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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
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<title>Daring Fireball</title>
<subtitle>By John Gruber</subtitle>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/"/>
<link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://daringfireball.net/feeds/main"/>
<id>https://daringfireball.net/feeds/main</id>
<updated>2026-03-14T17:22:48Z</updated>
<rights>Copyright © 2026, John Gruber</rights>
<entry>
<title>Ars Technica Fires Reporter Benj Edwards After He Published Story With AI-Fabricated Quotes</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/ars-technica-fires-reporter-ai-quotes"/>
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wzg"/>
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/14/ars-technica-benj-edwards-ai-fabricted-quotes"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42748</id>
<published>2026-03-14T17:22:05Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-14T17:22:05Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Maggie Harrison Dupré, writing for Futurism:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Earlier this month, Ars retracted the story after it was found to
include fake quotes attributed to a real person. The article — a
write-up of a viral incident in which an AI agent <a href="https://theshamblog.com/an-ai-agent-published-a-hit-piece-on-me/">seemingly
published a hit piece</a> about a human engineer named Scott
Shambaugh — was initially published on February 13. After
Shambaugh pointed out that he’d never said the quotes attributed
to him, Ars’ editor-in-chief Ken Fisher apologized in an <a href="https://arstechnica.com/staff/2026/02/editors-note-retraction-of-article-containing-fabricated-quotations/">editor’s
note</a>, in which he confirmed that the piece included
“fabricated quotations generated by an AI tool and attributed to a
source who did not say them” and characterized the error as a
“serious failure of our standards.” He added that, upon further
review, the error appeared to be an “isolated incident.”</p>
<p>Shortly after Fisher’s editor’s note was published, Edwards,
one of the report’s two bylined authors, <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/benjedwards.com/post/3mewgow6ch22p">took to Bluesky</a>
to take “full responsibility” for the inclusion of the
fabricated quotes.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://bsky.app/profile/benjedwards.com/post/3mewgow6ch22p">Edwards</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I sincerely apologize to Scott Shambaugh for misrepresenting his
words. I take full responsibility. The irony of an Al reporter
being tripped up by Al hallucination is not lost on me. I take
accuracy in my work very seriously and this is a painful failure
on my part.</p>
<p>When I realized what had happened, I asked my boss to pull the
piece because I was too sick to fix it on Friday. There was
nothing nefarious at work, just a terrible judgement call which
was no one’s fault but my own.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Ars fired him at the end of February.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Ars Technica Fires Reporter Benj Edwards After He Published Story With AI-Fabricated Quotes’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/14/ars-technica-benj-edwards-ai-fabricted-quotes"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Lil Finder Guy</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://basicappleguy.com/basicappleblog/lil-finder-guy"/>
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wzf"/>
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/14/lil-finder-guy"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42747</id>
<published>2026-03-14T16:21:34Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-14T16:21:46Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Basic Apple Guy:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Where I and the rest of the internet take this from here remains
to be seen. All I know is that Apple should definitely keep this
Lil Finder around.</p>
<p>But no, I do not think this is the last we’ve seen of Lil
Finder Guy…</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.macrumors.com/2026/03/07/apple-posting-strange-tiktok-videos/">Apple’s MacBook Neo ad campaign on TikTok</a> — and seemingly exclusive to TikTok — is the most fun they’ve had with a campaign in ages. I love it.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Lil Finder Guy’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/14/lil-finder-guy"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Tim Cook: ‘50 Years of Thinking Different’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.apple.com/50-years-of-thinking-different/"/>
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wze"/>
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/13/cook-50-years-of-thinking-different"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42746</id>
<published>2026-03-13T23:49:17Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-14T17:22:48Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Tim Cook:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>At Apple, we’re more focused on building tomorrow than remembering
yesterday. But we couldn’t let this milestone pass without
thanking the millions of people who make Apple what it is today — our incredible teams around the world, our developer community,
and every customer who has joined us on this journey. Your ideas
inspire our work. Your trust drives us to do better. Your stories
remind us of all we can accomplish when we think different.</p>
<p>If you’ve taught us anything, it’s that the people crazy enough to
think they can change the world are the ones who do.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is a perfectly cromulent letter to mark a big anniversary for Apple. And it is very <em>Tim Cook</em>. It’s short, earnest, honest, to the point, and uses plain simple language. But what also makes it so Cook-ian is that it’s so utterly anodyne. It’s inoffensive to the point of being unmemorable. The best part of Cook’s letter is when he harks back and explicitly quotes from an Apple ad campaign from 30 years ago.</p>
<p>Ten years from now, when Apple is celebrating its 60th anniversary, no one is going to quote from Tim Cook’s “banger of a letter” commemorating their 50th. 25 years from now, when Apple is celebrating its 75th, that future CEO won’t be quoting from any of the ad campaigns Apple ran while Cook was CEO, because there are no lines worth remembering from them.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Tim Cook: ‘50 Years of Thinking Different’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/13/cook-50-years-of-thinking-different"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>NYT: ‘Meta Delays Rollout of New AI Model After Performance Concerns’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/12/technology/meta-avocado-ai-model-delayed.html?unlocked_article_code=1.S1A.vI_6.4j717gwtFem0"/>
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wzd"/>
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/13/nyt-meta-ai-model-delay"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42745</id>
<published>2026-03-13T17:04:44Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-13T17:05:23Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Eli Tan, reporting for The New York Times:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Meta’s new foundational A.I. model, which the company has been
working on for months, has fallen short of the performance of
leading A.I. models from rivals like Google, OpenAI and Anthropic
on internal tests for reasoning, coding and writing, said the
people, who were not authorized to speak publicly about
confidential matters.</p>
<p>The model, code-named Avocado, outperformed Meta’s previous A.I.
model and did better than Google’s Gemini 2.5 model from [last]
March, two of the people said. But it has not performed as
strongly as Gemini 3.0 from November, they said.</p>
<p>As a result, Meta has delayed Avocado’s release to at least May
from this month, the people said. They added that the leaders of
Meta’s A.I. division had instead discussed temporarily licensing
Gemini to power the company’s A.I. products, though no decisions
have been reached.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The two facts in the last paragraph don’t square with me. May is only two months away. If they might ship then, why license Gemini? To me, the “<em>we may need to pay Google to license Gemini</em>” scenario is a sign that Avocado might be a bust and they might be a year or longer away from their own competitive model.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Mr. Zuckerberg, 41, has staked the future of Meta, which owns
Facebook, Instagram and Threads, on being at the cutting edge of
A.I. His company has spent billions <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/31/technology/ai-researchers-nba-stars.html">hiring top A.I.
researchers</a> and committed $600 billion to building data
centers to power the technology. In January, Meta projected that
it would spend <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/28/technology/meta-earnings-ai-spending.html">as much as $135 billion</a> this year, nearly
twice the $72 billion it spent last year.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The difference between Meta and Apple might be that Meta is merely a few months away from rolling out its own best-of-breed AI model. But the difference could be that Meta has blown hundreds of billions of dollars pursuing their own frontier models, and Apple has not, and both <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/01/12/apple-google-foundation-models-cnbc">just license Gemini</a> from Google.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘NYT: ‘Meta Delays Rollout of New AI Model After Performance Concerns’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/13/nyt-meta-ai-model-delay"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Sports Programming Accounts for Almost 30 Percent of All Ad-Supported TV Viewing</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://deadline.com/2026/03/sports-tv-viewing-advertising-nielsen-1236750721/"/>
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wzc"/>
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/13/sports-30-percent-ad-supported-tv"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42744</id>
<published>2026-03-13T16:55:46Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-13T16:55:47Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Dade Hayes, reporting for Deadline:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>While the rise of sports programming in recent years has been
well-documented, new figures from Nielsen illustrate the extent of
its dominance. The measurement firm said sports accounted for
29.2% of all advertising-supported TV viewing by people 25 to 54
years old during the fourth quarter. The stat, spanning broadcast,
cable and streaming, was part of a report on viewership trends in
the fourth quarter of 2025, released Thursday in the runup to
upfronts.</p>
<p>Looking at the rest of the pie without sports, broadcast accounted
for just 9.8%, with cable coming in at 18%. Streaming drew by far
the largest tune-in, with 43% of all non-sports viewing, a
reflection of the overall growth of advertising on streaming
services like Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, HBO Max and others.</p>
</blockquote>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Sports Programming Accounts for Almost 30 Percent of All Ad-Supported TV Viewing’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/13/sports-30-percent-ad-supported-tv"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Claim Chowder: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on the Percentage of Code Being Generated by AI Today</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/anthropic-ceo-ai-90-percent-code-3-to-6-months-2025-3"/>
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wzb"/>
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/13/amodei-ai-code-claim-chowder"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42743</id>
<published>2026-03-13T16:31:54Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-13T16:34:29Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Business Insider, one year ago:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Dario Amodei, the CEO of the AI startup Anthropic, said on Monday
that AI, and not software developers, could be writing all of the
code in our software in a year.</p>
<p>“I think we will be there in three to six months, where AI is
writing 90% of the code. And then, in 12 months, we may be in a
world where AI is writing essentially all of the code,” Amodei
said at a Council of Foreign Relations event on Monday.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I’d marked this one on my claim chowder calendar a year ago, suspecting it would make for a laugh today. But while Amodei wasn’t exactly right, I think he was only wrong insofar as his remarks were too facile. It may well be true that 90 percent of the lines of programming code that are written today, Friday 13 March 2026, will have been generated by AI. If anything, it’s probably a higher percentage.</p>
<p>But where I think Amodei’s remarks, quoted above, are facile is that it hasn’t played out as simply that lines of code that would have been written by human programmers are now generated by AI models. That’s part of it, for sure. But what’s revolutionary — a topic I’ve been posting about twice already today — is that AI code generation tools are being used to create services and apps and libraries that simply would not have been written at all before. It may well be that the total number of lines of code that will be written by people today isn’t much different from the number of lines of code that were written by people a year ago. But there might be 10× more code generated by AI than is written by people today. Maybe more. Maybe a lot more? And a year or two or three from now, that might be 100× or 1,000× or 100,000×.</p>
<p>In that near future, human programmers are likely still to be writing — or at least line-by-line reviewing and approving — code. But as a percentage of all code being generated, that will only be a sliver.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Claim Chowder: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on the Percentage of Code Being Generated by AI Today’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/13/amodei-ai-code-claim-chowder"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>‘Software Bonkers’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://craigmod.com/essays/software_bonkers/"/>
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wza"/>
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/13/software-bonkers"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42742</id>
<published>2026-03-13T14:54:52Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-13T15:49:26Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Craig Mod, on creating his own custom accounting software with Claude Code:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Simply put: It’s a big mess, and no off-the-shelf accounting
software does what I need. So after years of pain, I finally sat
down last week and started to build my own. It took me about five
days. I am now using the best piece of accounting software I’ve
ever used. It’s blazing fast. Entirely local. Handles multiple
currencies and pulls daily (historical) conversion rates. It’s
able to ingest any CSV I throw at it and represent it in my
dashboard as needed. It knows US and Japan tax requirements, and
formats my expenses and medical bills appropriately for my
accountants. I feed it past returns to learn from. I dump 1099s
and K1s and PDFs from hospitals into it, and it categorizes and
organizes and packages them all as needed. It reconciles
international wire transfers, taking into account small variations
in FX rates and time for the transfers to complete. It learns as I
categorize expenses and categorizes automatically going forward.
It’s easy to do spot checks on data. If I find an anomaly, I can
talk directly to Claude and have us brainstorm a batched solution,
often saving me from having to manually modify hundreds of
entries. And often resulting in a new, small, feature tweak. The
software feels organic and pliable in a form perfectly shaped to
my hand, able to conform to any hunk of data I throw at it. It
feels like bushwhacking with a lightsaber.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Don’t get distracted by the <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/13/grief-and-the-ai-split">mountains of steaming shit</a> that hacks are using these tools to spew. There are amazing things being built by these tools that never would have, or in some cases <em>could</em> have, been built before.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘‘Software Bonkers’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/13/software-bonkers"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>‘Grief and the AI Split’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://blog.lmorchard.com/2026/03/11/grief-and-the-ai-split/"/>
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wz9"/>
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/13/grief-and-the-ai-split"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42741</id>
<published>2026-03-13T14:21:54Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-13T14:41:29Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Les Orchard:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I started programming in 1982. Every language I’ve learned since
then has been a means to an end — a new way to make computers do
things I wanted them to do. AI-assisted coding feels like the
latest in that progression. Not a rupture, just another rung on
the ladder.</p>
<p>But I’m trying to hold that lightly. Because the ladder itself is
changing, the building it’s leaning against is changing, and I’d
be lying if I said I knew exactly where it’s going.</p>
<p>What I do know is this: I still get the same hit of satisfaction
when something I thought up and built actually works. The code got
there differently than it used to, but the moment it runs and does
the thing? That hasn’t changed in my over 40 years at it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I’ve been thinking about a different divide than the one Orchard writes about here. (The obvious truth is that the AI code generation revolution is creating multiple divisions, along multiple axes.)</p>
<p>The divide I’m seeing is that the developers who are craftspeople are elated because their productivity is skyrocketing while their craftsmanship remains unchanged — or perhaps even improved. They’re achieving much more, much faster, than ever before. It’s a step change as great, or greater than, the transition from assembly code to higher-level programming languages. The developers who are hacks are elated because it’s like they’ve been provided an autopilot switch for a task they never enjoyed or really even understood properly in the first place. The industry is riddled with hack developers, because in the last 15-20 years, as the demand for software far outstripped the supply of programmers who wanted to write code because they love writing code and creating software, the jobs have been filled by people who got into the racket simply because they were high-paying jobs in high demand. Good programmers create software for fun, outside their jobs. Hack programmers are no more likely to write software for fun than a garbage man is to collect trash on his days off.</p>
<p>Orchard’s fine essay examines a philosophical divide within the ranks of talented, considerate craftsperson developers. The divide that I’m talking about has been present ever since the demand for programmers exploded, but AI code generation tooling is turning it into an expansive gulf. The best programmers are more clearly the best than ever before. The worst programmers have gone from laying a few turds a day to spewing veritable mountains of hot steaming stinky shit, while beaming with pride at their increased productivity.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘‘Grief and the AI Split’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/13/grief-and-the-ai-split"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Accents</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://mahdi.jp/apps/accents"/>
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wz8"/>
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/12/accents"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42740</id>
<published>2026-03-13T00:18:06Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-13T00:23:16Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Mahdi Bchatnia:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Accents is an app that lets you use the iMac/MacBook Neo accent
colors on any Mac.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It’s a fun idea from Apple to have default accent colors that are, by default, exclusive to specific Mac hardware. But what exemplifies the Mac is that a clever developer like Bchatnia can make these accent colors available to any user on any Mac via a simple utility like Accents. (<a href="https://mjtsai.com/blog/2026/03/12/hardware-exclusive-mac-accent-colors/">Via Michael Tsai</a>.)</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Accents’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/12/accents"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Apple’s Platform Security Guide Adds a Brief Note on the MacBook Neo’s On-Screen Camera Indicator</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://support.apple.com/guide/security/mac-on-screen-camera-indicator-light-sec75a2d237d/1/web/1"/>
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wz7"/>
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/12/macbook-neo-on-screen-camera-indicator"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42739</id>
<published>2026-03-12T23:48:59Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-13T00:00:48Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Apple Platform Security Guide:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>MacBook Neo combines system software and dedicated silicon
elements within A18 Pro to provide additional security for the
camera feed. The architecture is designed to prevent any untrusted
software — even with root or kernel privileges in macOS — from
engaging the camera without also visibly lighting the on-screen
camera indicator light.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That’s the whole note, I believe. There aren’t any technical details regarding how exactly this is achieved. Until reading this new note in the Platform Security Guide, I thought the only visible indication of camera usage was the green camera icon in the menu bar. But on the Neo, there’s also a green dot <a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/03/neo-camera-indicator-menu-bar-default.jpeg">in the upper right corner of the display</a>. That green dot is the secure camera-use indicator, and it’s visible next to the time in the menu bar, and still visible when the menu bar is hidden, like in <a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/03/neo-camera-indicator-full-screen.png">this screenshot I just took from Photo Booth in full-screen mode</a>. What Apple is stating in this note in the Platform Security Guide is that if the Neo’s camera is being used, that corner of the display is guaranteed to light up with the green dot.</p>
<p>One of the reasons I failed to notice this green dot until today is that with Tahoe’s transparent menu bar and the default green-and-yellow desktop wallpaper for the citrus Neo I’m reviewing, a green dot doesn’t stand out. <a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/03/neo-camera-indicator-menu-bar-reduce-trans.jpeg">It’s much more prominent</a> if you enable “Reduce transparency” in System Settings → Accessibility → Display, which gives the menu bar a traditional solid appearance.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Apple’s Platform Security Guide Adds a Brief Note on the MacBook Neo’s On-Screen Camera Indicator’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/12/macbook-neo-on-screen-camera-indicator"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Eddy Cue Says F1 on Apple TV Opened to Increased Viewership</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/apple-tv-formula-1-ratings-eddy-cue-strong-start-1236529359/"/>
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wz6"/>
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/12/f1-apple-tv-ratings-are-up"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42738</id>
<published>2026-03-12T23:41:07Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-12T23:41:08Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Alex Weprin, reporting for The Hollywood Reporter:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In a sign of strength for the streaming platform, Apple’s senior
VP of services Eddy Cue tells The Hollywood Reporter that
viewership for last week’s Australian Grand Prix was up year over
year compared to the 2025 race, which aired on ESPN.</p>
<p>“The 2026 Formula 1 season on Apple TV is off to a strong start,
with fans responding positively and viewership up year over year
for the first weekend, exceeding both F1 and Apple expectations,”
Cue says.</p>
<p>As is typical for Apple, the company declined to give any specific
numbers, though last year’s Australian GP averaged 1.1 million
viewers for ESPN.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So we don’t know the viewership number, but we know it’s higher than 1.1 million. That’s like a semi-Bezos number.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Eddy Cue Says F1 on Apple TV Opened to Increased Viewership’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/12/f1-apple-tv-ratings-are-up"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>MacBook Neo Teardown</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5k7Lv7f-5CQ"/>
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wz5"/>
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/12/macbook-neo-teardown"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42737</id>
<published>2026-03-12T18:51:48Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-12T18:51:49Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Tech Re-Nu, on YouTube:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>That leaves us with a fully disassembled laptop. We’ve done this
in less than 10 minutes, which is absolutely amazing for an Apple
laptop. I can’t say we’ve ever had a Mac that looks as repairable
and as modular as this one. No sticky tape, no tricky adhesives,
modular parts, minimal parts as well, no hinge covers or anything
like that. It’s just super straightforward, elegant design.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The aspects of the Neo that make it less expensive also make it simpler, and thus easier to service. Apple’s iPhones, iPads, and higher-end MacBooks that use a lot of glue and tape and pack components together in hard-to-disassemble ways aren’t designed that way out of spite or carelessness. They’re like that because that’s what it takes to make devices ever smaller, and ever more lightweight. By allowing the Neo to be a bit thicker and heavier, it’s also a lot simpler.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘MacBook Neo Teardown’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/12/macbook-neo-teardown"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Software Proprioception</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://unsung.aresluna.org/software-proprioception/"/>
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wz4"/>
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/12/software-proprioception"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42736</id>
<published>2026-03-12T15:32:04Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-12T16:10:51Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Marcin Wichary:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There are fun things you can do in software when it is aware of
the dimensions and features of its hardware. [...]</p>
<p>The rule here would be, perhaps, a version of “show, don’t tell.”
We could call it “point to, don’t describe.” (Describing what to
do means cognitive effort to read the words and understand them.
An arrow pointing to something should be easier to process.)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I just learned the word <em>proprioception</em> a few weeks ago, in the context of how you can close your eyes and put your fingertip on the tip of your nose. Perfect word for this sort of hardware/software integration too.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Software Proprioception’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/12/software-proprioception"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Jason Snell Is on Jeopardy Next Week</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://sixcolors.com/post/2026/03/ill-take-beach-reading-for-1000-ken/"/>
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wz3"/>
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/11/snell-on-jeopardy"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42735</id>
<published>2026-03-12T00:46:59Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-12T00:46:59Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Jason Snell:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>So here we are: Six Colors now has three <em>Jeopardy!</em> players as
contributors.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Come on, Moltz, get your shit together.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Jason Snell Is on Jeopardy Next Week’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/11/snell-on-jeopardy"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Another One From the Archive: ‘Web Kit’ vs. ‘WebKit’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/2006/05/web_kit_vs_webkit"/>
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wz2"/>
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/11/web-kit-v-webkit"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42734</id>
<published>2026-03-12T00:26:22Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-12T00:26:23Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>When I re-read my 2006 piece “<a href="https://daringfireball.net/2006/06/and_oranges">And Oranges</a>” today before <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/11/df-archive-and-oranges">linking to it</a>, I paused when I read this:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>And while it is easy to find ways to complain that Apple is not
open enough — under-documented and undocumented security updates
and system revisions, under-documented and undocumented file
formats — it would be hard to argue with the premise that Apple
today is more open than it has ever been before. (Exhibit A: the
<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20060701120623/http://webkit.opendarwin.org/">Web Kit project</a>.)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It’s not often I get to fix 20-year-old typos, and to my 2026 self, “Web Kit” looks like an obvious typo. But after a moment, I remembered: <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2006/05/web_kit_vs_webkit">in 2006, that wasn’t a typo</a>.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Another One From the Archive: ‘Web Kit’ vs. ‘WebKit’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/11/web-kit-v-webkit"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/03/modifier_key_order_for_keyboard_shortcuts"/>
<link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/wz1"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026://1.42733</id>
<published>2026-03-12T00:15:20Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-12T15:27:36Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<summary type="text">The correct order is Fn, Control, Option, Shift, Command — regardless if you’re using the words or the glyphs.</summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p><a href="https://leancrew.com/all-this/2017/11/modifier-key-order/">Dr. Drang, back in 2017</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If you write about Mac keyboard shortcuts, as I did yesterday, you
should know how to do it right. Just as there’s a <a href="https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/adjectives-order">proper order
for adjectives</a> in English, there’s a proper order for
listing the modifier keys in a shortcut.</p>
<p>I haven’t found any documentation for this, but Apple’s preferred
order is clear in how they show the modifiers in menus and how
they’re displayed in the Keyboard Shortcuts Setting.</p>
<p>The order is similar to how you see them down at the bottom left
of your keyboard. Control (⌃), Option (⌥), and Command (⌘) always
go in that order. The oddball is the Shift (⇧) key, which sneaks in
just in front of Command.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Perhaps this wasn’t documented in 2017, but at least since 2022 (<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20221112144101/https://support.apple.com/guide/applestyleguide/k-apsgf9067ae8/web#apdbee268aa29e04">per the Internet Archive</a>), Apple has documented the correct order for modifier keys in a keyboard shortcut in their excellent Apple Style Guide, <a href="https://support.apple.com/guide/applestyleguide/k-apsgf9067ae8/web#apdbee268aa29e04">under the entry for “key, keys”</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If there’s more than one modifier key, use this order: Fn
(function), Control, Option, Shift, Command. When a keyboard
shortcut includes a mouse or trackpad action, use lowercase for
the mouse or trackpad action.</p>
<ul>
<li>Option-click</li>
<li>Option-swipe with three fingers</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<p>There’s all sorts of good stuff in this Style Guide entry, including an explanation for why the shortcut for Zoom Out is ⌘- (using the <em>lower</em> of the two symbols on the “-/_” key) but the shortcut for Zoom In is ⌘+ (using the <em>upper</em> of the two symbols on the “=/+” key):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If one of the characters on the key provides a mnemonic for the
action of the command, you can identify the key by that character.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>While I’m at it, here’s a pet peeve of mine. When you write out a keyboard shortcut using modifier key names, you connect them with hyphens: Command-R. But when using the modifier glyphs, you should definitely <em>not</em> include the hyphens. ⌘C is correct, ⌘-C is wrong. For one thing, just look at the shortcuts in the menu bar — the shortcut for Copy has been shown as ⌘C since 1984. For another, consider the aforementioned shortcuts that most apps use for Zoom In and Zoom Out: ⌘+ and ⌘-. Both of those would look weird if connected by a hyphen, but Zoom Out in particular would look confusing: Command-Hyphen-Hyphen?.</p>
<p>(How do you write those out using words, though? Apple uses “Command-Plus Sign (+)” and “Command-Minus Sign (-)”. Me, I’d just go with “Command-Plus” and “Command-Minus”.)</p>
<p>Pay no attention to Drang’s <a href="https://leancrew.com/all-this/2017/11/last-thoughts-on-modifier-keys/">follow-up post</a>, or <a href="https://sixcolors.com/link/2017/11/the-order-of-modifier-keys-on-the-mac/">this one from Jason Snell</a>. The correct order is Fn, Control, Option, Shift, Command — regardless if you’re using the words or the glyphs.</p>
]]></content>
<title>★ Modifier Key Order for Keyboard Shortcuts</title>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Apple Has Changed Several Key Cap Labels From Words to Glyphs on Its Latest U.S. MacBook Keyboards</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://x.com/ClassicII_MrMac/status/2028869838870069447"/>
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wyz"/>
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/11/macbook-keyboards-words-to-glyphs"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42731</id>
<published>2026-03-11T23:06:05Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-12T16:56:04Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>“Mr. Macintosh”, on Twitter/X last week:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Small change:</p>
<p>Looks like Apple updated the keyboard on the new M5 16‑inch
MacBook Pro. The Backspace, Return, Shift, and Tab labels are
gone, replaced with symbols instead.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>All the new MacBook keyboards sport this same change, including the M5 Air and A18 Pro MacBook Neo. I’m not a fan. I like the words on those keys. But I’m willing to admit it might just be that I’ve been using Apple keyboards <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_IIe">with words</a> on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_IIc">those keys</a> since I was like 10 years old. iOS 26 switched from the word “return” to the “⏎” glyph on the software keyboard (and removed the word “space” from the spacebar — which, in hindsight, seemed needless to label).</p>
<p>The Escape key is still labelled “esc”, and the modifier keys (Fn, Control, Option, and Command) still show the names underneath or next to the glyphs. I suspect this is because documentation — <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/102650">including Apple’s own</a> — often uses names for these keys (Option-Shift-Command-K), not the glyphs (⌥⇧⌘K). It’s only in the last few years that Apple began including the glyphs for Control (⌃) and Option (⌥) — until recently, those keys were labelled only by name. They added the ⌃ and ⌥ glyphs between <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/111951">2017</a> and <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/111932">2018</a>. And until that change in 2018, Apple added the label “alt” to the Option key — a visual turd so longstanding that it dates back even to <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gruber/albums/72157604797968156/">my own beloved keyboard</a>.</p>
<p>Outside the U.S., Apple has been using glyphs for these key caps for a long time. The change from words to glyphs is new only here.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Apple Has Changed Several Key Cap Labels From Words to Glyphs on Its Latest U.S. MacBook Keyboards’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/11/macbook-keyboards-words-to-glyphs"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Halide Cofounder Sebastiaan de With Joined Apple’s Design Team in January</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://9to5mac.com/2026/01/28/halide-cofounder-sebastiaan-de-with-joins-apples-design-team/"/>
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wz0"/>
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/11/de-with-apple-design-team"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42732</id>
<published>2026-03-11T23:00:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-12T16:11:39Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Chance Miller, reporting for 9to5Mac back on January 28:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://halide.cam/">Halide</a> and <a href="https://www.lux.camera/">Lux</a> co-founder and designer Sebastiaan
de With <a href="https://www.threads.com/@sdw/post/DUEeAwFksRt">announced</a> today that he is joining Apple’s human
interface design team. This marks a return to Apple for de With,
who previously worked as a freelancer for the company on projects
including Find My, MobileMe, and iCloud.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The last time I mentioned De With here on Daring Fireball was back in June, on the cusp of WWDC, <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/03/sdw-physicality-new-age">when I linked to</a> his resplendently illustrated essay, “<a href="https://www.lux.camera/physicality-the-new-age-of-ui/">Physicality: The New Age of UI</a>”, wherein he speculated on where Apple might be going. It’s very much worth your time to revisit De With’s essay now, knowing that he’s joined Apple’s design team. My own comments on his essay hold up well too — especially my concern that a look-and-feel centered on transparency doesn’t seem a good fit for MacOS, where windows stack atop each other.</p>
<p>When De With published his essay, it was as an idea for where Apple might go. Now that we’ve seen and been living with Liquid Glass, his essay works even better as a roadmap for the direction Liquid Glass should head.</p>
<p>Also worth pointing out that despite De With’s departure for Apple, Lux is going strong. Developer Ben Sandofsky recently released <a href="https://www.lux.camera/mark-iii-looks/">a preview of the upcoming Mark III version of Halide</a>.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Halide Cofounder Sebastiaan de With Joined Apple’s Design Team in January’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/11/de-with-apple-design-team"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>From the DF Archive: ‘And Oranges’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/2006/06/and_oranges"/>
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wyy"/>
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/11/df-archive-and-oranges"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42730</id>
<published>2026-03-11T19:02:11Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-11T19:26:13Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p><a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/08/willison-chardet-licensing-dispute">Mark Pilgrim’s reappearance</a> on Daring Fireball this week prompted me to revisit this essay I wrote 20 years ago. Holds up pretty well, I think.</p>
<p>This bit, in particular, seems particular apt w/r/t Tahoe:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’m deeply suspicious of Mac users who claim to be perfectly happy
with Mac OS X. Real Mac users, to me, are people with much higher
standards, impossibly high standards, and who use Macs not because
they’re great, but because they suck less than everything else.</p>
</blockquote>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘From the DF Archive: ‘And Oranges’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/11/df-archive-and-oranges"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/03/the_macbook_neo"/>
<link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/wyx"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026://1.42729</id>
<published>2026-03-10T22:48:40Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-13T00:04:49Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<summary type="text">May the MacBook Neo live so long that its name becomes inapt.</summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Just over a decade ago, <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2015/09/the_iphones_6s#:~:text=BENCHMARKS">reviewing the then-new iPhones 6S</a>, I could tell which way the silicon wind was blowing. Year-over-year, the A9 CPU in the iPhone 6S was 1.6× faster than the A8 in the iPhone 6. Impressive. But what really struck me was comparing the 6S’s GeekBench scores to MacBooks. The A9, in 2015, benchmarked comparably to a two-year-old MacBook Air from 2013. More impressively, it <em>outperformed the then-new no-adjective 12-inch MacBook in single-core performance</em> (by a factor of roughly 1.1×) and was only 3 percent slower in multi-core. That was a comparison to <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2015/03/09Apple-Unveils-All-New-MacBook/">the base $1,300 model MacBook with a 1.1 GHz dual-core Intel Core M processor</a>, not the $1,600 model with a 1.2 GHz Core M. But, still — the iPhone 6S outperformed a brand-new $1,300 MacBook, and drew even with a $1,600 model. I called that “astounding”. The writing was clearly on the wall: the future of the Mac seemed destined to move from Intel’s x86 chips to Apple’s own ARM-based chips.</p>
<p>Here we are today, over five years after the debut of Apple’s M-series chips, and we now have <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/03/say-hello-to-macbook-neo/">the MacBook Neo</a>: a $600 laptop that uses the A18 Pro, literally the same SoC as 2024’s iPhone 16 Pro models. It was clear right from the start of the Apple Silicon transition that Apple’s M-series chips were vastly superior to x86 — better performance-per-watt, better performance period, the innovative (and still unmatched, five years later) <a href="https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2020/10686/">unified memory architecture</a> — but the MacBook Neo proves that Apple’s A-series chips are powerful enough for an excellent consumer MacBook.</p>
<p>I think the truth is that Apple’s A-series chips have been capable of credibly powering Macs for a long time. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developer_Transition_Kit">Apple Silicon developer transition kits</a>, from the summer of 2020, were Mac Mini enclosures running A12Z chips that were originally designed for iPad Pros.<sup id="fnr1-2026-03-10"><a href="#fn1-2026-03-10">1</a></sup> But I think Apple could have started using A-series chips in Macs even before that. It would have been credible, but with compromises. By waiting until now, the advantages are simply overwhelming. You cannot buy an x86 PC laptop in the $600–700 price range that competes with the MacBook Neo on any metric — performance, display quality, audio quality, or build quality. And certainly not software quality.</p>
<p>The original iPhone in 2007 was the most amazing device I’ve ever used. It may well wind up being the most amazing device I ever <em>will</em> use. It was ahead of its time in so many ways. But a desktop-class computer, performance-wise, it was not. Two decades is a long time in the computer industry, and nothing proves that more than Apple’s “phone chips” overtaking Intel’s x86 platform in every measurable metric — they’re faster, cooler, smaller, and perhaps even cost less. And they certainly don’t cost more.</p>
<p>I’ve been testing a citrus-colored $700 MacBook Neo<sup id="fnr2-2026-03-10"><a href="#fn2-2026-03-10">2</a></sup> — the model with Touch ID and 512 GB storage — since last week. I set it up new, rather than restoring my primary MacOS work setup from an existing Mac, and have used as much built-in software, with as many default settings, as I could bear. I’ve only added third-party software, or changed settings, as I’ve needed to. And I’ve been using it for as much of my work as possible. I expected this to go well, but in fact, the experience has vastly exceeded my expectations. Christ almighty I don’t even have as many complaints about running MacOS 26 Tahoe (which the Neo requires) as I thought I would.</p>
<p>It’s never been a good idea to evaluate the performance of Apple’s computers by tech specs alone. That’s exemplified by the experience of using a Neo. 8 GB of RAM is not a lot. And I love me my RAM — my personal workstation remains a 2021 M1 Max MacBook Pro with 64 GB RAM (the most available at the time). But just using the Neo, without any consideration that it’s memory limited, I haven’t noticed a single hitch. I’m not quitting apps I otherwise wouldn’t quit, or closing Safari tabs I wouldn’t otherwise close. I’m just working — with an even dozen apps open as I type this sentence — and everything feels snappy.</p>
<p>Now, could I run up a few <em>hundred</em> open Safari tabs on this machine, like I do on my MacBook Pro, without feeling the effects? No, probably not. But that’s abnormal. In typical productivity use, the Neo isn’t merely fine — it’s good. </p>
<p>The display is bright and crisp. At 500 maximum nits, the specs say it’s as bright as a MacBook Air. In practice, that feels true. (500 nits also matches the maximum SDR brightness of my personal M1 MacBook Pro.) Sound from the side-firing speakers is very good — loud and clear. I’d say the sound seems too good to be true for a $600 laptop. Battery life is long (and I’ve done almost all my testing while the Neo is unplugged from power). The keyboard feels exactly the same as what I’m used to, except that because the key caps are brand new, it feels even better than the keyboard on my own now-four-years-old MacBook Pro, the most-used key caps on which are <a href="https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/05/08/shiny-macbook-keys/">now a little slick</a>.</p>
<p>And the trackpad. Let me sing the praises of the MacBook Neo’s trackpad. The Neo’s trackpad exemplifies the Neo as a whole. Rather than sell old components at a lower price — as Apple had been doing, allowing third-party resellers like Walmart to sell the 8 GB M1 MacBook Air from 2020 at sub-$700 prices <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2024/03/15/macbook-air-walmart">starting two years ago</a> — the Neo is designed from the ground up to be a low-cost MacBook.</p>
<p>A decade ago, Apple began switching from trackpads with mechanical clicking mechanisms to Magic Trackpads, where clicks are simulated via haptic feedback (in Apple’s parlance, the Taptic Engine). And, with Magic Trackpads, you can use Force Touch — a hard press — to perform special actions. By default, if “Force Touch and haptic feedback” is enabled on a Mac with a Magic Trackpad, a hard Force Touch press will perform a Look Up — e.g., do it on a word in Safari and you’ll get a popover with the Dictionary app’s definition for that word. It’s a shortcut to the “Look Up in Dictionary” command in the contextual menu, which is also available <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/102650">via the keyboard shortcut Control-Command-D</a> to look up whatever text is currently selected, or that the mouse pointer is currently hovering over — standard features that work in all proper Mac apps.</p>
<p>The Neo’s trackpad is mechanical. It actually clicks, even when the machine is powered off.<sup id="fnr3-2026-03-10"><a href="#fn3-2026-03-10">3</a></sup> Obviously this is a cost-saving measure. But the Neo’s trackpad doesn’t feel cheap in any way. You can click it anywhere you want — top, bottom, middle, corner — and the click feels right. Multi-finger <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/102482">gestures</a> (most commonly, two-finger swipes for scrolling) — just work. Does it feel as nice as a Magic Trackpad? No, probably not. But I keep forgetting there’s anything at all different or special about this trackpad. It just feels normal. That’s unbelievable. The “Force Touch and haptic feedback” option is missing in the Trackpad panel in System Settings, so you might miss that feature if you’re used to it. But for anyone who isn’t used to that Magic Trackpad feature — which includes anyone who’s never used a MacBook before (perhaps the primary audience for the Neo), along with most casual longtime Mac users (which is probably the secondary audience) — it’s hard to say there’s anything they’d even notice that’s different about this trackpad than the one in the MacBook Air, other than the fact that it’s a little bit smaller. But it’s only smaller in a way that feels proportional to the Neo’s slightly smaller footprint compared to the Air. It’s a cheaper trackpad that doesn’t feel at all cheap. Bravo!</p>
<h2>So What’s the Catch?</h2>
<p>You can use <a href="https://www.apple.com/mac/compare/?modelList=MacBook-Neo-A18-Pro,MacBook-Air-M5,MacBook-Air-M1">this Compare page at Apple’s website</a> (archived, for posterity, <a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/03/MacBook-Neo-(A18-Pro)-vs-MacBook-Air-(M5)-vs-MacBook-Air-(M1).pdf">as a PDF here</a>) to see the full list of what’s missing or different on the Neo, compared to the current M5 MacBook Air (which now starts at $1,100) and the 5-year-old M1 MacBook Air (so old it still sports the Intel-era wedge shape) that Walmart had been selling for $600–650. Things I’ve noticed, that bothered me, personally:</p>
<ul>
<li>The Neo lacks an ambient light sensor. It still offers an option in System Settings → Display to “Automatically adjust brightness”, which setting is on by default, but I have no idea how it works without an ambient light sensor. However it works, it doesn’t work well. As the lighting conditions in my house have changed — from day to night, overcast to sunny — I’ve found myself adjusting the display brightness manually. I only realized when I started adjusting the brightness on the Neo manually that I more or less haven’t adjusted the brightness manually on a MacBook in years. Maybe a decade. I’m not saying I <em>never</em> adjust the brightness on a MacBook Air or Pro, but I do it so seldomly that I had no muscle memory at all for which F-keys control brightness. After a few days using the Neo, I know exactly where they are: F1 and F2.</li>
</ul>
<p>And, uh, that’s it. That’s the one catch that’s annoyed me over the six days I’ve been using the Neo as my primary computer for work and for reading. Once or twice a day I need to manually bump the display brightness up or down.
