Where is the “low end” in Low End Mac? It’s a question we’ve addressed many times over our 18 year history, and it was a topic of conversation in our Facebook group this past week. Exactly what do we mean when we apply the label low end?
Author Archives: Daniel Knight
Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard marked an endpoint in the evolution of traditional OS X. After this, Apple introduced OS X 10.7 Lion, which moved the Mac in the same direction as iOS – a whole new direction for desktop Macs. Also, for those using software written in the PowerPC era, Snow Leopard gives us […]
Microsoft Excel was not Microsoft’s first spreadsheet program. That honor went to Multiplan, released in 1982 as a competitor to VisiCalc, the world’s first electronic spreadsheet. Although it was quickly eclipsed by Lotus 1-2-3, Multiplan became the first Mac spreadsheet (and Microsoft’s first GUI spreadsheet) when it was introduced in 1984.
Your MacBook or MacBook Pro probably came with one hard drive and, in most instances, a built-in optical drive that you rarely use. The OWC Data Doubler lets you install a second hard drive in place of that SuperDrive, and OWC’s SuperSlim enclosure gives your removed optical drive a new home.
My wife had been wanting an iPad, so now and again I’d scan Craigslist for local deals. This past winter I found a pretty good price on the original iPad that I could just afford with the cash I’d been setting aside. It even had a case and dock cable, although no power adapter.
Although you are safe from attack for the first 72 hours of your village’s creation, after that all bets are off. Your village can be attacked at any time that it doesn’t have a protective shield and you don’t have it running on your Android or iOS device.
There are probably as many theories about village layout as there are Clash of Clan players. Most put the Town Hall in the center, but some put it on the edge of the village, beyond protective walls, and some even stick it in a corner.
You have three days to prepare for the first attack on your village. There’s no need to rush into building up your defenses the first two days, but Day Three is the one where you want to concentrate on making your village safe against invaders.
You begin playing Clash of Clans with just Barbarians, soon add Archers, and then gain Giants. You cannot advance their level until you build a Laboratory (marked Research). You’ll need a lot of elixir to upgrade them.
After going through the tutorial, you will have a Town Hall, a Builder’s Hut, a Gold Mine, an Elixir Collector, Gold Storage, Elixir Storage, Barracks, and a Camp. You will also have a 3-day shield that prevents other players from attacking your village, so there is no need to build walls or other defenses right away.
Clash of Clans is a popular free game for iOS and Android devices. Launched on iOS in August 2012, it has a large international following. The Android version was added in October 2013. Best of all, Supercell is always looking for ways to improve gameplay, so it has improved over time.
If you’ve used the Shuffle setting on iTunes or an iPod more than a few times, you come to realize that it’s anything but random. Some tracks keep coming up while others are ignored. Why is that?
This is a list of some apps and extensions that work on 68000-based Macs including the Mac Plus, Mac SE, Mac Portable, Mac Classic, and PowerBook 100. Notes and RAM requirements are in parentheses. (Compatibility tested mainly on a 4 MB PowerBook 100 or Mac Plus running System 7.0.1.) Note also that newer versions might work.
It was only last year that I got my first Power Mac G5. I have quite a collection of G4 Power Macs, several no longer working, and the G5 gave me several improvements, including a higher CPU speed, faster memory, built-in USB 2.0, FireWire 800, and a SATA hard drive bus.
If you think the original Macintosh was an impressive piece of design and engineering, you may find Apple’s Lisa even more innovative.
For most Mac users, Apple’s Lisa isn’t even a footnote in Mac history. The $10,000 computer is rarely remembered as the Mac’s mother – and those who do remember it also tend to recall how Apple dumped thousands upon thousands of unsold Lisas in a Utah landfill when the computer was discontinued.
I ran across images of some Apple prototypes created during the early years of Macintosh design – things like a cube-shaped Mac, a MacBook notebook, and a table-like device among them.
Although it was invented by Doug Engelbart in 1963, the computer mouse wasn’t an instant success. That had to wait for the 1980s and the introduction of computers with graphical user interfaces (GUIs).
On May 16, 2006, Apple introduced the consumer MacBook, the 13.3″ replacement for the old 12″ and 14″ iBooks. The first MacBooks had a wider 1280 x 800 display (vs. 1024 x 768 for G4 iBooks) and used Intel’s Core Duo processors. The biggest differences between the consumer MacBook and the MacBook Pro are the […]
Apple last updated the 13″ MacBook in May 2010 and discontinued it with the introduction of the Mid 2011 MacBook Air, although it was still available in the education channel for a while after that. The final model claimed up to 10 hours of wireless productivity, has a 2.4 GHz CPU, and uses Nvidia’s 320M graphics processor.
If you’re at all interested in the early history of Macs, especially the Mac OS, you owe it to yourself to bookmark Mac Floppy or put it in your RSS news feed. Billed as, “A look back at the Mac’s past when the best things in life fit on a floppy,” it’s an enjoyable reminiscence […]
There have been so many iMac models since Apple switch to Intel processor back in 2006 that we’ve found it easier to divide Intel iMac deals into two page. This page covers the more recent iMacs, which ship in 21.5″ and 27″ sizes. The other page covers older models, which came in 17″, 20″, and […]
There have been so many different iMac models since Apple switch to Intel processors in 2006 that we’ve found it easier to divide iMac deals into two pages. This page covers older models, which came in 17″, 20″, and 24″ sizes. The other page covers more recent iMacs, which ship in 21.5″ and 27″ sizes.
When the original 13.3″ MacBook Air was introduced in January 2008, it created a new category of notebooks that were neither underpowered netbooks nor overly heavy laptops. Things have only improved from that point, particularly with the introduction of the 11.6″ model in October 2010.
Apple introduced the first 13″ MacBook Pro with Retina Display in October 2012 and introduced a speed bumped version in Early 2013. All models include USB 3, which has 10x the bandwidth of USB 2.0 – and USB 3 drives tend to cost a whole lot less than Thunderbolt drives.
The 0.71″ thin 15″ MacBook Pro with Retina Display has a double-resolution 2880 x 1800 pixel Retina Display, does not have a built-in SuperDrive, and uses the same CPUs as the regular MacBook Pro. It normally ships with 8 GB of onboard memory and is upgradable to 16 GB, but you have to order it that way, […]
Apple last updated non-Retina MacBook Pro (MBP) models in June 2012, and only the 13-incher remains in production. Mid 2012 models were the first to include USB 3.0.
Apple has moved the entire MacBook Pro line to Retina Displays, except for the remaining 13″ MacBook Pro. This price tracker follows prices of the non-Retina 15″ MacBook Pro, all of which (unlike Retina models) can have their system memory upgraded.
Apple introduced its first 17″ notebook, the 1 GHz PowerBook G4, in January 2003. It introduced the first 17″ MacBook Pro, a 2.16 GHz Core Duo machine, in April 2006. And it discontinued the last 17″ MacBook Pro, a 2.4 GHz quad-core i7 powerhouse, in June 2012 in favor of the 15″ MacBook Pro with Retina […]
Apple made some interesting choices when it designed the new 12″ MacBook, which is the thinnest, lightest Retina Display Mac notebook ever. But its US$1,299 price is higher than the new 13″ MacBook Air, 13″ MacBook Pro, and new 13″ MacBook Pro with Retina Display. Where’s the best value?
