Ever bought a piece of software back in the day that made you go Wow!? Not being able to wait to open it? Just sensing true greatness lying within the box? Something on that disk you knew without a doubt you’d never forget?
Tommy Thomas managed to snag interviews with three of the men behind the After Dark screen saver.
2007 – “What’s happened to Low End Mac lately?” It’s a question I hear from readers and staff members. “What’s with the spate of pro-Windows articles? Why do you let your writers advocate for Windows?”
There are many different illustration programs for Mac OS X, including both high- and low-end choices. Freeverse launched Lineform last year, a powerful illustration tool with a simple user interface that bears a familiar resemblance to both Apple’s and Omni Group’s applications, meaning there is little to learn.
2007 – The unveiling of the iPhone blew me away, as it did most people in the technology community. The device had been rumored for months, with all kinds of patents filed that had everyone guessing what features such a device might contain.
Tommy Thomas shares his thoughts on Macintosh accessories and other tech.
2006 – I promised to bring the Zune into the fray, and I shall by putting forth the following question: Is it wise for Microsoft to further fracture the consumer media player market with yet another incompatible DRM scheme?
Everyone it talking about the Zune, Microsoft’s attempt at an iPod killer. It adds one neat new feature to the product mix, but otherwise it pales in comparison to the real thing.
A long, long time ago – back in the days when Outpost.com had an affiliate program – I got my first laser printer. The HP LaserJet 2100TN was fast for its day (10 pages per minute), solidly built, and sharp (1200 dpi output). I used it for about 8 years, and it probably would have […]
Because the original Macintosh had a new operating system, software companies had to rewrite their programs or develop new software to work with the Mac operating system and take advantage of the mouse and the powerful graphical user interface (GUI) that the Mac OS provided. This meant there was a relatively small amount of software […]
Mistakes, mistakes . . . we all seem to make them, and I’m no exception to the rule. For those who haven’t been tuning into Welcome to Macintosh, the most recent article in the Keyboard Roundup was about the Apple Extended Keyboard II. I’ve received several emails informing me of things I failed to mention, […]
Has it already been six months since the original MacBook was introduced? Then it must be time for an upgrade. Now that Apple has solved most of the MacBook’s teething problems, they’ve improved it by replacing the Intel Core Duo CPU with the newer, more energy efficient, cooler running Core 2 Duo. Overall, that should […]
Lately I’ve been using a Gmail account for most of my email. I find that Gmail has an elegant, easy to use interface that works well on pretty much any computer, as well as a good capacity for storage of old emails (2 GB and counting).
Bong! . . . 🙂 . . . Welcome to Macintosh! Chi chi chi, ha ha ha, chi chi chi, ha ha ha…. What’s that sound off in the distance? Chi chi chi, ha ha ha, chi chi chi, ha ha ha . . . Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!
2006 – I want to take time today to congratulate the iPod for its impressive five year run, which seems primed to continue well into the rapidly approaching holiday shopping season. I further want to detail those little tidbits that make the iPod very much a part of my daily dose of tech joy.
On 2006.10.24, Apple moved the MacBook Pro line to Intel’s newer Core 2 Duo CPU, claiming “up to 39% faster” performance than the model it replaced. Part of that comes from the more efficient CPU, and part from an 8% faster CPU. The 15″ MacBook Pro gains FireWire 800, an unfortunate ommission in the original […]
On 2006.10.24, Apple moved the MacBook Pro line to Intel’s newer Core 2 Duo CPU, claiming “up to 39% faster” performance than the model it replaced. Part of that comes from the more efficient CPU, and part from an 8% faster CPU. The new 17″ Core 2 model has a 2.33 GHz CPU and ships […]
In my previous Welcome to Macintosh column, I looked at the legendary Apple Extended Keyboard as the beginning of my Keyboard Roundup series. Just as some movies follow up on the original with a sequel, Apple came out with a sequel to the Apple Extended Keyboard. It was named, appropriately, the Apple Extended Keyboard II.
