Second Class Macs are Apple’s somewhat compromised hardware designs. For the most part, they’re not really bad – simply designs that didn’t meet their full potential, such as the PowerBook 5300, Apple’s first PowerPC-based PowerBook.
Road Apples are Apple’s most compromised hardware designs. For the most part, they’re not completely bad – simply designs that couldn’t meet their potential. The Performa 600 is more deserving of the Road Apple title than any Mac before it, as is it’s nearly identical twin, the Mac IIvx.
Road Apples are Apple’s most compromised hardware designs. For the most part, they’re not completely bad – simply designs that couldn’t meet their potential. However, the x200 series is the worst family of Macs ever built.
With careful use, you may two years out of your vintage PowerBook battery, but with improper care, it could give out in less than a year. It’s worth the time and effort to take proper care of your PowerBook battery.
Second Class Macs are Apple’s somewhat compromised hardware designs. For the most part, they’re not really bad – simply designs that didn’t meet their full potential. When it was introduced on February 28, 2006, the Core Solo Mac mini was the smallest desktop computer on the market – and the second-least expensive Macintosh Apple had […]
This article contains frequently asked questions (FAQ) regarding the PowerBook 2400c, with answers to those questions. An archived version of this article is available on Apple’s website. We have added corrections and updates.
Late last week, Apple delivered iOS 7.0.6 and iOS 6.1.6 to address the “goto fail” bug in iOS and Apple TV OS 6.0.2 as well. This week it released OS X 10.9.2, Security Update 2014-001 for OS X 10.7 and newer, Safari 6.1.2 and 7.0.2 so everyone running OS X 10.7 Lion and newer will […]
The dual USB iBook form factor was in production for five years – the longest-running laptop design in Apple portable history. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, since its only major shortcoming (albeit a significant one) is that it is relatively difficult to open up and work on – even for routine stuff like hard […]
When Apple introduced it MacBook Pro line, it discontinued the PowerBook series, and when the first MacBook models arrived in mid-May 2006, it discontinued the iBook line. These were the first two Mac brands to disappear in the Intel transition, followed by the Power Mac, which gave way to the Mac Pro later in 2006.
The 17″ MacBook Pro has seen its time come and go, as sad as that reality may be. Apple stopped making its largest sized flagship portables after 2011 in favor of smaller 15″ class Retina Display units that pack more pixels along with more graphics and processing power into a smaller package.
The PowerBook 2000 (FireWire), a.k.a. Pismo, is the Energizer Bunny of Apple notebooks. It just goes on and on and on, with many owners of these now machines still using them as their main workhorse computers.
The Lombard PowerBook G3 (officially the PowerBook G3 Bronze Keyboard) was rolled out on May 10, 1999 – exactly a year after the first WallStreet iteration of Apple’s PowerBook G3 Series laptop line debuted, also at the Worldwide Developers’ Conference (WWDC). While the Lombard superficially looks similar to the WallStreet family, it had taken a […]
Apple got a lot of mileage out of the PowerBook G3 nomenclature – some might argue more than they should have attempted to.
This Compleat Guide installment might well be named the Short and Sweet Guide to the Original PowerBook G3, since it only covers one model with a single revision that was in production for less than six months.
Back in 2003, the 12″ Little Al PowerBook represented one of the most convincing smash-hit model introductions in Apple history. Sharing much of the general layout, engineering, and the 12″ display of the 12″ iBook, the baby PowerBook added an aluminum housing and G4 power – plus most (but not all) of the usual slate of […]
Apple’s 17″ PowerBook G4, announced at Macworld Expo in January 2003, essentially eliminated any reason other than lower cost for owning a desktop computer for most of Mac users. With that big screen, plenty of speed, and an inventory of features undreamed of even in high-end desktops only a handful of years prior, this PowerBook […]
The 15″ PowerBook (or AlBook) was rolled out by Steve Jobs at Macworld Paris in September 2003. After eight months of anticipation following the release of the 17″ and 12″ aluminum PowerBooks in January of 2003, it turned out to be pretty much what PowerBook fans had been hoping for and expecting.
