Category: Macintosh

MacTracker, the Ian Page produced Apple product information tracking app has been updated.  The latest release, version 7.7.2, includes the following changes: HomePod added to the database The latest OS updates have been added Support status and obsolete status of Apple products added Other minor changes, fixes and additions. MacTracker is a Free app and is available from the Apple app store.  For more information, check out the MacTracker website at: http://mactracker.ca/

SoftRAID, the venerable RAID software solution, has been updated to 5.6.4 and is now fully compatible with macOS 10.13 High Sierra and also back to OS X 10.6.8.  While fully compatible with High Sierra, it does not support APFS volumes – that level of support is slated for the upcoming SoftRAID 6.0. Besides supporting RAID 0, 1, 4, 5 and 1+0, one of the best features is the Certify feature.  Certify can run multiple passes to verify that every sector…

Adam Christianson has released the latest episode of his MacCast podcast.  With everything going on this past week with CES in full swing and other news, this episode is packed with a lot of Apple goodness including: What you need to know about Spectre and Meltdown. Apple investors want more parental control. Apple clarifies store roof “flaw”. Even more Apple “shows” lined up. Iovine leaving Apple? Nope. Rumors of iPhone SE 2. No major Macbook Pro update this year? Apple…

While not a new release, Mini vMAC for iOS 2.2.4 was released in October and is available as an XCode project.  The port of vMAC, the Mac Plus emulator, was released to the wild by its author, Jesús A. Álvarez, complete with source code and XCode Project build files due to the fact that Apple does not really allow emulation on iOS. Recent adjustments to the project include the correcting of the scaling of the screen just over a month…

Ken Winograd, a long time Apple programmer has announced the immediate release of his latest version of TinyBooks Pro.   The program which gives small businesses a full blown accounting package has been under development for many years and is available as a one time purchase complete with  upgrade. According to the press release: Merrimack, New Hampshire, January 1, 2018: Ken Winograd and Space-Time Associates announced today a major update of our ultra-simple Macintosh accounting and bookkeeping program called TinyBooks Pro….

The venerable Carbon Copy Cloner backup software has been updated to version 5.05.  The software has been maintained and regularly upgraded since 2002, with version 5.0 first appearing in August 2017 to more fully support macOS High Sierra and Apple’s APFS filesystem.  It has features like bootable backups, updating only files that have been added or modified, checksums, as well as scheduled and manual backups.  It can even backup Macs remotely and supports macOS 10.10 through 10.13. One of my…

James Friend, the Australian programmer who ported the Mac 128 and Mac Plus to run in a browser, has a new port which is making the initial rounds.   Basilisk II, is now available in your browser thanks to the efforts of James.  According to the posting on his website,  he says: I recently ported the Basilisk II classic Macintosh emulator to run in a web browser. I’ve been hoping to get it running for some time, and originally attempting to…

A few months ago i acquired an Apple IIgs, and to my surprise it had a Vulcan drive inside. The Vulcan was an internal combo of hard drive/power supply with a controller card. At that time, the only hard drive options were an external drive or an IDE card. The Vulcan was attractive by combining a strong power supply that also housed the hard drive. It was black colored and looked really nice replacing the internal power supply. The controller…

The Gryphel Project has announced the availability of a new version of Mini vMac, macintosh emulator.  Mini vMac 3.5.7 allows users to emulate a Macintosh Plus on a variety of platforms including Mac OS X, Windows and Linux.  A number of ports to other platforms are also available via the Grypel Project links page. According to the posting on the Grypel Proroject website by Curator, Paul Pratt, “Mini vMac 3.5.7 is now officially released. That is, it is now declared…

Have you ever upgraded your Mac OS X and just absolutely missed your previous version of the desktop wallpaper?  Well, now you can have the best of both worlds thanks to our friends over at  512Pixels.  Every version of the wall paper has been up-scaled to 5K and is now available for download from their website: https://512pixels.net/projects/default-mac-wallpapers-in-5k/

