Apple surprised everyone by not introducing a 15″ MacBook Air, as the rumor mill widely expected, and instead added a premium version of the 15″ MacBook Pro – one with a super-high resolution 2880 x 1800 pixel 220 ppi Retina Display.
For the first time, Apple has Macs with built-in USB 3.0 support. The improved USB specification is over 10x as fast as USB 2.0 and has half the bandwidth of Thunderbolt. There are already a lot of USB 3.0 drives on the market, and they are far more affordable than Thunderbolt drives. Best of all, […]
3D isn’t just for Hollywood blockbusters – at least that’s what Apple is hoping for with its next revision of the iPhone.
Swap space. Swap files. Page files. Virtual memory. It’s all pretty much the same thing: Extending your computer’s physical system memory (RAM) by swapping data to and from your hard drive or SSD.
There’s just something about a ThinkPad. Whether it’s the solid build quality that gets you or the strange charm of that boring black case, the ThinkPad line manages to capture that feeling of portable, professional power like none other (well, unless you’re from our sister site, Low End Mac, where the PowerBook G3 Pismo reigns […]
Steve Jobs unveils the iMac on May 6, 1998. There is so much to say about the original iMac: Not only is it iconic in the Apple world, but in the whole computing world. Apple was really struggling prior to the launch of the iMac, on the brink of going under.
For low-end Mac users, you can pick up older Macs for a lot less than a new one, and if you are looking for something very old, you might even be lucky enough to snag a free Mac.
After the Flashback malware made a mockery of Mac security, Eugene Kaspersky said of Apple and Mac OS X, “I think they are ten years behind Microsoft in terms of security.”
I am a low-end user mainly due to financial constraints, and therefore I am always on the look out for inexpensive accessories and cables. One of my favourite haunts is my local Poundland. People in the UK know what this is, a chain of stores where every item is £1. I am sure folks in […]
On May 1, 2001, Apple toned down its consumer portable range from the marvelous colourful and oversized Clamshell iBook to the sleek white “IceBook” (more officially called the “Dual USB iBook”). In 2009, I took a break from the Mac world, sold my Titanium PowerBook G4, and moved to Linux. Shortly after coming to my […]
Apple laptops have always run on the hot side, especially compared to Windows machines. but does adding more RAM add to the problem?
Prior to OS X, Apple had a rock solid operating system that was fast and stable, but by the time Mac OS 9 was released in 1999, it was looking very dull and dated, especially compared to what Microsoft was offering in the shape of Windows NT 4 (released July 1996), Windows 98 (released June 1998), and […]
As much as I love getting the most out of older Apple machines and devices and being a low-end user, sometimes I just want to be up there running the latest software and operating systems.
The next piece of Apple equipment to upgrade is my phone, but will that be an iPhone 3GS?
Ask what is the first thing in a computer to fail – especially in Macs – and the most likely answer you will hear is the optical drive. I have had countless internal optical drives fail or become so unreliable that they are practically useless, and this seems even more common in laptops (or machines […]
A big reason for Windows users to consider a move to Mac has been the virtual nonexistence of Mac malware. Computerworld reported the existence of a million different computer viruses at the end of 2008 – but that’s been almost entirely an issue for Windows users.
In early 2004, I bought an eMac G4. It was a 1 GHz model and my first brand new Mac. It wasn’t until 2008 that I picked up a 1.25 GHz model, and I also bought two 800 MHz models (ATI ones).
Back in 1997, Apple was beleaguered, the World-Wide Web was just seven years old and only starting to be known outside of the geekiest tech circles, and online resources about older Macs were few and far between. I had this program called Claris Home Page on my Mac and my first real Internet account (as […]
I have been writing for Low End Mac for just under four years and have written over 70 articles on various topics in that time, but why do I do it?
I recently wrote about some Core 2 Duo Macs not being able to boot to a 64-bit kernel (see More Macs Left Behind by Developer Preview 2 of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion), and since then I have done some further research. After my article was published, I was contacted by a fellow reader who […]
The Classic Mac OS had well under 100 viruses through its history, and Mac OS X has even less after 11 years. (Can you name even one?) That’s no reason to be complacent, because while OS X viruses are virtually nonexistent in the wild, there are other types of malware designed to infect Macs. Most […]
Being a low-end Mac user gives you little experience of the shiny new world of Macs and essentially the Apple Store. I have peered through the window of the recently opened local store, drooling over all the latest Apple gear inside. If you use an older Mac, chances are you are more than used to […]
I recently purchased a MacBook – an Early 2009 model – on the premise that (based on the Developer Preview at the time) it met the requirements for the forth coming Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, which is due out this summer.
If anyone has an original iPhone and doesn’t do much surfing, I would urge you to install whited00r on it, breathe new life into your aging (but still very capable phone), and marvel at the speed of it.
Last Thursday, Nancy Caroll Gravly shared her opinion on The Mac Observer, essentially saying that there is no legitimate reason not to be running the latest version of OS X on your Mac. Here at Low End Mac, that caught our attention. Our thesis is that you often don’t need the latest hardware and/or operating […]
Six years after Apple switched to Intel, I am finally back owning one, but sadly leaving the PowerPC Mac world behind. In 2006, I became one the first to jump to Intel with a 1.83 GHz iMac. It replaced my 1 GHz G4 eMac, and the difference was amazing. The sheer processing speed of the new […]
In 2012, The New iPad – as Apple called it – got its first Retina Display with a 2048 x 1535 pixel screen. It also received a quad-core graphics processor as part of its dual-core A5X CPU. It is commonly known as the 3G iPad.
After 1-1/2 years on the market, the second generation Apple TV was replaced by the third generation, which looks exactly the same.
Last week I was able to cross something off my bucket list that had never really been on it – the purchase of a brand new vehicle.
NetMarketShare released its February 2012 online market share data with some interesting data for the month.
If you are using an unofficial carrier, you might find yourself running into problems when trying to set up mobile internet settings of MMS settings.
In my previous column, I suggested putting a slider keyboard on a tablet. Alert reader Jacob J. Holtman points out that Asus makes just a beast, the Asus EedPad Slider SL101.
2012 – Apple really does Think Different. It always has. It always will.
I spent all day arguing with my fellow local Mac group members about Apple’s decision to release another version of OS X less than twelve months after Lion – and the rapid pace at which Apple is making Macs outdated. Then it suddenly struck me: Why am I bothered? I’m not going to be in the […]
2012 – Remember the early 1990s, when we found out about QuickTime and were all so excited about viewing five-second low-resolution clips on our Macs? We could finally play video on our computers! I remember it like it was yesterday. A new project for Mac OS 8-9 brought back those sweet memories: Cornica.org. What Is Cornica? […]
