Before I describe my experiences with the Mac OS, I would first like to discuss the history of the Mac operating system and why it is important.The Mac OS is older than Microsoft Windows, and it’s seen considerably more releases than its counterpart. The first version, then simply called System 1.0, appeared in 1984. The […]
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Of the two major computing platforms, the Windows PC was the first one I became accustomed to. Windows has gone through several incarnations since the first version was released in 1985. It wasn’t until Windows 3.1 was released in 1992 that the PC started to dominate over its competitors, these being the Mac and, to […]
The good news is that Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard seems to be able to run on any Mac with AGP graphics built around a G4 processor – and even on the 2000 Pismo PowerBook (the first PowerBook with AGP graphics) as long as it has a G4 upgrade. The bad news is that the […]
Blame it all on BBC, the British Broadcasting Company. I like BBC’s radio programs, but as my favorite operating system is Mac OS 7.6.1, there has been a problem called Real Player 8 (RP8). Regular OS 7.6.1 lets you use RP5, and the Appearance Manager brings RP6 (a.k.a. G2) in the game, but the BBC Radio […]
2007 – Primate Labs picked up a copy of OS X Leopard and posted the first Geekbench results for the iMac (2.0 GHz Core 2) and Power Mac G5 (single 1.6 GHz) on Saturday. Leopard was tested in both 32-bit and 64-bit modes and compared with OS X 10.4 Tiger, which is strictly a 32-bit operating […]
Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, released on October 26, 2007, was the biggest change to Mac OS X since Apple first released OS X 10.0 in March 2001. For the first time, a version of OS X was certified as Unix, and the new unified appearance makes Leopard friendlier and less confusing for users. Leopard itself was also […]
2007 – The earliest G4 Power Macs had a 100 MHz system bus and ATI Rage 128 graphics on a 66 MHz PCI bus or an AGP 2x bus. The following generation of Power Macs adopted a 133 MHz system bus and included AGP 4x graphics. The Digital Audio models were the first Macs to offer […]
2007 – In November 1997, Apple made the leap to the G3, the first PowerPC CPU optimized for the kind of software Macs ran. Less than two years later, Apple abandoned the 300-450 MHz G3 in its Power Mac line when it introduced the first Power Mac G4 models.
2007: The notebook computer is a sublime invention. I prefer working on notebooks even though mine are mostly used as desktop substitute machines, but road trips make you even more profoundly appreciate the genius of the laptop.
Everyone knows they need to backup their data, but most people don’t do so regularly (if at all). Backups are confusing and annoying. Besides, who has the time? Well, your perspective may change during a post-crash enlightenment: Most people become religious about backups after their first catastrophic loss of data.
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 […]
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.
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 […]
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 […]
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.
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.
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 […]
Sometimes it takes a while to put one and one together to make two. In this case, the iPhone plus Apple TV equals the future of computing.
Welcome to Different Branches. For my first entry, I’m providing an introduction and what to expect from this column in the future.
2007 – There’s no feeling like putting your foot down on home soil when returning from a trip abroad. I have the impression that this is what I’m doing by returning to Low End Mac on its 10th anniversary.
As you all may know, several weeks ago I found the Lisa Emulator (LisaEm) at lisa.sunder.net. After I downloaded it, I installed the ROMs and installed the Lisa Office System (LOS). After I played around with the emulator for a while, I wrote a review of LisaEm. The review contained several screen shots of LisaEm in […]
I had the great honor of interviewing an important person the other day. His name is Ray Arachelian, and he’s the creator of the Apple Lisa Emulator. Without him, there may have never been a way for anyone without a Lisa to see the LOS in action.
Eight years ago, when I was 11, I came across the Lisa Emulator Project. I had heard about Apple’s Lisa, but I had never had a chance to use the Lisa Office System (LOS). The reason was that the emulator project didn’t have a working Lisa emulator, and neither did anyone else – until now.
It’s nothing short of spectacular to interview the legends behind an artistic creation. Just to know through every freeze frame that came to their minds, every idea that became born of creativity beyond wildest imaginations, the magic, the bewilderment, the stories behind the culmination of it all – it gives you a feeling of awe […]
2007 – “What’s happened to Low End Mac lately?” It’s a question I hear from readers and staff members. “What’s with the spate of pro-Windows articles? Why do you let your writers advocate for Windows?”
Love him or hate him, Steve Jobs will always be Apple. A visionary? A marketing genius? A control freak? What will happen to Apple in the future without him? Whether you read the countless books or watch the numerous films on the early days of Apple, they all point to Steve Wozniak being the technical […]
2006 – I promised to bring the Zune into the fray, and I shall by putting forth the following question: Is it wise for Microsoft to further fracture the consumer media player market with yet another incompatible DRM scheme?
Because the original Macintosh had a new operating system, software companies had to rewrite their programs or develop new software to work with the Mac operating system and take advantage of the mouse and the powerful graphical user interface (GUI) that the Mac OS provided. This meant there was a relatively small amount of software […]
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).
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.
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.
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 […]
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.
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.
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 […]