Apple announces WWDC 2026 from June 8 to 12, with AI advancements as part of the agenda.

Apple:

Apple today announced it will host its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) online from June 8-12, bringing developers together from around the world for a week of connection, exploration, and innovation. In addition to the online experience, developers and students will also have the opportunity to celebrate in person during a special event at Apple Park on June 8.

WWDC26 will spotlight incredible updates for Apple platforms, including AI advancements and exciting new software and developer tools. As part of the company’s ongoing commitment to supporting developers, WWDC will also provide unique access to Apple engineers and designers, and insight into new tools, frameworks, and features.

Last year the big story was Liquid Glass, and no mention of AI in their newsroom piece. This time they specifically mention AI, which gets me excited. Maybe we will finally see the new and improved Siri this time around?

Don’t get too excited about new hardware since this is a developer conference, even though Apple has debuted new hardware at WWDC in the past. The last time was in 2023 with notable hardware including Vision Pro, the 15-inch MacBook Air, and Mac Pro with Apple Silicon.

MacBook Neo Review: is it an upgrade from the 2020 M1 MacBook Air?

I’ve been testing out the MacBook Neo for over a week now, and I am confused by its performance. It works well (great in fact!), but now I wonder if I need more than this. I have been using the base model M1 Air for over 3 years now, and I don’t see the need to upgrade. If I do upgrade, the Neo would be on my list. Even a discounted M4 Air is overkill for me.

I got the base model MacBook Neo for testing, so both my Air and the Neo have 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.

Chassis and design

Compared to the M1 Air, the design is a huge shift. Instead of a wedge shaped laptop with sharp corners, you get a flat design with rounded curves and edges. It doesn’t have a range of depth unlike the M1 Air, with a thicker back tapering to a thinner front end. Somewhere along the line my M1 Air got a bend in the chassis, not sure how or if it was that way from day one, but if I place it down on a flat surface, it definitely wobbles even though it has all 4 rubber feet in place. It’s not huge, but definitely noticeable. The Neo is flat and has no flex or wobble and feels just as premium as Apple’s most expensive laptops. If you were to really press hard on the lid of both laptops (or any laptop for that matter), you would notice some flex and notice the lid pushing in, but it’s an unnatural amount of push. For the record, the flex is more on the M1 Air.

I would argue that the design is even more premium in some ways, such as the keyboard. It seems counterintuitive to call the keyboard more premium even though it has no backlight, but the change to lighter, colored keycaps matching the color aesthetics of the laptop gives it a fun and premium look. Apple could have slapped a white keyboard for all 4 colors and it still would look nice, but they went out of their way to colorize the keys. Very cool.

You also get color-matching USB-C pins, a feature usually reserved for premium devices. Once again, very cool.

Overall, the design is great and very surprising for a $599 laptop. It is a joy to hold and gives you confidence when holding it with its sturdy chassis and consistent dimensions front to back. The M1 Air is still light and great to hold, but you only feel comfortable and confident holding it from the thicker hinged side since that angle doesn’t fight your finger grip. Try holding a big wedge of cheese from the thin side, and you’ll know what I mean.

Keyboard

Having no backlight not only helps with lowering the price and repairability, but it also makes perfect sense for the lighter colored keys. If the keys were backlit, the letters on the keys would have to be translucent, and that translucency in normal daylight or office lighting would be disastrous for readability. The shimmering lights would bounce off the keys making the light keys and now light letters invisible and therefore unreadable. I noticed that a lot when fondling over other laptop brands in the past, with their silver keys with translucent letters being almost unreadable with proper room lighting.

Don’t get me wrong. I would prefer a backlight and I do miss it everyday, but the keyboard contrast is great enough that you can see the keys from the screen’s light. This is also a good time to motivate anyone who complains about the lack of backlighting to learn how to properly type, especially all these influencers who are still pecking away at their keyboards. If pecking is your only hope, don’t get the Indigo color because it has the darkest keys. The keyboard contrast is much better on Silver, Blush, and Citrus. I can confirm that after using my niece’s Blush model and comparing it side by side in the dark with my Indigo test model.

