Apple Has Always Been a Niche Player

Despite the myths, Apple has never been a dominant player in the personal computer industry. Although the Apple II once accounted for nearly one-sixth of the market, the Mac has never had more than a 12% market share.

FireWire 800 Power Mac G4

The January 2003 Power Mac G4 was the first to require OS X. It was also the first with FireWire 800 ports. A good rule of thumb: If it has FireWire 800, it isn’t meant to boot OS 9, although we have heard of a workaround. The FireWire 800 model was also the first Power Mac with a Bluetooth […]

Who’s Taking a Beating, Apple or Quark?

2003: Mac OS X is rapidly gaining ground, and Apple is cracking the whip by more or less eliminating Mac OS 9 booting in their latest machines. Software developers are hopping on the OS X party wagon and releasing software for OS X like there’s no tomorrow. So where’s Quark in this?

Choose the Right Marker When Writing on Burned Discs

I have just finished reading your article on how to make a bootable emergency CD for the Mac, OS 9 and below. While I found most of the article to be an invaluable resource (I’ve already printed it to PDF), there’s one thing you mentioned at the end that does concern me.

First Impressions of the Safari Beta

2003 – It’s only a beta, but Safari – Apple’s new Jaguar-only browser – won me over the first time I launched it. And it continued to impress me as I visited site after site. And then I headed off to Yahoo Games to unwind.

Things I Really Like about OS X Jaguar

2003 – I’ll be rebooting my 400 MHz PowerBook G4 into OS 9 sometime today so it can be backed up over the network by Retrospect, but the more I work in OS X 10.2 Jaguar, the more I like it. I may have to invest in that ten user Retrospect client upgrade real soon now.

Risk and Safety at Macworld Expo

2003: If you’ve been paying attention, you already know that Apple released a number of upgrades and applications yesterday. While I’m certain that some people were disappointed, I suspect that Apple hit just the right balance between risk and safety.

Still Yet Even More Bumper Snickers

These new Bumper Snickers are sure to tickle your fancy! If you want to let the world know what you’re about, print ’em out and hot-glue ’em to your car. If anyone gets irritated with your new sticker, just tell ’em you found it “somewhere on the Internet”.

OS X Jaguar on a 400 MHz PowerBook G4

2003 – Last Friday, I received a copy of Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar in the mail from a reader. After finishing the morning site update, I rebooted my 400 MHz TiBook into Mac OS X 10.1.5 Puma, inserted Install Disc 1, and began the long, slow task of updating Quicksilver, my TiBook.

Time to Take Off the Switcher Gloves

2002: Like .mac, Apple seems to be letting the full potential of the Switch campaign go unrealized. The switchers have definitely made an impression on a large number of people. Ellen Feiss has gone on to become a cult celebrity. Apple’s marketing company has undoubtedly gone out of its way to choose people others can […]

Who Are You Calling a Masochist?

2002: Wired recently tackled the supposed addiction that Mac users have to their Macs. If you can’t be bothered to read the story, the nutshell idea is that Mac users put up with a lot of crap from Apple that indicates some sort of masochistic tendency (among other things).

To Err Is Human, to Correct Divine

In my previous article, I discussed the care and maintenance of the venerable Mac Plus. Well, I displayed my imperfections as a Triassic Mac user. I know a number of things about old Macs. However, I am a writer, not an engineer (with apologies to the late DeForest “Bones” Kelley).

Komando Strikes Again

2002: It seems poor, clueless Kim Komando is dispensing Macintosh advice again. The poor dear, now an expert on Macintosh computers since her attempt to compare Macs to PCs, has no doubt succeeded in confusing her few Macintosh readers yet again.

Flash Memory Improves PowerBook

When we published Flash Cards: A Solution for Low Memory Macs in June 2000, Maxwell Cabral suggested using CompactFlash (CF) for virtual memory. The scenario: Pop a CF card into a PC Card (formerly PCMCIA) adapter, plug that into the PC Card slot on your PowerBook, format it as a Mac volume, open the Memory control panel, and […]

15″ PowerBook G4 (Late 2002)

A bit more than six months after bumping the fastest TiBook from 667 MHz to 800 MHz, Apple once again updated the titanium workhorse with faster processors (867 MHz and 1 GHz) and ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 graphics (with 32 MB of video memory on the slower model, 64 MB on the faster).