mac classic lcd screen made in china

The Macintosh Classic is somewhat special to me as it was my first computer I used for other things than just games. Not suprisingly perhaps as the line games was somewhat limited although there where classics like Dark Castle, Apache Strike, Empire and Deja Vu. That aside, I have had a Mac Classic II in my study for years reminding me of where my career in IT started and it was time to pour some life into the old machine (click for hires images or see the gallery at the end).

The obvious choice was to use a Raspberry Pi. Placing Pis in old macs is by no mean a new idea but I wanted to make something different and above all make something as sturdy as the old mac. The newly born Mac should be able to ride the bus as my old Classic did at times meaning I could not just put loose hardware into the box. Things needed to be fastened. I set out with the following specification:

I had found this 8 inch TFT screen on eBay (update June 5th 2017, I have found a much cheaper variant on AliExpress that by the looks of it is identical) but as you can see the frame has no mounting support. Adding the cabling and driver board with its adapter boards sums up to quite a mess. How do we mount this nicely inside the Classic? Plexiglass to the rescue! I cut out two sheets of plexiglass and placed the TFT screen between them. Glued piexes of plexiglass on the back sheet keeps the TFT screen from falling out. The different boards are placed on spacers mounted on the back side plexiglass sheet. The front and back sheets are held together usings screws.

The final part was mounting the “screen module” inside the Classic. As I had thrown the old CRT screen out, it was only a matter of drilling the right holes in the plexiglass screen module and mount it the same manner the original screen was.

I wanted to bring back the yawning like sound of a Macintosh ejecting a floppy disk. The idea was to have the Mac automatically eject an inserted floppy with a delay. So how did the old Macs detect the precense of a floppy disk?

For this project, I only cared about switch #1. Deciding the floppy drive would never see real action again, I disconnected the switch from the rest of the floppy drive PCB by severing the traces. Soldering wires to the switch and attaching them to the Raspbery Pi GPIO header, the Pi could now sense the precense of a floppy disk. Next was the ejector motor. It runs on 12V (as the TFT screen) and I purchased a relay on eBay that the Raspberry Pi could control.

On the left hand side of the old compact Macs was the programmer’s key and the reset button. The former would enter the debugger built into the computer. I wanted to connect these to the Raspberry Pi so once again I severed some traces. On the the motherboard this time.

For power, I purchased a 12V to 5V converter with quad USB output on eBay. This together with the relay was mounted on a sheet of plexiglass that was mounted on spacers in the back of the computer. The speaker was mounted in a large hole i drilled in (you guessed it) a piece of plexiglass mounted on (guessed it again?) spacers. As the sound quality on the original Raspberry Pi was quite poor I added a USB sound card (also from eBay). I desoldered the microphone connector on the Mac’s mother board and replaced it with a power jack that I connected to the 12V/5V converter. An old Western Digital USB disk power supply provies the 12V needed.

A simple python script checks the programmer’s key, the reset button and the floppy detection switch and controls the eject motor. Pressing one of the keys will play the lovely old Macintosh Quadra chime. A long press will shut the Raspberry Pi down.

I am quite pleased with how this mod turned out. There is nothing loose inside the case that can fall over, get tangled up and cause shorts. By accident, the Mac was drop tested from a height of one meter. It survived, nothing came loose.

I have some future plans for HW modifications including a touch screen, replacing the clicking mechanical relay with a transistor and I should add a fuse to the 12V line for safety.

The Macintosh was the beginning of the personal computer, and one that all-in-one machines like the iMac owe a lot to. Apple has moved on from its near-40-year-old design, but Ian Zelbo has returned to it, a concept designer who collaborates with leakers like Jon Prosser. As the images below show, Zelbo has imagined what the classic Macintosh could look like if Apple swapped in a few new parts.

For one, Zelbo has included modern I/O, such as HDMI and USB Type-C ports. Sadly, there is no sign of the MagSafe connector with which Apple has equipped the 24-inch iMac, the MacBook Pro 14 and the MacBook Pro 16. Still, Zelbo has included the latter two"s trademark notched display, a bone of contention among laptop and Apple fans. Incidentally, Samsung has recently brought the notch to the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra, albeit on a smaller scale.

