Friday Favorite: Mactracker

Another Friday Favorite, our weekly opportunity to gush over one of our favorite apps.

This week's favorite is a must-have reference for all Apple fans. Mactracker has been around for as long as I can remember and is indispensable. It provides exhaustive information on every Apple product, from the latest Xserve to the QuickTake 100.

The iTunes-like UI keeps machines in categories like desktops, notebooks, devices, etc. Click any to reveal a chronological listing of hardware, sorted by folder. Finally, select any piece of hardware (or software) to receive a tremendous amount of information. Processor, RAM, release date, benchmarks and on and on. You can even listen to the startup chime where applicable.

You can make smart folders and even keep track of the hardware you own. I love the built-in timeline, which lets you browse hardware by year of introduction. Best of all, as new hardware is added, Mactracker is updated.

This great piece of freewawre is availabe for the Mac and iPhone/iPod touch [App Store link]. For me, it's indispensable.

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Source: http://mactracker.dreamhosters.com/index.html

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Hardware Software Freeware Friday Favorite

Another Friday Favorite, our weekly opportunity to gush over one of our favorite apps.This week's favorite is a must-have reference for all...

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Don't forget everymac.com

August 11 2009 at 1:22 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Calexifan

They used to have a web app for the iPhone, but they've since replaced that with an iPhone app store application. Too bad -- I preferred the former. I'd rather not have to keep this info on my actual iPhone, but simply be able to access the info from the website.

August 08 2009 at 7:02 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Jash Sayani

How come my MacBook (Uni-body) does not have the S/N written anywhere??

My mini has one at the back.

August 08 2009 at 12:00 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Jash Sayani's comment

ponyfizz

Isn't it under the battery?

August 09 2009 at 9:14 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Hector

I met the developers of Mactracker during WWDC09, they were staying at my hotel. They are great folks. I like Mactracker (Mac, iPhone) because I can launch it at any moment and browse through tidbits of Apple history.

August 07 2009 at 5:24 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

jeffcross1

I am not that impressed. No way on my iPhone to create the smart folder of products that I own. Plus the iPhone section does not include iPhone 3GS.

August 07 2009 at 4:34 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

boss9192

All of this information pretty much all from theapplemuseum.com and apple-history.com.

August 07 2009 at 2:29 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

brian

It'd be nice to have both. The web would always be as current as possible, but the speed of the native client (especially on the phone) is nice. Then again, updates aren't *that* crucial since Apple doesn't release or update hardware that often--once every other month, on average? Assuming there are no errors in the historical data, updates wouldn't be needed that often.

That said, this is a handy little app. And thanks to it, I've finally heard the famous Twentieth Anniversary Mac startup chime. :-) Great work devs!

August 07 2009 at 2:02 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Jeff

I was thinking the same thing - why is this an app instead of a website? (even a web app... with an iPhone optimized version.)

weird.

I'll have to try it out and see how it compares to Apple-History.com

August 07 2009 at 1:20 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Some Dude

I use this app everyday at work, it's great. People have no idea about the specs of their hardware and this helps me get them the right upgrades. the iphone app is great too.

August 07 2009 at 12:46 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Chris Leither

It's also quite useful if you sell Apple gear... and people show up demanding some info on their old systems or the correct type of ram. As they seldom know what kind of machine EXACTLY they have, with MacTracker you can usually circle it in...
One of my most used tools !

August 07 2009 at 12:25 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply