The very first Mac arrived in 1984 without the ability to upgrade anything. Even opening the case was a chore best left to service technicians when troubles arose. Although the Macs that arrived in the years after Steve Jobs left Appleoften sported relatively easy upgrading, it wasn’t always a cake walk. I remember, for example, […]

Looking at the recent problems with the T-Mobile Sidekick smartphone and Microsoft’s Danger affiliate, it’s easy to forget that not all potential data loss problems can be blamed on the Dark Side of the computing universe. You see, Apple has had problems to contend with as well. Consider a certain Mac OS X upgrade, where […]

A few of the more negative reviews about Snow Leopard make a very basic point, that most of the changes are in the plumbing. Hence you don’t need to worry about upgrading right now, so might as well stick with what you have. One important reason to feel this way is the fact that you […]

The conventional wisdom — which is seldom conventional — has it that Apple and Microsoft must tout loads of flashy new features to justify asking their customers to pay for their ongoing operating system upgrades. That may be true, all right, but it only presents part of the picture. Now as some of you recall, […]