia. We’ll be adding LEM Swap USA soon.
One of the great benefits of Apple moving to Intel CPUs is that we have access to Google’s Chrome browser, which rapidly displaced Firefox as the alternative browser of choice among Windows users after its release in Sept. 2008. For some of us, that is coming to an end in April.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in nearly 30 years using Macs, it’s that Apple will be Apple. They will change things for the better. They will change things for the worse. And they rarely change their mind.
With everyone having computers, mobile phones, and MP3 players, is there a place for home audio systems in our digital age?
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February 2016
Every four years, we get a February 29th. What’s the story behind that? And how long has this been going on?
Michael Roeder reports: I bought my Macintosh Centris 610 way back in 1993. It’s been a reliable and fun replacement for my Mac Plus. Because I have some way cool computers at work, I haven’t had the need to buy a new Mac of my own.
There are some fairly consistent reports of the Sonnet Presto 040 having severe problems with browsers over PPP connections.
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’ve already launched LEM Swap UK, LEM Swap Canada, and LEM Swap Australia so we can learn from a smaller group before launching a group for the larger US audience.
I take my son’s Windows 10 laptop with its ‘free upgrade’ version and do a clean install, with a twist. Does it go well?
With all the advances in mobile phone technology, your handset still needs to be reliable as a phone, but getting that isn’t easy.
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January 2016
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!
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.
