You’d think. But a lot of comments from Apple fans were oddly reminiscent of the first comments about the iPod: “No MagSafe. One port is USB 2. [ableist pejorative redacted].”
It was never going to be cheap and have all the features of the MacBook Air. How could you think that? Probably for the same reason you keep trying coconut water and thinking maybe this time you’ll like it. You’re not going to like it, Jeff! It’s objectively terrible! Give it up!
Remember netbooks? Sure you do. The year was 2009. The hit song was “Poker Face” by Lady Gaga, “Fantastic Mr. Fox” proved that Wes Anderson can make even stop motion characters annoyingly twee, and netbooks could be had three for a penny.…
Tech empires rise and fall so quickly that the mind can hardly conceive of one lasting half a century, but it’s true: In 1976, two 20-somethings named Steve (Jobs and Wozniak) asked their 41-year-old mentor, Ron Wayne, to file the paperwork that created Apple Computer.
Like most people who reach midlife, Apple has a complicated history. The path from a bunch of young people assembling computers in a Silicon Valley garage to the international titan it is today was far from linear. Early successes in helping define and popularize the personal computer were followed by a troubled adolescence that almost proved fatal. That crisis moment created the opportunity for a storied rebirth, setting Apple on the trajectory that has made it one of this century’s most profitable and valuable companies, currently valued near $4 trillion.
“Apple: The First 50 Years” tells the stories that lie behind dozens of Apple’s tech creations. David Pogue has seen many of those years up close, having written for Macworld magazine before becoming a columnist for the New York Times and a correspondent for PBS’s “Nova” and “CBS Sunday Morning.” Apple’s successes are famous, but Mr. Pogue doesn’t steer away from discussing the dead-end products and corporate malfunctions. While tech media tends to focus on hot new products and strong personalities, Mr. Pogue’s book is resolutely a biography of Apple Inc. itself—one of the most distinctive characters in American business history.
When Apple announced the “revision” to its Studio Display last week, I—among others—did a bit of a Spock eyebrow raise. That new tag was doing a lot of heavy lifting: aside from a revamped camera and the addition of Thunderbolt 51, the display is the same as the 2022 model, right down to the $1599 price tag and tilt-only stand.
Is this disappointing? From one point of view, sure. After all, it’s almost four years since the last model; are we to believe that the state of the art hasn’t changed at all? That point is, of course, somewhat belied by the addition of the Studio Display XDR to the lineup, though it has many of the same specs, such as size and resolution.
The argument to the contrary—and one that shouldn’t shock longtime Apple watchers, since it’s often their modus operandi—is that if it ain’t broke, why fix it? Compare a newly released M5 MacBook Air to the M2 model, also from 2022, and guess what: those displays didn’t change either. Honestly, you’re probably going to find more similarities between those models than differences.
Now, I concede this could all just be cognitive dissonance reduction doing its work. I’ve been using a 2022 Studio Display since around the time of its release, paired first with my MacBook, and later with an M2 Pro Mac mini.
Frankly, it’s great. Perhaps I’m basic, but I didn’t even shop around for displays: I was a longtime 27-inch iMac user before making the switch, and the panel on the Studio Display being essentially the same as in the iMac eased my transition. Granted, I don’t consider myself particularly exacting when it comes to the visual, and I’m certainly not doing any professional graphics or video work that relies on perfect reproduction. To wit, I definitely do not know the difference between sRGB and P3. But for everything I do, the Studio Display is, in the manner of Apple’s best technology, completely transparent.2 I was honestly surprised to see Nick Heer’s comment about sketchy firmware issues—I cannot remember the last time I touched anything on my Studio Display. Again, as per Apple’s most famous maxim: it just works.
So, as a happy owner of a Studio Display, I applaud Apple for not changing it3—I consider this a boon to my wallet and my mental health, since there’s no reason for me to crave an update I don’t need. I can remain confident that my Studio Display is just as good as this one, which Apple will probably keep selling for several years—because they are essentially the same. And I can continue to amortize the not inconsiderable cost I paid back in 2022 over the foreseeable future, making it an even better investment. Even if this Mac mini gets shuffled off my desk in the next couple years, the Studio Display will keep on trucking.
So, I’m okay with all of it: after all I’ve saved myself $1599. And, honestly, I’m going to need that—and probably then some—when that folding iPhone comes around this fall.
