The Late 2011 MacBook Pros represent a small step forward from the Early 2011 models introduced 8 months earlier. The 13″ model advances from 2.3 GHz to 2.4 GHz, a relatively insignificant 4.3% speed bump. The top-end version goes from 2.7 GHz to 2.8 GHz, an even less impressive 3.7% improvement. In addition to slightly […]
The Late 2011 MacBook Pros represented a small step forward from the Early 2011 models introduced just 8 months earlier. The 17″ model goes from 2.3 GHz to 2.4 GHz, a 9% improvement. This was also the last 17″ MacBook Pro; it was discontinued in June 2012. In addition to slightly faster CPUs, the Late […]
The Late 2011 MacBook Pros represent a small step forward from the Early 2011 models introduced 8 months earlier. The 15″ model advances from 2.0 GHz to 2.2 GHz, a 10% speed bump. The top-end version goes from 2.2 GHz to 2.4 GHz, a 9% improvement. In addition to slightly faster CPUs, the Late 2011 […]
The iPhone 4S looks like the iPhone 4, but there are a lot of differences under the hood. Hardware includes Apple’s dual-core A5 processor, superior graphics, and support for both GSM and CDMA networks. And to top it off, there’s Siri. The iPhone 4S also has better cameras: 8 MP on the back and 0.9 […]
When I first heard the news that Steve Jobs had died, it hurt. It hurt really bad, causing the kind of heartache that is usually reserved for the passing of close family members. Of course, I didn’t know Steve Jobs on a personal level. The closest I ever got to him was being in the […]
2011 – One of the advantages of using older Macintosh computers is that you can get a lot of great software for just a few bucks – or even for nothing, as abandonware. On the other hand, new software for old Macs is scarce, and the lack of updates for crucial software is the main […]
I’ve long been something of a Google loyalist. I have to say that in general, Google’s more freewheeling, Internet-based philosophy of providing high-quality free content (albeit ad-based, which doesn’t offend me) suits my taste much better than Apple’s more buttoned-down, app-oriented “walled garden” approach. Also, on substance, Google’s applications, whether they be freestanding like the […]
PowerBook 100 with floppy drive. Twenty years ago, Apple introduced its first laptop computer – the 16 lb. Macintosh Portable was portable, but definitely not a laptop – and forever changed the face of notebook computing. Although we take it for granted that laptops have a trackpad mounted in front of the keyboard, that was […]
Web browsing on older Macs is harder. How long can the PowerPC platform survive? I use my iBook for web work and writing – nothing heavy – but this is becoming more and more tricky as each month passes.
It is very simple to install Tiger on a G3 Mac that doesnt officially support it. I did this trick a few years ago to get Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger installed on an unsupported Lombard PowerBook G3, and it seems very few people know about it or can get it to work, so I thought […]
I love to mod my Mac and personalise it, and over the years I have done some crazy things. But my latest idea has gained me some very interested looks. A few years ago I painted a Lombard PowerBook G3 white and wrote iBook on it. It was a bad and quick effort painted on […]
In July, I wrote in Using Quicken for Mac? Read This Before You Upgrade to Lion about issues that I – along with any Mac user running an older copy of Intuit’s Quicken personal finance software – would be having when upgrading to OS X 10.7 Lion.
One of the most-heard critiques of Windows Vista was that Microsoft made seemingly random and unnecessary changes to the user interface, such as changing the name of much-used features like the control panel used to uninstall programs. The result: Users accustomed to finding an item in the same place for a decade had to hunt […]
This version of the Mid 2011 iMac is stripped back and only available to educational institutions; it is not available for sale to individuals. To cut $200 and make this a $999 computer, Apple scaled back from a 2.6 GHz quad-core i5 CPU to a 3.1 GHz dual-core i3, removed the Thunderbolt port, and reduced […]
Last year’s Mac mini Server was just a 2010 Mac mini with two hard drives and no SuperDrive. This year’s Server is actually a much more powerful computer with a quad-core Intel Core i7 CPU, twice the number of cores found in the consumer Mini. The 2011 Server ships with OS X 10.7 Lion Server […]
For the first time since the original G4 Mac mini was introduced in January 2005, there’s no optical drive in the Mac mini, which also helped Apple trim $100 from its base price – and $200 from the faster version. The 2011 Mac mini can use the same $79 USB SuperDrive as the MacBook Air. […]
Same small size, same small price, same SSD options, but a whole new CPU – and Thunderbolt to round things out. That pretty much summarizes the July 2011 update to the MacBook Air. At its heart is a 1.7 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 CPU, with a 1.8 GHz i7 version for those who need […]
Same small size, same small price, same SSD options, but a whole new CPU – and lightning-fast Thunderbolt to round things out. That pretty much summarizes the July 2011 update to the MacBook Air. At its heart is a 1.6 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 CPU, with a 1.8 GHz i7 version for those who […]
I have been running Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard on my 500 MHz Titanium PowerBook G4 for a few months, and it ran very well, but the last week it has developed serious problems, and I am beginning to wonder if they are related to running Leopard.
