Long before newfandangled contraptions known as word processors and eventually the Macintosh, and even longer before the iPhone and iPad, the manual typewriter reigned supreme for getting your muse from thoughts to paper. Tactile key action was king here. You had to apply a greater deal of force to each letter you struck compared to […]
The SD memory card has come to dominate the world of digital cameras, both still and video, and it’s even made it way into recent Macs and many Android tablets. This is the story of the card’s origin.
There was a time when computer keyboards were not considered a mere afterthought. Many keyboard manufacturers proudly promoted the comfort and durability of their keyboard. Computer manufacturers, including Apple, once included some of the best, if not the best keyboards possible.
Some carriers have been offering iPhone owners a $100 discount on a new iPhone. A lot of independent companies selling mobiles are offering to buy used iPhones outright. There’s always an active iPhone market on eBay, and now Apple had entered the trade-in game. But should you sell or trade in your old iPhone? Or […]
Mac OS X version 10.0 shipped on March 24, 2001, and in over a dozen years, the platform has proven particularly resilient to malware. Not that malware for the Mac doesn’t exist, just that it never seems to get any traction.
I bought a Chromebook. Back in April, I reviewed a loaner Chromebook, a CDN$269 Samsung model. Overall, I enjoyed the experience; the hardware was reminiscent of an 11” MacBook Air ultralight notebook with many limitations – partly the result of the dramatically lower price point and partly due to running Google’s Chrome OS, an operating […]
I’ve discussed the LocationFree player and base stations before, but there is one more use for these devices that many might not be aware of – the ability to control Netflix (and even a first generation AppleTV) from afar using any PowerPC G4 800 MHz or greater Mac (recommended spec for the I-O Data Mac […]
Jef Raskin founded the Macintosh project at Apple, which led to the development of the Apple Mac and the popularisation of the graphical user-interface. He was Apple employee #31 and left the Macintosh team in mid-1981 after Steve Jobs took over the project.
Sometimes it is the simplest things in the tech world, that make things easier. This time it is the Reader feature of iOS Safari.
Michael Spindler was born during the last throes of Nazi Germany. The family was split up before Spindler was born, because his father was forced to work at a munitions plant. The absence of his father during his early childhood appeared to make Spindler even more motivated to prove himself. He excelled in school and […]
Apple started 1984 with a bang. The Macintosh was finished, and it was well received by the general public, largely due to a highly successful advertising campaign beginning with the 1984 ad.
In 1984, Apple Computer, a pioneer in the personal computer field, announced its biggest gamble to date. With small personal computers having reached landmark sales over the past few years, Apple debuted the Macintosh, a “computer for the rest of us”.
Before 1995, search engines relied on databases of textual keywords to find relevant results. Whenever a user entered a search term, search engines such as AltaVista and Lycos would compare the search term to their databases of terms. The pages that had text most similar to the search term were considered to be more relevant […]
Pixar, a company that revolutionized the feature film industry, had an obscure origin. A group of researchers from the most elite research institutions in the US eventually gathered at a former diploma mill and later defected to Lucasfilm. Their division was purchased by Steve Jobs and became Pixar, which created Toy Story and is now […]
The world took a big step towards the iPod generation when Sony introduced the Walkman in 1979. The device was not particularly advanced – portable tape recorders had existed for decades – but it was an advance in marketing. The Walkman was not promoted to professional journalists, like most portable tape recorders were at the […]
There are times when you need to zoom in to take a better picture, a feature lacking on all current mobile phones. But what if you could buy a lens attachment?
There are many ways to keep up on Low End Mac (LEM) as we add new content, update price trackers, and continue to migrate old articles from HTML files to the WordPress content management system.
Despite an enormous launch campaign, the Macintosh was a failure. Steve Jobs had predicted that Apple sell 500,000 Macs the first year, but by 1985.03.11 the company had sold only 10% of Jobs’ original prediction.
More than any other product from Apple, the iPod has changed the company and the world. Before its introduction, MP3 players were the realm of small companies with limited budgets that were unable to provide content. After the iPod, the entire industry has evolved and grown to the point where the largest computer companies in […]
In the months following Steve Jobs’ dramatic return to Apple on 1996.12.20, the press lost interest in the end of Apple’s eleven year interregnum. Instead, they were interested in Apple’s brand new build to order online store, a first for a major computer industry player, and (to Apple’s embarrassment) Umax’s updated S900 Mac clone that […]
Gil Amelio was unlike any Apple CEO since the days of Mike Scott, a former Fairchild executive. Amelio was from National Semiconductor, an outside company where he made a name for himself as a turnaround artist.
Apparently, the thirty year reign of the personal computer, Time Magazine’s ‘person’ of the year for 1982, is ending, with sales – especially sales to home users – declining, as people increasingly opt for tablets (and to stick with their current desktop or laptop).
More than any other product from Apple, the iPod has changed the company and the world. Before its introduction, MP3 players were the realm of small companies with limited budgets that were unable to provide content. After the iPod, the entire industry evolved and grew to the point where the largest computer companies in the […]
In the late 1980s, Apple appeared to be in the middle of a resurgence. John Sculley had forced out the volatile Steve Jobs in 1985, and a cadre of older, more experienced executives focused on building the Apple and Macintosh brands. The company was beginning to grow complacent, working to protect Macintosh revenues at the […]
Good news for jailbreak fans, the pwn dfu tool iReb is now available for Mac OS X.
It all started with Mapquest in 1996. Suddenly you could used that new-fangled Internet for something practical, finding the best route from point A to point B – whether across town or across the country. All you had to do was print out the driving directions and keep them handy while you drove.
The tech world has been abuzz with news of Google’s forthcoming Chromecast device, something Google hopes will change the way you use your TV. What exactly is Chromecast?
Mac sales have really taken off since Apple switched from PowerPC processors to Intel x86 CPUs in 2006. According to Apple’s data, over 90 million Intel Macs have been sold, with a peak of 5.198 million in the 2011 holiday quarter.
Sometimes, being of the nerdy bunch, you try to look for a technical answer to life’s tech problems when a simpler approach might be needed.
Need a copy of System 6.0.8, 7.0.1, or a newer version of the Classic Mac OS for your vintage Mac? You can dig through apple.com and try to find them – or you can download them using the updated links on this page. (Apple does rearrange things, making it more difficult to find things.) All versions […]
I left off in part 1 discussing the necessary steps to get everything put together that will allow you to have total media bliss and harmony on both your PS3 and PSP using a low-end Mac to stream the content. Moving forward, there are just a few more things to consider that will allow you to squeeze […]
All I want to do is remotely control my old iPhone 3GS from my new iPhone 4S. It’s about 25′ away, hooked to a stereo, and used for iTunes and podcasts.
Unbelievably, your PS3 and your PSP (or Vita, to a degree) could make owning a low-end Mac a dream come true during these days of ever-increasing requirements for syncing iOS devices.
Battery life has long been a complaint not just amongst iPhone users, but across all smartphones. What drains your iPhone battery?
Microsoft Word began life as Multi-Tool Word for Xenix in 1983. It was renamed Microsoft Word and ported to MS-DOS in 1983, the Macintosh in 1985, and Windows in 1989. It has been the dominant word processing program on the Mac since 1988 and on Windows since 1993.