And, though Apple does not explicitly say, an A19 chip to drive it, replacing the old model’s A13 Bionic. ↩
The one thing I will ding them for? Not making the height-adjustable stand the default: I don’t feel like ergonomics should come at a premium. That said, I opted for a VESA mount model exactly because of this. ↩
[Dan Moren is the East Coast Bureau Chief of Six Colors, as well as an author, podcaster, and two-time Jeopardy! champion. You can find him on Mastodon at @dmoren@zeppelin.flights or reach him by email at dan@sixcolors.com. His next novel, the sci-fi adventure Eternity's Tomb, will be released in November 2026.]
In late 2008, Steve Jobs hopped on the company’s quarterly phone call with analysts and, besieged by questions about Apple being threatened by low-cost PC laptops called “netbooks,” he explained how Apple approached its product decision.
“We don’t know how to make a $500 computer that’s not a piece of junk,” he said.
It took Apple nearly 18 years to figure it out, but here we are. The announcement of the $599 MacBook neo ($499 for education buyers!) is the low-cost laptop Mac users have been wondering about for years. But there are plenty of reasons it took this long.
Apple’s history with education is a long and twisty one. Like many folks my age, my earliest school experience with computers were an Apple IIs, carted in to a classroom, on which you could wait your turn to play Number Munchers. Later on, it was labs full of newer models where we cleverly wrote infinite BASIC loops to print “DAN IS AWESOME” all up and down the rows.
By the time I got to college, though, Macs were already in the minority. Even then, the year that the iMac debuted, I was one of just a few folks in my dorm that had an Apple computer at all.1
In more recent years, Apple’s found itself squeezed out of the K12 education market by the advent of cheap Chromebooks, which often cost just a couple hundred bucks for a unit—a price point that Apple couldn’t (or chose not) to meet with either the Mac or iPad. Couple that with Google’s dominance in courseware, and some big splashy Apple deals ended up evaporating—or worse—and it hasn’t been the best time for the company in education.
A couple recent moves by Apple, however, have me wondering if Cupertino hasn’t decided to take a different tack when approaching education—one that plays more to its strengths.
Checking in with “The Sims,” whether hardware colors sway our buying choices, Apple’s new pricing strategy with the iPhone 17e and MacBook Neo, and whether the Studio Display XDR is a bad deal.
The rumors are true: Apple has announced a new, low-price MacBook based on an A-series processor. It’s the MacBook Neo and it starts at $599, the lowest price ever for a new Mac laptop.
This product is the result of Apple’s manufacturing ability and the rise of Apple silicon. With Intel processors, the MacBook Air has basically occupied the bottom limit of what Apple would consider acceptable performance for a Mac. But even the original M1 MacBook Air still offers solid performance, and the A series chips primarily used in iPhones have kept getting better alongside them. The MacBook Neo is the outcome: Apple can now sell a capable laptop below the MacBook Air, powered by the same A18 Pro processor found in the iPhone 16 Pro.
For $599—keep in mind, the cheapest standard price for any new Mac was $499 for a Mac mini—you get a complete 13-inch laptop that shares a family resemblance (right down to the rounded corners) with the rest of the MacBook product line. (The education price is $499!) The base model doesn’t offer Touch ID and only has 256GB of storage, but there’s also a $699 model with 512GB storage and Touch ID.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the colors: Apple has dropped its longstanding moratorium on bright colors on Mac laptops. The Neo comes in silver, yes, but also blush, indigo, and citrus. I’ve seen them all in person, so let me translate: Blush is pink enough that even I, a person who has a hard time seeing pinks, can tell that it’s pink. Indigo is sort of like the MacBook Air’s Midnight color lightened up a few notches. And citrus is a bright yellow-gold that nobody is going to mistake for some other Apple laptop.
No $599 Mac laptop is going to exist without compromises, but they’re surprisingly minimal, in my opinion. (And I’ll point out that if they’re too much for a potential buyer, the MacBook Air is right there.) There’s no MagSafe charging or Thunderbolt, but there are two USB-C ports and a headphone jack. One USB-C port is capable of driving 4K external video at 60 frames per second. Both models offer only 8GB of RAM, which is enough to run Apple Intelligence but is shy of the MacBook Air’s 16GB base.
If you’re wondering if an iPhone processor can really drive a Mac, let me reprint this chart that I posted last year:
In short, that A18 CPU core is fast. That will carry the day for the MacBook Neo, and I’d call multi-core and GPU performance “good enough,” certainly for a $599 laptop. (Of course, we’ll see how the MacBook Neo actually performs once we get our hands on one for extended testing and review.)