Owners of iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, or Apple TV products may obtain service and parts from Apple service providers, including Apple Retail Stores and Independent Repair Providers, for a minimum of 5 years from when Apple last distributed the product for sale.

Service and parts may be obtained for longer, as required by law or for up to 7 years, subject to parts availability. Additionally, Mac laptops may be eligible for an extended battery-only repair period for up to 10 years from when the product was last distributed for sale, subject to parts availability.

For products purchased in France, see Statutory Warranties of Seller and Spare Parts. Owners of new iPhone or Mac laptop products purchased after December 31, 2020 in France, may obtain service and parts from Apple or Apple service providers for 7 years from the date the product model was last supplied by Apple for distribution into France.

Apple discontinues all hardware service for obsolete products, with the sole exception of Mac laptops that are eligible for an additional battery-only repair period. Service providers cannot order parts for obsolete products.

His experience assembling a Macintosh computer display and then stuffing chips into a computer motherboard is an important part of the story behind the artful language on the iPhone box — “Designed by Apple in California. Assembled in China.”

In 1983, Mr. Jobs oversaw the construction of a state-of-the-art plant where the new Macintosh computer would be built. Reporters who toured it early on were told that the plant, located just across San Francisco Bay from Apple’s headquarters, was so advanced that factory labor would account for 2 percent of the cost of making a Macintosh.

Ultimately, the Macintosh factory closed in 1992, in part because it never realized the production volume that Mr. Jobs had envisioned — such sales numbers for the Mac would only come later.

In 1990, just a mile and half from where he had built the original Mac factory, he created another $10 million one to manufacture his Next Inc. personal workstation. Like the early Macintosh, however, he was never able to make flashy jet-black Next machines in quantities to support a Silicon Valley-based assembly operation.

In the early 1990s, when Andrew Hargadon was a product designer at Apple with a portable computer called the Macintosh Powerbook Duo, the ecosystem had already moved to Asia. He worked with a complex web of suppliers.

The Macintosh Classic is a personal computer designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer from October 1990 to September 1992. It was the first Macintosh to sell for less than US$1,000.

Production of the Classic was prompted by the success of the original Macintosh 128K, then the Macintosh Plus, and finally the Macintosh SE. The system specifications of the Classic are very similar to those of its predecessors, with the same 9-inch (23 cm) monochrome CRT display, 512 × 342pixel resolution, and 4megabyte (MB) memory limit of the older Macintosh computers.percent faster than the PlusApple SuperDrive 3.5-inch (9 cm) floppy disk drive as standard. Unlike the Macintosh SE/30 and other compact Macs before it, the Classic did not have an internal Processor Direct Slot, making it the first non-expandable desktop Macintosh since the Macintosh Plus. Instead, it had a memory expansion/FPU slot.

The Classic is an adaptation of Jerry Manock"s and Terry Oyama"s 1984 Macintosh 128K industrial design, as had been the earlier Macintosh SE. Apple released two versions. The price and the availability of education software led to the Classic"s popularity in education. It was sold alongside the more powerful Macintosh Classic II in 1991 until its discontinuation the next year.

After Apple co-founder Steve Jobs left Apple in 1985, product development was handed to Jean-Louis Gassée, formerly the manager of Apple France. Gassée consistently pushed the Apple product line in two directions, towards more "openness" in terms of expandability and interoperability, and towards higher price. Gassée long argued that Apple should not aim for the low end of the computer market, where profits were thin, but instead concentrate on the high end and higher profit margins. He illustrated the concept using a graph showing the price/performance ratio of computers with low-power, low-cost machines in the lower left and high-power high-cost machines in the upper right. The "high-right" goal became a mantra among the upper management, who said "fifty-five or die", referring to Gassée"s goal of a 55 percent profit margin.

The high-right policy led to a series of machines with ever-increasing prices. The original Macintosh plans called for a system around $1,000, but by the time it had morphed from Jef Raskin"s original vision of an easy-to-use machine for composing text documents to Jobs" concept incorporating ideas gleaned during a trip to Xerox PARC, the Mac"s list price had ballooned to $2,495.

