Newton Poetry

Kirk McElhearn over at Kirkville says his current Mac Pro is fast enough to last a few years:

So we’ve finally reached the point where computers are fast enough, and people don’t need to upgrade to catch up to their software. With four cores in the Mac Pro, and two in the MacBook Air, I don’t have any situations where I even use all the processor power I have…So, thanks, Apple. You’ve given me a reliable, powerful computer that has already lasted longer than I expected, and should easily see me through another year.

That’s “good for me, but not so good for you,” Kirk says, because he won’t be buying a new Mac anytime soon. With software unable to keep up with the processing power of today’s multi-core Macintosh systems, what’s the point of upgrading?

Helping a friend purchase a refurbished iMac, I understand what he means. What’s the difference between a 2.0 Ghz model and a 2.4 Ghz model, besides $50?

Back when megahertz meant something, the speed of your Mac was a bragging point. But now it seems RAM and screen real estate are more important than, say, hard drive size and speed.

Dealing with low end Macs, speed is a huge issue. A PowerMac G4 doesn’t “scream” along like it used to, and your only hope is a processor upgrade or more RAM. But my iBook G4 turns three years old this winter, and is just now starting to show it’s age – and that’s mostly due to it’s hard drive running out of space, I think. Even my iMac G4 purrs along fine at 800 Mhz, but there are some tasks it’s not cut out for.

These days, none of that is an issue. There are work horses like the Mac Pro that are mini supercomputers, but even the iMac is getting up there in specs.

Until software developers figure out how to program for those quad-core beasts, all that processing power will go to waste. But it also means you can worry about specs other than speed when buying – or holding off from buying – a new Macintosh.

I’ve read Low End Mac as long as I’ve been a Mac user. Their Mac Profiles section just can’t be beat to look up old hardware specs (especially when I grab something out of the blue), and they post tons of helpful how-tos if you’re a classic Mac user.

So a big, hearty “thanks” to them for featuring our “11 ways Newton is still better than iPhone” post. The Newton officially qualifies as a low-end Apple product, even if the site mainly caters to Macintosh PCs.

I don’t know, but I think I’m getting close. This doesn’t even show the two Mac SEs and the iBook G3 clamshell. Getting out of hand, much?

Just read through Scott McCloud’s excellent comic about Google’s new web browser, Chrome (maybe you’ve heard about it?).

On page 25, Google gives props to the original iMac (above), circa 1998, and how it was an original “internet device” from the old HTML days. But what’s up with the dancing moon?

I haven’t tried Chrome out yet, because they haven’t released a Mac version, but it’s got me curious – and it has received glowing reviews from a lot of the sources I’ve read. Have you tried it?

If you’ve ever thought about digging in and upgrading your PowerMac G4 (Yikes! model), here’s a tip:

Think again.

After several successful projects involving simple upgrades like RAM and a PCI USB 2.0 card, a recent attempt at installing an Apple-made DVD-ROM drive was a complete disaster. Sadly, it’s because of the design of the PowerMac itself; when you open it up, it looks customizable, but actually trying to take the thing apart is a nightmare.

And it’s all the screws’ fault.

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Well look who showed up.

After a UPS mis-delivery, a neighbor hunt-down, and a package found safe and sound, my iMac G4 has finally arrived at my doorstep. I can die a happy man now.

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Joe Rivera, serving in Iraq, over at Low End Mac:

I have both my PowerBook G4 and my black MacBook, but what I carry on me as part of my gear is my MessagePad 120. This is my second deployment with it, and I have it custom painted tan to match my old desert camouflage uniform.

Now that’s hardcore. Read the rest of Joe’s story, and why he doesn’t plan on springing for a new iPhone any time soon.

Two days and about $15 later, my “Yikes!” PowerMac G4 now features full USB 2.0 capabilities thanks to the PCI card I installed on Thursday.

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When Merlin Mann, GTD guru and author of the 43 Folders blog, invented the Hipster PDA, he probably knew the adaptability of a plain index card idea holder would be infinite.

Us Newton MessagePad users, however, might scoff at the idea. Index cards? Color coding? Binder clips? It all seems so…Office Max.

But maybe Mann is on to something. Why can’t we Newton fans adapt the idea of the Hipster PDA into something more, I don’t know, Apple?

That’s why I’m introducing the pNewton, a Hipster-style MessagePad that takes the best ideas of the Hipster PDA and makes them even better.

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What would we do without eBay? Found two 256 MB RAM sticks on eBay for less than $20 (with shipping), and couldn’t pass up on the deal to boost the PowerMac G4’s RAM from 320 MB to…well, strangely, only 704 MB…

But before we get to the goofy math, let’s explore how we got this far.

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