That’s a crazily short list. One item, and it’s only a mild annoyance.</p>
<p>There are other things missing that I’ve noticed, but that I haven’t minded. The Neo doesn’t have a hardware indicator light for the camera. The indication for “camera in use” is only in the menu bar. There’s a privacy/security implication for this omission. According to Apple, the hardware indicator light for camera-in-use on other MacBook models, and the on-screen (e.g. in the Dynamic Island) indicator on iPhones and iPads, cannot be circumvented by software. If the camera is on, that light comes on, and no third-party software can disable it. <s>Because the Neo’s only camera-in-use indicator is in the menu bar, that seems obviously possible to circumvent via software. Not a big deal, but worth being aware of.</s> [<strong>Update:</strong> In a brief note added to <a href="https://support.apple.com/guide/security/mac-on-screen-camera-indicator-light-sec75a2d237d/1/web/1">Apple’s Platform Security Guide</a>, Apple claims that the green indicator dot in the corner of the Neo’s display <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/12/macbook-neo-on-screen-camera-indicator">is guaranteed to be visible if the camera is in use</a>.]</p>
<p>The Neo’s webcam doesn’t offer Center Stage or Desk View. But personally, I never take advantage of Center Stage or Desk View, so I don’t miss their absence. Your mileage may vary. But the camera is 1080p and to my eyes looks pretty good. And I’d say it looks damn good for a $600 laptop.</p>
<p>The Neo has no notch. Instead, it has a larger black bezel surrounding the entire display than do the MacBook Airs and Pros. I consider this an advantage for the Neo, not a disadvantage. The MacBook notch has not grown on me, and the Neo’s display bezel doesn’t bother me at all.</p>
<p>And there’s the whole thing with the second USB-C port only supporting USB 2 speeds. That stinks. But if Apple could sell a one-port MacBook a decade ago, they can sell one with a shitty second port today. I’ll bet this is one of the things that will be improved in the second generation Neo, but it’s not something that would keep me from recommending this one — or even buying one myself — today. If you know you need multiple higher-speed USB ports (or Thunderbolt), you need a MacBook Air or Pro.</p>
<p>The Neo ships with a measly 20-watt charger in the box — the same rinky-dink charger that comes with iPad Airs. I wish it were 30 watts (which is what came with the M1 MacBook Air), but maybe we’re lucky it comes with a charger at all. The Neo charges faster if you plug it into a more powerful power adapter, in either USB-C port.<sup id="fnr4-2026-03-10"><a href="#fn4-2026-03-10">4</a></sup> The USB-C cable in the box is white, not color-matched to the Neo, and it’s only 1.5 meters long. MacBook Airs and Pros ship with 2-meter MagSafe cables. Again, though: $600!</p>
<h2>The Weighty Issue on My Mind</h2>
<p>The Neo is not a svelte ultralight. It weights 2.7 pounds (1.23 kg) — exactly the same as the 13-inch M5 MacBook Air. The Neo, with a 13.0-inch display, has a smaller footprint than the 13.6-inch Air, but the Air is thinner. I don’t know if this is a catch though. It’s just the normal weight for a smaller-display Mac laptop. The decade-ago MacBook “One”, on the other hand, was a design statement. <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/112442">It weighed just a hair over 2 pounds</a> (0.92 kg), and tapered from 1.35 cm to just 0.35 cm in thickness. The Neo is 1.27 cm thick, and the M5 Air is 1.13 cm. In fact, the extraordinary thinness of the 2015 MacBook might have necessitated the invention of the haptics-only Magic Trackpad. The Magic Trackpad first appeared on that MacBook and the early 2015 MacBook Pros — it was nice-to-have for the MacBook Pros, but might have been the only trackpad that would fit in the front of the MacBook One’s tapered case.</p>
<p>If I had my druthers, Apple would make a new svelte ultralight MacBook. Not instead of the Neo, but in addition to the Neo. Apple’s inconsistent use of the name “Air” makes this complicated, but the MacBook Neo is obviously akin to the iPhone 17e; the MacBook Air is akin to the iPhone 17 (the default model for most people); the MacBook Pros are akin to the iPhone 17 Pros. I wish Apple would make a MacBook that’s akin to the iPhone Air — crazy thin and surprisingly performant.</p>
<p>The biggest shortcoming of the decade-ago MacBook “One”, aside from the baffling decision to include just one USB-C port that was also its only means of charging, was the shitty performance of Intel’s Core M chips. Those chips were small enough and low-power enough to fit in the MacBook’s thin and fan-less enclosure, but they were slow as balls. It was a huge compromise for a laptop that carried a somewhat premium price. Today, performance, performance-per-watt, and physical chip size are all solved problems with Apple Silicon. I’d consider paying double the price of the Neo for a MacBook with similar specs (but more RAM and better I/O) that weighed 2.0 pounds or less. I’d buy such a MacBook not to replace my 14-inch MacBook Pro, but to replace my 2018 11-inch iPad Pro as my “carry around the house” secondary computer.<sup id="fnr5-2026-03-10"><a href="#fn5-2026-03-10">5</a></sup></p>
<p>As it stands, I might buy a Neo for that same purpose, 2.7-pound weight be damned. iPad Pros, encased in Magic Keyboards, are expensive and heavy. So are iPad Airs. My 2018 iPad Pro, in its Magic Keyboard case, weighs 2.36 pounds (1.07 kg). That’s the 11-inch model, with a cramped less-than-standard-size keyboard. I’m much happier with this MacBook Neo than I am doing anything on that iPad. Yes, my iPad is old at this point. But replacing it with a new iPad Pro would require a new Magic Keyboard too. For an iPad Pro + Magic Keyboard, that combination starts at $1,300 for 11-inch, $1,650 for 13-inch. If I switched to iPad Air, the cost would be $870 for 11-inch, $1,120 for 13-inch. The 13-inch iPads, when attached to Magic Keyboards, weigh slightly <em>more</em> than a 2.7-pound 13-inch MacBook Neo. The 11-inch iPads, with keyboards, weigh about 2.3 pounds. Why bother when I find MacOS way more enjoyable and productive? My three-device lifestyle for the last decade has been a MacBook Pro (anchored to a Studio Display at my desk at home, and in my briefcase when travelling); my iPhone; and an iPad Pro with a Magic Keyboard for use around the rest of the house. This last week testing the MacBook Neo, I haven’t touched my iPad once, and I haven’t once wished this Neo were an iPad. And there were many times when I was very happy that it was a Mac.</p>
<p>And I can buy one, just like this one, for $700. That’s $170 less than an 11-inch iPad Air and Magic Keyboard. And the Neo comes with a full-size keyboard and runs MacOS, not a version of iOS with a limited imitation of MacOS’s windowing UI. I am in no way arguing that the MacBook Neo is an iPad killer, but it’s a splendid iPad alternative for people like me, who don’t draw with a Pencil, do type with a keyboard, and just want a small, simple, highly portable and highly capable computer to use around the house. The MacBook Neo is going to be a great first Macintosh for a lot of people switching from PCs. But it’s also going to be a great <em>secondary</em> Mac for a lot of longtime Mac users with expensive desktop setups for their main workstations — like me.</p>
<p>The Neo crystallizes the post-Jony Ive Apple. The MacBook “One” was a design statement, and a much-beloved semi-premium product for a relatively small audience. The Neo is a mass-market device that was conceived of, designed, and engineered to expand the Mac user base to a larger audience. It’s a design statement too, but of a different sort — emphasizing practicality above all else. It’s just a goddamn lovely tool, and fun too.</p>
<p>I’ll just say it: I think I’m done with iPads. Why bother when Apple is now making a crackerjack Mac laptop that starts at just $600? May the MacBook Neo live so long that its name becomes inapt.</p>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr />
<ol>
<li id="fn1-2026-03-10">
<p><a href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/03/599_not_a_piece_of_junk_macbook_neo">When I wrote last week</a> that the MacBook Neo is the first product from Apple with an A-series chip sporting more than one USB port — addressing complaints that the Neo’s second USB-C port only supports USB 2.0 speeds — a few readers pointed to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developer_Transition_Kit">the Apple Silicon developer transition kits</a>. Those machines had two USB-C 3.1 ports, two USB-A 3.0 ports, <em>and</em> an HDMI port. But Apple didn’t sell those as a product — developers borrowed them from Apple, and <a href="https://www.macrumors.com/2021/02/05/apple-dtk-credit-for-developers-increased/">Apple wanted them back</a> soon after the first actual Apple Silicon Macs shipped. If Apple had sold them, they would have cost more than $600. Those extra I/O ports involved significant engineering outside the A12Z SoC. <a href="#fnr1-2026-03-10" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.">↩︎</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn2-2026-03-10">
<p>The Neo’s citrus is a beguiling colorway. Everyone I’ve shown it to likes it. But is it a green-ish yellow, or a yellow-ish green? In daylight, it looks more like a green-ish yellow. But at nighttime, it looks more like a yellow-ish green. By default, the MacOS accent color in System Settings → Appearance defaults to a color that matches the Neo’s hardware — a fun trick Apple has been <a href="https://512pixels.net/2012/12/imac/">using for decades</a>. For citrus, that special accent color <a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/03/macbook-neo-citrus-appearance-color.png">looks more green than yellow to me</a>. <a href="#fnr2-2026-03-10" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 2 in the text.">↩︎︎</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn3-2026-03-10">
<p>The haptic “clicks” with a Magic Trackpad are so convincingly real that it feels <em>really</em> weird when you try to click the trackpad on a powered-off MacBook Air or Pro, or a standalone Magic Trackpad that’s turned off, and ... nothing happens. Not even the slightest hint of a click. Just totally inert. It’s gross, like poking a dead pet. <a href="#fnr3-2026-03-10" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 3 in the text.">↩︎︎</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn4-2026-03-10">
<p>My favorite power adapter is <a href="https://nomadgoods.com/products/ac-adapter-65w-usb-c-slim">this $55 two-port 65-watt “slim” charger from Nomad</a>. It’s small, lightweight, and the lay-flat design helps it stay connected to loose wall outlets in hotels and public spaces like airports and coffee shops. Nomad also sells a smaller 40-watt model with only one port, and a larger 100-watt model. But to me the 65-watt model hits the sweet spot. The link above goes to Nomad’s website; <a href="https://www.amazon.com/NOMAD-65W-Slim-Power-Adapter/dp/B0CYP6KPPB/?tag=df-amzn-20">here’s a make-me-rich affiliate link to it at Amazon</a>. <a href="#fnr4-2026-03-10" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 4 in the text.">↩︎︎</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn5-2026-03-10">
<p>One advantage to the 2.7-pound Neo compared to the decade-ago 2.0-pound MacBook “One” — you can lift the lid on the Neo with one hand and it just opens. With the old MacBook, the base was so light that the whole thing tended to lift when you just wanted to open the display. <a href="#fnr5-2026-03-10" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 5 in the text.">↩︎︎</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
]]></content>
<title>★ The MacBook Neo</title>
</entry>
<entry>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.finalist.works/finalist-36/"/>
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<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/feeds/sponsors//11.42728</id>
<author>
<name>Daring Fireball Department of Commerce</name>
</author>
<published>2026-03-09T22:44:03Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-09T22:44:03Z</updated>
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<title>[Sponsor] Finalist</title>
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<entry>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/03/the_iphone_17e"/>
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<published>2026-03-09T21:57:35Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-10T14:47:37Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<summary type="text">Apple could have stopped with the addition of MagSafe alone, and the 17e would’ve been a successful year-over-year update over the 16e. But there’s even more.</summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Over the years I’ve been writing here, I’ve often used the term <em>speed bump</em> to describe a certain type of hardware update: a new version of an existing product where the new stuff is mostly faster components, especially the CPU and GPU, but where a lot of the product, including the enclosure, remains unchanged. I’ve been thinking about it all week, as I tested the iPhone 17e, because the 17e is the epitome of a good speed bump. But it’s a funny term, because in real life, a speed bump — on the road — is something that slows you down. But in computer hardware it’s about going faster, or doing more, even if only slightly.</p>
<p>The other thing I find mildly amusing about the word “bump” and the iPhone 17e is that it’s the one and only iPhone in Apple’s lineup that doesn’t have a camera plateau — a.k.a. bump. The lens itself does jut out, slightly, but it’s just a lens, not a plateau, harking back to iPhones of yesteryear, <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/111868">like</a> the <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2018/10/the_iphone_xr">iPhone XR from 2018</a>.</p>
<p>Speed bump hardware updates never update every component. That’s not a speed bump. Only <em>some</em> components get updated. In a good speed bump update, the parts that get upgraded are the parts from the old model that were most lacking. <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2025/02/the_iphone_16e">My review last year of the iPhone 16e</a> was fairly effusive, but I noted one primary omission: MagSafe. There were, of course, other compromises made for the 16e compared to higher-priced models in the lineup, but MagSafe was the one feature missing from the 16e that really bothered me. I’m not sure there was a single review of the 16e that didn’t list the omission of MagSafe as the 16e’s biggest shortcoming.</p>
<p>Apple’s explanation, a year ago, for omitting MagSafe was that the customers they were targeting with the 16e were people upgrading from 4-, 5-, or even 6-year-old iPhones, so they were accustomed to charging their phones by plugging in a cable. I can see that. People who bought an iPhone 16e in the last year didn’t miss MagSafe because they never had a phone with it. But, for those of us who have been using iPhones with MagSafe, the lack of MagSafe on the 16e was the primary reason to steer friends and family away from getting one. It’s not just about charging, either. I use MagSafe in a bunch of places, in a bunch of ways. I have <a href="https://nomadgoods.com/products/stand-one-4th-gen-carbide">a dock</a> next to my bed and another next to my keyboard at my desk. I have a MagSafe mount on the dashboard of my car (which is so old it long predates CarPlay). I have a handful of MagSafe accessories like <a href="https://www.moft.us/products/iphone-stand-wallet-magsafe-compatible">this snap-on stand from Moft</a> that <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/07/11/moft-snap-on-iphone-stand-wallet">I recommended last summer</a>, and portable MagSafe battery packs like <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Anker-Ultra-Slim-Certified-Ultra-Fast-MagSafe-Compatible/dp/B0F8HXYD46?th=1">this one from Anker</a> (battery packs like these make for great travel items — they double as bedside chargers in hotels). I don’t carry a MagSafe card wallet or use PopSocket-style attachments, but a lot of people do. MagSafe is just great, and the lack of it on the 16e was the biggest reason not to recommend it. Just because the target audience wouldn’t <em>miss it</em> — because their old phone didn’t have it — doesn’t mean they wouldn’t <em>miss out</em> by not having it on their new one.</p>
<p>Well, that’s over. The 17e has MagSafe, and supports inductive charging at speeds up to 15W. (The iPhone Air supports charging up to 20W, and the 17 and 17 Pro models up to 25W.) Apple could have stopped there — with the addition of MagSafe alone — and the 17e would’ve been a successful year-over-year update.</p>
<p>But that would’ve been only a ... <em>err</em> ... mag bump, not a speed bump. Apple also bumped the SoC from the A18 to the A19, the current-generation chip from the regular iPhone 17. This is not a huge deal, year-over-year, but faster is faster and newer is better. (The $599 iPhone 17e, with the A19, benchmarks faster in single-core CPU performance than the $599 MacBook Neo, with the year-old A18 Pro.)</p>
<p>The upgrade to the A19 enables a better image-processing pipeline for the camera, which allows the 17e to offer Apple’s “next-generation portraits”, which are an obvious improvement over the previous portrait mode offered by the 16e. But the camera hardware itself — lenses and sensors, both front and back — is unchanged year-over-year. The technical specs for the camera, as reported by <a href="https://halide.cam/">Halide</a>’s nifty Technical Readout feature, are identical to the 16e. It’s a fine camera, but not a great camera. Just like last year with the 16e, the camera’s limitations are most noticeable in low-light situations. Still, both of these things are true:</p>
<ul>
<li>The 17e camera is by far the weakest iPhone camera Apple currently offers. (It does not come close to the quality of the also-single-lens iPhone Air camera.)</li>
<li>For the people considering the 17e, it’s probably the best camera of any kind they’ve ever owned, and a big improvement over their current, probably years-old, phone.</li>
</ul>
<p>The 17e camera system remains limited to Apple’s original <a href="https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/use-photographic-styles-iph629d2cd37/ios">Photographic Styles</a>; all the other iPhones in the new A19 generation — the 17, 17 Pro, and Air — offer the much improved “latest-generation” Photographic Styles. In practice, this means the system Camera app on the 17e only offers these styles: Standard, Rich Contrast, Vibrant, Warm, and Cool. The second-generation Photographic Styles, which debuted last year on the iPhone 16 models, offer a much wider variety of styles and more fine-grained control, all of which processing is non-destructive. To name one obvious scenario, the new generation of Photographic Styles offers several black-and-white styles. When you shoot with these B&W styles, you can subsequently change your mind and apply one of the color styles in the Photos app, because the styles aren’t baked-in. But with the original-generation Photographic Styles — the one the 17e is limited to — the styles you shoot with are baked into the HEIC (or JPEG) files. You can apply non-destructive <em>filters</em> in post, including black-and-white filters, but those filters are simplistic compared to the new-generation Photographic Styles — and unlike the new Photographic Styles, you can’t preview the old filters live in the Camera app viewfinder. If you care about any of this, you should spend the extra $200 to get the regular iPhone 17, or perhaps, the still-for-sale iPhone 16, both of which offer both better camera hardware <em>and</em> software than the 17e. If you don’t care about any of this, the 17e might be the iPhone for you.</p>
<p>Here’s a link to Apple’s ever-excellent Compare page, <a href="https://www.apple.com/iphone/compare/?modelList=iphone-16e,iphone-17e,iphone-17">with a comparison of the 16e vs. 17e vs. 17</a>. (For posterity, here’s that Compare page <a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/03/iPhone-16e-vs-iPhone-17e-vs-iPhone-17.pdf">archived as a PDF</a>.) Other than the addition of MagSafe, the next biggest change from last year’s 16e to the new 17e is that base storage has increased from 128 to 256 GB (while the starting price has remained unchanged at $600). Nice. Also, there’s a third color option, “soft pink”, in addition to white and black. Lastly, the 17e gains the Ceramic Shield 2 front glass, which Apple claims offers 3× better scratch resistance. That’s nice too.</p>
<p>That’s about it for what’s improved in the 17e compared to the 16e. But that’s enough. With the old iPhone SE models, Apple only updated the hardware every 3–5 years. The new e models are seemingly on the same annual upgrade cycle as the other generation-numbered models.<sup id="fnr1-2026-03-09"><a href="#fn1-2026-03-09">1</a></sup> Adding MagSafe, going from the A18 to A19, increasing base storage, and adding a new colorway is a solid speed bump.</p>
<p>The next way to consider the 17e is by comparing it to the base iPhone 17. What do you miss if you go with the 17e — or, what do you gain by paying an extra $200 for the 17?</p>
<ul>
<li><p>The base 17 has a ProMotion display with dynamic refresh rates up to 120 Hz and an always-on display. It’s also a brighter display (1000 vs. 800 nits SDR, 1600 vs. 1200 nits HDR). The iPhone 17 is the first base model iPhone with ProMotion, and it also sports a slightly bigger display (6.3″ vs. 6.1″) despite the fact that the 17 is only 2mm taller and exactly the same width as the 17e — the increased screen size is mostly from having smaller bezels surrounding the display.</p></li>
<li><p>The iPhone 17 comes with Apple’s second-generation Ultra Wideband chip for precision Find My support. If you track, say, an AirTag using the Find My app, the iPhone 17 supports the cool feature that guides you right to the device, with distances down to fractions of a foot. The iPhone 17e doesn’t support that — it just lets you do the old Find My stuff, like having the lost device play a sound, and showing its location on a map.</p></li>
<li><p>Camera Control: On my personal iPhone 17 Pro, I only use the Camera Control button for launching the Camera app, and as a shutter within Camera (and other camera apps, like <a href="https://notbor.ing/product/camera">!Camera</a>, <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/analogue/id6748702405">Analogue</a>,<sup id="fnr2-2026-03-09"><a href="#fn2-2026-03-09">2</a></sup> and <a href="https://halide.cam/">Halide</a>). I don’t use it for adjusting controls, because it’s just too finicky. But I love it as a dedicated launcher and shutter button. I keep trying to invoke it on the 17e to launch the Camera app, even now, a few days into daily driving it.</p></li>
<li><p>The iPhone 17 has the clever <a href="https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/view-live-activities-in-the-dynamic-island-iph28f50d10d/ios">Dynamic Island</a>; the 17e has a dumb notch. The Dynamic Island is nice to have, but despite having one on my personal phone for 3.5 years (it debuted with the 14 Pro in 2022), I can’t say I’ve particularly missed it during the better part of a week that I’ve been using the 17e as my primary phone. I actually had to double check that the 17e doesn’t have it while first writing this paragraph, because, over my first few days of testing, I just hadn’t noticed. But then I went out and ran an errand requiring an Uber ride, while listening to a podcast, and I noticed the lack of a Dynamic Island — no live status update for the hailed Uber, and no quick-tap button for jumping back into <a href="https://overcast.fm/">Overcast</a>.</p></li>
<li><p>And last, but far from least, the iPhone 17 has significantly better camera hardware: the 1× main camera is better; it offers a 0.5× ultra wide lens that the 17e completely lacks; and <a href="https://www.businessworld.in/article/exclusive-jon-mccormack-on-how-apple-reinvented-the-selfie-for-the-iphone-17-575523">the all-new front-facing camera is vastly superior</a>.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>That’s a fair amount of better stuff for $200. But none of those things jumps out to me as a reason not to recommend the 17e for someone who considers price their highest priority. With 256 GB of storage, even the base model 17e is recommendable without hesitation. The omission of MagSafe on last year’s 16e was low-hanging fruit for Apple to add this year, as was the meager base storage of 128 GB. I don’t think there’s anything on par with MagSafe for next year’s iPhone 18e. (My first choice would be the second-generation Ultra Wideband chip — I’d like to see precision location make it into everything Apple sells sooner rather than later.)</p>
<p>Across several days of testing, 5G cellular reception was strong, and battery life was long. I ran Speedtest a few times, at different locations in Center City Philadelphia, and each time got download speeds above 500 Mbps and upload speeds around 40–50 Mbps. Apple’s in-house C1X modem is simply great.</p>
<p>Here’s a table with pricing for the iPhone models Apple currently sells:</p>
<!-- Markdown Table:
| | SoC | 128 GB | 256 GB | 512 GB | 1 TB | 2 TB |
| ---------: | :-----: | :----: | :----: | :----: | :----: | :---: |
| 17e | A19 | — | $600 | $800 | | — |
| 16 | A18 | $700 | — | — | — | — |
| 16 Plus | A18 | $800 | $900 | — | — | — |
| 17 | A19 | — | $800 | $1000 | — | — |
| Air (17) | A19 Pro | — | $1000 | $1200 | $1400 | — |
| 17 Pro | A19 Pro | — | $1100 | $1300 | $1500 | — |
| 17 Pro Max | A19 Pro | — | $1200 | $1400 | $1600 | $2000 |
-->
<table class="table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E" width=550 style="margin-left: -35px;">
<style>
.table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E th:nth-child(1) { text-align: left }
.table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E td:nth-child(1) { text-align: left }
.table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E th:nth-child(2) { text-align: left }
.table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E td:nth-child(2) { text-align: left }
.table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E th:nth-child(3) { text-align: center }
.table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E td:nth-child(3) { text-align: center }
.table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E th:nth-child(4) { text-align: center }
.table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E td:nth-child(4) { text-align: center }
.table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E th:nth-child(5) { text-align: center }
.table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E td:nth-child(5) { text-align: center }
.table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E th:nth-child(6) { text-align: center }
.table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E td:nth-child(6) { text-align: center }
.table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E th:nth-child(7) { text-align: center }
.table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E td:nth-child(7) { text-align: center }
</style>
<thead>
<th>iPhone</th><th>SoC</th><th>128 GB</th><th>256 GB</th><th>512 GB</th><th>1 TB</th><th>2 TB</th>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>17e</td><td>A19</td><td>—</td><td>$600</td><td>$800</td><td></td><td>—</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>16</td><td>A18</td><td>$700</td><td>—</td><td>—</td><td>—</td><td>—</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>16 Plus</td><td>A18</td><td>$800</td><td>$900</td><td>—</td><td>—</td><td>—</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>17</td><td>A19</td><td>—</td><td>$800</td><td>$1000</td><td>—</td><td>—</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Air (17)</td><td>A19 Pro</td><td>—</td><td>$1000</td><td>$1200</td><td>$1400</td><td>—</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>17 Pro</td><td>A19 Pro</td><td>—</td><td>$1100</td><td>$1300</td><td>$1500</td><td>—</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>17 Pro Max</td><td>A19 Pro</td><td>—</td><td>$1200</td><td>$1400</td><td>$1600</td><td>$2000</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>This is a very compelling lineup, and the 17e shores up the lowest price point with aplomb:</p>
<ul>
<li>Good: iPhone 17e</li>
<li>Better: iPhone 17</li>
<li>Best: iPhone 17 Pro or iPhone Air, depending on how you define “best”.</li>
</ul>
<p>In New York last week at Apple’s hands-on “experience” for the media, which was primarily about the MacBook Neo, I got the chance to talk about the 17e, too. Apple’s product marketing people tend to compare the 17e against the iPhone 11 and 12. Those are the iPhones most would-be 17e buyers are upgrading from. Things they’ll notice if they do upgrade to a 17e:</p>
<ul>
<li>Much better battery life. Not just compared to an iPhone 11 or 12 that’s been in use for 4–5 years, but against a factory fresh battery in those older iPhones. Apple’s “streaming video” benchmark goes from 11 hours to 21 hours <a href="https://www.apple.com/iphone/compare/?modelList=iphone-17e,iphone-12,iphone-11">comparing the 17e to the 12</a>. And if they <em>are</em> upgrading from a phone with a 4- or 5-year-old battery that’s been through hundreds of charge cycles, they’re going to notice it even more.</li>
<li>A noticeably brighter screen (800 vs 625 nits).</li>
<li>A much improved camera. Even if they’re not serious about photography, the 17e camera is noticeably better than the cameras from half a decade ago.</li>
<li>Everything will feel faster.</li>
</ul>
<p>Frankly, I’m not sure who the year-old iPhone 16 is for today, especially considering that Apple is now only offering it with 128 GB of storage. People on a tight budget but who really want an ultra wide 0.5× second camera lens? The potential appeal of the still-available 16 Plus is more obvious: if you want a big-screen iPhone, it’s much less expensive than a 17 Pro Max. And, unlike the regular iPhone 16, the 16 Plus is available with 256 GB. But at that point, I’d encourage whoever is considering the $900 iPhone 16 Plus with 256 GB storage to pay an extra $100 and get the iPhone Air instead. The overall lineup would have more coherence and clarity if Apple just eliminated the two 16 models. I suspect Apple is on the cusp of completely moving away from the strategy of selling two- and three-year-old iPhones at lower prices, and updating their entire lineup with annual speed bumps.</p>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr />
<ol>
<li id="fn1-2026-03-09">
<p>It remains to be seen how frequently Apple intends to update the iPhone Air, which conspicuously lacks a “17” in its name. <a href="#fnr1-2026-03-09" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.">↩︎</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn2-2026-03-09">
<p>Analogue is a relatively new app by developer Cristian Teichner. It uses Apple’s Log imaging pipeline, which Apple primarily intends for video capture. But Analogue uses the Log pipeline for both video <em>and</em> still photography. One side effect of this is that still photos are a bit “zoomed in”, because the video capture pipeline uses a slight crop of the overall sensor. For the same reason, Analogue’s “full frame” aspect ratio is 16:9, not 4:3. But the benefit is that Analogue uses <a href="https://aftershoot.com/blog/lut/">LUTs</a> for image processing/color grading, and can do so non-destructively. It results in delightful, film-like images. I’ve been shooting with Analogue quite a bit on my iPhone 17 Pro. Alas, Analogue doesn’t work on the 17e, because the 17e doesn’t support Log capture. In fact, Analogue <em>only</em> works on the 15 Pro, 16 Pro, and 17 Pro models, because those are the only iPhones that support the “pro” imaging pipeline. Even the $1,200 iPhone Air, which sports an A19 Pro chip, does not. <a href="#fnr2-2026-03-09" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 2 in the text.">↩︎︎</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
]]></content>
<title>★ The iPhone 17e</title>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>MacBook Neo Wallpapers Now Available for All Macs in MacOS Tahoe</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.macrumors.com/2026/03/09/macos-tahoe-26-4-beta-4-neo-wallpapers/"/>
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wyu"/>
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/09/neo-wallpapers"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42726</id>
<published>2026-03-09T19:37:58Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-09T22:24:21Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Juli Clover, MacRumors:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Featuring bubble-style lines with colorful gradients, the
wallpapers come in Mac Purple, Mac Blue, Mac Pink, and Mac Yellow.
The design and the colors spell out the word “Mac.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>They got me. I’m upgrading to Tahoe now.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘MacBook Neo Wallpapers Now Available for All Macs in MacOS Tahoe’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/09/neo-wallpapers"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Low-Wage Contractors in Kenya See What Users See While Using Meta’s AI Smart Glasses</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.svd.se/a/K8nrV4/metas-ai-smart-glasses-and-data-privacy-concerns-workers-say-we-see-everything"/>
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wyt"/>
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/09/kenya-meta-contractors"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42725</id>
<published>2026-03-09T14:16:19Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-09T14:16:20Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Naipanoi Lepapa, Ahmed Abdigadir, and Julia Lindblom, reporting for the Swedish publications Svenska Dagbladet and Göteborgs-Posten:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It is stuffy at the top of the hotel in Nairobi, Kenya. The grey
sky presses the heat against the windows. The man in front of us
is nervous. If his employer finds out that he is here, he could
lose everything. He is one of the people few even realise exist — a flesh-and-blood worker in the engine room of the data industry.
What he has to say is explosive.</p>
<p>“In some videos you can see someone going to the toilet, or
getting undressed. I don’t think they know, because if they knew
they wouldn’t be recording.” [...]</p>
<p>The workers describe videos where people’s bank cards are visible
by mistake, and people watching porn while wearing the glasses.
Clips that could trigger “enormous scandals” if they were leaked.</p>
<p>“There are also sex scenes filmed with the smart glasses — someone is wearing them having sex. That is why this is so
extremely sensitive. There are cameras everywhere in our office,
and you are not allowed to bring your own phones or any device
that can record”, an employee says.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Delightful. And what a brand move for Ray-Ban and Oakley.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Low-Wage Contractors in Kenya See What Users See While Using Meta’s AI Smart Glasses’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/09/kenya-meta-contractors"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Can Coding Agents Relicense Open Source Through a ‘Clean Room’ Implementation of Code?</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://simonwillison.net/2026/Mar/5/chardet/"/>
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wys"/>
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/08/willison-chardet-licensing-dispute"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42724</id>
<published>2026-03-08T17:59:09Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-08T17:59:10Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Simon Willison:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There are a <em>lot</em> of open questions about this, both ethically and
legally. These appear to be coming to a head in the venerable
<a href="https://github.com/chardet/chardet">chardet</a> Python library. <code>chardet</code> was created by Mark
Pilgrim <a href="https://pypi.org/project/chardet/1.0/">back in 2006</a> and released under the LGPL. Mark
retired from public internet life in 2011 and <code>chardet</code>’s
maintenance was taken over by others, most notably Dan Blanchard
who has been responsible for every release since <a href="https://pypi.org/project/chardet/1.1/">1.1 in July
2012</a>.</p>
<p>Two days ago Dan released <a href="https://github.com/chardet/chardet/releases/tag/7.0.0">chardet 7.0.0</a> with the following
note in the release notes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Ground-up, MIT-licensed rewrite of chardet. Same package name,
same public API — drop-in replacement for chardet 5.x/6.x. Just
way faster and more accurate!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yesterday Mark Pilgrim opened <a href="https://github.com/chardet/chardet/issues/327">#327: No right to relicense this
project</a>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A fascinating dispute, and the first public post from Pilgrim that I’ve seen <a href="https://daringfireball.net/search/mark+pilgrim">in quite a while</a>.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Can Coding Agents Relicense Open Source Through a ‘Clean Room’ Implementation of Code?’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/08/willison-chardet-licensing-dispute"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Donald Knuth on Claude Opus Solving a Computer Science Problem</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/papers/claude-cycles.pdf"/>
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wyr"/>
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/08/knuth-claude"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42723</id>
<published>2026-03-08T17:49:08Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-08T17:49:08Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Donald Knuth, who, adorably, effectively blogs by posting TeX-typeset PDFs:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Shock! Shock! I learned yesterday that an open problem I’d been
working on for several weeks had just been solved by Claude Opus
4.6 — Anthropic’s hybrid reasoning model that had been released
three weeks earlier! It seems that I’ll have to revise my opinions
about “generative AI” one of these days. What a joy it is to learn
not only that my conjecture has a nice solution but also to
celebrate this dramatic advance in automatic deduction and
creative problem solving. I’ll try to tell the story briefly in
this note.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>(<a href="https://simonwillison.net/2026/Mar/3/donald-knuth/">Via Simon Willison</a>.)</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Donald Knuth on Claude Opus Solving a Computer Science Problem’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/08/knuth-claude"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Steve Lemay Hits Apple’s Leadership Page</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.apple.com/leadership/steve-lemay/"/>
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wyq"/>
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/08/lemay-leadership-page"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42722</id>
<published>2026-03-08T15:28:36Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-08T16:30:18Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p><em>Help us Obi-Wan Lemay, you’re our only hope.</em></p>
<p>(Also, <a href="https://www.macrumors.com/2026/03/07/apple-adds-three-executives-to-leadership-page/">as noted</a> by Joe Rossignol, <a href="https://www.apple.com/leadership/eddy-cue/">Eddy Cue</a> got an updated headshot.)</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Steve Lemay Hits Apple’s Leadership Page’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/08/lemay-leadership-page"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>‘npx workos’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://workos.com/docs/authkit/cli-installer?utm_source=tldrdev&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=q12026"/>
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wyp"/>
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/07/npx-workos"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42721</id>
<published>2026-03-07T21:53:37Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-07T22:16:39Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>My thanks, once again, to WorkOS for sponsoring this week at DF. <code>npx workos</code> is a CLI tool, replete with cool ASCII art, that <a href="https://youtu.be/kU88lUqdduQ?utm_source=daringfireball&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=q12026">launches an AI agent</a>, powered by Claude, that reads your project, detects your framework, and writes a complete auth integration directly into your existing codebase. It’s not a template generator. It reads your code, understands your stack, and writes an integration that fits.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://workos.com/?utm_source=daringfireball&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=q12026">WorkOS</a> agent then type-checks and builds, feeding any errors back to itself to fix. <a href="https://workos.com/docs/authkit/cli-installer?utm_source=tldrdev&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=q12026">See how it works</a> for yourself. </p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘‘npx workos’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/07/npx-workos"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Daring Fireball Weekly Sponsorship Openings</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/"/>
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wyo"/>
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/daring-fireball-weekly-sponsorship-openings"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42720</id>
<published>2026-03-06T20:59:49Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-07T19:12:57Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Weekly sponsorships have been the top source of revenue for Daring Fireball ever since I started selling them <a href="https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/archive">back in 2007</a>. They’ve succeeded, I think, because they make everyone happy. They generate good money. There’s only one sponsor per week and the sponsors are always relevant to at least some sizable portion of the DF audience, so you, the reader, are never annoyed and hopefully often intrigued by them. And, from the sponsors’ perspective, they work. My favorite thing about them is how many sponsors <a href="https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/archive">return for subsequent weeks</a> after seeing the results.</p>
<p>Sponsorships have been selling briskly, of late. There are only three weeks open between now and the end of June. <s>But one of those open weeks is next week, starting this coming Monday:</s></p>
<ul>
<li>March 9–15 (<strong>Update:</strong> Sold)</li>
<li>April 20–26 (<strong>Update:</strong> Sold)</li>
<li>May 25–31</li>
</ul>
<p>I’m also booking sponsorships for Q3 2026, and roughly half of those weeks are already sold.</p>
<p>If you’ve got a product or service you think would be of interest to DF’s audience of people obsessed with high quality and good design, <a href="mailto:[email protected]?subject=Feed%20Sponsorship">get in touch</a> — especially if you can act quick for next week’s opening.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Daring Fireball Weekly Sponsorship Openings’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/daring-fireball-weekly-sponsorship-openings"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Google’s Threat Intelligence Group on Coruna, a Powerful iOS Exploit Kit of Mysterious Origin</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/threat-intelligence/coruna-powerful-ios-exploit-kit"/>
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wyn"/>
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/google-threat-intelligence-group-coruna"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42719</id>
<published>2026-03-06T19:32:47Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-07T18:32:51Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Google Threat Intelligence Group, earlier this week:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) has identified a new and
powerful exploit kit targeting Apple iPhone models running iOS
version 13.0 (released in September 2019) up to version 17.2.1
(released in December 2023). The exploit kit, named “Coruna” by
its developers, contained five full iOS exploit chains and a total
of 23 exploits. The core technical value of this exploit kit lies
in its comprehensive collection of iOS exploits, with the most
advanced ones using non-public exploitation techniques and
mitigation bypasses.</p>
<p>The Coruna exploit kit provides <a href="https://blog.google/threat-analysis-group/state-backed-attackers-and-commercial-surveillance-vendors-repeatedly-use-the-same-exploits/">another example of how
sophisticated capabilities proliferate</a>. Over the course of
2025, GTIG tracked its use in highly targeted operations initially
conducted by a customer of a <a href="https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-uniblog-publish-prod/documents/Buying_Spying_-_Insights_into_Commercial_Surveillance_Vendors_-_TAG_report.pdf">surveillance vendor</a>, then
observed its deployment in watering hole attacks targeting
Ukrainian users by UNC6353, a suspected Russian espionage group.
We then retrieved the complete exploit kit when it was later used
in broad-scale campaigns by UNC6691, a financially motivated
threat actor operating from China. How this proliferation occurred
is unclear, but suggests an active market for “second hand”
zero-day exploits. Beyond these identified exploits, multiple
threat actors have now acquired advanced exploitation techniques
that can be re-used and modified with newly identified
vulnerabilities.</p>
</blockquote>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Google’s Threat Intelligence Group on Coruna, a Powerful iOS Exploit Kit of Mysterious Origin’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/google-threat-intelligence-group-coruna"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>‘The Window Chrome of Our Discontent’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://pxlnv.com/blog/window-chrome-of-our-discontent/"/>
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wym"/>
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/window-chrome-of-our-discontent"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42718</id>
<published>2026-03-06T19:21:12Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-07T20:19:41Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Nick Heer, writing at Pixel Envy, uses Pages (from 2009 through today) to illustrate Apple’s march toward putting “greater focus on your content” by making window chrome, and toolbar icons, more and more invisible:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Perhaps Apple has some user studies that suggest otherwise, but I
cannot see how dialling back the lines between interface and
document is supposed to be beneficial for the user. It does not,
in my use, result in less distraction while I am working in these
apps. In fact, it often does the opposite. I do not think the
prescription is rolling back to a decade-old design language.