John Ternus introduces the MacBook Neo.
In introducing the MacBook Neo at an Apple event in New York City, Apple VP of Hardware John Ternus emphasized that nearly half of all Macs Apple sells are to people new to the Mac. If you look at the MacBook Neo product page you’ll see that Apple is well aware that a $599 laptop allows it to address a market that may have never really considered buying a Mac before. In addition to establishing that it’s a bona fide, full-featured Mac, there’s a prominent “Switch from PC to Mac” element.
It’s also clear that Apple’s attempts to use the iPad as a way into that part of the market, most notably education, have been limited. The MacBook Neo gives Apple a traditional computer (complete with display, keyboard, and pointing device) to sell into that market. That $499 education price is really aggressive. Apple’s never going to win on price alone in any market—it’s not the game they play—but this puts them in the mix more than an iPad-keyboard combo or an education-priced MacBook Air.
The last few years, Apple has been selling an M1 MacBook Air at Walmart for very low prices. It was a curious choice and Apple hasn’t really talked much about it, but it sure seemed like the company was testing the viability of selling laptops into a never-before-seen price point. Was that all a test of viability for the MacBook Neo? Either way, this new laptop may very well bring the Mac to an entirely new set of users who would have never considered buying a Mac before. That’s very exciting.
One of the most surprising parts of Apple’s announcement on Tuesday of new M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pro models was its decision to change how it describes the two different types of CPU cores in its processors.
What’s in a name? It’s really a marketing decision, more than anything else. And most people will not care, or even notice. But those of us who pay close attention to this stuff will notice, and you may be hearing about it from us for some time to come.
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.
Here’s the backstory: With every new generation of Apple’s Mac-series processors, I’ve gotten the impression from Apple execs that they’ve been a little frustrated with the perception that their “lesser” efficiency cores were weak sauce. I’ve lost count of the number of briefings and conversations I’ve had where they’ve had to go out of their way to point out that, actually, the lesser cores on an M-series chip are quite fast on their own, in addition to being very good at saving power!
Clearly they’ve had enough of that, so they’re changing how Apple’s second-tier cores are marketed to emphasize their performance, rather than their efficiency. Which is fine on its face, but by re-using an existing term of art, it’s going to be a bit confusing when it comes time to explain what’s going on. I wonder if Apple should’ve come up with two different names for these cores, rather than recycling one of them.
Leaving the naming aside, a new secondary core design is actually great news. Apple doesn’t iterate every aspect of its chips every time, but chooses different bits to upgrade—and the power-efficient cores got the big update with the high-end M5 generation. The “super” cores really are meant to be used for peak workloads, and a huge amount of the everyday life of a Mac doesn’t need to tap that power. Also, presumably these new cores will also crop up on the base M6 chips next year, making them appreciably better than the base M5.
In the end, I suspect this is entirely a marketing issue: Apple didn’t think the lesser of the two core types was getting its due, and I understand why. In a few years maybe none of us will flinch when we read about a chip with so many super cores and so many performance cores. Not today, though.
One last, tangential observation: Apple announced its new Fusion Architecture today as well, which allows the company to mix and match different “chiplets” in a single package. This is another esoteric chip thing (is there any other kind?) but it has real ramifications for the future of Apple’s chip designs. It means that Apple can be a bit more modular with its designs, building a standard CPU set (for the M5 Max and Pro) while offering two different GPU variants with 20 (Pro) and 40 (Max) cores. I’m also curious what this means for a future Ultra chip, assuming there will be one whenever the M5 Mac Studio is announced.
On Tuesday Apple updated the MacBook Air, its most popular Mac laptop, by adding the M5 chip it introduced last fall.
Beyond the new chip, the M5 MacBook Air is very much the same as last year’s M4 MacBook Air. It does get Apple’s new N1 chip, with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, and improved memory bandwidth of 153GB/s. But the primary changes are in two areas: price and storage.
The base-model M5 Air starts at 512GB of storage, twice what the base-model M4 Air offered. But in true Apple fashion, that generous spec bump comes at a price. Literally. The M5 Air’s starting price is $1099 ($999 for education), $100 more than the M4 Air’s $999 base price.
