IRTalk, IrDA, and the Mac

In the 1990s, several Macs included infrared networking support, a legacy short range point-to-point technology often forgotten nowadays. It can be used to transfer files between Macs, to mobile phones, and to print to IrDA compliant printers, among other things. This article provides an overview of infrared networking on Macs and the models with built-in IrDA […]

Low End Mac in 2014

Low End Mac has been through some difficult times since we moved from static HTML pages to WordPress. Site traffic declined by 88% from our peak of 17.1 million pages in 2007, but it is turning around.

Growing Low End Mac

I love Macs, and I’ve been publishing Low End Mac since April 1997. Due to circumstances beyond my control, I haven’t had much time to write lately, but that’s finally changing.

G4 Mac mini, a Second Class Mac

When it was introduced in January 2005, the G4 Mac mini was the smallest desktop computer on the market – and the least expensive Mac Apple had ever built. Measuring 6.5″ square and 2″ tall, the Mac mini was dwarved by almost any desktop computer built before it.

Apple’s First Phone Design Never Made It to Market

2014 – If you were on the Mac Web in July 2007, you probably saw Fudder’s article, The Very First iPhone – or at least stories about the article or links to it. The mock-up (below) was created by Frog Design, built by Hertmut Esslinger, and bears more than a passing resemblance to the Apple IIc.

The Late 2014 Mac mini Value Equation

The Mac mini has always been the runt of the Mac litter, and not just in size. When Apple upgraded the G4 model, it never announced it. The Mini ran a Core Duo CPU long after everything else had migrated to Core 2 Duo. And now it’s been almost two years since the Mini was last […]

Does iOS 8 Mark the End of 8 GB iPhones?

I have an 8 GB iPhone 4S, and the only way I was able to install iOS 8 without using iTunes was by wiping it back to its original state. No matter how many apps and files I removed, I could not create enough free space for the iOS 8 installer otherwise. Apple brags about […]

iOS 8: A Brief Introduction

iOS 8 has one steep requirement for those who want to upgrade to it directly on their iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. You need 5.6 GB of free space to load and run the installer – even though the core iOS 8 installation is under 1 GB. That can be a real problem with 8 GB iDevices.

iOS 8: Not Quite Yet

Low-end Mac and iOS users have a love-hate relationship with Apple. We love new hardware and new operating systems and new features. We hate old hardware and operating systems being left behind.

What About the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus?

As widely rumored in recent months, Apple unveiled the iPhone 6 this week – and in the two sizes expected. The smaller model, with a 4.7″ display, is called the iPhone 6. The larger one, with a phablet-sized 5.5″ screen is the iPhone 6 Plus.

Road Apples & Second Class Macs

Second Class Macs are Macs you should buy with your eyes wide open – if you buy them at all. The only ones I would put on the “avoid at all costs” list are those with three or four apples. The Macs with only one or two apples can be very nice computers as long as […]