Last Thursday, Nancy Caroll Gravly shared her opinion on The Mac Observer, essentially saying that there is no legitimate reason not to be running the latest version of OS X on your Mac. Here at Low End Mac, that caught our attention. Our thesis is that you often don’t need the latest hardware and/or operating […]
Author Archives: LEM Staff
In 2012, The New iPad – as Apple called it – got its first Retina Display with a 2048 x 1535 pixel screen. It also received a quad-core graphics processor as part of its dual-core A5X CPU. It is commonly known as the 3G iPad.
After 1-1/2 years on the market, the second generation Apple TV was replaced by the third generation, which looks exactly the same.
In terms of expandability, the G3 PowerBooks introduced in 1998, 1999, and 2000 set the high water mark. Each had two device bays, used standard IDE hard drives, supported lots of additional memory, and had a processor on a card that could be replaced by something faster – a G4 in some cases. The most […]
The Late 2011 MacBook Pros represented a small step forward from the Early 2011 models introduced just 8 months earlier. The 17″ model goes from 2.3 GHz to 2.4 GHz, a 9% improvement. This was also the last 17″ MacBook Pro; it was discontinued in June 2012.
The Late 2011 MacBook Pros represent a small step forward from the Early 2011 models introduced 8 months earlier. The 15″ model advances from 2.0 GHz to 2.2 GHz, a 10% speed bump. The top-end version goes from 2.2 GHz to 2.4 GHz, a 9% improvement.
The Late 2011 MacBook Pros represent a small step forward from the Early 2011 models introduced 8 months earlier. The 13″ model advances from 2.3 GHz to 2.4 GHz, a relatively insignificant 4.3% speed bump. The top-end version goes from 2.7 GHz to 2.8 GHz, an even less impressive 3.7% improvement.
The Macintosh was introduced in 1984 using the same 68000 processor that powered Apple’s $10,000 Lisa, introduced a year earlier. Over the years, Apple moved to faster and more efficient chips as they became available. At the same time, Apple was paying attention to a new design theory for microprocessors, RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing). […]
The iPhone 4S looks like the iPhone 4, but there are a lot of differences under the hood. Hardware includes Apple’s dual-core A5 processor, superior graphics, and support for both GSM and CDMA networks. And to top it off, there’s Siri.
This version of the Mid 2011 iMac is stripped back and only available to educational institutions; it is not available for sale to individuals. To cut $200 and make this a $999 computer, Apple scaled back from a 2.6 GHz quad-core i5 CPU to a 3.1 GHz dual-core i3, removed the Thunderbolt port, and reduced […]
Same small size, same small price, same SSD options, but a whole new CPU – and lightning-fast Thunderbolt to round things out. That pretty much summarizes the July 2011 update to the MacBook Air.
Last year’s Mac mini Server was just a 2010 Mac mini with two hard drives and no SuperDrive. This year’s Server is actually a much more powerful computer with a quad-core Intel Core i7 CPU, twice the number of cores found in the consumer Mini. The 2011 Server ships with OS X 10.7 Lion Server […]
For the first time since the original G4 Mac mini was introduced in January 2005, there’s no optical drive in the Mac mini, which also helped Apple trim $100 from its base price – and $200 from the faster version. The 2011 Mac mini can use the same $79 USB SuperDrive as the MacBook Air. […]
Apple made some significant changes with the Mid 2011 MacBook Air – adding Thunderbolt, moving from Intel Core 2 Duo CPUs to Core i5 (with an i7 option), switching from Nvidia GeForce graphics to Intel HD Graphics 3000, and bringing back the backlit keyboard that disappeared with the 2010 model. The 11.6″ and 13.3″ models […]
Same small size, same small price, same SSD options, but a whole new CPU – and Thunderbolt to round things out. That pretty much summarizes the July 2011 update to the MacBook Air.
OS X 10.7 Lion was released on July 20, 2011 and made some huge changes to the Mac. Some of these changes were to make it easier for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users to adapt to the Mac, some to make the two platforms work better together, and some to keep making the Mac […]
For 2011, the entire iMac line goes quad-core with Core i5 CPUs (and even faster i7 build-to-order options), moves to Intel’s Sandy Bridge chipset, gets Turbo Boost 2.0 technology, adopts the next generation of AMD Radeon HD graphics processors, and gains the Thunderbolt technology introduced with the Early 2011 MacBook Pro models. The 27″ iMac […]
For 2011, the entire iMac line goes quad-core with Core i5 CPUs (and even faster i7 build-to-order options), moves to Intel’s Sandy Bridge chipset, gets Turbo Boost 2.0 technology, adopts the next generation of AMD Radeon HD graphics processors, and gains the Thunderbolt technology introduced with the Early 2011 MacBook Pro models.