Trackpad

The trackpad is also newly engineered to provide good tactility, even though it is a mechanical trackpad and not the more premium Force Touch. It is the first mechanical trackpad in a MacBook since 2015. Fun fact - Apple did release a mechanical trackpad in 2020 in the form of the Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro. I have an iPad Pro from that era along with the Magic Keyboard case, and the mechanical trackpad works fine without any issues many years later. The one on the Neo feels like it has a deeper click, but it feels just as solid and would be delightful for anyone who isn’t a fan of the haptic trackpad Apple currently uses. If you’re used to Force Touch, you will notice the Neo’s trackpad does slow you down just a hair since your finger is physically traveling (albeit maybe 2mm), compared to no travel with Force Touch.

Another fun fact - the trackpad is 7% of the total weight of the MacBook Neo, which is crazy. I believe Apple had to make the trackpad a mechanical one with a lot of weight (twice the weight of the Force Touch trackpad on the M5 Air), in order to keep the weight balance right and allow for the one-finger lift.

The one-finger lift. Ah yes, the tell-tale sign of a premium product. It’s still there and better than ever.

Display

The display is slightly smaller than an M1 Air (0.3 inch diagonal shorter) and won’t be missed. On an M2 Air and above it is 0.6 inches shorter, which will be missed, but these aren’t the target markets. The target market is Chromebooks and budget windows laptops and in that market, you will find bigger screens, but you won’t find quality, high-res screens with 500 nits of brightness. It even gets brighter than the M1 Air which maxes out at 400 nits. Chromebooks usually max out at 1080p at this price point, and you could even end up with washed out displays that shift colors really easily causing more eye strain than watching C-SPAN.

Speakers

Speaker quality is equal to my M1 Air, and I really couldn’t tell the difference between the two, which is a good thing because they do a more than adequate job. They are side firing instead of top firing, but it doesn’t affect the quality. If you cup your hands on the sides right by the speakers, you get a bit deeper bass as you reroute the audio upwards. The headphone jack is closer to the front compared to the back, which gives you some extra slack.

Performance

Coming from the M1 Air, I don’t see a noticeable difference between the two devices even though my M1 Air has dual NAND chips with faster read and write speeds to the SSD. That means if I am running low on RAM and have to borrow internal storage as RAM, technically my M1 Air would be faster, but again I am not noticing any difference in performance between the two because Apple has done some things under the hood to mitigate the memory swap issue plaguing the base model M2 Air with a single NAND chip. Whether you get 256GB or 512GB on the Neo, you will only have single channel memory, with less “highways” for data transfer. I would still opt for the 512GB model since you get the benefit of Touch ID which has its perks and security benefits.

So what exactly do I do to “push” this laptop? I have many stock apps open at any given time, including Mail, Messages, Notes, Calendar, Safari with 12+ tabs, News, Photos, and it just flies through my workload without a hitch. Playing 4K videos in Photos, while playing a 4K video in YouTube and editing images in Canva on Safari didn’t lead to any slow downs and is beyond a realistic workload for me. Even with nearly 4GB of swap memory, things were moving along fine. This laptop will surprise you with its capabilities, and is ideal for someone who is starting off as a simple, basic user that wants to delve into more ambitious projects as they learn new tools and creative apps. Ambition and creativity are part of the Neo’s theme, amplified by its built in hardware-accelerated ray tracing that will really smoke the M1 Air out of Apple’s walled garden.

Battery life

Apple quotes 16 hours of battery life vs 18 hours on all previous Airs including the M1 Air, so a slight decrease. The main issue however is charging speed. The Neo maxes out at 30W of charging, but you need a separate charger brick since the one supplied in the box is a 20W brick. More intensive tasks like 3D rendering and gaming will deplete the battery quickly, and it will take longer to charge it to full since it doesn’t support fast charging. If you’re coming from an M1 Air, the battery charging experience will be about the same since both the M1 Air and the Neo don’t support MagSafe 3 fast charging.

