September 20, 1989: Apple releases the Macintosh Portable, the first battery-powered Mac you could take on the road.
At a time when Tim Burton’s Batman is flying high in theaters, and Madonna is shocking audiences at the MTV Video Music Awards, this ahead-of-its-time product lays the groundwork for Apple’s looming laptop revolution.
Apple’s next-gen OLED MacBook Pro supposedly will feature a touchscreen panel, further blurring the line between iPads and MacBooks.
TF International Securities analyst Ming Chi Kuo thinks the new OLED MacBook Pro will enter mass production in late 2026.
macOS 26 Tahoe is a milestone update with a dramatic new look, new power tools for pro users — and over 45 new features. It’s still recognizably Mac, but with a fresh coat of paint (or, should I say, glass). And there’s plenty to dive into once you get settled.
Spotlight has picked up lots of new features, replacing Launchpad and adding a native clipboard manager. There are loads of great enhancements to group chats in Messages. Other great enhancements are in Safari, Passwords, Maps, Photos, Journal and more. And a few new apps come over from iOS: Phone, Journal, Magnifier and the all-new Games app.
The update is out now; here’s what to expect.
September 10, 1984: Apple ships the Macintosh 512K, the first upgrade to the first-gen Macintosh 128K.
Coming less than eight months after the original Macintosh, the 512K Mac makes no sweeping changes to the computer’s form factor. Instead, the big upgrade is quadrupling the RAM. This leads Apple fans to refer to the computer as the “Fat Mac.”
If you stumble across a webpage or a link in a different language, you can instantly translate the website to English directly from Safari. Unlike Google Chrome, Safari even translates the text inside images using Live Text.
And, if you accidentally change the language of a website to one you don’t speak, you can turn this feature on to help you change it back. At Cult of Mac, we use the feature to translate rumors or blog posts often written in Chinese, Korean or Japanese, like this.
You don’t need to select the words paragraph by paragraph and copy them into Google Translate (or even Apple’s own Translate app). Get the entire page in English at the tap of a button. Here’s how to make the most out of this handy Safari feature.
August 25, 1995: Apple releases the PowerBook 5300, the Mac laptop that will save the world from alien invaders in the 1996 blockbuster movie Independence Day.
The computer will make many more big-screen appearances, too. See some of the laptop’s most high-profile Hollywood cameos below.
The Games app is a new all-in-one destination for gaming on your Apple devices. You can create a custom profile, track your achievements, and add friends (and set challenges for them). It’s also a quick way to launch games you’re playing and discover new ones.
It doesn’t entirely replace Game Center, a few vestiges of which reamin in the Settings app. But if you care at all about iPhone gaming, you should check out the new Games app. It’ll help you find new games to play and let you know about exciting events in your old favorites.
Here’s everything you need to know about Apple’s new Games app.
August 16, 1993: Apple ships the PowerBook 165, a lower-cost, grayscale version of the PowerBook 165c, which was the company’s first laptop to offer a color display.
The new model lacks the most attention-grabbing feature of the 165c, but it also brings its own claim to fame. The PowerBook 165 is Apple’s most affordable laptop yet.
August 15, 1998: The original iMac — Apple’s brightly colored, translucent Macintosh relaunch — goes on sale to a rabid audience. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs‘ first major new product since returning to Cupertino, the internet-ready iMac G3 line will cement his legacy as a forward-thinking tech visionary.
The all-in-one computer also introduces the world to the design talents of Jony Ive — and pretty much saves Apple in the process.
Just another day at the office, eh?
August 13, 2002: Apple unveils the final face-lift for its Power Mac G4, the Mirrored Drive Doors model.
The distinctive-looking computer borrows visually from the previous QuickSilver G4, released a year earlier. However, it adds a different front panel, with a mirrorlike finish for the media drive doors. It’s the last visual redesign of Apple’s Power Mac G4.
You can be excused if you don’t know off the top of your head how many external monitors your MacBook supports. The number varies by model, processor version, and even whether the laptop is open or closed. Still, there’s a good chance it’s more than you think.
Now that notebooks with the new M4 family of processors are available, here’s an updated guide to how many external screens you can attach to your MacBook.
Don’t set your heart on a MacBook Pro with a speedy new Apple M5 processor under the Christmas tree this year. A growing body of evidence indicates the next version of Apple’s premier laptop won’t arrive until 2026.
But the M5 processor should be available before then.
You might only use the Mac’s built-in Preview app when you need to read a PDF or zoom in on a picture, but there’s much more to the software than meets the eye. It’s a pretty handy image editor for Mac, too.
In this how-to, I’ll go over six features that will let you make the most of Preview, a handy tool that’s an overlooked benefit to using a Mac. I have three tips for working with documents and three for editing pictures.