$1 million to Modular Computer Systems Inc., a subsidiary of Daimler-Benz AG, for the right to use the "Classic" name as part of a five-year contract.MacWEEK speculated the Macintosh Classic would use the same Motorola 68000 microprocessor and 9-inch (23 cm) display as its predecessors and that the Classic would be priced from $1,500 to 2,150.

On October 15, 1990, John Sculley (then Apple CEO) introduced the Classic at a press conference, announcing that pricing would start at $1,000profit margins.[...] The plan is to get as aggressive on price as we need to be."share price closed at $27.75 per share, down $0.50 from October 12, 1990, and far below its previous 12-month high of $50.37.

The Classic was released in Europe and Japan concurrently with the United States release. In Japan, the Classic retailed for ¥198,000 ($1,523),Toshiba Dynabook laptop computer.

The low-end model was sold with 1 MB of memory, a 1.44 MB floppy drive, no hard disk, and included a keyboard for $999.Macintosh Plus, which it replaced as Apple"s low-end Mac computer: it is up to 25 percent faster than the Plus,Apple SuperDrive 3.5" floppy disk drive as standard.MS-DOS, OS/2, and ProDOS disks.

The Classic uses the System 6.0.7 operating system with support for all versions up to System 7.5.5. A hidden Hierarchical File System (HFS) disk volume contained in the read-only memory (ROM) includes System 6.0.3.⌘ Command+⌥ Option+X+O keys during boot.

Some dealers included a software bundle called Smartbundle with the Classic.T/Maker"s WriteNow word processor, Ashton-Tate"s Full Impact spreadsheet program, RecordHolderPlus database, and Silicon Beach Software"s SuperPaint 2.0 paint and draw program.

The Macintosh Classic is the final adaptation of Jerry Manock"s and Terry Oyama"s Macintosh 128K industrial design, bringing back some elements of the original while retaining little of the Snow White design language used in the Macintosh SE"s design.Macintosh LC and Macintosh IIsi.

The logic board, the central circuit board of the computer, is based on the Macintosh SE design.surface mount technologydesktop publishing, led to such oddities as video displays that connected through the SCSI port by users seeking to connect a larger full- or dual-page display to their Mac. The Classic design was used once more in 1991 for the Classic II, which succeeded the Classic.

Some reviewers of the Macintosh Classic focused on the processor performance and lack of expansion slots. Liza Schafer of Home Office Computing praised the Classic"s ease of use and price, but criticized the 9-inch (230 mm) display because a full US letter page (8.5 by 11 inches (220 mm × 280 mm)) would not fit at full size, and warned those who required high-end graphics and desktop publishing capabilities against buying the Classic.MHz speed is adequate for text applications and limited graphics work, but it is not suitable for power users. As such, the Classic is appropriate as a home computer or for limited computing on the road."MacWEEK described it as a "fine, inexpensive replacement for the Macintosh Plus that best embodies the original Macintosh vision six and a half years later".

In the February 1991 edition of Electronic Learning, Robert McCarthy wrote: "Teachers, educational administrators, and software developers are enthusiastic about the new, lower-cost Apple Macintosh computers". Steve Taffe, manager of instructional strategy at MECC, a developer and publisher of educational software, explained his excitement about the Classic: "[it] is terrific – both because it"s a Mac and because of that low price. Everyone can now afford a Macintosh." Scholastic, an educational software developer, was also confident of Apple"s ability to compete with MS-DOS machines, stating: "They are just as cost-effective and as powerful as MS-DOS computers, but the Apples will have a superior comfort level." Sue Talley, Apple"s manager of strategic planning in education, said of the Classic: "we see it going into applications where you need a fair number of powerful stations, but where color is not a big issue." Talley mentioned that it was most suited for writing labs and other basic productivity uses. Many schools decided not to buy the Macintosh Classic because of the lack of a color monitor, an option that the higher-priced Macintosh LC had.Apple IIe Card also increased the LC"s appeal to schools. Although the Classic was more popular at first, by May 1992 the LC (560,000 sold) was outselling the Classic (1.2 million sold).

