Apple has had some amazingly closed systems, some with not quite enough expansion, and a few that had so many expansion options that the mind boggles. This article takes a brief look at the most expandable Macs every by CPU.
Author Archives: Daniel Knight
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 […]
A lot has changed since the first Macintosh. Apple no longer uses a phone connector for its keyboard or DE-9 serial ports for its mouse, printer, and modem. As others have recently pointed out, the only connector still in use from 1984 through today is the analog headphone jack. Macs have always had some form […]
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 […]
The SuperMac Spectrum/8 LC video card is an accelerated 8-bit video card for the LC PDS (Processor Direct Slot). It originally retailed at US$799 and was MacUser’s third choice video card/19″ display option in the February 1992 roundup of LC PDS solutions.
I have already looked at the origins of the computer mouse in Mouse Design: 1963 to 1983, ending the story before the Apple Macintosh was introduced in January 1984, the first affordable personal computer to ship with a mouse and Graphical User Interface (GUI). This is the story of mouse development on personal computers, primarily […]
Apple did a very nice thing when it introduced the Power Mac G5 in June 2003 – it introduced a line that would use the same upgrade options across the board. Well, until the dual-core models shipped in October 2005, which we will mostly ignore in this article.
The earliest Macs with their all-in-one design used a simple coiled keyboard cable similar to what telephones used to use – and the perfect length for use on the desktop. But in 1987, we got the Mac II, a powerhouse computer that could sit on your desk or be set vertically on the floor beneath […]
Last year I made the switch from AT&T Mobile to Consumer Cellular. I was paying for more service than I needed, and I recently went through my data usage records to see if it is still enough for me.
The Mac mini has been one of the most affordable desktop Macs ever made since the original G4 model was introduced in January 2005 at US$499 and $599. The entry-level price has varied over the years, jumping $100 with the first Intel Mac minis in 2006. The 2014 model started at $499 with a 1.4 […]
The Mac mini seems to be the Mac that Apple forgets about for years between updates. The 2014 model came out two years after the 2012, and the 2018 a whole four years after the 2014. It may have been a long wait, but the new model is a huge step forward from the Late […]
In addition to lowendmac.com and our communities on Google Groups, Low End Mac has had a presence on Facebook since December 2008 – and we’ve had requests to create new Facebook groups for similarly low-end interests.
I was not aware that Apple had ever produced a RAID card for the Mac Pro until today. And at the same time I learned how relatively useless this once-costly card is.
I was going to write an article about what a great value a used 4G iPod touch was for grandma or someone else who wants to video chat with family members without paying for an iPhone and mobile service. But Apple killed that idea.
The first SLRs had clip-on external light meters, and those meters eventually became standard components. Unfortunately with interchangeable lens cameras, the meter’s coverage only matched the standard lens and perhaps a 35mm wide-angle lens. It wasn’t through-the-lens (TTL) metering, but at least it eliminated the need to carry a separate light meter. The Topcon RE […]
SuperMac was once a major player in the Macintosh video market, building graphics cards, monitors, and the legendary Video Spigot. SuperMac was acquired by Radius, it’s primary competitor in this market, in 1994.
We are helping to launch localized geographically based Apple/Mac groups to facilitate local support, local pickup of used gear, and perhaps – at the discretion of each group – the opportunity to get together for a swap meet.
This past Friday was one of those summer days here in western Michigan that you’d just as soon forget. Bright, sunny, pretty humid, and 93° in the shade. I had to drive somewhere that I had never been before that afternoon, and Waze had me mostly heading into the sun (the destination was southwest of […]
Processors keep getting faster and faster. Hard drives and SSDs are getting faster and faster. System memory gets faster and faster. Graphics processors get faster and faster. Network speeds get faster too. So why does so much feel slow?
2008: For the second time in a year, Apple is being sued for Macs that display “millions” of colors but using displays that can only display 262,144 colors per pixel.
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 […]
Most of my computers were older when I got them – and much older when I moved on to something newer. I got my first Mac, a Mac Plus, in early 1990, over 4 years after Apple had introduced it. I earned enough Apple points during the holiday sales promotion to get it and a […]
It was 2011, the year after Steve Jobs had unveiled the 9.6″ iPad to the world. Apple’s new tablet was exactly the right size, according to Jobs, with its 9.56″ by 7.47″ footprint. However, at 1.5 lb., it was no lightweight. It’s 1024 x 768 pixel display was that same resolution that had been used […]
Iomega, founded in 1980, was a big name in removable media drives starting with its original 5 and 10 MB Bernoulli Box in 1982. Instead of using hard platters, as SyQuest did, the high capacity Bernoulli system was essentially a big floppy disk that used the Bernoulli Principle to keep drive heads from actually touching […]
SATA standards are all backwards compatible, right? Well, not necessarily. Researching upgrade options for the 2010 iMac on my desk has been a real learning experience. Some SATA III hard drives are auto-sensing and thus compatible with SATA II and SATA I ports, but some SATA III hard drives are fixed speed only and thus […]
The Commodore PET 2001 was one of the first three personal computers that came to market in 1977, launching the home computing era along with Tandy/Radio Shack and Apple. Commodore’s entry was unique for having an all-in-one design.
Mac sales have been growing ever since Apple moved from PowerPC to Intel processors, in no small part because that made it possible to run Windows on Macs at full speed. No more Intel emulation. No more DOS cards. Boot Camp and then virtualization apps made it easy to run other operating systems on Intel-based […]
When I started adding some profiles of Macs to my personal web space in April 1997, who would have thought that it would grow into something enduring? We used Macs at work, I had a Mac at home, and I was teaching myself how to make web pages using Claris Home Page. So I put […]
The PC Card was originally called the PCMCIA card when it was launched in November 1990. It is compatible with the Japanese JEIDA memory card 4.0 standard and supports a 16-bit ISA-compatible data bus. PC Cards may be 5V, 3.3V, or both, and 3.3V cards have a key that prevents them from being plugged into […]
After years of barely growing the number of Macs sold, in 2006 Apple moved to Intel CPUs – and sales took off immediately. Prior to 2005, Macs had peaked at 4.5 million units in 1995, dropped to 2.7 million in 1998, and hit a new high of 4.7 million in 2005.
As of April 1st, 2018, Low End Mac is changing its funding model. While we will still accept donations from people who find the site helpful, we will begin the process of taking each and every article apart, updating it for our new format, and waiting for the money to come to us.
I was shocked to learn that Apple has introduced an update to its full-sized 9.7″ iPad line, giving it an A10 processor running at 2.34 GHz (vs. an A9 clocked at 1.84 GHz in the 2017 model) – and offering it at a retail price of just $329!
Most of the visitors to Low End Mac work comfortably in English, whether they grew up speaking it or learned it along the way. We think Low End Mac is a wonderful resource, one of many on the Mac Web, which has a wealth of wonderful English-language resources.
Macs have had networking since the “Fat Mac” shipped in late 1984, but over the years Apple has changed the file sharing system, so not all Macs can share files with each other. This article provides a brief overview of which Macs can share files based on the system software they are running.
Facebook is really good at providing all sorts of information about groups. For instance, our group has 5,317 members, but only 3,356 have been active in the past 28 days. Men make up 89% of the group; women, 10%; and “other” or unidentified, 1%.