However, I think Apple should consider exploring the wealth of
variables it can change to differentiate tools within toolbars,
and to more clearly delineate window chrome from document.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This entire idea that application window chrome should disappear is madness. Some people — at Apple, quite obviously — think it looks better, in the abstract, but I can’t see how it makes actually <em>using</em> these apps more productive. Artists don’t want to use invisible tools. Artists crave tools that look and feel distinctive and cool.</p>
<p>Clean lines between content and application chrome are clarifying, not distracting. It’s also useful to be able to tell, at a glance, which application is which. I look at Heer’s screenshot of the new version of Pages running on MacOS 26 Tahoe and not only can I not tell at a glance that it’s Pages, I can’t even tell at a glance that it’s a document word processor, especially with the formatting sidebar hidden. One of the worst aspects of Liquid Glass, across all platforms, but exemplified by MacOS 26, is that all apps look exactly the same. Not just different apps that are in the same category, but different apps from entirely different categories. Safari looks like Mail looks like Pages looks like the Finder — even though web browsers, email clients, word processors, and file browsers aren’t anything alike.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘‘The Window Chrome of Our Discontent’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/window-chrome-of-our-discontent"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>The Verge Interviews Tim Sweeney After Victory in ‘Epic v. Google’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.theverge.com/23996474/epic-tim-sweeney-interview-win-google-antitrust-lawsuit-district-court"/>
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wyl"/>
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/verge-sweeney-interview"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42717</id>
<published>2026-03-06T17:09:10Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-06T19:08:39Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>The Verge:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Sean Hollister: <em>What would you say the differences are between
the Apple and Google cases?</em></p>
<p>Tim Sweeney: I would say Apple was ice and Google was fire.</p>
<p>The thing with Apple is all of their antitrust trickery is
internal to the company. They use their store, their payments,
they force developers to all have the same terms, they force OEMs
and carriers to all have the same terms.</p>
<p>Whereas Google, to achieve things with Android, they were going
around and paying off game developers, dozens of game developers,
to not compete. And they’re paying off dozens of carriers and OEMs
to not compete — and when all of these different companies do
deals together, lots of people put things in writing, and it’s
right there for everybody to read and to see plainly.</p>
<p>I think the Apple case would be no less interesting if we could
see all of their internal thoughts and deliberations, but Apple
was not putting it in writing, whereas Google was. You know, I
think Apple is... it’s a little bit unfortunate that in a lot of
ways Apple’s restrictions on competition are absolute. Thou shalt
not have a competing store on iOS and thou shalt not use a
competing payment method. And I think Apple should be receiving at
least as harsh antitrust scrutiny as Google.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Interesting interview, for sure — but it’s from December 2023, when Epic scored its first court victory against Google. And, notably, it came <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/sweeney-google-gag">before Sweeney signed away</a> his right to criticize Google or the Play Store.</p>
<p>But I don’t see Epic’s ultimate victory in the lawsuit as a win for Android users, and I don’t think it’s much of a win for Android developers either. <a href="https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2026/03/a-new-era-for-choice-and-openness.html">These new terms from Google</a> just seem confusing and complicated, with varying rates for “existing installs” vs. “new installs”.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘The Verge Interviews Tim Sweeney After Victory in ‘Epic v. Google’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/verge-sweeney-interview"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Tim Sweeney Signed Away His Right to Criticize Google’s Play Store Until 2032</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.theverge.com/news/889595/tim-sweeney-signed-away-his-right-to-criticize-google-until-2032"/>
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wyk"/>
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/sweeney-google-gag"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42716</id>
<published>2026-03-06T16:36:16Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-06T16:36:16Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Sean Hollister, writing for The Verge:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>But Google has finally muzzled Tim Sweeney. It’s right there in a
binding term sheet for <a href="https://www.theverge.com/policy/889252/google-app-store-fee-reduction-20-percent-epic-v-google">his settlement with Google</a>.</p>
<p>On March 3rd, he not only signed away Epic’s rights to sue and
disparage the company over anything covered in the term sheet — Google’s app distribution practices, its fees, how it treats games
and apps — he signed away his right to advocate for any further
changes to Google’s app store policies, too. He can’t criticize
Google’s app store practices. In fact, he has to praise them.</p>
<p>The contract states that “Epic believes that the Google and
Android platform, with the changes in this term sheet, are
procompetitive and a model for app store / platform operations,
and will make good faith efforts to advocate for the same.” [...]</p>
<p>And while Epic can still be part of the “Coalition for App
Fairness,” the organization that <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/30/23962920/epic-just-admitted-the-coalition-for-app-fairness-was-created-solely-by-epic">Epic quietly and solely funded
to be its attack dog</a> against Google and Apple, he can only
point that organization at Apple now.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Sounds like a highly credible coalition that truly stands for fairness to me.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Tim Sweeney Signed Away His Right to Criticize Google’s Play Store Until 2032’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/sweeney-google-gag"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>The MacBook Neo’s Price, Looking to the Past and Future</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://x.com/ethan_is_online/status/2029331836137291941?s=42"/>
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wyj"/>
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/macbook-neos-price-past-and-future"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42715</id>
<published>2026-03-06T14:50:39Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-06T16:22:25Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Ethan W. Anderson, on Twitter/X:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’ve plotted the most expensive McDonald’s burger and the least
expensive MacBook over time. This analysis projects that the most
expensive burger will be more expensive than the cheapest laptop
as soon as 2081.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Looking to the past, if you plug $599 in today’s money into <a href="https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/">an inflation calculator</a>, that’s just ~$190 in 1984, the year the original Macintosh launched with a price of $2,495 (which works out to ~$7,800 today.)</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘The MacBook Neo’s Price, Looking to the Past and Future’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/macbook-neos-price-past-and-future"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>‘Never the Same Game Twice’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://johnmccoy.org/2026/03/05/never-the-same-game-twice/"/>
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wyi"/>
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/mccoy-parker-bros"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42714</id>
<published>2026-03-06T14:44:02Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-06T14:59:44Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>John McCoy:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>From around 1970 to 1980, the Salem, Massachusetts-based Parker
Brothers (now a brand of Hasbro) published games whose innovative
and fanciful designs drew inspiration from Pop Art, Op Art, and
Madison Avenue advertising. They had boxes, boards, and components
that reflected the most current techniques of printing and
plastics molding. They were witty, silly, and weird. The other
main players in American games at the time were Milton-Bradley,
whose art tended towards cartoony, corny, and flat designs, and
Ideal, whose games (like <em>Mousetrap</em>) were mostly showcases for
their novel plastic components.</p>
<p>Parker Brothers design stood out for its style and sophistication,
and even as a young nerd I could see that it was special. In fact,
I believe they were my introduction, at the age of seven, to the
whole concept of graphic design. This isn’t to say that the games
were <em>good</em> in the sense of being fun or engaging to play; a lot
of them were re-skinned versions of the basic
race-around-the-board type that had been popular since the <em>Uncle
Wiggly Game</em>. But they looked amazing and they were <em>different</em>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These games mostly sucked but they looked cool as shit. Lot of memories for me in this post.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘‘Never the Same Game Twice’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/mccoy-parker-bros"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Another Steve Jobs Quote on Lower-Priced Macs</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://technologizer.com/2008/10/22/the-case-for-a-mac-netbook/index.html"/>
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wyh"/>
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/jobs-500-computer"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42713</id>
<published>2026-03-06T14:22:21Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-06T15:18:52Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Steve Jobs, on Apple’s quarterly results call <a href="https://seekingalpha.com/article/100980-apple-f4q08-qtr-end-9-27-08-earnings-call-transcript?page=-1">back in October 2008</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There are some customers which we choose not to serve. We don’t
know how to make a $500 computer that’s not a piece of junk, and
our DNA will not let us ship that.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Harry McCracken, writing at the time:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>With <em>that</em> out of the way, the question that folks have been
asking lately about whether Apple <a href="http://gigaom.com/2008/10/02/3-reasons-why-well-see-an-apple-netbook-soon/">will</a> or <a href="http://www.scripting.com/stories/2008/10/22/whyILikeNetbooks.html">should</a>
release a netbook-like Mac is fascinating. Regardless of whether
the company ever does unveil a small, cheap, simple Mac notebook,
it’s fun to think about the prospect of one. And I’ve come to the
conclusion that such a machine <em>could</em> be in the works, in a
manner that’s consistent with the Apple way and the company’s
product line as it stands today. I’m not calling this a
prediction. But it is a scenario.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Apple made many $500 “computers” in the years between then and now. But they were iPads, not Macs. I think part of the impetus behind the MacBook Neo is an acknowledgement that as popular as iPads are, and for as many people who use them as their primary larger-than-a-phone computing device, there are a lot of other people, and a lot of use cases, that demand a PC. And from Apple, that means a Mac.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Another Steve Jobs Quote on Lower-Priced Macs’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/jobs-500-computer"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Steve Jobs in 2007, on Apple’s Pursuit of PC Market Share: ‘We Just Can’t Ship Junk’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U37Ds3RvyoM"/>
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wyg"/>
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/05/steve-jobs-we-just-cant-ship-junk"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42712</id>
<published>2026-03-05T18:43:16Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-05T23:18:13Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>In August 2007, Apple held a Mac event in the Infinite Loop Town Hall auditorium. <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2007/08/07Apple-Unveils-New-iMac/">New iMacs</a>, <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2007/08/07Apple-Introduces-iLife-08/">iLife ’08</a> (major updates to iPhoto and iMovie), and <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2007/08/07Apple-Introduces-iWork-08/">iWork ’08</a> (including the debut of Numbers 1.0). Back then, believe it or not, at the end of these Town Hall events, Apple executives would sit on stools and take questions from the media. For this one, Steve Jobs was flanked by Tim Cook and Phil Schiller. Molly Wood, then at CNet, asked, “And so, I guess once and for all, is it your goal to overtake the PC in market share?”</p>
<p>The audience — along with Cook, Jobs, and Schiller — chuckled. And then Jobs answered. You should watch the video — it’s just two minutes — but here’s what he said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I can tell you what our goal is. Our goal is to make the best
personal computers in the world and to make products we are proud
to sell and would recommend to our family and friends. And we want
to do that at the lowest prices we can. But I have to tell you,
there’s some stuff in our industry that we wouldn’t be proud to
ship, that we wouldn’t be proud to recommend to our family and
friends. And we can’t do it. We just can’t ship junk.</p>
<p>So there are thresholds that we can’t cross because of who
we are. But we want to make the best personal computers in the
industry. And we think there’s a very significant slice of the
industry that wants that too. And what you’ll find is our products
are usually <em>not</em> premium priced. You go and price out our
competitors’ products, and you add the features that you have to
add to make them useful, and you’ll find in some cases they are
more expensive than our products. The difference is we don’t offer
stripped-down lousy products. We just don’t offer
categories of products like that. But if you move those aside and
compare us with our competitors, I think we compare pretty
favorably. And a lot of people have been doing that, and
saying that now, for the last 18 months.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Steve Jobs would have <em>loved</em> the MacBook Neo. Everything about it, right down to the fact that Apple is responsible for the silicon.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Steve Jobs in 2007, on Apple’s Pursuit of PC Market Share: ‘We Just Can’t Ship Junk’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/05/steve-jobs-we-just-cant-ship-junk"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/03/599_not_a_piece_of_junk_macbook_neo"/>
<link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/wyf"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026://1.42711</id>
<published>2026-03-04T19:40:11Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-10T18:52:21Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<summary type="text">The MacBook Neo is the first major new Mac aimed at the consumer market in the Apple Silicon era. It’s meant to make a dent — perhaps a minuscule dent in the universe, but a big dent in the Mac’s share of the overall PC market.</summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p><em>$599. Not a piece of junk.</em></p>
<p>That’s <em>not</em> a marketing slogan from Apple for <a href="https://www.apple.com/macbook-neo/">the new MacBook Neo</a>. But it could be. And it <em>is</em> the underlying message of the product. For a few years now, Apple has <a href="https://daringfireball.net/search/walmart+macbook+air+m1">quietly dabbled with the sub-$1,000 laptop market</a>, by selling the base configuration of the M1 MacBook Air — a machine that <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2020/11/introducing-the-next-generation-of-mac/">debuted</a> in November 2020 — at retailers like Walmart for under $700. But <em>dabbling</em> is the right word. Apple has never ventured under the magic $999 price point for a MacBook available in its own stores.</p>
<p>As of today, they’re not just in the sub-$1,000 laptop market, they’re going in hard. The MacBook Neo is a very compelling $600 laptop, and for just $100 more, you get a configuration with Touch ID and double the storage (512 GB instead of 256).</p>
<p>You can argue that all MacBooks should have Touch ID. My first answer to that is “$599”. My second answer is “education”. Touch ID doesn’t really make sense for laptops shared by kids in a school. And with Apple’s $100 education pricing discount, the base MacBook Neo, at $499, is <em>half the price</em> of the base M5 MacBook Air ($1099 retail, $999 education). Half the price.</p>
<p>I’m writing this from Apple’s hands-on “experience” in New York, amongst what I’d estimate as a few hundred members of the media. It’s a pretty big event, and a very big space inside some sort of empty warehouse on the western edge of Chelsea. Before playing the four-minute Neo introduction video (which you should watch — <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/03/say-hello-to-macbook-neo/?videoid=45c8e3bf69354631f6ee78a782356dbf">it’s embedded in Apple’s Newsroom post</a>), John Ternus took the stage to address the audience. He emphasized that the Mac user base continues to grow, because “nearly half of Mac buyers are new to the platform”. Ternus didn’t say the following aloud, but Apple clearly knows what has kept a <em>lot</em> of would-be switchers from switching, and it’s the price. The Mac Mini is great, but normal people only buy laptops, and aside from the aforementioned dabbling with the five-year-old M1 MacBook Air and a brief exception when <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2014/04/29Apple-Updates-MacBook-Air/">the MacBook Air dropped to $899 in 2014</a>, Apple just hasn’t ventured under $999. “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U37Ds3RvyoM">We just can’t ship junk</a>,” Steve Jobs said back in 2007. It’s not that Apple never noticed the demand for laptops in the $500–700 range. It’s that they didn’t see how to make one that wasn’t junk.</p>
<p>Now they have. And the PC world should take note. One of my briefings today included a side-by-side comparison between a MacBook Neo and an HP 14-inch laptop “in the same price category”. It was something like <a href="https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/pdp/hp-omnibook-5-ngai-14-he0027nr">this one</a>, with an Intel Core 5 chip, which costs $550. The HP’s screen sucks (very dim, way lower resolution), the speakers suck, the keyboard sucks, and the trackpad sucks. It’s a thick, heavy, plasticky piece of junk. I didn’t put my nose to it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it smells bad.</p>
<p>The MacBook Neo looks and feels every bit like a MacBook. Solid aluminum. Good keyboard (no backlighting, but supposedly the same mechanism as in other post-2019 MacBooks — felt great in my quick testing). Good trackpad (no <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/102309">Force Touch</a> — it actually physically clicks, but you can click anywhere, not just the bottom). Good bright display (500 nits max, same as the MacBook Air). Surprisingly good speakers, in a new side-firing configuration. Without even turning either laptop on, you can just see and feel that the MacBook Neo is a vastly superior device.</p>
<p>And when you do turn them on, you see the vast difference in display quality and hear the vast difference in speaker quality. And you get MacOS, not Windows, which, even with Tahoe, remains the quintessential glass of ice water in hell for the computer industry.</p>
<p>I came into today’s <s>event</s> experience expecting a starting price of $799 for the Neo — $300 less than the new $1,099 price for the base M5 MacBook Air (which, in defense of that price, starts with 512 GB storage). $599 is a fucking statement. Apple is coming after this market. I think they’re going to sell a zillion of these things, and “almost half” of new Mac buyers being new to the platform is going to become “more than half”. The MacBook Neo is not a footnote or hobby, or a pricing stunt to get people in the door before upselling them to a MacBook Air. It’s the first major new Mac aimed at the consumer market in the Apple Silicon era. It’s meant to make a dent — perhaps a minuscule <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-famous-quote-misunderstood-laurene-powell-2020-2">dent in the universe</a>, but a big dent in the Mac’s share of the overall PC market.</p>
<h2>Miscellaneous Observations</h2>
<p>It’s worth noting that the Neo is aptly named. It really is altogether new. In that way it’s the opposite of the five-year-old M1 MacBook Air that Apple had been selling through retailers like Walmart and Amazon. Rather than selling something old for a lower price, they’ve designed and engineered something new from the ground up to launch at a lower price. It’s an all-new trackpad. It’s a good but different display than the Air’s — slightly smaller (13.0 inches vs. 13.6) and supporting only the sRGB color gamut, not P3. <em>If you know the difference between sRGB and P3, the Neo is not the MacBook you want.</em> What Neo buyers are going to notice is that the display looks good and is just as bright as the Air’s — and it looks way better, way sharper, and way brighter than the criminally ugly displays on PC laptops in this price range.</p>
<p>Even the Apple logo on the back of the display lid is different. Rather than make it polished and shiny, <a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/03/macbook-neo-apple-logo.jpeg">it’s simply debossed</a>. Save a few bucks here, a few bucks there, and you eventually grind your way to a new MacBook that deserves the name “MacBook” but starts at just $600.</p>
<p>But of course there are trade-offs. You can use Apple’s Compare page <a href="https://www.apple.com/macbook-neo/compare/?modelList=MacBook-Neo-A18-Pro,MacBook-Air-M5,MacBook-Air-M1">to see the differences between the Neo and Air</a> (and, for kicks, the 2020 M1 Air that until now was still being sold at Walmart). Even better, over at 512 Pixels Stephen Hackett has <a href="https://512pixels.net/2026/03/the-differences-between-the-macbook-neo-and-macbook-air/">assembled a concise list of the differences between the MacBook Neo and MacBook Air</a>. All of these things matter, but none of these things are dealbreakers for a $500-700 MacBook. These trade-offs are extremely well-considered on Apple’s part.</p>
<p>I’ll call out one item from Hackett’s 17-item list in particular:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>One of the two USB-C ports <a href="https://www.macrumors.com/2026/03/04/macbook-neo-features-two-different-usb-ports/">is limited</a> to USB 2.0 speeds of just
480 Mb/s.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>On the one hand, this stinks. It just does. The two ports look exactly the same — and neither is labeled in any way — but they’re different. But on the other hand, the Neo is the first product with an A-series chip that Apple has ever made that supports two USB ports.<sup id="fnr1-2026-03-04"><a href="#fn1-2026-03-04">1</a></sup> It was, I am reliably informed by Apple product marketing folks, a significant engineering achievement to get a second USB port <em>at all</em> on the MacBook Neo while basing it on the A18 Pro SoC. And while the ports aren’t labeled, if you plug an external display into the “wrong” port, you’ll get an on-screen notification suggesting you plug it into the other port. That this second USB-C port is USB 2.0 is not great, but it is fine.</p>
<p>Other notes:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>I think the “fun-ness” of the Neo colors was overstated <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2026-02-15/tesla-carplay-delays-related-to-ios-26-and-fsd-apple-s-new-siri-delays-ios-27">in the rumor mill</a>. But the “blush” color is definitely pink, “citrus” is definitely yellow, and “indigo” is definitely blue. No confusing any of them with shades of gray.</p></li>
<li><p>The keyboards are color-matched. At a glance it’s easy to think the keyboards are all white, but only on the silver Neo are the key caps actually white. The others are all slightly tinted to match the color of the case. Nice!</p></li>
<li><p>8 GB of RAM is not a lot, but with Apple Silicon it really is enough for typical consumer productivity apps. (If they update the Neo annually and next year’s model gets the A19 Pro, it will move not to 16 GB of RAM but 12 GB.)</p></li>
<li><p>It’s an interesting coincidence that the base models for the Neo and iPhone 17e both cost $600. For $1,200 you can buy a new iPhone and a new MacBook for just $100 more than the price of the base model M5 MacBook Air. (And the iPhone 17e is the one with the faster CPU.)</p></li>
<li><p>With the Neo only offered in two configurations — $600 or $700 — and the M5 Air now starting at $1,100, Apple has no MacBooks in the range between $700 and $1,100.</p></li>
<li><p>To consider the spread of Apple’s market segmentation, and how the Neo expands it, think about the fact that on the premium side, <a href="https://www.apple.com/shop/product/mwr53ll/a/magic-keyboard-for-ipad-pro-13%E2%80%91inch-m5-us-english-black">the 13-inch iPad Pro Magic Keyboard costs $350</a>. That’s a keyboard with a trackpad and a hinge. You can now buy a whole damn 13-inch MacBook Neo — which includes a keyboard, trackpad, and hinge, along with a display and speakers and a whole Macintosh computer — for just $250 more.</p></li>
</ul>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr />
<ol>
<li id="fn1-2026-03-04">
<p>Perhaps the closest Apple had ever come to an A-series-chip product with two ports was the original iPad from 2010, which <a href="https://www.phonearena.com/news/apple-ipad-prototype-with-two-ports_id131100">in late prototypes had two 30-pin connectors</a> — one on the long side and another on the short side — so that you could orient it either way in <a href="https://tow.com/2020/04/26/ipad-keyboards/">the original iPad keyboard dock</a>. <a href="#fnr1-2026-03-04" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.">↩︎</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
]]></content>
<title>★ Thoughts and Observations on the MacBook Neo</title>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Studio Display vs. Studio Display XDR</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.apple.com/displays/"/>
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wye"/>
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/04/studio-display-vs-studio-display-xdr"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42710</id>
<published>2026-03-04T17:04:43Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-04T17:04:44Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Not sure if this page was there yesterday, but the main “Displays” page at Apple’s website is a spec-by-spec comparison between the regular and XDR models. Nice.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Studio Display vs. Studio Display XDR’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/04/studio-display-vs-studio-display-xdr"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Compatibility Notes on the New Studio Displays</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.macrumors.com/2026/03/03/apple-studio-display-no-intel-mac-support/"/>
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wyd"/>
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/04/compatibility-notes-on-the-new-studio-displays"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42709</id>
<published>2026-03-04T15:10:32Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-06T13:25:46Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Juli Clover, at MacRumors, notes that neither the new Studio Display nor the Studio Display XDR are <a href="https://www.macrumors.com/2026/03/03/apple-studio-display-no-intel-mac-support/">compatible with Intel-based Macs</a>. (I’m curious why.) Also, <a href="https://www.macrumors.com/2026/03/03/studio-display-xdr-120hz-limits/">in a separate report</a>, she notes that Macs with any M1 chip, or the base M2 or M3, are only able to drive the Studio Display XDR at 60 Hz. You need a Pro or better M2/M3, or any M4 or M5 chip, to drive it at 120 Hz.</p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong> My understanding is that if you connect one of these new Studio Displays to an Intel-based Mac, it’ll work, but it’ll work as a dumb monitor. You won’t get the full features. I’ll bet Apple sooner or later publishes a support document explaining it, but for now, they’re just saying they’re not “compatible” because you don’t get the full feature set. Like with the Studio Display XDR in particular, you won’t get HDR or 120 Hz refresh rates.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Compatibility Notes on the New Studio Displays’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/04/compatibility-notes-on-the-new-studio-displays"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>‘In Other Words, Batman Has Become Superman and Robin Has Become Batman’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://sixcolors.com/post/2026/03/apple-gives-in-to-temptation-and-renames-its-cpu-cores/"/>
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wyc"/>
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/04/snell-batman-superman"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42708</id>
<published>2026-03-04T12:42:46Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-04T12:42:47Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Jason Snell, Six Colors:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>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!</p>
<p>Clearly they’ve had enough of that, so they’re changing how those
cores are marketed to emphasize their performance, rather than
their efficiency.</p>
</blockquote>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘‘In Other Words, Batman Has Become Superman and Robin Has Become Batman’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/04/snell-batman-superman"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Apple Announces Updated Studio Display and All-New Studio Display XDR</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/03/apple-unveils-new-studio-display-and-all-new-studio-display-xdr/"/>
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wyb"/>
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/03/updated-studio-display-and-all-new-studio-display-xdr"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42707</id>
<published>2026-03-03T20:25:07Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-08T17:27:59Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Apple Newsroom:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Apple today announced a new family of displays engineered to pair
beautifully with Mac and meet the needs of everyone, from everyday
users to the world’s top pros. The new <a href="https://www.apple.com/studio-display/">Studio Display</a>
features a 12MP Center Stage camera, now with improved image
quality and support for Desk View; a studio-quality
three-microphone array; and an immersive six-speaker sound system
with Spatial Audio. It also now includes powerful Thunderbolt 5
connectivity, providing more downstream connectivity for
high-speed accessories or daisy-chaining displays. The all-new
<a href="https://www.apple.com/studio-display-xdr/">Studio Display XDR</a> takes the pro display experience to the
next level. Its 27-inch 5K Retina XDR display features an advanced
mini-LED backlight with over 2,000 local dimming zones, up to 1000
nits of SDR brightness, and 2000 nits of peak HDR brightness, in
addition to a wider color gamut, so content jumps off the screen
with breathtaking contrast, vibrancy, and accuracy. With its 120Hz
refresh rate, Studio Display XDR is even more responsive to
content in motion, and Adaptive Sync dynamically adjusts frame
rates for content like video playback or graphically intense
games. Studio Display XDR offers the same advanced camera and
audio system as Studio Display, as well as Thunderbolt 5
connectivity to simplify pro workflow setups. The new Studio
Display with a tilt-adjustable stand starts at $1,599, and Studio
Display XDR with a tilt- and height-adjustable stand starts at
$3,299. Both are available in standard or nano-texture glass
options, and can be pre-ordered starting tomorrow, March 4, with
availability beginning Wednesday, March 11.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Compared to the first-generation Studio Display (<a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2022/03/apple-unveils-all-new-mac-studio-and-studio-display/">March 2022</a>), the updated model really just has a better camera. (<a href="https://daringfireball.net/2022/03/the_apple_studio_display">Wouldn’t take much to improve upon the old camera</a>.) The Studio Display XDR is the interesting new one. Apple doesn’t seem to have a “Compare” page for its displays, so the <a href="https://www.apple.com/studio-display/specs/">Studio Display Tech Specs</a> and <a href="https://www.apple.com/studio-display-xdr/specs/">Studio Display XDR Tech Specs</a> pages will have to suffice. <strong>Update:</strong> <a href="https://www.apple.com/displays/">The main “Displays” page at Apple’s website</a> serves as a comparison page between the new Studio Display and Studio Display XDR.</p>
<p>The regular Studio Display maxes out at 600 nits, and only supports a refresh rate of 60 Hz. The Studio Display XDR maxes out at 1,000 nits for SDR content and 2,000 nits for HDR, with up to 120 Hz refresh rate. Nice, but not enough to tempt me to upgrade from my current Studio Display with nano-texture, which I never seem to run at maximum brightness. I guess it would be nice to see HDR content, but not nice enough to spend $3,600 to get one with nano-texture. And I don’t think I care about 120 Hz on my Mac?</p>
<p><s>Unresolved is what this means for the <a href="https://www.apple.com/pro-display-xdr/">Pro Display XDR</a>, which remains unchanged since <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/06/apple-unveils-powerful-all-new-mac-pro-and-groundbreaking-pro-display-xdr/">its debut in 2019</a>.</s> <strong>Update 1:</strong> Whoops, apparently this <em>has</em> been resolved. A small-print note on the Newsroom announcement states:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Studio Display XDR replaces Pro Display XDR and starts at $3,299
(U.S.) and $3,199 (U.S.) for education.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>Update 2:</strong> I neglected to mention what might be the biggest upgrade: Thunderbolt 5 with support for daisy-chaining multiple displays. With the original Studio Display (and Pro Display XDR), each external display needed a cable connecting it to your Mac. Now, you can connect your Mac to one Studio Display, connect that one to a second, and connect the second to a third. Nice.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Apple Announces Updated Studio Display and All-New Studio Display XDR’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/03/updated-studio-display-and-all-new-studio-display-xdr"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>New MacBook Air With M5</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/03/apple-introduces-the-new-macbook-air-with-m5/"/>
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wya"/>
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/03/new-macbook-air-with-m5"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42706</id>
<published>2026-03-03T20:08:42Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-03T20:09:56Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Apple Newsroom:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>MacBook Air now comes standard with double the starting storage at
512GB with faster SSD technology, and is configurable up to 4TB,
so customers can keep their most important work on hand. Apple’s
N1 wireless chip delivers Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 for seamless
connectivity on the go. MacBook Air features a beautifully thin,
light, and durable aluminum design, stunning Liquid Retina
display, 12MP Center Stage camera, up to 18 hours of battery life,
an immersive sound system with Spatial Audio, and two Thunderbolt
4 ports with support for up to two external displays.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Base storage went from 256 to 512 GB, but the base <em>price</em> went from the magic $999 to $1,100 ($1,099, technically, which doesn’t make the 99 seem magic). Presumably, those in the market for a $999 MacBook will buy the new about-to-be-announced-tomorrow lower-priced MacBook “<a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/03/macbook-neo-name-leak">Neo</a>”, which I’m guessing will start at $800 ($799), maybe as low as $700 ($699), but will surely have higher-priced configurations for additional storage. Today’s new M5 MacBook Airs have storage upgrades of:</p>
<ul>
<li>1 TB (+ $200)</li>
<li>2 TB (+ $600)</li>
<li>4 TB (+ $1,200)</li>
</ul>
<p>Colors remain unchanged (and in my opinion, boring): midnight, starlight, silver, sky blue (almost black, gold-ish gray, gray, blue-ish gray). RAM options remain unchanged too: 16, 24, or 32 GB.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/compare/?modelList=MacBook-Air-M5,MacBook-Air-M4,MacBook-Pro-14-M5">A comparison page showing the new M5 Air, old M4 Air, and base M5 MacBook Pro</a> suggests not much else is new year-over-year, other than the Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 support from the N1 chip.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘New MacBook Air With M5’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/03/new-macbook-air-with-m5"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Apple Might Have Prematurely Leaked the Name ‘MacBook Neo’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.macrumors.com/2026/03/03/apple-accidentally-leaks-macbook-neo/"/>
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wy9"/>
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/03/macbook-neo-name-leak"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42705</id>
<published>2026-03-03T19:59:43Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-03T19:59:44Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Joe Rossignol, MacRumors:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A regulatory document for a “MacBook Neo” (Model A3404) has
appeared on Apple’s website. Unfortunately, there are no further
details or images available yet. While the PDF file does not
contain the “MacBook Neo” name, it briefly appeared in a link on
Apple’s regulatory website for EU compliance purposes.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>My money was on just plain “MacBook”, but I like “MacBook Neo”.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Apple Might Have Prematurely Leaked the Name ‘MacBook Neo’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/03/macbook-neo-name-leak"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Apple Introduces MacBook Pro Models With M5 Pro and M5 Max Chips</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/03/apple-introduces-macbook-pro-with-all-new-m5-pro-and-m5-max/"/>
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wy8"/>
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/03/apple-introduces-macbook-pro-models-with-m5-pro-and-m5-max-chips"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42704</id>
<published>2026-03-03T19:01:28Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-04T21:55:07Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Apple Newsroom:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Apple today announced the latest <a href="https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/">14- and 16-inch MacBook
Pro</a> with the all-new M5 Pro and M5 Max, bringing
game-changing performance and AI capabilities to the world’s best
pro laptop. With M5 Pro and M5 Max, MacBook Pro features a new CPU
with the world’s fastest CPU core, a next-generation GPU with a
Neural Accelerator in each core, and higher unified memory
bandwidth, altogether delivering up to 4× AI performance compared
to the previous generation, and up to 8× AI performance compared
to M1 models. This allows developers, researchers, business
professionals, and creatives to unlock new AI-enabled workflows
right on MacBook Pro. It now comes with up to 2× faster SSD
performance and starts at 1TB of storage for M5 Pro and 2TB for M5
Max. The new MacBook Pro includes N1, an Apple-designed wireless
networking chip that enables Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, bringing
improved performance and reliability to wireless connections. It
also offers up to 24 hours of battery life; a gorgeous Liquid
Retina XDR display with a nano-texture option; a wide array of
connectivity, including Thunderbolt 5; a 12MP Center Stage camera;
studio-quality mics; an immersive six-speaker sound system; Apple
Intelligence features; and the power of macOS Tahoe. The new
MacBook Pro comes in space black and silver, and is available to
pre-order starting tomorrow, March 4, with availability beginning
Wednesday, March 11.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The <a href="https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs/">MacBook Pro Tech Specs page</a> is a good place to start to compare the entire M5 MacBook Pro lineup. One noteworthy change is that last year’s M4 Pro models only supported 24 or 48 GB of RAM; the new M5 Pro models support 24, 48, and 64 GB. Memory configurations for the M5 Max are unchanged from the M4 Max: 36, 48, 64, and 128 GB. (You could get an M4 Pro chip with 64 GB, but only on the Mac Mini.)</p>
<p>Also worth noting — Apple’s RAM pricing remains unchanged, despite the spike in memory prices industry-wide. With the “full” M5 Max chip (18-core CPU, 40-core GPU — there’s a lesser configuration with “only” 32 GPU cores for -⁠$300), base memory is 48 GB. Upgrading to 64 GB costs $200, and upgrading to 128 GB costs $1,000. Same prices as last year. This means the price for a MacBook Pro with 64 GB of RAM — if that’s your main concern — <em>dropped</em> by $800 year over year. Last year you needed to buy one with the high-end M4 Max chip to get 64 GB; now you can configure a MacBook Pro with the M5 Pro with 64 GB. Nice!</p>
<p>Ben Thompson and I wagered a steak dinner on this on <a href="https://dithering.fm/">Dithering</a>. Ben bet on Apple’s memory prices going up; I bet on them staying the same. My thinking was that this industry-wide spike in RAM prices is exactly why Apple has always charged more for memory — “just in case”. I’m going to enjoy that steak.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Apple Introduces MacBook Pro Models With M5 Pro and M5 Max Chips’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/03/apple-introduces-macbook-pro-models-with-m5-pro-and-m5-max-chips"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry>
<entry>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://workos.com/docs/authkit/cli-installer?utm_source=tldrdev&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=q12026"/>
<link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/wy6"/>
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/2026/03/npx_workos_an_ai_agent_that_wr"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/feeds/sponsors//11.42702</id>
<author>
<name>Daring Fireball Department of Commerce</name>
</author>
<published>2026-03-02T23:20:21Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-02T23:20:22Z</updated>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>npx workos <a href="https://youtu.be/kU88lUqdduQ?utm_source=daringfireball&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=q12026">launches an AI agent</a>, powered by Claude, that reads your project, detects your framework, and writes a complete auth integration directly into your existing codebase. It’s not a template generator. It reads your code, understands your stack, and writes an integration that fits.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://workos.com/?utm_source=daringfireball&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=q12026">WorkOS</a> agent then typechecks and builds, feeding any errors back to itself to fix.</p>
<p><a href="https://workos.com/docs/authkit/cli-installer?utm_source=tldrdev&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=q12026">See how it works →</a></p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘npx workos: An AI Agent That Writes Auth Directly Into Your Codebase’" href="https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/2026/03/npx_workos_an_ai_agent_that_wr"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
<title>[Sponsor] npx workos: An AI Agent That Writes Auth Directly Into Your Codebase</title>
</entry>
<entry>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/03/hazeover"/>
<link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/wy5"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026://1.42701</id>
<published>2026-03-02T22:41:11Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-03T17:38:32Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<summary type="text">What HazeOver does is highlight the active window by dimming all background windows. That’s it. But it does this simple task with aplomb, and it makes a significant difference in the day-to-day usability of MacOS.</summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Back in December <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/12/03/alan-app">I linked to</a> a sort-of stunt project from Tyler Hall <a href="https://tyler.io/2025/11/26/alan/">called Alan.app</a> — a simple Mac utility that draws a bold rectangle around the current active window. Alan.app lets you set the thickness and color of the frame. I used it for an hour or so before calling it quits. It really does solve the severe (and worsening) problem of being able to instantly identify the active window in recent versions of MacOS, but the crudeness of Alan.app’s implementation makes it one of those cases where the cure is worse than the disease. Ultimately I’d rather suffer from barely distinguishable active window state than look at Alan.app’s crude active-window frame all day every day. What makes Alan.app interesting to me is its effectiveness as a protest app. The absurdity of Alan.app’s crude solution highlights the absurdity of the underlying problem — that anyone would even <em>consider</em> running Alan.app (or the fact that Hall was motivated to create and release it) shows just how bad windowing UI is in recent MacOS versions.</p>
<p>Turns out there exists an app that attempts to solve this problem in an elegant way that you might want to actually live with. It’s called <a href="https://hazeover.com/">HazeOver</a>, and developer Maxim Ananov first released it a decade ago. It’s <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hazeover-distraction-dimmer/id430798174?mt=12">in the Mac App Store for $5</a>, is included <a href="https://go.setapp.com/stp130?refAppID=212&stc=index">in the SetApp subscription service</a>, and has <a href="https://hazeover.com/">a free trial available</a> from the website.</p>
<p>What HazeOver does is highlight the active window by dimming all background windows. That’s it. But it does this simple task with aplomb, and it makes a significant difference in the day-to-day usability of MacOS. Not just MacOS 26 Tahoe — all recent versions of MacOS suffer from a design that makes it difficult to distinguish, instantly, the frontmost (a.k.a. key) window from background windows.<sup id="fnr1-2026-03-02"><a href="#fn1-2026-03-02">1</a></sup> Making all background windows a little dimmer makes a notable difference.</p>
<p>Longtime DF reader <a href="https://www.faisal.com/">Faisal Jawdat</a> sent me a note suggesting I try HazeOver back in early December, after I linked to Alan.app. I didn’t get around to trying HazeOver until December 30, and I’ve been using it ever since. One thing I did, at first, was <em>not</em> set HazeOver to launch automatically at login. That way, each time I restarted or logged out, I’d go back to the default MacOS 15 Sequoia interface, where background windows aren’t dimmed. I wanted to see if I’d miss HazeOver when it wasn’t running. Each time, I did notice, and I missed it. I now have it set to launch automatically when I log in.</p>
<p>HazeOver’s default settings are a bit strong for my taste. By default, it dims background windows by 35 percent. I’ve dialed that back to just 10 percent, and that’s more than noticeable enough for me. I understand why HazeOver’s default dimming is so strong — it emphasizes just what HazeOver is doing. (Also, some people choose to use HazeOver to avoid being distracted by background window content — in which case you might want to increase, not decrease, the dimming from the default setting.) But after you get used to it, you might find, as I did, that a little bit goes a long way. (Jawdat told me he’s dropped down to 12 percent on his machine.) I’ve also diddled with HazeOver’s animation settings, changing from the default (Ease Out, 0.3 seconds) to Ease In & Out, 0.1 seconds — I want switching windows to feel <em>fast fast fast</em>.</p>
<p>Highly recommended, and a veritable bargain <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hazeover-distraction-dimmer/id430798174?mt=12">at just $5</a>.</p>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr />
<ol>
<li id="fn1-2026-03-02">
<p>The HazeOver website also has a link to a beta version with updates specific to MacOS 26 Tahoe. To be clear, the current release version, available in the App Store, works just fine on Tahoe. But the beta version has a Liquid Glass-style Settings window, and addresses an edge case where, on Tahoe, the menu bar sometimes appears too dim. <a href="#fnr1-2026-03-02" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.">↩︎</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
]]></content>
<title>★ HazeOver — Mac Utility for Highlighting the Frontmost Window</title>
</entry>
<entry>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/02/sometimes_hidden_setting_phone_app"/>
<link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/wxq"/>
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026://1.42686</id>
<published>2026-02-27T17:12:53Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-02T14:12:20Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<summary type="text">Apple’s solution to this dilemma — to show the “Tap Recents to Call” in Settings if, and only if, Unified is the current view option in the Phone app — is lazy. And as a result, it’s quite confusing.</summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Back in December, Adam Engst wrote <a href="https://tidbits.com/2025/12/07/hidden-setting-controls-what-happens-when-you-tap-a-call-in-the-phone-app/">this interesting follow-up</a> to his feature story at TidBITS a few weeks prior <a href="https://tidbits.com/2025/11/10/comparing-the-classic-and-unified-views-in-ios-26s-phone-app/">exploring the differences between the new Unified and old Classic interface modes</a> for the Phone app in iOS 26. It’s also a good follow-up to <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/01/28/comparing-the-classic-and-unified-views-in-ios-26s-phone-app">my month-ago link</a> to Engst’s original feature, as well as a continuation of my recent theme on the fundamentals of good UI design.</p>
<p>The gist of Engst’s follow-up is that one of the big differences between Unified and Classic modes is what happens when you tap on a row in the list of recent calls. In Classic, tapping on a row in the list will initiate a new phone call to that number. There’s a small “ⓘ” button on the right side of each row that you can tap to show the contact info for that caller. That’s the way the Phone app has always worked. In the new iOS 26 Unified mode, this behavior is reversed: tapping on the row shows the contact info for that caller, and you need to tap a small button with a phone icon on the right side of the row to immediately initiate a call.</p>
<p>Engst really likes this aspect of the Unified view, because the old behavior made it too easy to initiate a call accidentally, just by tapping on a row in the list. I’ve made many of those accidental calls the same way, and so I prefer the new Unified behavior for the same reason. Classic’s tap-almost-anywhere-in-the-row-to-start-a-call behavior is a vestige of some decisions with the original iPhone that haven’t held up over the intervening 20 years. With the original iPhone, Apple was still stuck — correctly, probably! — in the mindset that the iPhone was first and foremost a cellular telephone, and initiating phone calls should be a primary one-tap action. No one thinks of the iPhone as primarily a telephone these days, and it just isn’t iOS-y to have an action initiate just by tapping anywhere in a row in a scrolling list. You don’t tap on an email message to reply to it. You tap a Reply button. Inadvertent phone calls are particularly pernicious in this regard because the recipient is interrupted too — it’s not just an inconvenience to <em>you</em>, it’s an interruption to someone else, and thus also an embarrassment to you.</p>
<p>Here’s where it gets weird.</p>
<p>There’s a preference setting in Settings → Apps → Phone for “Tap Recents to Call”. If you turn this option on, you then get the “tap anywhere in the row to call the person” behavior while using the new Unified view. <em>But this option only appears in the Settings app when you’re using Unified view in the Phone app.</em> If you switch to the Classic view in the Phone app, this option just completely disappears from the Settings app. It’s not grayed out. It’s just gone. Go read <a href="https://tidbits.com/2025/12/07/hidden-setting-controls-what-happens-when-you-tap-a-call-in-the-phone-app/">Engst’s article describing this</a>, if you haven’t already — he has screenshots illustrating the sometimes-hidden state of this setting.</p>
<p>I’ll wait.</p>
<p>Engst and I discussed this at length during <a href="https://daringfireball.net/thetalkshow/2026/02/25/ep-441">his appearance on The Talk Show earlier this week</a>. Especially after talking it through with him on the show, I think I understand both what Apple was thinking, and also why their solution feels so wrong.</p>
<p>At first, I thought the solution was just to keep this option available all the time, whether you’re using Classic or Unified as your layout in the Phone app. Why not let users who prefer the Classic layout turn off the old “tap anywhere in the row to call the person” behavior? But on further thought, there’s a problem with this. If you just want your Phone app to keep working the way it always had, you want Classic to default to the old tap-in-row behavior too. What Apple wants to promote to users is both a new layout and a new tap-in-row behavior. So when you switch to Unified in the Phone app, Apple wants you to experience the new tap-in-row behavior too, where you need to specifically tap the small phone-icon button in the row to call the person, and tapping anywhere else in the row opens a contact details view.</p>
<p>There’s a conflict here. You can’t have the two views default to different row-tapping behavior if one single switch applies to both views.</p>
<p>Apple’s solution to this dilemma — to show the “Tap Recents to Call” in Settings if, and only if, Unified is the current view option in the Phone app — is lazy. And as a result, it’s quite confusing. No one expects an option like this to only appear <em>sometimes</em> in Settings. You pretty much need to understand everything I’ve written about in this article to understand why and when this option is visible. Which means almost no one who uses an iPhone is ever going to understand it. No one expects a toggle in one app (Phone) to control the visibility of a switch in another app (Settings).</p>
<p>My best take at a proper solution to this problem would be for the choice between Classic and Unified views to be mirrored in Settings → Apps → Phone. Show this same bit of UI, that currently is only available in the Filter menu in the Phone app, in both the Phone app <em>and</em> in Settings → Apps → Phone:</p>
<p><img
src = "https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/02/phone-26-classic-or-unified.png"
alt = "Screenshot showing the Classic/Unified choice from the iOS 26 Phone app's Filter menu."
width = 335
/></p>
<p>If you change it in one place, the change should be reflected, immediately, in the other. It’s fine to have the same setting available both in-app and inside the Settings app.</p>
<p>Then, in the Settings app, the “Tap Recents to Call” option could appear underneath the Classic/Unified switcher only when “Unified” is selected. Switch from Classic to Unified and the “Tap Recents to Call” switch would appear underneath. Switch from Unified to Classic and it would disappear. (Or instead of disappearing, it could gray out to indicate the option isn’t available when Classic is selected.) The descriptive text describing the option could even state that it’s an option only available with Unified.<sup id="fnr1-2026-02-27"><a href="#fn1-2026-02-27">1</a></sup></p>
<p>The confusion would be eliminated if the Classic/Unified toggle were mirrored in Settings. That would make it clear why “Tap Recents to Call” only appears when you’re using Unified — because your choice to use Unified (or Classic) would be right there.</p>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr />
<ol>
<li id="fn1-2026-02-27">
<p>Or, Apple could offer separate “Tap Recents to Call” options for both Classic and Unified. With Classic, it would default to On (the default behavior since 2007), and with Unified, default to Off (the idiomatically correct behavior for modern iOS). In that case, the descriptive text for the option would *need* to explain that it’s a separate setting for each layout, or perhaps the toggle labels could be “Tap Recents to Call in Classic” and “Tap Recents to Call in Unified”. But somehow it would need to be made clear that they’re separate switches. But this is already getting more complicated. I think it’d be simpler to just keep the classic tap-in-row behavior with the Classic layout, and offer this setting only when using the Unified view. <a href="#fnr1-2026-02-27" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.">↩︎</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
]]></content>
<title>★ A Sometimes-Hidden Setting Controls What Happens When You Tap a Call in the iOS 26 Phone App</title>
</entry>
</feed>
<!-- THE END -->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
<title>Daring Fireball</title>
<subtitle>By John Gruber</subtitle>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/" />
<link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://daringfireball.net/feeds/main" />
<id>https://daringfireball.net/feeds/main</id>
<updated>2026-03-14T17:22:48Z</updated><rights>Copyright © 2026, John Gruber</rights><entry>
<title>Ars Technica Fires Reporter Benj Edwards After He Published Story With AI-Fabricated Quotes</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/ars-technica-fires-reporter-ai-quotes" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wzg" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/14/ars-technica-benj-edwards-ai-fabricted-quotes" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42748</id>
<published>2026-03-14T17:22:05Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-14T17:22:05Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Maggie Harrison Dupré, writing for Futurism:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Earlier this month, Ars retracted the story after it was found to
include fake quotes attributed to a real person. The article — a
write-up of a viral incident in which an AI agent <a href="https://theshamblog.com/an-ai-agent-published-a-hit-piece-on-me/">seemingly
published a hit piece</a> about a human engineer named Scott
Shambaugh — was initially published on February 13. After
Shambaugh pointed out that he’d never said the quotes attributed
to him, Ars’ editor-in-chief Ken Fisher apologized in an <a href="https://arstechnica.com/staff/2026/02/editors-note-retraction-of-article-containing-fabricated-quotations/">editor’s
note</a>, in which he confirmed that the piece included
“fabricated quotations generated by an AI tool and attributed to a
source who did not say them” and characterized the error as a
“serious failure of our standards.” He added that, upon further
review, the error appeared to be an “isolated incident.”</p>
<p>Shortly after Fisher’s editor’s note was published, Edwards,
one of the report’s two bylined authors, <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/benjedwards.com/post/3mewgow6ch22p">took to Bluesky</a>
to take “full responsibility” for the inclusion of the
fabricated quotes.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://bsky.app/profile/benjedwards.com/post/3mewgow6ch22p">Edwards</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I sincerely apologize to Scott Shambaugh for misrepresenting his
words. I take full responsibility. The irony of an Al reporter
being tripped up by Al hallucination is not lost on me. I take
accuracy in my work very seriously and this is a painful failure
on my part.</p>
<p>When I realized what had happened, I asked my boss to pull the
piece because I was too sick to fix it on Friday. There was
nothing nefarious at work, just a terrible judgement call which
was no one’s fault but my own.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Ars fired him at the end of February.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Ars Technica Fires Reporter Benj Edwards After He Published Story With AI-Fabricated Quotes’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/14/ars-technica-benj-edwards-ai-fabricted-quotes"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Lil Finder Guy</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://basicappleguy.com/basicappleblog/lil-finder-guy" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wzf" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/14/lil-finder-guy" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42747</id>
<published>2026-03-14T16:21:34Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-14T16:21:46Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Basic Apple Guy:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Where I and the rest of the internet take this from here remains
to be seen. All I know is that Apple should definitely keep this
Lil Finder around.</p>
<p>But no, I do not think this is the last we’ve seen of Lil
Finder Guy…</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.macrumors.com/2026/03/07/apple-posting-strange-tiktok-videos/">Apple’s MacBook Neo ad campaign on TikTok</a> — and seemingly exclusive to TikTok — is the most fun they’ve had with a campaign in ages. I love it.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Lil Finder Guy’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/14/lil-finder-guy"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Tim Cook: ‘50 Years of Thinking Different’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.apple.com/50-years-of-thinking-different/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wze" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/13/cook-50-years-of-thinking-different" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42746</id>
<published>2026-03-13T23:49:17Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-14T17:22:48Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Tim Cook:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>At Apple, we’re more focused on building tomorrow than remembering
yesterday. But we couldn’t let this milestone pass without
thanking the millions of people who make Apple what it is today — our incredible teams around the world, our developer community,
and every customer who has joined us on this journey. Your ideas
inspire our work. Your trust drives us to do better. Your stories
remind us of all we can accomplish when we think different.</p>
<p>If you’ve taught us anything, it’s that the people crazy enough to
think they can change the world are the ones who do.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is a perfectly cromulent letter to mark a big anniversary for Apple. And it is very <em>Tim Cook</em>. It’s short, earnest, honest, to the point, and uses plain simple language. But what also makes it so Cook-ian is that it’s so utterly anodyne. It’s inoffensive to the point of being unmemorable. The best part of Cook’s letter is when he harks back and explicitly quotes from an Apple ad campaign from 30 years ago.</p>
<p>Ten years from now, when Apple is celebrating its 60th anniversary, no one is going to quote from Tim Cook’s “banger of a letter” commemorating their 50th. 25 years from now, when Apple is celebrating its 75th, that future CEO won’t be quoting from any of the ad campaigns Apple ran while Cook was CEO, because there are no lines worth remembering from them.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Tim Cook: ‘50 Years of Thinking Different’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/13/cook-50-years-of-thinking-different"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>NYT: ‘Meta Delays Rollout of New AI Model After Performance Concerns’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/12/technology/meta-avocado-ai-model-delayed.html?unlocked_article_code=1.S1A.vI_6.4j717gwtFem0" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wzd" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/13/nyt-meta-ai-model-delay" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42745</id>
<published>2026-03-13T17:04:44Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-13T17:05:23Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Eli Tan, reporting for The New York Times:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Meta’s new foundational A.I. model, which the company has been
working on for months, has fallen short of the performance of
leading A.I. models from rivals like Google, OpenAI and Anthropic
on internal tests for reasoning, coding and writing, said the
people, who were not authorized to speak publicly about
confidential matters.</p>
<p>The model, code-named Avocado, outperformed Meta’s previous A.I.