My previous article, A Stinky Old iBook that Smells Like Sweat, prompted a fair bit of email. Low End Mac’s publisher, Dan Knight, had requested that owners of stinky iBooks contact him with the specifics of their ‘Books so he could provide some meaningful consumer data. Six readers checked in, and he compiled what data he […]
Last time, I discussed my purchase of a used Dual USB G3 iBook (see eBay No Longer Your Best Source for Low-end Macs). When the iBook arrived, I unpacked it from its tight bubble wrap cocoon, pushed the latch button, and opened it. Immediately, my olfactory sense was stimulated in an astonishingly negative way.
Click . . . clock . . . click . . . clock . . . click-clock, click-clock, click-clock Oh, you’re probably wondering about that sound? If you listen closer, you may find it familiar.
Tommy Thomas looks at some of the finest keyboards built for personal computers – past and present.
Low End Mac contributor Tom Hormby posted an article on OSnews examining Apple’s Worst Business Decisions. Hormby’s histories are some of the most popular pieces we’ve ever published, but I’m have to question some of his analysis.
Ask just about any college student what Facebook is, and not only will they tell you, but they’ll probably also recount some of the site’s recent actions.
VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet, was one of the key products that helped bring the microcomputer from the hobbyist’s desk into the office. Before the release of this groundbreaking software, microcomputers were thought of as toys; VisiCalc changed that.
Tommy Thomas interviews people who keep the Mac spirit alive and well.
In September 2006, Apple replaced the year-old plastic 1G iPod nano with a new aluminum bodied version virtually the same size and just a tiny bit lighter. The low-end model now came with 2 GB of storage, there was a 4 GB model in the middle, and the top-end Nano had 8 GB. The low-end 2 […]
Pippin was a multimedia player developed by Apple Computer in the mid 90s. Apple decided to create and license the technology (named Pippin after a type of apple smaller than a McIntosh) due to their belief that home computers were becoming more and more important and popular with customers. Apple realized that for multimedia technology […]
Microsoft has done some stupid things in the past, and we’ve taken our pot shots at their PlaysForSure initiative. Microsoft is a big, easy target. But now they’ve taken the next step and created an MP3 player that’s not compatible with their own PlaysForSure standard or DRM protected WMA and WMV files (see Microsoft’s Zune Won’t Play […]
Bong! . . . 🙂 . . . Welcome to Macintosh! Since the previous article, I’ve received a lot of stories from readers of how they came to the Apple world. This week I thought I’d dig into the mailbag and pull out three stories to share with you.
In July, I posted a column, Installing OS X 10.4 Tiger on DVD-Challenged Macs Using FireWire Target Disk Mode, describing how I had installed OS X 10.4 Tiger on my CD-ROM equipped iBook G3 by mounting it as an external hard drive from my DVD drive-equipped Pismo PowerBook via FireWire Target Disk Mode and choosing the […]
Apple’s iPod has been wildly successful; even though it was neither the first handheld MP3 player (models such as the Diamond Rio were first with flash players) nor the first to feature hard drive storage (Creative’s Discman-sized Nomad Jukebox predated it), the iPod’s combination of clean design, easy to use software both on the player […]
2006 – A while back, I wrote an article about making your Mac’s DVD player region free. Much has changed with the introduction of Intel Macs, enough that an update is in order.
Where the first iPod shuffle had been the size of a pack of chewing gum, the 2G iPod shuffle was barely large enough for its controls and a headphone jack. It had a built-in clip so you could attach it to your clothing, and you could pick from five different colors. With its aluminum enclosure, […]
The truth is out there. Or perhaps in there is a better way of putting it, at least as far as batteries for laptop computers are concerned. The truth is that those expensive (and sometimes exploding) batteries are little more than repackaged Li-Ion* AA cells. And generally not the high capacity ones at that.
