Apple introduced the Mac mini in January 2005 as the smallest consumer computer on the planet. The original version ran a 1.25 GHz or 1.42 GHz G4 CPU on a 167 MHz bus and accepts a maximum 1 GB of system memory. It shipped with OS X 10.3 Panther and also supports 10.4 Tiger and […]
Category Archives: Low End Mac
- 'Book Value
- 10 Forward
- 75 Mac Advantages
- Adam's Apple
- Apple Archive
- Apple Before the Mac
- Apple Everywhere
- Apple History
- Apple, Tech, and Gaming
- Back & Forth
- Benchmarks
- Best Tools for the Job
- Building Bridges
- Classic Mac Nostalgia
- Classic Mac OS Software
- Classic Restorations
- Collection Spotlight
- Compleat Guides
- Cortland
- CustoMacs
- Developer Transition Kits
- Different Branches
- Digital Fossils
- Down but Not Out
- Early Mac Clones
- Edelweiss
- Embracing Obsolescence
- Empowered
- Hacking Your Mac
- iBasics
- iBasics Classic iBasics articles for the Classic Mac OS
- iMac Channel
- In My Palm
- Interviews
- iOS & iDevices Articles about iOS and iOS devices: iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch
- iOS Accessories
- iOS Apps
- iOS Hardware iOS devices and accessories.
- iTed Talks
- Kitchens Sync
- Leo and Mac
- Linux to Mac
- Low End Campfire Discussion Campfire style storytelling of Apple finds, exciting discoveries and more.
- Low End Mac FAQs
- Low End Mac Mailbag
- Low End Mac Round Table Low End Mac round table discussion.
- Low End Mac Tech Journal
- The Serker Files
- Mac Accessories
- Mac CPU Upgrades
- Mac Daniel
- Mac Fallout Shelter
- Mac Gaming
- Mac Happens
- Mac History
- Mac Lab Report
- Astronomy Software
- Mac Life
- Mac Metamorphosis
- LinuxPPC Chronicles
- Mac Musings
- Mac OS X Software
- Mac Resources
- Mac Scope
- Mac to Windows Articles about using Macs and Windows PCs together.
- Mac UK
- Mac USB & FireWire
- MacInSchool
- Macinthoughts
- MacPaint and Its Children
- Matt's Macs
- Maximize Your Mac Jason Schrader's tips on getting the most out of your Mac hardware.
- Bluetooth & Wifi Upgrades
- Memory Upgrade Options
- Menagerie of Macs
- Miscellaneous Ramblings
- Moore's Mailbag
- My First Mac
- My Turn
- Older G4 Macs in the Age of Leopard
- One More Thing
- Online Thrifter
- Orchard
- Overclocking Your Vintage Mac
- Plays Well with Others
- PPC Linux
- Printer Reviews
- Reality Check
- Recycled Computing
- Second Class Macs
- SETI on Mac
- Software FAQs
- Stop the Noiz - Frank Fox tries to cut through the static and get to the facts.
- Taking Back the Market - Tim Nash on how Apple can retake its markets.
- Tangerine Fusion
- Tech Spectrum
- Tech Stuff
- The 'Book Page
- The Efficient Mac User
- The Lite Side
- Bumper Snickers
- The Low End Designer
- The Mac Pack Rat The every day adventures of a Macintosh Pack Rat. Repairing and using lower end machines for productive daily work.
- The Mobile Mac
- The Odyssey
- The Power of Mac
- The Practical Mac
- The Productive Mac
- The Review Vault
- The Road Warrior
- The Rumor Mill
- The Value Equation
- Things Macintosh
- 10 Commandments of the Church of Macintosh
- Triassic Mac
- Unofficial SuperMac Support Site
- Using WordPress - Tips on using WordPress, particularly as deployed at Low End Mac.
- View from the Classroom
- Busman's Holiday
- Teacher Tools
- View From the MacCave
- Vintage Mac Living
- Vintage Mac Workhorses
- Welcome to Macintosh
- In House with Low End Mac
- Working with Vintage Macs
- Zis Mac - Alan Zisman on Macs, iOS, and other tech.
Downgrading from iOS 10 beta is easier than you think. I take you through how to complete the process and return to the latest official version.
