I’ve been carrying on an extended email conversation with Bill Brown for months. Bill is more-or-less the IT guy for an intense volunteer Mac program at a senior center. Certainly a confirmed Mac lover, he has made some interesting discoveries and developed some interesting techniques for refurbishing, repairing, and updating older Macs, particularly G3 iMacs.
I have found that, by far, the easiest way to install Leopard on unsupported G4s is to spoof the clock speed in Open Firmware before installing. Spoofing will have Open Firmware tell OS X that your G4 is up-to-speed until you reboot. This will allow you to install without hacking an install disc or working in […]
2007 – It’s hard to believe, but the MacBook Pro has been around for almost two years now. I can still vividly remember watching the Macworld keynote in 2006 when Steve jobs used his trademark “one more thing” technique to surprise the audience with a final Mac revelation.
Thursday is Thanksgiving Day here in the States, our once-a-year day dedicated to looking back at all the good things that have happened. We’ll be spending the next week with family, so this is the last new column we’re posting until next Wednesday.
My track record with eMacs has not been the greatest. My first was a 700 MHz with a Combo drive. I purchased it refurbished after the second generation eMacs came out, which meant I got a great deal on it – and Apple’s one-year warranty. Good thing, as it ended up in the service department […]
I recently wrote some short articles on running Internet Explorer (IE) 5.1.7 in OS 7.6.1 (with the help of the Appearance Manager 1.0.4 SDK) and ResEditing OS 7.6.1 to believe it is OS 8.1. That is the way I am doing it myself, but the stuff here could help you, even if you’re running a different […]
Bong! . . . 🙂 . . . Welcome to Macintosh! All Hallows Eve has crept up on us yet again, and for me it means getting my Classic Macs ready for the occasion.
The good news is that Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard seems to be able to run on any Mac with AGP graphics built around a G4 processor – and even on the 2000 Pismo PowerBook (the first PowerBook with AGP graphics) as long as it has a G4 upgrade. The bad news is that the […]
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 […]
2007 – Primate Labs picked up a copy of OS X Leopard and posted the first Geekbench results for the iMac (2.0 GHz Core 2) and Power Mac G5 (single 1.6 GHz) on Saturday. Leopard was tested in both 32-bit and 64-bit modes and compared with OS X 10.4 Tiger, which is strictly a 32-bit operating […]
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 […]
2007 – Apple announced the system requirements for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard last week: a drive that can read the DVD install disc, at least 512 MB of memory, and an 867 MHz G4 or better. Although 700-800 MHz eMacs aren’t officially supported, we have lots of tips on installing Mac OS X 10.5 on unsupported Macs […]
Yesterday (October 22, 2007) Oobject published a list of the 16 worst Apple products ever (since updated to 18) – and we just have to disagree with some of them.
2007 – Apple announced the system requirements for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard last week: a drive that can read the DVD install disc, at least 512 MB of memory, and an 867 MHz G4 or better – and there’s only on G4 iBook that’s not officially supported. For that one, we have lots of tips […]
In 1993, I was 11 years old. My experience with Macs had amounted to whatever time I could get alone with the Mac Plus sitting in the back of the classroom. I didn’t do much then. Mostly I would just play games like Shufflepuck Café or Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? I had no […]
In October 1992, Apple introduced two updated PowerBooks, a new PowerBook Duo series, and the last members of the Macintosh II family. You couldn’t ask for a greater contrast.
2007 – Apple has announced the system requirements for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard: a drive that can read the DVD install disc, at least 512 MB of memory, and an 867 MHz G4 or better. Several G4 iMacs aren’t officially supported, but we have lots of tips on installing Mac OS X 10.5 on unsupported Macs in […]
2007 – Apple has finally announced the system requirements for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard: a drive that can read the DVD install disc, at least 512 MB of memory, and an 867 MHz G4 or better.
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 […]
2007 – Apple introduced a new look to the Power Mac G4 in August 2002 with the first Mirrored Drive Doors (MDD) models. They also fully embraced dual processors, as the three models introduced then each had a pair of PowerPC 7455 CPUs. With Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard rumored to require an 867 MHz G4 CPU, […]
2007 – In January 2001, Apple moved the Power Mac to a 133 MHz system bus and adopted AGP 4x for video cards while retaining the look of the original G4 Power Mac. Seven months later, Apple introduced a new look: Quicksilver.
2007 – The earliest G4 Power Macs had a 100 MHz system bus and ATI Rage 128 graphics on a 66 MHz PCI bus or an AGP 2x bus. The following generation of Power Macs adopted a 133 MHz system bus and included AGP 4x graphics. The Digital Audio models were the first Macs to offer […]
2007 – In November 1997, Apple made the leap to the G3, the first PowerPC CPU optimized for the kind of software Macs ran. Less than two years later, Apple abandoned the 300-450 MHz G3 in its Power Mac line when it introduced the first Power Mac G4 models.
The past two weeks have been quite busy with musical rehearsals at church and some design projects – creating postcards, water bottle labels, tickets, and programs for Rishalina and the River, a musical our church’s music and arts director cowrote in 1976.
It was 1995, and I was heading off to college. We had never owned in a computer. In fact, my parents just told me they had bought one.
In recent online discussions (circa August 2004), it is apparent that there is some confusion in some circles regarding the interchangeability of different versions of what Apple calls the “SuperDrive” – the standard 3.5″ floppy drive built into most Macintosh models since just after the original Mac II.
2007: The notebook computer is a sublime invention. I prefer working on notebooks even though mine are mostly used as desktop substitute machines, but road trips make you even more profoundly appreciate the genius of the laptop.
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.
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 […]
I find myself once again in the deserts of the Middle East. I have been here a long time and am almost ready to go home. One of my best friends (other than my wife, who I talk to through emails and Skype) is my Newton. I have both my PowerBook G4 and my black […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
2007 – With all the rumors and speculation about a new subcompact MacBook Pro, which some have even suggested might be called the MacBook Pro Duo (I’m exceedingly doubtful about that), I thought it would be timely to take a retrospective look at the original subcompact Mac notebooks (aside from the PowerBook 100, which was […]
When we think of ethernet today, we think of wired networking with RJ-45 ports and plugs. These connectors look like an oversized phone jack. But that was only one of several competing connectors in the early days of networking.