model and did better than Google’s Gemini 2.5 model from [last]
March, two of the people said. But it has not performed as
strongly as Gemini 3.0 from November, they said.</p>
<p>As a result, Meta has delayed Avocado’s release to at least May
from this month, the people said. They added that the leaders of
Meta’s A.I. division had instead discussed temporarily licensing
Gemini to power the company’s A.I. products, though no decisions
have been reached.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The two facts in the last paragraph don’t square with me. May is only two months away. If they might ship then, why license Gemini? To me, the “<em>we may need to pay Google to license Gemini</em>” scenario is a sign that Avocado might be a bust and they might be a year or longer away from their own competitive model.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Mr. Zuckerberg, 41, has staked the future of Meta, which owns
Facebook, Instagram and Threads, on being at the cutting edge of
A.I. His company has spent billions <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/31/technology/ai-researchers-nba-stars.html">hiring top A.I.
researchers</a> and committed $600 billion to building data
centers to power the technology. In January, Meta projected that
it would spend <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/28/technology/meta-earnings-ai-spending.html">as much as $135 billion</a> this year, nearly
twice the $72 billion it spent last year.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The difference between Meta and Apple might be that Meta is merely a few months away from rolling out its own best-of-breed AI model. But the difference could be that Meta has blown hundreds of billions of dollars pursuing their own frontier models, and Apple has not, and both <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/01/12/apple-google-foundation-models-cnbc">just license Gemini</a> from Google.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘NYT: ‘Meta Delays Rollout of New AI Model After Performance Concerns’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/13/nyt-meta-ai-model-delay"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Sports Programming Accounts for Almost 30 Percent of All Ad-Supported TV Viewing</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://deadline.com/2026/03/sports-tv-viewing-advertising-nielsen-1236750721/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wzc" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/13/sports-30-percent-ad-supported-tv" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42744</id>
<published>2026-03-13T16:55:46Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-13T16:55:47Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Dade Hayes, reporting for Deadline:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>While the rise of sports programming in recent years has been
well-documented, new figures from Nielsen illustrate the extent of
its dominance. The measurement firm said sports accounted for
29.2% of all advertising-supported TV viewing by people 25 to 54
years old during the fourth quarter. The stat, spanning broadcast,
cable and streaming, was part of a report on viewership trends in
the fourth quarter of 2025, released Thursday in the runup to
upfronts.</p>
<p>Looking at the rest of the pie without sports, broadcast accounted
for just 9.8%, with cable coming in at 18%. Streaming drew by far
the largest tune-in, with 43% of all non-sports viewing, a
reflection of the overall growth of advertising on streaming
services like Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, HBO Max and others.</p>
</blockquote>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Sports Programming Accounts for Almost 30 Percent of All Ad-Supported TV Viewing’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/13/sports-30-percent-ad-supported-tv"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Claim Chowder: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on the Percentage of Code Being Generated by AI Today</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/anthropic-ceo-ai-90-percent-code-3-to-6-months-2025-3" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wzb" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/13/amodei-ai-code-claim-chowder" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42743</id>
<published>2026-03-13T16:31:54Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-13T16:34:29Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Business Insider, one year ago:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Dario Amodei, the CEO of the AI startup Anthropic, said on Monday
that AI, and not software developers, could be writing all of the
code in our software in a year.</p>
<p>“I think we will be there in three to six months, where AI is
writing 90% of the code. And then, in 12 months, we may be in a
world where AI is writing essentially all of the code,” Amodei
said at a Council of Foreign Relations event on Monday.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I’d marked this one on my claim chowder calendar a year ago, suspecting it would make for a laugh today. But while Amodei wasn’t exactly right, I think he was only wrong insofar as his remarks were too facile. It may well be true that 90 percent of the lines of programming code that are written today, Friday 13 March 2026, will have been generated by AI. If anything, it’s probably a higher percentage.</p>
<p>But where I think Amodei’s remarks, quoted above, are facile is that it hasn’t played out as simply that lines of code that would have been written by human programmers are now generated by AI models. That’s part of it, for sure. But what’s revolutionary — a topic I’ve been posting about twice already today — is that AI code generation tools are being used to create services and apps and libraries that simply would not have been written at all before. It may well be that the total number of lines of code that will be written by people today isn’t much different from the number of lines of code that were written by people a year ago. But there might be 10× more code generated by AI than is written by people today. Maybe more. Maybe a lot more? And a year or two or three from now, that might be 100× or 1,000× or 100,000×.</p>
<p>In that near future, human programmers are likely still to be writing — or at least line-by-line reviewing and approving — code. But as a percentage of all code being generated, that will only be a sliver.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Claim Chowder: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on the Percentage of Code Being Generated by AI Today’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/13/amodei-ai-code-claim-chowder"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>‘Software Bonkers’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://craigmod.com/essays/software_bonkers/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wza" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/13/software-bonkers" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42742</id>
<published>2026-03-13T14:54:52Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-13T15:49:26Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Craig Mod, on creating his own custom accounting software with Claude Code:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Simply put: It’s a big mess, and no off-the-shelf accounting
software does what I need. So after years of pain, I finally sat
down last week and started to build my own. It took me about five
days. I am now using the best piece of accounting software I’ve
ever used. It’s blazing fast. Entirely local. Handles multiple
currencies and pulls daily (historical) conversion rates. It’s
able to ingest any CSV I throw at it and represent it in my
dashboard as needed. It knows US and Japan tax requirements, and
formats my expenses and medical bills appropriately for my
accountants. I feed it past returns to learn from. I dump 1099s
and K1s and PDFs from hospitals into it, and it categorizes and
organizes and packages them all as needed. It reconciles
international wire transfers, taking into account small variations
in FX rates and time for the transfers to complete. It learns as I
categorize expenses and categorizes automatically going forward.
It’s easy to do spot checks on data. If I find an anomaly, I can
talk directly to Claude and have us brainstorm a batched solution,
often saving me from having to manually modify hundreds of
entries. And often resulting in a new, small, feature tweak. The
software feels organic and pliable in a form perfectly shaped to
my hand, able to conform to any hunk of data I throw at it. It
feels like bushwhacking with a lightsaber.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Don’t get distracted by the <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/13/grief-and-the-ai-split">mountains of steaming shit</a> that hacks are using these tools to spew. There are amazing things being built by these tools that never would have, or in some cases <em>could</em> have, been built before.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘‘Software Bonkers’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/13/software-bonkers"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>‘Grief and the AI Split’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://blog.lmorchard.com/2026/03/11/grief-and-the-ai-split/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wz9" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/13/grief-and-the-ai-split" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42741</id>
<published>2026-03-13T14:21:54Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-13T14:41:29Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Les Orchard:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I started programming in 1982. Every language I’ve learned since
then has been a means to an end — a new way to make computers do
things I wanted them to do. AI-assisted coding feels like the
latest in that progression. Not a rupture, just another rung on
the ladder.</p>
<p>But I’m trying to hold that lightly. Because the ladder itself is
changing, the building it’s leaning against is changing, and I’d
be lying if I said I knew exactly where it’s going.</p>
<p>What I do know is this: I still get the same hit of satisfaction
when something I thought up and built actually works. The code got
there differently than it used to, but the moment it runs and does
the thing? That hasn’t changed in my over 40 years at it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I’ve been thinking about a different divide than the one Orchard writes about here. (The obvious truth is that the AI code generation revolution is creating multiple divisions, along multiple axes.)</p>
<p>The divide I’m seeing is that the developers who are craftspeople are elated because their productivity is skyrocketing while their craftsmanship remains unchanged — or perhaps even improved. They’re achieving much more, much faster, than ever before. It’s a step change as great, or greater than, the transition from assembly code to higher-level programming languages. The developers who are hacks are elated because it’s like they’ve been provided an autopilot switch for a task they never enjoyed or really even understood properly in the first place. The industry is riddled with hack developers, because in the last 15-20 years, as the demand for software far outstripped the supply of programmers who wanted to write code because they love writing code and creating software, the jobs have been filled by people who got into the racket simply because they were high-paying jobs in high demand. Good programmers create software for fun, outside their jobs. Hack programmers are no more likely to write software for fun than a garbage man is to collect trash on his days off.</p>
<p>Orchard’s fine essay examines a philosophical divide within the ranks of talented, considerate craftsperson developers. The divide that I’m talking about has been present ever since the demand for programmers exploded, but AI code generation tooling is turning it into an expansive gulf. The best programmers are more clearly the best than ever before. The worst programmers have gone from laying a few turds a day to spewing veritable mountains of hot steaming stinky shit, while beaming with pride at their increased productivity.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘‘Grief and the AI Split’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/13/grief-and-the-ai-split"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Accents</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://mahdi.jp/apps/accents" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wz8" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/12/accents" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42740</id>
<published>2026-03-13T00:18:06Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-13T00:23:16Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Mahdi Bchatnia:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Accents is an app that lets you use the iMac/MacBook Neo accent
colors on any Mac.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It’s a fun idea from Apple to have default accent colors that are, by default, exclusive to specific Mac hardware. But what exemplifies the Mac is that a clever developer like Bchatnia can make these accent colors available to any user on any Mac via a simple utility like Accents. (<a href="https://mjtsai.com/blog/2026/03/12/hardware-exclusive-mac-accent-colors/">Via Michael Tsai</a>.)</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Accents’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/12/accents"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Apple’s Platform Security Guide Adds a Brief Note on the MacBook Neo’s On-Screen Camera Indicator</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://support.apple.com/guide/security/mac-on-screen-camera-indicator-light-sec75a2d237d/1/web/1" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wz7" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/12/macbook-neo-on-screen-camera-indicator" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42739</id>
<published>2026-03-12T23:48:59Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-13T00:00:48Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Apple Platform Security Guide:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>MacBook Neo combines system software and dedicated silicon
elements within A18 Pro to provide additional security for the
camera feed. The architecture is designed to prevent any untrusted
software — even with root or kernel privileges in macOS — from
engaging the camera without also visibly lighting the on-screen
camera indicator light.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That’s the whole note, I believe. There aren’t any technical details regarding how exactly this is achieved. Until reading this new note in the Platform Security Guide, I thought the only visible indication of camera usage was the green camera icon in the menu bar. But on the Neo, there’s also a green dot <a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/03/neo-camera-indicator-menu-bar-default.jpeg">in the upper right corner of the display</a>. That green dot is the secure camera-use indicator, and it’s visible next to the time in the menu bar, and still visible when the menu bar is hidden, like in <a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/03/neo-camera-indicator-full-screen.png">this screenshot I just took from Photo Booth in full-screen mode</a>. What Apple is stating in this note in the Platform Security Guide is that if the Neo’s camera is being used, that corner of the display is guaranteed to light up with the green dot.</p>
<p>One of the reasons I failed to notice this green dot until today is that with Tahoe’s transparent menu bar and the default green-and-yellow desktop wallpaper for the citrus Neo I’m reviewing, a green dot doesn’t stand out. <a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/03/neo-camera-indicator-menu-bar-reduce-trans.jpeg">It’s much more prominent</a> if you enable “Reduce transparency” in System Settings → Accessibility → Display, which gives the menu bar a traditional solid appearance.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Apple’s Platform Security Guide Adds a Brief Note on the MacBook Neo’s On-Screen Camera Indicator’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/12/macbook-neo-on-screen-camera-indicator"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Eddy Cue Says F1 on Apple TV Opened to Increased Viewership</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/apple-tv-formula-1-ratings-eddy-cue-strong-start-1236529359/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wz6" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/12/f1-apple-tv-ratings-are-up" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42738</id>
<published>2026-03-12T23:41:07Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-12T23:41:08Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Alex Weprin, reporting for The Hollywood Reporter:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In a sign of strength for the streaming platform, Apple’s senior
VP of services Eddy Cue tells The Hollywood Reporter that
viewership for last week’s Australian Grand Prix was up year over
year compared to the 2025 race, which aired on ESPN.</p>
<p>“The 2026 Formula 1 season on Apple TV is off to a strong start,
with fans responding positively and viewership up year over year
for the first weekend, exceeding both F1 and Apple expectations,”
Cue says.</p>
<p>As is typical for Apple, the company declined to give any specific
numbers, though last year’s Australian GP averaged 1.1 million
viewers for ESPN.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So we don’t know the viewership number, but we know it’s higher than 1.1 million. That’s like a semi-Bezos number.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Eddy Cue Says F1 on Apple TV Opened to Increased Viewership’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/12/f1-apple-tv-ratings-are-up"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>MacBook Neo Teardown</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5k7Lv7f-5CQ" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wz5" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/12/macbook-neo-teardown" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42737</id>
<published>2026-03-12T18:51:48Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-12T18:51:49Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Tech Re-Nu, on YouTube:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>That leaves us with a fully disassembled laptop. We’ve done this
in less than 10 minutes, which is absolutely amazing for an Apple
laptop. I can’t say we’ve ever had a Mac that looks as repairable
and as modular as this one. No sticky tape, no tricky adhesives,
modular parts, minimal parts as well, no hinge covers or anything
like that. It’s just super straightforward, elegant design.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The aspects of the Neo that make it less expensive also make it simpler, and thus easier to service. Apple’s iPhones, iPads, and higher-end MacBooks that use a lot of glue and tape and pack components together in hard-to-disassemble ways aren’t designed that way out of spite or carelessness. They’re like that because that’s what it takes to make devices ever smaller, and ever more lightweight. By allowing the Neo to be a bit thicker and heavier, it’s also a lot simpler.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘MacBook Neo Teardown’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/12/macbook-neo-teardown"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Software Proprioception</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://unsung.aresluna.org/software-proprioception/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wz4" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/12/software-proprioception" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42736</id>
<published>2026-03-12T15:32:04Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-12T16:10:51Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Marcin Wichary:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There are fun things you can do in software when it is aware of
the dimensions and features of its hardware. [...]</p>
<p>The rule here would be, perhaps, a version of “show, don’t tell.”
We could call it “point to, don’t describe.” (Describing what to
do means cognitive effort to read the words and understand them.
An arrow pointing to something should be easier to process.)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I just learned the word <em>proprioception</em> a few weeks ago, in the context of how you can close your eyes and put your fingertip on the tip of your nose. Perfect word for this sort of hardware/software integration too.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Software Proprioception’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/12/software-proprioception"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Jason Snell Is on Jeopardy Next Week</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://sixcolors.com/post/2026/03/ill-take-beach-reading-for-1000-ken/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wz3" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/11/snell-on-jeopardy" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42735</id>
<published>2026-03-12T00:46:59Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-12T00:46:59Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Jason Snell:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>So here we are: Six Colors now has three <em>Jeopardy!</em> players as
contributors.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Come on, Moltz, get your shit together.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Jason Snell Is on Jeopardy Next Week’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/11/snell-on-jeopardy"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Another One From the Archive: ‘Web Kit’ vs. ‘WebKit’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/2006/05/web_kit_vs_webkit" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wz2" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/11/web-kit-v-webkit" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42734</id>
<published>2026-03-12T00:26:22Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-12T00:26:23Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>When I re-read my 2006 piece “<a href="https://daringfireball.net/2006/06/and_oranges">And Oranges</a>” today before <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/11/df-archive-and-oranges">linking to it</a>, I paused when I read this:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>And while it is easy to find ways to complain that Apple is not
open enough — under-documented and undocumented security updates
and system revisions, under-documented and undocumented file
formats — it would be hard to argue with the premise that Apple
today is more open than it has ever been before. (Exhibit A: the
<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20060701120623/http://webkit.opendarwin.org/">Web Kit project</a>.)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It’s not often I get to fix 20-year-old typos, and to my 2026 self, “Web Kit” looks like an obvious typo. But after a moment, I remembered: <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2006/05/web_kit_vs_webkit">in 2006, that wasn’t a typo</a>.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Another One From the Archive: ‘Web Kit’ vs. ‘WebKit’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/11/web-kit-v-webkit"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/03/modifier_key_order_for_keyboard_shortcuts" />
<link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/wz1" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026://1.42733</id>
<published>2026-03-12T00:15:20Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-12T15:27:36Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<summary type="text">The correct order is Fn, Control, Option, Shift, Command — regardless if you’re using the words or the glyphs.</summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p><a href="https://leancrew.com/all-this/2017/11/modifier-key-order/">Dr. Drang, back in 2017</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If you write about Mac keyboard shortcuts, as I did yesterday, you
should know how to do it right. Just as there’s a <a href="https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/adjectives-order">proper order
for adjectives</a> in English, there’s a proper order for
listing the modifier keys in a shortcut.</p>
<p>I haven’t found any documentation for this, but Apple’s preferred
order is clear in how they show the modifiers in menus and how
they’re displayed in the Keyboard Shortcuts Setting.</p>
<p>The order is similar to how you see them down at the bottom left
of your keyboard. Control (⌃), Option (⌥), and Command (⌘) always
go in that order. The oddball is the Shift (⇧) key, which sneaks in
just in front of Command.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Perhaps this wasn’t documented in 2017, but at least since 2022 (<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20221112144101/https://support.apple.com/guide/applestyleguide/k-apsgf9067ae8/web#apdbee268aa29e04">per the Internet Archive</a>), Apple has documented the correct order for modifier keys in a keyboard shortcut in their excellent Apple Style Guide, <a href="https://support.apple.com/guide/applestyleguide/k-apsgf9067ae8/web#apdbee268aa29e04">under the entry for “key, keys”</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If there’s more than one modifier key, use this order: Fn
(function), Control, Option, Shift, Command. When a keyboard
shortcut includes a mouse or trackpad action, use lowercase for
the mouse or trackpad action.</p>
<ul>
<li>Option-click</li>
<li>Option-swipe with three fingers</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<p>There’s all sorts of good stuff in this Style Guide entry, including an explanation for why the shortcut for Zoom Out is ⌘- (using the <em>lower</em> of the two symbols on the “-/_” key) but the shortcut for Zoom In is ⌘+ (using the <em>upper</em> of the two symbols on the “=/+” key):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If one of the characters on the key provides a mnemonic for the
action of the command, you can identify the key by that character.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>While I’m at it, here’s a pet peeve of mine. When you write out a keyboard shortcut using modifier key names, you connect them with hyphens: Command-R. But when using the modifier glyphs, you should definitely <em>not</em> include the hyphens. ⌘C is correct, ⌘-C is wrong. For one thing, just look at the shortcuts in the menu bar — the shortcut for Copy has been shown as ⌘C since 1984. For another, consider the aforementioned shortcuts that most apps use for Zoom In and Zoom Out: ⌘+ and ⌘-. Both of those would look weird if connected by a hyphen, but Zoom Out in particular would look confusing: Command-Hyphen-Hyphen?.</p>
<p>(How do you write those out using words, though? Apple uses “Command-Plus Sign (+)” and “Command-Minus Sign (-)”. Me, I’d just go with “Command-Plus” and “Command-Minus”.)</p>
<p>Pay no attention to Drang’s <a href="https://leancrew.com/all-this/2017/11/last-thoughts-on-modifier-keys/">follow-up post</a>, or <a href="https://sixcolors.com/link/2017/11/the-order-of-modifier-keys-on-the-mac/">this one from Jason Snell</a>. The correct order is Fn, Control, Option, Shift, Command — regardless if you’re using the words or the glyphs.</p>
]]></content>
<title>★ Modifier Key Order for Keyboard Shortcuts</title></entry><entry>
<title>Apple Has Changed Several Key Cap Labels From Words to Glyphs on Its Latest U.S. MacBook Keyboards</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://x.com/ClassicII_MrMac/status/2028869838870069447" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wyz" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/11/macbook-keyboards-words-to-glyphs" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42731</id>
<published>2026-03-11T23:06:05Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-12T16:56:04Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>“Mr. Macintosh”, on Twitter/X last week:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Small change:</p>
<p>Looks like Apple updated the keyboard on the new M5 16‑inch
MacBook Pro. The Backspace, Return, Shift, and Tab labels are
gone, replaced with symbols instead.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>All the new MacBook keyboards sport this same change, including the M5 Air and A18 Pro MacBook Neo. I’m not a fan. I like the words on those keys. But I’m willing to admit it might just be that I’ve been using Apple keyboards <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_IIe">with words</a> on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_IIc">those keys</a> since I was like 10 years old. iOS 26 switched from the word “return” to the “⏎” glyph on the software keyboard (and removed the word “space” from the spacebar — which, in hindsight, seemed needless to label).</p>
<p>The Escape key is still labelled “esc”, and the modifier keys (Fn, Control, Option, and Command) still show the names underneath or next to the glyphs. I suspect this is because documentation — <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/102650">including Apple’s own</a> — often uses names for these keys (Option-Shift-Command-K), not the glyphs (⌥⇧⌘K). It’s only in the last few years that Apple began including the glyphs for Control (⌃) and Option (⌥) — until recently, those keys were labelled only by name. They added the ⌃ and ⌥ glyphs between <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/111951">2017</a> and <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/111932">2018</a>. And until that change in 2018, Apple added the label “alt” to the Option key — a visual turd so longstanding that it dates back even to <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gruber/albums/72157604797968156/">my own beloved keyboard</a>.</p>
<p>Outside the U.S., Apple has been using glyphs for these key caps for a long time. The change from words to glyphs is new only here.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Apple Has Changed Several Key Cap Labels From Words to Glyphs on Its Latest U.S. MacBook Keyboards’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/11/macbook-keyboards-words-to-glyphs"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Halide Cofounder Sebastiaan de With Joined Apple’s Design Team in January</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://9to5mac.com/2026/01/28/halide-cofounder-sebastiaan-de-with-joins-apples-design-team/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wz0" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/11/de-with-apple-design-team" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42732</id>
<published>2026-03-11T23:00:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-12T16:11:39Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Chance Miller, reporting for 9to5Mac back on January 28:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://halide.cam/">Halide</a> and <a href="https://www.lux.camera/">Lux</a> co-founder and designer Sebastiaan
de With <a href="https://www.threads.com/@sdw/post/DUEeAwFksRt">announced</a> today that he is joining Apple’s human
interface design team. This marks a return to Apple for de With,
who previously worked as a freelancer for the company on projects
including Find My, MobileMe, and iCloud.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The last time I mentioned De With here on Daring Fireball was back in June, on the cusp of WWDC, <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/03/sdw-physicality-new-age">when I linked to</a> his resplendently illustrated essay, “<a href="https://www.lux.camera/physicality-the-new-age-of-ui/">Physicality: The New Age of UI</a>”, wherein he speculated on where Apple might be going. It’s very much worth your time to revisit De With’s essay now, knowing that he’s joined Apple’s design team. My own comments on his essay hold up well too — especially my concern that a look-and-feel centered on transparency doesn’t seem a good fit for MacOS, where windows stack atop each other.</p>
<p>When De With published his essay, it was as an idea for where Apple might go. Now that we’ve seen and been living with Liquid Glass, his essay works even better as a roadmap for the direction Liquid Glass should head.</p>
<p>Also worth pointing out that despite De With’s departure for Apple, Lux is going strong. Developer Ben Sandofsky recently released <a href="https://www.lux.camera/mark-iii-looks/">a preview of the upcoming Mark III version of Halide</a>.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Halide Cofounder Sebastiaan de With Joined Apple’s Design Team in January’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/11/de-with-apple-design-team"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>From the DF Archive: ‘And Oranges’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/2006/06/and_oranges" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wyy" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/11/df-archive-and-oranges" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42730</id>
<published>2026-03-11T19:02:11Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-11T19:26:13Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p><a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/08/willison-chardet-licensing-dispute">Mark Pilgrim’s reappearance</a> on Daring Fireball this week prompted me to revisit this essay I wrote 20 years ago. Holds up pretty well, I think.</p>
<p>This bit, in particular, seems particular apt w/r/t Tahoe:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’m deeply suspicious of Mac users who claim to be perfectly happy
with Mac OS X. Real Mac users, to me, are people with much higher
standards, impossibly high standards, and who use Macs not because
they’re great, but because they suck less than everything else.</p>
</blockquote>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘From the DF Archive: ‘And Oranges’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/11/df-archive-and-oranges"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/03/the_macbook_neo" />
<link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/wyx" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026://1.42729</id>
<published>2026-03-10T22:48:40Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-13T00:04:49Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<summary type="text">May the MacBook Neo live so long that its name becomes inapt.</summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Just over a decade ago, <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2015/09/the_iphones_6s#:~:text=BENCHMARKS">reviewing the then-new iPhones 6S</a>, I could tell which way the silicon wind was blowing. Year-over-year, the A9 CPU in the iPhone 6S was 1.6× faster than the A8 in the iPhone 6. Impressive. But what really struck me was comparing the 6S’s GeekBench scores to MacBooks. The A9, in 2015, benchmarked comparably to a two-year-old MacBook Air from 2013. More impressively, it <em>outperformed the then-new no-adjective 12-inch MacBook in single-core performance</em> (by a factor of roughly 1.1×) and was only 3 percent slower in multi-core. That was a comparison to <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2015/03/09Apple-Unveils-All-New-MacBook/">the base $1,300 model MacBook with a 1.1 GHz dual-core Intel Core M processor</a>, not the $1,600 model with a 1.2 GHz Core M. But, still — the iPhone 6S outperformed a brand-new $1,300 MacBook, and drew even with a $1,600 model. I called that “astounding”. The writing was clearly on the wall: the future of the Mac seemed destined to move from Intel’s x86 chips to Apple’s own ARM-based chips.</p>
<p>Here we are today, over five years after the debut of Apple’s M-series chips, and we now have <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/03/say-hello-to-macbook-neo/">the MacBook Neo</a>: a $600 laptop that uses the A18 Pro, literally the same SoC as 2024’s iPhone 16 Pro models. It was clear right from the start of the Apple Silicon transition that Apple’s M-series chips were vastly superior to x86 — better performance-per-watt, better performance period, the innovative (and still unmatched, five years later) <a href="https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2020/10686/">unified memory architecture</a> — but the MacBook Neo proves that Apple’s A-series chips are powerful enough for an excellent consumer MacBook.</p>
<p>I think the truth is that Apple’s A-series chips have been capable of credibly powering Macs for a long time. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developer_Transition_Kit">Apple Silicon developer transition kits</a>, from the summer of 2020, were Mac Mini enclosures running A12Z chips that were originally designed for iPad Pros.<sup id="fnr1-2026-03-10"><a href="#fn1-2026-03-10">1</a></sup> But I think Apple could have started using A-series chips in Macs even before that. It would have been credible, but with compromises. By waiting until now, the advantages are simply overwhelming. You cannot buy an x86 PC laptop in the $600–700 price range that competes with the MacBook Neo on any metric — performance, display quality, audio quality, or build quality. And certainly not software quality.</p>
<p>The original iPhone in 2007 was the most amazing device I’ve ever used. It may well wind up being the most amazing device I ever <em>will</em> use. It was ahead of its time in so many ways. But a desktop-class computer, performance-wise, it was not. Two decades is a long time in the computer industry, and nothing proves that more than Apple’s “phone chips” overtaking Intel’s x86 platform in every measurable metric — they’re faster, cooler, smaller, and perhaps even cost less. And they certainly don’t cost more.</p>
<p>I’ve been testing a citrus-colored $700 MacBook Neo<sup id="fnr2-2026-03-10"><a href="#fn2-2026-03-10">2</a></sup> — the model with Touch ID and 512 GB storage — since last week. I set it up new, rather than restoring my primary MacOS work setup from an existing Mac, and have used as much built-in software, with as many default settings, as I could bear. I’ve only added third-party software, or changed settings, as I’ve needed to. And I’ve been using it for as much of my work as possible. I expected this to go well, but in fact, the experience has vastly exceeded my expectations. Christ almighty I don’t even have as many complaints about running MacOS 26 Tahoe (which the Neo requires) as I thought I would.</p>
<p>It’s never been a good idea to evaluate the performance of Apple’s computers by tech specs alone. That’s exemplified by the experience of using a Neo. 8 GB of RAM is not a lot. And I love me my RAM — my personal workstation remains a 2021 M1 Max MacBook Pro with 64 GB RAM (the most available at the time). But just using the Neo, without any consideration that it’s memory limited, I haven’t noticed a single hitch. I’m not quitting apps I otherwise wouldn’t quit, or closing Safari tabs I wouldn’t otherwise close. I’m just working — with an even dozen apps open as I type this sentence — and everything feels snappy.</p>
<p>Now, could I run up a few <em>hundred</em> open Safari tabs on this machine, like I do on my MacBook Pro, without feeling the effects? No, probably not. But that’s abnormal. In typical productivity use, the Neo isn’t merely fine — it’s good. </p>
<p>The display is bright and crisp. At 500 maximum nits, the specs say it’s as bright as a MacBook Air. In practice, that feels true. (500 nits also matches the maximum SDR brightness of my personal M1 MacBook Pro.) Sound from the side-firing speakers is very good — loud and clear. I’d say the sound seems too good to be true for a $600 laptop. Battery life is long (and I’ve done almost all my testing while the Neo is unplugged from power). The keyboard feels exactly the same as what I’m used to, except that because the key caps are brand new, it feels even better than the keyboard on my own now-four-years-old MacBook Pro, the most-used key caps on which are <a href="https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/05/08/shiny-macbook-keys/">now a little slick</a>.</p>
<p>And the trackpad. Let me sing the praises of the MacBook Neo’s trackpad. The Neo’s trackpad exemplifies the Neo as a whole. Rather than sell old components at a lower price — as Apple had been doing, allowing third-party resellers like Walmart to sell the 8 GB M1 MacBook Air from 2020 at sub-$700 prices <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2024/03/15/macbook-air-walmart">starting two years ago</a> — the Neo is designed from the ground up to be a low-cost MacBook.</p>
<p>A decade ago, Apple began switching from trackpads with mechanical clicking mechanisms to Magic Trackpads, where clicks are simulated via haptic feedback (in Apple’s parlance, the Taptic Engine). And, with Magic Trackpads, you can use Force Touch — a hard press — to perform special actions. By default, if “Force Touch and haptic feedback” is enabled on a Mac with a Magic Trackpad, a hard Force Touch press will perform a Look Up — e.g., do it on a word in Safari and you’ll get a popover with the Dictionary app’s definition for that word. It’s a shortcut to the “Look Up in Dictionary” command in the contextual menu, which is also available <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/102650">via the keyboard shortcut Control-Command-D</a> to look up whatever text is currently selected, or that the mouse pointer is currently hovering over — standard features that work in all proper Mac apps.</p>
<p>The Neo’s trackpad is mechanical. It actually clicks, even when the machine is powered off.<sup id="fnr3-2026-03-10"><a href="#fn3-2026-03-10">3</a></sup> Obviously this is a cost-saving measure. But the Neo’s trackpad doesn’t feel cheap in any way. You can click it anywhere you want — top, bottom, middle, corner — and the click feels right. Multi-finger <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/102482">gestures</a> (most commonly, two-finger swipes for scrolling) — just work. Does it feel as nice as a Magic Trackpad? No, probably not. But I keep forgetting there’s anything at all different or special about this trackpad. It just feels normal. That’s unbelievable. The “Force Touch and haptic feedback” option is missing in the Trackpad panel in System Settings, so you might miss that feature if you’re used to it. But for anyone who isn’t used to that Magic Trackpad feature — which includes anyone who’s never used a MacBook before (perhaps the primary audience for the Neo), along with most casual longtime Mac users (which is probably the secondary audience) — it’s hard to say there’s anything they’d even notice that’s different about this trackpad than the one in the MacBook Air, other than the fact that it’s a little bit smaller. But it’s only smaller in a way that feels proportional to the Neo’s slightly smaller footprint compared to the Air. It’s a cheaper trackpad that doesn’t feel at all cheap. Bravo!</p>
<h2>So What’s the Catch?</h2>
<p>You can use <a href="https://www.apple.com/mac/compare/?modelList=MacBook-Neo-A18-Pro,MacBook-Air-M5,MacBook-Air-M1">this Compare page at Apple’s website</a> (archived, for posterity, <a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/03/MacBook-Neo-(A18-Pro)-vs-MacBook-Air-(M5)-vs-MacBook-Air-(M1).pdf">as a PDF here</a>) to see the full list of what’s missing or different on the Neo, compared to the current M5 MacBook Air (which now starts at $1,100) and the 5-year-old M1 MacBook Air (so old it still sports the Intel-era wedge shape) that Walmart had been selling for $600–650. Things I’ve noticed, that bothered me, personally:</p>
<ul>
<li>The Neo lacks an ambient light sensor. It still offers an option in System Settings → Display to “Automatically adjust brightness”, which setting is on by default, but I have no idea how it works without an ambient light sensor. However it works, it doesn’t work well. As the lighting conditions in my house have changed — from day to night, overcast to sunny — I’ve found myself adjusting the display brightness manually. I only realized when I started adjusting the brightness on the Neo manually that I more or less haven’t adjusted the brightness manually on a MacBook in years. Maybe a decade. I’m not saying I <em>never</em> adjust the brightness on a MacBook Air or Pro, but I do it so seldomly that I had no muscle memory at all for which F-keys control brightness. After a few days using the Neo, I know exactly where they are: F1 and F2.</li>
</ul>
<p>And, uh, that’s it. That’s the one catch that’s annoyed me over the six days I’ve been using the Neo as my primary computer for work and for reading. Once or twice a day I need to manually bump the display brightness up or down.
