Recently reported on MacRumors, a new bluetooth ID for a audio device in the Apple Codebase has been spotted. Although there is absolutely nothing beyond this point of information, it’s a strong indication of a new product to be released. . . Recently there have been plenty of rumors circulating about the AirPods Pro 3, […]
Author Archives: LEM Staff
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
Apple took the 27″ Retina 5K iMac a step further with fifth generation Intel processor technology, state of the art AMD graphics, an even better Retina display with 25% greater color gamut – and at $500 less than the Late 2014 Retina iMac retailed for a year ago. As we said then, 4K resolution (4096 x 2160 pixels) […]
In 2014, Apple introduced the 27″ Retina 5K iMac; in 2015, Apple brings a Retina Display to the smaller iMac. The 21.5″ iMac now has a 4096 x 2304 pixel 4K display with the same dot pitch and color gamut The Late 2015 iMac also ships with the new Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse 2 plus […]
Remember the seemingly underpowered iMac that Apple introduced in June 2014? They’ve updated it from 1.4 GHz to 1.6 GHz and kept it available as a lower cost alternative to the 21.5″ Retina 4K iMac. The Late 2015 model uses an ultra-low-power 1.6 GHz dual-core Intel i5 CPU – with Turbo Boost to the same 2.7 […]
Slightly bigger than the iPhone 6 Plus, the iPhone 6S Plus is the largest iPhone to date. It also weighs 0.7 oz. more than the 6S Plus. Apple also added a new color, rose gold, to the gold, silver, and space gray finishes available for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. The screen is now pressure sensitive […]
Claiming that “the only thing that changed is everything”, Apple unveiled the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus on September 9, 2015. Well, not everything. The 2015 models look just like the 2014 iPhones at first glance, although there is a new rose gold color. The iPhone 6S is a half-ounce heavier than the iPhone 6, although […]
Considering how poorly Microsoft has been doing with its Surface, it’s quite remarkable to see Apple jumping into the same product category with the 12.9″ iPad Pro, which arrived in November. That said, Apple is taking a whole different approach than Microsoft. Where Microsoft started out with two kinds of Surface tablets – the ARM-based Surface RT […]
The iPad mini 4 is faster, thinner, taller, and lighter than the iPad mini 3, boasting a 30% faster CPU and 60% faster graphics, which it replaces. That’s due in part to the 1.5 GHz A8 processor and in part to having 2 MB of system memory. As with iPhones and other recent iPads, the iPad mini 4 […]
The 6G iPod touch is the first 64-bit iPod touch, following the iPhone 5S, 6, and 6 Plus in leaving behind 32-bit operation. It is also the first iPod touch with a 128 GB configuration, which is only available directly from Apple. The 6G is the first iPod touch to run at over 1 GHz and […]
The Mid 2015 27″ Retina 5K iMac cuts CPU speed and uses a standard hard drive instead of a Fusion Drive to bring the price below the $2,000 mark. (You can upgrade to a Fusion Drive for $200 additional.) As we said last year, 4K resolution (4096 x 2160 pixels) is the extra high definition of the […]
Surprisingly, the Mid 2015 15″ MacBook Pro with Retina Display uses the exact same CPUs and clock speeds as the Mid 2014 model it replaces. The model identifier seems to be the only significant difference between the two models. The MacBook Pro with Retina Display (a.k.a. Retina MacBook Pro) remains the thinnest MacBook Pro at […]
Apple’s Performa line of computers attempted to bring the Mac experience to the consumer market. The line was launched with three rebadged Macs in 1992 and phased out in 1997 when the last two models were renamed Power Macs with their last upgrade. Performa 200 Performa 250 Performa 275 Performa 4xx Performa 450 Performa 460 […]
The Apple III was meant to be Apple’s bold entry into the business market; it ended as Apple’s first commercial failure and put the company into financial uncertainty. It was also responsible for sprouting both the Lisa and Macintosh projects, efforts that would save Apple. Wendell Sander, father of the Apple III. Photo courtesy of […]
Apple’s Lisa was the predecessor of the Macintosh that introduced the mouse, the graphical user interface, and the integrated all-in-one design that would characterize the earliest Macs – and later on the iMac. Through its brief lifespan (May 1983 to April 1985), Apple sold about 80,000 Lisas before the Macintosh completely eclipsed it. (Larry Tesler, […]
The Early 2015 MacBook Air (MBA) gets another speed bump, gains Thunderbolt 2, and is rated at 12 hours in the field – and if you don’t use your MBA regularly, it has 30 days of standby power. Built around 5th-generation low-power Intel Core i5 and i7 processors, the Early 2015 MBA has Intel HD Graphics […]
The Early 2015 MacBook Air (MBA) uses 5th-generation Intel Core processors and finally gains Thunderbolt 2. The 5th-generation low-power Intel Core i5 and i7 processors include Intel HD Graphics 6000. The stock CPU is a 1.6 GHz Core i5 with Turbo Boost to 2.7 GHz, and the 11-incher can be configured with a 2.2 GHz Core i7 that […]
The big news about the Early 2015 13″ Retina MacBook Pro is its adoption of the same Force Touch trackpad introduced with the 12″ MacBook. It’s also faster than its predecessor and has improved graphics. The base model has a 2.7 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 with Turbo Boost to 3.1 GHz, and the better model […]
Radius was founded in May 1986 by Burrell Smith, Andy Hertzfeld, and other members of the original Mac team. Radius produced the first full-page display for the Macintosh, introducing the Radius Full Page Display for the Mac Plus. Other products included accelerators for the Mac Plus and Mac SE, video cards, monitors (including the first screen […]
Umax acquired the Macintosh clone operation and SuperMac name from Radius, going on to become one of the more innovative clone makers. Their corporate goal was to make quality Mac OS computers at prices that would give PCs a run for their money, something I believe they succeeded at. From the entry level C500 to […]
You really have to wonder what Apple was thinking by releasing an iMac with a 5120 x 2880 pixel Retina Display. After all, the regular 27″ iMac already has a 2560 x 1440 pixel display, which goes well beyond HD TV quality. That said, 4K resolution (4096 x 2160 pixels) is the extra high definition […]
It’s been almost two years since the Mac mini was last updated, and while a 1.4 GHz Core i5 CPU may not sound very powerful, the new US$499 price tag is sure to get your attention. Also, iFixit has a confirmed that the Late 2014 Mac mini ships with memory soldered to the logic board, so RAM […]
In October 2014, Apple made the iPad Air thinner and gave it a more powerful processor, Apple’s A8X chip – the same chip found in the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. This was also the first time an iPad was available in gold. The heart of the iPad Air 2 is Apple’s first triple-core CPU, the […]
The big difference between the iPad mini 2 and iPad mini 3 is the addition of Apple’s fingerprint sensor in the Home button of the Mini 3. The small difference is the addition of gold to space gray and silver finishes. As with the iPad Air 2, which was introduced at the same time, Apple […]
With its 5.5″ display, the iPhone 6 Plus was very competitive with the largest Android smartphones and phablets, which had helped Android cut into into iPhone sales. The iPhone 6 Plus is even bigger and heavier than the iPhone 6, and it was the first iPhone to provide a full 1920 x 1080 resolution display – the same […]