Bong! . . . đ . . . Welcome to Macintosh! In the first installment of In House with Low End Mac, I interviewed Dan Knight, who founded and runs Low End Mac. Next up to bat is a man whose writing speaks for itself. He has written for Low End Mac since 1999 and […]
It was early 1995, and I was a young graduate student in the Environmental Engineering department at Clemson University. I was finishing up my research and desperately needed a computer to produce my thesis on. There were quite a few Macs at the University, but the trend towards switching to Wintel was already picking up […]
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 […]
I’m lucky enough to get to check out a fair number of technology gadgets. Most of them turn out to be just that, gadgets. They’re fun for a little while, but not really useful enough for me to care much about. But lately one has managed to insinuate itself into my life. I think it’s […]
Apple’s new aluminum keyboards have received mixed reviews, and some of our readers share  their opinions of the new style keyboard. Also the reliability of Dual USB iBooks and adding USB to the Beige Power Mac G3.
Apple gave the iMac a fresher look in August 2007, the first change from the stark white face introduced with the first G5 iMac three years earlier. The new look puts a black border around a glossy display, has an aluminum finish, and is thinner than its predecessors. The 2007 iMac has gone aluminum. The new […]
Apple ârefreshedâ the Mac mini the same day it unveiled new iMacs, iLife â08, and iWork â08. The updated model finally moves the Mini from the outdated Core Duo to a Core 2 Duo processor, giving it 64-bit capabilities along with faster CPU speeds. Between the newer, more efficient CPU and 8-10% higher clock speeds, […]
2007 – For writing at your computer, the ideal tool is word processing software. It lets you play with fonts, type size, boldface and italic – all the tools you need to write a short story, a novel, an essay, a review, whatever. For creating code, the ideal tool is a text editor. It doesn’t […]
I’m sitting in bed using my six-month-old MacBook Pro, and I have to tell you that I used to really love this computer. Used to.
In this modern age of computing, it’s easy to become overwhelmed. There are so many things you can do on a computer that you can easily become lost for focus. I spoke of this very thing in an early Welcome to Macintosh article, The Good Old Days of Computing.
We hate to say it, but it appears that the Mac mini is dead.
Mr. T is famous for his bad man attitude, as seen in Rocky III and The A-Team (which are among my favorite movies and TV shows respectively). However, in his infinite wisdom, Mr. T produced a series of self-help videos in 1984 that were intended to help young kids as well as show his softer […]
This column began as an email exchange with Sonic Purity in relation to Why Does a Mac Die, Why Macs Die, More About Why Macs Die, Why Some Mac Die: Bad Capacitors, and Aging Capacitors and Tin Whiskers. It has been adapted with his permission.
Steve Jobs announced the original iPhone in January 2007, putting an end to years of rumors about Apple combining an iPod and a mobile phone. The iPhone would be a touch-based smartphone without a physical keyboard. And unlike competing touch-based devices, the iPhone was designed to be controlled with a finger and did not need a […]
Cluck-cluck-cluck-cluck . . . Welcome to Apple II!
Every few years some publication decides to have a variation on a top ten computing failure list. Invariably both the Lisa and the Newton make it on that list with many guffaws about the Lisa’s US$10,000 price.
If you only took a quick glance at CPU speed, you might wonder why Apple even bothered to introduced new MacBook Pro models yesterday. Going from 2.16 GHz to 2.2 GHz is a 2% speed gain, and jumping from 2.33 GHz to 2.4 GHz isn’t much better – a gain of 3%. A New […]
The 15âł MacBook Pro became Appleâs first notebook computer with LED backlighting when it was introduced on June 5, 2007. Other than that, the specs donât seem much different than itâs predecessor. The real changes are under the hood. The Mid 2007 MacBook Pro models (15âł and 17âł) use Intelâs new Santa Rosa chipset and […]
Here at Restorations HQ, we really like System 7.5.5. It has the right balance of vintage feel, hardware compatibility, and modern data exchange capabilities. It runs on almost everything* from the Mac Plus to the Power Mac 9500/180MP, a range that includes most of the models we’re interested in – and it’s free.
The June 2007 17âł MacBook Pro is the first Apple notebook to offer an even higher resolution 17âł display. If 1680 x 1050 isnât enough for you, you can upgrade to a 1920 x 1200 screen for just US$100 more. The big changes are under the hood. The Mid 2007 MacBook Pro models use Intelâs […]
Ever since Apple released the first MacBook one year ago, the company has sold the MacBook with matched pairs of memory, recommended that users only upgrade with matched pairs, and stated that the MacBook has a 2Â GB memory ceiling.
Silence is golden, and you haven’t experienced silent computing until you use a laptop computer with no hard drive at all. That’s the promise of flash drives.
Internet Explorer 5.1.7 works in OS 7.6.1!
Let’s face it: High voltages are scary. When someone says “kilovolts”, you usually hear “killovolts”, right? And if you fire off a quick search on the Web, you find dire warnings everywhere that reinforce your natural fears. The warnings are so numerous and frightening, in fact, that it’s easy to believe that a CRT can […]
Yesterday Kirk Edwards asked, “Where are the Mirrored Drive Doors processor upgrades?” I replied that I didn’t know of any – and then did a little investigation.
2007: Has Apple been shortchanging MacBook and MacBook Pro buyers ever since the first Intel ‘Books shipped? That’s what Fred Greaves and Dave Gatley think.
Apple did it again. Like clockwork, they upgraded the MacBook six months after its last update. The Mid 2007 models are a bit faster, have larger hard drives, include 802.11n wireless, and the top models use a faster SuperDrive. Prices remain the same.
Six months after moving the Macbook to Intelâs Core 2 Duo CPU, Apple upgraded the MacBook again. The improved model is faster, has twice as much RAM on the low end, includes a faster SuperDrive (2.16 GHz models), and has bigger hard drives. All MacBooks now include 1 GB of RAM, and speeds have been […]
2007 – During my time as a Mac fan and user, I have accumulated a suite of free applications that all serve a purpose for me. I use the ones that I list here on regular basis, and theyare perfect at performing the jobs they are designed to do.
2007 – Just before the Intel transition began, Apple was having a problem with their notebooks. No, I’m not referring to the lack of a G5-equipped PowerBook, but to the parity that was shared between the consumer and professional models.
We’ve been having quite a discussion about G3 support in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard in the Low End Mac Mailbag, but I think this exchange merits a bit more attention. Kris Finkenbinder has some important things to say about the need for Apple to continue support of G3 Macs in the next version of the […]
Models G5/1.6-2.0 GHz (2003) . G5/1.8-2.5 GHz (2004) . G5/1.8 Single . G5/2.0-2.7 GHz (2005) . G5/2.0-2.3 GHz Dual . G5/2.5 GHz Quad . Apple made a big shift when it moved from the G4 to the G5 processor. Based on IBM’s POWER architecture, the newer G5 CPU cried out for a fast, wide system […]
2007 – There have been a number of rumours and columns on various Mac websites suggesting that Apple could be preparing to release a “true” replacement for the 12″ PowerBook G4.
With these patches and tips, you’ll never again need to use an unreliable, inconvenient third-party hard disk driver to format a hard drive for your Mac.
2007: When Steve Jobs left Apple in 1985, there were only two Macintosh computers: the original 128K and the 512K “Fat Mac”. When he returned in 1997, there were PowerBooks, Power Macs, and Performas – each model name followed by a four-digit number. Jobs decided to simplify and focus the product line with four quadrants: […]