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.
Andy Hertzfeld was a key member of the original Macintosh team in 1984. He joined Apple in 1979 and was responsible for many parts of the original Macintosh system software. He was such an adept programmer, in fact, that his Apple business card said Software Wizard. Hertzfeld left Apple in 1984 and has since cofounded […]
2006 – It’s hard to believe that’s its been over a year since Steve Jobs dropped the Intel bombshell at WWDC 2005. The announcement sent shock waves throughout the industry, and as soon as Steve Jobs walked off the stage, speculation was rife as to how the Mac line would be altered.
We’ve been predicting it for weeks, and Apple updated both the iMac and the Mac mini today. Because the iMac has a bigger change in features, size, and performance, we’re looking at it today. Come back tomorrow for a look at the updated Mac mini.
When Apple made the switch from PowerPC CPUs to Intel in 2006, the state-of-the-art CPU was Intel’s Core Duo processor, which was based on Intel’s 32-bit Pentium M architecture, which was originally designed for mobile use. The Core Duo was Intel’s first dual-core mobile processor, and it was used in all first generation Intel Macs […]
Industry watchers had been anticipating Apple moving the iMac to Intel’s Core 2 Duo processor, which is “up to 50% more powerful” (according to Apple) than the Core Duo used in the Early 2006 iMac. As if that wasn’t enough, Apple added the biggest iMac to date to the line, a whopping 24″ model with […]
Industry watchers had been anticipating Apple moving the iMac to Intel’s Core 2 Duo processor, which is “up to 50% more powerful” (according to Apple) than the Core Duo used in the Early 2006 iMac. As if that wasn’t enough, Apple added the biggest iMac yet to the line, a whopping 24″ model with a 1920 […]
Industry watchers had been anticipating Apple moving the iMac to Intel’s Core 2 Duo processor, which is “up to 50% more powerful” (according to Apple) than the Core Duo used in the Early 2006 iMac. As if that wasn’t enough, Apple added the biggest iMac to date to the line, a whopping 24″ model with […]
Industry watchers had been anticipating Apple moving the iMac to Intel’s Core 2 Duo processor, which is “up to 50% more powerful” (according to Apple) than the Core Duo used in the Early 2006 iMac. As if that wasn’t enough, Apple added the biggest iMac to date to the line, a whopping 24″ model with […]
Kudos to Apple for abandoning the Intel Core Solo used in the original entry-level Intel Mac mini. With the September 2006 revision, both models have Core Duo processors. Oddly, these are the only second-generation Intel Macs not to use Core 2 Duo CPUs, something we’ve never understood. The Late 2006 Mini has the same 667 […]
We’ve been predicting it for weeks, and Apple updated both the iMac and the Mac mini today. Because the iMac has a bigger change in features, size, and performance, we’re looking at it today. Come back tomorrow when we’ll look at the updated Mac mini.
Bong! . . . 🙂 . . . Welcome to Macintosh! For this article, I decided to take a little detour and write about what’s become of computers and computing in the modern age. This was a little rant I wrote up earlier this year in the hopes that one day I’d be able to […]