Apple has long neglected the Mac mini, but could redemption be found by killing the product line altogether? We argue that merging the Mac mini with the iMac could return Apple to the simple product matrix envisioned by Steve Jobs fifteen years ago, and that recent discoveries in a beta version of OS X may make such a scenario likely.
Apple Releases the New Mac Pro, Most Configs Ship in January
Apple today finally announced the availability of the long-awaited new Mac Pro. With configurations ranging from $3,000 to $10,000, the new flagship Mac promises huge gains in OpenCL performance along with extensive expansion via Thunderbolt 2. But interested buyers will have to wait a few weeks to try them out. New orders won’t ship until January.
High-End Mac Pro Prices Leak Thanks to Apple’s Business Team
Apple’s eagerly-awaited new Mac Pro is almost here, and we’re finally starting to get some pricing information for higher-end configurations. Apple’s business customers report that the company has reached out to offer price quotes for custom configurations, with a maxed out model going for nearly $10,000.
How to Pair or Disable Your Mac’s IR Remote Receiver in OS X Mavericks
Although Apple is now phasing them out, most Macs sold in the past eight years include an infrared port for use with a remote control. But if you have multiple Apple devices in the same room, your Macs and Apple TVs might get the IR signals mixed up. Here’s how to pair or disable your Mac’s IR receiver.
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Pushing It To The Limit: 2013 MacBook Air Battery Life Tests
When Apple released the 2013 MacBook Air in June, the company leveraged the increased power efficiency of the Haswell platform to provide significantly improved battery life. After spending some time testing the new MacBook Air’s 802.11ac Wi-Fi performance, we turned our attention to power efficiency. Just how accurate are Apple’s impressive claims for the 2013 MacBook Air battery life? Testing Hardware We’re testing an entry-level 2013 13-inch MacBook Air, with a 1.3GHz Core i5 CPU, Intel HD 5000 GPU, and…
The Fastest Way to Lock or Sleep Your Screen in Mac OS X
Locking your Mac’s display (or “sleeping” the display) can be a great security measure when paired with a user account password. While it won’t prevent the outright theft of your Mac, it can be a quick and easy way to prevent nosy family members or coworkers from getting access to your data. In order for a Mac lock screen command to be effective, you’ll first need to configure System Preferences to require your user account password when unlocking or waking…
How to Create a 4GB/s RAM Disk in Mac OS X
RAM Disks, as the name indicates, are logical storage volumes created using a computer’s memory (RAM) instead of a traditional hard drive or solid state drive. The benefits are easy to understand: RAM operates at speeds far beyond current hard drive technology. But there’s also a major negative: data stored in RAM is not persistent, meaning that it is erased when the RAM loses power due to a reboot, shutdown, or power loss. Despite this drawback, there are still several…
New Internal Drive from MCE Brings Blu-ray to iMac & Mac mini
Although an original member of the Blu-ray Disc Association, Apple has never embraced the format, calling it a “bag of hurt” and preferring to guide customers towards its own “high definition” content via the iTunes Store. Mac owners could still use Blu-ray optical drives, although there was no official support in OS X for the commercial Blu-ray video format. Still, determined fans of high quality, and high capacity, optical media resigned themselves to attaching external Blu-ray drives to their iMacs…