It’s a little disappointing, since Apple had finally gotten back to that magic sub-$1000 non-education price for the MacBook Air. Perhaps, as rumors suggest, Apple has another low-cost laptop on the way that provides it some cover to increase the base price of the MacBook Air. We’ll see.
Pairing with the newly announced MacBook is a new pair of external displays that Apple has also unveiled: the Studio Display and the Studio Display XDR.
The 27-inch Studio Display is largely unchanged from its predecessor, introduced in 2022: it’s a 5K Retina display with a 5120-by-2880 resolution at 218 pixels per inch, 600 nits of brightness, a 60Hz refresh rate, and an optional nano-texture glass coating.
The XDR model, which seems to replace the old Pro Display XDR, is a souped up version of the Studio Display, but it’s also a 27-inch 5K Retina display with the same resolution. However, it offers a Mini-LED backlight with 2304 dimming zones, up to 1000 nits of brightness in SDR and 2000 nits of peak brightness with HDR. It also has a 120Hz refresh rate and Adaptive Sync technology that adjusts frame rates on the fly to suit the content being shown, such as video or games.
Both models offer a 12MP Center Stage camera, which Apple says offers “improved image quality”, a sore spot for some on the previous Studio Display—how true that is remains to be seen. Like the 2022 Studio Display, both models have six speakers with Spatial Audio and a three-microphone array. About the only major difference in the base level Studio Display is the addition of Thunderbolt 5 connectivity, with one upstream port and one downstream port. There remain two USB-C ports.
By default, the Studio Display still comes with a tilt-adjustable stand, though there are options for both a height-adjustable stand or a VESA mount. The Studio Display XDR gets the height-adjustable stand by default, and can also be configured with a VESA mount.
The pricing is, as always, a big question: the Studio Display starts at the same $1599 price point as its predecessor, with the nano-texture option jacking that up to $1899, and the height-adjustable stand adding an additional $400. (The VESA mount version starts at the same base $1599.)
The XDR is a pricey one: it starts at $3299, with the same $300 premium for nano-texture though, hey, at least you get that height-adjustable stand by default. That’s cheaper, at least, than its predecessor, the Pro Display XDR, which started at $4999, with an additional $999 for the stand.
[Dan Moren is the East Coast Bureau Chief of Six Colors, as well as an author, podcaster, and two-time Jeopardy! champion. You can find him on Mastodon at @dmoren@zeppelin.flights or reach him by email at dan@sixcolors.com. His next novel, the sci-fi adventure Eternity's Tomb, will be released in November 2026.]
These models join the base level M5 MacBook Pro, released last fall, but offer more power, starting with a 15-core CPU and 16-core GPU on the M5 Pro model, 24GB of RAM, and 1TB of SSD storage. The M5 Max-equipped MacBook, meanwhile, starts at 18-core CPU, 32-core GPU, and 36GB of RAM, with 2TB of storage. That’s double the storage for both models over their counterparts for last year, and Apple says the SSDs are twice as fast as well.
But the M5 Pro and Max are undoubtedly the stars of the show. Like the M5 chips we’ve seen so far, they feature a next-generation GPU with a Neural Accelerator. But Apple says they also use an all new Fusion Architecture, which connects two three-nanometer dies on a single system on a chip that bundles CPU, GPU, Neural Engine, and more.
In their base configurations, they both feature what Apple is now branding super cores, alongside “all-new” performance cores. This is perhaps a bit of nominative legerdemain—Apple says the super core is the rebranded name for the performance core that already existed on the base M5 chip. The new performance cores aren’t the same as the M5’s efficiency cores—they’re a new design that is intended to balance multithreaded performance and power efficiency.
Wirelessly, the new models are powered by Apple’s N1 chip, bringing support for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 across the line, like the new M4 iPad Air and iPhone 17e introduced earlier this week.
There are a handful of other improvements: the microphones add Voice Isolation and Wide Spectrum modes, and the M5 Pro MacBook Pro is now configurable with up to 64GB of memory. The 16-inch M5 Max gets slightly better battery life—up to 16 hours of wireless web browsing, compared to 14 hours on its M4 predecessor, and 22 hours of video streaming, compared to 21 hours. The 14-inch M5 Max ekes out two additional hours of video streaming, up to 20 hours.
The 14-inch M5 Pro starts at $2199, while the 16-inch starts at $2699; the 14-inch M5 Max model starts at $3599, with its 16-inch counterpart at $3899. All models will be available for pre-order on March 4, and will start shipping on March 11.