"Macintosh Classic: Technical Specifications". support.apple.com. July 26, 2017. Archived from the original on June 12, 2013. Retrieved September 13, 2022.

Levy, Steven (1994). Insanely Great: The life and times of Macintosh, the computer that changed everything. New York: Viking. p. 111. ISBN 0-670-85244-9.

"Apple Computer: lower cost Mac PCs target new customers. 50 percent less for entry-level system". EDGE: Work-Group Computing Report. October 22, 1990. p. 3.

"Macintosh Classic Computer Developer Note" (PDF). Developer Technical Publications. Apple Computer. 1990. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 24, 2008. Retrieved May 6, 2008.

PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 can transcribe your words as you present and display them on-screen as captions in the same language you are speaking, or as subtitles translated to another language. This can help accommodate individuals in the audience who may be deaf or hard of hearing, or more familiar with another language, respectively.

You can choose which language you want to speak while presenting, and which language the caption/subtitle text should be shown in (i.e. if you want it to be translated). You can select the specific microphone you want to be used (if there is more than one microphone connected to your device), the position where the subtitles appear on the screen (bottom or top, and overlaid or separate from slide), and other display options.

Use Subtitle Language to see which languages PowerPoint can display on-screen as captions or subtitles, and select the one you want. This is the language of the text that will be shown to your audience. By default, this will be the same language as your Spoken Language, but it can be a different language, meaning that translation will occur.

To have subtitles always start up when a Slide Show presentation starts, from the ribbon you can navigate to Slide Show > Always Use Subtitles to turn this feature on for all presentations. (By default, it"s off.) Then, in Slide Show and Presenter View, a live transcription of your words will appear on-screen.

You can choose which language you want to speak while presenting, and which language the caption/subtitle text should be shown in (i.e. if you want it to be translated). You can select the specific microphone you want to be used (if there is more than one microphone connected to your device), the position where the subtitles appear on the screen (bottom or top, and overlaid or separate from slide), and other display options.

Use Subtitle Language to see which languages PowerPoint can display on-screen as captions or subtitles, and select the one you want. This is the language of the text that will be shown to your audience. By default, this will be the same language as your Spoken Language, but it can be a different language, meaning that translation will occur.

You can choose which language you want to speak while presenting, and which language the caption/subtitle text should be shown in (i.e., if you want it to be translated). You can also select whether subtitles appear at the top or bottom of the screen.

Use Subtitle Language to see which languages PowerPoint can display on-screen as captions or subtitles, and select the one you want. This is the language of the text that will be shown to your audience. (By default, this will be the same language as your Spoken Language, but it can be a different language, meaning that translation will occur.)

Off the top of my head, here are the Apple computers I owned over the years. I had a Macintosh SE/30 when I started college. I got a Powerbook Duo my later years in college–I remember I was one of the first to ever use a laptop in college and got reamed out in front of the whole class by a professor because he assumed I was playing games (I told him I was taking notes, and he sheepishly apologized but I dropped his class anyway). When I started my first job I asked for–and got–a PowerMac 7200 for work. Since then I’ve used for both work and home Performas, iMacs, Macbooks, iPods, iPads, iPhones, and every Apple product you can think of.

My Apple //e was a workhorse that still boots up 38 years later. I’ve saved all my old Apple products from the 1990s for nostalgia, and to this day I know I can take out my Mac SE/30, the Apple IIGS, and my old PowerMac from storage and have it boot up just like it did three decades ago. Apple had once owned manufacturing facilities in California and Colorado, which is where those products and many more like them came from.

The last straw came with my MacBook Pro 13 inch 2018. I bought the machine for a ridiculous amount of money. But as soon as the warranty expired, I noticed the case started expanding because the battery was swelling. Also, the letters on the keyboard were repeating.

I was happy that Apple had a program in place to replace my keyboard for “free”, but when I took it in to the Apple store the “Geniuses” (a whole bunch of vacuous millennials who don’t know a PRAM from a DRAM) told me I had to pay $200 to get the battery replaced before I could get the keyboard replaced “for free”. Then, as I was preparing the laptop to bring it in for service, the screen broke because the battery had swelled so large.