NeoFinder, the popular digital asset cataloging and management tool, has been updated to version 7.  NeoFinder is quit simply the best such tool that I’ve ever used.  It makes it very easy to create a simple catalog of drives and disks, and can store complex metadata about documents, photos, songs, and movies along with optional checksums to verify integrity. The program has been updated and enhanced for over 10 years, and the latest version has a number of new features:…

I had the pleasure of interviewing Mike Harvey of Nibble magazine at KansasFest. Wanting to give the interview the broadest audience possible, I invited my good friend John Leake from the RetroMacCast podcast to participate.  The interview audio can be heard on RetroMacCast episode 413. Mike Harvey, the founder and publisher of the long-lived Nibble magazine, has career that spans major companies in the computing and financial realms.  Through those years Mike studied management philosophy, systems, and methods voraciously and developed…

Path Finder 7 is a file management utility that should be part of everyone’s resources. On the surface, it is a Mac OS Finder substitute offering traditional access to drives and files, as well as expanded technical access to file attributes, permissions, and other information. It is compatible with 10.7 Lion through 10.11 El Capitan. As Apple changes the Finder it’s nice to have an alternative approach, and one that incorporates its own substitutes for many tools. Basic text and…

Titanium Software has releases the latest update to the OnyX maintenance software for Mac OS X.  OnyX is a software package for the Mac which allows the user to perform system maintenance tasks, clean up their system, and clear unused data from their Machines. The program can also be used to repair file permissions on your hard drive as well as log files which become burdensome to machines.  You can even schedule regular cleanup and maintenance tasks using the program….

Ian Page has released a new version of his Mactracker App for Mac OS X.  Version 7.5 of the Mactracker App includes a host of improvements and fixes including: – iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2015), iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, Late 2015), and iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015) – Adds iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus – Adds iPad mini 4 (Wi-Fi) and iPad mini 4 (Wi‑Fi + Cellular) – Adds Apple TV (4th generation) – Adds Magic Mouse 2, Magic…

The ClamXav Anti-Virus software has been updated.  The latest update to the software includes a number of improvements to the software related to backups and recovery as well as being updated for Apple’s latest operating system, Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitain. Version 2.8.7 includes the following changes: Improved recognition of Time Capsule data volume Improved recognition of Recovery HD Added ability to reorder the items in the source list Fixed ClamXav Sentry crash on OS X 10.6 when using…

Have you seen the high gloss screen savers of the Apple TV and thought to yourself, “I wish I could run that on my Mac.” Now you can. A free, open source program, Aerial allows the user to not only run the screen savers but to utilize all of the high gloss fly overs of the Apple TV. For more about this program, check out the Aerial repository on GitHub at: https://github.com/JohnCoates/Aerial

Parallels has released an update to their Parallels Desktop for the Mac.  Version 11.0.2 addresses a host of issues and program stability.  Fixes to the program include the following: Resolves an issue with mouse cursor positioning in Windows 10 when using all displays in Full Screen Resolves an issue with dragging and dropping from a virtual machine to OS X in Coherence Resolves an issue with installing an OS X El Capitan virtual machine from the .app image Resolves an…

  Do you miss the days of 1-bit Mac games? Squishy Games is finishing Rogue Invader – their nearly-complete, modern side-scrolling shooter, due to be released February 2016 in 720p black and white.  The early build I played looks impressive and shows a lot of promise. Creator Nathan Rees spoke with me as he was preparing to launch his Kickstarter: Brian Wiser:  What inspired you to create Rogue Invader and use retro 1-bit graphics?  Did you have a classic Mac growing up? Nathan Rees:  I grew up with…

After I gave a presentation on Retrobrite at KansasFest, people asked me to write about the process, never wrote about Retrobrite as there are so many articles and videos on the internet but finally found some time to write about it. There are many ways to Retrobrite.  I avoid submerging because it’s a waste of peroxide, and maybe toxic for the environment, also don’t wrap in plastic as it allows areas to wrinkle and get more concentrated than others, promoting…