Tim Cook, on 50 Years of Apple ⇢

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Apple’s CEO:

Through every breakthrough, one idea has guided us — that the world is moved forward by people who think different.

That’s because progress always begins with someone — an inventor or scientist, a student or storyteller — who imagines a better way, a new idea, a different path. That spirit has guided Apple from the start. But it has never belonged to us alone.

Every invention we bring into the world is just the beginning of a story. The most meaningful chapters are written by all of you — the people who use our technology to work, learn, dream, and discover. You’ve made breakthroughs and launched businesses. You’ve cheered up loved ones in the hospital and captured your toddler’s first steps. You’ve run marathons, written books, and rekindled friendships. You’ve chased your curiosity, found your new favorite song, and shared stories that connect us all.

In your hands, the tools we make have improved lives, and sometimes even saved them. And that is what inspires us — not what technology can do alone, but everything you can do with it.

This sentiment is what clicked with me when I first started using a Mac for more than playing Odell Down Under after class. The idea that I could use a computer to take an idea and put it into the world enthralled me, and it’s why I still love this stuff today.

Does Apple always live up to this standard? Absolutely not. Do I still get this feeling every time I open my MacBook Pro or unlock my iPad? Absolutely.

As the company turns 50, its achievements should be celebrated, and its failures should be noted. Apple’s shortcomings in the world of politics, App Store policies, and more dim the company’s light. The value of its products is often the result of dedicated app developers doing their best work atop Apple’s platforms. In the world of big tech, I think Apple still leads in many areas, including privacy, environmental impact, and the not-so-simple matter of taste.

Mississippi Approves 41 Natural Gas Turbines for Southaven Site

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Yesterday, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality Permit Board (MDEQ) unanimously granted xAI a permit for an expanded power plant in Southaven, Mississippi. The plant will be powered by 41 natural gas turbines.

Some of those turbines are already in place, with questions surrounding their legality now finalized.

The way in which MDEQ went about this process has left many local — and national — critics of xAI unhappy, as Kailynn Johnson writes for The Memphis Flyer:

The board’s decision to hold the meeting on Election Day, and five days after the hearing was announced, has been condemned by local and national groups.

The Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP and the national NAACP sent an open letter to MDEQ to immediately reschedule the public hearing for the following week, and requested a response by Monday.

The organization criticized MDEQ’s decision to issue their responses to public comments on Saturday, March 7, as well as for holding the hearing “nearly three driving hours from the site of the facility.”

Lora Kolodny, CNBC:

The MDEQ denied the request on Monday, writing in a response to the NAACP that its permit board “regularly meets on the second Tuesday of each month, which has been the standard practice for decades,” and that the regulator, “considers matters on a statewide basis.” A copy of the letter was shared with CNBC.

[…]
Following the MDEQ’s response on Monday, the NAACP said in a statement that by having the hearing the morning of Election Day, three hours away from the community, “their actions speak volumes.”

“They’re trying to sneak xAI’s data center into the community’s backyard and they don’t care about the people living there,” the letter said.

Despite the MDEQ’s insistence about the meeting itself, the results of that meeting are what really impact people living in south Memphis and north Mississippi.

Samuel Hardiman, The Daily Memphian:

The approval of xAI’s long-term plans for a power plant means a substantial amount of smog-causing chemicals could be added to the Memphis metropolitan area’s air.

According to the draft permit, xAI could emit 423 tons of nitrogen oxides, a smog-causing chemical, each year. That’s about the same as the two area Tennessee Valley Authority natural gas plants — Allen Combined Cycle and Southaven — combined.

More on Lil Finder Guy ⇢

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Basic Apple Guy:

All I know about Lil Finder Guy is that it’s freakin’ adorable, assuming it means me no harm. And instead of doing literally anything productive or tending to my adult responsibilities like bills, taxes, or work, I have spent my weekend tumbling down the rabbit hole trying to build a life for this mysterious little creature despite knowing next to nothing about it.

Google Gemini (aka the next Siri) has been helpful in modelling out the rest of its body from the single TikTok post. From there, I started generating what Lil Finder Guy might look like working, angry, running, jumping, laughing, and more. Of course, this is all abstraction stacked on abstraction at this point. I do not know if Lil Finder Guy can laugh, what it finds funny, or whether its short, knee-less legs are even capable of jumping.

His results from Gemini are the best use of generative AI I’ve ever seen:

Lil Finder Guy

If Apple doesn’t go all-in on this, it’s time for a new CEO.

What’s in a (Super) Name ⇢

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In the midst of the whirlwind of news this week, Apple renamed its CPU cores. At Six Colors, Jason Snell has the details:

Here’s what happened:

  • Apple renamed its most powerful CPU cores, which had previously been called performance cores. As of the M5 Pro and Max, those cores are now called “super cores.”

  • Surprise! Since those cores also shipped in the M5 MacBook Pro, M5 iPad Pro, and M5 Vision Pro, they have all been retroactively renamed as super cores. I am writing this very story on a device that sports four super cores, but I didn’t even know that until I heard the news early Tuesday morning.