The great news - you can use battery banks to charge this laptop with ease due to the relatively low wattage requirements.

Who is this laptop for?

This laptop is for many types of people, and most people will fit into one of these categories:

1. Someone new to macOS, and just wants a cheap way to get into the Apple walled garden after already being a dedicated iPad and iPhone user. They want to take the jump into familiar yet unfamiliar territory by having a proper computer to manage school, life, and/or work.

2. A nice “beater” laptop for professionals who work on Macs that costs thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars and want a secondary machine for those days where they are doing more admin type of work.

3. Any student looking to get a laptop for school or college will be fine with a Neo.

4. Anyone upgrading from a Chromebook will appreciate the extra power and higher fidelity screen.

5. M1 Air owners whose laptop is on its last legs from a physical perspective - this is the best lateral move. I’ll say it again - I’ve been using the M1 for over 3 years now as a daily driver, and this laptop can easily handle everything the M1 can. If you give me enough time, I might see a beach ball, but I have seen one beach ball in nearly 10 days. Think of the Neo as a lateral job promotion - you don’t get a pay raise, but you love your new job and don’t want to go back.

6. Finally, if you’re using an Intel MacBook Air, the benefits are insane when you jump to the Neo. You get the promotion at work with a serious pay raise, and you love the job.

Does the MacBook Neo collect a lot of fingerprints like the Midnight Blue MacBook Air?

I haven’t wiped the exterior surface of my MacBook Neo since I got it 9 days ago, and here is a comparison vs an M2 MacBook Air in Midnight Blue, known to be a fingerprint magnet. The Neo will get fingerprints, but it won’t turn into a grime fest that is Midnight Blue.

I felt like taking a shower after touching this M2 Air.

If I was a case kind of guy, I would get these Spigen Macintosh throwback cases.

Andrew Clare on X has some great photos showing an iPhone 17 Pro case, MagSafe wallet, and AirPods Pro 3 case that scream nostalgia, reminding me of those days in computer class where we would play Where in the World is Carmen San Diego on some Apple IIe computers.

Once again the love for the iPhone Air is so grand, so magnificent, that Spigen also didn’t see the need to release this retro case for the most durable and most loved device by Apple.

It’s unheard of.

You can get MagSafe magnets on iPhone 16e by using the back glass of an iPhone 17e.

It’s not perfect and I don’t expect Apple to update the software to support it, but the back glass of an iPhone 17e can be swapped into an iPhone 16e. Per iFixit:

It’s not a 100% identical experience: Your 16e won’t inherit the “thonk” noise and MagSafe animation, and it won’t pop into StandBy mode when you’re MagSafe charging and your phone is on its side. 

Your 16e also won’t suddenly become aware of the iPhone 17e’s Qi2 charging standard, which draws a consistent 15W instead of the variable 5-15W of Qi and Qi Magnetic. It should still mean more efficient charging, however. We’d have to do more testing to be sure, but we have observed the 16e with a 17e back glass draw up to 10W, and it seems plausible that a 16e with the MagSafe alignment might even draw closer to 15W. In all, being able to swap in a 17e MagSafe back is essentially giving last year’s phone this year’s upgrade, for a fraction of the price. 

How much? Apple hasn’t released 17e parts yet, so we won’t know exactly until then, but you can get other MagSafe iPhone back glass parts for $120 after a return part credit. Many third-party suppliers currently offer an equivalent part for about $20.

Most people who are buying a budget, entry level iPhone 16e have a case on it, and I would bet that case has MagSafe rings. For those non-enthusiasts, the MagSafe problem never existed. In fact, their phone case gave them a bonus magnetic system allowing for easier charging and easier mounting for accessories like wallets and battery packs.

Most tech enthusiasts who carry their iPhone caseless aren’t using an iPhone 16e and already have MagSafe on their iPhone, so although this is a neat feature, only about 5 people in the world will appreciate it. Out of those 5, how many will actually pay extra and teardown their phone to do the “repair?”

My guess is zero.

