Links
The MacBook Neo shows why the Apple fan obsession with benchmarks for 5+ years has been…weird
Oliver Haslam: MacBook Neo review, two months later: Almost a MacBook Pro beater
The MacBook Neo is a marvel. The fact that Apple was able to find a way to sell this thing for less than $600 makes it a laptop that's impossible not to recommend. It replaces the MacBook Air as the
Links
Is the war on RCS actually an argument that texting Android users *should* suck?
Wesley Hilliard is a cool guy who I often agree with, but his latest for AppleInsider is begging for a response: RCS & encryption haven't fixed the green bubble problem
In Messages on iPhone, you can now use SMS, RCS, end-to-end encrypted RCS, and iMessage. Sure, sending media to Android is
Links
How many MacBook Neo buyers would have bought an Air before?
Tim Culpan: Apple Doubles MacBook Neo Production, Orders Fresh Batch of Chips
As a result, it’s now asking suppliers to prepare capacity for 10 million units of the debut version of the Neo, up from an initial estimate of 5 million to 6 million, my sources tell me. Delivery times for the laptop have
Links
The midification of smartphone cameras
This feels like the sort of post that can get some people to go, "well actually…", but screw it, I think there's something here. As Marques points out, in good light, the iPhone 11 and iPhone 17 are very hard to tell apart. But once you introduce more challenging lighting (night,
Links
Encrypted RCS is going wide, starting today
John Voorhees: iOS 26.5 Adds RCS Encryption in Beta Starting Today
Apple announced that beginning today, users on iOS 26.5 will be able to send encrypted RCS messages to Google Messages users who are on the latest version of that app. Apple says that means a message that is intercepted in transit is
Links
The Trump admin suddenly wants to regulate AI models
The New York Times had a story a few days ago about the Trump administration prepping an executive order regulating AI models:
The administration is discussing an executive order to create an A.I. working group that would bring together tech executives and government officials to examine potential oversight procedures, according to U.S. officials,
Links
Big spending, big profits
M.G. Siegler: Apple's Binary Bet
It's just such a wild break from their peer group. And it keeps getting more wild. It seems like the most binary bet imaginable. Either Apple is right and the rest of Big Tech will have lit hundreds of billions – perhaps trillions when all is
Links
The iPhone Air is for enthusiasts
Hartley Charlton: iPhone Air's Poor Sales Spook Rivals Into Ditching Ultra-Thin Phone Plans
A Weibo leaker today suggested that Apple's iPhone Air 2 may be the only next-generation ultra-thin flagship smartphone from a major brand, after the original model's poor sales performance appears to have led
Links
Speeed
The Speeed YouTube channel has been around for about a year, but I discovered them a few months ago when they had a decently viral video that told you how to do things no one teaches you. This is the sort of "male influencer content" I can get behind.
Links
It’s cancel Kimmel time again
Jimmy Kimmel on Thursday last week in a skit on his show:
And of course, our first lady, Melania, is here. Look at-- so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow. You know, Melania's birthday is on Sunday. That's right. She's planning to celebrate at
Links
600% is the new 2 + 2 = 5
PBS News has a quote from the very intelligent RFK Jr.: Fact-checking RFK Jr.'s claim there's more than one way to calculate a percentage decrease
Kennedy said, "President Trump has a different way of calculating percentages. There's two ways of calculating percentages. If you have a $600
Links
John Ternus will be Apple's next CEO (starting September 1, 2026)
Apple: Tim Cook to become Apple Executive ChairmanJohn Ternus to become Apple CEO
Under Cook’s leadership Apple has grown from a market capitalization of approximately $350 billion to $4 trillion, representing a more than 1,000% increase, and yearly revenue has nearly quadrupled, from $108 billion in fiscal year 2011 to more than $416
Links
Our computers are just too good
Andy Nicolaides: I’m not a Pro, and that’s okay.
I started to realise recently, but was fully reconciled in my mind after using the MacBook Neo for a few days. The realisation is that, when it comes to my personal devices at least, I’m not a pro and I don’t need
Links
What if games could be "pretty successful" and not out the developer out of business?
I really loved this quote from John Linneman on a recent Digital Foundry podcast:
There was a time when they could produce games in a moderately sustainable fashion, it seems, and they didn't need to be multi-million sellers. And in fact, the big multi-million sellers could help support this wide range
Links
No vibe coded visionOS bump
This post on Reddit caught my attention:
Been curious about the state of the visionOS ecosystem so I pulled the
Links
Will iPadOS 27 bring back split view?
Zac Kew-Denniss: iPadOS 26 multitasking is so bad that I’ve replaced my iPad with an Android tablet
The biggest mistake Apple made in iPadOS 26 was making all of these changes in the iPad’s default mode. I’m the go-to tech support for a large group of older family members and
Links
The "heads I win, tails you lose" mentality
Antonio G. Di Benedetto for The Verge: I tested three Windows laptops in the MacBook Neo’s price range — there’s no contest
Each has an eight-core processor (versus six on the Neo), 16GB of RAM instead of 8GB, and between 256GB and 1TB of storage — the slowest of which is twice the speed
Links
Chrome gets side tabs
David Pierce: Vertical browser tabs are better and you should use them
The good news here is, you don’t have to take my word for it. Switching browsers is hard, and maybe you don’t want to do it just for vertical tabs. But update Chrome, right-click the tab bar, and just see