[Dan Moren is the East Coast Bureau Chief of Six Colors, as well as an author, podcaster, and two-time Jeopardy! champion. You can find him on Mastodon at @dmoren@zeppelin.flights or reach him by email at dan@sixcolors.com. His next novel, the sci-fi adventure Eternity's Tomb, will be released in November 2026.]
Jason and Myke try to predict what Apple will be announcing this week, except for the stuff that was announced Monday. But they discuss the new iPad Air and iPhone 17e too! Also: Apple’s F1 plans and some Report Card follow-up.
A reader of my book Take Control of iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 had a perplexing problem. I had written of the menus available in iPadOS 26’s Windowed Apps and Stage Manager modes in Settings: Multitasking & Gestures:
With a mouse or trackpad, pushing the pointer to the top edge above the status bar reveals the menu bar.
Yet, for this reader, they were unable to use a pointing device to get the menu to appear in that fashion. The cursor sometimes disappeared, and clicking didn’t help. They had to swipe, like some kind of animal, to have the menus appear. This is less than ideal when you’re using an input device and a keyboard on an iPad, as you typically position it differently than when you’re using it with touch input.
Universal Control settings let you push a pointer through between an iPad and a Mac or two Macs.
We went through some troubleshooting steps, but then it occurred to me that the culprit might be their Mac. That’s right—Universal Control could be the issue! Universal Control is Apple’s name for using a keyboard and mouse or other input devices on a Mac with one or two nearby Macs or iPads. (Follow that link to see the minimum system and hardware requirements.)1
You configure Universal Control on your Mac in System Settings: Displays. Click Advanced, and three Link to Mac or iPad options appear if the feature is available:
Allow your pointer and keyboard to move between any nearby Mac or iPad
Push through the edge of a display to connect a nearby Mac or iPad
Automatically reconnect to any nearby Mac or iPad
With the first setting enabled, the second is the key issue: Push through. I asked my email correspondent if they had this feature enabled and, more crucially, when they clicked the Arrange button at the bottom of the Displays setting, did they see their iPad below their Mac (see figure).
In this configuration, you can push through from an iPad to a Mac without displaying iPad menus. As shown by the arrow, re-arrange your iPad’s display relative to your Mac’s.
The answer was yes. Which is why they couldn’t move their pointer to the top of the iPad and have menus appear: when they did this, they slid through to the bottom of their Mac. I was able to reproduce this, and with some fine motor control, could sometimes get the menu to appear before I slid onto my Mac display.
They moved the iPad to one side of their Mac in Arrange, and the problem went away.
[Got a question for the column? You can email glenn@sixcolors.com or use/glennin our subscriber-only Discord community.]
Universal Control is distinct from Sidecar, which lets you use an iPad as an additional Mac monitor, rather than displaying iPadOS. ↩
Continuing its cavalcade of product announcements, Apple also rolled out an updated iPad Air on Monday, upping the tablet’s processor to the M4 and increasing its RAM and memory bandwidth.
Don’t expect the iPad Air to look much different to its predecessor: not only does it feature the same dimensions1, but it comes in the same Space Gray, Blue, Purple, and Starlight colors as the M3 model and the M2 before it. Battery life is unchanged as well, with up to 10 hours. The new models remain compatible with all the accessories of the previous versions, including the Apple Pencil Pro and Apple Pencil (USB-C), and the 11-inch and 13-inch Magic Keyboards.
All the major improvements are under the hood. In addition to the M4 processor’s 30-percent performance improvement, there’s now 12GB of unified RAM—up from 8GB of memory in the M3 Air—and memory bandwidth of 120GB/s, compared to the 100GB/s offered by the earlier model. The M4 also unlocks hardware acceleration for 8K in more formats, including H.264, ProRes, and ProRes RAW.
There are some improvements on the connectivity side as well. The M4 Air also gets Apple’s own N1 wireless chip, adding support for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 and better performance for 5GHz Wi-Fi networks. And cellular models will use Apple’s C1X, the same chip inside the new 17e, which Apple says offers more energy efficient performance.
As with the iPhone 17e, Apple is continuing to tout its environmental friendly construction. The new iPad Air is made with 30-percent recycled content, including 100 percent recycled aluminum for the exterior, and 100 percent recycled cobalt in the battery.
The new iPad Air will be available for pre-order on Wednesday, March 4, and will arrive on Wednesday, March 11. The 11-inch model starts at the same $599 price point, with the 13-inch beginning at $799.