Samsung, “asked for the moon” when negotiating with Apple about RAM price increases due to ridiculous worldwide demand.

Tim Hardwick from MacRumors:

According to the report's sources, Apple recently held emergency meetings with Samsung's semiconductor division to negotiate delivery volumes of RAM for the first half of this year. The 12GB LPDDR5X modules used in the iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro have already roughly doubled in price since early 2025, rising from around $30 to approximately $70.

Samsung is said to have originally planned to push for a 60% price increase on LPDDR5X modules supplied to Apple. Instead, however, Samsung opened with a 100% markup as a negotiating tactic – and Apple apparently accepted it on the spot.

If the publication's industry sources are accurate, Apple's immediate acceptance just goes to show how desperate smartphone makers have become to lock down memory supply. Chipmakers like SK Hynix and Micron have been redirecting production capacity toward high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for AI servers, and that has left mobile DRAM in extremely short supply.

Either Apple was desperate, or they already had a stupid good deal due to shrewd negotiations.

Probably both.

Looks like Samsung also played Tim Cook’s card when it comes to negotiations by asking for a 100% price markup instead of 60%. Patrick McGee from his book, “Apple In China”:

Cook was fond of teaching colleagues to “be aggressive and unreasonable” when negotiating with suppliers. Max Paley, a vice president of graphics at the time, recalls not really knowing what this meant. Cook would say in a calm, deliberative cadence: “Don’t... ever... be ... afraid ... to ... be ... unreasonable.” What did that mean? Was Cook saying to be a jerk? Paley wasn’t sure, but he later grew to understand and respect it. “What he was really saying was that it’s a typical thing for people—even in business negotiations with a supplier—to try to figure out: What’s a reasonable thing to ask them? What are they likely to be able to do?” Paley says. “Whereas he was kinda saying, ‘You have no clue! You have no idea what the supplier might actually be capable of. So don’t be afraid to ask for the moon. Ask for everything you want. Ask for everything you need. If they can’t do it, they’ll say no.’”

In order to achieve a premium one-finger lift on MacBook Neo, Apple needed to go with a cheaper mechanical trackpad, killing two birds with one stone.

It’s simply physics at the end of the day. The MacBook Neo and MacBook Air weigh the same at 2.7 pounds, but according to iFixit (when describing the Neo’s chassis):

Together, its chassis, keyboard, and bottom cover are just 8g lighter than the Air’s. But the Neo’s screen is 48g heavier, and the solid chunk of metal that supports its trackpad makes up 7% of the laptop’s overall weight! The Neo’s full trackpad assembly is almost exactly twice as heavy as the M3 MacBook Air’s, too. 

In order to counter balance the heavy screen when opening the laptop, you need a solid front-end base that will keep the chassis in place. What better way than to make a heavy trackpad mechanism that complements the extra screen weight, right at the lip where you lift the lid? Apple achieves the premium lift, and also a cheaper bill of materials without compromising trackpad feel.

Cheaper and more premium - a paradox worth fighting for.

Apple releases AirPods Max 2, and they’re still made of heavy stainless steel.

The main upgrade is the new H2 chip enabling new features per Apple:

Adaptive Audio adjusts the levels of ANC and Transparency in response to the environment automatically to optimize the audio experience.

Conversation Awareness helps lower content volume and reduce background noise when a user starts speaking to someone nearby.

Live Translation, powered by Apple Intelligence, helps users communicate across languages in person.

Voice Isolation uses advanced computational audio powered by H2 to prioritize the voice during calls, while blocking out ambient noise.

With camera remote, users can capture content at a distance by pressing the Digital Crown to take a photo and start or stop video recording while using the Camera app or compatible third-party camera apps on iPhone or iPad.

Studio-quality audio recording allows interviewers, podcasters, singers, and other creators to record their content with higher-quality audio and more natural vocal texture.

Loud Sound Reduction helps users prevent exposure to loud environmental noise while preserving the sound signature of what they’re listening to.

Personalized Volume automatically fine-tunes the listening experience for users based on their preferences over time.

