Daily iPad App: Mactracker

We featured Mactracker as a Daily Mac App in 2011, and an iPhone version of the app has been around for a few years (with comparatively more sporadic updates). Mactracker is essentially the history of Apple hardware all in one app, or at least Apple from 1984 onward. It's a database containing detailed information on every Mac since the Macintosh 128k, every iPod and iOS device ever released, and even the weirder stuff Apple dabbled in during the 1990s like the QuickTake camera.

More than just a trip down Mac memory lane, Mactracker also provides details on things like weight and dimensions, processor speed, storage, RAM, and even some benchmark data for several devices. It can be a great troubleshooting asset, or an instant source of info on what kind of RAM or hard drive your Mac will accept.

The iPhone version of Mactracker recently got an update to version 2.0, and with that update the free app is now universal, with a brand-new iPad version. If you're familiar with the Mac version there won't be many surprises here, but the expanded screen real estate on the iPad makes Mactracker much more pleasant to use than the iPhone version.

Mactracker for iPad is fully optimised for the new Retina Display, and it looks great. About the only feature it's missing is one the Mac version has: a place to input information on models you own. That's a very handy feature on Mactracker for Mac, and it's one I'd love to see added to the iPad version at some point.

If you're interested in the minutiae of Macs gone by, Mactracker has always been a must-have. Now that this great new iPad version is out, it's even better. Go get it.