I love the Classic Mac OS, the Mac operating system prior to Mac OS X. Mac OS 8 has to be one of favourite classic OSes.
Author Archives: Adam Geller
The Clamshell iBook has to be one of Apple’s most debated products. Some say it’s gorgeous, some say it’s hideous, and it’s described in some of the most bizarre ways – Barbie’s handbag and the toilet seat to name a few.
I had some video files I needed burning to a DVD-video yesterday, so started looking around for something free, and I stumbled across a superb little application called Burn.
Since the dawn of Mac OS X, there have been major and minor versions. That is, versions that introduced major features and those that focus mainly on speed improvements and streamlining, bringing only small new features or additions.
This is a very simple and easy-to-build project that provides a sensor on the pedal crank of any exercise bike and generates keyboard output triggering Google Maps Street View to advance via the up arrow key.
On June 23, 2003, Apple introduced the first Power Mac G5, which represented some big changes from the G4. The Power Mac G5 was the first Power Mac with built-in USB 2.0, the first to use PCI-X expansion slots, and the first with onboard support for SATA drives. It was also the first Mac to […]
Back in February, my first generation 13″ MacBook Pro died of logic board failure, and I was forced to sell it due to the fact that I was starting dual credit courses at my local community college and needed a small, cheap, lightweight laptop that could follow me around and take a beating. I was […]
What does thermal compound do, and why should you be concerned about it? Call me simple, but I had no idea what thermal compound was until about a year ago when I decided to upgrade the factory-installed RAM on my iMac G4. Apparently there is a two-part heatsink in the good ol’ Luxo Mac that […]
Here at Low End Mac, we not only use older Macs, but also older iDevices. Released in 2009, the iPhone 3GS is now Apple’s low-end phone.
Swap space. Swap files. Page files. Virtual memory. It’s all pretty much the same thing: Extending your computer’s physical system memory (RAM) by swapping data to and from your hard drive or SSD.
There’s just something about a ThinkPad. Whether it’s the solid build quality that gets you or the strange charm of that boring black case, the ThinkPad line manages to capture that feeling of portable, professional power like none other (well, unless you’re from our sister site, Low End Mac, where the PowerBook G3 Pismo reigns […]
Steve Jobs unveils the iMac on May 6, 1998. There is so much to say about the original iMac: Not only is it iconic in the Apple world, but in the whole computing world. Apple was really struggling prior to the launch of the iMac, on the brink of going under.
Macs tend to be very reliable and make great servers, and now that Apple is phasing out OS X Server, we need to look at alternatives. For serving websites and web development, Macs can run Apache web server, MySQL database engine, along with PHP, Perl, and Python – thus the acronym MAMP for Mac, Apache, […]
For low-end Mac users, you can pick up older Macs for a lot less than a new one, and if you are looking for something very old, you might even be lucky enough to snag a free Mac.
I am a low-end user mainly due to financial constraints, and therefore I am always on the look out for inexpensive accessories and cables. One of my favourite haunts is my local Poundland. People in the UK know what this is, a chain of stores where every item is £1. I am sure folks in […]
On May 1, 2001, Apple toned down its consumer portable range from the marvelous colourful and oversized Clamshell iBook to the sleek white “IceBook” (more officially called the “Dual USB iBook”). In 2009, I took a break from the Mac world, sold my Titanium PowerBook G4, and moved to Linux. Shortly after coming to my […]
Apple laptops have always run on the hot side, especially compared to Windows machines. but does adding more RAM add to the problem?
Prior to OS X, Apple had a rock solid operating system that was fast and stable, but by the time Mac OS 9 was released in 1999, it was looking very dull and dated, especially compared to what Microsoft was offering in the shape of Windows NT 4 (released July 1996), Windows 98 (released June 1998), and […]
As much as I love getting the most out of older Apple machines and devices and being a low-end user, sometimes I just want to be up there running the latest software and operating systems.
The next piece of Apple equipment to upgrade is my phone, but will that be an iPhone 3GS?
Ask what is the first thing in a computer to fail – especially in Macs – and the most likely answer you will hear is the optical drive. I have had countless internal optical drives fail or become so unreliable that they are practically useless, and this seems even more common in laptops (or machines […]
A big reason for Windows users to consider a move to Mac has been the virtual nonexistence of Mac malware. Computerworld reported the existence of a million different computer viruses at the end of 2008 – but that’s been almost entirely an issue for Windows users.
In early 2004, I bought an eMac G4. It was a 1 GHz model and my first brand new Mac. It wasn’t until 2008 that I picked up a 1.25 GHz model, and I also bought two 800 MHz models (ATI ones).
I have been writing for Low End Mac for just under four years and have written over 70 articles on various topics in that time, but why do I do it?
I recently wrote about some Core 2 Duo Macs not being able to boot to a 64-bit kernel (see More Macs Left Behind by Developer Preview 2 of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion), and since then I have done some further research. After my article was published, I was contacted by a fellow reader who […]
Being a low-end Mac user gives you little experience of the shiny new world of Macs and essentially the Apple Store. I have peered through the window of the recently opened local store, drooling over all the latest Apple gear inside. If you use an older Mac, chances are you are more than used to […]
I recently purchased a MacBook – an Early 2009 model – on the premise that (based on the Developer Preview at the time) it met the requirements for the forth coming Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, which is due out this summer.
If anyone has an original iPhone and doesn’t do much surfing, I would urge you to install whited00r on it, breathe new life into your aging (but still very capable phone), and marvel at the speed of it.
Last Thursday, Nancy Caroll Gravly shared her opinion on The Mac Observer, essentially saying that there is no legitimate reason not to be running the latest version of OS X on your Mac. Here at Low End Mac, that caught our attention. Our thesis is that you often don’t need the latest hardware and/or operating […]
Six years after Apple switched to Intel, I am finally back owning one, but sadly leaving the PowerPC Mac world behind. In 2006, I became one the first to jump to Intel with a 1.83 GHz iMac. It replaced my 1 GHz G4 eMac, and the difference was amazing. The sheer processing speed of the new […]
If you are using an unofficial carrier, you might find yourself running into problems when trying to set up mobile internet settings of MMS settings.
I spent all day arguing with my fellow local Mac group members about Apple’s decision to release another version of OS X less than twelve months after Lion – and the rapid pace at which Apple is making Macs outdated. Then it suddenly struck me: Why am I bothered? I’m not going to be in the […]
2012 – Remember the early 1990s, when we found out about QuickTime and were all so excited about viewing five-second low-resolution clips on our Macs? We could finally play video on our computers! I remember it like it was yesterday. A new project for Mac OS 8-9 brought back those sweet memories: Cornica.org. What Is Cornica? […]
In terms of expandability, the G3 PowerBooks introduced in 1998, 1999, and 2000 set the high water mark. Each had two device bays, used standard IDE hard drives, supported lots of additional memory, and had a processor on a card that could be replaced by something faster – a G4 in some cases. The most […]
The last PowerBook G3 model, referred to as the Pismo, is fondly regarded as the ultimate PowerBook by many, and I tend to agree.
