Hacking Mac OS 7.6.1 to Work with Many OS 8 Apps

Blame it all on BBC, the British Broadcasting Company. I like BBC’s radio programs, but as my favorite operating system is Mac OS 7.6.1, there has been a problem called Real Player 8 (RP8). Regular OS 7.6.1 lets you use RP5, and the Appearance Manager brings RP6 (a.k.a. G2) in the game, but the BBC Radio […]

Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard

Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, released on October 26, 2007, was the biggest change to Mac OS X since Apple first released OS X 10.0 in March 2001. For the first time, a version of OS X was certified as Unix, and the new unified appearance makes Leopard friendlier and less confusing for users. Leopard itself was also […]

MacBook (Late 2007)

This is the fourth version of the consumer MacBook – and the first to use the Santa Rosa chipset that made its way into the MacBook Pro line in June. The entry-level MacBook remains at 2.0 GHz, while the faster models see a tiny speed bump from 2.16 GHz to 2.2 GHz. At the same […]

Mac Maintenance: Effective Backup Strategies

Everyone knows they need to backup their data, but most people don’t do so regularly (if at all). Backups are confusing and annoying. Besides, who has the time? Well, your perspective may change during a post-crash enlightenment: Most people become religious about backups after their first catastrophic loss of data.

Mac Maintenance: Solve Disk and Hardware Problems

The disk directory is the table of contents for your hard drive. Directory errors build up slowly over time – or quickly after a crash. Such errors can cause problems opening or saving files, and if severe enough they can prevent your Mac from starting up, instead displaying the flashing question mark. Fixing the disk […]

Original iPod touch

As part of its huge September 2007 iPod event, Apple introduced the first iPod touch, essentially the original iPhone with its phone circuitry removed. Better yet, the iPod touch was a bit smaller, significantly thinner, and also lighter than the iPhone. Best of all, it didn’t tie you to a two-year AT&T wireless plan. You […]

iPod classic (Late 2007)

The hard-drive based iPod got a new name in September 2007. Henceforth it would be called the iPod classic. This was the 6th generation of the classic iPod design – and the first with an aluminum front. The iPod classic had dramatically better battery life than the 5.5G iPod it replaced – up to 40 hours […]

3rd Generation iPod nano

In September 2006, Apple completely changed the configuration of the iPod nano, giving it a wider, larger screen so it could display video content. The iPod nano also got a new range of colors. The low-end 4 GB version was available only in silver, and the 8 GB in silver, turquois blue, mint green, and black. There […]

Mac Maintenance: Fix Glitches and Sluggishness

Sometimes your Mac just doesn’t seem as peppy as it used to, particularly if it’s been running for a long time. Memory and disk problems are the most common causes of routine glitches and sluggishness, especially the dreaded “Spinning Pizza of Death” (a.k.a. beachball cursor) that never seems to go away. Sometimes RAM and disk […]