There’s nothing like the original iBook, even twelve years after it was first made. The unique styling, the tough case, and the optional built-in AirPort 802.11b WiFi all make it a very functional notebook computer. Add to that the incredible battery life for its day, and you’ve got the makings of a great road warrior […]
Extreme Tech’s Sebastian Anthony says that Thunderbolt, which Apple introduced earlier this year, is already dead in the water. I beg to differ. Sometimes Apple has a better idea that the rest of the industry ignores, and it’s usually a simpler solution than the PC world embraces.
Last December, I started a series on SSD (Solid State Drive) options for older Macs – see SATA and SSD Options for G3 and G4 Power Macs. At about the same time, Other World Computing (OWC) was preparing to address exactly that issue with a new line of “legacy” SSDs that would be plug-and-play compatible […]
The final release of Mac OS 9 occurred ten years ago, in 2001. Mac OS X was launched that same year, and Steve Jobs symbolically buried his old nemesis in 2002. The old Mac OS survived for another few years, running on dual-booting G4s or as Classic Mode under OS X, until the release of the Intel […]
This mailbag looks at the Office 2008 installer, Adobe CS upgrades, OS X 10.7 Lion not supporting Rosetta, and other topics.
“What happened to my Excel?” my panicked wife asked. Tools were missing, and things just didn’t look like they had before. Had some gremlin messed up her Excel settings?
For 2011, the entire iMac line goes quad-core with Core i5 CPUs (and even faster i7 build-to-order options), moves to Intel’s Sandy Bridge chipset, gets Turbo Boost 2.0 technology, adopts the next generation of AMD Radeon HD graphics processors, and gains the Thunderbolt technology introduced with the Early 2011 MacBook Pro models. The 27″ iMac […]
For 2011, the entire iMac line goes quad-core with Core i5 CPUs (and even faster i7 build-to-order options), moves to Intel’s Sandy Bridge chipset, gets Turbo Boost 2.0 technology, adopts the next generation of AMD Radeon HD graphics processors, and gains the Thunderbolt technology introduced with the Early 2011 MacBook Pro models.
For 2011, the entire iMac line goes quad-core with Core i5 CPUs (and even faster i7 build-to-order options), moves to Intel’s Sandy Bridge chipset, gets Turbo Boost 2.0 technology, adopts the next generation of AMD Radeon HD graphics processors, and gains the Thunderbolt technology introduced with the Early 2011 MacBook Pro models. The 27″ iMac […]
2011 – Apple released Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger six years ago. It would become the longest lasting version of OS X ever, not replaced by a newer version until 10.5 Leopard shipped in October 2007 – 30 months later.
We take the Low End part of our name seriously at Low End Mac. Until six weeks ago, my newest Mac was a refurbished 2004 1.25 GHz eMac – and that’s not even a production machine. I picked up a secondhand dual 1 GHz Power Mac G4 to replace the eMac as my production machine […]
I recently shared my story of migrating from my reliable old (introduced in January 2001) Digital Audio Power Mac G4 with its dual 1.6 GHz upgrade and Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard to my first Intel Mac, a 2.0 GHz 2007 Core 2 Duo Mac mini running OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. But a few days after switching […]
I leapfrog from browser to browser, checking out latest releases and trying to find the fastest and most stable version on my older PowerPC Macs (my current workhorse is a 500 MHz TiBook). But what about Safari, Apples offering to the browser market?
2011 – Several weeks ago, I bought a used 500 MHz TiBook and installed Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard on it. How well does it run, given that it is way under the minimum requirements (867 MHz) set out by Apple for Leopard? Surprisingly well.
The 13.3″ widescreen MacBook was intended as a replacement for both the 12″ iBook G4 and the 12″ PowerBook G4, although those who appreciated the compact size of the 12″ ‘Books continued to hope for MacBook with a smaller footprint.
Low End Mac users are always looking for ways to get better performance out of their aging machines. Most of these machines are used for web browsing, and this is one of the areas that lower spec’d machines suffer in.
From the Aluminium PowerBook G4s upwards, USB 2.0 was built in, but the Titanium PowerBook G4s came with USB 1.1. While this is great for small files and occasional use, it is really slow for copying large amount of data.
Greetings Low Enders! Sorry for the hiatus, but the holidays were busy for yours truly. Presents, getting ill, getting better, and MacBook Pro trouble, all while gaining some new tech and crazy upgrades galore kept me bogged down this holiday season. Now that the insanity is over, it’s time to get back to Low End […]
2011 – I finally did it. I bought my first Intel-based Mac two weeks ago, and I’ve been making the transition from being PowerPC only.
2011 – I got lots of positive and encouraging feedback on my article about going back to OS 9, Back to Mac OS 9, Because It’s All I Need. The main point of my article was that I could go back to OS 9, because it provides me with everything I want to do with a […]
Leopard runs vey well even on the minimum requirements of an 867Mhz G4, but what if your G4 is lower than that? Can it cope with running Leopard? How about as low as 500Mhz?
The traditional way of moving files to the iPad is to use the syncing function of iTunes. Music, videos, apps, notes, and bookmarks can all be moved from your Mac OS X desktop or laptop to the iPad. But what if you just want to move one file? You probably don’t want to fire up your […]
The Power Mac G4 MDD (Mirrored Drive Doors) was the last Mac capable of dual-booting into both Mac OS 9 and OS X. The last of the G4 towers, this model was originally introduced in 2002, briefly evolved into an OS X-only configuration with FireWire 800 in 2003, then returned to the original design for another year.
A bit smaller, one-third thinner, and a little lighter than the original iPad, the iPad 2 also moved the iPad line to Apple’s dual-core A5 processor. It was also the first iPad available in white or black.
When Apple introduced the Early 2011 MacBook Pro models with Thunderbolt, something clicked in the back of my mind. With Thunderbolt, Apple has delivered on a promise made when the original Macintosh was introduced in 1984 – and then some.
When the Aluminum Unibody MacBook was unveiled in October 2008, its memory support ceiling specified by Apple was 4 GB. That was enough for most users at the time, and it was later discovered that these machines could happily support up to 6 GB of RAM – but while 8 GB could be installed, independent testing found that if an application […]
The Geneva Automobile Show tends to often be the most interesting of the major annual auto shows, and this year’s, held last week, was no exception. While there were all sorts of exotic and “green technology” (sometimes both combined) production models and concepts on display at Geneva, many of them integrating Apple iPads and iPhones […]
The first benchmark results are in for the 2011 MacBook Pro line. Primate Labs posted the first Geekbench results last Thursday, and Macworld followed with its Speedmark 6.5 benchmark suite on Friday.
The Early 2011 15″ and 17″ MacBook Pro models moved from dual-core CPUs to quad-core, which makes them a lot more powerful despite lower clock speeds. As with last year’s models, these CPUs support TurboBoost, which lets individual cores run beyond their rated speed, and hyperthreading, which lets the each core appear to the operating […]
The Early 2011 15″ and 17″ MacBook Pro models have moved from dual-core CPUs to quad-core, which makes them a lot more powerful despite lower clock speeds. As with last year’s models, these CPUs support TurboBoost, which lets individual cores run beyond their rated speed, and hyperthreading, which lets the each core appear to the […]
