Category: Apple Computing

VCF PNW which is scheduled for February 10-11 in Seattle is putting out a call for Exhibitors and Speaks for the event.   According to the email from them, : In case you missed it we (the Vintage Computer Federation) is putting together a Vintage Computer Festival (VCF PNW) at the Living Computer Museum+Labs in Seattle.  We are actively looking for exhibitors and speakers for this new show. The show will be held February 10th and 11th, 2018.  We are not…

The Game Port Interface Board was demoed by Andrew and Ivan Hogan at KansasFest 2017. The board lets you get input and output via the 16-pin game port on your Apple II, II+, IIe, or IIGS. Control your lights, custom circuit boards from your Apple II, or control your Apple II using outside sensors. Check out the video review here: https://youtu.be/T241lI6SBlc

From the EuroPlus Zone website I’m very happy to finally announce the date for the next WOzFest, WOzFest 8-bit – Saturday 18 November 2017, starting around midday Sydney time (UTC+11:00). The theme for WOzFest Slot 7: Your Card was the Apple IIgs, Apple’s only non-8-bit Apple ][. It therefore seemed appropriate to set the theme for WOzFest 8-bit to all the other Apple ][s (which were 8-bit)…and the Apple-1, Apple /// and Apple ///+. On the Apple ][ front, this runs…

MacTracker, the App which tracks all of the Apple hardware has been updated.  According to the MacTracker website, the following items have changed in 7.6.6.: Version 7.6.6 – Adds iMac (21.5-inch, 2017), iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, 2017), and iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017) – Adds MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2017), MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports), and MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Two Thunderbolt 3 Ports) – Adds MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, 2017) – Adds MacBook Air (13-inch, 2017) – Adds iPad Pro (12.9-inch)…

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…

Structris for iOS, released in 2016, is temporarily offline and will be available again for the iPhone and iPad for $1.99. Produced and designed by Brian Wiser and Bill Martens of A.P.P.L.E., collaborating with original Apple II programmer Martin Haye and iOS programmer Olivier Goguel, the game features easy-to-use touch controls, Game Center support, and background music from neo-classical composer Tomoki Takamori.  It is sure to delight folks who love retro games, blocks, and pressing buttons!  Check out our Santa promo…

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…

Yesterday morning I picked up my new iPad Pro. Since the first version of the iPad, I’ve been hoping for a bigger version. Yesterday my wish finally came true. The iPad Pro is physically very similar to the smaller versions – same thickness, nice curvy design, just bigger. Immediately you can feel the speed as everything opened fast and navigations are swift with no lag. The size is really good.  I can read my eBooks and most PDFs at “real” size, including magazines and manuals that…

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

Christies Auction house is once again the focus of the Apple world.  With another Apple-1 computer coming available, the question begins to arise, “How many of these machines are left?”  Over the past 5 years a dozen or so of the classic Apple-1 computers have sold at various auction houses with some fetching well over $900,000 USD.  The recent sale by Bonhams Auction House brought less than 40 percent of that, yet it still had a decent selling price compared…

The wildly popular novel series, Harry Potter is now available on the iTunes Book Store.  The entire series of the J.K. Rowling penned books are available.  Each book is a fully enhanced version of the Harry Potter books specifically created for iBooks and can be purchased on the Harry Potter page at: https://search.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZContentLink.woa/wa/link?path=HarryPotter

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…