  • The M5 Pro and M5 Max chips also feature the debut of a brand-new core design derived from the super core design. (I assume the efficiency cores in the base M5 were probably the same cores that Apple used in the M4.) This new core design is still power efficient, but it can offer high performance in multithreaded tasks. In the past, the second-tier core was referred to as an efficiency core, but Apple has decided that these new ones are better described as performance cores. In other words, Batman has become Superman and Robin (or is it Supergirl?) has become Batman.

Apple is on TikTok, Posting Unhinged Videos About the MacBook Neo ⇢

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There are a handful of fun videos on Apple’s page, but these citrus ones are fun:

@apple i love limes

♬ original sound – apple

@apple

pop pop pop pop

♬ original sound – apple

@apple

hello?

♬ original sound – apple

Then there’s this little Finder character, as pointed out by Basic Apple Guy:

I can’t find any information about him beyond the fact that he appeared in Apple’s “Matcha Break with MacBook Neo” livestream on TikTok on Wednesday. I also haven’t been able to track down the video itself. The first post I found mentioning it came from user m2macmini on Twitter.

WHO IS THISSSSSSS???

Just think, I probably saved this little Finder person from a lifetime of bullying.

At $599, Is the MacBook Neo the One?

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After years of rumors, Apple has finally taken the wraps off its new entry-level notebook. In some ways, the MacBook Neo is exactly what we expected, but in others, it’s not. I’ve been excited about this rumor for a long time, since it’s been a while Apple has done anything new and unusual in the Mac line.

MacBook Neo

The Neo certainly checks both of those boxes.

What’s in a Name?

I think everyone was betting the company would use the “MacBook” name for a third time, but instead we’ve all got to contend with “MacBook Neo.” I don’t love it, but I don’t hate it either, and I assume it will fade into the background like many other of Apple’s weird product names.1

Sorry, Lovers of Tiny Laptops

The MacBook Neo is no 12-inch PowerBook G4 or 11-inch MacBook Air, but its 13-inch display is smaller than the current entry-level MacBook Air, which sports a 13.6-inch screen.

However, size is about more than screen real estate, and that’s where things get a bit weird:

Model: Weight: Thickness: Width: Depth:
Neo 2.7 pounds .50 inch 11.71 inches 8.12 inches
13-inch Air 2.7 pounds .44 inch 11.97 inches 8.46 inches

In short, the MacBook Neo is slightly thicker than the MacBook Air, but will take up slightly less space on a desk. In a bag, it’s gonna feel exactly the same.

I know there are folks who desire a truly tiny MacBook, but for this machine, I think a 13-inch display is about right. The Neo is going to be used in schools, by college students, and by other budget-sensitive consumers. While some nerds see a smaller screen as a desirable feature, many would consider it a penalty of buying a cheaper product.

iPhone Inside

Inside, the MacBook Neo is powered by an A18 Pro with a 6‑core CPU (2 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores) and 8 GB of RAM. It has a 5-core GPU, down a core from the A18 Pro that was in the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max.

There are no options in terms of additional cores or unified memory. In fact, these are the only options when ordering:

  • 256 GB SSD without Touch ID
  • 512 GB SSD with Touch ID for $100 more

The 8 GB of unified memory is a limitation of the A18 Pro. I assume future versions of the MacBook Neo will have more RAM; the A19 Pro comes with 12 GB.

I suspect some buyers will jump to the MacBook Air just for more RAM, and I think Apple is more than fine with that.

Apple’s chip choice here shows just how far Apple silicon has come in recent years. A SoC designed for a phone is enough to power a full-blown macOS computer. We’ve known this to be the case based on Geekbench scores for a while, as Jason Snell wrote last year:

The A18 Pro is 46% faster than the M1 in single-core tasks, and almost identical to the M1 on multi-core and graphics tasks. If you wanted to get rid of the M1 MacBook Air but have decided that even today, its performance characteristics make it perfectly suitable as a low-cost Mac laptop, building a new model on the A18 Pro would not be a bad move.

Seeing this come to fruition is exciting, and I suspect this machine will be plenty fast for years to come.

Of course, numbers like this have caused pain for fans of a certain Mac model, including John Siracusa:

The A18 Pro in the MacBook Neo is 19% faster than the M2 Ultra in the Mac Pro in single-core performance (Geekbench 6).

The MacBook Neo starts at $599.

The Mac Pro, which is still for sale, starts at $6,999.

Will the MacBook Neo be powerful enough for everyone? Absolutely not. But will it be powerful for million and millions of macOS users? Absolutely.

That’s not say the Neo doesn’t come with a serious list of compromises. To hit the price point, Apple had to make some hard choices.

For the most part, I think the cuts it made make sense, even if the lack of a backlit keyboard hurts me in a way I find hard to describe.

Pricing & Positioning

I love the giant price gap between the Neo and the Air.

