This eBay listing just screams ""buy me"

[iOSWriter]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-20th-...307?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f0d463be3

How usable are these Macs today in terms od the support for newer versions of apps like Skype, photoshop, etc. Can you upgrade them to Snow Leapard? Wow I just love the aesthetics, its a wonder why they never took off. Like modern iMacs almost.

 

[miles01110]

You will not be able to run any modern software on a 20th Anniversary Mac.

 

[iLucas]

The highest software a TAM can go to is OS 9.1 i believe.

 

[iOSWriter]

Are there any hacks to make it run new software? Btw I realized why it originally failed. apple prided it at $9,999. Did they really think a product at that price would have took off? I meqn how much did it really cost them to manufacture it? I thought i furst read it only cost $999. At that price it would have took off I bet.

 

[bizzle]

That isn't a TAM but accessories for a TAM.

 

[AdrianK]

How usable are these Macs today in terms od the support for newer versions of apps like Skype, photoshop, etc. Can you upgrade them to Snow Leapard

Are you aware that this is a computer from 1997 with a 250MHz CPU and 32-128mb of RAM?

That isn't a TAM but accessories for a TAM.

How the OP did not realise this, I have no idea.

 

[Nameci]

TAM is a priceless collectible mac. And a lot of mac purist would want this piece of mac.

 

[dpaanlka]

How usable are these Macs today in terms od the support for newer versions of apps like Skype, photoshop, etc.

Zero.

Can you upgrade them to Snow Leapard?

Not even close. You're going to max out at Mac OS 9.1, which is six major Mac OS releases back.

Wow I just love the aesthetics, its a wonder why they never took off.

It was a very limited production run, and a very exorbitant introductory price.

Like modern iMacs almost.

So were a lot of Macs throughout history. The whole point of the iMac (as opposed to Mac Pros and MacBooks) is to be the actual purist successor to the original 1984 Macintosh.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

With some software hacking, it is possible to get a stock TAM (plus memory upgrade) up to OS X 10.3. With hardware upgrades, you can get it up to 10.4. Even fully upgraded and running 10.4, it won't be useful as a day-to-day machine, though. 128 MB of RAM is massively insufficient for 10.4, and even on 10.2 (probably the highest version that even a fully-upgraded TAM should run,) it will be slow.

Skype will not run at all. It requires an Intel Mac for the current version, and the latest version that runs on a PowerPC requires 512 MB of RAM and 10.3.9 or newer.

Newer versions of Photoshop would be horrendous on only 128 MB of RAM. If you absolutely *MUST* run Photoshop on that age of Mac, find an old copy of Photoshop 5.0 that was current back then. It will run much better.

 

[NZed]

So you want accessories for a computer you dont have(correct me if im wrong since you did not mention)?

Do you know the specs of this mac???

Introduced March 20, 1997
Discontinued March 14, 1998
MSRP US$7,499
CPU PowerPC 603e
CPU speed 250 MHz
L2 Cache 256 KiB, max 1 MiB
Bus 50 MHz
RAM 2 slots
32 MiB, max 128 MiB (2 × 64 MiB)
Memory Spec 168-pin, 5 V,
60+ ns EDO or FPM DIMMs
VRAM 2 MiB
Video 12.1" Active Matrix
800×600 or 640×480 @ up to 16-bits
ATI 3D RAGE 2 chip set
Ports Rear Ports:
Variable Level Sound In
Sound Out
DB-25 SCSI
TV Tuner
FM Tuner
Rear Side Ports:
1 ADB
2 DIN-8 GeoPorts
DB-25 SCSI
S-Video In
Sound Line In
Via Expansion Slots:
1 Comm Slot 2
PCI Slot
Optical Drive 4× CD-ROM
Hard Drive 2 GB IDE
Floppy Drive Apple SuperDrive
Initial OS System 7.6.1
Final OS Mac OS 9.1
Weight 6.8 kg (14.9 lb)
Dimensions Metric - 438 × 419 × 254 mm
Imperial - 17.25 × 16.5 × 10 in

(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twentieth_Anniversary_Macintosh)

A 250Mhz cpu... hmmm, if the iPhone 2G, 3G, 3GS, 4 can run OS 9 it would probably still be faster (the iP4 is definitely going to be faster)
800x600 display 16bit... my MacBook Pro 13" screen is 1280x800 32bit
Max ram of TAM is 128mb, my MacBook Pro has 4gb, and i consider it slow when editing large video files (360p,480p,720p) or multiple RAW files on photoshop.

TAM is around 14-15 years old since released date.

Do you know that Apple didnt use Intel before 2005? They used PowerPC which was a different architecture.

Anyways, you could buy them, then buy the actual computer, then run retro games and programs on it on OS 9.