That’s a crazily short list. One item, and it’s only a mild annoyance.</p>
<p>There are other things missing that I’ve noticed, but that I haven’t minded. The Neo doesn’t have a hardware indicator light for the camera. The indication for “camera in use” is only in the menu bar. There’s a privacy/security implication for this omission. According to Apple, the hardware indicator light for camera-in-use on other MacBook models, and the on-screen (e.g. in the Dynamic Island) indicator on iPhones and iPads, cannot be circumvented by software. If the camera is on, that light comes on, and no third-party software can disable it. <s>Because the Neo’s only camera-in-use indicator is in the menu bar, that seems obviously possible to circumvent via software. Not a big deal, but worth being aware of.</s> [<strong>Update:</strong> In a brief note added to <a href="https://support.apple.com/guide/security/mac-on-screen-camera-indicator-light-sec75a2d237d/1/web/1">Apple’s Platform Security Guide</a>, Apple claims that the green indicator dot in the corner of the Neo’s display <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/12/macbook-neo-on-screen-camera-indicator">is guaranteed to be visible if the camera is in use</a>.]</p>
<p>The Neo’s webcam doesn’t offer Center Stage or Desk View. But personally, I never take advantage of Center Stage or Desk View, so I don’t miss their absence. Your mileage may vary. But the camera is 1080p and to my eyes looks pretty good. And I’d say it looks damn good for a $600 laptop.</p>
<p>The Neo has no notch. Instead, it has a larger black bezel surrounding the entire display than do the MacBook Airs and Pros. I consider this an advantage for the Neo, not a disadvantage. The MacBook notch has not grown on me, and the Neo’s display bezel doesn’t bother me at all.</p>
<p>And there’s the whole thing with the second USB-C port only supporting USB 2 speeds. That stinks. But if Apple could sell a one-port MacBook a decade ago, they can sell one with a shitty second port today. I’ll bet this is one of the things that will be improved in the second generation Neo, but it’s not something that would keep me from recommending this one — or even buying one myself — today. If you know you need multiple higher-speed USB ports (or Thunderbolt), you need a MacBook Air or Pro.</p>
<p>The Neo ships with a measly 20-watt charger in the box — the same rinky-dink charger that comes with iPad Airs. I wish it were 30 watts (which is what came with the M1 MacBook Air), but maybe we’re lucky it comes with a charger at all. The Neo charges faster if you plug it into a more powerful power adapter, in either USB-C port.<sup id="fnr4-2026-03-10"><a href="#fn4-2026-03-10">4</a></sup> The USB-C cable in the box is white, not color-matched to the Neo, and it’s only 1.5 meters long. MacBook Airs and Pros ship with 2-meter MagSafe cables. Again, though: $600!</p>
<h2>The Weighty Issue on My Mind</h2>
<p>The Neo is not a svelte ultralight. It weights 2.7 pounds (1.23 kg) — exactly the same as the 13-inch M5 MacBook Air. The Neo, with a 13.0-inch display, has a smaller footprint than the 13.6-inch Air, but the Air is thinner. I don’t know if this is a catch though. It’s just the normal weight for a smaller-display Mac laptop. The decade-ago MacBook “One”, on the other hand, was a design statement. <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/112442">It weighed just a hair over 2 pounds</a> (0.92 kg), and tapered from 1.35 cm to just 0.35 cm in thickness. The Neo is 1.27 cm thick, and the M5 Air is 1.13 cm. In fact, the extraordinary thinness of the 2015 MacBook might have necessitated the invention of the haptics-only Magic Trackpad. The Magic Trackpad first appeared on that MacBook and the early 2015 MacBook Pros — it was nice-to-have for the MacBook Pros, but might have been the only trackpad that would fit in the front of the MacBook One’s tapered case.</p>
<p>If I had my druthers, Apple would make a new svelte ultralight MacBook. Not instead of the Neo, but in addition to the Neo. Apple’s inconsistent use of the name “Air” makes this complicated, but the MacBook Neo is obviously akin to the iPhone 17e; the MacBook Air is akin to the iPhone 17 (the default model for most people); the MacBook Pros are akin to the iPhone 17 Pros. I wish Apple would make a MacBook that’s akin to the iPhone Air — crazy thin and surprisingly performant.</p>
<p>The biggest shortcoming of the decade-ago MacBook “One”, aside from the baffling decision to include just one USB-C port that was also its only means of charging, was the shitty performance of Intel’s Core M chips. Those chips were small enough and low-power enough to fit in the MacBook’s thin and fan-less enclosure, but they were slow as balls. It was a huge compromise for a laptop that carried a somewhat premium price. Today, performance, performance-per-watt, and physical chip size are all solved problems with Apple Silicon. I’d consider paying double the price of the Neo for a MacBook with similar specs (but more RAM and better I/O) that weighed 2.0 pounds or less. I’d buy such a MacBook not to replace my 14-inch MacBook Pro, but to replace my 2018 11-inch iPad Pro as my “carry around the house” secondary computer.<sup id="fnr5-2026-03-10"><a href="#fn5-2026-03-10">5</a></sup></p>
<p>As it stands, I might buy a Neo for that same purpose, 2.7-pound weight be damned. iPad Pros, encased in Magic Keyboards, are expensive and heavy. So are iPad Airs. My 2018 iPad Pro, in its Magic Keyboard case, weighs 2.36 pounds (1.07 kg). That’s the 11-inch model, with a cramped less-than-standard-size keyboard. I’m much happier with this MacBook Neo than I am doing anything on that iPad. Yes, my iPad is old at this point. But replacing it with a new iPad Pro would require a new Magic Keyboard too. For an iPad Pro + Magic Keyboard, that combination starts at $1,300 for 11-inch, $1,650 for 13-inch. If I switched to iPad Air, the cost would be $870 for 11-inch, $1,120 for 13-inch. The 13-inch iPads, when attached to Magic Keyboards, weigh slightly <em>more</em> than a 2.7-pound 13-inch MacBook Neo. The 11-inch iPads, with keyboards, weigh about 2.3 pounds. Why bother when I find MacOS way more enjoyable and productive? My three-device lifestyle for the last decade has been a MacBook Pro (anchored to a Studio Display at my desk at home, and in my briefcase when travelling); my iPhone; and an iPad Pro with a Magic Keyboard for use around the rest of the house. This last week testing the MacBook Neo, I haven’t touched my iPad once, and I haven’t once wished this Neo were an iPad. And there were many times when I was very happy that it was a Mac.</p>
<p>And I can buy one, just like this one, for $700. That’s $170 less than an 11-inch iPad Air and Magic Keyboard. And the Neo comes with a full-size keyboard and runs MacOS, not a version of iOS with a limited imitation of MacOS’s windowing UI. I am in no way arguing that the MacBook Neo is an iPad killer, but it’s a splendid iPad alternative for people like me, who don’t draw with a Pencil, do type with a keyboard, and just want a small, simple, highly portable and highly capable computer to use around the house. The MacBook Neo is going to be a great first Macintosh for a lot of people switching from PCs. But it’s also going to be a great <em>secondary</em> Mac for a lot of longtime Mac users with expensive desktop setups for their main workstations — like me.</p>
<p>The Neo crystallizes the post-Jony Ive Apple. The MacBook “One” was a design statement, and a much-beloved semi-premium product for a relatively small audience. The Neo is a mass-market device that was conceived of, designed, and engineered to expand the Mac user base to a larger audience. It’s a design statement too, but of a different sort — emphasizing practicality above all else. It’s just a goddamn lovely tool, and fun too.</p>
<p>I’ll just say it: I think I’m done with iPads. Why bother when Apple is now making a crackerjack Mac laptop that starts at just $600? May the MacBook Neo live so long that its name becomes inapt.</p>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr />
<ol>
<li id="fn1-2026-03-10">
<p><a href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/03/599_not_a_piece_of_junk_macbook_neo">When I wrote last week</a> that the MacBook Neo is the first product from Apple with an A-series chip sporting more than one USB port — addressing complaints that the Neo’s second USB-C port only supports USB 2.0 speeds — a few readers pointed to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developer_Transition_Kit">the Apple Silicon developer transition kits</a>. Those machines had two USB-C 3.1 ports, two USB-A 3.0 ports, <em>and</em> an HDMI port. But Apple didn’t sell those as a product — developers borrowed them from Apple, and <a href="https://www.macrumors.com/2021/02/05/apple-dtk-credit-for-developers-increased/">Apple wanted them back</a> soon after the first actual Apple Silicon Macs shipped. If Apple had sold them, they would have cost more than $600. Those extra I/O ports involved significant engineering outside the A12Z SoC. <a href="#fnr1-2026-03-10" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.">↩︎</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn2-2026-03-10">
<p>The Neo’s citrus is a beguiling colorway. Everyone I’ve shown it to likes it. But is it a green-ish yellow, or a yellow-ish green? In daylight, it looks more like a green-ish yellow. But at nighttime, it looks more like a yellow-ish green. By default, the MacOS accent color in System Settings → Appearance defaults to a color that matches the Neo’s hardware — a fun trick Apple has been <a href="https://512pixels.net/2012/12/imac/">using for decades</a>. For citrus, that special accent color <a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/03/macbook-neo-citrus-appearance-color.png">looks more green than yellow to me</a>. <a href="#fnr2-2026-03-10" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 2 in the text.">↩︎︎</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn3-2026-03-10">
<p>The haptic “clicks” with a Magic Trackpad are so convincingly real that it feels <em>really</em> weird when you try to click the trackpad on a powered-off MacBook Air or Pro, or a standalone Magic Trackpad that’s turned off, and ... nothing happens. Not even the slightest hint of a click. Just totally inert. It’s gross, like poking a dead pet. <a href="#fnr3-2026-03-10" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 3 in the text.">↩︎︎</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn4-2026-03-10">
<p>My favorite power adapter is <a href="https://nomadgoods.com/products/ac-adapter-65w-usb-c-slim">this $55 two-port 65-watt “slim” charger from Nomad</a>. It’s small, lightweight, and the lay-flat design helps it stay connected to loose wall outlets in hotels and public spaces like airports and coffee shops. Nomad also sells a smaller 40-watt model with only one port, and a larger 100-watt model. But to me the 65-watt model hits the sweet spot. The link above goes to Nomad’s website; <a href="https://www.amazon.com/NOMAD-65W-Slim-Power-Adapter/dp/B0CYP6KPPB/?tag=df-amzn-20">here’s a make-me-rich affiliate link to it at Amazon</a>. <a href="#fnr4-2026-03-10" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 4 in the text.">↩︎︎</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn5-2026-03-10">
<p>One advantage to the 2.7-pound Neo compared to the decade-ago 2.0-pound MacBook “One” — you can lift the lid on the Neo with one hand and it just opens. With the old MacBook, the base was so light that the whole thing tended to lift when you just wanted to open the display. <a href="#fnr5-2026-03-10" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 5 in the text.">↩︎︎</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
]]></content>
<title>★ The MacBook Neo</title></entry><entry>
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<author><name>Daring Fireball Department of Commerce</name></author>
<published>2026-03-09T22:44:03Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-09T22:44:03Z</updated>
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<published>2026-03-09T21:57:35Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-10T14:47:37Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<summary type="text">Apple could have stopped with the addition of MagSafe alone, and the 17e would’ve been a successful year-over-year update over the 16e. But there’s even more.</summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Over the years I’ve been writing here, I’ve often used the term <em>speed bump</em> to describe a certain type of hardware update: a new version of an existing product where the new stuff is mostly faster components, especially the CPU and GPU, but where a lot of the product, including the enclosure, remains unchanged. I’ve been thinking about it all week, as I tested the iPhone 17e, because the 17e is the epitome of a good speed bump. But it’s a funny term, because in real life, a speed bump — on the road — is something that slows you down. But in computer hardware it’s about going faster, or doing more, even if only slightly.</p>
<p>The other thing I find mildly amusing about the word “bump” and the iPhone 17e is that it’s the one and only iPhone in Apple’s lineup that doesn’t have a camera plateau — a.k.a. bump. The lens itself does jut out, slightly, but it’s just a lens, not a plateau, harking back to iPhones of yesteryear, <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/111868">like</a> the <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2018/10/the_iphone_xr">iPhone XR from 2018</a>.</p>
<p>Speed bump hardware updates never update every component. That’s not a speed bump. Only <em>some</em> components get updated. In a good speed bump update, the parts that get upgraded are the parts from the old model that were most lacking. <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2025/02/the_iphone_16e">My review last year of the iPhone 16e</a> was fairly effusive, but I noted one primary omission: MagSafe. There were, of course, other compromises made for the 16e compared to higher-priced models in the lineup, but MagSafe was the one feature missing from the 16e that really bothered me. I’m not sure there was a single review of the 16e that didn’t list the omission of MagSafe as the 16e’s biggest shortcoming.</p>
<p>Apple’s explanation, a year ago, for omitting MagSafe was that the customers they were targeting with the 16e were people upgrading from 4-, 5-, or even 6-year-old iPhones, so they were accustomed to charging their phones by plugging in a cable. I can see that. People who bought an iPhone 16e in the last year didn’t miss MagSafe because they never had a phone with it. But, for those of us who have been using iPhones with MagSafe, the lack of MagSafe on the 16e was the primary reason to steer friends and family away from getting one. It’s not just about charging, either. I use MagSafe in a bunch of places, in a bunch of ways. I have <a href="https://nomadgoods.com/products/stand-one-4th-gen-carbide">a dock</a> next to my bed and another next to my keyboard at my desk. I have a MagSafe mount on the dashboard of my car (which is so old it long predates CarPlay). I have a handful of MagSafe accessories like <a href="https://www.moft.us/products/iphone-stand-wallet-magsafe-compatible">this snap-on stand from Moft</a> that <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/07/11/moft-snap-on-iphone-stand-wallet">I recommended last summer</a>, and portable MagSafe battery packs like <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Anker-Ultra-Slim-Certified-Ultra-Fast-MagSafe-Compatible/dp/B0F8HXYD46?th=1">this one from Anker</a> (battery packs like these make for great travel items — they double as bedside chargers in hotels). I don’t carry a MagSafe card wallet or use PopSocket-style attachments, but a lot of people do. MagSafe is just great, and the lack of it on the 16e was the biggest reason not to recommend it. Just because the target audience wouldn’t <em>miss it</em> — because their old phone didn’t have it — doesn’t mean they wouldn’t <em>miss out</em> by not having it on their new one.</p>
<p>Well, that’s over. The 17e has MagSafe, and supports inductive charging at speeds up to 15W. (The iPhone Air supports charging up to 20W, and the 17 and 17 Pro models up to 25W.) Apple could have stopped there — with the addition of MagSafe alone — and the 17e would’ve been a successful year-over-year update.</p>
<p>But that would’ve been only a ... <em>err</em> ... mag bump, not a speed bump. Apple also bumped the SoC from the A18 to the A19, the current-generation chip from the regular iPhone 17. This is not a huge deal, year-over-year, but faster is faster and newer is better. (The $599 iPhone 17e, with the A19, benchmarks faster in single-core CPU performance than the $599 MacBook Neo, with the year-old A18 Pro.)</p>
<p>The upgrade to the A19 enables a better image-processing pipeline for the camera, which allows the 17e to offer Apple’s “next-generation portraits”, which are an obvious improvement over the previous portrait mode offered by the 16e. But the camera hardware itself — lenses and sensors, both front and back — is unchanged year-over-year. The technical specs for the camera, as reported by <a href="https://halide.cam/">Halide</a>’s nifty Technical Readout feature, are identical to the 16e. It’s a fine camera, but not a great camera. Just like last year with the 16e, the camera’s limitations are most noticeable in low-light situations. Still, both of these things are true:</p>
<ul>
<li>The 17e camera is by far the weakest iPhone camera Apple currently offers. (It does not come close to the quality of the also-single-lens iPhone Air camera.)</li>
<li>For the people considering the 17e, it’s probably the best camera of any kind they’ve ever owned, and a big improvement over their current, probably years-old, phone.</li>
</ul>
<p>The 17e camera system remains limited to Apple’s original <a href="https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/use-photographic-styles-iph629d2cd37/ios">Photographic Styles</a>; all the other iPhones in the new A19 generation — the 17, 17 Pro, and Air — offer the much improved “latest-generation” Photographic Styles. In practice, this means the system Camera app on the 17e only offers these styles: Standard, Rich Contrast, Vibrant, Warm, and Cool. The second-generation Photographic Styles, which debuted last year on the iPhone 16 models, offer a much wider variety of styles and more fine-grained control, all of which processing is non-destructive. To name one obvious scenario, the new generation of Photographic Styles offers several black-and-white styles. When you shoot with these B&W styles, you can subsequently change your mind and apply one of the color styles in the Photos app, because the styles aren’t baked-in. But with the original-generation Photographic Styles — the one the 17e is limited to — the styles you shoot with are baked into the HEIC (or JPEG) files. You can apply non-destructive <em>filters</em> in post, including black-and-white filters, but those filters are simplistic compared to the new-generation Photographic Styles — and unlike the new Photographic Styles, you can’t preview the old filters live in the Camera app viewfinder. If you care about any of this, you should spend the extra $200 to get the regular iPhone 17, or perhaps, the still-for-sale iPhone 16, both of which offer both better camera hardware <em>and</em> software than the 17e. If you don’t care about any of this, the 17e might be the iPhone for you.</p>
<p>Here’s a link to Apple’s ever-excellent Compare page, <a href="https://www.apple.com/iphone/compare/?modelList=iphone-16e,iphone-17e,iphone-17">with a comparison of the 16e vs. 17e vs. 17</a>. (For posterity, here’s that Compare page <a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/03/iPhone-16e-vs-iPhone-17e-vs-iPhone-17.pdf">archived as a PDF</a>.) Other than the addition of MagSafe, the next biggest change from last year’s 16e to the new 17e is that base storage has increased from 128 to 256 GB (while the starting price has remained unchanged at $600). Nice. Also, there’s a third color option, “soft pink”, in addition to white and black. Lastly, the 17e gains the Ceramic Shield 2 front glass, which Apple claims offers 3× better scratch resistance. That’s nice too.</p>
<p>That’s about it for what’s improved in the 17e compared to the 16e. But that’s enough. With the old iPhone SE models, Apple only updated the hardware every 3–5 years. The new e models are seemingly on the same annual upgrade cycle as the other generation-numbered models.<sup id="fnr1-2026-03-09"><a href="#fn1-2026-03-09">1</a></sup> Adding MagSafe, going from the A18 to A19, increasing base storage, and adding a new colorway is a solid speed bump.</p>
<p>The next way to consider the 17e is by comparing it to the base iPhone 17. What do you miss if you go with the 17e — or, what do you gain by paying an extra $200 for the 17?</p>
<ul>
<li><p>The base 17 has a ProMotion display with dynamic refresh rates up to 120 Hz and an always-on display. It’s also a brighter display (1000 vs. 800 nits SDR, 1600 vs. 1200 nits HDR). The iPhone 17 is the first base model iPhone with ProMotion, and it also sports a slightly bigger display (6.3″ vs. 6.1″) despite the fact that the 17 is only 2mm taller and exactly the same width as the 17e — the increased screen size is mostly from having smaller bezels surrounding the display.</p></li>
<li><p>The iPhone 17 comes with Apple’s second-generation Ultra Wideband chip for precision Find My support. If you track, say, an AirTag using the Find My app, the iPhone 17 supports the cool feature that guides you right to the device, with distances down to fractions of a foot. The iPhone 17e doesn’t support that — it just lets you do the old Find My stuff, like having the lost device play a sound, and showing its location on a map.</p></li>
<li><p>Camera Control: On my personal iPhone 17 Pro, I only use the Camera Control button for launching the Camera app, and as a shutter within Camera (and other camera apps, like <a href="https://notbor.ing/product/camera">!Camera</a>, <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/analogue/id6748702405">Analogue</a>,<sup id="fnr2-2026-03-09"><a href="#fn2-2026-03-09">2</a></sup> and <a href="https://halide.cam/">Halide</a>). I don’t use it for adjusting controls, because it’s just too finicky. But I love it as a dedicated launcher and shutter button. I keep trying to invoke it on the 17e to launch the Camera app, even now, a few days into daily driving it.</p></li>
<li><p>The iPhone 17 has the clever <a href="https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/view-live-activities-in-the-dynamic-island-iph28f50d10d/ios">Dynamic Island</a>; the 17e has a dumb notch. The Dynamic Island is nice to have, but despite having one on my personal phone for 3.5 years (it debuted with the 14 Pro in 2022), I can’t say I’ve particularly missed it during the better part of a week that I’ve been using the 17e as my primary phone. I actually had to double check that the 17e doesn’t have it while first writing this paragraph, because, over my first few days of testing, I just hadn’t noticed. But then I went out and ran an errand requiring an Uber ride, while listening to a podcast, and I noticed the lack of a Dynamic Island — no live status update for the hailed Uber, and no quick-tap button for jumping back into <a href="https://overcast.fm/">Overcast</a>.</p></li>
<li><p>And last, but far from least, the iPhone 17 has significantly better camera hardware: the 1× main camera is better; it offers a 0.5× ultra wide lens that the 17e completely lacks; and <a href="https://www.businessworld.in/article/exclusive-jon-mccormack-on-how-apple-reinvented-the-selfie-for-the-iphone-17-575523">the all-new front-facing camera is vastly superior</a>.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>That’s a fair amount of better stuff for $200. But none of those things jumps out to me as a reason not to recommend the 17e for someone who considers price their highest priority. With 256 GB of storage, even the base model 17e is recommendable without hesitation. The omission of MagSafe on last year’s 16e was low-hanging fruit for Apple to add this year, as was the meager base storage of 128 GB. I don’t think there’s anything on par with MagSafe for next year’s iPhone 18e. (My first choice would be the second-generation Ultra Wideband chip — I’d like to see precision location make it into everything Apple sells sooner rather than later.)</p>
<p>Across several days of testing, 5G cellular reception was strong, and battery life was long. I ran Speedtest a few times, at different locations in Center City Philadelphia, and each time got download speeds above 500 Mbps and upload speeds around 40–50 Mbps. Apple’s in-house C1X modem is simply great.</p>
<p>Here’s a table with pricing for the iPhone models Apple currently sells:</p>
<!-- Markdown Table:
| | SoC | 128 GB | 256 GB | 512 GB | 1 TB | 2 TB |
| ---------: | :-----: | :----: | :----: | :----: | :----: | :---: |
| 17e | A19 | — | $600 | $800 | | — |
| 16 | A18 | $700 | — | — | — | — |
| 16 Plus | A18 | $800 | $900 | — | — | — |
| 17 | A19 | — | $800 | $1000 | — | — |
| Air (17) | A19 Pro | — | $1000 | $1200 | $1400 | — |
| 17 Pro | A19 Pro | — | $1100 | $1300 | $1500 | — |
| 17 Pro Max | A19 Pro | — | $1200 | $1400 | $1600 | $2000 |
-->
<table class="table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E" width=550 style="margin-left: -35px;">
<style>
.table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E th:nth-child(1) { text-align: left }
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.table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E th:nth-child(2) { text-align: left }
.table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E td:nth-child(2) { text-align: left }
.table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E th:nth-child(3) { text-align: center }
.table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E td:nth-child(3) { text-align: center }
.table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E th:nth-child(4) { text-align: center }
.table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E td:nth-child(4) { text-align: center }
.table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E th:nth-child(5) { text-align: center }
.table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E td:nth-child(5) { text-align: center }
.table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E th:nth-child(6) { text-align: center }
.table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E td:nth-child(6) { text-align: center }
.table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E th:nth-child(7) { text-align: center }
.table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E td:nth-child(7) { text-align: center }
</style>
<thead>
<th>iPhone</th><th>SoC</th><th>128 GB</th><th>256 GB</th><th>512 GB</th><th>1 TB</th><th>2 TB</th>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>17e</td><td>A19</td><td>—</td><td>$600</td><td>$800</td><td></td><td>—</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>16</td><td>A18</td><td>$700</td><td>—</td><td>—</td><td>—</td><td>—</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>16 Plus</td><td>A18</td><td>$800</td><td>$900</td><td>—</td><td>—</td><td>—</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>17</td><td>A19</td><td>—</td><td>$800</td><td>$1000</td><td>—</td><td>—</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Air (17)</td><td>A19 Pro</td><td>—</td><td>$1000</td><td>$1200</td><td>$1400</td><td>—</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>17 Pro</td><td>A19 Pro</td><td>—</td><td>$1100</td><td>$1300</td><td>$1500</td><td>—</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>17 Pro Max</td><td>A19 Pro</td><td>—</td><td>$1200</td><td>$1400</td><td>$1600</td><td>$2000</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>This is a very compelling lineup, and the 17e shores up the lowest price point with aplomb:</p>
<ul>
<li>Good: iPhone 17e</li>
<li>Better: iPhone 17</li>
<li>Best: iPhone 17 Pro or iPhone Air, depending on how you define “best”.</li>
</ul>
<p>In New York last week at Apple’s hands-on “experience” for the media, which was primarily about the MacBook Neo, I got the chance to talk about the 17e, too. Apple’s product marketing people tend to compare the 17e against the iPhone 11 and 12. Those are the iPhones most would-be 17e buyers are upgrading from. Things they’ll notice if they do upgrade to a 17e:</p>
<ul>
<li>Much better battery life. Not just compared to an iPhone 11 or 12 that’s been in use for 4–5 years, but against a factory fresh battery in those older iPhones. Apple’s “streaming video” benchmark goes from 11 hours to 21 hours <a href="https://www.apple.com/iphone/compare/?modelList=iphone-17e,iphone-12,iphone-11">comparing the 17e to the 12</a>. And if they <em>are</em> upgrading from a phone with a 4- or 5-year-old battery that’s been through hundreds of charge cycles, they’re going to notice it even more.</li>
<li>A noticeably brighter screen (800 vs 625 nits).</li>
<li>A much improved camera. Even if they’re not serious about photography, the 17e camera is noticeably better than the cameras from half a decade ago.</li>
<li>Everything will feel faster.</li>
</ul>
<p>Frankly, I’m not sure who the year-old iPhone 16 is for today, especially considering that Apple is now only offering it with 128 GB of storage. People on a tight budget but who really want an ultra wide 0.5× second camera lens? The potential appeal of the still-available 16 Plus is more obvious: if you want a big-screen iPhone, it’s much less expensive than a 17 Pro Max. And, unlike the regular iPhone 16, the 16 Plus is available with 256 GB. But at that point, I’d encourage whoever is considering the $900 iPhone 16 Plus with 256 GB storage to pay an extra $100 and get the iPhone Air instead. The overall lineup would have more coherence and clarity if Apple just eliminated the two 16 models. I suspect Apple is on the cusp of completely moving away from the strategy of selling two- and three-year-old iPhones at lower prices, and updating their entire lineup with annual speed bumps.</p>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr />
<ol>
<li id="fn1-2026-03-09">
<p>It remains to be seen how frequently Apple intends to update the iPhone Air, which conspicuously lacks a “17” in its name. <a href="#fnr1-2026-03-09" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.">↩︎</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn2-2026-03-09">
<p>Analogue is a relatively new app by developer Cristian Teichner. It uses Apple’s Log imaging pipeline, which Apple primarily intends for video capture. But Analogue uses the Log pipeline for both video <em>and</em> still photography. One side effect of this is that still photos are a bit “zoomed in”, because the video capture pipeline uses a slight crop of the overall sensor. For the same reason, Analogue’s “full frame” aspect ratio is 16:9, not 4:3. But the benefit is that Analogue uses <a href="https://aftershoot.com/blog/lut/">LUTs</a> for image processing/color grading, and can do so non-destructively. It results in delightful, film-like images. I’ve been shooting with Analogue quite a bit on my iPhone 17 Pro. Alas, Analogue doesn’t work on the 17e, because the 17e doesn’t support Log capture. In fact, Analogue <em>only</em> works on the 15 Pro, 16 Pro, and 17 Pro models, because those are the only iPhones that support the “pro” imaging pipeline. Even the $1,200 iPhone Air, which sports an A19 Pro chip, does not. <a href="#fnr2-2026-03-09" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 2 in the text.">↩︎︎</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
]]></content>
<title>★ The iPhone 17e</title></entry><entry>
<title>MacBook Neo Wallpapers Now Available for All Macs in MacOS Tahoe</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.macrumors.com/2026/03/09/macos-tahoe-26-4-beta-4-neo-wallpapers/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wyu" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/09/neo-wallpapers" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42726</id>
<published>2026-03-09T19:37:58Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-09T22:24:21Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Juli Clover, MacRumors:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Featuring bubble-style lines with colorful gradients, the
wallpapers come in Mac Purple, Mac Blue, Mac Pink, and Mac Yellow.
The design and the colors spell out the word “Mac.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>They got me. I’m upgrading to Tahoe now.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘MacBook Neo Wallpapers Now Available for All Macs in MacOS Tahoe’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/09/neo-wallpapers"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Low-Wage Contractors in Kenya See What Users See While Using Meta’s AI Smart Glasses</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.svd.se/a/K8nrV4/metas-ai-smart-glasses-and-data-privacy-concerns-workers-say-we-see-everything" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wyt" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/09/kenya-meta-contractors" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42725</id>
<published>2026-03-09T14:16:19Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-09T14:16:20Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Naipanoi Lepapa, Ahmed Abdigadir, and Julia Lindblom, reporting for the Swedish publications Svenska Dagbladet and Göteborgs-Posten:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It is stuffy at the top of the hotel in Nairobi, Kenya. The grey
sky presses the heat against the windows. The man in front of us
is nervous. If his employer finds out that he is here, he could
lose everything. He is one of the people few even realise exist — a flesh-and-blood worker in the engine room of the data industry.
What he has to say is explosive.</p>
<p>“In some videos you can see someone going to the toilet, or
getting undressed. I don’t think they know, because if they knew
they wouldn’t be recording.” [...]</p>
<p>The workers describe videos where people’s bank cards are visible
by mistake, and people watching porn while wearing the glasses.
Clips that could trigger “enormous scandals” if they were leaked.</p>
<p>“There are also sex scenes filmed with the smart glasses — someone is wearing them having sex. That is why this is so
extremely sensitive. There are cameras everywhere in our office,
and you are not allowed to bring your own phones or any device
that can record”, an employee says.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Delightful. And what a brand move for Ray-Ban and Oakley.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Low-Wage Contractors in Kenya See What Users See While Using Meta’s AI Smart Glasses’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/09/kenya-meta-contractors"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Can Coding Agents Relicense Open Source Through a ‘Clean Room’ Implementation of Code?</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://simonwillison.net/2026/Mar/5/chardet/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wys" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/08/willison-chardet-licensing-dispute" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42724</id>
<published>2026-03-08T17:59:09Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-08T17:59:10Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Simon Willison:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There are a <em>lot</em> of open questions about this, both ethically and
legally. These appear to be coming to a head in the venerable
<a href="https://github.com/chardet/chardet">chardet</a> Python library. <code>chardet</code> was created by Mark
Pilgrim <a href="https://pypi.org/project/chardet/1.0/">back in 2006</a> and released under the LGPL. Mark
retired from public internet life in 2011 and <code>chardet</code>’s
maintenance was taken over by others, most notably Dan Blanchard
who has been responsible for every release since <a href="https://pypi.org/project/chardet/1.1/">1.1 in July
2012</a>.</p>
<p>Two days ago Dan released <a href="https://github.com/chardet/chardet/releases/tag/7.0.0">chardet 7.0.0</a> with the following
note in the release notes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Ground-up, MIT-licensed rewrite of chardet. Same package name,
same public API — drop-in replacement for chardet 5.x/6.x. Just
way faster and more accurate!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yesterday Mark Pilgrim opened <a href="https://github.com/chardet/chardet/issues/327">#327: No right to relicense this
project</a>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A fascinating dispute, and the first public post from Pilgrim that I’ve seen <a href="https://daringfireball.net/search/mark+pilgrim">in quite a while</a>.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Can Coding Agents Relicense Open Source Through a ‘Clean Room’ Implementation of Code?’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/08/willison-chardet-licensing-dispute"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Donald Knuth on Claude Opus Solving a Computer Science Problem</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/papers/claude-cycles.pdf" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wyr" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/08/knuth-claude" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42723</id>
<published>2026-03-08T17:49:08Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-08T17:49:08Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Donald Knuth, who, adorably, effectively blogs by posting TeX-typeset PDFs:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Shock! Shock! I learned yesterday that an open problem I’d been
working on for several weeks had just been solved by Claude Opus
4.6 — Anthropic’s hybrid reasoning model that had been released
three weeks earlier! It seems that I’ll have to revise my opinions
about “generative AI” one of these days. What a joy it is to learn
not only that my conjecture has a nice solution but also to
celebrate this dramatic advance in automatic deduction and
creative problem solving. I’ll try to tell the story briefly in
this note.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>(<a href="https://simonwillison.net/2026/Mar/3/donald-knuth/">Via Simon Willison</a>.)</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Donald Knuth on Claude Opus Solving a Computer Science Problem’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/08/knuth-claude"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Steve Lemay Hits Apple’s Leadership Page</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.apple.com/leadership/steve-lemay/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wyq" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/08/lemay-leadership-page" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42722</id>
<published>2026-03-08T15:28:36Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-08T16:30:18Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p><em>Help us Obi-Wan Lemay, you’re our only hope.</em></p>
<p>(Also, <a href="https://www.macrumors.com/2026/03/07/apple-adds-three-executives-to-leadership-page/">as noted</a> by Joe Rossignol, <a href="https://www.apple.com/leadership/eddy-cue/">Eddy Cue</a> got an updated headshot.)</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Steve Lemay Hits Apple’s Leadership Page’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/08/lemay-leadership-page"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>‘npx workos’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://workos.com/docs/authkit/cli-installer?utm_source=tldrdev&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=q12026" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wyp" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/07/npx-workos" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42721</id>
<published>2026-03-07T21:53:37Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-07T22:16:39Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>My thanks, once again, to WorkOS for sponsoring this week at DF. <code>npx workos</code> is a CLI tool, replete with cool ASCII art, that <a href="https://youtu.be/kU88lUqdduQ?utm_source=daringfireball&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=q12026">launches an AI agent</a>, powered by Claude, that reads your project, detects your framework, and writes a complete auth integration directly into your existing codebase. It’s not a template generator. It reads your code, understands your stack, and writes an integration that fits.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://workos.com/?utm_source=daringfireball&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=q12026">WorkOS</a> agent then type-checks and builds, feeding any errors back to itself to fix. <a href="https://workos.com/docs/authkit/cli-installer?utm_source=tldrdev&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=q12026">See how it works</a> for yourself. </p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘‘npx workos’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/07/npx-workos"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Daring Fireball Weekly Sponsorship Openings</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wyo" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/daring-fireball-weekly-sponsorship-openings" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42720</id>
<published>2026-03-06T20:59:49Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-07T19:12:57Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Weekly sponsorships have been the top source of revenue for Daring Fireball ever since I started selling them <a href="https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/archive">back in 2007</a>. They’ve succeeded, I think, because they make everyone happy. They generate good money. There’s only one sponsor per week and the sponsors are always relevant to at least some sizable portion of the DF audience, so you, the reader, are never annoyed and hopefully often intrigued by them. And, from the sponsors’ perspective, they work. My favorite thing about them is how many sponsors <a href="https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/archive">return for subsequent weeks</a> after seeing the results.</p>
<p>Sponsorships have been selling briskly, of late. There are only three weeks open between now and the end of June. <s>But one of those open weeks is next week, starting this coming Monday:</s></p>
<ul>
<li>March 9–15 (<strong>Update:</strong> Sold)</li>
<li>April 20–26 (<strong>Update:</strong> Sold)</li>
<li>May 25–31</li>
</ul>
<p>I’m also booking sponsorships for Q3 2026, and roughly half of those weeks are already sold.</p>
<p>If you’ve got a product or service you think would be of interest to DF’s audience of people obsessed with high quality and good design, <a href="mailto:[email protected]?subject=Feed%20Sponsorship">get in touch</a> — especially if you can act quick for next week’s opening.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Daring Fireball Weekly Sponsorship Openings’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/daring-fireball-weekly-sponsorship-openings"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Google’s Threat Intelligence Group on Coruna, a Powerful iOS Exploit Kit of Mysterious Origin</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/threat-intelligence/coruna-powerful-ios-exploit-kit" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wyn" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/google-threat-intelligence-group-coruna" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42719</id>
<published>2026-03-06T19:32:47Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-07T18:32:51Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Google Threat Intelligence Group, earlier this week:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) has identified a new and
powerful exploit kit targeting Apple iPhone models running iOS
version 13.0 (released in September 2019) up to version 17.2.1
(released in December 2023). The exploit kit, named “Coruna” by
its developers, contained five full iOS exploit chains and a total
of 23 exploits. The core technical value of this exploit kit lies
in its comprehensive collection of iOS exploits, with the most
advanced ones using non-public exploitation techniques and
mitigation bypasses.</p>
<p>The Coruna exploit kit provides <a href="https://blog.google/threat-analysis-group/state-backed-attackers-and-commercial-surveillance-vendors-repeatedly-use-the-same-exploits/">another example of how
sophisticated capabilities proliferate</a>. Over the course of
2025, GTIG tracked its use in highly targeted operations initially
conducted by a customer of a <a href="https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-uniblog-publish-prod/documents/Buying_Spying_-_Insights_into_Commercial_Surveillance_Vendors_-_TAG_report.pdf">surveillance vendor</a>, then
observed its deployment in watering hole attacks targeting
Ukrainian users by UNC6353, a suspected Russian espionage group.
We then retrieved the complete exploit kit when it was later used
in broad-scale campaigns by UNC6691, a financially motivated
threat actor operating from China. How this proliferation occurred
is unclear, but suggests an active market for “second hand”
zero-day exploits. Beyond these identified exploits, multiple
threat actors have now acquired advanced exploitation techniques
that can be re-used and modified with newly identified
vulnerabilities.</p>
</blockquote>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Google’s Threat Intelligence Group on Coruna, a Powerful iOS Exploit Kit of Mysterious Origin’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/google-threat-intelligence-group-coruna"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>‘The Window Chrome of Our Discontent’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://pxlnv.com/blog/window-chrome-of-our-discontent/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wym" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/window-chrome-of-our-discontent" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42718</id>
<published>2026-03-06T19:21:12Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-07T20:19:41Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Nick Heer, writing at Pixel Envy, uses Pages (from 2009 through today) to illustrate Apple’s march toward putting “greater focus on your content” by making window chrome, and toolbar icons, more and more invisible:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Perhaps Apple has some user studies that suggest otherwise, but I
cannot see how dialling back the lines between interface and
document is supposed to be beneficial for the user. It does not,
in my use, result in less distraction while I am working in these
apps. In fact, it often does the opposite. I do not think the
prescription is rolling back to a decade-old design language.
