Tracking Macs for fun and profit

Your Mac has a history. Literally the only way to track a particular Mac’s heritage is through Mactracker, the little Mac utility that tracks information on every Mac model ever made. So, you want to know something about that old Mac classic sitting in the garage? Here’s how it stacks up to today’s Mac models.

So Last Century

Macs have been around since 1984. For more than 25 years Mac users have actually enjoyed their computing experience (at least, more so than many DOS or Windows users).

My first Mac was purchased in the spring of 1984, just days after the Mac was launched. The whole package of Mac, ImageWriter printer, and an external disk drive cost over $3,000.

No Intel Inside in that Mac. 128k. Floppy disk. 9-inch screen. And a little bomb that popped up on the screen when the Mac crashed. And it crashed often.

Acorn and Tree

All the details about that Mac and every model since show up in Mactracker. It’s a handy utility that lets you search for all Mac models.

Mactracker provides detailed information on every Apple Macintosh computer ever made, including items such as processor speed, memory, optical drives, graphic cards, supported Mac OS versions, and expansion options.

If you’re a true Mac aficionado then you’ll understand the reasons Mactracker is fun. It brings back memories. It highlights how far we’ve come in processing power, and it’s a good way to compare ancient Macs with today’s more capable models.

Not Just Macs

Not only is the Mac information detailed and thorough, there’s more than Mac information in Mactracker. Through the years Apple also sold us different Mac operating systems, some really crummy mice, and some great keyboards.

What of those?

Also included is information on Apple mice, keyboards, displays, printers, scanners, digital cameras, iPod, Apple TV, iPhone, Wi-Fi Cards/Base Stations, Newton, and Mac OS versions.

As with any decent Mac database these days, everything in Mactracker is smart. Including smart categories and smart searching. Create your own categories and search by date, processor, or whatever else is important to you.

Money & Scores

Mactracker does more than just list all the Mac’s details for the past 25 years.

In addition to listing technical specifications, Mactracker allows you to gauge the real-world performance with scores courtesy of Primate Labs Geekbench 2. The included results reflect an average of the user submitted benchmarks for models ranging from iBook (Dual USB) to MacBook Pro (Mid 2009).

That feature alone is worth the price of admission (hint: it‘s free). Funny thing; my Mac is a thousand times faster today but I type at about the same speed.

What did those old Macs cost relative to today’s Macs? A fortune.

Mactracker includes the model’s original price, where available, in Canadian dollars, euros, pounds sterling, and United States dollars.

Alright, now you agree with me. Mactracker is fun, especially if you’ve had half a dozen or more Macs in the past 15 years (I lost count). Mactracker is free. What about the profit? I just made that up.