Steven Philips on Apple MacBook Neo hands on (videos) - 'Just wait till Xmas! '
on Apple MacBook Neo hands on (videos) - 'I expect to see these popping up in the Apple refurb store for $50 to $100 off in about 5 to 6 months, just in time for back to school season. And I am sure Apple will run some kind of promos as well. Places like Microcenter, B&H Photo and others will have sales sooner then that. A $500 aluminum-bodied MacBook with advanced chips? They will sell *very* well.'
on WSJ: Apple is using memory chip costs like a scalpel to slice up its competitors - 'Hi, Farshad. By “they”, I assume you mean the analysts. The only people who know what the margins are work for Apple, and they won’t be telling us.'
on WSJ: Apple is using memory chip costs like a scalpel to slice up its competitors - '”How did they figure the new products have such lower margin?” They be smarter than the average bear. As I stated in another thread on this subject, Apple had to have seen this situation coming 3-5 years ago, to time the launch of the 17e, raise prices on premium products (before the fact) and the rise in memory prices so well'
on WSJ: Apple is using memory chip costs like a scalpel to slice up its competitors - 'I also loved Hypercard too, and I was a CS student! In fact, it came up in the context of AI during the Office Hours. Hypercard felt like the humanistic side of Visual Basic. Both these systems were such a rich source of much ‘non-production’ turning into production. Wild Bill Atkinson (RIP) did the same thing with programming that he had done with QuickDraw and MacPaint: make things 10-100x more accessible. He basically went meta one level up! Such genius. The current wave of non-programmers writing programs with AI reminded me of Hypercard days very much (and the early web.) Which brings me to a Product Idea: A remake of HyperCard, with AI instead of (or generating?) HyperTalk, and MCP(ReST?) instead of XCMD. BUT Keep the original pixel-y look & feel, with a dash of SuperCard. If any of you old-timers want to fund this, I am game to build it. 🙂 OK time to sign off. Should be able to get transcripts up overnight, it will be linked from asymco.com/live.'
on WSJ: Apple is using memory chip costs like a scalpel to slice up its competitors - 'David Emery said: “I loved HyperCard, and even used it to prototype “training exercise set-up” when I was working on a training system.” **Upvoted, David! I also loved Hypercard. At Lockheed-Martin in Sunnyvale, California, in about 1987, I assumed sole responsibility for what was referred to as “The Paperless Factory” and provided support in transitioning board and black box assemblers from using paper instructions to using computers at each workstation when building satellite hardware. Using Hypercard was a treat! I was able to pretty quickly learn how to use it and was able to effectively respond to requests from other engineers or factory support personnel to add to the capabilities that Hypercard provided.'
on Apple MacBook Neo hands on (videos) - 'I only watched 2 of the videos. The lowdown on the specs were nice but no real hands on stuff in the reviews. The big thing is the price. With the $499 price for education, it could be a very nice entry level laptop and can keep some people totally in the Apple ecosystem. Definitely could bring education sales back if it works as it is advertised.'
on Apple MacBook Neo hands on (videos) - 'Not a video, but a strong take: https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/05/steve-jobs-we-just-cant-ship-junk “Steve Jobs would have loved the MacBook Neo. Everything about it, right down to the fact that Apple is responsible for the silicon.”'
on WSJ: Apple is using memory chip costs like a scalpel to slice up its competitors - 'David, we were told a transcript and recording will be posted.'
on Apple MacBook Neo hands on (videos) - 'Tremendous value for education. Low-cost PC and Chromebook makers must be s***ing their pants. Especially given the memory crisis.'
on Apple MacBook Neo hands on (videos) - 'And a $100 education discount to boot. My sister works in elementary education and told me there are so many broken Chromebooks in her classroom. I expect she will see a lot of broken Neos in the years to come, though with the build quality, perhaps not as many?'
on WSJ: Apple is using memory chip costs like a scalpel to slice up its competitors - 'Sure. Glad you asked. Forced me to clean up my on-the-fly notes: Apple draws the enemy into a war they can’t compete due to Apple’s vertical integration. Apple wins at every price point Apple waited to enter the low price segment until they had the leverage Apple still has memory bought a while ago Apple’s 20% of world’s population has 80% of the purchasing power. Edge AI for Apple is like MSFT’s Embrace and extend from the 90’s Anthropic’s Claude co-work first on Mac, 3, later on Windows Horace talked about ‘the work to be done’ with AI, especially for non-techie users. And that we don’t know, yet, what that will become. Farshad compared hypercard to what Apple may do for easy to use AI Gemini’s image recognition is game changer Surgeon’s talk about AVP in surgery and training Neck strain is a occupational problem fixed by AVP Our SactoJoe talked about the ergonomic breakthrough of AVP. Hey Joe, Care to amplify for the team?? No cellular modem in MacBook? There were rumors, Horace doesn’t see the case..'
on Apple MacBook Neo hands on (videos) - 'Nice roundup. The price is amazing – really much lower than the Air.'
on WSJ: Apple is using memory chip costs like a scalpel to slice up its competitors - 'Seems like a good strategy: control pricing, control supply, continue to offer compelling, competitive products, enhance market share, reassure the markets, win.'