However, I think Apple should consider exploring the wealth of
variables it can change to differentiate tools within toolbars,
and to more clearly delineate window chrome from document.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This entire idea that application window chrome should disappear is madness. Some people — at Apple, quite obviously — think it looks better, in the abstract, but I can’t see how it makes actually <em>using</em> these apps more productive. Artists don’t want to use invisible tools. Artists crave tools that look and feel distinctive and cool.</p>
<p>Clean lines between content and application chrome are clarifying, not distracting. It’s also useful to be able to tell, at a glance, which application is which. I look at Heer’s screenshot of the new version of Pages running on MacOS 26 Tahoe and not only can I not tell at a glance that it’s Pages, I can’t even tell at a glance that it’s a document word processor, especially with the formatting sidebar hidden. One of the worst aspects of Liquid Glass, across all platforms, but exemplified by MacOS 26, is that all apps look exactly the same. Not just different apps that are in the same category, but different apps from entirely different categories. Safari looks like Mail looks like Pages looks like the Finder — even though web browsers, email clients, word processors, and file browsers aren’t anything alike.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘‘The Window Chrome of Our Discontent’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/window-chrome-of-our-discontent"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>The Verge Interviews Tim Sweeney After Victory in ‘Epic v. Google’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.theverge.com/23996474/epic-tim-sweeney-interview-win-google-antitrust-lawsuit-district-court" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wyl" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/verge-sweeney-interview" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42717</id>
<published>2026-03-06T17:09:10Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-06T19:08:39Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>The Verge:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Sean Hollister: <em>What would you say the differences are between
the Apple and Google cases?</em></p>
<p>Tim Sweeney: I would say Apple was ice and Google was fire.</p>
<p>The thing with Apple is all of their antitrust trickery is
internal to the company. They use their store, their payments,
they force developers to all have the same terms, they force OEMs
and carriers to all have the same terms.</p>
<p>Whereas Google, to achieve things with Android, they were going
around and paying off game developers, dozens of game developers,
to not compete. And they’re paying off dozens of carriers and OEMs
to not compete — and when all of these different companies do
deals together, lots of people put things in writing, and it’s
right there for everybody to read and to see plainly.</p>
<p>I think the Apple case would be no less interesting if we could
see all of their internal thoughts and deliberations, but Apple
was not putting it in writing, whereas Google was. You know, I
think Apple is... it’s a little bit unfortunate that in a lot of
ways Apple’s restrictions on competition are absolute. Thou shalt
not have a competing store on iOS and thou shalt not use a
competing payment method. And I think Apple should be receiving at
least as harsh antitrust scrutiny as Google.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Interesting interview, for sure — but it’s from December 2023, when Epic scored its first court victory against Google. And, notably, it came <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/sweeney-google-gag">before Sweeney signed away</a> his right to criticize Google or the Play Store.</p>
<p>But I don’t see Epic’s ultimate victory in the lawsuit as a win for Android users, and I don’t think it’s much of a win for Android developers either. <a href="https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2026/03/a-new-era-for-choice-and-openness.html">These new terms from Google</a> just seem confusing and complicated, with varying rates for “existing installs” vs. “new installs”.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘The Verge Interviews Tim Sweeney After Victory in ‘Epic v. Google’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/verge-sweeney-interview"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Tim Sweeney Signed Away His Right to Criticize Google’s Play Store Until 2032</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.theverge.com/news/889595/tim-sweeney-signed-away-his-right-to-criticize-google-until-2032" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wyk" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/sweeney-google-gag" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42716</id>
<published>2026-03-06T16:36:16Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-06T16:36:16Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Sean Hollister, writing for The Verge:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>But Google has finally muzzled Tim Sweeney. It’s right there in a
binding term sheet for <a href="https://www.theverge.com/policy/889252/google-app-store-fee-reduction-20-percent-epic-v-google">his settlement with Google</a>.</p>
<p>On March 3rd, he not only signed away Epic’s rights to sue and
disparage the company over anything covered in the term sheet — Google’s app distribution practices, its fees, how it treats games
and apps — he signed away his right to advocate for any further
changes to Google’s app store policies, too. He can’t criticize
Google’s app store practices. In fact, he has to praise them.</p>
<p>The contract states that “Epic believes that the Google and
Android platform, with the changes in this term sheet, are
procompetitive and a model for app store / platform operations,
and will make good faith efforts to advocate for the same.” [...]</p>
<p>And while Epic can still be part of the “Coalition for App
Fairness,” the organization that <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/30/23962920/epic-just-admitted-the-coalition-for-app-fairness-was-created-solely-by-epic">Epic quietly and solely funded
to be its attack dog</a> against Google and Apple, he can only
point that organization at Apple now.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Sounds like a highly credible coalition that truly stands for fairness to me.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Tim Sweeney Signed Away His Right to Criticize Google’s Play Store Until 2032’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/sweeney-google-gag"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>The MacBook Neo’s Price, Looking to the Past and Future</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://x.com/ethan_is_online/status/2029331836137291941?s=42" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wyj" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/macbook-neos-price-past-and-future" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42715</id>
<published>2026-03-06T14:50:39Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-06T16:22:25Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Ethan W. Anderson, on Twitter/X:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’ve plotted the most expensive McDonald’s burger and the least
expensive MacBook over time. This analysis projects that the most
expensive burger will be more expensive than the cheapest laptop
as soon as 2081.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Looking to the past, if you plug $599 in today’s money into <a href="https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/">an inflation calculator</a>, that’s just ~$190 in 1984, the year the original Macintosh launched with a price of $2,495 (which works out to ~$7,800 today.)</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘The MacBook Neo’s Price, Looking to the Past and Future’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/macbook-neos-price-past-and-future"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>‘Never the Same Game Twice’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://johnmccoy.org/2026/03/05/never-the-same-game-twice/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wyi" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/mccoy-parker-bros" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42714</id>
<published>2026-03-06T14:44:02Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-06T14:59:44Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>John McCoy:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>From around 1970 to 1980, the Salem, Massachusetts-based Parker
Brothers (now a brand of Hasbro) published games whose innovative
and fanciful designs drew inspiration from Pop Art, Op Art, and
Madison Avenue advertising. They had boxes, boards, and components
that reflected the most current techniques of printing and
plastics molding. They were witty, silly, and weird. The other
main players in American games at the time were Milton-Bradley,
whose art tended towards cartoony, corny, and flat designs, and
Ideal, whose games (like <em>Mousetrap</em>) were mostly showcases for
their novel plastic components.</p>
<p>Parker Brothers design stood out for its style and sophistication,
and even as a young nerd I could see that it was special. In fact,
I believe they were my introduction, at the age of seven, to the
whole concept of graphic design. This isn’t to say that the games
were <em>good</em> in the sense of being fun or engaging to play; a lot
of them were re-skinned versions of the basic
race-around-the-board type that had been popular since the <em>Uncle
Wiggly Game</em>. But they looked amazing and they were <em>different</em>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These games mostly sucked but they looked cool as shit. Lot of memories for me in this post.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘‘Never the Same Game Twice’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/mccoy-parker-bros"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Another Steve Jobs Quote on Lower-Priced Macs</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://technologizer.com/2008/10/22/the-case-for-a-mac-netbook/index.html" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wyh" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/jobs-500-computer" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42713</id>
<published>2026-03-06T14:22:21Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-06T15:18:52Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Steve Jobs, on Apple’s quarterly results call <a href="https://seekingalpha.com/article/100980-apple-f4q08-qtr-end-9-27-08-earnings-call-transcript?page=-1">back in October 2008</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There are some customers which we choose not to serve. We don’t
know how to make a $500 computer that’s not a piece of junk, and
our DNA will not let us ship that.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Harry McCracken, writing at the time:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>With <em>that</em> out of the way, the question that folks have been
asking lately about whether Apple <a href="http://gigaom.com/2008/10/02/3-reasons-why-well-see-an-apple-netbook-soon/">will</a> or <a href="http://www.scripting.com/stories/2008/10/22/whyILikeNetbooks.html">should</a>
release a netbook-like Mac is fascinating. Regardless of whether
the company ever does unveil a small, cheap, simple Mac notebook,
it’s fun to think about the prospect of one. And I’ve come to the
conclusion that such a machine <em>could</em> be in the works, in a
manner that’s consistent with the Apple way and the company’s
product line as it stands today. I’m not calling this a
prediction. But it is a scenario.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Apple made many $500 “computers” in the years between then and now. But they were iPads, not Macs. I think part of the impetus behind the MacBook Neo is an acknowledgement that as popular as iPads are, and for as many people who use them as their primary larger-than-a-phone computing device, there are a lot of other people, and a lot of use cases, that demand a PC. And from Apple, that means a Mac.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Another Steve Jobs Quote on Lower-Priced Macs’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/jobs-500-computer"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Steve Jobs in 2007, on Apple’s Pursuit of PC Market Share: ‘We Just Can’t Ship Junk’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U37Ds3RvyoM" />
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<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42712</id>
<published>2026-03-05T18:43:16Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-05T23:18:13Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>In August 2007, Apple held a Mac event in the Infinite Loop Town Hall auditorium. <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2007/08/07Apple-Unveils-New-iMac/">New iMacs</a>, <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2007/08/07Apple-Introduces-iLife-08/">iLife ’08</a> (major updates to iPhoto and iMovie), and <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2007/08/07Apple-Introduces-iWork-08/">iWork ’08</a> (including the debut of Numbers 1.0). Back then, believe it or not, at the end of these Town Hall events, Apple executives would sit on stools and take questions from the media. For this one, Steve Jobs was flanked by Tim Cook and Phil Schiller. Molly Wood, then at CNet, asked, “And so, I guess once and for all, is it your goal to overtake the PC in market share?”</p>
<p>The audience — along with Cook, Jobs, and Schiller — chuckled. And then Jobs answered. You should watch the video — it’s just two minutes — but here’s what he said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I can tell you what our goal is. Our goal is to make the best
personal computers in the world and to make products we are proud
to sell and would recommend to our family and friends. And we want
to do that at the lowest prices we can. But I have to tell you,
there’s some stuff in our industry that we wouldn’t be proud to
ship, that we wouldn’t be proud to recommend to our family and
friends. And we can’t do it. We just can’t ship junk.</p>
<p>So there are thresholds that we can’t cross because of who
we are. But we want to make the best personal computers in the
industry. And we think there’s a very significant slice of the
industry that wants that too. And what you’ll find is our products
are usually <em>not</em> premium priced. You go and price out our
competitors’ products, and you add the features that you have to
add to make them useful, and you’ll find in some cases they are
more expensive than our products. The difference is we don’t offer
stripped-down lousy products. We just don’t offer
categories of products like that. But if you move those aside and
compare us with our competitors, I think we compare pretty
favorably. And a lot of people have been doing that, and
saying that now, for the last 18 months.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Steve Jobs would have <em>loved</em> the MacBook Neo. Everything about it, right down to the fact that Apple is responsible for the silicon.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Steve Jobs in 2007, on Apple’s Pursuit of PC Market Share: ‘We Just Can’t Ship Junk’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/05/steve-jobs-we-just-cant-ship-junk"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/03/599_not_a_piece_of_junk_macbook_neo" />
<link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/wyf" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026://1.42711</id>
<published>2026-03-04T19:40:11Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-10T18:52:21Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<summary type="text">The MacBook Neo is the first major new Mac aimed at the consumer market in the Apple Silicon era. It’s meant to make a dent — perhaps a minuscule dent in the universe, but a big dent in the Mac’s share of the overall PC market.</summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p><em>$599. Not a piece of junk.</em></p>
<p>That’s <em>not</em> a marketing slogan from Apple for <a href="https://www.apple.com/macbook-neo/">the new MacBook Neo</a>. But it could be. And it <em>is</em> the underlying message of the product. For a few years now, Apple has <a href="https://daringfireball.net/search/walmart+macbook+air+m1">quietly dabbled with the sub-$1,000 laptop market</a>, by selling the base configuration of the M1 MacBook Air — a machine that <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2020/11/introducing-the-next-generation-of-mac/">debuted</a> in November 2020 — at retailers like Walmart for under $700. But <em>dabbling</em> is the right word. Apple has never ventured under the magic $999 price point for a MacBook available in its own stores.</p>
<p>As of today, they’re not just in the sub-$1,000 laptop market, they’re going in hard. The MacBook Neo is a very compelling $600 laptop, and for just $100 more, you get a configuration with Touch ID and double the storage (512 GB instead of 256).</p>
<p>You can argue that all MacBooks should have Touch ID. My first answer to that is “$599”. My second answer is “education”. Touch ID doesn’t really make sense for laptops shared by kids in a school. And with Apple’s $100 education pricing discount, the base MacBook Neo, at $499, is <em>half the price</em> of the base M5 MacBook Air ($1099 retail, $999 education). Half the price.</p>
<p>I’m writing this from Apple’s hands-on “experience” in New York, amongst what I’d estimate as a few hundred members of the media. It’s a pretty big event, and a very big space inside some sort of empty warehouse on the western edge of Chelsea. Before playing the four-minute Neo introduction video (which you should watch — <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/03/say-hello-to-macbook-neo/?videoid=45c8e3bf69354631f6ee78a782356dbf">it’s embedded in Apple’s Newsroom post</a>), John Ternus took the stage to address the audience. He emphasized that the Mac user base continues to grow, because “nearly half of Mac buyers are new to the platform”. Ternus didn’t say the following aloud, but Apple clearly knows what has kept a <em>lot</em> of would-be switchers from switching, and it’s the price. The Mac Mini is great, but normal people only buy laptops, and aside from the aforementioned dabbling with the five-year-old M1 MacBook Air and a brief exception when <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2014/04/29Apple-Updates-MacBook-Air/">the MacBook Air dropped to $899 in 2014</a>, Apple just hasn’t ventured under $999. “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U37Ds3RvyoM">We just can’t ship junk</a>,” Steve Jobs said back in 2007. It’s not that Apple never noticed the demand for laptops in the $500–700 range. It’s that they didn’t see how to make one that wasn’t junk.</p>
<p>Now they have. And the PC world should take note. One of my briefings today included a side-by-side comparison between a MacBook Neo and an HP 14-inch laptop “in the same price category”. It was something like <a href="https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/pdp/hp-omnibook-5-ngai-14-he0027nr">this one</a>, with an Intel Core 5 chip, which costs $550. The HP’s screen sucks (very dim, way lower resolution), the speakers suck, the keyboard sucks, and the trackpad sucks. It’s a thick, heavy, plasticky piece of junk. I didn’t put my nose to it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it smells bad.</p>
<p>The MacBook Neo looks and feels every bit like a MacBook. Solid aluminum. Good keyboard (no backlighting, but supposedly the same mechanism as in other post-2019 MacBooks — felt great in my quick testing). Good trackpad (no <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/102309">Force Touch</a> — it actually physically clicks, but you can click anywhere, not just the bottom). Good bright display (500 nits max, same as the MacBook Air). Surprisingly good speakers, in a new side-firing configuration. Without even turning either laptop on, you can just see and feel that the MacBook Neo is a vastly superior device.</p>
<p>And when you do turn them on, you see the vast difference in display quality and hear the vast difference in speaker quality. And you get MacOS, not Windows, which, even with Tahoe, remains the quintessential glass of ice water in hell for the computer industry.</p>
<p>I came into today’s <s>event</s> experience expecting a starting price of $799 for the Neo — $300 less than the new $1,099 price for the base M5 MacBook Air (which, in defense of that price, starts with 512 GB storage). $599 is a fucking statement. Apple is coming after this market. I think they’re going to sell a zillion of these things, and “almost half” of new Mac buyers being new to the platform is going to become “more than half”. The MacBook Neo is not a footnote or hobby, or a pricing stunt to get people in the door before upselling them to a MacBook Air. It’s the first major new Mac aimed at the consumer market in the Apple Silicon era. It’s meant to make a dent — perhaps a minuscule <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-famous-quote-misunderstood-laurene-powell-2020-2">dent in the universe</a>, but a big dent in the Mac’s share of the overall PC market.</p>
<h2>Miscellaneous Observations</h2>
<p>It’s worth noting that the Neo is aptly named. It really is altogether new. In that way it’s the opposite of the five-year-old M1 MacBook Air that Apple had been selling through retailers like Walmart and Amazon. Rather than selling something old for a lower price, they’ve designed and engineered something new from the ground up to launch at a lower price. It’s an all-new trackpad. It’s a good but different display than the Air’s — slightly smaller (13.0 inches vs. 13.6) and supporting only the sRGB color gamut, not P3. <em>If you know the difference between sRGB and P3, the Neo is not the MacBook you want.</em> What Neo buyers are going to notice is that the display looks good and is just as bright as the Air’s — and it looks way better, way sharper, and way brighter than the criminally ugly displays on PC laptops in this price range.</p>
<p>Even the Apple logo on the back of the display lid is different. Rather than make it polished and shiny, <a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/03/macbook-neo-apple-logo.jpeg">it’s simply debossed</a>. Save a few bucks here, a few bucks there, and you eventually grind your way to a new MacBook that deserves the name “MacBook” but starts at just $600.</p>
<p>But of course there are trade-offs. You can use Apple’s Compare page <a href="https://www.apple.com/macbook-neo/compare/?modelList=MacBook-Neo-A18-Pro,MacBook-Air-M5,MacBook-Air-M1">to see the differences between the Neo and Air</a> (and, for kicks, the 2020 M1 Air that until now was still being sold at Walmart). Even better, over at 512 Pixels Stephen Hackett has <a href="https://512pixels.net/2026/03/the-differences-between-the-macbook-neo-and-macbook-air/">assembled a concise list of the differences between the MacBook Neo and MacBook Air</a>. All of these things matter, but none of these things are dealbreakers for a $500-700 MacBook. These trade-offs are extremely well-considered on Apple’s part.</p>
<p>I’ll call out one item from Hackett’s 17-item list in particular:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>One of the two USB-C ports <a href="https://www.macrumors.com/2026/03/04/macbook-neo-features-two-different-usb-ports/">is limited</a> to USB 2.0 speeds of just
480 Mb/s.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>On the one hand, this stinks. It just does. The two ports look exactly the same — and neither is labeled in any way — but they’re different. But on the other hand, the Neo is the first product with an A-series chip that Apple has ever made that supports two USB ports.<sup id="fnr1-2026-03-04"><a href="#fn1-2026-03-04">1</a></sup> It was, I am reliably informed by Apple product marketing folks, a significant engineering achievement to get a second USB port <em>at all</em> on the MacBook Neo while basing it on the A18 Pro SoC. And while the ports aren’t labeled, if you plug an external display into the “wrong” port, you’ll get an on-screen notification suggesting you plug it into the other port. That this second USB-C port is USB 2.0 is not great, but it is fine.</p>
<p>Other notes:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>I think the “fun-ness” of the Neo colors was overstated <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2026-02-15/tesla-carplay-delays-related-to-ios-26-and-fsd-apple-s-new-siri-delays-ios-27">in the rumor mill</a>. But the “blush” color is definitely pink, “citrus” is definitely yellow, and “indigo” is definitely blue. No confusing any of them with shades of gray.</p></li>
<li><p>The keyboards are color-matched. At a glance it’s easy to think the keyboards are all white, but only on the silver Neo are the key caps actually white. The others are all slightly tinted to match the color of the case. Nice!</p></li>
<li><p>8 GB of RAM is not a lot, but with Apple Silicon it really is enough for typical consumer productivity apps. (If they update the Neo annually and next year’s model gets the A19 Pro, it will move not to 16 GB of RAM but 12 GB.)</p></li>
<li><p>It’s an interesting coincidence that the base models for the Neo and iPhone 17e both cost $600. For $1,200 you can buy a new iPhone and a new MacBook for just $100 more than the price of the base model M5 MacBook Air. (And the iPhone 17e is the one with the faster CPU.)</p></li>
<li><p>With the Neo only offered in two configurations — $600 or $700 — and the M5 Air now starting at $1,100, Apple has no MacBooks in the range between $700 and $1,100.</p></li>
<li><p>To consider the spread of Apple’s market segmentation, and how the Neo expands it, think about the fact that on the premium side, <a href="https://www.apple.com/shop/product/mwr53ll/a/magic-keyboard-for-ipad-pro-13%E2%80%91inch-m5-us-english-black">the 13-inch iPad Pro Magic Keyboard costs $350</a>. That’s a keyboard with a trackpad and a hinge. You can now buy a whole damn 13-inch MacBook Neo — which includes a keyboard, trackpad, and hinge, along with a display and speakers and a whole Macintosh computer — for just $250 more.</p></li>
</ul>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr />
<ol>
<li id="fn1-2026-03-04">
<p>Perhaps the closest Apple had ever come to an A-series-chip product with two ports was the original iPad from 2010, which <a href="https://www.phonearena.com/news/apple-ipad-prototype-with-two-ports_id131100">in late prototypes had two 30-pin connectors</a> — one on the long side and another on the short side — so that you could orient it either way in <a href="https://tow.com/2020/04/26/ipad-keyboards/">the original iPad keyboard dock</a>. <a href="#fnr1-2026-03-04" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.">↩︎</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
]]></content>
<title>★ Thoughts and Observations on the MacBook Neo</title></entry><entry>
<title>Studio Display vs. Studio Display XDR</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.apple.com/displays/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wye" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/04/studio-display-vs-studio-display-xdr" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42710</id>
<published>2026-03-04T17:04:43Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-04T17:04:44Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Not sure if this page was there yesterday, but the main “Displays” page at Apple’s website is a spec-by-spec comparison between the regular and XDR models. Nice.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Studio Display vs. Studio Display XDR’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/04/studio-display-vs-studio-display-xdr"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Compatibility Notes on the New Studio Displays</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.macrumors.com/2026/03/03/apple-studio-display-no-intel-mac-support/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wyd" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/04/compatibility-notes-on-the-new-studio-displays" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42709</id>
<published>2026-03-04T15:10:32Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-06T13:25:46Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Juli Clover, at MacRumors, notes that neither the new Studio Display nor the Studio Display XDR are <a href="https://www.macrumors.com/2026/03/03/apple-studio-display-no-intel-mac-support/">compatible with Intel-based Macs</a>. (I’m curious why.) Also, <a href="https://www.macrumors.com/2026/03/03/studio-display-xdr-120hz-limits/">in a separate report</a>, she notes that Macs with any M1 chip, or the base M2 or M3, are only able to drive the Studio Display XDR at 60 Hz. You need a Pro or better M2/M3, or any M4 or M5 chip, to drive it at 120 Hz.</p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong> My understanding is that if you connect one of these new Studio Displays to an Intel-based Mac, it’ll work, but it’ll work as a dumb monitor. You won’t get the full features. I’ll bet Apple sooner or later publishes a support document explaining it, but for now, they’re just saying they’re not “compatible” because you don’t get the full feature set. Like with the Studio Display XDR in particular, you won’t get HDR or 120 Hz refresh rates.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Compatibility Notes on the New Studio Displays’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/04/compatibility-notes-on-the-new-studio-displays"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>‘In Other Words, Batman Has Become Superman and Robin Has Become Batman’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://sixcolors.com/post/2026/03/apple-gives-in-to-temptation-and-renames-its-cpu-cores/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wyc" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/04/snell-batman-superman" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42708</id>
<published>2026-03-04T12:42:46Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-04T12:42:47Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Jason Snell, Six Colors:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>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!</p>
<p>Clearly they’ve had enough of that, so they’re changing how those
cores are marketed to emphasize their performance, rather than
their efficiency.</p>
</blockquote>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘‘In Other Words, Batman Has Become Superman and Robin Has Become Batman’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/04/snell-batman-superman"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Apple Announces Updated Studio Display and All-New Studio Display XDR</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/03/apple-unveils-new-studio-display-and-all-new-studio-display-xdr/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wyb" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/03/updated-studio-display-and-all-new-studio-display-xdr" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42707</id>
<published>2026-03-03T20:25:07Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-08T17:27:59Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Apple Newsroom:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Apple today announced a new family of displays engineered to pair
beautifully with Mac and meet the needs of everyone, from everyday
users to the world’s top pros. The new <a href="https://www.apple.com/studio-display/">Studio Display</a>
features a 12MP Center Stage camera, now with improved image
quality and support for Desk View; a studio-quality
three-microphone array; and an immersive six-speaker sound system
with Spatial Audio. It also now includes powerful Thunderbolt 5
connectivity, providing more downstream connectivity for
high-speed accessories or daisy-chaining displays. The all-new
<a href="https://www.apple.com/studio-display-xdr/">Studio Display XDR</a> takes the pro display experience to the
next level. Its 27-inch 5K Retina XDR display features an advanced
mini-LED backlight with over 2,000 local dimming zones, up to 1000
nits of SDR brightness, and 2000 nits of peak HDR brightness, in
addition to a wider color gamut, so content jumps off the screen
with breathtaking contrast, vibrancy, and accuracy. With its 120Hz
refresh rate, Studio Display XDR is even more responsive to
content in motion, and Adaptive Sync dynamically adjusts frame
rates for content like video playback or graphically intense
games. Studio Display XDR offers the same advanced camera and
audio system as Studio Display, as well as Thunderbolt 5
connectivity to simplify pro workflow setups. The new Studio
Display with a tilt-adjustable stand starts at $1,599, and Studio
Display XDR with a tilt- and height-adjustable stand starts at
$3,299. Both are available in standard or nano-texture glass
options, and can be pre-ordered starting tomorrow, March 4, with
availability beginning Wednesday, March 11.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Compared to the first-generation Studio Display (<a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2022/03/apple-unveils-all-new-mac-studio-and-studio-display/">March 2022</a>), the updated model really just has a better camera. (<a href="https://daringfireball.net/2022/03/the_apple_studio_display">Wouldn’t take much to improve upon the old camera</a>.) The Studio Display XDR is the interesting new one. Apple doesn’t seem to have a “Compare” page for its displays, so the <a href="https://www.apple.com/studio-display/specs/">Studio Display Tech Specs</a> and <a href="https://www.apple.com/studio-display-xdr/specs/">Studio Display XDR Tech Specs</a> pages will have to suffice. <strong>Update:</strong> <a href="https://www.apple.com/displays/">The main “Displays” page at Apple’s website</a> serves as a comparison page between the new Studio Display and Studio Display XDR.</p>
<p>The regular Studio Display maxes out at 600 nits, and only supports a refresh rate of 60 Hz. The Studio Display XDR maxes out at 1,000 nits for SDR content and 2,000 nits for HDR, with up to 120 Hz refresh rate. Nice, but not enough to tempt me to upgrade from my current Studio Display with nano-texture, which I never seem to run at maximum brightness. I guess it would be nice to see HDR content, but not nice enough to spend $3,600 to get one with nano-texture. And I don’t think I care about 120 Hz on my Mac?</p>
<p><s>Unresolved is what this means for the <a href="https://www.apple.com/pro-display-xdr/">Pro Display XDR</a>, which remains unchanged since <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/06/apple-unveils-powerful-all-new-mac-pro-and-groundbreaking-pro-display-xdr/">its debut in 2019</a>.</s> <strong>Update 1:</strong> Whoops, apparently this <em>has</em> been resolved. A small-print note on the Newsroom announcement states:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Studio Display XDR replaces Pro Display XDR and starts at $3,299
(U.S.) and $3,199 (U.S.) for education.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>Update 2:</strong> I neglected to mention what might be the biggest upgrade: Thunderbolt 5 with support for daisy-chaining multiple displays. With the original Studio Display (and Pro Display XDR), each external display needed a cable connecting it to your Mac. Now, you can connect your Mac to one Studio Display, connect that one to a second, and connect the second to a third. Nice.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Apple Announces Updated Studio Display and All-New Studio Display XDR’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/03/updated-studio-display-and-all-new-studio-display-xdr"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>New MacBook Air With M5</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/03/apple-introduces-the-new-macbook-air-with-m5/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wya" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/03/new-macbook-air-with-m5" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42706</id>
<published>2026-03-03T20:08:42Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-03T20:09:56Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Apple Newsroom:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>MacBook Air now comes standard with double the starting storage at
512GB with faster SSD technology, and is configurable up to 4TB,
so customers can keep their most important work on hand. Apple’s
N1 wireless chip delivers Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 for seamless
connectivity on the go. MacBook Air features a beautifully thin,
light, and durable aluminum design, stunning Liquid Retina
display, 12MP Center Stage camera, up to 18 hours of battery life,
an immersive sound system with Spatial Audio, and two Thunderbolt
4 ports with support for up to two external displays.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Base storage went from 256 to 512 GB, but the base <em>price</em> went from the magic $999 to $1,100 ($1,099, technically, which doesn’t make the 99 seem magic). Presumably, those in the market for a $999 MacBook will buy the new about-to-be-announced-tomorrow lower-priced MacBook “<a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/03/macbook-neo-name-leak">Neo</a>”, which I’m guessing will start at $800 ($799), maybe as low as $700 ($699), but will surely have higher-priced configurations for additional storage. Today’s new M5 MacBook Airs have storage upgrades of:</p>
<ul>
<li>1 TB (+ $200)</li>
<li>2 TB (+ $600)</li>
<li>4 TB (+ $1,200)</li>
</ul>
<p>Colors remain unchanged (and in my opinion, boring): midnight, starlight, silver, sky blue (almost black, gold-ish gray, gray, blue-ish gray). RAM options remain unchanged too: 16, 24, or 32 GB.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/compare/?modelList=MacBook-Air-M5,MacBook-Air-M4,MacBook-Pro-14-M5">A comparison page showing the new M5 Air, old M4 Air, and base M5 MacBook Pro</a> suggests not much else is new year-over-year, other than the Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 support from the N1 chip.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘New MacBook Air With M5’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/03/new-macbook-air-with-m5"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Apple Might Have Prematurely Leaked the Name ‘MacBook Neo’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.macrumors.com/2026/03/03/apple-accidentally-leaks-macbook-neo/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wy9" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/03/macbook-neo-name-leak" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42705</id>
<published>2026-03-03T19:59:43Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-03T19:59:44Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Joe Rossignol, MacRumors:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A regulatory document for a “MacBook Neo” (Model A3404) has
appeared on Apple’s website. Unfortunately, there are no further
details or images available yet. While the PDF file does not
contain the “MacBook Neo” name, it briefly appeared in a link on
Apple’s regulatory website for EU compliance purposes.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>My money was on just plain “MacBook”, but I like “MacBook Neo”.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Apple Might Have Prematurely Leaked the Name ‘MacBook Neo’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/03/macbook-neo-name-leak"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Apple Introduces MacBook Pro Models With M5 Pro and M5 Max Chips</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/03/apple-introduces-macbook-pro-with-all-new-m5-pro-and-m5-max/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wy8" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/03/apple-introduces-macbook-pro-models-with-m5-pro-and-m5-max-chips" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42704</id>
<published>2026-03-03T19:01:28Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-04T21:55:07Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Apple Newsroom:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Apple today announced the latest <a href="https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/">14- and 16-inch MacBook
Pro</a> with the all-new M5 Pro and M5 Max, bringing
game-changing performance and AI capabilities to the world’s best
pro laptop. With M5 Pro and M5 Max, MacBook Pro features a new CPU
with the world’s fastest CPU core, a next-generation GPU with a
Neural Accelerator in each core, and higher unified memory
bandwidth, altogether delivering up to 4× AI performance compared
to the previous generation, and up to 8× AI performance compared
to M1 models. This allows developers, researchers, business
professionals, and creatives to unlock new AI-enabled workflows
right on MacBook Pro. It now comes with up to 2× faster SSD
performance and starts at 1TB of storage for M5 Pro and 2TB for M5
Max. The new MacBook Pro includes N1, an Apple-designed wireless
networking chip that enables Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, bringing
improved performance and reliability to wireless connections. It
also offers up to 24 hours of battery life; a gorgeous Liquid
Retina XDR display with a nano-texture option; a wide array of
connectivity, including Thunderbolt 5; a 12MP Center Stage camera;
studio-quality mics; an immersive six-speaker sound system; Apple
Intelligence features; and the power of macOS Tahoe. The new
MacBook Pro comes in space black and silver, and is available to
pre-order starting tomorrow, March 4, with availability beginning
Wednesday, March 11.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The <a href="https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs/">MacBook Pro Tech Specs page</a> is a good place to start to compare the entire M5 MacBook Pro lineup. One noteworthy change is that last year’s M4 Pro models only supported 24 or 48 GB of RAM; the new M5 Pro models support 24, 48, and 64 GB. Memory configurations for the M5 Max are unchanged from the M4 Max: 36, 48, 64, and 128 GB. (You could get an M4 Pro chip with 64 GB, but only on the Mac Mini.)</p>
<p>Also worth noting — Apple’s RAM pricing remains unchanged, despite the spike in memory prices industry-wide. With the “full” M5 Max chip (18-core CPU, 40-core GPU — there’s a lesser configuration with “only” 32 GPU cores for -⁠$300), base memory is 48 GB. Upgrading to 64 GB costs $200, and upgrading to 128 GB costs $1,000. Same prices as last year. This means the price for a MacBook Pro with 64 GB of RAM — if that’s your main concern — <em>dropped</em> by $800 year over year. Last year you needed to buy one with the high-end M4 Max chip to get 64 GB; now you can configure a MacBook Pro with the M5 Pro with 64 GB. Nice!</p>
<p>Ben Thompson and I wagered a steak dinner on this on <a href="https://dithering.fm/">Dithering</a>. Ben bet on Apple’s memory prices going up; I bet on them staying the same. My thinking was that this industry-wide spike in RAM prices is exactly why Apple has always charged more for memory — “just in case”. I’m going to enjoy that steak.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Apple Introduces MacBook Pro Models With M5 Pro and M5 Max Chips’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/03/apple-introduces-macbook-pro-models-with-m5-pro-and-m5-max-chips"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://workos.com/docs/authkit/cli-installer?utm_source=tldrdev&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=q12026" />
<link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/wy6" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/2026/03/npx_workos_an_ai_agent_that_wr" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/feeds/sponsors//11.42702</id>
<author><name>Daring Fireball Department of Commerce</name></author>
<published>2026-03-02T23:20:21Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-02T23:20:22Z</updated>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>npx workos <a href="https://youtu.be/kU88lUqdduQ?utm_source=daringfireball&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=q12026">launches an AI agent</a>, powered by Claude, that reads your project, detects your framework, and writes a complete auth integration directly into your existing codebase. It’s not a template generator. It reads your code, understands your stack, and writes an integration that fits.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://workos.com/?utm_source=daringfireball&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=q12026">WorkOS</a> agent then typechecks and builds, feeding any errors back to itself to fix.</p>
<p><a href="https://workos.com/docs/authkit/cli-installer?utm_source=tldrdev&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=q12026">See how it works →</a></p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘npx workos: An AI Agent That Writes Auth Directly Into Your Codebase’" href="https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/2026/03/npx_workos_an_ai_agent_that_wr"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
<title>[Sponsor] npx workos: An AI Agent That Writes Auth Directly Into Your Codebase</title></entry><entry>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/03/hazeover" />
<link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/wy5" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026://1.42701</id>
<published>2026-03-02T22:41:11Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-03T17:38:32Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<summary type="text">What HazeOver does is highlight the active window by dimming all background windows. That’s it. But it does this simple task with aplomb, and it makes a significant difference in the day-to-day usability of MacOS.</summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Back in December <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/12/03/alan-app">I linked to</a> a sort-of stunt project from Tyler Hall <a href="https://tyler.io/2025/11/26/alan/">called Alan.app</a> — a simple Mac utility that draws a bold rectangle around the current active window. Alan.app lets you set the thickness and color of the frame. I used it for an hour or so before calling it quits. It really does solve the severe (and worsening) problem of being able to instantly identify the active window in recent versions of MacOS, but the crudeness of Alan.app’s implementation makes it one of those cases where the cure is worse than the disease. Ultimately I’d rather suffer from barely distinguishable active window state than look at Alan.app’s crude active-window frame all day every day. What makes Alan.app interesting to me is its effectiveness as a protest app. The absurdity of Alan.app’s crude solution highlights the absurdity of the underlying problem — that anyone would even <em>consider</em> running Alan.app (or the fact that Hall was motivated to create and release it) shows just how bad windowing UI is in recent MacOS versions.</p>
<p>Turns out there exists an app that attempts to solve this problem in an elegant way that you might want to actually live with. It’s called <a href="https://hazeover.com/">HazeOver</a>, and developer Maxim Ananov first released it a decade ago. It’s <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hazeover-distraction-dimmer/id430798174?mt=12">in the Mac App Store for $5</a>, is included <a href="https://go.setapp.com/stp130?refAppID=212&stc=index">in the SetApp subscription service</a>, and has <a href="https://hazeover.com/">a free trial available</a> from the website.</p>
<p>What HazeOver does is highlight the active window by dimming all background windows. That’s it. But it does this simple task with aplomb, and it makes a significant difference in the day-to-day usability of MacOS. Not just MacOS 26 Tahoe — all recent versions of MacOS suffer from a design that makes it difficult to distinguish, instantly, the frontmost (a.k.a. key) window from background windows.<sup id="fnr1-2026-03-02"><a href="#fn1-2026-03-02">1</a></sup> Making all background windows a little dimmer makes a notable difference.</p>
<p>Longtime DF reader <a href="https://www.faisal.com/">Faisal Jawdat</a> sent me a note suggesting I try HazeOver back in early December, after I linked to Alan.app. I didn’t get around to trying HazeOver until December 30, and I’ve been using it ever since. One thing I did, at first, was <em>not</em> set HazeOver to launch automatically at login. That way, each time I restarted or logged out, I’d go back to the default MacOS 15 Sequoia interface, where background windows aren’t dimmed. I wanted to see if I’d miss HazeOver when it wasn’t running. Each time, I did notice, and I missed it. I now have it set to launch automatically when I log in.</p>
<p>HazeOver’s default settings are a bit strong for my taste. By default, it dims background windows by 35 percent. I’ve dialed that back to just 10 percent, and that’s more than noticeable enough for me. I understand why HazeOver’s default dimming is so strong — it emphasizes just what HazeOver is doing. (Also, some people choose to use HazeOver to avoid being distracted by background window content — in which case you might want to increase, not decrease, the dimming from the default setting.) But after you get used to it, you might find, as I did, that a little bit goes a long way. (Jawdat told me he’s dropped down to 12 percent on his machine.) I’ve also diddled with HazeOver’s animation settings, changing from the default (Ease Out, 0.3 seconds) to Ease In & Out, 0.1 seconds — I want switching windows to feel <em>fast fast fast</em>.</p>
<p>Highly recommended, and a veritable bargain <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hazeover-distraction-dimmer/id430798174?mt=12">at just $5</a>.</p>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr />
<ol>
<li id="fn1-2026-03-02">
<p>The HazeOver website also has a link to a beta version with updates specific to MacOS 26 Tahoe. To be clear, the current release version, available in the App Store, works just fine on Tahoe. But the beta version has a Liquid Glass-style Settings window, and addresses an edge case where, on Tahoe, the menu bar sometimes appears too dim. <a href="#fnr1-2026-03-02" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.">↩︎</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
]]></content>
<title>★ HazeOver — Mac Utility for Highlighting the Frontmost Window</title></entry><entry>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/02/sometimes_hidden_setting_phone_app" />
<link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/wxq" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026://1.42686</id>
<published>2026-02-27T17:12:53Z</published>
<updated>2026-03-02T14:12:20Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<summary type="text">Apple’s solution to this dilemma — to show the “Tap Recents to Call” in Settings if, and only if, Unified is the current view option in the Phone app — is lazy. And as a result, it’s quite confusing.</summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Back in December, Adam Engst wrote <a href="https://tidbits.com/2025/12/07/hidden-setting-controls-what-happens-when-you-tap-a-call-in-the-phone-app/">this interesting follow-up</a> to his feature story at TidBITS a few weeks prior <a href="https://tidbits.com/2025/11/10/comparing-the-classic-and-unified-views-in-ios-26s-phone-app/">exploring the differences between the new Unified and old Classic interface modes</a> for the Phone app in iOS 26. It’s also a good follow-up to <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/01/28/comparing-the-classic-and-unified-views-in-ios-26s-phone-app">my month-ago link</a> to Engst’s original feature, as well as a continuation of my recent theme on the fundamentals of good UI design.</p>
<p>The gist of Engst’s follow-up is that one of the big differences between Unified and Classic modes is what happens when you tap on a row in the list of recent calls. In Classic, tapping on a row in the list will initiate a new phone call to that number. There’s a small “ⓘ” button on the right side of each row that you can tap to show the contact info for that caller. That’s the way the Phone app has always worked. In the new iOS 26 Unified mode, this behavior is reversed: tapping on the row shows the contact info for that caller, and you need to tap a small button with a phone icon on the right side of the row to immediately initiate a call.</p>
<p>Engst really likes this aspect of the Unified view, because the old behavior made it too easy to initiate a call accidentally, just by tapping on a row in the list. I’ve made many of those accidental calls the same way, and so I prefer the new Unified behavior for the same reason. Classic’s tap-almost-anywhere-in-the-row-to-start-a-call behavior is a vestige of some decisions with the original iPhone that haven’t held up over the intervening 20 years. With the original iPhone, Apple was still stuck — correctly, probably! — in the mindset that the iPhone was first and foremost a cellular telephone, and initiating phone calls should be a primary one-tap action. No one thinks of the iPhone as primarily a telephone these days, and it just isn’t iOS-y to have an action initiate just by tapping anywhere in a row in a scrolling list. You don’t tap on an email message to reply to it. You tap a Reply button. Inadvertent phone calls are particularly pernicious in this regard because the recipient is interrupted too — it’s not just an inconvenience to <em>you</em>, it’s an interruption to someone else, and thus also an embarrassment to you.</p>
<p>Here’s where it gets weird.</p>
<p>There’s a preference setting in Settings → Apps → Phone for “Tap Recents to Call”. If you turn this option on, you then get the “tap anywhere in the row to call the person” behavior while using the new Unified view. <em>But this option only appears in the Settings app when you’re using Unified view in the Phone app.</em> If you switch to the Classic view in the Phone app, this option just completely disappears from the Settings app. It’s not grayed out. It’s just gone. Go read <a href="https://tidbits.com/2025/12/07/hidden-setting-controls-what-happens-when-you-tap-a-call-in-the-phone-app/">Engst’s article describing this</a>, if you haven’t already — he has screenshots illustrating the sometimes-hidden state of this setting.</p>
<p>I’ll wait.</p>
<p>Engst and I discussed this at length during <a href="https://daringfireball.net/thetalkshow/2026/02/25/ep-441">his appearance on The Talk Show earlier this week</a>. Especially after talking it through with him on the show, I think I understand both what Apple was thinking, and also why their solution feels so wrong.</p>
<p>At first, I thought the solution was just to keep this option available all the time, whether you’re using Classic or Unified as your layout in the Phone app. Why not let users who prefer the Classic layout turn off the old “tap anywhere in the row to call the person” behavior? But on further thought, there’s a problem with this. If you just want your Phone app to keep working the way it always had, you want Classic to default to the old tap-in-row behavior too. What Apple wants to promote to users is both a new layout and a new tap-in-row behavior. So when you switch to Unified in the Phone app, Apple wants you to experience the new tap-in-row behavior too, where you need to specifically tap the small phone-icon button in the row to call the person, and tapping anywhere else in the row opens a contact details view.</p>
<p>There’s a conflict here. You can’t have the two views default to different row-tapping behavior if one single switch applies to both views.</p>
<p>Apple’s solution to this dilemma — to show the “Tap Recents to Call” in Settings if, and only if, Unified is the current view option in the Phone app — is lazy. And as a result, it’s quite confusing. No one expects an option like this to only appear <em>sometimes</em> in Settings. You pretty much need to understand everything I’ve written about in this article to understand why and when this option is visible. Which means almost no one who uses an iPhone is ever going to understand it. No one expects a toggle in one app (Phone) to control the visibility of a switch in another app (Settings).</p>
<p>My best take at a proper solution to this problem would be for the choice between Classic and Unified views to be mirrored in Settings → Apps → Phone. Show this same bit of UI, that currently is only available in the Filter menu in the Phone app, in both the Phone app <em>and</em> in Settings → Apps → Phone:</p>
<p><img
src = "https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/02/phone-26-classic-or-unified.png"
alt = "Screenshot showing the Classic/Unified choice from the iOS 26 Phone app's Filter menu."