In late 2021, it became clear why Apple never diversified its supply chain out of China. Tim Cook had made deals with China back in 2016 in response to some classic Communist Party blackmail. It seems that the China government was going to crack down on Apple with a whole bunch of regulatory actions, when Tim Cook rushed in to appease them. He signed a deal promising more than $275 billion of business to China-run hardware and software firms, as well as to invest billions of dollars in building up China’s infrastructure and to invest in China tech companies and universities. Where is that $275 billion coming from? A part of it came from every iPhone and Macbook we purchased that was made in China.

Now before you get too excited, bear in mind that these Vietnamese production lines are owned by BYD, a China conglomerate. Their decision to build a production line in Vietnam is no doubt related to the 2018 tariffs, as was the decision to produce Mac Studio computers out of Malaysia, even though final assembly was done in China.

For years, the Mac Pro had its final assembly done in Austin, Texas, making it the only Apple computer with “Assembled in USA” on its label. But in June 2019, Apple announced that Mac Pros would be made in China. After some negotiations with the federal government, Apple switched courses and announced in September 2019 that it would indeed continue to assemble the Mac Pro out of Austin, in exchange for some tariff exemptions.

As of right now the factory in Austin is still open, and the latest rumors are that the new Mac Pro won’t be announced until 2023, which means you can still get an “Assembled in USA” Mac Pro. You can pick one up at places like B&H, Best Buy, and of course Apple. Just be sure to read the box–China does manufacture these too for customers outside of the US market, so you’ll want to make sure you don’t get one of those.

Starting in 2021, Apple started moving production of the Mac Mini to Malaysia. This wasn’t universal–some were made in Malaysia while others continued to be made in China. But there were lots of happy comments on Reddit from people who received actual Macs not made in China.

The Mac Mini is a small form factor desktop computer that sit somewhere between the entry-level iMac and the professional Mac Studio and Mac Pro. Unlike iMac it doesn’t come with a built-in monitor, but all you really need to do is get an HDMI cable to connect it to your high definition TV.

The next step up is the Mac Studio, which sits between the Mac Mini and the Mac Pro and retails for about $2000. There have been reports for some time that at least some of Apple’s Mac Studio computers are being made in Malaysia, out of the same factories that have been making Mac Mini’s. Sure enough, the newest version was just released in March 2022, and there are reports of peoplegetting units made in Malaysia.

The M1 iMac is the entry level Mac, and the only one that comes with a built-in monitor. It is impressive that Apple has managed to diversify the supply chain for all four of its desktop computer lines; their decision was probably initially due to the 2018 tariffs, but hopefully they’ve learned their lesson with the CCP’s draconian lockdowns to control COVID that it’s not smart to put all their eggs in the China basket.

There are only 4 screws on the back of the Classic II that hold the case together. Two on the bottom near the ports, and two on the top near the built in handle. Removal of the two near the handle require a longer tool to reach in the deep sockets. Once the screws are removed, it was a little difficult prying the front panel from the rear. I am not sure if it is designed that way or if it was the age of the plastic. Essentially the internals are mounted on a frame and screwed to the front panel, so the back is just a cover.

I searched around and found others who have done a similar mod. There are really no high definition panels out there in this small of a size. I suppose an iPad mini with retina display at 7.9 inches would be high resolution, but good luck finding a driver for it. The best I could find was 8.0 inches at 1024x768. There are plenty of 800x600, but I wanted the best I could find. I could not find anything between 8 and 9, as 8.7 would have been optimal. The 1994 Color Classic had a 10" CRT with 512x384 resolution. The Classic II had 9" monochrome CRT 512x342. My mod has a smaller screen and 4x the pixels.

The screen I chose was off eBay, a kit with LVDS driver board. When I received it, initially it worked great, then it fizzled out. I think it was a bad driver board, so I ordered a separate replacement, and it failed to work as well. I then thought it was possibly the screen so I ordered a 2nd screen. The 2nd one was dim, so I ordered a 3rd screen. Still dim, so ordered a 3rd board, different design. Screen one was confirmed dead, screen 2 and 3 worked fine with board 3. Lots of waste on this project, SMH.