For 2011, the entire iMac line goes quad-core with Core i5 CPUs (and even faster i7 build-to-order options), moves to Intel’s Sandy Bridge chipset, gets Turbo Boost 2.0 technology, adopts the next generation of AMD Radeon HD graphics processors, and gains the Thunderbolt technology introduced with the Early 2011 MacBook Pro models. The 27″ iMac […]
These links provide a quick way to access hardware profile indexes for Macbookss on Low End Mac. CD Mid-2006 C2D Late 2006 C2D Mid-2007 Santa Rosa Late 07 Penryn Early 08 White Late 2008 Aluminum Late 08 Nvidia Early 09 White Mid-2009 Unibody Late 09 Unibody Mid-2010 Core M Early 2015 12″ Early 2016 12″ […]
A bit smaller, one-third thinner, and a little lighter than the original iPad, the iPad 2 also moved the iPad line to Apple’s dual-core A5 processor. It was also the first iPad available in white or black.
The Early 2011 15″ and 17″ MacBook Pro models moved from dual-core CPUs to quad-core, which makes them a lot more powerful despite lower clock speeds. As with last year’s models, these CPUs support TurboBoost, which lets individual cores run beyond their rated speed, and hyperthreading, which lets the each core appear to the operating […]
The Early 2011 15″ and 17″ MacBook Pro models have moved from dual-core CPUs to quad-core, which makes them a lot more powerful despite lower clock speeds. As with last year’s models, these CPUs support TurboBoost, which lets individual cores run beyond their rated speed, and hyperthreading, which lets the each core appear to the […]
Apple took some big steps forward with the refreshed 13.3″ MacBook Pro. The Early 2011 model migrates from the dated Intel Core 2 Duo to Intel’s newer Core i5 and i7 CPUs. These dual-core mobile CPUs have a 3-4 MB Level 3 cache shared by both cores and, thanks to Turbo Boost architecture, should be […]
On January 11, 2011, Verizon announced that it had reached an agreement with Apple and would soon be offering the iPhone 4 to its customers. Prior to this, the iPhone had been an AT&T Wireless exclusive in the United States.
Apple made some significant changes to the MacBook Air in October 2010, introducing a new 11.6″ model and moving the line from tiny hard drives to solid state drives (SSDs) exclusively. Apple claims its SSDs are up to twice as fast as conventional ones.
With the new 11.6″ form factor and the lowest speed CPU ever used in an Intel-based Mac, the smaller version of the 2010 MacBook Air enters netbook territory – but with a dual-core processor, a real graphics processor, better screen resolution, a full-size keyboard, and support for up to 4 GB of memory.
Say good-bye to hard drives with the 2010 models of the MacBook Air (MBA). Solid-state drives (SSD) are standard across the board – and they’re built onto the motherboard. Apple claims this makes its SSDs twice as fast as conventional ones. Battery life is rated at “up to” 7 hours.
The 4G iPod touch brought a Retina Display and Apple CPU to the iPod touch line, along with a front-facing FaceTime camera.
Four years after introducing the original Apple TV, Apple introduced the second generation, taking a new direction with its smaller, more affordable device – one-third the cost of the original!
Apple has now moved the entire iMac line to Intel’s Core “i” family of CPUs, including the dual-core i3 and i5 as well as the quad-core i7. All CPUs used in the 2010 iMac support Hyper-Threading (on last year’s model, only the i7 versions supported Hyper-Threading). CPU speeds start at 3.06 GHz for dual-core models […]
It’s been over 15 months since Apple rolled out the 2009 Mac Pro, and the 2010 Mac Pro is yet another big step forward: every configuration uses quad-core Intel Xeon Nehalem or quad-core and even hex-core Westmere CPUs for even more power. Each core has its own 256 KB Level 2 (L2) cache, each quad-core […]
Apple has now moved the entire iMac line to Intel’s Core “i” family of CPUs, including the dual-core i3 and i5 as well as the quad-core i7. All CPUs used in the 2010 iMac support Hyper-Threading (on last year’s model, only the i7 versions supported Hyper-Threading). CPU speeds start at 3.06 GHz for dual-core models […]
Apple has now moved the entire iMac line to Intel’s Core “i” family of CPUs, including the dual-core i3 and i5 as well as the quad-core i7. All CPUs used in the 2010 iMac support Hyper-Threading (on last year’s model, only the i7 versions supported Hyper-Threading). CPU speeds start at 3.06 GHz for dual-core models […]
With the iPhone 4, Apple introduced its Retina Display. The screen was the same size as on previous iPhones, but with twice the vertical and horizontal resolution. It was a revelation.
