iBook SE (FireWire)

The second-generation iBook Special Edition (SE) adds key lime as an alternative to graphite. It replaces the 366 MHz G3 processor of the earlier iBook SE with the new G3e running at 466 MHz. The G3e includes an on-chip L2 cache that runs at full CPU speed for improved processor efficiency (the larger backside cache […]

iBook (FireWire)

The second-generation iBook replaces the bright blueberry and tangerine of the original iBook with a more sophisticated indigo blue and a bright key lime. New features include FireWire and video output. 

Motorola: No More Speed to Give

2000: Apple’s partnership with Motorola has deteriorated into a comedy of errors over the last year or so. Production problems, pricing fiascoes, and hitting the MHz brick wall have all contributed to a black eye for Apple.

Mac Classic: My Lowest Low-End Mac

It was my last year of high school, and I had just moved up from typewriter to a handed-down word processor. There was an anonymous DOS clunker waiting for me to take to college. That orange-on-brown Zenith-whatever was like our old Chevy Malibu: it got you where you needed to go, but you were sort […]

Color Classic Mini FAQ

Hi! I thought it was about time to make a FAQ (or sub-FAQ) to deal with all the Color Classic (Colour Classic outside the USA) questions out there, which seem to be on a Möbius type path. So, here it is. What I have done, is combined much of my email correspondence to answer many […]

Linux for PowerPC

2000: Linux and I have had a love-hate relationship since early 1996. Boot magazine (now Maximum PC) included Debian Linux with one of its 1996 issues. OS/2 was becoming a lost cause, and I had just gotten my first network administrator gig. While strong with Windows NT, my Unix skills were still muttering back then.

Screens of Plastic Could Be Fantastic

2000: Last week, Lee Dye of the Los Angeles Times reported on a research project by Ghassan Jabbour, an assistant research professor in the optical sciences department at the University of Arizona in Tucson, whose team is developing thin computer display screens so flexible that they can be folded and tucked away in your pocket.

Apple Ditching G4

8/17/2K: Intel has announced that the Pentium 4 will hit 2 GHz next year, forcing Apple to completely rethink its game plan. It’s decision: Abandon the G4 except on graphics workstations.

Be Thankful for Apple Secrecy

2000: There was a time (so I’m told) that Apple leaked like a sieve with bullet holes in it. Everyone knew which products were coming out and when. Specs were freely available, and rumors were often true. What a long way Apple has come.

The Cube: Just What We Ordered?

2000 – With the introduction of the amazing new Apple Pro Keyboard (welcome back, full-sized keys) and the Apple Pro Mouse by Apple at Macworld New York, came something so new, so different, so amazing – the new Power Macintosh G4 Cube.

Mac OS X Server 1.2

2000: It is amazing how time flies when you move from New York to California. Soon after my previous article, I purchased a car and drove cross-country to California via the Bible Belt. While the Bible Belt is not my lifestyle of choice, I have always been fascinated by it.

ihateapple.com

2000: Being a Low End Mac reader, you’ve probably also been to the numerous articles on other Mac advocacy sites whose stories are linked to in the Around The Web section of the home page.

Berst Misses the Boat Again

2000: If the PC press can’t see it, then it doesn’t exist. In the wake of the success of Macworld Expo, Jesse Berst felt that he had to get in his digs somehow. I quote: “Apple is painting itself into a corner and the latest releases prove it.”

Processor Upgrade Market Never Better

On June 7, 2000, online Mac upgrade reseller MacCPU voluntarily closed its cyber-doors and shut down permanently. MacCPU principal Bob Moriarty explained dyspeptically in a column on MacNN that while, in his opinion, “CPU upgrades remain the single best idea we have ever seen in computing after the Macintosh Operating System . . . Apple […]

Optimizing Mac Software

In my earlier articles about speed, I made the point that much of speed depends on what software you choose and how you set it up for the way you work. In How to Pick Faster Software, I gave some yardsticks you can use to measure how good your software is. Now I’d like to […]

350 MHz G3 iMacs

A Limited Mac Apple had two 350 MHz iMacs. The first, available only in blueberry, was introduced in October 1999. It has 64 MB of RAM (expandable to 1 GB), Rage 128 VR graphics with 8 MB of memory, a 6 GB IDE hard drive, CD-ROM, and the option of supporting an AirPort 802.11b WiFi […]

Power Mac G4 Cube

Stunningly compact, the Power Mac (not Macintosh) G4 Cube came as a surprise, despite numerable contradictory rumors. Just 7.7″ square and a bit under 10″ tall – about the same height at the 2013 Mac Pro, but with a larger footprint – the Cube does everything the iMac DV does (except contain a monitor) – […]

iMac G3 (Summer 2000)

Apple broadened the iMac line from three models and two speeds to four models and four speeds in July 2000, also introducing a new color palette (indigo, ruby, sage, and snow in addition to graphite). The new iMacs shipped with Mac OS 9.0.4. The entry-level 350 MHz indigo iMac was a slight step up from […]

iMac DV SE (Summer 2000)

The new iMac DV Special Edition, available in Graphite or Snow, increased speed from 400 MHz on the original DV SE to 500 MHz and boosted the hard drive from 13 GB to 30 GB – all without increasing the price. The 2000 iMac DV Special Edition ships with the Apple Pro Mouse and Apple […]

400 MHz iMac DV (Summer 2000)

This model, available in Indigo and Ruby, replaced the earlier iMac DV. Both models share a 400 MHz processor. Other than colors, the biggest difference between the new iMac DV and the previous model with the same name is the use of a CD-ROM drive instead of DVD.

Mystic Power Mac G4

Claiming “two brains are better than one,” Apple introduced the first dual processor Power Macs since the 9600MP, which had two 200 MHz 604e processors. Although Mac OS 9 has some multiprocessing support, until OS X shipped, only a few applications – such as Photoshop – took advantage of the second processor.