The driver board supports multiple inputs (VGA, HDMI, composite 1 and 2). There are on screen controls to adjust the typical LCD monitor and the original controller came with an IR remote as well as a control panel. The 3rd driver board did not have the IR sensor mounted, so I stole it from the first fried controller. Since the original Classic II had tube monitor adjustments hidden on the rear behind a detachable panel, I thought that was the ideal place to put this screen control panel as well. I had to design and 3D print an interface panel, and figure out how to mount it, and then cut out a hole for it in the back case. I could not see the button icons when printed in black, so I printed them in white for the contrast. The internal VGA out from the GT730 drives the LCD VGA input. The HDMI input is directed to the rear panel so this Classic II can be used as an external monitor (just a pure goofy effect). The HDMI from the GT730 goes to the rear panel so you can drive an external monitor with this Hackintosh (think HTPC in the living room, or large desktop monitor).

Look, people have wanted Apple to sell the 5K display from the now-discontinued 27-inch iMac as a standalone product for years now. When that first 27-inch 5K iMac came out in 2014, the display was so far ahead of the competition that buying one for the screen alone represented a bargain — that there was an entire computer attached to it was almost a bonus.

So now Apple’s gone and discontinued the 27-inch iMac and essentially replaced it with the new Mac Studio and the new 27-inch Studio Display. If the Mac Studio represents the fulfillment of a 20-year-old Mac power user’s dream, the Studio Display should be the fulfillment of a similar dream that’s been around since 2014: just give us the iMac’s 27-inch 5K display.

The pitch, at least on paper, is that you get a 5K display that can display macOS at pixel-perfect resolution with no scaling issues, combined with webcam quality that matches Apple’s world-beating iOS devices. Considering the very recent history of miserable Mac webcams that has only just started improving, this is quite a pitch.

Apple is generally terrific when it comes to displays across its devices, and the Studio Display is great at the basics: it’s clear, it’s sharp, it’s bright. If you have ever looked at a 27-inch 5K iMac display, you know exactly what this thing looks like. The Studio display is the same 27-inch size, the same 5120x2880 resolution, the same 218 pixels per inch, the same 60Hz refresh rate, and has the same single-zone LED backlight. The only real spec difference is that Apple says the Studio Display now has a “typical brightness” of 600 nits vs. 500 on the iMac, but in my actual typical use next to a 2015-vintage 27-inch iMac, that’s pretty hard to see.

The real issue is that $1,599 is a lot of money, and here, it’s buying you panel tech that is woefully behind the curve. Compared to Apple’s other displays across the Mac, iPhone, and iPad lineup, the Studio Display is actually most notable for the things it doesn’t have.

Let’s start with the backlight. In general, the best modern displays create true blacks by cutting all the light coming from the black parts of the screen. There are several ways to do this, and Apple itself uses different tech across its high-end products to produce true blacks in various ways: OLED screens on the iPhones, advanced local dimming on the Pro Display XDR, and Mini LED display backlights on the MacBook Pro and iPad Pro.

The Studio Display has… well, it has none of that. It’s a regular old LED backlight that lights the entire screen all the time, and the darkest black it can produce is basically gray. In normal use in a well-lit room, it looks fine enough — LCD displays have looked like this for a long time now — but if you’re watching a movie in a dark room, the letterboxing will look light gray. There are $379 TVs with more advanced local-dimming backlights than this.

The Studio Display is also notable for being an SDR display, with no HDR modes to speak of. Apple’s high-end iPhones, iPads, and Mac laptops all support HDR, but the Studio Display tops out at 600 nits, and Apple doesn’t offer an HDR mode in the software at all. Again, this comes back to the ancient backlight tech: true HDR requires local dimming, and the Studio Display doesn’t have it.