width = 335
/></p>
<p>If you change it in one place, the change should be reflected, immediately, in the other. It’s fine to have the same setting available both in-app and inside the Settings app.</p>
<p>Then, in the Settings app, the “Tap Recents to Call” option could appear underneath the Classic/Unified switcher only when “Unified” is selected. Switch from Classic to Unified and the “Tap Recents to Call” switch would appear underneath. Switch from Unified to Classic and it would disappear. (Or instead of disappearing, it could gray out to indicate the option isn’t available when Classic is selected.) The descriptive text describing the option could even state that it’s an option only available with Unified.<sup id="fnr1-2026-02-27"><a href="#fn1-2026-02-27">1</a></sup></p>
<p>The confusion would be eliminated if the Classic/Unified toggle were mirrored in Settings. That would make it clear why “Tap Recents to Call” only appears when you’re using Unified — because your choice to use Unified (or Classic) would be right there.</p>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr />
<ol>
<li id="fn1-2026-02-27">
<p>Or, Apple could offer separate “Tap Recents to Call” options for both Classic and Unified. With Classic, it would default to On (the default behavior since 2007), and with Unified, default to Off (the idiomatically correct behavior for modern iOS). In that case, the descriptive text for the option would *need* to explain that it’s a separate setting for each layout, or perhaps the toggle labels could be “Tap Recents to Call in Classic” and “Tap Recents to Call in Unified”. But somehow it would need to be made clear that they’re separate switches. But this is already getting more complicated. I think it’d be simpler to just keep the classic tap-in-row behavior with the Classic layout, and offer this setting only when using the Unified view. <a href="#fnr1-2026-02-27" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.">↩︎</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
]]></content>
<title>★ A Sometimes-Hidden Setting Controls What Happens When You Tap a Call in the iOS 26 Phone App</title></entry></feed><!-- THE END -->
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"title": "Ars Technica Fires Reporter Benj Edwards After He Published Story With AI-Fabricated Quotes",
"description": null,
"url": "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/ars-technica-fires-reporter-ai-quotes",
"published": "2026-03-14T17:22:05.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-14T17:22:05.000Z",
"content": "<p>Maggie Harrison Dupré, writing for Futurism:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Earlier this month, Ars retracted the story after it was found to\ninclude fake quotes attributed to a real person. The article — a\nwrite-up of a viral incident in which an AI agent <a href=\"https://theshamblog.com/an-ai-agent-published-a-hit-piece-on-me/\">seemingly\npublished a hit piece</a> about a human engineer named Scott\nShambaugh — was initially published on February 13. After\nShambaugh pointed out that he’d never said the quotes attributed\nto him, Ars’ editor-in-chief Ken Fisher apologized in an <a href=\"https://arstechnica.com/staff/2026/02/editors-note-retraction-of-article-containing-fabricated-quotations/\">editor’s\nnote</a>, in which he confirmed that the piece included\n“fabricated quotations generated by an AI tool and attributed to a\nsource who did not say them” and characterized the error as a\n“serious failure of our standards.” He added that, upon further\nreview, the error appeared to be an “isolated incident.”</p>\n\n<p>Shortly after Fisher’s editor’s note was published, Edwards,\none of the report’s two bylined authors, <a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/benjedwards.com/post/3mewgow6ch22p\">took to Bluesky</a>\nto take “full responsibility” for the inclusion of the\nfabricated quotes.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/benjedwards.com/post/3mewgow6ch22p\">Edwards</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I sincerely apologize to Scott Shambaugh for misrepresenting his\nwords. I take full responsibility. The irony of an Al reporter\nbeing tripped up by Al hallucination is not lost on me. I take\naccuracy in my work very seriously and this is a painful failure\non my part.</p>\n\n<p>When I realized what had happened, I asked my boss to pull the\npiece because I was too sick to fix it on Friday. There was\nnothing nefarious at work, just a terrible judgement call which\nwas no one’s fault but my own.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Ars fired him at the end of February.</p>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘Ars Technica Fires Reporter Benj Edwards After He Published Story With AI-Fabricated Quotes’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/14/ars-technica-benj-edwards-ai-fabricted-quotes\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
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"title": "Lil Finder Guy",
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"url": "https://basicappleguy.com/basicappleblog/lil-finder-guy",
"published": "2026-03-14T16:21:34.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-14T16:21:46.000Z",
"content": "<p>Basic Apple Guy:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Where I and the rest of the internet take this from here remains\nto be seen. All I know is that Apple should definitely keep this\nLil Finder around.</p>\n\n<p>But no, I do not think this is the last we’ve seen of Lil\nFinder Guy…</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.macrumors.com/2026/03/07/apple-posting-strange-tiktok-videos/\">Apple’s MacBook Neo ad campaign on TikTok</a> — and seemingly exclusive to TikTok — is the most fun they’ve had with a campaign in ages. I love it.</p>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘Lil Finder Guy’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/14/lil-finder-guy\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
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"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42746",
"title": "Tim Cook: ‘50 Years of Thinking Different’",
"description": null,
"url": "https://www.apple.com/50-years-of-thinking-different/",
"published": "2026-03-13T23:49:17.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-14T17:22:48.000Z",
"content": "<p>Tim Cook:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>At Apple, we’re more focused on building tomorrow than remembering\nyesterday. But we couldn’t let this milestone pass without\nthanking the millions of people who make Apple what it is today — our incredible teams around the world, our developer community,\nand every customer who has joined us on this journey. Your ideas\ninspire our work. Your trust drives us to do better. Your stories\nremind us of all we can accomplish when we think different.</p>\n\n<p>If you’ve taught us anything, it’s that the people crazy enough to\nthink they can change the world are the ones who do.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This is a perfectly cromulent letter to mark a big anniversary for Apple. And it is very <em>Tim Cook</em>. It’s short, earnest, honest, to the point, and uses plain simple language. But what also makes it so Cook-ian is that it’s so utterly anodyne. It’s inoffensive to the point of being unmemorable. The best part of Cook’s letter is when he harks back and explicitly quotes from an Apple ad campaign from 30 years ago.</p>\n\n<p>Ten years from now, when Apple is celebrating its 60th anniversary, no one is going to quote from Tim Cook’s “banger of a letter” commemorating their 50th. 25 years from now, when Apple is celebrating its 75th, that future CEO won’t be quoting from any of the ad campaigns Apple ran while Cook was CEO, because there are no lines worth remembering from them.</p>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘Tim Cook: ‘50 Years of Thinking Different’’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/13/cook-50-years-of-thinking-different\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
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"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42745",
"title": "NYT: ‘Meta Delays Rollout of New AI Model After Performance Concerns’",
"description": null,
"url": "https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/12/technology/meta-avocado-ai-model-delayed.html?unlocked_article_code=1.S1A.vI_6.4j717gwtFem0",
"published": "2026-03-13T17:04:44.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-13T17:05:23.000Z",
"content": "<p>Eli Tan, reporting for The New York Times:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Meta’s new foundational A.I. model, which the company has been\nworking on for months, has fallen short of the performance of\nleading A.I. models from rivals like Google, OpenAI and Anthropic\non internal tests for reasoning, coding and writing, said the\npeople, who were not authorized to speak publicly about\nconfidential matters.</p>\n\n<p>The model, code-named Avocado, outperformed Meta’s previous A.I.\nmodel and did better than Google’s Gemini 2.5 model from [last]\nMarch, two of the people said. But it has not performed as\nstrongly as Gemini 3.0 from November, they said.</p>\n\n<p>As a result, Meta has delayed Avocado’s release to at least May\nfrom this month, the people said. They added that the leaders of\nMeta’s A.I. division had instead discussed temporarily licensing\nGemini to power the company’s A.I. products, though no decisions\nhave been reached.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The two facts in the last paragraph don’t square with me. May is only two months away. If they might ship then, why license Gemini? To me, the “<em>we may need to pay Google to license Gemini</em>” scenario is a sign that Avocado might be a bust and they might be a year or longer away from their own competitive model.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Mr. Zuckerberg, 41, has staked the future of Meta, which owns\nFacebook, Instagram and Threads, on being at the cutting edge of\nA.I. His company has spent billions <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/31/technology/ai-researchers-nba-stars.html\">hiring top A.I.\nresearchers</a> and committed $600 billion to building data\ncenters to power the technology. In January, Meta projected that\nit would spend <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/28/technology/meta-earnings-ai-spending.html\">as much as $135 billion</a> this year, nearly\ntwice the $72 billion it spent last year.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The difference between Meta and Apple might be that Meta is merely a few months away from rolling out its own best-of-breed AI model. But the difference could be that Meta has blown hundreds of billions of dollars pursuing their own frontier models, and Apple has not, and both <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/01/12/apple-google-foundation-models-cnbc\">just license Gemini</a> from Google.</p>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘NYT: ‘Meta Delays Rollout of New AI Model After Performance Concerns’’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/13/nyt-meta-ai-model-delay\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
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"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42744",
"title": "Sports Programming Accounts for Almost 30 Percent of All Ad-Supported TV Viewing",
"description": null,
"url": "https://deadline.com/2026/03/sports-tv-viewing-advertising-nielsen-1236750721/",
"published": "2026-03-13T16:55:46.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-13T16:55:47.000Z",
"content": "<p>Dade Hayes, reporting for Deadline:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>While the rise of sports programming in recent years has been\nwell-documented, new figures from Nielsen illustrate the extent of\nits dominance. The measurement firm said sports accounted for\n29.2% of all advertising-supported TV viewing by people 25 to 54\nyears old during the fourth quarter. The stat, spanning broadcast,\ncable and streaming, was part of a report on viewership trends in\nthe fourth quarter of 2025, released Thursday in the runup to\nupfronts.</p>\n\n<p>Looking at the rest of the pie without sports, broadcast accounted\nfor just 9.8%, with cable coming in at 18%. Streaming drew by far\nthe largest tune-in, with 43% of all non-sports viewing, a\nreflection of the overall growth of advertising on streaming\nservices like Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, HBO Max and others.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘Sports Programming Accounts for Almost 30 Percent of All Ad-Supported TV Viewing’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/13/sports-30-percent-ad-supported-tv\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
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"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42743",
"title": "Claim Chowder: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on the Percentage of Code Being Generated by AI Today",
"description": null,
"url": "https://www.businessinsider.com/anthropic-ceo-ai-90-percent-code-3-to-6-months-2025-3",
"published": "2026-03-13T16:31:54.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-13T16:34:29.000Z",
"content": "<p>Business Insider, one year ago:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Dario Amodei, the CEO of the AI startup Anthropic, said on Monday\nthat AI, and not software developers, could be writing all of the\ncode in our software in a year.</p>\n\n<p>“I think we will be there in three to six months, where AI is\nwriting 90% of the code. And then, in 12 months, we may be in a\nworld where AI is writing essentially all of the code,” Amodei\nsaid at a Council of Foreign Relations event on Monday.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I’d marked this one on my claim chowder calendar a year ago, suspecting it would make for a laugh today. But while Amodei wasn’t exactly right, I think he was only wrong insofar as his remarks were too facile. It may well be true that 90 percent of the lines of programming code that are written today, Friday 13 March 2026, will have been generated by AI. If anything, it’s probably a higher percentage.</p>\n\n<p>But where I think Amodei’s remarks, quoted above, are facile is that it hasn’t played out as simply that lines of code that would have been written by human programmers are now generated by AI models. That’s part of it, for sure. But what’s revolutionary — a topic I’ve been posting about twice already today — is that AI code generation tools are being used to create services and apps and libraries that simply would not have been written at all before. It may well be that the total number of lines of code that will be written by people today isn’t much different from the number of lines of code that were written by people a year ago. But there might be 10× more code generated by AI than is written by people today. Maybe more. Maybe a lot more? And a year or two or three from now, that might be 100× or 1,000× or 100,000×.</p>\n\n<p>In that near future, human programmers are likely still to be writing — or at least line-by-line reviewing and approving — code. But as a percentage of all code being generated, that will only be a sliver.</p>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘Claim Chowder: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on the Percentage of Code Being Generated by AI Today’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/13/amodei-ai-code-claim-chowder\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
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"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42742",
"title": "‘Software Bonkers’",
"description": null,
"url": "https://craigmod.com/essays/software_bonkers/",
"published": "2026-03-13T14:54:52.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-13T15:49:26.000Z",
"content": "<p>Craig Mod, on creating his own custom accounting software with Claude Code:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Simply put: It’s a big mess, and no off-the-shelf accounting\nsoftware does what I need. So after years of pain, I finally sat\ndown last week and started to build my own. It took me about five\ndays. I am now using the best piece of accounting software I’ve\never used. It’s blazing fast. Entirely local. Handles multiple\ncurrencies and pulls daily (historical) conversion rates. It’s\nable to ingest any CSV I throw at it and represent it in my\ndashboard as needed. It knows US and Japan tax requirements, and\nformats my expenses and medical bills appropriately for my\naccountants. I feed it past returns to learn from. I dump 1099s\nand K1s and PDFs from hospitals into it, and it categorizes and\norganizes and packages them all as needed. It reconciles\ninternational wire transfers, taking into account small variations\nin FX rates and time for the transfers to complete. It learns as I\ncategorize expenses and categorizes automatically going forward.\nIt’s easy to do spot checks on data. If I find an anomaly, I can\ntalk directly to Claude and have us brainstorm a batched solution,\noften saving me from having to manually modify hundreds of\nentries. And often resulting in a new, small, feature tweak. The\nsoftware feels organic and pliable in a form perfectly shaped to\nmy hand, able to conform to any hunk of data I throw at it. It\nfeels like bushwhacking with a lightsaber.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Don’t get distracted by the <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/13/grief-and-the-ai-split\">mountains of steaming shit</a> that hacks are using these tools to spew. There are amazing things being built by these tools that never would have, or in some cases <em>could</em> have, been built before.</p>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘‘Software Bonkers’’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/13/software-bonkers\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
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"name": "John Gruber",
"email": null,
"url": "http://daringfireball.net/"
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"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42741",
"title": "‘Grief and the AI Split’",
"description": null,
"url": "https://blog.lmorchard.com/2026/03/11/grief-and-the-ai-split/",
"published": "2026-03-13T14:21:54.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-13T14:41:29.000Z",
"content": "<p>Les Orchard:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I started programming in 1982. Every language I’ve learned since\nthen has been a means to an end — a new way to make computers do\nthings I wanted them to do. AI-assisted coding feels like the\nlatest in that progression. Not a rupture, just another rung on\nthe ladder.</p>\n\n<p>But I’m trying to hold that lightly. Because the ladder itself is\nchanging, the building it’s leaning against is changing, and I’d\nbe lying if I said I knew exactly where it’s going.</p>\n\n<p>What I do know is this: I still get the same hit of satisfaction\nwhen something I thought up and built actually works. The code got\nthere differently than it used to, but the moment it runs and does\nthe thing? That hasn’t changed in my over 40 years at it.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I’ve been thinking about a different divide than the one Orchard writes about here. (The obvious truth is that the AI code generation revolution is creating multiple divisions, along multiple axes.)</p>\n\n<p>The divide I’m seeing is that the developers who are craftspeople are elated because their productivity is skyrocketing while their craftsmanship remains unchanged — or perhaps even improved. They’re achieving much more, much faster, than ever before. It’s a step change as great, or greater than, the transition from assembly code to higher-level programming languages. The developers who are hacks are elated because it’s like they’ve been provided an autopilot switch for a task they never enjoyed or really even understood properly in the first place. The industry is riddled with hack developers, because in the last 15-20 years, as the demand for software far outstripped the supply of programmers who wanted to write code because they love writing code and creating software, the jobs have been filled by people who got into the racket simply because they were high-paying jobs in high demand. Good programmers create software for fun, outside their jobs. Hack programmers are no more likely to write software for fun than a garbage man is to collect trash on his days off.</p>\n\n<p>Orchard’s fine essay examines a philosophical divide within the ranks of talented, considerate craftsperson developers. The divide that I’m talking about has been present ever since the demand for programmers exploded, but AI code generation tooling is turning it into an expansive gulf. The best programmers are more clearly the best than ever before. The worst programmers have gone from laying a few turds a day to spewing veritable mountains of hot steaming stinky shit, while beaming with pride at their increased productivity.</p>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘‘Grief and the AI Split’’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/13/grief-and-the-ai-split\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "John Gruber",
"email": null,
"url": "http://daringfireball.net/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42740",
"title": "Accents",
"description": null,
"url": "https://mahdi.jp/apps/accents",
"published": "2026-03-13T00:18:06.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-13T00:23:16.000Z",
"content": "<p>Mahdi Bchatnia:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Accents is an app that lets you use the iMac/MacBook Neo accent\ncolors on any Mac.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>It’s a fun idea from Apple to have default accent colors that are, by default, exclusive to specific Mac hardware. But what exemplifies the Mac is that a clever developer like Bchatnia can make these accent colors available to any user on any Mac via a simple utility like Accents. (<a href=\"https://mjtsai.com/blog/2026/03/12/hardware-exclusive-mac-accent-colors/\">Via Michael Tsai</a>.)</p>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘Accents’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/12/accents\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "John Gruber",
"email": null,
"url": "http://daringfireball.net/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42739",
"title": "Apple’s Platform Security Guide Adds a Brief Note on the MacBook Neo’s On-Screen Camera Indicator",
"description": null,
"url": "https://support.apple.com/guide/security/mac-on-screen-camera-indicator-light-sec75a2d237d/1/web/1",
"published": "2026-03-12T23:48:59.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-13T00:00:48.000Z",
"content": "<p>Apple Platform Security Guide:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>MacBook Neo combines system software and dedicated silicon\nelements within A18 Pro to provide additional security for the\ncamera feed. The architecture is designed to prevent any untrusted\nsoftware — even with root or kernel privileges in macOS — from\nengaging the camera without also visibly lighting the on-screen\ncamera indicator light.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>That’s the whole note, I believe. There aren’t any technical details regarding how exactly this is achieved. Until reading this new note in the Platform Security Guide, I thought the only visible indication of camera usage was the green camera icon in the menu bar. But on the Neo, there’s also a green dot <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/03/neo-camera-indicator-menu-bar-default.jpeg\">in the upper right corner of the display</a>. That green dot is the secure camera-use indicator, and it’s visible next to the time in the menu bar, and still visible when the menu bar is hidden, like in <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/03/neo-camera-indicator-full-screen.png\">this screenshot I just took from Photo Booth in full-screen mode</a>. What Apple is stating in this note in the Platform Security Guide is that if the Neo’s camera is being used, that corner of the display is guaranteed to light up with the green dot.</p>\n\n<p>One of the reasons I failed to notice this green dot until today is that with Tahoe’s transparent menu bar and the default green-and-yellow desktop wallpaper for the citrus Neo I’m reviewing, a green dot doesn’t stand out. <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/03/neo-camera-indicator-menu-bar-reduce-trans.jpeg\">It’s much more prominent</a> if you enable “Reduce transparency” in System Settings → Accessibility → Display, which gives the menu bar a traditional solid appearance.</p>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘Apple’s Platform Security Guide Adds a Brief Note on the MacBook Neo’s On-Screen Camera Indicator’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/12/macbook-neo-on-screen-camera-indicator\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "John Gruber",
"email": null,
"url": "http://daringfireball.net/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42738",
"title": "Eddy Cue Says F1 on Apple TV Opened to Increased Viewership",
"description": null,
"url": "https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/apple-tv-formula-1-ratings-eddy-cue-strong-start-1236529359/",
"published": "2026-03-12T23:41:07.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-12T23:41:08.000Z",
"content": "<p>Alex Weprin, reporting for The Hollywood Reporter:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>In a sign of strength for the streaming platform, Apple’s senior\nVP of services Eddy Cue tells The Hollywood Reporter that\nviewership for last week’s Australian Grand Prix was up year over\nyear compared to the 2025 race, which aired on ESPN.</p>\n\n<p>“The 2026 Formula 1 season on Apple TV is off to a strong start,\nwith fans responding positively and viewership up year over year\nfor the first weekend, exceeding both F1 and Apple expectations,”\nCue says.</p>\n\n<p>As is typical for Apple, the company declined to give any specific\nnumbers, though last year’s Australian GP averaged 1.1 million\nviewers for ESPN.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>So we don’t know the viewership number, but we know it’s higher than 1.1 million. That’s like a semi-Bezos number.</p>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘Eddy Cue Says F1 on Apple TV Opened to Increased Viewership’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/12/f1-apple-tv-ratings-are-up\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "John Gruber",
"email": null,
"url": "http://daringfireball.net/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42737",
"title": "MacBook Neo Teardown",
"description": null,
"url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5k7Lv7f-5CQ",
"published": "2026-03-12T18:51:48.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-12T18:51:49.000Z",
"content": "<p>Tech Re-Nu, on YouTube:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>That leaves us with a fully disassembled laptop. We’ve done this\nin less than 10 minutes, which is absolutely amazing for an Apple\nlaptop. I can’t say we’ve ever had a Mac that looks as repairable\nand as modular as this one. No sticky tape, no tricky adhesives,\nmodular parts, minimal parts as well, no hinge covers or anything\nlike that. It’s just super straightforward, elegant design.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The aspects of the Neo that make it less expensive also make it simpler, and thus easier to service. Apple’s iPhones, iPads, and higher-end MacBooks that use a lot of glue and tape and pack components together in hard-to-disassemble ways aren’t designed that way out of spite or carelessness. They’re like that because that’s what it takes to make devices ever smaller, and ever more lightweight. By allowing the Neo to be a bit thicker and heavier, it’s also a lot simpler.</p>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘MacBook Neo Teardown’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/12/macbook-neo-teardown\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "John Gruber",
"email": null,
"url": "http://daringfireball.net/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42736",
"title": "Software Proprioception",
"description": null,
"url": "https://unsung.aresluna.org/software-proprioception/",
"published": "2026-03-12T15:32:04.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-12T16:10:51.000Z",
"content": "<p>Marcin Wichary:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>There are fun things you can do in software when it is aware of\nthe dimensions and features of its hardware. [...]</p>\n\n<p>The rule here would be, perhaps, a version of “show, don’t tell.”\nWe could call it “point to, don’t describe.” (Describing what to\ndo means cognitive effort to read the words and understand them.\nAn arrow pointing to something should be easier to process.)</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I just learned the word <em>proprioception</em> a few weeks ago, in the context of how you can close your eyes and put your fingertip on the tip of your nose. Perfect word for this sort of hardware/software integration too.</p>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘Software Proprioception’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/12/software-proprioception\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "John Gruber",
"email": null,
"url": "http://daringfireball.net/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42735",
"title": "Jason Snell Is on Jeopardy Next Week",
"description": null,
"url": "https://sixcolors.com/post/2026/03/ill-take-beach-reading-for-1000-ken/",
"published": "2026-03-12T00:46:59.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-12T00:46:59.000Z",
"content": "<p>Jason Snell:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>So here we are: Six Colors now has three <em>Jeopardy!</em> players as\ncontributors.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Come on, Moltz, get your shit together.</p>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘Jason Snell Is on Jeopardy Next Week’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/11/snell-on-jeopardy\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "John Gruber",
"email": null,
"url": "http://daringfireball.net/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42734",
"title": "Another One From the Archive: ‘Web Kit’ vs. ‘WebKit’",
"description": null,
"url": "https://daringfireball.net/2006/05/web_kit_vs_webkit",
"published": "2026-03-12T00:26:22.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-12T00:26:23.000Z",
"content": "<p>When I re-read my 2006 piece “<a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/2006/06/and_oranges\">And Oranges</a>” today before <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/11/df-archive-and-oranges\">linking to it</a>, I paused when I read this:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>And while it is easy to find ways to complain that Apple is not\nopen enough — under-documented and undocumented security updates\nand system revisions, under-documented and undocumented file\nformats — it would be hard to argue with the premise that Apple\ntoday is more open than it has ever been before. (Exhibit A: the\n<a href=\"https://web.archive.org/web/20060701120623/http://webkit.opendarwin.org/\">Web Kit project</a>.)</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>It’s not often I get to fix 20-year-old typos, and to my 2026 self, “Web Kit” looks like an obvious typo. But after a moment, I remembered: <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/2006/05/web_kit_vs_webkit\">in 2006, that wasn’t a typo</a>.</p>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘Another One From the Archive: ‘Web Kit’ vs. ‘WebKit’’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/11/web-kit-v-webkit\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "John Gruber",
"email": null,
"url": "http://daringfireball.net/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026://1.42733",
"title": "★ Modifier Key Order for Keyboard Shortcuts",
"description": "The correct order is Fn, Control, Option, Shift, Command — regardless if you’re using the words or the glyphs.",
"url": "https://daringfireball.net/2026/03/modifier_key_order_for_keyboard_shortcuts",
"published": "2026-03-12T00:15:20.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-12T15:27:36.000Z",
"content": "<p><a href=\"https://leancrew.com/all-this/2017/11/modifier-key-order/\">Dr. Drang, back in 2017</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>If you write about Mac keyboard shortcuts, as I did yesterday, you\nshould know how to do it right. Just as there’s a <a href=\"https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/adjectives-order\">proper order\nfor adjectives</a> in English, there’s a proper order for\nlisting the modifier keys in a shortcut.</p>\n\n<p>I haven’t found any documentation for this, but Apple’s preferred\norder is clear in how they show the modifiers in menus and how\nthey’re displayed in the Keyboard Shortcuts Setting.</p>\n\n<p>The order is similar to how you see them down at the bottom left\nof your keyboard. Control (⌃), Option (⌥), and Command (⌘) always\ngo in that order. The oddball is the Shift (⇧) key, which sneaks in\njust in front of Command.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Perhaps this wasn’t documented in 2017, but at least since 2022 (<a href=\"https://web.archive.org/web/20221112144101/https://support.apple.com/guide/applestyleguide/k-apsgf9067ae8/web#apdbee268aa29e04\">per the Internet Archive</a>), Apple has documented the correct order for modifier keys in a keyboard shortcut in their excellent Apple Style Guide, <a href=\"https://support.apple.com/guide/applestyleguide/k-apsgf9067ae8/web#apdbee268aa29e04\">under the entry for “key, keys”</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>If there’s more than one modifier key, use this order: Fn\n(function), Control, Option, Shift, Command. When a keyboard\nshortcut includes a mouse or trackpad action, use lowercase for\nthe mouse or trackpad action.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Option-click</li>\n<li>Option-swipe with three fingers</li>\n</ul>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>There’s all sorts of good stuff in this Style Guide entry, including an explanation for why the shortcut for Zoom Out is ⌘- (using the <em>lower</em> of the two symbols on the “-/_” key) but the shortcut for Zoom In is ⌘+ (using the <em>upper</em> of the two symbols on the “=/+” key):</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>If one of the characters on the key provides a mnemonic for the\naction of the command, you can identify the key by that character.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>While I’m at it, here’s a pet peeve of mine. When you write out a keyboard shortcut using modifier key names, you connect them with hyphens: Command-R. But when using the modifier glyphs, you should definitely <em>not</em> include the hyphens. ⌘C is correct, ⌘-C is wrong. For one thing, just look at the shortcuts in the menu bar — the shortcut for Copy has been shown as ⌘C since 1984. For another, consider the aforementioned shortcuts that most apps use for Zoom In and Zoom Out: ⌘+ and ⌘-. Both of those would look weird if connected by a hyphen, but Zoom Out in particular would look confusing: Command-Hyphen-Hyphen?.</p>\n\n<p>(How do you write those out using words, though? Apple uses “Command-Plus Sign (+)” and “Command-Minus Sign (-)”. Me, I’d just go with “Command-Plus” and “Command-Minus”.)</p>\n\n<p>Pay no attention to Drang’s <a href=\"https://leancrew.com/all-this/2017/11/last-thoughts-on-modifier-keys/\">follow-up post</a>, or <a href=\"https://sixcolors.com/link/2017/11/the-order-of-modifier-keys-on-the-mac/\">this one from Jason Snell</a>. The correct order is Fn, Control, Option, Shift, Command — regardless if you’re using the words or the glyphs.</p>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "John Gruber",
"email": null,
"url": "http://daringfireball.net/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42731",
"title": "Apple Has Changed Several Key Cap Labels From Words to Glyphs on Its Latest U.S. MacBook Keyboards",
"description": null,
"url": "https://x.com/ClassicII_MrMac/status/2028869838870069447",
"published": "2026-03-11T23:06:05.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-12T16:56:04.000Z",
"content": "<p>“Mr. Macintosh”, on Twitter/X last week:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Small change:</p>\n\n<p>Looks like Apple updated the keyboard on the new M5 16‑inch\nMacBook Pro. The Backspace, Return, Shift, and Tab labels are\ngone, replaced with symbols instead.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>All the new MacBook keyboards sport this same change, including the M5 Air and A18 Pro MacBook Neo. I’m not a fan. I like the words on those keys. But I’m willing to admit it might just be that I’ve been using Apple keyboards <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_IIe\">with words</a> on <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_IIc\">those keys</a> since I was like 10 years old. iOS 26 switched from the word “return” to the “⏎” glyph on the software keyboard (and removed the word “space” from the spacebar — which, in hindsight, seemed needless to label).</p>\n\n<p>The Escape key is still labelled “esc”, and the modifier keys (Fn, Control, Option, and Command) still show the names underneath or next to the glyphs. I suspect this is because documentation — <a href=\"https://support.apple.com/en-us/102650\">including Apple’s own</a> — often uses names for these keys (Option-Shift-Command-K), not the glyphs (⌥⇧⌘K). It’s only in the last few years that Apple began including the glyphs for Control (⌃) and Option (⌥) — until recently, those keys were labelled only by name. They added the ⌃ and ⌥ glyphs between <a href=\"https://support.apple.com/en-us/111951\">2017</a> and <a href=\"https://support.apple.com/en-us/111932\">2018</a>. And until that change in 2018, Apple added the label “alt” to the Option key — a visual turd so longstanding that it dates back even to <a href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/gruber/albums/72157604797968156/\">my own beloved keyboard</a>.</p>\n\n<p>Outside the U.S., Apple has been using glyphs for these key caps for a long time. The change from words to glyphs is new only here.</p>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘Apple Has Changed Several Key Cap Labels From Words to Glyphs on Its Latest U.S. MacBook Keyboards’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/11/macbook-keyboards-words-to-glyphs\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "John Gruber",
"email": null,
"url": "http://daringfireball.net/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42732",
"title": "Halide Cofounder Sebastiaan de With Joined Apple’s Design Team in January",
"description": null,
"url": "https://9to5mac.com/2026/01/28/halide-cofounder-sebastiaan-de-with-joins-apples-design-team/",
"published": "2026-03-11T23:00:00.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-12T16:11:39.000Z",
"content": "<p>Chance Miller, reporting for 9to5Mac back on January 28:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p><a href=\"https://halide.cam/\">Halide</a> and <a href=\"https://www.lux.camera/\">Lux</a> co-founder and designer Sebastiaan\nde With <a href=\"https://www.threads.com/@sdw/post/DUEeAwFksRt\">announced</a> today that he is joining Apple’s human\ninterface design team. This marks a return to Apple for de With,\nwho previously worked as a freelancer for the company on projects\nincluding Find My, MobileMe, and iCloud.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The last time I mentioned De With here on Daring Fireball was back in June, on the cusp of WWDC, <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/03/sdw-physicality-new-age\">when I linked to</a> his resplendently illustrated essay, “<a href=\"https://www.lux.camera/physicality-the-new-age-of-ui/\">Physicality: The New Age of UI</a>”, wherein he speculated on where Apple might be going. It’s very much worth your time to revisit De With’s essay now, knowing that he’s joined Apple’s design team. My own comments on his essay hold up well too — especially my concern that a look-and-feel centered on transparency doesn’t seem a good fit for MacOS, where windows stack atop each other.</p>\n\n<p>When De With published his essay, it was as an idea for where Apple might go. Now that we’ve seen and been living with Liquid Glass, his essay works even better as a roadmap for the direction Liquid Glass should head.</p>\n\n<p>Also worth pointing out that despite De With’s departure for Apple, Lux is going strong. Developer Ben Sandofsky recently released <a href=\"https://www.lux.camera/mark-iii-looks/\">a preview of the upcoming Mark III version of Halide</a>.</p>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘Halide Cofounder Sebastiaan de With Joined Apple’s Design Team in January’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/11/de-with-apple-design-team\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "John Gruber",
"email": null,
"url": "http://daringfireball.net/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42730",
"title": "From the DF Archive: ‘And Oranges’",
"description": null,
"url": "https://daringfireball.net/2006/06/and_oranges",
"published": "2026-03-11T19:02:11.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-11T19:26:13.000Z",
"content": "<p><a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/08/willison-chardet-licensing-dispute\">Mark Pilgrim’s reappearance</a> on Daring Fireball this week prompted me to revisit this essay I wrote 20 years ago. Holds up pretty well, I think.</p>\n\n<p>This bit, in particular, seems particular apt w/r/t Tahoe:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I’m deeply suspicious of Mac users who claim to be perfectly happy\nwith Mac OS X. Real Mac users, to me, are people with much higher\nstandards, impossibly high standards, and who use Macs not because\nthey’re great, but because they suck less than everything else.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘From the DF Archive: ‘And Oranges’’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/11/df-archive-and-oranges\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "John Gruber",
"email": null,
"url": "http://daringfireball.net/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026://1.42729",
"title": "★ The MacBook Neo",
"description": "May the MacBook Neo live so long that its name becomes inapt.",
"url": "https://daringfireball.net/2026/03/the_macbook_neo",
"published": "2026-03-10T22:48:40.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-13T00:04:49.000Z",
"content": "<p>Just over a decade ago, <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/2015/09/the_iphones_6s#:~:text=BENCHMARKS\">reviewing the then-new iPhones 6S</a>, I could tell which way the silicon wind was blowing. Year-over-year, the A9 CPU in the iPhone 6S was 1.6× faster than the A8 in the iPhone 6. Impressive. But what really struck me was comparing the 6S’s GeekBench scores to MacBooks. The A9, in 2015, benchmarked comparably to a two-year-old MacBook Air from 2013. More impressively, it <em>outperformed the then-new no-adjective 12-inch MacBook in single-core performance</em> (by a factor of roughly 1.1×) and was only 3 percent slower in multi-core. That was a comparison to <a href=\"https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2015/03/09Apple-Unveils-All-New-MacBook/\">the base $1,300 model MacBook with a 1.1 GHz dual-core Intel Core M processor</a>, not the $1,600 model with a 1.2 GHz Core M. But, still — the iPhone 6S outperformed a brand-new $1,300 MacBook, and drew even with a $1,600 model. I called that “astounding”. The writing was clearly on the wall: the future of the Mac seemed destined to move from Intel’s x86 chips to Apple’s own ARM-based chips.</p>\n\n<p>Here we are today, over five years after the debut of Apple’s M-series chips, and we now have <a href=\"https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/03/say-hello-to-macbook-neo/\">the MacBook Neo</a>: a $600 laptop that uses the A18 Pro, literally the same SoC as 2024’s iPhone 16 Pro models. It was clear right from the start of the Apple Silicon transition that Apple’s M-series chips were vastly superior to x86 — better performance-per-watt, better performance period, the innovative (and still unmatched, five years later) <a href=\"https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2020/10686/\">unified memory architecture</a> — but the MacBook Neo proves that Apple’s A-series chips are powerful enough for an excellent consumer MacBook.</p>\n\n<p>I think the truth is that Apple’s A-series chips have been capable of credibly powering Macs for a long time. The <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developer_Transition_Kit\">Apple Silicon developer transition kits</a>, from the summer of 2020, were Mac Mini enclosures running A12Z chips that were originally designed for iPad Pros.<sup id=\"fnr1-2026-03-10\"><a href=\"#fn1-2026-03-10\">1</a></sup> But I think Apple could have started using A-series chips in Macs even before that. It would have been credible, but with compromises. By waiting until now, the advantages are simply overwhelming. You cannot buy an x86 PC laptop in the $600–700 price range that competes with the MacBook Neo on any metric — performance, display quality, audio quality, or build quality. And certainly not software quality.</p>\n\n<p>The original iPhone in 2007 was the most amazing device I’ve ever used. It may well wind up being the most amazing device I ever <em>will</em> use. It was ahead of its time in so many ways. But a desktop-class computer, performance-wise, it was not. Two decades is a long time in the computer industry, and nothing proves that more than Apple’s “phone chips” overtaking Intel’s x86 platform in every measurable metric — they’re faster, cooler, smaller, and perhaps even cost less. And they certainly don’t cost more.</p>\n\n<p>I’ve been testing a citrus-colored $700 MacBook Neo<sup id=\"fnr2-2026-03-10\"><a href=\"#fn2-2026-03-10\">2</a></sup> — the model with Touch ID and 512 GB storage — since last week. I set it up new, rather than restoring my primary MacOS work setup from an existing Mac, and have used as much built-in software, with as many default settings, as I could bear. I’ve only added third-party software, or changed settings, as I’ve needed to. And I’ve been using it for as much of my work as possible. I expected this to go well, but in fact, the experience has vastly exceeded my expectations. Christ almighty I don’t even have as many complaints about running MacOS 26 Tahoe (which the Neo requires) as I thought I would.</p>\n\n<p>It’s never been a good idea to evaluate the performance of Apple’s computers by tech specs alone. That’s exemplified by the experience of using a Neo. 8 GB of RAM is not a lot. And I love me my RAM — my personal workstation remains a 2021 M1 Max MacBook Pro with 64 GB RAM (the most available at the time). But just using the Neo, without any consideration that it’s memory limited, I haven’t noticed a single hitch. I’m not quitting apps I otherwise wouldn’t quit, or closing Safari tabs I wouldn’t otherwise close. I’m just working — with an even dozen apps open as I type this sentence — and everything feels snappy.</p>\n\n<p>Now, could I run up a few <em>hundred</em> open Safari tabs on this machine, like I do on my MacBook Pro, without feeling the effects? No, probably not. But that’s abnormal. In typical productivity use, the Neo isn’t merely fine — it’s good. </p>\n\n<p>The display is bright and crisp. At 500 maximum nits, the specs say it’s as bright as a MacBook Air. In practice, that feels true. (500 nits also matches the maximum SDR brightness of my personal M1 MacBook Pro.) Sound from the side-firing speakers is very good — loud and clear. I’d say the sound seems too good to be true for a $600 laptop. Battery life is long (and I’ve done almost all my testing while the Neo is unplugged from power). The keyboard feels exactly the same as what I’m used to, except that because the key caps are brand new, it feels even better than the keyboard on my own now-four-years-old MacBook Pro, the most-used key caps on which are <a href=\"https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/05/08/shiny-macbook-keys/\">now a little slick</a>.</p>\n\n<p>And the trackpad. Let me sing the praises of the MacBook Neo’s trackpad. The Neo’s trackpad exemplifies the Neo as a whole. Rather than sell old components at a lower price — as Apple had been doing, allowing third-party resellers like Walmart to sell the 8 GB M1 MacBook Air from 2020 at sub-$700 prices <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2024/03/15/macbook-air-walmart\">starting two years ago</a> — the Neo is designed from the ground up to be a low-cost MacBook.</p>\n\n<p>A decade ago, Apple began switching from trackpads with mechanical clicking mechanisms to Magic Trackpads, where clicks are simulated via haptic feedback (in Apple’s parlance, the Taptic Engine). And, with Magic Trackpads, you can use Force Touch — a hard press — to perform special actions. By default, if “Force Touch and haptic feedback” is enabled on a Mac with a Magic Trackpad, a hard Force Touch press will perform a Look Up — e.g., do it on a word in Safari and you’ll get a popover with the Dictionary app’s definition for that word. It’s a shortcut to the “Look Up in Dictionary” command in the contextual menu, which is also available <a href=\"https://support.apple.com/en-us/102650\">via the keyboard shortcut Control-Command-D</a> to look up whatever text is currently selected, or that the mouse pointer is currently hovering over — standard features that work in all proper Mac apps.</p>\n\n<p>The Neo’s trackpad is mechanical. It actually clicks, even when the machine is powered off.<sup id=\"fnr3-2026-03-10\"><a href=\"#fn3-2026-03-10\">3</a></sup> Obviously this is a cost-saving measure. But the Neo’s trackpad doesn’t feel cheap in any way. You can click it anywhere you want — top, bottom, middle, corner — and the click feels right. Multi-finger <a href=\"https://support.apple.com/en-us/102482\">gestures</a> (most commonly, two-finger swipes for scrolling) — just work. Does it feel as nice as a Magic Trackpad? No, probably not. But I keep forgetting there’s anything at all different or special about this trackpad. It just feels normal. That’s unbelievable. The “Force Touch and haptic feedback” option is missing in the Trackpad panel in System Settings, so you might miss that feature if you’re used to it. But for anyone who isn’t used to that Magic Trackpad feature — which includes anyone who’s never used a MacBook before (perhaps the primary audience for the Neo), along with most casual longtime Mac users (which is probably the secondary audience) — it’s hard to say there’s anything they’d even notice that’s different about this trackpad than the one in the MacBook Air, other than the fact that it’s a little bit smaller. But it’s only smaller in a way that feels proportional to the Neo’s slightly smaller footprint compared to the Air. It’s a cheaper trackpad that doesn’t feel at all cheap. Bravo!</p>\n\n<h2>So What’s the Catch?</h2>\n\n<p>You can use <a href=\"https://www.apple.com/mac/compare/?modelList=MacBook-Neo-A18-Pro,MacBook-Air-M5,MacBook-Air-M1\">this Compare page at Apple’s website</a> (archived, for posterity, <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/03/MacBook-Neo-(A18-Pro)-vs-MacBook-Air-(M5)-vs-MacBook-Air-(M1).pdf\">as a PDF here</a>) to see the full list of what’s missing or different on the Neo, compared to the current M5 MacBook Air (which now starts at $1,100) and the 5-year-old M1 MacBook Air (so old it still sports the Intel-era wedge shape) that Walmart had been selling for $600–650. Things I’ve noticed, that bothered me, personally:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>The Neo lacks an ambient light sensor. It still offers an option in System Settings → Display to “Automatically adjust brightness”, which setting is on by default, but I have no idea how it works without an ambient light sensor. However it works, it doesn’t work well. As the lighting conditions in my house have changed — from day to night, overcast to sunny — I’ve found myself adjusting the display brightness manually. I only realized when I started adjusting the brightness on the Neo manually that I more or less haven’t adjusted the brightness manually on a MacBook in years. Maybe a decade. I’m not saying I <em>never</em> adjust the brightness on a MacBook Air or Pro, but I do it so seldomly that I had no muscle memory at all for which F-keys control brightness. After a few days using the Neo, I know exactly where they are: F1 and F2.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>And, uh, that’s it. That’s the one catch that’s annoyed me over the six days I’ve been using the Neo as my primary computer for work and for reading. Once or twice a day I need to manually bump the display brightness up or down.\n