Except for weight, in which the 11-inch M4 model has an extra 4 grams—or 5 grams in the cellular version. The 13-inch is the same across the board. Scandal! ↩
[Dan Moren is the East Coast Bureau Chief of Six Colors, as well as an author, podcaster, and two-time Jeopardy! champion. You can find him on Mastodon at @dmoren@zeppelin.flights or reach him by email at dan@sixcolors.com. His next novel, the sci-fi adventure Eternity's Tomb, will be released in November 2026.]
Apple on Monday kicked off its week of announcements by rolling out the new iPhone 17e, the successor to last year’s lower cost 16e.
The 17e boasts the same A19 chip that powers the iPhone 17, a step up over the A18 in the 16e, including a 4-core GPU enhanced with Neural Accelerators. The 17e also has the same C1X Apple cellular chip as last year’s iPhone Air, the successor to the C1 that debuted in the 16e; Apple says the C1X provides up to 2x better performance and uses 30 percent less energy.
Apple’s also bumped the storage this year, with the 17e now starting at 256GB, twice the 16e’s base level, at the same $599 price point. Upgrading to 512GB will raise the price to $799.
Perhaps the biggest addition to the 17e is the inclusion of MagSafe, a feature that was strangely missing from the 16e. That includes charging up to 15W with a compatible charger, and full compatibility with MagSafe accessories as well as support for Qi2 wireless charging.
In addition, the 17e’s front display has been updated with Ceramic Shield 2 technology to help protect against cracks and breaking as well as reduce glare.
Otherwise, the specs remain largely unchanged, including the same 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR display, up to 26 hours of battery life, and support for both Emergency SOS features and Apple Intelligence.1
Apple also says that the 17e has a 48MP Fusion camera system, which on the face of it seems identical to last year’s “2-in-1 camera system” although Apple touts the 17e’s “next-generation” portrait mode that adds the ability to recognize people, dogs, and cats as well as to add portrait mode effects after the fact. The 12MP TrueDepth camera in front likewise has the same specs as last year, with the same addition of “next-generation portraits.” Apple attributes this ability to improvements in its image pipeline.
And in case you thought Apple’s environmental promises were out the window in this day and age, the company does say that the 17e is made with 30 percent recycled content. That includes 85 percent of its enclosure, made with recycled aluminum, and 100 percent recycled cobalt in its battery.
The iPhone 17e is available in three colors: black, white, and what Apple is calling “soft pink.” It goes up for pre-order this Wednesday, March 4, and will be available for sale next Wednesday, March 11. There are also six colors of Silicone Case with MagSafe—black, anchor blue, light moss, vanilla, bright guava, and soft pink—as well as a clear case, each retailing for $49.
Though they measure in at the exact same dimensions, the 17e is 2 grams heavier. Maybe the A19 is 2 grams heavier! ↩
[Dan Moren is the East Coast Bureau Chief of Six Colors, as well as an author, podcaster, and two-time Jeopardy! champion. You can find him on Mastodon at @dmoren@zeppelin.flights or reach him by email at dan@sixcolors.com. His next novel, the sci-fi adventure Eternity's Tomb, will be released in November 2026.]
Jason Snell returns to John Gruber’s talk show to discuss the 2025 Six Colors Apple Report Card, MacOS 26 Tahoe, Apple Creator Studio, along with what we expect/hope for in next week’s Apple product announcements.
I’m a Six Colors Subscriber who likes to draw pictures of data. As in previous years, Jason Snell kindly asked me if I wanted to try drawing some additional graphs based on the 2025 Report Card. In prior years, I’ve looked at the questionnaire data in ways that a social scientist might, mostly focusing on how the answers cluster together across respondents.
This year, Jason’s discussion of the results here at Six Colors and on Upgrade highlighted not just this or that question but a more general feature of the data: the bad vibes. The vibes around Apple seem worse this year. Naturally, we want to know: what can … (here you should imagine me turning my head dramatically while the camera suddenly zooms in) … science … tell us about these vibes?
Well, if we were just relying on the survey, not that much. But when your panel of fifty or more also write tens of thousands of additional words of commentary, your polite attempts to dissuade them from doing so notwithstanding … Well, maybe that can be grist for our mill. Of science. It’s a science mill, OK? One that can be made to do a little sentiment analysis of the 2025 commentary to see how it compares to the vibes from 2024.