I’ve been using Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard on an unsupported Mac for a few months now. It is a 500 MHz Titanium PowerBook G4 with 1 GB of RAM. It runs a lot better than you might think, and I am happy using it for my daily machine. But how does Leopard compare to […]
This review has taken a lot longer than planned, but I finally determined that the problem with my Mystic Power Mac G4 was a sporadically bad memory module, as determined by using Rember. Slimmed back from 1.25 GB of RAM to 1.0 GB, it’s been running more reliably, but still not without problems.
OS X 10.7 Lion was released on July 20, 2011 and made some huge changes to the Mac. Some of these changes were to make it easier for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users to adapt to the Mac, some to make the two platforms work better together, and some to keep making the Mac […]
Thought I was done after Part 4? Well, so did I, but there are a few discoveries I made I felt I had to report.
This review has been a long time coming. I’ve had some problems with my dual 500 MHz Mystic Power Mac G4, which was going to be the second Mac tested with the 40 GB OWC Mercury Extreme Pro SSD Legacy Edition. Working with my 350 MHz Blue & White G3 has taught me a few […]
For a long time, most Mac users have gotten along fine without installing the sort of security programs Windows users take for granted. Perhaps the Mac, built on an industrial-strength Unix core, is more secure. Or perhaps malware authors have simply ignored the Mac platform, aiming instead at the much larger numbers of Windows users.
Back in 2007, my 300 MHz 1999 Clamshell iBook’s usefulness was questionable, but that’s definitely not the case now, thanks to the CompactFlash-IDE drive I installed. Almost every application in OS X 10.3 Panther loads within 20 seconds (most within five or ten seconds), and in Mac OS 9, everything loads even faster.
2011 – Could Intel Macs soon become low-end too? “Low-end” Mac usually refers to G3s and G4s – or, if you are very retro, then the likes of PowerBook 1400 and the Macintosh LC.
Email has long been the principal online communication method. But do we rely on them as much as we used to? Have recent years seen a massive decline in email use?
I am still enjoying the announcements from this year’s WWDC. The details about iOS 5 sound great, pushing Apple further forward in the portable world. iOS 5 got me thinking about the PowerPC platform.
On one fateful December day in 2007, my original 300 MHz Clamshell iBook suddenly stopped running on battery power. For four years, I spent hundreds of dollars on my iBook, replacing several internal components, including the logic board and the charger board. Why I didn’t think to replace the battery is beyond me, but I eventually […]
This is somewhat old news, but Adobe announced the end of PowerPC (PPC) Mac support with the latest release of Flash Player (v10.2) in February 2011. (Read the system requirements page for Flash Player 10.2 for further details.) Although content created for Flash 10.1 and earlier will continue to work, anything that requires version 10.2 […]
Greetings. Mac gamers and 2011 iMac owners. Welcome to the present day – a time when you can no longer utilize Target Display Mode with your shiny new iMac the way those stale and outdated 2009 and 2010 models used to.
In Part 1, I reported that my Clamshell iBook was running Mac OS 9.2.2 on its old 6 GB IBM hard drive. Well, now I have my Addonics CF-IDE adapter (see Silence Is Golden: Running Your Existing Notebook Using Flash Memory), and I just have one thing to say: Meep meep!
I have just become the proud owner of an iPhone 3G, an utterly brilliant device. However, I own a 500 MHz G4 Titanium PowerBook, and an iPhone requires USB 2.0. Can I get round this?
Custom firmware is everywhere in the Android world, and thanks to the whited00r team, we now have optimised firmware for older iPhones.