August 11, 1987: The MultiFinder app brings the biggest software update to the Mac since the computer’s launch. Baked into Macintosh System Software 5, MultiFinder allows multitasking with two apps on screen for the first time.
While MultiFinder brings an undeniable boost to the Macintosh’s technical capabilities, it is built on a shaky foundation that soon begins to show its age.
Everybody’s favorite gaming service, Apple Arcade, expanded its library Thursday as four new exclusive games joined. We knew they were coming — and now you can play them. That brings the subscription service’s catalog to over 200 ad-free games, Apple said.
Here are the latest additions: Play-Doh World, a creative digital playground; Worms Across Worlds, the newest entry in the beloved strategy series; Let’s Go Mightycat!, a whimsical puzzle adventure; and Everybody Shogi, a colorful take on the traditional Japanese board game.
August 7, 2006: Apple unleashes the first Mac Pro, a high-end desktop computer that completes the company’s transition from PowerPC to Intel processors.
Built for computation-heavy tasks like 3D rendering and professional audio and video editing, the quad-core, 64-bit Mac Pro serves as a replacement for the Power Mac G5 (from which it borrows its aluminum “cheese grater” design).
A lot of Mac owners use Google Chrome as their web browser, and personally, I don’t get it. For Apple fans, it seems like a total disconnect not to use Safari vs. Chrome.
For starters, Apple markets its products as privacy-forward and seamlessly integrated with each other. And the web browser is an essential component of your computer, whether we’re talking Mac, iPhone or iPad. You have a lot to gain by using Safari on all your devices.
But look at the numbers: Apple’s web browser Safari only captures 18% of the market, a distant second to Google’s Chrome. Here’s my attempt to sway it the other way — the top five reasons I use Safari instead of Chrome.
There are lots of things you can do with an old Mac. No one will fault you for upgrading to Apple’s latest and greatest, but your old Mac can still find a job to do, too.
It used to be that when your old iMac kicked the can, you hollowed it out and made an aquarium or a desk lamp. These days, Macs have a much longer shelf life. The right model can give you years upon years of loyal service. (Not to mention, modern Macs are too thin to house a fish.)
Here are the six best things you can do with an old Mac. Watch our latest video or keep reading below.
August 1, 1989: Apple gives the Macintosh SE a storage bump, courtesy of the new SuperDrive in the new Mac SE FDHD. The high-density floppy disks the SuperDrive uses offer an astonishing 1.4MB of storage.
In terms of portable storage, it’s a big step up for most Mac owners. The HD floppy disks compare very favorably to the 400KB single side double density (SSDD) disks and 800KB double side double density (DDSD) disks in use at the time.
July 29, 1993: Apple releases the Macintosh Centris 660av, a computer packed with innovative audiovisual features. These include an AppleVision monitor with microphone and speakers, and a port that can work as a modem with a telecom adapter. It also comes with PlainTalk, the first Apple software to recognize and synthesize speech.
At the relatively low price of $2,489, this was one of the first great affordable multimedia Macs.
Apple’s Safari web browser packs loads of privacy features that will keep your online activity hidden from ad networks, user tracking and data farms. But are you sure you have everything turned on? Some of Apple’s most important privacy-protecting features don’t come enabled by default.
In light of Google baking ever-more invasive user tracking into Chrome, there are even more reasons to use Safari instead. If you want to make the most out of the best and most secure mainstream browser, here’s how.
As a power user, I find Mac window management clunky and broken when using the options built into macOS. Switching between apps, and snapping apps into desired screen locations, should not be so frustrating.
So, I took matters into my own hands — streamlining how I snap, switch and manage windows to finally make macOS work for me, not against me.
July 26, 2005: Apple debuts the opaque white iBook G4, the last of its laptops to launch under the iBook name.
The portable computer adds Apple’s scrolling trackpad for the first time. It also incorporates Bluetooth 2.0 as a standard feature, and becomes the last Apple laptop with a PowerPC chip.
You can download the macOS 26 Tahoe public beta right now. You can get a look at the exciting new design coming to the Mac before the update is shipped to everyone. And you can try out the new super-charged Spotlight.
Of course, there are a few things you should look out for. Beta software is buggy and can lead to data loss or apps that don’t work. This particular beta is a rough one, with lots of broken animations and features. A lot of apps you use probably won’t work correctly. You’ve been warned.
If you’re still sure you want to try it out, you should make sure you have a backup of your most important data with two copies of your photo library before you try installing. I’ll show you how.
July 24, 2006: The world gets its first glimpse of Apple’s new wireless Mighty Mouse, a multibutton Bluetooth device with super-accurate laser tracking.
Photos of the accessory come to light through an Apple filing with the Federal Communications Commission. Apple will launch the device the very next day.
