Low End Mac Editorial Archive
November 2006
- Acura Legend, the car that changed the way we look at Japanese cars, Ted Hodges, Vintage Mac Living, 11.30. Some products, like the Macintosh and the Acura Legend, simply pull us in with their intelligent design, feature set, and value.
- Upgrade the Power Mac or buy an Intel Mac mini?, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 11.30. With 1.8 GHz dual G4 upgrades selling for US$600, it might make more sense to add a Core Duo Mac mini than upgrade the processor.
- The Universal Zune tax: Coming soon to an iPod near you?, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 11.29. Universal Music's CEO calls iPod users thieves and suggests that Universal will attempt to negotiate a fee for every iPod sold.
- Extended warranties debated, giving 'Other Red' benefit of the doubt, MacBook closed-lid cooling, and more, Charles W Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 11.13. Also problems using Target Disk Mode to install Tiger, Afterthemac 802.11g USB adapter, iEmulator x86 emulation for PowerPC and Intel Macs, and unsupported operating systems.
- Microsoft Pwnd™: All your documents are belong to us, Jeff Adkins, The Lite Side, 11.27. DRM, limited-use document sharing, Secure Digital Paper™, and proprietary data formats among highlights of new Tablet Publishing Solution™.
- Core 2 means cooler running MacBook, MacBook Core 2 'a powerhouse', MacBook Pro Core 2 really faster, and more, The 'Book Review, 11.22. Also Al Jazeera chooses Apple, Quicky wireless antenna doubles range, battery recycling, high tech repairs, and bargain 'Books from $200 to $750.
- AMD rumors gain traction, 2.0 GHz G4 upgrade, JukeDock for iPod, FireWire/USB 2.0 combo drive, and more, Mac News Review, 11.22. Future Macs may have AMD CPUs, MAXPower G4 upgrades hit 2 GHz, Apricorn's new combo hard drive, colorful JukeDock, and more.
- Parallels revisited: Release version far more polished than beta, Alan Zisman, Mac2Windows, 11.21. Parallels lets you run Windows or Linux without rebooting your Intel-based Mac, and it's made great strides since the beta came out earlier this year.
- Roadmap to Intel's past, present, and future icons, Jeff Adkins, The Lite Side, 11.21. From a simple "intel", Intel's logo has gained "inside", leaped ahead, and gone Core. Here's what you can expect in the years ahead.
- To AppleCare or not to AppleCare?, Charles W Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 11.20. Consumer Reports, which generally recommends against extended warranties, says AppleCare makes sense. But does it?
- One year with my 'free' Mac mini, Hardy Menagh, Empowered, 11.20. "For something the size of a fruitcake, the mini is a powerful little computer."
- SATA and PCI Power Macs: No OS X joy, but you can boot OS 9, Nathan Thompson, Embracing Obsolescence, 11.17. Weeks of experimention find that while you can't seem to boot a pre-G3 Power Mac into OS X from a SATA hard drive, you can at least boot OS 9 from it.
- Rare Apple II jigsaw puzzle found on eBay, Cortland, 11.17. Apple produced a jigsaw puzzle of the Apple II for its 1983 Gift Catalog, and when one showed up on eBay, who could resist?
- Mac Pro blows away competition, extended warranties crummy deals, firmware updates for Intel mini and iMac, more, Mac News Review, 11.17. Also 7 free Mac maintenance utilities, dual LCD monitors, a vacuum tube amp for the iPod, and more.
- Core 2 boosts MacBook by 7%, undervolting ups battery life and drops heat, firmware update for MB and MBP, more, The 'Book Review, 11.17. Also 17" MacBook Pro delays, extended warranties, making EVDO work with Parallels, MacBook Core 2 developer notes,$50 WiFi PC Card, bargain 'Books from $275 to $2,199, and more.
- How much Mac do you really need to run OS X?, Ted Hodges, Vintage Mac Living, 11.16. You don't need dual-core Intel processors to read email or use the Web. Here are some 1999-2001 Macs that could be all you need.
- Brother HL-5250DL: A great low cost, high quality networkable laser printer, Dan Knight, Low End Mac Reviews, 11.16. For under US$250, this 1200 dpi laser printer has ethernet, does duplex printing, outputs 30 pages-per-minute, and works quietly.
- The high-end iPhone: How Apple could grow a new market, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 11.15. If Apple expects to penetrate the cell phone market, it needs a full-featured product that stands apart and integrates well with the Mac.
- Why Microsoft OneNote is the best digital scrapbook, Andrew J Fishkin, The Mobile Mac, 11.15. StickyBrain and Yojimbo are fine, but the winner is OneNote on a Tablet PC - for lack of a Mac tablet.
