50 Mac Essentials #22: Mactracker

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20101214-mactracker.jpg

Remember that old Mac you had? That beautiful iMac. It was lovely. Still works, but these days it doesn’t get used much.

It was a G5. One of the 17 inch models. You think. Wait. Or was it 20 inch? Damn, have to get it out and measure it now. It had a 1.83GHz Intel. Or was it a 2.33GHz? Dammit. You really can’t be bothered to boot the thing up just to check. But now you want to know.

What you need is Mactracker. If you ever own more than one Apple product – not just Macs, but iPods and iPhones and Apple TVs and even the 1990 Apple Extended Keyboard – Mactracker will know everything you might need to know about it.

Mactracker is a detailed database of every Apple product. You can search it, you can browse by date, you can even set up smart lists. You can put all your own products into a folder for quick access.

If you ever need to identify a Mac or check precisely what processor it shipped with, or when production ceased, or just what people thought of it at the time, Mactracker can tell you. It’s part database, part historical document, part timesink.

It’s available on iOS if you need it in your pocket. And it’s free too (although donations are welcome).

(You’re reading the 22nd post in our series, 50 Essential Mac Applications: a list of the great Mac apps the team at Cult of Mac value most. Read more.)

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