Apple Overhauls “About This Mac”, Makes It Easier To Understand Your Hardware


Part of the changes coming OS 10.7 Lion is an overhaul to the aging System Profiler and About This Mac panel to make the hardware in your computer more understandable.

The “About This Mac” view in Mac OS X gives you a very limited view of the basic hardware in your Mac. While you can find more information in System Profiler, the finer details are only easily understood by those who know the ins and outs of a computer. Providing tech support for those who are tech illiterate or don’t know the difference between 1067 MHz DDR3 and 667 MHz DDR2 RAM becomes difficult.

Apple is overhauling the “About This Mac” feature in OS X Lion giving you a birds eye view of the hardware powering your Mac, access to support and your Apple Care status.

The new “About This Mac” panel shows your Mac’s serial number, OS version, model name, processor speed and available software updates. The Display tab shows the resolution of the primary screen attached to your Mac, GPU and total video RAM. The third tab, Storage, shows the capacity of your Mac’s connected drive and how much space audio files, movies, photos and Apps take up much like the data display bar in iTunes for iOS devices.

Memory shows a visual representation of how much RAM is installed in your Mac, how fast it is and how many slots are occupied. Battery on the other hand shows the same readout as the battery icon displayed in the menu bar. The battery tab doesn’t display as much information as the utility Coconut Battery.

The last two tabs, Support and Service provide resources for users new to the Mac and help them understand how OS X works.


Kokou Adzo

Kokou Adzo is a stalwart in the tech journalism community, has been chronicling the ever-evolving world of Apple products and innovations for over a decade. As a Senior Author at Apple Gazette, Kokou combines a deep passion for technology with an innate ability to translate complex tech jargon into relatable insights for everyday users.

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