Siri Interactions allow users to conveniently and privately respond to Siri announcements by simply nodding their head yes or gently shaking their head no.

Still around 30-40% heaver than the competition - a Titanium version would be nice and something that would make me consider it more seriously. Camera Remote is a cool new feature allowing you to take photos and videos with a click of the Digital Crown a la Apple Watch*. Here’s a link comparing AirPods Max 2 to the previous version, along with links to the Overview and Tech Specs.

*Update 3/16 - Actually you tap the screen on Apple Watch to take a photo, and the Digital Crown serves as a Zoom. Maybe the Digital Crown on AirPods Max 2 can be updated to act as a Zoom?

MacBook Neo isn’t the only recent Apple device with a mechanical trackpad.

Apple’s original Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro, announced at the peak of COVID and available for purchase in April 2020, was their first trackpad for the iPad, and it was an all mechanical setup similar to the MacBook Neo.

iFixit tears it down and describes its functionality, with a nice little animation showing how it works:

What looks like multiple buttons in the X-ray is actually just one button and a simple, elegant lever system. The single button is at the center of the trackpad, where the mechanism is rigid. When you apply pressure near the center, whether top, middle, or bottom-center, you are directly pressing the button. Press near the top, bottom, or one of the corners, however, and the lever system comes into play, forcing the contact plate in the center upward to make a click happen. You can see it happen in this animation below. Note how the lever mechanism covers not only the diagonal corner areas, but the perimeter of the trackpad, too.

I’ve been using mine for years, and it still holds up really well with no signs of internal wear.

The most bipolar Mac setup that you shouldn’t have.

A buddy of mine got the Studio Display XDR and I thought - why not pair it with one of Apple’s new computers released last week.

Which computer you may ask?

Well the MacBook Neo of course.

No one, I mean no one, should have this setup. For the love of God, your monitor should not have more RAM and a stronger processor than your computer.

Smoking weed isn’t a new problem, but a more potent one, and changes the definition of what “high school” is supposed to be.

The Wall Street Journal (News+ link), starting off their story with what seems like a scene straight out of the movies:

It was 10:09 and 22 seconds on a Friday morning at Liberty High School when an alert dinged on James Geis’s phone: “High Vape Index.”

He dashed out of the administrative building and jumped into a golf cart, racing across the school’s sprawling campus to the location identified in the alert, the “E” girls’ bathroom. Within minutes he was outside the door.

A girl walked out. “Can I talk to you? Was there anyone else in there with you?” said Geis, one of the school’s campus supervisors tasked with combating marijuana use—or what many Liberty students call “narcs.”

Two more girls walked out. Geis told the students that a vape sensor went off. “What would happen if I ran?” one said.

“We would get you when you come back,” Geis responded.

She didn’t run. Geis ushered the students to a conference room where Liberty’s principal, Efa Huckaby, searched their backpacks. Hand sanitizer, folders, perfume, a pair of black leggings. Empty chips bags. He had the girls, two seniors and one freshman, turn their jeans’ pockets inside out and patted down the hoods of their sweatshirts. One of the students spoke slowly and seemed glassy-eyed.

Another campus supervisor, Brad Ainsworth, hung back to search the empty bathroom. Eventually, he found an empty box for a vape cartridge stuffed under a bag lining a metal trash receptacle.

Everywhere I go I can smell weed, even right outside the hospital. It’s not surprising that schools also have increased usage. Meanwhile, High Times argues that marijuana use is going down, even quoting the Wall Street Journal’s survey statistics:

Let’s get the obvious part out of the way. Teen cannabis use is real. The risks are real. THC can be harmful to developing brains, and schools have every right to care about what students are doing on campus. But that is not the same as proving legalization created some brand-new youth cannabis crisis. That leap is where the piece gets slippery.

Because once you leave the anecdote and look at the trendline, the panic starts to wobble. The University of Michigan’s Monitoring the Future report shows past-year marijuana use among 12th graders at 26.0% in 2024, down from 35.7% in 2019. Among 8th graders, it was 7.0% in 2024, down from 11.8% in 2019. That is not an explosion. That is a decline.

