Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Hardware, iLife, Software, Hacks, How-tos, Apple
Garageband's Learn to Play will run on a PPC... kind of
Good news for those of us who still have PowerPC-powered Macs lying around: while the new Garageband Learn to Play feature isn't actually designed to work with the old machines (part of Apple's switch to the new Intel chips), it apparently still does. If you've got iLife installed on your old Mac and double-click on the Learn to Play files themselves (hidden in /Library/Application Support/GarageBand/Learn To Play/), Mac.Blorge says that they'll work just fine. Unfortunately, you won't be able to buy new lessons from the store (people are still testing -- there may be a workaround here eventually), but if you want to play the ones you've got, they should work, even if playback isn't perfect.Additionally, if you want to try to do a little hex editing, you may be able to get iMovie '09 playing on a PowerPC Mac as well. That one's just dodging the PowerPC check, though, so there's a good chance that some things won't work right on the old machine. Either that, or Apple is just trying to build in random requirements to get us to upgrade. Conspiracy hats, anyone?
At any rate, this isn't unexpected -- we're two years past the official switch, and of course at some point Apple had to move on with their new software. For the moment, you might get things working with a few tweaks, but eventually you'll have to look at replacing that old G4 if you want to run the shiny stuff.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Stephen said 4:13PM on 2-08-2009
I am still using my trusty 1.67 GHz Powerbook G4. I did the "Hex-Hack" for iMovie '09, and everything is running perfectly (although I assume probably quite a bit slower than it would on MB).
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Varun said 4:36PM on 2-08-2009
I want to upgrade my G4 Mac Mini too, but to a non-gimped Intel Mac Mini.
Oh well, I guess I can dream about the 9400-powered Mac Mini, eh?
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m lewis said 4:46PM on 2-08-2009
two years? hasn't it been three years? the apple care on my Core Duo macbook pro is going to run out next month.
I don't mean to nitpick, but after three years, it seems totally reasonable for apple to start trying to phase out old hardware. I am sure lots of people have older macs that are still running fine (i have a tiny ibook that is still working OK) but at some point innovations is going to be hampered by the PowerPC chips.
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Andrew Timson said 2:28PM on 2-09-2009
Two years since the transition completed, three years since it started. Apple didn't update their entire lineup at once.
Dave S said 5:58PM on 2-08-2009
It is totally unreasonable.
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webterractive said 5:24PM on 2-08-2009
Well reading these things it's a good thing I got an Intel 24" iMac white, and not the lovely 2.1Ghz PPC G5 I really really wanted. This was my first "legal" Mac and it would've been good to use it on a PPC then an Intel system, damn! I couldn't find one so I got the white Intel Core 2 Duo.
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Lars said 8:11AM on 2-09-2009
I bought the same one, but to replace a Core Duo iMac. I don't like the glossy screens at all, so when my local Mac dealer put the 24" white ones on sale, I snapped one up.
Now that we're on Core 2 Duo, that means we'll reap more benefits from Snow Leopard as well, when it turns up. We did good.
Quine said 7:07PM on 2-08-2009
It is totally reasonable.
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Øivind said 5:34PM on 2-09-2009
Actually it is totally reasonable. Equipment is only money. Most people who can afford to buy Apple equipment can also afford to upgrade. So, will it run on PPC ... ?
... WHO F******* CARES?
I have a brand new Mac.
This is what I care about:
Will it be available in other than select countries?
Why aren't those lessons available in Norway?
Is it because Apple thinks these lessons should be in Norwegian? Even though the WHOLE country had English lessons since 1st grade. Do they think that I don't understand English? That's my guess. It pisses me off ... immensely. Now shut up about the PPC, and address the real issue. Give us Garageband lessons. That's the whole f****** reason I bought iLife '09.
Rob said 7:11PM on 2-08-2009
Apple is leaving a bit of a sour taste in my mouth at this point over this sort of thing.
First off was the PowerMac G5 that I spent a very, very large amount of money on (fully loaded dual 2.5 and two cinema displays). Next up was my first gen MacBook Pro (2.1 ghz Core Duo).
These machines are still fantastic machines, but they're being left behind. The G5 is almost useless for Apple stuff now, so it's running PPC Linux.
The MacBook Pro is frustrating to me because I'm a Java developer for a living, and I *still* don't have a Java 6 environment that works on it. Why in the world did they limit it to 64 bit machines only?!
I might as well go back to Dell, at least the equipment will be usable longer. :(
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Kenny said 7:42PM on 2-08-2009
I am running a 1.8 PowerMac G5 and can still run most problems with ease. So I really don't see your point in "it's useless for apple stuff" comment. I feel like I have gotten more than my moneys worth from my PowerMac.
Howard said 10:16PM on 2-08-2009
@Rob, it's your fault all along for getting CoreDuo without researching more. Had you got Core2Duo, which was only a few months later... you wouldn't have ran into any issues at all. You merely paid the price of being a revision A - alpha tester.
Ron said 7:47PM on 2-08-2009
I've got a dual G5, and iMovie works without having to resort to hex editing... is that only for certain processors?
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Shaun said 12:33PM on 2-09-2009
It's only PowerPC G4 and earlier that can't run iMovie 09. Any G5 can run it fine. The article is wrong.
The only things in iLife that don't work on a G5 are the Learn to Play feature in Garageband (this workaround not withstanding) and two slideshow transitions in iPhoto if you have a 64MB or less VRAM graphics card. On a G4 you also lose some more transitions - not really worth crying over given the features you do get added in 09 like faces and places.
Sean Peters said 8:32PM on 2-08-2009
Apple encouraging people to upgrade because PPC machines are not able to run aspects of the software: perfectly reasonable. Apple disabling bits of their software, even though they'd run fine on PPC equipment, to force people to spend more money on new Macs: the height of douchebaggery. I don't know enough to say which is the case here, but it's suspicious. As an owner of a perfectly fine Powerbook G4, color me disgruntled.
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Steve said 9:41PM on 2-08-2009
Yeah coercing people to upgrade when the hardware still can run your software is pretty stupid. A software company should only drop support for older platforms only when it isn't feasible to support them anymore.
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InfraredAD said 10:31PM on 2-08-2009
In one sense I agree with the whole idea of PPC machines being able to run Intel software. Yes, they can do it, but it's like saying a Ford Escort can run the Indy 500. Go ahead and do it, I'm gonna go over here n' move on with life while you're waiting for the splash screen to come up. Remember the whole "Vista capable" argument? Same concept. If Apple said it could run on PPC machines they'd have a whole army of people crying about how slow it is on a PPC Mac and then one village idiot would dream up a bogus lawsuit over it. Great.
Apple started to move on in 2006. It's 2009.
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mdk said 2:26AM on 2-09-2009
i made a little badape tapf, so it now will return true for DoesMentorMeetsMinimumSystemRequirements et voila... store workin, lessons workin :)
so yes, apple is playin the bad game
written on mobile device, so the vars name could differ minimally
ps: i heard of a tutorial floatin around already how to do this with onboard dev-tools only, so you may google it and test it yourself
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fheusel said 3:10AM on 2-09-2009
try buying garageband-lessons via http://fheusel.de/garageband/
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AA said 3:40AM on 2-09-2009
I can run the included learn to play lessons on my Core Solo Mac mini using the method described by Mac.Blorge.
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