Handspring had been founded by several members of Palm Computing in June 1998 and was the second Palm OS licensee to ship product – and probably the most successful (see Part 3). In 2003, Palm Inc. merged with Handspring in a mutual agreement by both companies. This marks a new chapter in the story of […]
Apple took a nice step forward when it introduced the first Aluminum iMacs (iMac7,1) in August 1997. The logic board uses the Santa Rosa chipset, and it has an 800 MHz data bus, up from 667 MHz on earlier Intel-based iMacs. The CPU sits in a socket (Socket P), so you can upgrade it!
The first three generations of Intel-based iMacs use the same Socket M to mount the CPU and have a 667 MHz system bus. The CPU is not soldered in place, allowing the Early 2006, Mid 2006, and Late 2006 iMacs to take the same CPU upgrades, bringing speeds as high as 2.33 GHz.
The first three generations of Intel-based Mac minis used the same Socket M to mount the CPU on a 667 MHz system bus. The CPU is not soldered in place, allowing the Early 2006, Late 2006, and Mid 2007 models to take the same CPU upgrades, bringing speeds as high as 2.33 GHz.
The Treo revolutionized the PDA market. Earlier attempts at wireless PDAs failed to make an impression on the market – the Motorola Marco and the Qualcomm pdQ were notable examples. They were much larger than their non-wireless counterparts, were expensive, and had only limited wireless functionality.
With the release of the first PalmPilots on March 10, 1996, Palm finally addressed issues it had been dealing with by making software for other people’s hardware since 1992 (see Part 1). For the first time, Palm had its own hardware and software, and the Palm brand became synonymous with PDA (Personal Digital Assistant).
This page lists some of the best software for the Classic Mac OS – System 6 through Mac OS 9.2.2 – in my admittedly biased opinion. Listings are alphabetical, and some programs have OS X versions as well as classic ones. Many links are to archived files in my Dropbox.
Palm Computing was largely the creation and vision of one man, Jeff Hawkins. Palm first brought tablet computing to consumers in the form of PDAs (but was beaten by Apple and its scions). The later – and more momentous – goal was to bring consumers to PDAs through simple and very fast user interfaces. This […]
I’ve just finished wading through 6+ years worth of press releases from Gartner Group, digging out quarterly PC sales results from Holiday Quarter 2008 through 2nd Quarter 2016. Why? Because the global PC market is in decline, and I wanted to see how Mac sales compared to Windows sales.
For nearly as long as I’ve published Low End Mac, we’ve had the “Road Apples” category for Macs that we felt didn’t live up to their potential (here’s an archive link to the 1998 Road Apples index). Sometimes it was because of hardware architecture. Sometimes it was because of unnecessary memory ceilings. And much of […]
I’ve been using a standup desk in my home office, and my recent job manufacturing high pressure air hoses required me to stand most of the day. A standing desk makes it easier to move around than sitting in a chair, but it can be hard on your body in other ways.
Prior to 2006, PowerBook was consistently one of the most respected and lusted after brands in the portable computing market.
While most early Mac clones depended on Macintosh ROMs to function, NuTek spent four years reverse engineering the ROMs in a clean room in its quest to produce a legal Mac clone. It didn’t exactly succeed.
One of the less well known Mac clone lines, MaxxBoxx was released in Germany in July 1997 to fill the needs of users with very demanding applications.
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.
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, […]
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.
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.
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.
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.
This could be the rarest Mac compatible ever made. Outside of a few prototypes, only about 100 McMobiles were ever made.
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”.
Honestly, if they didn’t keep dropping support for OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard in new versions of Chrome, Firefox, and Flash, I’d have almost no reason to have OS X 10.9 Mavericks on my Late 2008 13″ Aluminum MacBook (that’s a 2013 OS on a 2008 computer). But my Mid 2007 Mac mini is limited […]
The scroll wheel came late to Macs. In fact, although every version of Mac OS X includes support for a scroll wheel, no Apple mouse has ever had a scroll wheel. The closest they ever came was the scroll ball in the Apple Mighty Mouse.
I will be the first to admit that I have always considered the iMac G4 to be an odd looking computer. A coworker gave me an old one a few months ago, and I finally got the right power cord to set it up. It’s changed my opinion of the machine.
We’re sounding like a broken record here, but what was Apple thinking by offering a 4 GB Early 2015 MacBook Air that shipped with OS X 10.10 Yosemite – an operating system that limps along with 4 GB of system memory and cries out for 8 GB? I hope most users had the sense to […]
Macintosh games do not come more classic than the Marathon series. And now you can play all three on your modern Mac courtesy of the Aleph One project.
15 years in the making, Duke Nukem Forever brings back classic first person shooters and over the top sexism to the gaming world.
