Apple took a big step when it introduced the 68020-based Mac II in March 1987. The new computer was modular, not an all-in-one design like the first four Macs. In addition to 6 expansion slots, a huge power supply, color support, and room for two floppy drives and an internal hard drive, the Mac II runs its […]
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The earliest personal computers used 8-bitCPUs (central processing units). Apple, Commodore, Rockwell, and Atari designed their computers around the MOS Tech 6502; Radio Shack’s Color Computer used the Motorola 6809; and most others, including the Radio ShackTRS-80 and all CP/M computers, used the Zilog Z-80 or Intel 8080. All ran in the 1-4 MHz range and […]
Mobile phones and smartphones might have progressed rapidly over the years, but are we just a slave to having the newest must-have feature? Could you break free?
It’s my birthday, and I realized I’ve been using Macs for half my life. I was 28 years old when I first used a Mac Plus way back in 1986, along with PageMaker 1.0 and the original LaserWriter printer. And 28 years later, I know a lot more about Macs – and myself.
Following on from my previous two articles, I ran further tests on my MacBook to see how it performs under different RAM and different versions of OS X and against an original Intel iMac.
In this comparison I look at how OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard compares when running my Early 2009 MacBook with 2 GB vs. 4 GB RAM, and I see how Snow Leopard compares to OS X 10.9 Mavericks.
Two machines and one operating system – which one performs better? I test them out with surprising results.
Intel chose Pentium as the name for its next generation CPU, avoiding the expected 80586 designation – because numbers cannot be trademarked, but names can. The Pentium originally shipped at 60 and 66 MHz in 1993 and eventually reached speeds as high as 200 MHz in 1995. It has 3.1 million transistors using 0.8 micron technology at the […]
With the Motorola 680×0 architecture running out of steam and Motorola’s 88000 making haste slowly, Apple had to look a bit further afield for its next processor architecture. Here’s how IBM’s RISC project became the heart of the Mac.
This is part two of an epic saga about one man and his Macintosh SE. If you missed the first part or maybe you just need to get a quick refresh about part one, feel free to go back and enjoy it again.
John Sculley, who had once been hailed as Apple’s savior for huge sales increases and good PR (like Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, and Steve Jobs rolled in one) had presided over the splintering of the product line and a sharp decline in market share. The same trends continued after Sculley was forced out, and the […]
2005.11.15 From the day of his appointment as Apple CEO in February 1996, Gil Amelio presided over an ailing company. After the near-disastrous reign of Michael Spindler, Amelio promised to change the corporate ethos of Apple.
Low End Mac has just launched its YouTube channel, showcasing videos of repairs, upgrades, and mods of Apple kit, as well as general news and product videos.
Put simply, you can’t. With the introduction of OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard in August 2009, Apple removed all support for PowerPC Macs from its operating system. You cannot run OS X 10.6, 10.7, 10.8, 10.9, or 10.10 on G5 Macs or anything earlier. They will only run on Intel x86 hardware.
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.
Apple’s 2014 World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) brought much anticipated news of the next versions of Mac OS X and iOS. I sum up their main features.
I had been on the lookout for another Mac to add to my collection. My wife had led me to believe that if I was so inclined to pick up another, that it should be free or very close to it. I posted some ads on the local buy/sell Facebook groups and even on the […]
My wife clued me in to this nice little feature introduced in Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. She does a lot of online shopping, and when you buy something online, you usually get a screen that says something like, “Print this right now if you want a receipt.” You can’t usually save these screens effectively, […]
Not everyone can afford the latest computer and all the new software that accompanies it. Some teachers have older machines; others have only one or two machines available. Here at Low End Mac we often take the position of recommending refurbishing older machines to get something in the classroom.
Last time we discussed deciding what to ask for with grants in Need Macs for Your Classroom? Write a Grant. today we talk about writing the application. Next time we’ll look at finding support from stakeholders and making your application stand out.
In our previous articles on grantwriting, we addressed establishing a purpose and identifying expenses to write into your grant. This article addresses the concept of getting others interested in your project – and why you should try.
There are frankly crazy rumors going about that Apple is ready to launch MacBooks, Mac minis, and perhaps even iMacs with up to four 4-core ARM-based CPUs. The next generation iPhone/iPad CPU will almost certainly be a 4-core 64-bit Apple chip named the A8. But in Macs?
This story starts off innocently enough. I was stopping by a small thrift shop, like I normally do when I have 5 to 10 minutes of spare time on my hands. I’m always on the lookout for a cheap Macintosh to add to my collection.
I recently brought an original iPhone back from the brink, but it had audio issues. This article shows how to fix the reversed audio issue.
Changes to my writing content expanding to cover a variety of subjects, sees my column name change to Tech Spectrum.
I recently installed the lightweight Linux distro LXLE on a netbook and then on an aging laptop. Now I compare the two machines.
Apple really overhauled iOS when it released version 7 last year with better multitasking, improved background processing, scheduled connectivity, optimized memory use, and a cleaner, lighter looking interface. What can we expect from iOS 8?
I really dislike throwing out any tech kit. If it can be saved, I will do my best to revive it and reuse it. Recently I saved an original iPhone from certain doom.
With another “well duh” headline, Cult of Mac told us yesterday, Survey Finds Battery Life Is Most Important for iPhone Owners. Didn’t the fact that we use 3.5″ and 4″ smartphones while the Android world has gone bigger kind of make that obvious?
Apple is notoriously tight-lipped about upcoming OS versions and hardware. We fully expect OS X 10.10 to ship sometime this year, probably after a preview at the Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) held June 2-6, 2014.
