The iMac Legacy: After the G3

2008 – The G3 range of iMacs had propelled Apple into the public eye, had sometimes been the best selling personal computer on the market, and had helped Apple come back from the brink. Between the iMac and the iPod, the whole world was watching Apple.

The Mac Is a Personal Computer, but It Is Not a PC

PC Magazine’s Lance Ulanoff says, “Macs are PCs, dammit!” He then goes on to explain that the “PC” at PC Magazine stands for personal computer. I am not convinced. You see, I was there when the first IBM PCs reached the local ComputerLand store in 1981. And I know that was not the birth of […]

Upgrade Options for 15″ and 17″ Aluminum PowerBooks

The 17″ and high-end 15″ aluminum PowerBooks, aside from their modest (by today’s standards) 512 MB of standard RAM, are pretty lavishly equipped in standard trim. Even the “entry-level” 15-incher is no slouch. However, that doesn’t mean these ‘Books aren’t candidates for a bit of upgrading – especially now that we’re closing on three years […]

Toward a Better Computer Keyboard

In his blog, Tim Bray states: “There’s a design flaw in Apple’s current lineup of Mac keyboards; easily fixed though.” He goes on to complain about both of Apple’s current keyboards, the USB ‘board with its full complement of keys and the Bluetooth keyboard with its significant lack of keys.

The Mac’s Growing Market Presence

2008: The iPod very much dominates the MP3 player market, the iTunes Store dominates the digital music market (and probably video as well), the iPhone has redefined the smartphone market, and the Macintosh is the #3 personal computer brand in the US – and the #2 personal computer operating system, growing at an impressive rate […]

Superior Dithered Images with HyperDither

Some programs seem to do a thousand different things. Others are one trick ponies. HyperDither falls in the second category, and compared to image editing powerhouses like Photoshop and even Photoshop Elements, its feature-set is incredibly sparse. In fact, it only does one thing – it dithers images.

Hooked on Macs, New and Old

I’ve been into computing for over 15 years, but I didn’t see the Apple light until 2000. I had always liked Macs, but they were way out of my budget. I started working for a publishing house and was using an old Quadra. Even though it was old, it was amazing. It was my first experience […]

Time Machine Can Now Backup to a Shared Hard Drive

2008 – Apple released the Time Machine backup utility as part of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard in October 2007. Time Machine is most commonly used to back up to an external USB or FireWire hard drive directly attached to a Mac running Leopard.

PowerBook G5: Long Rumored, Never Produced

Five years ago this week, on June 23, 2003 (although it seems longer somehow), Apple Introduced the G5 Power Mac, claiming it to be “fastest personal computer ever” and “first 64-bit personal computer”. Speculation soon began about the possibility of a G5 PowerBook. Not so much at first, since the G5 was launched as a power […]

Tales of Old Mac Data Retrieval

2008 – Macs have been around for a long time, waxing and waning in popularity – 24 years as of this writing. Many people have used Macs in grade school or college, as business users, or personally, and have old data and software stored on floppy disks, SyQuest cartridges, hard drives, etc. from these Paleolithic […]

The Roots of Apple’s Retail Stores

During the mid-90s, Mac users were prone to dealing with poorly trained and ill-maintained Mac sections in big box computer and electronics stores. These environments did not foster customer loyalty, nor did they help differentiate the Mac user-experience from Windows.

My First iMac

When I saw the other My First Mac articles, I figured I’d share my story too. My Macintosh experience begins in 2003. My school had two Bondi blue iMacs, and these things were always unplugged.

Cult Macs Adored by Collectors

One of the things that sets Macs apart from other computers is their longevity. People don’t just throw them away. Macs tend to soldier on long after their spec sheets say that they’re “obsolete”. This may explain another phenomenon almost unique to the Macintosh subset of the computing world: Mac collectors. It’s understandable when you […]

SheepShaver Brings the Classic Mac OS to Intel Macs and Leopard

Early in 2006, I wrote an article for Low End Mac entitled VNC, Basilisk II, and SheepShaver: 3 Ways to Run Classic on an Intel Mac. In it, I noted that the then-new Intel-powered Macs were unable to run older Mac software in called Classic Mode, but that there were at least a couple of […]

The Rise of the Microsoft Monopoly

Is Microsoft a monopoly? Has Microsoft been guilty of monopolistic behavior? These are questions we’ve been asking for well over a decade, and the subject surfaced again this week [mid March 2008] after the US Supreme Court cleared the way for Novell to file an antitrust case against the Redmond behemoth over the way WordPerfect […]

Proposal: No More Ugly Dates in Your Digital Photos

2008: I’ve been into photography since the mid-1970s, and I’ve worked in camera stores several times over the intervening years. For me, one of the banes of good enlargements is dates in photos. I’ve seen more nice candids, animal shots, sunsets, etc. that would make excellent large prints – but they have a big, ugly […]