While different news outlets will argue whether it should be illegal to smoke and how widespread the issue might be, no one can deny the barrier to entry has declined significantly since I went to high school back in the 90s:

1. It was a process to smoke weed. You had to first acquire it without the aid of a cellphone where you are in constant communication with your “source.”

2. You had to prep it with tools and “roll your own joints,” which apparently is a skill many of today’s youth don’t have or need because a vape is much easier to use and masks the smell from teachers.

And who would know best if use has actually gone down except teenagers themselves (WSJ continues):

But some Liberty students said they don’t think weed use has really gone down. The school’s focus on the bathrooms has just pushed it to other spots, both on campus and off. A major hot spot for weed and nicotine is the stairwell of a parking garage next to the school. “Anytime you go over there, I see a herd of them puffing,” said Blunt, the Liberty senior.

Some teens are brazen enough to do it in class, Blunt said, while a group of her fellow students nodded in agreement. Some will hide vape pens in the sleeves of their shirts and hoodies and take a discreet puff when the teacher isn’t looking.

And if the teacher is showing a video in class, it is a free-for-all, said Trimua. “If the lights are off, the smoke is on,” he said.

Let’s not forget the surveys given in high school are also a horrible way to determine true accuracy of increase or decrease in usage. Many students skew the results by trolling the polls and do speed clicks to get the survey over with, selecting any answer at random:

But a new research paper points out one huge potential flaw in all this research: kids who skew the results by making stuff up for a giggle. "Mischievous Responders," they're called.

They may say they're 7 feet tall, or weigh 400 pounds, or have three children. They may exaggerate their sexual experiences, or lie about their supposed criminal activities. In other words, kids will be kids, especially when you ask them about sensitive issues.

Jackson Terry, 14, says he answered honestly when he took one of these surveys last year, but he knows kids who didn't.

"They handed out the sheet, I believe it was in language class," says Terry, who's from Granville, Ohio. "The teacher was in the room. It was anonymous. I think they asked us about bullying, do you feel safe in school, some questions about drugs, the learning environment."

Some kids "would joke through the entire thing and have a cocky attitude about it," Terry says. "Afterwards some would say, yeah, No. 5, that's totally not true; I just made something up."

New York Times also describes how the potency of THC has increased dramatically from 4% to 90% in some cases (gift link):

Today’s cannabis is far more potent than the pot that preceded legalization. In 1995, the marijuana seized by the Drug Enforcement Administration was around 4 percent THC, the primary psychoactive compound in pot. Today, you can buy marijuana products with THC levels of 90 percent or more. As the cliché goes, this is not your parents’ weed. It is as if some beer brands were still sold as beer but contained as much alcohol per ounce as whiskey.

This extremely potent version of THC can lead to psychosis, even with a single dose, destroying the future of countless children and adults.

“Stats” might say use is declining, but I beg to differ.

MacBook Neo in Indigo - what does it look like in different lighting scenarios?

If my memory serves me correctly, the Midnight Blue MacBook Air was darker than this Indigo color, making the Neo a bit more pleasing to the eye. Anyway here are the photos:

In low, warm light.

Morning productivity.

It is a fingerprint magnet.

Near a window, with overcast skies.

Logo is matte finished instead of the usual glossy finish.

Outdoors in overcast skies. Wasn’t planning on snow today…

Dorm room, warm, low light simulation. Almost looks like the iPhone 14 Pro in Deep Purple.

I like the color matched keyboard, and I think the Indigo has the most colored keyboard out of the bunch. You really notice the lack of a backlight. Speaking of…

In complete darkness, you get some light on the keyboard from the screen, but not enough to compensate for no backlight.

Update to Series 5 Ceramic Apple Watch hands-on.

Posted in my official hands-on, but just in case you want the “line notes” of what was updated:

1. Series 5 Smart Stack only holds 6 widgets. The Series 9, 10, 11, Ultra 2, and Ultra 3 can have 10 widgets. I’m sure the SE 3 can also support 10 widgets since it has the same S10 processor (what qualifies as a widget?).

