Mac Musings

Mac Musings 2008 Archive

• Practical iMac G3 applications and upgrades, 12.22. Used G3 iMacs are going for a song these days, but are they worth spending money on, let along upgrading?
• Picking up a used Power Mac G3 or G4: Is it worth it?, 12.18. In some cases, shipping can cost more than the computer itself. Where are the best values?
• Why you should partition your Mac's hard drive, 12.11. "At the very least, it makes sense to have a second partition with a bootable version of the Mac OS, so if you have problems with your work partition, you can boot from the 'emergency' partition to run Disk Utility and other diagnostics."
• No high definition iTunes video for you, 11.19. The October 2008 MacBooks are preventing users from viewing some high-def iTunes content from being viewed on their external displays. Poor form!
• Anticipating Macworld: Nehalem, Snow Leopard, and updated desktops, 11.18. Intel's Core i7 CPU has to make it way into the next Mac Pro, Nvidia GeForce graphics will drive the iMac and Mac mini, and 'Snow Leopard' will unleash the animal within.
• One Used Mac can make a difference, 11.12. Instead of scrapping out old Macs for raw materials, what if the Mac community worked to restore them and give them away to those with no computers?
• A brief history of portable computing: From Dynabook to netbooks, 11.06. 40 years ago Alan Kay dreamt of a two pound handheld computer. Portables have made a lot of changes since 1981, but haven't yet matched the Dynabook.
• The Unibody MacBook FireWire fiasco didn't have to happen, 10.30. Some are claiming that Apple had no choice but to eliminate FireWire with the new MacBook design, but Apple could have eliminated ethernet instead.
• The October 2008 MacBook value equation, 10.15. Apple changed the entire MacBook lineup on Tuesday. How do close-out prices compare to the new ones?
• What would an $800 MacBook mean for the Mac mini?, 10.09. If Apple does release an $800 entry-level MacBook next week, the $600 Mac mini is going to look very overpriced.
• Low End Mac needs help moving to Joomla, 10.08. We've settled on Joomla as the content management system that should work very well for Low End Mac, but we're running stuck with templates.
• Mac nano? Brick? How small could Apple make a Mac?, 09.23. The iPhone and iPod touch show how small Apple can make a computer. What if Apple wanted to build a very, very small Macintosh?
• With 10% of the US notebook market, where will Apple go next?, 09.19. Apple increased its share of the North American notebook market by 60% over the past year and moved to fourth place. What can it do for an encore?
• 'I invented the iPod', 09.15. Before CDs came to market, Kane Kramer conceived of a portable personal digital music system that anticipated the iPod and iTunes Store in many ways.
• The 2008 iPod value equation, 09.10. Apple has redesigned the iPod nano, slimmed down the iPod touch, simplified the iPod classic line, and introduced new colors for the iPod shuffle.
• Tomorrow's solid state drives and notebooks, 09.04. Flash drives are great but have some shortcomings. Some thoughts on building better SSDs and notebooks to use them.
• Looking for a content management system that's as easy as Mac, 08.29. Low End Mac needs to move to a content management system, but the few we've tried just don't cut it for people used to the simple elegance of the Mac.
• MacDrought: 4 months with no new Macs, 08.27. The most recent Mac update was over four months ago, and the Mac mini has been unchanged for over a year.
• The iMac Legacy: The G3 Era, 08.15. 10 years ago today, the original iMac went on sale. One of the most popular lines of computers ever, the G3 iMac would be Apple staples for nearly five years.
• The iMac Legacy: After the G3, 08.15. The G3 iMac influenced the whole industry, but Apple continued to move forward with innovative designs using G4, G5, and Intel processors.
• The Mac App Store, 08.13. Just as Apple now sells iPhone apps through the iTunes Store, it could (and should) do the same with Mac software.
• The Mac is a personal computer, not a PC, 08.06. "...the simple fact is that while the Macintosh is a personal computer, the world knows that it is not a PC."
• Toward a better computer keyboard, 07.23. Today's standard computer keyboards have obsolete keys, poorly placed ones (Caps Lock), and aren't designed for the way we work today.
• Record Mac sales, $1 billion profit, and a future product transition, 07.22. Apple reports sales of nearly 2.5 million Macs in the past quarter, along with highest ever profits for the June quarter. And it hints at a product transition that will impact margins.
• The Mac's growing market presence, 07.22. Apple has always been a significant player in the personal computer industry, and it's growing sales at a remarkable rate.
• The Windows death spiral, 07.16. Sure, Vista user share is growing, but it's not enough to offset defections to Macs and Linux. This is the beginning of the end for Windows.
• More air: Expectations for future MacBook and MacBook Pro models, 07.08. Next generation 'Books are expected to include Intel's next generation Montevino processor, but wireless power and wireless USB could give Apple a leg up on the competition.
