Today, I am maximizing the Power Mac G5, with the 2 GHz dual-core Late 2005 version being my test subject. We are going to benchmark the stock Mac just as I received it and then upgrade it with more memory, a new hard drive, and an SSD.
Charles W Moore raises a good point in Thoughts on Using Older Macs as Work Machines: As much as we may love our old Macs, some of them just don’t have what it takes to be productive in the wired and wireless world of the Internet today.
2011 – Netscape Navigator was the first widely popular Web browser, and when Netscape finally threw in the towel after years of fighting against Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, it made Navigator an open source project. That project, Mozilla, has been producing new versions of the Firefox browser for over seven years now.
2011 – We old time G4 users have grown used to the neglect by Apple and Adobe, which want to lure us into buying their newfangled stuff by constantly locking out older hardware. But, my fellow G4 users, the battle is not yet lost!
“Make every night movie night with the Discovery Expedition Wonderwall Entertainment Projector. The Wonderwall – which connects to your TV, DVD, camcorder, or video game console – projects an image up to 7.5 feet wide on any wall in your home, even the ceiling. As a result, you can catch up on your favorite cable […]
2011 – Alexander Clauss is the developer of iCab, an alternative web browser from Germany. iCab has been around since 1999 and is available for the Mac, iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Since Alexander still supports low-end Macs with his upcoming version 4.9 of iCab (now in beta), we decided to ask him some questions.
2011 – Yesterday’s hot Mac rumor, since picked up by just about every site covering Apple news, is that Apple is questioning the future of the Mac Pro and may be discontinuing its most expensive (and undoubtedly most profitable per unit) computer.
On Monday, Apple updated the MacBook Pro (MBP) line with faster processors (CPUs) across the board, along with higher capacity hard drives and better graphics processors (GPUs) on some models with no change in pricing.
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.
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.
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.
The Macintosh was introduced in 1984 using the same 68000 processor that powered Apple’s $10,000 Lisa, introduced a year earlier. Over the years, Apple moved to faster and more efficient chips as they became available. At the same time, Apple was paying attention to a new design theory for microprocessors, RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing). […]
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.
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 […]
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.
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. […]
Apple made some significant changes with the Mid 2011 MacBook Air – adding Thunderbolt, moving from Intel Core 2 Duo CPUs to Core i5 (with an i7 option), switching from Nvidia GeForce graphics to Intel HD Graphics 3000, and bringing back the backlit keyboard that disappeared with the 2010 model. The 11.6″ and 13.3″ models […]
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.
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 […]