2. Added some photos with the neon yellow band.

   1. On wrist

   2. Off wrist

Dave2D finally answers my most important question about MacBook Neo.

When the MacBook Neo was announced, I wanted to know if Apple cut a corner on the hinge, since the price point was so low:

The only unanswered question on my mind - can you open the lid with one finger?

That is a signature Apple feature, and it doesn’t surprise me that Apple kept it. The one-finger lift is a sign of premium build quality, and any laptop without it automatically is a deal breaker for me personally. Even when I was a Chromebook user, I only bought the best.

Professional laptop reviewer Dave2D not only confirmed it, but he gave it some screentime, emphasizing the importance of what many would consider an insignificant feature.

iPhone Clock icon transition right at daylight savings time.

Had to get up for work at 2:30am but that time didn’t exist last night, so I decided to get up at 1:55am and saw the clock transition from 1:59am to 3am. Nothing super special, but you have to wait 8 months to see a transition like this again.

Why MacBook Neo can only have 8GB of RAM.

AleksandarK from TechPowerUp, explaining why the RAM in MacBook Neo is limited to 8GB:

Some online criticism emerged regarding Apple's decision to offer a laptop with only 8 GB of RAM in 2026, with no options for higher RAM capacity. However, this 8 GB of RAM is a design choice Apple made at TSMC's packaging facilities for the A18 Pro chip. Inside the MacBook Neo, Apple decided to reuse the iPhone 16 Pro's chip, which comes from TSMC with 8 GB of LPDDR5X memory. This memory is attached directly above the A18 Pro SoC using Integrated Fan-Out Package on Package (InFO-PoP), creating a 3D wafer-level fan-out package. This package is designed to hold memory directly above the SoC die, resulting in a smaller PCB design without the LPDDR5X module taking up over 100 mm² of PCB area.

Therefore, Apple's MacBook Neo configurations are limited to what the A18 Pro SoC is originally packaged with. These are 8 GB LPDDR5X modules that are shipped directly to TSMC for integration into the InFO-PoP package, which is later shipped back to Apple for integration into these new MacBook Neo laptops.

Future upgrades to the MacBook Neo, say to the A19 Pro, would mean it would get 12GB of RAM.

My old advice aged worst than gorgonzola.

Before the MacBook Neo was announced, I said it would be a bad idea to make any upgrades to it:

Apple’s new rumored MacBook with multiple deep color options might be the best deal for students and first-time Mac users, but the minute you go past the base model’s specs, it’s value proposition and charm will fumble.

Rumored to start at 8GB of RAM and at 256GB of memory, it’s a solid computer for an alleged $599-$699 starting price. 8GB of RAM is a limitation though and historically Apple charges a $200 upgrade to 16GB. Now we’re at $799-$899 for this smaller laptop, right in MacBook Air territory, making the M4 MacBook Air the logical purchase since it’s always on sale for $799.

At the time there was no certainty about price and what chip and RAM configurations it would have. Now that it has been revealed, the only upgrade is the $100 option for Touch ID and 256GB of extra storage. Well worth it as I explained in greater detail.

Should you upgrade your MacBook Neo for $100 to get Touch ID and more storage?

The $100 upgrade price is the only upgrade option on MacBook Neo and it gives you two features:

1. 256GB of extra storage, for a total of 512GB.

2. Touch ID instead of a Lock button.

In my opinion it is well worth the upgrade for these two features. 256GB is already limiting for a MacBook, and if you take a lot of photos and videos on your iPhone, the 512GB of storage comes in handy for local storage. Even though this laptop isn’t really a “creator’s laptop” due to its lower specs, it does give people plenty of power to dabble in photo or video editing, where storage once again comes in handy. There’s also the possibility of faster read and write speeds with double the storage and better performance when your 8GB of RAM is full, forcing the computer into swap memory. We will have to wait for the teardown to see if Apple is using single or dual NAND chips but like I said previously:

If I were a betting man, I would assume the base model comes with a single NAND 256GB chip instead of dual NAND 128GB chips. You would get extra performance if you had dual 128GB chips since you have more “lanes” for data transfer and memory swap, but since this is the budget MacBook, it’s hard to tell until someone does a teardown.

