Mac notebook and other portable computing is covered in The 'Book Review. iPad, iPod, iPhone, and
Apple TV news is covered in iOS News
Review. Older Macs are covered in Vintage Mac News. All prices are in US
dollars unless otherwise noted.
Purchases made through links to Amazon.com and
Apple's iTunes/iBook/App/Mac App Store support Low End Mac.
News & Opinion
News & Opinion
Is the Mac Fading Away?
Mac 360's Alexis Kayhill notes that the Mac was once Apple's core
product, but times have changed, and the company has moved on to become
a purveyor of highly desired digital devices, starting with the iPod,
followed by the iTunes Store, the iPhone, and the iPad. She observes
that while the Mac is not dead and not likely to die anytime soon, it's
obviously fading from prominence at Apple - and perhaps from Mac users
as well.
As supporting evidence for her thesis, Kayhill points to nominally
Mac-oriented websites on which most content these days is focused on
Apple's mobile iDevices and on the company itself, with relatively
little about the Mac, coverage of which in some instances has become
almost a footnote.
Although not Apple's most popular hardware line, Macs are selling at
record levels.
As we noted on our Facebook page
earlier this week: I don't think it's so much the Mac fading away - the
platform has never been more popular - as it being eclipsed by iOS
devices, which are vastly outselling it. What do you think?
dk
Link: Mac Websites
Display the Obvious: The Mac Isn't Dead, but It's Fading Away
Linux User Finds a Lot to Like in OS X
Blogger Bozhidar Batsov chronicles his impressions a year after he
became an OS X user after eight years on desktop Linux. A professional
programmer, he says that he found the transition initially painful but
was impressed with the quality and responsiveness of the OS X
desktop and the fact that Emacs keybindings are used by default in its
editor toolkit. He notes that one app in particular, Spotlight, "blew
me off the water," and that most of the other apps he really needed had
native OS X ports; the others have worthy alternatives.
He also notes that being a keyboard devotee, he was underwhelmed by
the whole multitouch mumbo-jumbo at first but eventually came to the
conclusion that Apple has the only trackpads and mice that are actually
worth using (even though he still likes using the keyboard way
more).
Things Batsov loves about OS X:
- The Desktop ("makes KDE4 and GNOME3 look like school projects in
comparison)
- The OS X flavored apps (It's obvious that Mac users have developed
a taste in extremely refined software")
- Hardware compatibility ("If something is supposed to work with OS X
- it works superbly out-of-the-box;" "Battery life is
exceptional")
- Stability ("One year, three Macs - only two or three system
crashes")
Things that are just OK:
- The Default Apps
- Mac App Store
- Emacs
- Software Development
- System administration
Things he hates:
- The special keys
- No standard all mighty package manager
- Ugly XML config files
- XCode
Is Batsov happier now without Linux? "Definitely!"
Is OS X a better OS than Linux? "Absolutely not!" says Batsov, but
it does have a much better desktop experience, and since he spends most
of the time on a computer interacting with the desktop, that's a big
win.
He advises that if you're happy using Linux, you should stick with
it. Obviously he wasn't and there weren't that many alternatives lying
around, noting that not having to deal with hardware problems and
immature desktop apps is like a breath of fresh air that more than
compensates for the few shortcomings of OS X.
Link: From Linux to OS X
- 1 Year Later
Will Apple's 'Real World' Software Appearance Cause
an Internal Revolt?
Fast Company's Austin Carr speaks with industry insiders and
ex-AppleDesigners who have soured on the fake leather, glass, and wood
that runs through OS X and iOS.
iCal's leather look, an example of skeuomorphism.
Carr notes that Apple is rightly heralded for its innovative
thinking and bold hardware design, but the elephant in the room is
Apple's software, which he reports many inside the company believe has
taken a turn for the worse in the last few years, with much of the
criticism and controversy revolving around a trend called skeuomorphism -
interface design featuring calendars with faux leather-stitching,
bookshelves with wood veneers, fake glass and paper and brushed chrome
- a generic term for when objects retain ornamental elements of past,
derivative iterations, and other elements that are no longer necessary
to the current objects functions.
He contends that skeuomorphism has seeped into all areas of UI
design, but especially into Apple's software, where text documents, for
example, are made to look like yellow legal pads and iCal's faux
leather-stitching (rumored to have been modeled on a texture in Steve
Jobs' Gulfstream jet), or Apple's Game Center app that's dressed in a
lacquered wood and green felt ostensibly lending it the feel of a
casino.
Link: Will Apple's Tacky
Software-Design Philosophy Cause a Revolt?
Disabling Java the Best Policy
Krebs on Security notes that an update for Mac OS X installations of
Java that Apple issued this week fixes at least one critical security
vulnerability in the software and suggests that if you own a Mac,
taking a moment to run the Software Update application right now and
check if there is a Java update available - or, better yet, remove Java
- and warns that delaying this action could set your Mac up for a date
with malware.
The updates can be downloaded via Software Update or at <https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1573>
for OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and <https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1572>
for OS X 10.7 Lion and OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion.
If you do subsequently need Java, you can always reinstall the
program. or if you only need it for specific Web sites, update to the
latest version, and you can still dramatically reduce the risk from
Java attacks just by disabling the plugin in your main Web browser. and
adopting a two-browser approach leaving an alternative browser with
Java enabled for browsing only sites that require it. For
browser-specific instructions on disabling Java, see How
to Unplug Java from the Browser.
Link: Apple Releases Fix
for Critical Java Flaw
Mountain Lion's 43 Hidden Wallpapers
A tip of the hat to LifeHacker's Alan Henry for bringing to our
attention a trove of 43 hidden wallpapers in OS X 10.8 Mountain
Lion.
In order to gain access to the folder containing the wallpapers,
Open the Go menu in the Mountain Lion Finder and type or paste
in this string:
/System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.Framework/Versions/A/Resources/Default Collections/
Many of the images, some of them from National Geographic,
are stunningly beautiful.
Link: Uncover Mountain
Lion's 43 Hidden Secret Wallpapers
Desktop Mac
Deals
Low End Mac updates the following price trackers monthly:
For deals on current and discontinued 'Books, see our 13" MacBook and MacBook Pro,
MacBook Air, 13" MacBook Pro, 15" MacBook Pro, 17" MacBook Pro, 12" PowerBook G4, 15" PowerBook G4, 17" PowerBook G4, titanium PowerBook G4,
iBook G4, PowerBook G3, and iBook G3 deals.
We also track iPad,
iPhone, iPod touch, iPod classic, iPod nano, and iPod shuffle deals.