The Studio Display also only offers a 60Hz refresh rate, which is both bog-standard and also woefully behind Apple’s other top-tier products like the iPhone 13 Pro, iPad Pro, and MacBook Pro, all of which offer the ProMotion variable refresh rate system that can run as high as 120Hz for smooth scrolling and gaming and as low as 24Hz for movies. (The iPhone 13 Pro can even drop to as low as 10Hz to save battery life.) 60Hz is totally fine for most displays, but this thing costs $1,599. There are a lot of less expensive displays with variable refresh rate and HDR tech out there, and they’re supported by macOS out of the box.

Really the only reason to chase after this display for the screen itself is if you desperately care about having a 5K display that can display MacOS at pixel-perfect resolution with no scaling. I don’t want to discount this: a lot of people care about that a lot, and for those folks, $1,599 sounds totally reasonable considering that the only other 5K option on the market is that buggy LG UltraFine.

For those of you that don’t care about pixel-perfect macOS with no scaling, $1,599 will sound frankly ridiculous, and there are lots of other fascinating displays to think about, including a number of OLEDs, some neat ultrawides, and plenty of displays that support higher refresh rates.

Actually, it looks awful in good light and downright miserable in low light. I’ve tried it connected to the Mac Studio and on my MacBook Pro running macOS 12.3, and on both machines, it produces a grainy, noisy image with virtually no detail. I tried it in FaceTime, in Zoom, in Photo Booth, in QuickTime — you name it, it’s the same sad image quality. Turning off the Center Stage feature that follows you around the room doesn’t help. Turning portrait mode on and off doesn’t help.

I have sent Apple countless screenshots in various lighting conditions and a full sysdiagnose of our Mac Studio and Studio Display review units, and at publish time, all Apple spokesperson Jennie Orphanopoulos could tell me was that Apple’s team had “looked into the images you shared, and discovered an issue where the system is not behaving as expected. We’ll be making improvements in a software update.”

Our rule has always been to review products based on what we have in front of us and never against the promise of a future software update, and based on what I have in front of me, I simply wouldn’t want to use this camera. The cameras on the new MacBook Pro and M1 iMac are far superior to what we’re seeing here, and an iPhone front camera is even better still. I’m hopeful Apple will improve things via software in the future, but I would not spend $1,599 on this display until that actually happens.

The Studio Display comes with a nice braided Thunderbolt 4 cable in the box; that same cable can deliver 96W of power to a laptop, enough to charge my 16-inch MacBook Pro. That cable connects to the Thunderbolt 4 port on the rear of the display; there are three USB-C ports next to it for peripherals. Ports! People like ‘em.

It’s rare that an Apple product is such a miss, but the Studio Display in its current state is a confounding miss. If the webcam actually delivered on the promise of iPhone- or iPad-quality video, it would at least prompt a reasonable debate about whether having local dimming or HDR or variable refresh rate was worth it, but as it stands, you’re getting a less-than-state-of-the-art display and a bad webcam. If you are adamant about having a 5K display connected to your Mac, it might still be the best option. If not, I think you are much better off looking elsewhere.

According to sources, Apple could be working on a new MacBook Air laptop. This new Apple laptop could be quite different from what we all know as well as screen size is concerned. The upcoming MacBook Air could feature a massive 15.5-inch display size according to rumors.

According to Analyst Ross Young, the new larger display MacBook Air could see the light of day somewhere around Spring of next year. Young went on to say that production of larger panel displays will begin in the first quarter of 2023.

This is not the first rumor about next year’s larger display MacBook Air. We have previously heard rumors of Apple planning on a larger display MacBook Air. However, the previous leaks pointed out a display size of 15.2-inch. That seems to be quite different from the new report we are getting. Instead of 15.2 display size, the latest in rumors talks about a 15.5-inch display.

When it comes to laptops, Apple has focused mainly on smaller displays. Apple usually makes larger display laptops for only the Pro models. MacBook Air laptops always come with smaller screens.

But Ross Young’s new leak could mean Apple is changing things with the MacBook Air in the coming year. He has already confirmed that this new MacBook Air could launch in Spring 2023 at the Apple Spring event. Young is a staff of Display Supply Chain Consultants. So when he usually leaks anything that has to do with displays, the possibility that such rumor may be true is quite high.

If this turns out to be true, the 15.5 MacBook Air will stay in between the MacBook Pro 14 and the MacBook Pro 16. This will also make it the largest MacBook Air that Apple has ever made.

