OS X 10.10 Yosemite

Apple previewed OS X 10.10 Yosemite on June 2, 2014, at the Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC). In addition to a lot of new features and a whole new level of integration with iOS devices, Yosemite looks like the most beautiful version of the Mac OS to date.

MECC: Educational Computing for the Masses

MECC was for many years one of the major producers of educational content including courseware, videos, and educational computer games for the Apple II, Radio Shack, IBM PC, and later the Macintosh and Windows. MECC was instrumental in ensuring the US was ahead and invested sufficiently in educational computing.

11″ MacBook Air (Early 2014)

Once again the MacBook Air (MBA) takes a step forward with more processing power and improved battery life. The 11″ model is rated at 9 hours in the field, and if you don’t use your MBA regularly, it has 30 days of standby power.

Was the Original iPhone Just ‘an OK Phone’?

Based on the headline on Cult of Mac (WTF? Ex-Apple Executive Apologize For The Original iPhone, Says It “Wasn’t Great”), you’d think Bob Borchers, Apple’s former Senior Director of Product Marketing, had really knocked the original iPhone, saying, “If you had the original iPhone I apologise; it was not a great phone, it was an OK […]

Quick Overview of G4 iBooks

Apple moved the popular iBook to the G4 processor in October 2003, eliminating the last Macs with G3 processors. Although the G4 iBooks used a G4 CPU, it wasn’t initially the same one used in the PowerBook G4; instead, it was version with a smaller level 2 (L2) cache, which meant the first generation iBooks […]

10 Years of Facebook

Can it really be just 10 years since Facebook launched? It feels like it’s been around forever, and many of us use it daily – often several times on a day thanks to apps on our smartphones and tablets. Today Low End Mac’s staff takes a look at Facebook, what it does right, where the […]

30 Years of Macs

Introduced on January 24, 1984, the Macintosh forever changed the way we work with our computers. Instead of memorizing and typing arcane commands, we could point the cursor using a mouse and click to do things – all for well under the $10,000 price of Apple’s Lisa.

25 Years of the Mac SE/30

On January 19, 1989 – 25 years ago – Apple released the first all-in-one Mac to run faster than 8 MHz. The 16 MHz SE/30 was built around a 68030 CPU and supports up to 128 MB of RAM in a small footprint computer – far more than any other black-and-white compact Mac.

Mac Pro (2013)

Although it received some relatively minor updates in 2012, the previous Mac Pro received its last real update in 2010, and by the time the 2013 Mac Pro shipped in December 2013, that model was well over three years old. The 2010/2012 Mac Pro was the last Mac to run OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, […]

What’s in My Dock

The Dock was a new Mac feature when OS X was first introduced. It had been part of the NeXTstep and OpenStep environments, where it was just an application launcher. In OS X, it would also show running programs and could hold documents. As you use OS X, you quickly determine which apps deserve an […]

What’s on My Home Screen

Once you begin adding apps to your iOS device – whether an iPhone, an iPad, or an iPod touch – you’re faced with the question, Which apps belong on my home screen? In this Low End Mac Round Table discussion, our writers share what’s on their home screens.

2nd Generation iPad mini

At first glance, you’d think this was the original iPad mini, but the 2G iPad mini (unofficially iPad mini 2) runs Apple’s A7 processor and has a Retina Display. The 64-bit A7 takes performance far beyond that of the earlier A5-based iPad mini.

OS X 10.9 Mavericks

Apple previewed OS X 10.9 Mavericks at the June 2013 Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), and it appears to be a big step forward for OS X – perhaps the biggest since Apple made the transition from the “classic” Mac OS 9 to OS X 10.0 way back in March 2001.

Original iPad Air

On October 22, 2013, Apple introduced the first 64-bit iPads, including a thinner, lighter version of the 9.7″ model. The iPad Air runs a 1.3 GHz 64-bit Apple A7 processor nearly twice as powerful as the A6X used in the 4G iPad.

iPhone 5S

The iPhone 5S marked the beginning of 64-bit power. While the Android world was going with 4-core 32-bit processors, Apple raised the bar with its dual-core 64-bit A7, which has about twice the power of the A6.

iPhone 5C

Although the iPhone 5 had been a runaway success, there were some problems with the case bending, as well as battery issues with units built through January 2013 (see the iPhone 5 page for more details). The iPhone 5C was designed to address bending with its thicker plastic polycarbonate enclosure.

11″ MacBook Air (Mid 2013)

The big breakthrough for the Mid 2013 MacBook Air (MBA) is improved battery life. The 11″ model is now rated at 9 hours in the field, a huge jump from the 2012 model. And if you don’t use your MBA regularly, it has 30 days of standby power.

13″ MacBook Air (Mid 2013)

The big breakthrough for the 2013 MacBook Air (MBA) is improved battery life. The 13″ model is now rated at 12 hours in the field, a huge jump from the 2012 model. And if you don’t use your MBA regularly, it has 30 days of standby power.