Stephen Gordon on Playing Apple's MacBook Neo for laughs — from both sides (videos) - 'Got a good morning laugh from me. He failed to mention that next year‘s refresh will boast TWO USB 3.0 ports.'
on PC makers shocked, shocked by Apple's MacBook Neo - 'The ProMotionPotato comments were right on the mark. Apple doesn’t have to even pay the “wholesale price” for most of the components that go into the Neo, while the other manufacturers do and that puts them at a big disadvantage, even if they didn’t have to pay for the Windows component. I don’t know but would guess that the profit margins on these pcs was not very high to begin with. And now, you have to deal with the quality build for the Neo as well. I know that MSFT doesn’t really want to compete with the other PC makers out there but they may be the best able to come up with a comparable device. But they really don’t do hardware as well or as often, as far as I know(correct me if I am wrong here). It will be interesting to see how the PC manufacturers try to compete here. It also will be interesting to see how long the Neo will be able to be upgraded in terms of MacOs as well as the build/hardware. My guess is that it will be upgraded every 2 or three years but it would be nice if they upgraded it every year. That would really put the pc makers behind the 8 ball.'
on PC makers shocked, shocked by Apple's MacBook Neo - 'And I always feel such glee when Casablanca is quoted, especially that scene.'
on PC makers shocked, shocked by Apple's MacBook Neo - 'I find the obsessive focus on the 8GB of RAM to be quite puzzling.'
on PC makers shocked, shocked by Apple's MacBook Neo - 'Wu’s statements exuded a whole lot of FEAR. He can say what he wants, but denigrating Mac NEO’s specs is going to backfire. PC specs in this price range have always been about buying two year old computers that just happen to be new.'
on PC makers shocked, shocked by Apple's MacBook Neo - '“The entire PC system will launch corresponding products to compete with Apple.” let me translate this for you. “For decades we have served up absolute cr@p to our customers, and now because apple has arrived at our price point we will finally deliver high quality similar products, except that we have no idea how to do this – should I shut up yet?”'
on Premarket: Apple was green, turned red - 'Oracle is up over $14 pre-market at $163.50 on better-than-expected results, easing some of the pressure on the share price from the company’s AI-related capex plans. February’s CPI print came in consistent with January’s report. Price rose 0.3% on the month and 2.4% year-over-year. Apple is off $.055 pre-market after rising $0.95 on Tuesday to end the session at $260.83. Today’s session begins in 30 minutes…'
on PC makers shocked, shocked by Apple's MacBook Neo - '“Shocked” is not the right adjective. More like ”Shitting in our pants”'
on In September, the Pentagon spent $5.3 million on Apple devices - 'Who’d a thunk! A (overly) “religious” person like Hegseth.chasing a piece of tail! I guess that’s just a general trait of this administration.'
on Apple's MacBook Neo: What the critics are saying - 'I watched this video as well. Having every app running and then editing a Final Cut Pro timeline was impressive. Then the Lightroom edits of 100 Mpixel images for a laptop that can be purchased for $499 educational pricing is huge.'
on Horace Dediu: Apple's jui jitsu AI strategy - 'Yes, Apple’s catbird position, with its *uncannily apt* hardware offering, appears to be more serendipitous than not. Serendipity is a good thing, but one should not rely on it for success.'
on Apple's MacBook Neo: What the critics are saying - 'I’ve done some casual estimates. The Neo price expands Apple’s available market to increase sales by at least 25%. More details in a later post, after some clean up. And no worry about margins. Again, more details coming.'
on Apple's MacBook Neo: What the critics are saying - 'I think the Neo is being introduced primarily as a safety conscious alternative for education. As AI begins integration into schools, who is going to offer a secure and private environment, free of malware? Hint—it’s not Chromebooks. Additionally, Apple Intelligence guardrails will ensure third party data collection doesn’t occur.'
on Apple's MacBook Neo: What the critics are saying - 'John, this isn’t necessarily ‘light computing’ – https://x.com/stalman/status/2031507292454269171'
on Apple's MacBook Neo: What the critics are saying - '@Greg At the moment they are not interchangeable. For the Neo they took advantage of the pretty good single core speed to build a laptop that provides light computing which is good enough for a lot of people. The M series SOCs provide much higher multicore speeds, much more RAM and storage, much higher internal bus speeds. I don’t think Apple would have built an A series chip for the NEO, but they took advantage of the fact that having amortized the development of this for the iPhone they now had a very inexpensive chip to use for this laptop.'
on Horace Dediu: Apple's jui jitsu AI strategy - 'Maybe I’m a liberal, but I don’t think Apple would have run those embarrassingly overpromised AI ads if they weren’t in panic mode. Their AI was well established—Siri, aka “shocked when it works.” Their AI leader did not believe in LLMs. I think they fired him. Three years after his incompetence was exposed. Bottom line: Apple failed to invest in the most transformative computer event in history, while ALL of their competitors did, so they were forced to use a competitor’s AI. I agree that Apple may now be in the catbird seat. I only dispute the claim that it was planned this way—because genius. It reminds me of the New Coke episode, where the CEO was accused of planning the uproar over replacing the original Coke, which resulted in greatly increased sales. “We’re not that dumb, and we’re not that smart.”'
on Apple's MacBook Neo: What the critics are saying - 'A guy judging Apple by the standards of WinTel. I can’t wait to hear what he says if he actually reviews the device. And how much crow he eats if/when this sells out.'