The MacBook Air 15.5 is expected to pick up the design of the current MacBook Air 13.6. It will also have a notch display just like the cureent ones on the market. It should also come with MagSafe charging port, USB TYPE-C ports, larger speaker drivers and a 1080P camera in front.

The MacBook Air 15.5 will either come with Apple’s Own M2 or the M2 Pro chip. These are fresh rumors so nothing is confirmed. 2023 is just around the corner so the rumors will keep looking alive as time goes by. We will always be around to update all readers with new developments on this rumors.

The Apple iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max have just gone on sale (read a review of both here on Forbes). One of the standout features is the always-on display, which leaves the screen partly visible at all times instead of dimming to blackness as previous iPhones have done.

Plenty of Android phones have always-on screens, designed with the same purpose as here, to show the time, how many notifications are waiting, perhaps some other details like a cute animated figure—Huawei is the king of this last detail.

But Apple’s version is completely different. Where all the others switch to a black background with some, generally monochrome, detail, the iPhone barely changes. The colors in the favorite photograph you chose as your lock screen is dimmed, but still completely recognizable while the clock shines out brightly.

Some have said the lock screen isn’t dim enough. I haven’t found this a problem. Having the phone next to me at night, I’ve seen the ambient light sensor in action, dimming the display so much it’s less bright than the Apple Watch in Nightstand mode when the digital time is displayed.

First, if the iPhone is face down. When the iPhone senses it’s turned face down, the screen goes dark. Similarly, when it’s obstructed, for instance, if the iPhone senses it’s in your pocket or bag. Third, if Sleep Focus is enabled and fourth, if low power mode is swiched on.

Continuity Camera, that feature which lets you connect your iPhone to a Mac to use it as a highly sophisticated webcam, also turns off the always-on screen.

Lastly, and this is my favorite, if you’re wearing an Apple Watch and you walk away from the iPhone, it assumes you don’t need to see the always-on screen and switches off.

The Apple II was introduced about a year later. The upgraded machine included an integrated keyboard and case, along with expansion slots for attaching floppy disk drives and other components. The Apple III was released in 1980, one year before IBM released the IBM Personal Computer. Technical failures and other problems with the machine resulted in recalls and damage to Apple"s reputation.

The first home computer with a GUI, or graphical user interface — an interface that allows users to interact with visual icons — was the Apple Lisa. The very first graphical interface was developed by the Xerox Corporation at its Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in the 1970s. Steve Jobs visited PARC in 1979 (after buying Xerox stock) and was impressed and highly influenced by the Xerox Alto, the first computer to feature a GUI. This machine, though, was quite large. Jobs adapted the technology for the Apple Lisa, a computer small enough to fit on a desktop.

In 1984, Apple introduced its most successful product yet — the Macintosh, a personal computer that came with a built-in screen and mouse. The machine featured a GUI, an operating system known as System 1 (the earliest version of Mac OS), and a number of software programs, including the word processor MacWrite and the graphics editor MacPaint. The New York Times said that the Macintosh was the beginning of a "revolution in personal computing."

Over the course of the 1980s, the Macintosh underwent many changes. In 1990, the company introduced three new models — the Macintosh Classic, Macintosh LC, and Macintosh IIsi — all of which were smaller and cheaper than the original computer. A year later Apple released the PowerBook, the earliest version of the company"s laptop computer.

In 1997, Jobs returned to Apple as the interim CEO, and a year later the company introduced a new personal computer, the iMac. The machine became iconic for its semi-transparent plastic case, which was eventually produced in a variety of colors. The iMac was a strong seller, and Apple quickly went to work developing a suite of digital tools for its users, including the music player iTunes, the video editor iMovie, and the photo editor iPhoto. These were made available as a software bundle known as iLife.

Under CEO Tim Cook, who took over Apple after Jobs" death in 2011, the company has expanded, releasing a new generation of iPhones, iPads, iMacs, and MacBooks, along with new products such as the Apple Watch and the HomePod. In 2018, the tech giant became the first U.S. company to be worth $1 trillion.