- MacWrite 1.0: Defining word processing for a graphical user interface, Andrew Conachey, Classic Mac Nostalgia, 11.15. The Mac's first word processor introduced a lot of features and norms that show up in today's word processing software.
- Apple's failed BigMac project: Precursor of the Mac II and NeXT Cube, Cortland, 11.14. Way back in 1985 Steve Jobs wanted to move the Mac to Unix. The BigMac project failed, but the ideas lived on in the Macintosh II and NeXT Computer.
- The Lite Side's ABC link list primer, Jeff Adkins, The Lite Side, 11.14. Around the Web in 26 links from A through Z.
- Add desktop Trash and a classic Apple Menu to OS X for free, Hardy Menagh, Empowered, 11.13. Two favorite features from the classic Mac OS have never been part of OS X, but that doesn't mean you have to do without them.
- More features of Apple's Extended Keyboard II, Tommy Thomas, Welcome to Macintosh, 11.13. The earlier article on the Extended Keyboard II overlooked some useful features. Readers explain what we missed.
- Disabling deep sleep on MacBooks, 'Other Red' a scam?, mixed RAM can reduce performance, and more, Charles W Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 11.13. Also other disk utilities Mac owners should know about, Lombard cooling, Netscape 7 on OS 9, Final Vinyl for ripping LPs, and more.
- Improving value: Cost cutting done right, Andrew J Fishkin, The Mobile Mac, 11.10. Sometimes a lower price means a cheap product, but sometimes it's the result of sensible cost cutting that increases product value.
- Intel inside Macs paves the way for affordable CPU upgrades, Adam Robert Guha, Apple Archive, 11.10. By adopting industry standards, Apple has made it much easier for Mac owners to add memory, expansion cards, and faster CPUs to their computers.
- Book Review: Digital Retro, Cortland, 11.10. A great introduction to the history of personal computing with original photos.
- Mac market up 34.6%, Core 2 minis?, red mice and iPods, a $30 Bluetooth 2.0 dongle, and more, Mac News Review, 11.10. Also Apple's blue motherboards, Other Red helps orphans in Africa, Bluetooth for G4 minis, SoundTech's XLR-to-USB microphone cable, and more.
- MacBook goes Core 2, Core vs. Core 2 benchmarks, MacBook Pro hard drive transplant, and more, The 'Book Review, 11.10. Also the MacBook Pro's 3 GB memory limit explained, Apple's 200 GB hard drive, Hitachi's forthcoming 250 GB drive, a notebook stand with an integrated keyboard, bargain 'Books from $199 to $2199, and more. 06/1109.html">How soon will the Mac mini go Core 2?, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 11.09. The Mac mini is the last Mac not using a Core 2 CPU. It's just a matter of time. And how about a Mac midi?
- Pre-2006 software: The big reason you shouldn't buy an Intel Mac today, Ted Hodges, Vintage Mac Living, 11.09. If you work with software that predates the Intel transition, you may be better off sticking with PowerPC Macs. And if you use classic apps, you definitely want to avoid Intel.
- The MacBook Core 2 value equation, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 11.08. The Core 2 Duo is about 10% more efficient, and the 2.0 GHz MacBooks get even more improvements, which improves their value.
- Cheap is as cheap does: A crappy cable cripples a capable display, Andrew J Fishkin, The Mobile Mac, 11.08. Both Viewsonic monitors looked great with DVI input, but with the included VGA cables they were simply unusable.
- Interview with Dan Bricklin, inventor of the electronic spreadsheet, Cortland, 11.07. Until 1979, a spreadsheet was something you did by hand. VisiCalc changed all that and gave personal computers the first "killer app".
Editorial Archives
2009 Dec., Nov.,
Oct., Sept., Aug., July, June, May, Apr., Mar., Feb., Jan.
2008 Dec., Nov.,
Oct., Sept., Aug., July, June, May, Apr., Mar., Feb., Jan.
2007 Dec., Nov.,
Oct., Sept., Aug., July, June, May, Apr., Mar., Feb., Jan.
2006 Dec., Nov.,
Oct., Sept., Aug., July, June, May, Apr., Mar., Feb., Jan.
2005 Dec., Nov.,
Oct., Sept., Aug., July, June, May, Apr., Mar., Feb., Jan.
2004 Dec., Nov.,
Oct., Sept., Aug., July, June, May, Apr., Mar., Feb., Jan.
2003 Dec., Nov.,
Oct., Sept., Aug., July, June, May, Apr., Mar., Feb., Jan.
2002 Dec., Nov.,
Oct., Sept., Aug., July, June, May, Apr., Mar., Feb., Jan.
2001 Nov.-Dec., Sept.-Oct, July-Aug.,
April-June, Jan.-Mar.
2000 Sept.-Dec., May-Aug., Jan.-March
1999 July-Dec., Jan.-June, 1998,
1997