Is Apple TV the Lowest Cost Mac?
A reader who wishes to remain anonymous writes:
Off the record....
I've seen that there is a lot of hobbyist activities surrounding
the Apple TV, especially in 1) using the custom OS in a Mac mini,
and 2) using full OS X in the Apple TV unit. With the Mac mini
now costing at least $600, twice that as the Apple TV, can one
consider the Apple TV running traditional OS X as the truly
cheapest new Mac (with some limitations, such as memory)?
Not wanting to offend other Apple aficionados, please refrain
from posting my name....
anonymous
Yes, you can run OS X on Apple TV, but from what
I've read, it's very slow and very limited. No USB support. No
graphics acceleration. No drive for CDs and DVDs. More limited than
the iPhone IMHO, but you could definitely call it a Mac once you
hack OS X onto it.
Dan
10th Anniversary Feedback
Christoph Trusch writes:
Hello Dan Knight!
Congratulations to 10 years of publishing. I've been with you
since 2003, and this is still my favorite Macintosh website. You
were asking for donations when I joined, and I'm glad you made it
(I donated a bit, too). LEM is, in fact, the only website I've
whitelisted in my adblock filter, so this really means
something.
Best regards, and keep on the good work,
Christoph Trusch
Christoph,
Thanks for supporting LEM - and whitelisting our
ads. :-)
Dan
Eric Matthieu writes:
Dan,
Thanks for all the hard work you've put in over the years at
LEM. I love the site, am a frequent visitor, and recommend highly
recommend it as an essential resource in the Mac orbit. Here's to
another ten years!
Regards, Eric
P.S. Good job on LEM's new and improved look. Very nice.
Eric,
Thanks for sharing LEM with others. I'm pretty
pleased with the new look - brighter colors, a bit more
streamlined, still comfortable to longtime visitors.
Dan
Accessing Data on Old Floppies and Old
iMacs
Jill Rapaport writes::
Hi, Low End Mac,
Wondering how to get help with retrieving/archiving/converting
old data that currently resides in several places:
- on old PC floppies (mostly WordPerfect for DOS), currently
readable on my old LC 550 but need
to burn to CD, which I can't on that computer
- on the LC 550 hard drive and backed up to 3.5" floppies
- on an older (fruit-colored)
iMac where the files can be opened perfectly in AppleWorks but
need to be removed to CD. The data is thus scattered and
voluminous, sometimes also existing in folders, subdirectories,
etc.
I am not experienced with list serves and find them difficult to
navigate. I'm a prolific writer who needs help with this. I don't
have a lot of money, and even if I do buy a new Mac for the new
writing, I still want to archive and preserve the old writing in a
way that I can access and work with it.
Any ideas or referrals via email would be gratefully accepted.
Thanks!
J. Rapaport
Jill,
My solution involved an external USB floppy drive
(about $30 these days) and a flash drive.
- Plug in flash drive and convert to Mac format using Disk
Utility (they always ship ready for Windows PCs - and if you want
to work with Windows, you can leave them formatted that way, but
Mac format is better for Mac files & avoids drag-and-drop
problems some people see with flash drives).
- Connect floppy drive to any Mac with USB.
- Insert floppy disk.
- Double-click floppy icon, select all contents in window, drag
to flash drive.
Repeat steps 2-4 as necessary. You'll be able to
access your files on any Mac with a USB port, copy them to your
hard drive, burn a CD, etc.
Dan
Upgrade Sawtooth or Buy New?
Kate writes:
I have had my G4 (Sawtooth) since
May of 2000. I added a 160 GB hard drive, and it continues to do
most of what I want. After 7 years of service, I wonder about
upgrading this or getting an
iMac.
Right now the G4 isn't fast enough, and it is starting to freeze
occasionally. I only have 192 MB RAM right now, and I am running
the OS 10.2.8. It is running the 400 MHz, and some of the programs
I am looking at require more speed.
