By the early 1990s, the Macintosh was moving away from its black and white roots and into the world of full color. The last of the compact black and white screen Macs, the Classic II, ceased production in 1992. A few years after that, Apple closed out the last production run of grayscale PowerBooks. With […]
The development of MacPaint 2.0 changed the way the average computer user used his or her machine for all time. Instead of just having a typewriter or number crunching machine, the Macintosh could do work in the visual area as well
Although it has been a while in terms of the life span of the typical child growing up in the computer age, the year 1984 was a highlight. Besides the fact that 1984 was the year the first Macintosh was introduced, the year marked a change in the way computers were used.
Not everyone needs a brand new iPhone, but which model you pick will depend on what you want to do with it.
Despite the best efforts of Microsoft, its consumer mobile platform just can’t break through. Does it still have a chance, or is it dead in the water?
In the past month, I’ve gone from only using an iPhone 4S to setting up an iPhone 5S for my wife and an iPhone 5 for myself. Looking back at iPhone history, there have been some big leaps forward in power – and some small ones.
Like clockwork, Apple introduces a new iPhone model (or set of models) every year. In September 2012, the iPhone 5 was the new one. We’re now three generations beyond that. How viable is the iPhone 5 today?
I just have to say Thank You! to everyone who has contributed to Low End Mac in March and April. Both months you have brought us beyond our goal, and it means the world to us. Yesterday we passed our funding goal for April.
Just over a year ago, Apple introduced a whole new model under the MacBook name – barely a half-inch thick and just a touch over two pounds. The Early 2016 model takes the next step forward with Intel Core m3, m5, and m7 processors and Intel HD Graphics 515.
The way we talk on the Internet fundamentally changed over the past 20 years. When I came online through AOL in the mid 1990s there were chat rooms and instant messaging clients. I still remember the *beep* of my ICQ client when receiving a message all those years after.
After months of warnings every time I launched Google Chrome on my 2007 Mac mini running OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, Google has finally abandoned that platform. And OS X 10.7 Lion. And OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. (Not to mention Windows XP, which isn’t a Mac OS but definitely has a lot of users […]
Commodore was the third player in the 68000-based personal computer market, going up against the Apple Macintosh and Atari ST. Commodore had acquired Amiga in 1984.
Frankly, we can only think of one good reason for running OS X 10.5 Leopard on an Intel Mac: You don’t have enough system memory to run OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard decently and you’re not willing to invest in more RAM.*
Macs tend to be pretty trouble-free, but sometimes things happen. Maybe you had to force-quit an application, or a program refuses to launch, or the spinning beachball of death won’t stop, forcing you to manually power down your Mac. All of those could mean it’s time to do some hard drive and system checks.
I can’t believe how affordable SSDs have become. Last year I put a 256 GB Samsung SSD in my 2.0 GHz 2007 Mac mini for $90. This time I put a 480 GB Crucial SSD into my Late 2008 Aluminum MacBook (also 2.0 GHz) for $110!
Today’s Mac computers are amazing. They’re sleek, slim, extremely powerful, and filled with features like iCloud, AirPlay mirroring, Notification Center, and so on. So why are old Macs holding more value now than ever before, and does it make more sense to buy a new machine or a used one if the cost difference between […]
While reading through The Nehemiah Effect, a book coauthored by a friend, I’ve spent some time musing over things like a vision statement, a mission statement, core values, attitudes, objectives, and goals. It’s really helped me look back over my life to see who I am while I defined these things for Low End Mac.
Last week, I looked at whether partitioning or formatting USB flash drives in other ways made a difference, and I found out that the stock FAT format tends to produce the best results overall. Today I’m testing striped RAID arrays using the same flash drives in 2, 3, and 4 drive configurations.
Thanks to about 90 readers, we surpassed our March fund raising goal by nearly 20%, giving us enough to cover our 2015 taxes, pay our monthly business bills, pick up a nice used 16 GB iPhone 5S, and acquire a new SSD for one of our MacBooks. If we hit our $800 goal this month, I […]
The iPhone SE seems to have been an instant hit, but what – if anything – will Apple follow it up with?
When you buy a USB flash drive, it comes preformatted for use on Window PCs. But will it work more efficiently if its reformatted in a Mac-native format? We just had to find out.
In late 2015, I reviewed the budget Microsoft Lumia 435 handset. Now its 2016, and I check it out upgraded to Windows 10 Mobile.
Tired of being a perpetual bridesmaid in the personal computing world even though it’s the most valuable company in the world, Apple has acquired Microsoft and today begins the process of upgrading Windows 10 users to OS X 10.11 El Capitan.
Apple may be able to do amazing things with Xserve machines and Mac OS X Server, but that doesn’t mean they’re the only ones who can offer affordable services to Macintosh users.
I take a hands on look at the new ‘budget’ 4” special edition iPhone.
If you’re a loyal Low End Mac user, chances are you’ve heard of TenFourFox, the popular Firefox fork for PowerPC Macs. Few, however, have heard of TenFourFoxBox, a program for your OS X 10.4 or 10.5 PowerPC Macintosh that turns ordinary websites into web apps. While it does not require you to run TenFourFox alongside it, […]
Microsoft just released Windows 10 Mobile to existing handset owners. I check it out and give you my initial thoughts.
I hadn’t realized how much work it would be to move my wife from her iPhone 4S to an iPhone 5S. The project took many, many more hours than anticipated.
Recently announced, the iPhone SE is the much rumoured return to 4” iPhones. So what do I think of it?
Windows 10 Mobile might be the shiny new beast from Microsoft, but you ought to check if your handset will be eligible for it, as a lot won’t be – and this hasn’t gone down well with fans.