In its day, the Titanium PowerBook G4 (or TiBook) was the most successful PowerBook sales-wise Apple had ever offered. Built from January 2001 to September 2003 in the same form factor, at the time it was the longest-running PowerBook model. Or was it?
I very much enjoyed reading Carl Nygren’s 2008 column, Graphite Clamshell iMac Still a Real Eye Catcher and Useful Tool about his Graphite clamshell iBook SE. Wow! A cherry clamshell complete with built-in DVD drive, manuals, and CD for fifty bucks. I’m envious.
Way back in the earliest days of the Macintosh, Apple did something very clever. In addition to standard OS calls for disk access and standard graphic routines every programmer could use, Apple adopted standard keyboard commands and recommended they be used in every app.
Back in 1997, when Low End Mac was getting started, Apple’s future was anything but certain. Could it find a white knight to come in and rescue the brand? Would Steve Jobs be able to keep the “beleaguered” company afloat?
MacWrite was bundled with the original Macintosh and was the Mac’s default word processing program. MacWrite was developed by Randy Wigginton, Ed Ruder, and Don Breuner of Encore Systems. It defined the WYSIWYG word processing category and continued as freeware through version 5.0.
We all get nostalgic about certain things. For some, it’s the first car. And sometimes, it’s the first Macintosh.
Over the summer of 1997, Apple brought the era of authorized Macintosh clones to an end to keep Apple solvent.*
Apple became a household name in the third quarter of SuperBowl XVIII when it aired the enormously popular 1984 ad promoting the upcoming release of the Macintosh.
This article was originally published on 2001.05.29 and is adapted from a series of articles and sidebars in the February 1984 issue of Byte magazine. Although some of the details included in this article are specific to the original Mac, many also apply to other compact Macs, such as the Plus, SE, SE/30, Classic, and Classic II.
My road to the Mac has been a long one. While some of my earliest experiences with computers were on a Macintosh, it would take another 15 years before I would come to own one myself. Along the way I would discover a passion for computers and technology that continues to this day.
Almost everyone complains about the cost of cable and satellite TV, but few actually takes the steps necessary to ditch those overpriced services and use their internet connection to fill the void. That’s our goal in this series of articles.
A lot of people go on and on about how “great” their PS4 is or their Xbox one, and many of these people missed the start of it all! The Commodore, the Sinclair Spectrum, the Atari, etc. It’s when computers started becoming more interesting and fun to use, when you were eager to actually get […]
Many people describe their first experience of using an Apple computer as “uplifting”, “simple”, and “straightforward”, but despite being a die-hard Mac user now, I found it very different.
Apple introduced its first G4 notebook, the Titanium PowerBook (TiBook), in January 2001; the last one was discontinued in Sept. 2003 and replaced by the 15″ aluminum PowerBook G4. All titanium models have 15.2″ displays, two USB 1.1 ports, FireWire 400, one CardBus slot, room for an 802.11b AirPort Card (not the newer 802.11g AirPort […]
The Power Mac G4 offers a lot of power, expandability (3-4 PCI slots and several drive bays), and upgradability (1.5 to 2.0 GB maximum RAM) with prices starting as low as $60.
Your best bet G4 iMacs are the last generation models (1 GHz 15″, 1.25 GHz 17″ and 20″ models), which have better video, support 2 GB of memory, and are the only G4 iMacs to include USB 2.0 ports. (Whether you’re looking at flash drives, scanners, printers, iPods, iPhones, or almost anything but keyboards and […]
G4 iBooks are a good option with prices starting below $100 including AirPort Extreme – well under half the cost of a refurbished 13″ MacBook. The biggest drawback to the iBook design is the tedious process involved in disassembling and reassembling it to upgrade the hard drive.
Well, hi there. As a new contributor to Low End Mac, I would just like to extend my hand and offer you the warmest of welcomes. I know a lot of you have been avid readers and followers of Low End Mac, and I don’t want to disappoint!