It means Apple has not repeated the mistakes of the past. The 12-inch MacBook cost $1299 when it debuted back in 2015. The 13-inch MacBook Air could be picked up for $999 for a better CPU, less storage, and with a much worse screen. Then, in 2016, the two-port MacBook Pro showed up and really muddied the waters at $1499.

It was a mess, and I spent hours of my life complaining about it on podcasts.

The price not only separates this machine from the Air, but it also speaks to how consumers should think about this machine. It has (many) fewer features, a (slightly) smaller display, and a (somewhat) less-powerful processor than the Air, which is then a rung below the MacBook Pro. Everything is nice and neat.

Instead of thinking about the MacBook Neo in the framework of the old 12-inch MacBook, I think it’s more useful to think about it in relation to the old M1 MacBook Air. Quinn Nelson said it well:

The MacBook Neo is basically the Walmart M1 MacBook Air. But new and colorful.

Their specs are a bit different: Neo has a better webcam, display, CPU/NPU. M1 Air had a better GPU, battery, a Force Touch trackpad.

Both had 8GB memory.

Both had 256GB storage.

Both were $599.

This is a Mac made for the masses, not the power user, which is very exciting. Just look at how hard Apple pushes the integration between the Mac and the iPhone on the Neo’s various product pages.

Colors!

I cannot believe it’s taken 900 words to get to the colors the MacBook Neo comes in:

MacBook Neo Colors

From left to right, Apple calls these colors Silver, Blush, Citrus, and Indigo. I think the Citrus and Indigo are fun options, and I suspect Blush will sell very well.

I am disappointed that they are not as vibrant or wide-ranging as the colors found on the iMac:

iMac M4

Then there’s the colors found on other Apple products. I mean, Cosmic Orange IS RIGHT THERE, APPLE. COME ON.

I would love to see Apple turn these colors over annually like they do with the iPhone. The Neo should be super responsive to fashionable colors. Even though I wanted more, I will say a nice touch is the color-matched keyboard, seen here in Blush:

Blush Keyboard

I Ordered One

For the last several years, my only Mac has been a 14-inch MacBook Pro, used with an external display at my desk. If I want to work elsewhere, I can eject a couple of drives, grab my laptop, and be on my way. It’s great!

However, there are times when I need a Mac, but do not want my expensive MacBook Pro with all of my work data on it. I often want to just do some browsing downstairs after work or take a laptop to a meeting at church or elsewhere.

A couple of years ago, I bought an entry-level M3 MacBook Air for running — and taking screenshots of — beta versions of macOS during the summer. Over the last six months or so, it’s also become the laptop I use outside of work.

I’ve ordered a Citrus model with the 512 GB SSD and Touch ID to slot into this space in my life, and I can’t wait to get my hands on it next week. If it goes well, the M3 Air will go to a family member in need of an upgrade. If not, I’ll still be happy to spend time with — and review! — the most interesting new Mac in years.

  1. I’m old enough to remember when people were freaked out about “MacBook Pro.” ↩

The Technical Differences Between the MacBook Neo and MacBook Air

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With a price point of $599 (or $499 for students!) Apple had to make some cuts when designing the MacBook Neo.

The Neo’s screen is 13 inches, a full half inch smaller than that of the $1099 MacBook Air’s, but the rest of the dimensions are closer than I would have thought:

Model: Weight: Thickness: Width: Depth:
Neo 2.7 pounds .50 inch 11.71 inches 8.12 inches
13-inch Air 2.7 pounds .44 inch 11.97 inches 8.46 inches

Here’s a list of what else separates the MacBook Neo from the Air:

  • Only supports 8 GB of unified memory
  • No MagSafe
  • One of the two USB-C ports is limited to USB 2.0 speeds of just 480 Mb/s
  • No Thunderbolt support
  • External display support is limited to 4K at 60Hz, including on the new Studio Displays
  • “Just” 16 hours of battery life, compared to the 18 hours quoted for the 13-inch MacBook Air
  • Display supports sRGB, but not P3 Wide Color
  • No True Tone
  • No ambient light sensor
  • 1080p webcam doesn’t support Center Stage
  • No camera notch
  • Dual side-firing speakers, down from four speakers on the Air
  • Does not support Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking on AirPods
  • Dual-mic system, down from a three-mic system on the Air
  • The 3.5 mm headphone jack does not have support for high-impedance headphones
  • No keyboard backlighting
  • Touch ID not included on base model
  • Trackpad does not support Force Touch
  • Supports Wi-Fi 6E, not 7
  • No fast charging
  • The Apple on the lid isn’t shiny (Thanks, Jason!)

When I look at that list, the price difference between the Neo and the Air makes a lot more sense. My guess is that most folks in the market for a $599 Mac won’t care about most of these. (For goodness sake, the education price of this machine is HALF THAT of the MacBook Air!)

That said, if I could add two things back in, I’d choose keyboard backlighting and fast charging.

As far as an option for more unified memory, things are trickier. 8 GB is a limitation of the A18 Pro. I assume future versions of the MacBook Neo will have more RAM; the A19 Pro comes with 12 GB.