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.
Author Archives: LEM Staff
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.
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 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.
The Early 2015 MacBook Air (MBA) uses 5th-generation Intel Core processors and finally gains Thunderbolt 2.
Longtime Mac users mourned the death of the 12″ PowerBook, which was replaced by the 13″ MacBook in May 2006. As nice as the MacBook was, it was wider and had a bigger footprint than the 12″ PowerBook. It wasn’t until the 11″ MacBook Air arrived in July 2011 that Apple had a smaller footprint ‘Book. And now […]
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.
This index covers desktop Macs based on the 68040 CPU. This includes all Centris and Quadra models, plus some LCs and Performas.
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.
Did you know that Apple once had a gaming console?
Many Mac models can be “chipped” to run at a higher speed. These pages provide information on the maximum reliable speed. This may vary from one machine to the next. Chipping is not authorized by Apple. Any modifications you perform on your Mac may damage it. Modifications are done at your own risk.
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.
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.
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.
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 […]
Motorola StarMax computers were only on the market for a few years, and their five-year warrantees have long since expired. Motorola no longer offers any support for this hardware.
It’s been a perennial topic of discussion on our StarMax email list: Which optical drives are bootable in the Motorola StarMax computer and which ones are not. This is important, since Motorola used CD-ROM drives of different makes in StarMax computers – and many users are interested in faster drives or CD-RW capability.
Some of the first generation Power Macs can be significantly boosted by overclocking their CPUs.
The DayStar PowerPro and Sonnet PrestoPPC upgrades made it possible to run a 68040-based Mac with a PowerPC 601 CPU, taking it to the next generation of CPU technology. The 80 MHz version can be overclocked to further improve performance, and it may be possible with the 100 MHz card as well.
Apple’s PowerBook Duo notebooks were very lightweight and very portable, but they are very limited in connectivity unless you can acquire a Duo Dock. The Duo 201, 230, and 280c can all be overclocked. If other Duos can be overclocked, we have not found reports.
The Sonnet QuadDoubler replaces the CPU in a Centris or Quadra Mac with one that runs twice as fast as the original ‘040 processor, and by overclocking the logic board, you may be able to achieve even better performance.
The Centris series of Macs only included three models: the 20 MHz Centris 610, the 25 MHz Centris 650, and the Centris 660av, which is identical to the Quadra 660av. The 660av is covered on Overclocking the Quadra AV Models.
Every Mac Quadra can be overclocked, although the method varies among models. The Centris/Quadra 660av and Quadra 840av are covered on a separate page.
Only two Mac LC models can be overclocked to improve performance. The LC II and LC III can be chipped; the original LC and LC III+ cannot be overclocked. You can also upgrade LC models using third-party accelerators the plug into the LC processor direct slot (PDS), which will bring more performance at a higher […]
Some of the old 68030 and 68040 PowerBooks can be overclocked to achieve improved performance. This page has information on the PowerBook 140, 145, 150, 160, 170, 180, and 520 and 520c.
Not all Macs can be over clocked, but three models in the Mac II lines can – the IIsi, Iivx, and “wicked fast” IIfx. These pages provide information on the maximum reliable speed, which may vary from one machine to the next.
Many Mac models can be “chipped” to run at a higher speed, but none of the compact Macs can. That said, some can be upgraded with third-party accelerators, so you’re not necessarily stuck with the original CPU speed – although finding those upgrades nowadays may be difficult.
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 broke with Apple’s traditionally small displays to keep the iPhone competitive with the larger Android smartphones that dominated the market and were cutting into iPhone sales. The iPhone 6 moved to a 4.7″ display from the 4.0″ of the iPhone 5 family, while the 6 Plus was a substantial 5.5″.
The Mid 2014 Retina MacBooks is essentially a speed bumped version of the Late 2013 model with the base model also boosted from 4 GB of system memory to 8 GB.