• PowerPC's last chance: The Mac's history with the G5 CPU, 06.24. The introduction of the G5 Power Mac in June 2003 promised a bright 3 GHz future, and failure to achieve that paved the way to today's Intel Macs.
• 16:9 computer displays: Let's not go there, 06.17. "...there's no reason our computer displays should match the proportions of our television displays."
• Left behind by Mac OS X or up to date with Linux?, 06.04. If you wanted up-to-date software, you may need to run the latest version of Mac OS X. But what if it won't run on your hardware?
• Beyond the Mac mini, 05.15. What if Apple were to think different and eliminate the built-in optical drive, cut $100 from the price, and offer an expansion chassis?
• 50% Mac sales growth is only the beginning, 05.02. Apple has a great line of computers and an awesome operating system, but a prosumer model could make last quarter's growth seem normal.
• The 2008 Penryn iMac value equation, 04.29. Comparing prices, features, and performance, three of four new models are value champions, and there are some surprising refurb values as well.
• A $99 PC, a $399 hackintosh, and growing the Mac market, 04.15. There is a low-end market, which now includes a $99 bare bones PC and a $399 computer designed to run Leopard.
• Windows XP is faster, but Mac OS X is superior in many ways, 04.11. Although Photoshop runs faster under Windows XP, the Mac's stability and better user experience give it the advantage.
• The Apple Store, Intel Macs, and classic apps, 04.09. Visiting the Apple Store to drop of an eMac for repair provides an opportunity to lust after today's wicked fast Intel-based Macs and muse about the future.
• Millions vs. thousands of colors: What's the difference?, 04.07. Once again Apple is being sued over a Mac that can display 'only' 262,144 colors per pixel, not the millions it claims. Does it realy matter?
• 2 useful online genealogy resources, 03.24. Geni is a free online tool for building your family tree, and Genealogie can be a wonderful source for those with Dutch roots.
• March Madness and a Macintosh Performa, 03.24. Pete Tiernan of Bracketscience uses a 1995 Mac Performa and FileMaker 2.0 to do some of the best playoff analysis out there.
• The rise of the Microsoft monopoly, 03.12. How Microsoft Word and Excel came to dominate both the Macintosh and Windows platforms.
• Forward into the past: Finding older software for Macs, 03.12. It's not easy finding out what older versions of software are compatible with which versions of the Mac OS, let alone finding a place to download them.
• When is 2.1 GHz slower than 2.0 GHz? When it's the new MacBook, 02.28. It's completely counterintuitive, but the 2.1 GHz MacBook benchmarks slower than the 2.0 GHz model it replaces.
• The 2008 MacBook value equation, 02.28. Comparing close-out prices against the new white MacBooks, it's pretty close. But if you want a black MacBook, there are deals to be had.
• The 2008 MacBook Pro value equation, 02.27. "Perhaps the best thing about the new models is what they've done to prices of last year's MacBook Pro line."
• Feb. 10, 1993: Apple rolls out 6 new Macs at once, 02.11. What was Apple thinking introducing six new Macs in February 1993? Looking back at Apple's broadest product rollout ever.
• Acquiring Yahoo: Microsoft is playing the same old game, 02.04. Microsoft has a long history of copying others, leveraging its dominance, and acquiring other companies when it can't take over a market on its own.
• Restoring a Blue & White G3 and a 'Mystic' Power Mac G4, 01.30. Both of these Power Macs had been unreliable since they were purchased (used). Patience plus trial and error got them both working reliably with Mac OS 9 and X.
• iCab 4: Try it, you might like it, 01.28. iCab has been a Mac-only browser since 1999, and the newest version is definitely worth a try.
• The MacBook Air is nearly perfect, 01.16. The MacBook Air isn't quite the perfect replacement for the 12" PowerBook G4, but it comes mighty close.
• Something new in the air, 01.15. Macworld Keynote roundup: Time Capsule, iPhone and iPod touch improvements, iTunes Movie Rentals, Apple TV 2, and MacBook Air, Apple's best notebook ever.
• We need more than 2 USB ports in MacBooks, 01.14. There's something wrong when you can't plug a flash drive, mouse, and printer into a notebook computer at the same time.
• New Macs before the Expo? What is Apple thinking?, 01.09. It's unprecedented. Apple has never unveiled a new Mac just before the Macworld Expo. What does Steve Jobs have up his sleeves for the Expo?
• The 2008 Mac Pro value equation, 01.09. The new Mac Pro models use quad-core Intel Xeon CPUs on a faster bus, add SAS support, and include Bluetooth. Is there any reason to buy the old ones?
• Is DRM in Mac OS X anything to fear?, 01.08. Just because Apple has a way to incorporate digital rights management within OS X doesn't mean the company is going to follow Microsoft's example.

More Mac Musings in the archive: 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010