If I decide to upgrade, I will need a faster processor, more
RAM, and a newer OS. In addition, I am interested in recording onto
the computer to burn CDs (just voice or old tapes).
Any suggestions of what to consider?
Kate
Kate,
Assuming you're happy with your monitor, drive
space, graphics card, and the ports in your Power Mac, try to stick
with it.
Memory is cheap these days - as low as $8 for a
128 MB stick, so first see if upgrading to at least 512 MB of RAM
doesn't unleash the power of your G4. Four 128 MB sticks should set
you back no more than $32 shipped (check out ramseeker.com).
Also check out LEM's Guide to Power Mac G4 Upgrades for a
list of available CPU upgrades for your Sawtooth. You should be
able to buy a 1.2 GHz G4 for under $200 and 1.5 GHz for about $250.
With enough RAM (anything less than 256 MB is a bottleneck for
10.2.x, and more is always better), you should see a huge
improvement.
It's hard to recommend going with an iMac without
knowing what size screen you currently use, and the iMac will be
much less expandable than the Power Mac.
Dan
Troubleshooting a Beige G3
Kenneth Davis writes::
Dan:
Love your site. I was wondering how it may be possible to get a
Beige G3 up and running for editing
video. I have so far added:
- Sonnet 733 G4 CPU upgrade
- 32 ATI Radeon 7000 Video Card
- 80 GB Drive
- FireWire/USB Card
- OS X 10.2.8
When uploading, it will work for about 2 sec. before locking up
and displaying I/O error. Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Kenneth Davis
Try removing one upgrade at a time to see which
one is causing the problem. I'd start with the FW/USB card or
whatever upgrade you added last.
Dan
Satisfaction the Answer to Wasteful
Consumerism
Hey Dan,
Great article, a common sense response to the rampant,
obsessive mania with always having the latest & greatest,
whether it be computers, music players, TVs, cars, or
what-have-you. Yes, it's good for the economy since the economy is
based on the most people buying the newest things whether they can
afford them or not (enter the credit card providers, and the
economy gains further while the people whose purchases support it
suffer paying outrageous interest rates, or suffer further the
difficulties and pain of bankruptcy).
I made my decision awhile back, deciding to buy smart instead of
compulsively buying everything that came out as soon as I could,
and it's paying off, since at the moment I could only buy the
latest & greatest via credit cards or contracts, and I refuse
to use either.
At the moment, I own a dual-processor
Power Mac G4 desktop tower, an old one
(Gigabit Ethernet), and a Pismo
PowerBook G3, all tricked out with lots of RAM and running
OS X Panther, and each fits my needs and requirements exactly,
even though they are "legacy" hardware. Many other things in my
possession are old but still very serviceable, and I see no need to
replace them until this is no longer so.
I think Apple is an industry leader in its support of older
hardware and operating systems, obviously seeing that if you build
good product and have a solid reputation, you do not have to force
consumers who really can't afford & don't need newer products,
to buy them through what I would call "forced obsolescence" (see
Windows Vista hardware requirements).
Way back in the '50s, automakers began to use what was called
"planned obsolescence", building new features & style
(especially style) into newer models, as well as seeing that their
automobiles would only last a certain number of years before
starting to break down. Then along came the likes of VW and Toyota,
whose year-to-year sameness and reliability soon siphoned off a lot
of careful buyers.
We don't need it. And a healthy, robust economy needs to be
based on selling less of what we don't need and more of what we
really do.
Until then, well . . . my Macs are doing fine. So is my
13-year-old Sony TV, and so is my 197,000 mile Toyota.
Thanks for the well-expressed common sense.
All the Best,
Tom Gabriel
Thanks for your kind words, Tom.
I see LEM as the most "anti-consumer" Mac website
out there. New is great. Apple needs to sell new to survive. But
the installed base is mostly older Macs that keep going and
going.
Dan
Dan Knight has been publishing Low
End Mac since April 1997. Mailbag columns come from email responses to his Mac Musings, Mac Daniel, Online Tech Journal, and other columns on the site.
