The May 2005 revision of the iMac G5 got a 200 MHz speed boost, bringing it to 1.8 GHz and 2.0 GHz. Other improvements include an 8x dual-layer SuperDrive, better video, gigabit ethernet, and an ambient light sensor (ALS). 512 MB of RAM is now standard across the line, making the entry-level model more responsive […]
Incremental improvement seems to be the name of the game for the eMac once again. The 2005 models gets a modest 14% speed boost compared with the 1.25 GHz 2004 eMac. The G4 CPU used in this model has the same 512 KB level 2 cache as the 2004 model. Internal Bluetooth remains a build-to-order option. […]
Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger was released on April 29, 2005, went through 12 revisions, and wasn’t replaced until OS X 10.5 Leopard arrived on October 26, 2007 – two-and-a-half years later (almost 30 months to the day). Many consider Tiger a high point because of the wide range of hardware it supports and its length of […]
PowerBook, iBook, iPod, and other portable computing is covered in The ‘Book Review, and general Apple and Mac desktop news is covered in The Mac News Review.
Making haste slowly, Apple has moved the fastest Power Mac G5 from 2.0 GHz CPUs in 2003 to 2.5 GHz in 2004, and now to 2.7 GHz in 2005. It’s nice to see Apple squeeze nearly 10% more speed from the G5 – and sad that Apple still can’t deliver the 3.0 GHz G5 that it promised […]
2005 – Environmentalists, rejoice! In celebration of Earth Day, Steve Jobs broke out his Birkenstocks, love beads, and hippie headband to announce the greening of Apple computer.
If you’ve ever used a webcam – not counting Apple’s iSight – you have to wonder why so many of them are so pathetic.
Buying the best display for your Mac has never been easy, unless you wanted to pay for Apple-branded products. In the old days, Mac video ports were different from those used in the PC world, and today you need to research whether the display you’re interested in has VGA or DVI input.
2005 – While Apple is busy suing AppleInsider and others over leaks regarding their “Asteroid” project, our unusually reliable source – an illegal immigrant subcontracted to clean Apple’s research labs when she couldn’t get the same kind of work at Walmart – has helped The Rumor Mill scoop all the legitimate rumor sites.
Apple updated the compact iPod mini in February 2005, dropping the gold color and adding a 6 GB model. Visually the 2G iPod mini is distinguished by colored printing on the clickwheel. To protect its minuscule 1.0″ hard drive, the iPod mini was built of aluminum. The 2G iPod mini was available in four colors – silver, blue, pink, and green – […]
What’s the fastest Mac browser? And how do Mac browsers compare to those on Windows and Linux, the other leading operating systems?
In the mid 1990s, Apple’s products were less than up to par. The Performa line had constant problems (such as the 5200, which had a recall on the display cable), and PowerBooks were rather slow and also problematic (like the 5300, which had recalls on the battery, logic board, and various plastic case parts).
Apple did a great job designing, marketing, and branding the iMac, but they also created a big problem – knowing which iMac you own or are looking to buy on the used market.
Four years after the first PowerBook G4s reached users, Apple announced the fourth generation of aluminum PowerBooks, each model faster, more feature laden, and no more expensive than the one it replaced.
After nine months at 1.33 GHz, Apple bumped the little AlBook from 1.33 GHz to 1.5 GHz, a 13% increase. Standard memory has been raised to 512 MB, graphics now uses the Nvidia GeForce FX Go5200 processor, and the SuperDrive can burn DVDs at up to 8x. All this at $100 less than the retail […]
The same size and weight its 2004 predecessor, the Early 2005 edition runs a bit faster (at 1.5 and 1.67 GHz). The entry-level 15″ PowerBook now has 512 MB of memory, and 5400 rpm hard drives are standard. Both versions of the 15″ PowerBook now include Apple’s backlit keyboard. The 1.67 GHz SuperDrive model supports […]
If you know anything at all about the history of keyboards, you probably know that the QWERTY design – so named after the first six alphabetical keys – was deliberately designed to avoid jamming typewriters. Ideal or not, it’s been the standard keyboard layout in the English-speaking world for 130 years.
Never before had Apple sold a $500 Macintosh. Never before had Apple been poised to grow its market share like it hoped to with the Mac mini. The tiny Mac mini (6.5″ square, 2″ high, 2.9 lb.) has incredibly minimalist design. On the front, there’s just a slot-loading optical drive and a power light. On […]
When most MP3 players were based on flash memory, Apple built the original iPod around a tiny 1.8″ hard drive. And on January 11, 2005, Apple introduced the first iPod built using flash memory, the original iPod shuffle. Unlike competing flash-based MP3 players, the Shuffle has no menu system. You load it with the songs […]
There are a number of myths surrounding the Macintosh: It’s only for artists. There aren’t enough programs. It’s slow compared to Windows PCs. It’s terrible for gaming. And it’s always been overpriced.
It’s that time of year again when lazy journalists trundle out lists instead of sitting down and writing articles. Never one to break an honorable tradition, Jason Walsh adds Low End Mac to the list of publications that includes just about every magazine, website, and newspaper in the world.
One of the best things Apple ever did for Power Mac users was design the CPU daughter card introduced with the Power Mac 9500. Apple, Power Computing, and SuperMac all used it in their PCI models running PowerPC 601 and 604 CPUs.
Apple began selling its first computer in July 1976. Apple Before the Mac looks at the Apple II and Apple III era that predate the Mac.
Many Mac users from way back in the legacy era consider the old ADB Apple Extended Keyboard II to be the best keyboard Apple ever made. Others of us might debate that, but the Extended Keyboard II was certainly the biggest, heaviest keyboard Apple ever made, covering a vast expanse of desktop and weighing in […]
A year after introducing the Xserve G5, Apple boosted its top speed from 2.0 to 2.3 GHz while making dual processors standard. That’s a bit slower than the fastest Power Mac G5, which runs at 2.5 GHz, but there’s much less room for a cooling system in the compact Xserve. Although clock speed is only 15% […]
PC Magazine’s Jim Louderback calls the eMac one of the ten worst products of the year. You know, the computer Mac site after site calls Apple’s best computing value ever. The machine we use at Low End Mac.
Jason Walsh examines Scribus, an intriguing alternative to the overpriced behemoths of Quark XPress and Adobe InDesign.
Back in November, we took a quick peek at Scribus running on Linux and promised to give it a go on the Mac. That’s what we’re doing today.
Lauded by some, despised by others, ThinkFree Office has clearly made an impression among Mac users – but what exactly does free mean? And do you get what you pay for?
2004 – Backup is one of those things most computer users fail to do on a regular basis, and there are several reasons for it.
Another alternative to the big boys of design – and this one is free. This week The Low End Designer is taking a break from the beloved Macintosh to have a quick squint at what the open-source world of Linux has to offer designers.
Richard Hunt is a London-based freelance graphic designer. He’s been working freelance for five years and has refused to upgrade to a new Mac since then, when he bought a secondhand Mac. Jason Walsh investigates.
This article incorporates the Low End Mac Designer survey results and some interesting comments, so without further ado, let’s get to it.
On October 26, 2004, Apple released a special edition of the 4G iPod to coincide with U2’s album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. The U2 Special Edition is black with a red clickwheel and the signatures of the band members engraved on the back. The special edition iPod included a $50 discount coupon for purchasing The […]
This week the low-end designer tackles more typographic woes, including leading, kerning, tracking, and justification.