Even if there was no difference in SSD speeds and performance, the price upgrade is worth it.

The second reason - Touch ID, a huge time saver when you add the cumulative amount of time you would spend either typing in your password, or hoping your “Apple Watch to Unlock” feature is going to work. Don’t get me wrong - using your Apple Watch to unlock your Mac works really well most of the time…but you need an Apple Watch. Even if you have one, the times where it doesn’t work makes it annoying to manually type your password, potentially making it a security risk if people are snooping around.

Let’s not forget about the other benefits of Touch ID:

1. Apple Pay.

2. You can easily fill usernames and passwords more securely. Without Touch ID, you simply click your username and password from iCloud Keychain to fill the field with no authentication other than when you unlocked your MacBook. In this case Touch ID is less convenient (barely), but more secure.

3. Passkeys - if you’re trying to login with a passkey, there’s a lot less friction with Touch ID. Simply touch and you’re in. Without Touch ID, you would have to use an iPhone or iPad and scan a QR code, adding more friction.

Apple kept the upgrade path simple with MacBook Neo, and the $100 upgrade is a no-brainer. At $699, this is still a great deal and the deal gets even better with education pricing at $599.

Studio Display and Studio Display XDR have A19 and A19 Pro chips inside.

Joe Rossignol from MacRumors:

Apple's press release and marketing materials for the new Studio Display and Studio Display XDR models do not mention which chips are inside the monitors, but MacRumors has confirmed this information in the latest Studio Display firmware.

The firmware reveals that the second-generation Studio Display is equipped with an A19 chip, while the Studio Display XDR has an A19 Pro chip, according to code reviewed by MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris. Rumors had mentioned either the A19 chip or the A19 Pro chip, and it turns out that the two chips are split across the two models.

I was about to write about this exact topic, wondering why Apple didn’t reveal the chipset in these two devices. In 2022 they did discuss the A13 chip and how it was responsible for the Center Stage camera, “Hey Siri” support, and Spatial Audio among other functions. No doubt the A19 Pro is pulling a lot of muscle with all the new features, including medical grade imaging in the XDR model.

Apple debuts all-new MacBook Neo, starting at $599.

A very low entry price, and even lower at $499 with education pricing. The main specs:

• Powered by A18 Pro, the same chip in iPhone 16 Pro, except with one less GPU core.

• You can only get 8GB of RAM, which is a bummer, but makes sense for the target audience.

• Base storage of 256GB.

• For $100 extra, you get double the storage and Touch ID. Totally worth the $100, which could even be a wash when sales start happening. If I were a betting man, I would assume the base model comes with a single NAND 256GB chip instead of dual NAND 128GB chips. You would get extra performance if you had dual 128GB chips since you have more “lanes” for data transfer and memory swap, but since this is the budget MacBook, it’s hard to tell until someone does a teardown.

• Side firing stereo speakers - they sound promising (haha), and Apple does a good job of giving decent audio even in budget products.

• No MagSafe 3 - totally expected and I barely use it on my wife’s 14-inch M1 Pro.

• Two USB-C ports - a plus since I was expecting a single port. Supports one 4K display alongside the Neo’s display.

• Four colors:

  • Silver

  • Blush (light pink),

  • Citrus (excess vitamin intake piss yellow),

  • Indigo

  No backlit keyboard, but you do get color matching keycaps, which could be problematic in dark environments.

Full specs comparing the two models. I’ll be testing the base model which matches my M1 Air in terms of memory and RAM, so we’ll see if the performance at least matches my M1.

In all fairness, I’ve been happy with 8GB of RAM on my M1 Air, and for people who only use stock apps and maybe Chrome or Firefox, this will be a beast.

The only unanswered question on my mind - can you open the lid with one finger?