That’s a crazily short list. One item, and it’s only a mild annoyance.</p>\n\n<p>There are other things missing that I’ve noticed, but that I haven’t minded. The Neo doesn’t have a hardware indicator light for the camera. The indication for “camera in use” is only in the menu bar. There’s a privacy/security implication for this omission. According to Apple, the hardware indicator light for camera-in-use on other MacBook models, and the on-screen (e.g. in the Dynamic Island) indicator on iPhones and iPads, cannot be circumvented by software. If the camera is on, that light comes on, and no third-party software can disable it. <s>Because the Neo’s only camera-in-use indicator is in the menu bar, that seems obviously possible to circumvent via software. Not a big deal, but worth being aware of.</s> [<strong>Update:</strong> In a brief note added to <a href=\"https://support.apple.com/guide/security/mac-on-screen-camera-indicator-light-sec75a2d237d/1/web/1\">Apple’s Platform Security Guide</a>, Apple claims that the green indicator dot in the corner of the Neo’s display <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/12/macbook-neo-on-screen-camera-indicator\">is guaranteed to be visible if the camera is in use</a>.]</p>\n\n<p>The Neo’s webcam doesn’t offer Center Stage or Desk View. But personally, I never take advantage of Center Stage or Desk View, so I don’t miss their absence. Your mileage may vary. But the camera is 1080p and to my eyes looks pretty good. And I’d say it looks damn good for a $600 laptop.</p>\n\n<p>The Neo has no notch. Instead, it has a larger black bezel surrounding the entire display than do the MacBook Airs and Pros. I consider this an advantage for the Neo, not a disadvantage. The MacBook notch has not grown on me, and the Neo’s display bezel doesn’t bother me at all.</p>\n\n<p>And there’s the whole thing with the second USB-C port only supporting USB 2 speeds. That stinks. But if Apple could sell a one-port MacBook a decade ago, they can sell one with a shitty second port today. I’ll bet this is one of the things that will be improved in the second generation Neo, but it’s not something that would keep me from recommending this one — or even buying one myself — today. If you know you need multiple higher-speed USB ports (or Thunderbolt), you need a MacBook Air or Pro.</p>\n\n<p>The Neo ships with a measly 20-watt charger in the box — the same rinky-dink charger that comes with iPad Airs. I wish it were 30 watts (which is what came with the M1 MacBook Air), but maybe we’re lucky it comes with a charger at all. The Neo charges faster if you plug it into a more powerful power adapter, in either USB-C port.<sup id=\"fnr4-2026-03-10\"><a href=\"#fn4-2026-03-10\">4</a></sup> The USB-C cable in the box is white, not color-matched to the Neo, and it’s only 1.5 meters long. MacBook Airs and Pros ship with 2-meter MagSafe cables. Again, though: $600!</p>\n\n<h2>The Weighty Issue on My Mind</h2>\n\n<p>The Neo is not a svelte ultralight. It weights 2.7 pounds (1.23 kg) — exactly the same as the 13-inch M5 MacBook Air. The Neo, with a 13.0-inch display, has a smaller footprint than the 13.6-inch Air, but the Air is thinner. I don’t know if this is a catch though. It’s just the normal weight for a smaller-display Mac laptop. The decade-ago MacBook “One”, on the other hand, was a design statement. <a href=\"https://support.apple.com/en-us/112442\">It weighed just a hair over 2 pounds</a> (0.92 kg), and tapered from 1.35 cm to just 0.35 cm in thickness. The Neo is 1.27 cm thick, and the M5 Air is 1.13 cm. In fact, the extraordinary thinness of the 2015 MacBook might have necessitated the invention of the haptics-only Magic Trackpad. The Magic Trackpad first appeared on that MacBook and the early 2015 MacBook Pros — it was nice-to-have for the MacBook Pros, but might have been the only trackpad that would fit in the front of the MacBook One’s tapered case.</p>\n\n<p>If I had my druthers, Apple would make a new svelte ultralight MacBook. Not instead of the Neo, but in addition to the Neo. Apple’s inconsistent use of the name “Air” makes this complicated, but the MacBook Neo is obviously akin to the iPhone 17e; the MacBook Air is akin to the iPhone 17 (the default model for most people); the MacBook Pros are akin to the iPhone 17 Pros. I wish Apple would make a MacBook that’s akin to the iPhone Air — crazy thin and surprisingly performant.</p>\n\n<p>The biggest shortcoming of the decade-ago MacBook “One”, aside from the baffling decision to include just one USB-C port that was also its only means of charging, was the shitty performance of Intel’s Core M chips. Those chips were small enough and low-power enough to fit in the MacBook’s thin and fan-less enclosure, but they were slow as balls. It was a huge compromise for a laptop that carried a somewhat premium price. Today, performance, performance-per-watt, and physical chip size are all solved problems with Apple Silicon. I’d consider paying double the price of the Neo for a MacBook with similar specs (but more RAM and better I/O) that weighed 2.0 pounds or less. I’d buy such a MacBook not to replace my 14-inch MacBook Pro, but to replace my 2018 11-inch iPad Pro as my “carry around the house” secondary computer.<sup id=\"fnr5-2026-03-10\"><a href=\"#fn5-2026-03-10\">5</a></sup></p>\n\n<p>As it stands, I might buy a Neo for that same purpose, 2.7-pound weight be damned. iPad Pros, encased in Magic Keyboards, are expensive and heavy. So are iPad Airs. My 2018 iPad Pro, in its Magic Keyboard case, weighs 2.36 pounds (1.07 kg). That’s the 11-inch model, with a cramped less-than-standard-size keyboard. I’m much happier with this MacBook Neo than I am doing anything on that iPad. Yes, my iPad is old at this point. But replacing it with a new iPad Pro would require a new Magic Keyboard too. For an iPad Pro + Magic Keyboard, that combination starts at $1,300 for 11-inch, $1,650 for 13-inch. If I switched to iPad Air, the cost would be $870 for 11-inch, $1,120 for 13-inch. The 13-inch iPads, when attached to Magic Keyboards, weigh slightly <em>more</em> than a 2.7-pound 13-inch MacBook Neo. The 11-inch iPads, with keyboards, weigh about 2.3 pounds. Why bother when I find MacOS way more enjoyable and productive? My three-device lifestyle for the last decade has been a MacBook Pro (anchored to a Studio Display at my desk at home, and in my briefcase when travelling); my iPhone; and an iPad Pro with a Magic Keyboard for use around the rest of the house. This last week testing the MacBook Neo, I haven’t touched my iPad once, and I haven’t once wished this Neo were an iPad. And there were many times when I was very happy that it was a Mac.</p>\n\n<p>And I can buy one, just like this one, for $700. That’s $170 less than an 11-inch iPad Air and Magic Keyboard. And the Neo comes with a full-size keyboard and runs MacOS, not a version of iOS with a limited imitation of MacOS’s windowing UI. I am in no way arguing that the MacBook Neo is an iPad killer, but it’s a splendid iPad alternative for people like me, who don’t draw with a Pencil, do type with a keyboard, and just want a small, simple, highly portable and highly capable computer to use around the house. The MacBook Neo is going to be a great first Macintosh for a lot of people switching from PCs. But it’s also going to be a great <em>secondary</em> Mac for a lot of longtime Mac users with expensive desktop setups for their main workstations — like me.</p>\n\n<p>The Neo crystallizes the post-Jony Ive Apple. The MacBook “One” was a design statement, and a much-beloved semi-premium product for a relatively small audience. The Neo is a mass-market device that was conceived of, designed, and engineered to expand the Mac user base to a larger audience. It’s a design statement too, but of a different sort — emphasizing practicality above all else. It’s just a goddamn lovely tool, and fun too.</p>\n\n<p>I’ll just say it: I think I’m done with iPads. Why bother when Apple is now making a crackerjack Mac laptop that starts at just $600? May the MacBook Neo live so long that its name becomes inapt.</p>\n\n<div class=\"footnotes\">\n<hr />\n<ol>\n\n<li id=\"fn1-2026-03-10\">\n<p><a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/2026/03/599_not_a_piece_of_junk_macbook_neo\">When I wrote last week</a> that the MacBook Neo is the first product from Apple with an A-series chip sporting more than one USB port — addressing complaints that the Neo’s second USB-C port only supports USB 2.0 speeds — a few readers pointed to <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developer_Transition_Kit\">the Apple Silicon developer transition kits</a>. Those machines had two USB-C 3.1 ports, two USB-A 3.0 ports, <em>and</em> an HDMI port. But Apple didn’t sell those as a product — developers borrowed them from Apple, and <a href=\"https://www.macrumors.com/2021/02/05/apple-dtk-credit-for-developers-increased/\">Apple wanted them back</a> soon after the first actual Apple Silicon Macs shipped. If Apple had sold them, they would have cost more than $600. Those extra I/O ports involved significant engineering outside the A12Z SoC. <a href=\"#fnr1-2026-03-10\" class=\"footnoteBackLink\" title=\"Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.\">↩︎</a></p>\n</li>\n\n<li id=\"fn2-2026-03-10\">\n<p>The Neo’s citrus is a beguiling colorway. Everyone I’ve shown it to likes it. But is it a green-ish yellow, or a yellow-ish green? In daylight, it looks more like a green-ish yellow. But at nighttime, it looks more like a yellow-ish green. By default, the MacOS accent color in System Settings → Appearance defaults to a color that matches the Neo’s hardware — a fun trick Apple has been <a href=\"https://512pixels.net/2012/12/imac/\">using for decades</a>. For citrus, that special accent color <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/03/macbook-neo-citrus-appearance-color.png\">looks more green than yellow to me</a>. <a href=\"#fnr2-2026-03-10\" class=\"footnoteBackLink\" title=\"Jump back to footnote 2 in the text.\">↩︎︎</a></p>\n</li>\n\n<li id=\"fn3-2026-03-10\">\n<p>The haptic “clicks” with a Magic Trackpad are so convincingly real that it feels <em>really</em> weird when you try to click the trackpad on a powered-off MacBook Air or Pro, or a standalone Magic Trackpad that’s turned off, and ... nothing happens. Not even the slightest hint of a click. Just totally inert. It’s gross, like poking a dead pet. <a href=\"#fnr3-2026-03-10\" class=\"footnoteBackLink\" title=\"Jump back to footnote 3 in the text.\">↩︎︎</a></p>\n</li>\n\n<li id=\"fn4-2026-03-10\">\n<p>My favorite power adapter is <a href=\"https://nomadgoods.com/products/ac-adapter-65w-usb-c-slim\">this $55 two-port 65-watt “slim” charger from Nomad</a>. It’s small, lightweight, and the lay-flat design helps it stay connected to loose wall outlets in hotels and public spaces like airports and coffee shops. Nomad also sells a smaller 40-watt model with only one port, and a larger 100-watt model. But to me the 65-watt model hits the sweet spot. The link above goes to Nomad’s website; <a href=\"https://www.amazon.com/NOMAD-65W-Slim-Power-Adapter/dp/B0CYP6KPPB/?tag=df-amzn-20\">here’s a make-me-rich affiliate link to it at Amazon</a>. <a href=\"#fnr4-2026-03-10\" class=\"footnoteBackLink\" title=\"Jump back to footnote 4 in the text.\">↩︎︎</a></p>\n</li>\n\n<li id=\"fn5-2026-03-10\">\n<p>One advantage to the 2.7-pound Neo compared to the decade-ago 2.0-pound MacBook “One” — you can lift the lid on the Neo with one hand and it just opens. With the old MacBook, the base was so light that the whole thing tended to lift when you just wanted to open the display. <a href=\"#fnr5-2026-03-10\" class=\"footnoteBackLink\" title=\"Jump back to footnote 5 in the text.\">↩︎︎</a></p>\n</li>\n\n</ol>\n</div>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "John Gruber",
"email": null,
"url": "http://daringfireball.net/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/feeds/sponsors//11.42728",
"title": "[Sponsor] Finalist",
"description": null,
"url": "https://www.finalist.works/finalist-36/",
"published": "2026-03-09T22:44:03.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-09T22:44:03.000Z",
"content": "<p>Your whole day on one screen. Finalist is an iOS/macOS day planner that pulls in your calendars, reminders, and health data so nothing falls through the cracks.</p>\n\n<p>The latest version launches now and adds subtasks, calendar bookmarks, HealthKit in your journal, and a spoken daily briefing you can trigger from your Lock Screen.</p>\n\n<p>Run it alongside what you already use. It quietly picks up what your current setup doesn’t. Free trial on the App Store, Lifetime license available.</p>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘Finalist’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/2026/03/finalist\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Daring Fireball Department of Commerce",
"email": null,
"url": null
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026://1.42727",
"title": "★ The iPhone 17e",
"description": "Apple could have stopped with the addition of MagSafe alone, and the 17e would’ve been a successful year-over-year update over the 16e. But there’s even more.",
"url": "https://daringfireball.net/2026/03/the_iphone_17e",
"published": "2026-03-09T21:57:35.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-10T14:47:37.000Z",
"content": "<p>Over the years I’ve been writing here, I’ve often used the term <em>speed bump</em> to describe a certain type of hardware update: a new version of an existing product where the new stuff is mostly faster components, especially the CPU and GPU, but where a lot of the product, including the enclosure, remains unchanged. I’ve been thinking about it all week, as I tested the iPhone 17e, because the 17e is the epitome of a good speed bump. But it’s a funny term, because in real life, a speed bump — on the road — is something that slows you down. But in computer hardware it’s about going faster, or doing more, even if only slightly.</p>\n\n<p>The other thing I find mildly amusing about the word “bump” and the iPhone 17e is that it’s the one and only iPhone in Apple’s lineup that doesn’t have a camera plateau — a.k.a. bump. The lens itself does jut out, slightly, but it’s just a lens, not a plateau, harking back to iPhones of yesteryear, <a href=\"https://support.apple.com/en-us/111868\">like</a> the <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/2018/10/the_iphone_xr\">iPhone XR from 2018</a>.</p>\n\n<p>Speed bump hardware updates never update every component. That’s not a speed bump. Only <em>some</em> components get updated. In a good speed bump update, the parts that get upgraded are the parts from the old model that were most lacking. <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/2025/02/the_iphone_16e\">My review last year of the iPhone 16e</a> was fairly effusive, but I noted one primary omission: MagSafe. There were, of course, other compromises made for the 16e compared to higher-priced models in the lineup, but MagSafe was the one feature missing from the 16e that really bothered me. I’m not sure there was a single review of the 16e that didn’t list the omission of MagSafe as the 16e’s biggest shortcoming.</p>\n\n<p>Apple’s explanation, a year ago, for omitting MagSafe was that the customers they were targeting with the 16e were people upgrading from 4-, 5-, or even 6-year-old iPhones, so they were accustomed to charging their phones by plugging in a cable. I can see that. People who bought an iPhone 16e in the last year didn’t miss MagSafe because they never had a phone with it. But, for those of us who have been using iPhones with MagSafe, the lack of MagSafe on the 16e was the primary reason to steer friends and family away from getting one. It’s not just about charging, either. I use MagSafe in a bunch of places, in a bunch of ways. I have <a href=\"https://nomadgoods.com/products/stand-one-4th-gen-carbide\">a dock</a> next to my bed and another next to my keyboard at my desk. I have a MagSafe mount on the dashboard of my car (which is so old it long predates CarPlay). I have a handful of MagSafe accessories like <a href=\"https://www.moft.us/products/iphone-stand-wallet-magsafe-compatible\">this snap-on stand from Moft</a> that <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/07/11/moft-snap-on-iphone-stand-wallet\">I recommended last summer</a>, and portable MagSafe battery packs like <a href=\"https://www.amazon.com/Anker-Ultra-Slim-Certified-Ultra-Fast-MagSafe-Compatible/dp/B0F8HXYD46?th=1\">this one from Anker</a> (battery packs like these make for great travel items — they double as bedside chargers in hotels). I don’t carry a MagSafe card wallet or use PopSocket-style attachments, but a lot of people do. MagSafe is just great, and the lack of it on the 16e was the biggest reason not to recommend it. Just because the target audience wouldn’t <em>miss it</em> — because their old phone didn’t have it — doesn’t mean they wouldn’t <em>miss out</em> by not having it on their new one.</p>\n\n<p>Well, that’s over. The 17e has MagSafe, and supports inductive charging at speeds up to 15W. (The iPhone Air supports charging up to 20W, and the 17 and 17 Pro models up to 25W.) Apple could have stopped there — with the addition of MagSafe alone — and the 17e would’ve been a successful year-over-year update.</p>\n\n<p>But that would’ve been only a ... <em>err</em> ... mag bump, not a speed bump. Apple also bumped the SoC from the A18 to the A19, the current-generation chip from the regular iPhone 17. This is not a huge deal, year-over-year, but faster is faster and newer is better. (The $599 iPhone 17e, with the A19, benchmarks faster in single-core CPU performance than the $599 MacBook Neo, with the year-old A18 Pro.)</p>\n\n<p>The upgrade to the A19 enables a better image-processing pipeline for the camera, which allows the 17e to offer Apple’s “next-generation portraits”, which are an obvious improvement over the previous portrait mode offered by the 16e. But the camera hardware itself — lenses and sensors, both front and back — is unchanged year-over-year. The technical specs for the camera, as reported by <a href=\"https://halide.cam/\">Halide</a>’s nifty Technical Readout feature, are identical to the 16e. It’s a fine camera, but not a great camera. Just like last year with the 16e, the camera’s limitations are most noticeable in low-light situations. Still, both of these things are true:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>The 17e camera is by far the weakest iPhone camera Apple currently offers. (It does not come close to the quality of the also-single-lens iPhone Air camera.)</li>\n<li>For the people considering the 17e, it’s probably the best camera of any kind they’ve ever owned, and a big improvement over their current, probably years-old, phone.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>The 17e camera system remains limited to Apple’s original <a href=\"https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/use-photographic-styles-iph629d2cd37/ios\">Photographic Styles</a>; all the other iPhones in the new A19 generation — the 17, 17 Pro, and Air — offer the much improved “latest-generation” Photographic Styles. In practice, this means the system Camera app on the 17e only offers these styles: Standard, Rich Contrast, Vibrant, Warm, and Cool. The second-generation Photographic Styles, which debuted last year on the iPhone 16 models, offer a much wider variety of styles and more fine-grained control, all of which processing is non-destructive. To name one obvious scenario, the new generation of Photographic Styles offers several black-and-white styles. When you shoot with these B&W styles, you can subsequently change your mind and apply one of the color styles in the Photos app, because the styles aren’t baked-in. But with the original-generation Photographic Styles — the one the 17e is limited to — the styles you shoot with are baked into the HEIC (or JPEG) files. You can apply non-destructive <em>filters</em> in post, including black-and-white filters, but those filters are simplistic compared to the new-generation Photographic Styles — and unlike the new Photographic Styles, you can’t preview the old filters live in the Camera app viewfinder. If you care about any of this, you should spend the extra $200 to get the regular iPhone 17, or perhaps, the still-for-sale iPhone 16, both of which offer both better camera hardware <em>and</em> software than the 17e. If you don’t care about any of this, the 17e might be the iPhone for you.</p>\n\n<p>Here’s a link to Apple’s ever-excellent Compare page, <a href=\"https://www.apple.com/iphone/compare/?modelList=iphone-16e,iphone-17e,iphone-17\">with a comparison of the 16e vs. 17e vs. 17</a>. (For posterity, here’s that Compare page <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/03/iPhone-16e-vs-iPhone-17e-vs-iPhone-17.pdf\">archived as a PDF</a>.) Other than the addition of MagSafe, the next biggest change from last year’s 16e to the new 17e is that base storage has increased from 128 to 256 GB (while the starting price has remained unchanged at $600). Nice. Also, there’s a third color option, “soft pink”, in addition to white and black. Lastly, the 17e gains the Ceramic Shield 2 front glass, which Apple claims offers 3× better scratch resistance. That’s nice too.</p>\n\n<p>That’s about it for what’s improved in the 17e compared to the 16e. But that’s enough. With the old iPhone SE models, Apple only updated the hardware every 3–5 years. The new e models are seemingly on the same annual upgrade cycle as the other generation-numbered models.<sup id=\"fnr1-2026-03-09\"><a href=\"#fn1-2026-03-09\">1</a></sup> Adding MagSafe, going from the A18 to A19, increasing base storage, and adding a new colorway is a solid speed bump.</p>\n\n<p>The next way to consider the 17e is by comparing it to the base iPhone 17. What do you miss if you go with the 17e — or, what do you gain by paying an extra $200 for the 17?</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>The base 17 has a ProMotion display with dynamic refresh rates up to 120 Hz and an always-on display. It’s also a brighter display (1000 vs. 800 nits SDR, 1600 vs. 1200 nits HDR). The iPhone 17 is the first base model iPhone with ProMotion, and it also sports a slightly bigger display (6.3″ vs. 6.1″) despite the fact that the 17 is only 2mm taller and exactly the same width as the 17e — the increased screen size is mostly from having smaller bezels surrounding the display.</p></li>\n<li><p>The iPhone 17 comes with Apple’s second-generation Ultra Wideband chip for precision Find My support. If you track, say, an AirTag using the Find My app, the iPhone 17 supports the cool feature that guides you right to the device, with distances down to fractions of a foot. The iPhone 17e doesn’t support that — it just lets you do the old Find My stuff, like having the lost device play a sound, and showing its location on a map.</p></li>\n<li><p>Camera Control: On my personal iPhone 17 Pro, I only use the Camera Control button for launching the Camera app, and as a shutter within Camera (and other camera apps, like <a href=\"https://notbor.ing/product/camera\">!Camera</a>, <a href=\"https://apps.apple.com/us/app/analogue/id6748702405\">Analogue</a>,<sup id=\"fnr2-2026-03-09\"><a href=\"#fn2-2026-03-09\">2</a></sup> and <a href=\"https://halide.cam/\">Halide</a>). I don’t use it for adjusting controls, because it’s just too finicky. But I love it as a dedicated launcher and shutter button. I keep trying to invoke it on the 17e to launch the Camera app, even now, a few days into daily driving it.</p></li>\n<li><p>The iPhone 17 has the clever <a href=\"https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/view-live-activities-in-the-dynamic-island-iph28f50d10d/ios\">Dynamic Island</a>; the 17e has a dumb notch. The Dynamic Island is nice to have, but despite having one on my personal phone for 3.5 years (it debuted with the 14 Pro in 2022), I can’t say I’ve particularly missed it during the better part of a week that I’ve been using the 17e as my primary phone. I actually had to double check that the 17e doesn’t have it while first writing this paragraph, because, over my first few days of testing, I just hadn’t noticed. But then I went out and ran an errand requiring an Uber ride, while listening to a podcast, and I noticed the lack of a Dynamic Island — no live status update for the hailed Uber, and no quick-tap button for jumping back into <a href=\"https://overcast.fm/\">Overcast</a>.</p></li>\n<li><p>And last, but far from least, the iPhone 17 has significantly better camera hardware: the 1× main camera is better; it offers a 0.5× ultra wide lens that the 17e completely lacks; and <a href=\"https://www.businessworld.in/article/exclusive-jon-mccormack-on-how-apple-reinvented-the-selfie-for-the-iphone-17-575523\">the all-new front-facing camera is vastly superior</a>.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>That’s a fair amount of better stuff for $200. But none of those things jumps out to me as a reason not to recommend the 17e for someone who considers price their highest priority. With 256 GB of storage, even the base model 17e is recommendable without hesitation. The omission of MagSafe on last year’s 16e was low-hanging fruit for Apple to add this year, as was the meager base storage of 128 GB. I don’t think there’s anything on par with MagSafe for next year’s iPhone 18e. (My first choice would be the second-generation Ultra Wideband chip — I’d like to see precision location make it into everything Apple sells sooner rather than later.)</p>\n\n<p>Across several days of testing, 5G cellular reception was strong, and battery life was long. I ran Speedtest a few times, at different locations in Center City Philadelphia, and each time got download speeds above 500 Mbps and upload speeds around 40–50 Mbps. Apple’s in-house C1X modem is simply great.</p>\n\n<p>Here’s a table with pricing for the iPhone models Apple currently sells:</p>\n\n<!-- Markdown Table:\n| | SoC | 128 GB | 256 GB | 512 GB | 1 TB | 2 TB |\n| ---------: | :-----: | :----: | :----: | :----: | :----: | :---: |\n| 17e | A19 | — | $600 | $800 | | — |\n| 16 | A18 | $700 | — | — | — | — |\n| 16 Plus | A18 | $800 | $900 | — | — | — |\n| 17 | A19 | — | $800 | $1000 | — | — |\n| Air (17) | A19 Pro | — | $1000 | $1200 | $1400 | — |\n| 17 Pro | A19 Pro | — | $1100 | $1300 | $1500 | — |\n| 17 Pro Max | A19 Pro | — | $1200 | $1400 | $1600 | $2000 |\n-->\n\n<table class=\"table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E\" width=550 style=\"margin-left: -35px;\">\n<style>\n.table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E th:nth-child(1) { text-align: left }\n.table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E td:nth-child(1) { text-align: left }\n.table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E th:nth-child(2) { text-align: left }\n.table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E td:nth-child(2) { text-align: left }\n.table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E th:nth-child(3) { text-align: center }\n.table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E td:nth-child(3) { text-align: center }\n.table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E th:nth-child(4) { text-align: center }\n.table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E td:nth-child(4) { text-align: center }\n.table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E th:nth-child(5) { text-align: center }\n.table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E td:nth-child(5) { text-align: center }\n.table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E th:nth-child(6) { text-align: center }\n.table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E td:nth-child(6) { text-align: center }\n.table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E th:nth-child(7) { text-align: center }\n.table-8C47AFED-145E-4785-BA79-3587CDB4548E td:nth-child(7) { text-align: center }\n</style>\n<thead>\n<th>iPhone</th><th>SoC</th><th>128 GB</th><th>256 GB</th><th>512 GB</th><th>1 TB</th><th>2 TB</th>\n</thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>17e</td><td>A19</td><td>—</td><td>$600</td><td>$800</td><td></td><td>—</td>\n</tr>\n<tr>\n<td>16</td><td>A18</td><td>$700</td><td>—</td><td>—</td><td>—</td><td>—</td>\n</tr>\n<tr>\n<td>16 Plus</td><td>A18</td><td>$800</td><td>$900</td><td>—</td><td>—</td><td>—</td>\n</tr>\n<tr>\n<td>17</td><td>A19</td><td>—</td><td>$800</td><td>$1000</td><td>—</td><td>—</td>\n</tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Air (17)</td><td>A19 Pro</td><td>—</td><td>$1000</td><td>$1200</td><td>$1400</td><td>—</td>\n</tr>\n<tr>\n<td>17 Pro</td><td>A19 Pro</td><td>—</td><td>$1100</td><td>$1300</td><td>$1500</td><td>—</td>\n</tr>\n<tr>\n<td>17 Pro Max</td><td>A19 Pro</td><td>—</td><td>$1200</td><td>$1400</td><td>$1600</td><td>$2000</td>\n</tr>\n</tbody>\n</table>\n\n<p>This is a very compelling lineup, and the 17e shores up the lowest price point with aplomb:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Good: iPhone 17e</li>\n<li>Better: iPhone 17</li>\n<li>Best: iPhone 17 Pro or iPhone Air, depending on how you define “best”.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>In New York last week at Apple’s hands-on “experience” for the media, which was primarily about the MacBook Neo, I got the chance to talk about the 17e, too. Apple’s product marketing people tend to compare the 17e against the iPhone 11 and 12. Those are the iPhones most would-be 17e buyers are upgrading from. Things they’ll notice if they do upgrade to a 17e:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Much better battery life. Not just compared to an iPhone 11 or 12 that’s been in use for 4–5 years, but against a factory fresh battery in those older iPhones. Apple’s “streaming video” benchmark goes from 11 hours to 21 hours <a href=\"https://www.apple.com/iphone/compare/?modelList=iphone-17e,iphone-12,iphone-11\">comparing the 17e to the 12</a>. And if they <em>are</em> upgrading from a phone with a 4- or 5-year-old battery that’s been through hundreds of charge cycles, they’re going to notice it even more.</li>\n<li>A noticeably brighter screen (800 vs 625 nits).</li>\n<li>A much improved camera. Even if they’re not serious about photography, the 17e camera is noticeably better than the cameras from half a decade ago.</li>\n<li>Everything will feel faster.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Frankly, I’m not sure who the year-old iPhone 16 is for today, especially considering that Apple is now only offering it with 128 GB of storage. People on a tight budget but who really want an ultra wide 0.5× second camera lens? The potential appeal of the still-available 16 Plus is more obvious: if you want a big-screen iPhone, it’s much less expensive than a 17 Pro Max. And, unlike the regular iPhone 16, the 16 Plus is available with 256 GB. But at that point, I’d encourage whoever is considering the $900 iPhone 16 Plus with 256 GB storage to pay an extra $100 and get the iPhone Air instead. The overall lineup would have more coherence and clarity if Apple just eliminated the two 16 models. I suspect Apple is on the cusp of completely moving away from the strategy of selling two- and three-year-old iPhones at lower prices, and updating their entire lineup with annual speed bumps.</p>\n\n<div class=\"footnotes\">\n<hr />\n<ol>\n\n<li id=\"fn1-2026-03-09\">\n<p>It remains to be seen how frequently Apple intends to update the iPhone Air, which conspicuously lacks a “17” in its name. <a href=\"#fnr1-2026-03-09\" class=\"footnoteBackLink\" title=\"Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.\">↩︎</a></p>\n</li>\n\n<li id=\"fn2-2026-03-09\">\n<p>Analogue is a relatively new app by developer Cristian Teichner. It uses Apple’s Log imaging pipeline, which Apple primarily intends for video capture. But Analogue uses the Log pipeline for both video <em>and</em> still photography. One side effect of this is that still photos are a bit “zoomed in”, because the video capture pipeline uses a slight crop of the overall sensor. For the same reason, Analogue’s “full frame” aspect ratio is 16:9, not 4:3. But the benefit is that Analogue uses <a href=\"https://aftershoot.com/blog/lut/\">LUTs</a> for image processing/color grading, and can do so non-destructively. It results in delightful, film-like images. I’ve been shooting with Analogue quite a bit on my iPhone 17 Pro. Alas, Analogue doesn’t work on the 17e, because the 17e doesn’t support Log capture. In fact, Analogue <em>only</em> works on the 15 Pro, 16 Pro, and 17 Pro models, because those are the only iPhones that support the “pro” imaging pipeline. Even the $1,200 iPhone Air, which sports an A19 Pro chip, does not. <a href=\"#fnr2-2026-03-09\" class=\"footnoteBackLink\" title=\"Jump back to footnote 2 in the text.\">↩︎︎</a></p>\n</li>\n\n</ol>\n</div>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "John Gruber",
"email": null,
"url": "http://daringfireball.net/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42726",
"title": "MacBook Neo Wallpapers Now Available for All Macs in MacOS Tahoe",
"description": null,
"url": "https://www.macrumors.com/2026/03/09/macos-tahoe-26-4-beta-4-neo-wallpapers/",
"published": "2026-03-09T19:37:58.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-09T22:24:21.000Z",
"content": "<p>Juli Clover, MacRumors:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Featuring bubble-style lines with colorful gradients, the\nwallpapers come in Mac Purple, Mac Blue, Mac Pink, and Mac Yellow.\nThe design and the colors spell out the word “Mac.”</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>They got me. I’m upgrading to Tahoe now.</p>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘MacBook Neo Wallpapers Now Available for All Macs in MacOS Tahoe’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/09/neo-wallpapers\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "John Gruber",
"email": null,
"url": "http://daringfireball.net/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42725",
"title": "Low-Wage Contractors in Kenya See What Users See While Using Meta’s AI Smart Glasses",
"description": null,
"url": "https://www.svd.se/a/K8nrV4/metas-ai-smart-glasses-and-data-privacy-concerns-workers-say-we-see-everything",
"published": "2026-03-09T14:16:19.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-09T14:16:20.000Z",
"content": "<p>Naipanoi Lepapa, Ahmed Abdigadir, and Julia Lindblom, reporting for the Swedish publications Svenska Dagbladet and Göteborgs-Posten:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>It is stuffy at the top of the hotel in Nairobi, Kenya. The grey\nsky presses the heat against the windows. The man in front of us\nis nervous. If his employer finds out that he is here, he could\nlose everything. He is one of the people few even realise exist — a flesh-and-blood worker in the engine room of the data industry.\nWhat he has to say is explosive.</p>\n\n<p>“In some videos you can see someone going to the toilet, or\ngetting undressed. I don’t think they know, because if they knew\nthey wouldn’t be recording.” [...]</p>\n\n<p>The workers describe videos where people’s bank cards are visible\nby mistake, and people watching porn while wearing the glasses.\nClips that could trigger “enormous scandals” if they were leaked.</p>\n\n<p>“There are also sex scenes filmed with the smart glasses — someone is wearing them having sex. That is why this is so\nextremely sensitive. There are cameras everywhere in our office,\nand you are not allowed to bring your own phones or any device\nthat can record”, an employee says.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Delightful. And what a brand move for Ray-Ban and Oakley.</p>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘Low-Wage Contractors in Kenya See What Users See While Using Meta’s AI Smart Glasses’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/09/kenya-meta-contractors\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "John Gruber",
"email": null,
"url": "http://daringfireball.net/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42724",
"title": "Can Coding Agents Relicense Open Source Through a ‘Clean Room’ Implementation of Code?",
"description": null,
"url": "https://simonwillison.net/2026/Mar/5/chardet/",
"published": "2026-03-08T17:59:09.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-08T17:59:10.000Z",
"content": "<p>Simon Willison:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>There are a <em>lot</em> of open questions about this, both ethically and\nlegally. These appear to be coming to a head in the venerable\n<a href=\"https://github.com/chardet/chardet\">chardet</a> Python library. <code>chardet</code> was created by Mark\nPilgrim <a href=\"https://pypi.org/project/chardet/1.0/\">back in 2006</a> and released under the LGPL. Mark\nretired from public internet life in 2011 and <code>chardet</code>’s\nmaintenance was taken over by others, most notably Dan Blanchard\nwho has been responsible for every release since <a href=\"https://pypi.org/project/chardet/1.1/\">1.1 in July\n2012</a>.</p>\n\n<p>Two days ago Dan released <a href=\"https://github.com/chardet/chardet/releases/tag/7.0.0\">chardet 7.0.0</a> with the following\nnote in the release notes:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Ground-up, MIT-licensed rewrite of chardet. Same package name,\nsame public API — drop-in replacement for chardet 5.x/6.x. Just\nway faster and more accurate!</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Yesterday Mark Pilgrim opened <a href=\"https://github.com/chardet/chardet/issues/327\">#327: No right to relicense this\nproject</a>.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>A fascinating dispute, and the first public post from Pilgrim that I’ve seen <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/search/mark+pilgrim\">in quite a while</a>.</p>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘Can Coding Agents Relicense Open Source Through a ‘Clean Room’ Implementation of Code?’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/08/willison-chardet-licensing-dispute\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "John Gruber",
"email": null,
"url": "http://daringfireball.net/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42723",
"title": "Donald Knuth on Claude Opus Solving a Computer Science Problem",
"description": null,
"url": "https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/papers/claude-cycles.pdf",
"published": "2026-03-08T17:49:08.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-08T17:49:08.000Z",
"content": "<p>Donald Knuth, who, adorably, effectively blogs by posting TeX-typeset PDFs:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Shock! Shock! I learned yesterday that an open problem I’d been\nworking on for several weeks had just been solved by Claude Opus\n4.6 — Anthropic’s hybrid reasoning model that had been released\nthree weeks earlier! It seems that I’ll have to revise my opinions\nabout “generative AI” one of these days. What a joy it is to learn\nnot only that my conjecture has a nice solution but also to\ncelebrate this dramatic advance in automatic deduction and\ncreative problem solving. I’ll try to tell the story briefly in\nthis note.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>(<a href=\"https://simonwillison.net/2026/Mar/3/donald-knuth/\">Via Simon Willison</a>.)</p>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘Donald Knuth on Claude Opus Solving a Computer Science Problem’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/08/knuth-claude\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "John Gruber",
"email": null,
"url": "http://daringfireball.net/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42722",
"title": "Steve Lemay Hits Apple’s Leadership Page",
"description": null,
"url": "https://www.apple.com/leadership/steve-lemay/",
"published": "2026-03-08T15:28:36.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-08T16:30:18.000Z",
"content": "<p><em>Help us Obi-Wan Lemay, you’re our only hope.</em></p>\n\n<p>(Also, <a href=\"https://www.macrumors.com/2026/03/07/apple-adds-three-executives-to-leadership-page/\">as noted</a> by Joe Rossignol, <a href=\"https://www.apple.com/leadership/eddy-cue/\">Eddy Cue</a> got an updated headshot.)</p>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘Steve Lemay Hits Apple’s Leadership Page’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/08/lemay-leadership-page\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "John Gruber",
"email": null,
"url": "http://daringfireball.net/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42721",
"title": "‘npx workos’",
"description": null,
"url": "https://workos.com/docs/authkit/cli-installer?utm_source=tldrdev&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=q12026",
"published": "2026-03-07T21:53:37.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-07T22:16:39.000Z",
"content": "<p>My thanks, once again, to WorkOS for sponsoring this week at DF. <code>npx workos</code> is a CLI tool, replete with cool ASCII art, that <a href=\"https://youtu.be/kU88lUqdduQ?utm_source=daringfireball&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=q12026\">launches an AI agent</a>, powered by Claude, that reads your project, detects your framework, and writes a complete auth integration directly into your existing codebase. It’s not a template generator. It reads your code, understands your stack, and writes an integration that fits.</p>\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https://workos.com/?utm_source=daringfireball&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=q12026\">WorkOS</a> agent then type-checks and builds, feeding any errors back to itself to fix. <a href=\"https://workos.com/docs/authkit/cli-installer?utm_source=tldrdev&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=q12026\">See how it works</a> for yourself. </p>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘‘npx workos’’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/07/npx-workos\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "John Gruber",
"email": null,
"url": "http://daringfireball.net/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42720",
"title": "Daring Fireball Weekly Sponsorship Openings",
"description": null,
"url": "https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/",
"published": "2026-03-06T20:59:49.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-07T19:12:57.000Z",
"content": "<p>Weekly sponsorships have been the top source of revenue for Daring Fireball ever since I started selling them <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/archive\">back in 2007</a>. They’ve succeeded, I think, because they make everyone happy. They generate good money. There’s only one sponsor per week and the sponsors are always relevant to at least some sizable portion of the DF audience, so you, the reader, are never annoyed and hopefully often intrigued by them. And, from the sponsors’ perspective, they work. My favorite thing about them is how many sponsors <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/archive\">return for subsequent weeks</a> after seeing the results.</p>\n\n<p>Sponsorships have been selling briskly, of late. There are only three weeks open between now and the end of June. <s>But one of those open weeks is next week, starting this coming Monday:</s></p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>March 9–15 (<strong>Update:</strong> Sold)</li>\n<li>April 20–26 (<strong>Update:</strong> Sold)</li>\n<li>May 25–31</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>I’m also booking sponsorships for Q3 2026, and roughly half of those weeks are already sold.</p>\n\n<p>If you’ve got a product or service you think would be of interest to DF’s audience of people obsessed with high quality and good design, <a href=\"mailto:[email protected]?subject=Feed%20Sponsorship\">get in touch</a> — especially if you can act quick for next week’s opening.</p>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘Daring Fireball Weekly Sponsorship Openings’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/daring-fireball-weekly-sponsorship-openings\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "John Gruber",
"email": null,
"url": "http://daringfireball.net/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42719",
"title": "Google’s Threat Intelligence Group on Coruna, a Powerful iOS Exploit Kit of Mysterious Origin",
"description": null,
"url": "https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/threat-intelligence/coruna-powerful-ios-exploit-kit",
"published": "2026-03-06T19:32:47.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-07T18:32:51.000Z",
"content": "<p>Google Threat Intelligence Group, earlier this week:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) has identified a new and\npowerful exploit kit targeting Apple iPhone models running iOS\nversion 13.0 (released in September 2019) up to version 17.2.1\n(released in December 2023). The exploit kit, named “Coruna” by\nits developers, contained five full iOS exploit chains and a total\nof 23 exploits. The core technical value of this exploit kit lies\nin its comprehensive collection of iOS exploits, with the most\nadvanced ones using non-public exploitation techniques and\nmitigation bypasses.</p>\n\n<p>The Coruna exploit kit provides <a href=\"https://blog.google/threat-analysis-group/state-backed-attackers-and-commercial-surveillance-vendors-repeatedly-use-the-same-exploits/\">another example of how\nsophisticated capabilities proliferate</a>. Over the course of\n2025, GTIG tracked its use in highly targeted operations initially\nconducted by a customer of a <a href=\"https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-uniblog-publish-prod/documents/Buying_Spying_-_Insights_into_Commercial_Surveillance_Vendors_-_TAG_report.pdf\">surveillance vendor</a>, then\nobserved its deployment in watering hole attacks targeting\nUkrainian users by UNC6353, a suspected Russian espionage group.\nWe then retrieved the complete exploit kit when it was later used\nin broad-scale campaigns by UNC6691, a financially motivated\nthreat actor operating from China. How this proliferation occurred\nis unclear, but suggests an active market for “second hand”\nzero-day exploits. Beyond these identified exploits, multiple\nthreat actors have now acquired advanced exploitation techniques\nthat can be re-used and modified with newly identified\nvulnerabilities.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘Google’s Threat Intelligence Group on Coruna, a Powerful iOS Exploit Kit of Mysterious Origin’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/google-threat-intelligence-group-coruna\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "John Gruber",
"email": null,
"url": "http://daringfireball.net/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42718",
"title": "‘The Window Chrome of Our Discontent’",
"description": null,
"url": "https://pxlnv.com/blog/window-chrome-of-our-discontent/",
"published": "2026-03-06T19:21:12.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-07T20:19:41.000Z",
"content": "<p>Nick Heer, writing at Pixel Envy, uses Pages (from 2009 through today) to illustrate Apple’s march toward putting “greater focus on your content” by making window chrome, and toolbar icons, more and more invisible:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Perhaps Apple has some user studies that suggest otherwise, but I\ncannot see how dialling back the lines between interface and\ndocument is supposed to be beneficial for the user. It does not,\nin my use, result in less distraction while I am working in these\napps. In fact, it often does the opposite. I do not think the\nprescription is rolling back to a decade-old design language.\nHowever, I think Apple should consider exploring the wealth of\nvariables it can change to differentiate tools within toolbars,\nand to more clearly delineate window chrome from document.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This entire idea that application window chrome should disappear is madness. Some people — at Apple, quite obviously — think it looks better, in the abstract, but I can’t see how it makes actually <em>using</em> these apps more productive. Artists don’t want to use invisible tools. Artists crave tools that look and feel distinctive and cool.</p>\n\n<p>Clean lines between content and application chrome are clarifying, not distracting. It’s also useful to be able to tell, at a glance, which application is which. I look at Heer’s screenshot of the new version of Pages running on MacOS 26 Tahoe and not only can I not tell at a glance that it’s Pages, I can’t even tell at a glance that it’s a document word processor, especially with the formatting sidebar hidden. One of the worst aspects of Liquid Glass, across all platforms, but exemplified by MacOS 26, is that all apps look exactly the same. Not just different apps that are in the same category, but different apps from entirely different categories. Safari looks like Mail looks like Pages looks like the Finder — even though web browsers, email clients, word processors, and file browsers aren’t anything alike.</p>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘‘The Window Chrome of Our Discontent’’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/window-chrome-of-our-discontent\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "John Gruber",
"email": null,
"url": "http://daringfireball.net/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42717",
"title": "The Verge Interviews Tim Sweeney After Victory in ‘Epic v. Google’",
"description": null,
"url": "https://www.theverge.com/23996474/epic-tim-sweeney-interview-win-google-antitrust-lawsuit-district-court",
"published": "2026-03-06T17:09:10.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-06T19:08:39.000Z",
"content": "<p>The Verge:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Sean Hollister: <em>What would you say the differences are between\nthe Apple and Google cases?</em></p>\n\n<p>Tim Sweeney: I would say Apple was ice and Google was fire.</p>\n\n<p>The thing with Apple is all of their antitrust trickery is\ninternal to the company. They use their store, their payments,\nthey force developers to all have the same terms, they force OEMs\nand carriers to all have the same terms.</p>\n\n<p>Whereas Google, to achieve things with Android, they were going\naround and paying off game developers, dozens of game developers,\nto not compete. And they’re paying off dozens of carriers and OEMs\nto not compete — and when all of these different companies do\ndeals together, lots of people put things in writing, and it’s\nright there for everybody to read and to see plainly.</p>\n\n<p>I think the Apple case would be no less interesting if we could\nsee all of their internal thoughts and deliberations, but Apple\nwas not putting it in writing, whereas Google was. You know, I\nthink Apple is... it’s a little bit unfortunate that in a lot of\nways Apple’s restrictions on competition are absolute. Thou shalt\nnot have a competing store on iOS and thou shalt not use a\ncompeting payment method. And I think Apple should be receiving at\nleast as harsh antitrust scrutiny as Google.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Interesting interview, for sure — but it’s from December 2023, when Epic scored its first court victory against Google. And, notably, it came <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/sweeney-google-gag\">before Sweeney signed away</a> his right to criticize Google or the Play Store.</p>\n\n<p>But I don’t see Epic’s ultimate victory in the lawsuit as a win for Android users, and I don’t think it’s much of a win for Android developers either. <a href=\"https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2026/03/a-new-era-for-choice-and-openness.html\">These new terms from Google</a> just seem confusing and complicated, with varying rates for “existing installs” vs. “new installs”.</p>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘The Verge Interviews Tim Sweeney After Victory in ‘Epic v. Google’’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/verge-sweeney-interview\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "John Gruber",
"email": null,
"url": "http://daringfireball.net/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42716",
"title": "Tim Sweeney Signed Away His Right to Criticize Google’s Play Store Until 2032",
"description": null,
"url": "https://www.theverge.com/news/889595/tim-sweeney-signed-away-his-right-to-criticize-google-until-2032",
"published": "2026-03-06T16:36:16.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-06T16:36:16.000Z",
"content": "<p>Sean Hollister, writing for The Verge:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>But Google has finally muzzled Tim Sweeney. It’s right there in a\nbinding term sheet for <a href=\"https://www.theverge.com/policy/889252/google-app-store-fee-reduction-20-percent-epic-v-google\">his settlement with Google</a>.</p>\n\n<p>On March 3rd, he not only signed away Epic’s rights to sue and\ndisparage the company over anything covered in the term sheet — Google’s app distribution practices, its fees, how it treats games\nand apps — he signed away his right to advocate for any further\nchanges to Google’s app store policies, too. He can’t criticize\nGoogle’s app store practices. In fact, he has to praise them.</p>\n\n<p>The contract states that “Epic believes that the Google and\nAndroid platform, with the changes in this term sheet, are\nprocompetitive and a model for app store / platform operations,\nand will make good faith efforts to advocate for the same.” [...]</p>\n\n<p>And while Epic can still be part of the “Coalition for App\nFairness,” the organization that <a href=\"https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/30/23962920/epic-just-admitted-the-coalition-for-app-fairness-was-created-solely-by-epic\">Epic quietly and solely funded\nto be its attack dog</a> against Google and Apple, he can only\npoint that organization at Apple now.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Sounds like a highly credible coalition that truly stands for fairness to me.</p>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘Tim Sweeney Signed Away His Right to Criticize Google’s Play Store Until 2032’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/sweeney-google-gag\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "John Gruber",
"email": null,
"url": "http://daringfireball.net/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42715",
"title": "The MacBook Neo’s Price, Looking to the Past and Future",
"description": null,
"url": "https://x.com/ethan_is_online/status/2029331836137291941?s=42",
"published": "2026-03-06T14:50:39.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-06T16:22:25.000Z",
"content": "<p>Ethan W. Anderson, on Twitter/X:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I’ve plotted the most expensive McDonald’s burger and the least\nexpensive MacBook over time. This analysis projects that the most\nexpensive burger will be more expensive than the cheapest laptop\nas soon as 2081.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Looking to the past, if you plug $599 in today’s money into <a href=\"https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/\">an inflation calculator</a>, that’s just ~$190 in 1984, the year the original Macintosh launched with a price of $2,495 (which works out to ~$7,800 today.)</p>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘The MacBook Neo’s Price, Looking to the Past and Future’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/macbook-neos-price-past-and-future\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "John Gruber",
"email": null,
"url": "http://daringfireball.net/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42714",
"title": "‘Never the Same Game Twice’",
"description": null,
"url": "https://johnmccoy.org/2026/03/05/never-the-same-game-twice/",
"published": "2026-03-06T14:44:02.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-06T14:59:44.000Z",
"content": "<p>John McCoy:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>From around 1970 to 1980, the Salem, Massachusetts-based Parker\nBrothers (now a brand of Hasbro) published games whose innovative\nand fanciful designs drew inspiration from Pop Art, Op Art, and\nMadison Avenue advertising. They had boxes, boards, and components\nthat reflected the most current techniques of printing and\nplastics molding. They were witty, silly, and weird. The other\nmain players in American games at the time were Milton-Bradley,\nwhose art tended towards cartoony, corny, and flat designs, and\nIdeal, whose games (like <em>Mousetrap</em>) were mostly showcases for\ntheir novel plastic components.</p>\n\n<p>Parker Brothers design stood out for its style and sophistication,\nand even as a young nerd I could see that it was special. In fact,\nI believe they were my introduction, at the age of seven, to the\nwhole concept of graphic design. This isn’t to say that the games\nwere <em>good</em> in the sense of being fun or engaging to play; a lot\nof them were re-skinned versions of the basic\nrace-around-the-board type that had been popular since the <em>Uncle\nWiggly Game</em>. But they looked amazing and they were <em>different</em>.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>These games mostly sucked but they looked cool as shit. Lot of memories for me in this post.</p>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘‘Never the Same Game Twice’’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/mccoy-parker-bros\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "John Gruber",
"email": null,
"url": "http://daringfireball.net/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42713",
"title": "Another Steve Jobs Quote on Lower-Priced Macs",
"description": null,
"url": "https://technologizer.com/2008/10/22/the-case-for-a-mac-netbook/index.html",
"published": "2026-03-06T14:22:21.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-06T15:18:52.000Z",
"content": "<p>Steve Jobs, on Apple’s quarterly results call <a href=\"https://seekingalpha.com/article/100980-apple-f4q08-qtr-end-9-27-08-earnings-call-transcript?page=-1\">back in October 2008</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>There are some customers which we choose not to serve. We don’t\nknow how to make a $500 computer that’s not a piece of junk, and\nour DNA will not let us ship that.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Harry McCracken, writing at the time:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>With <em>that</em> out of the way, the question that folks have been\nasking lately about whether Apple <a href=\"http://gigaom.com/2008/10/02/3-reasons-why-well-see-an-apple-netbook-soon/\">will</a> or <a href=\"http://www.scripting.com/stories/2008/10/22/whyILikeNetbooks.html\">should</a>\nrelease a netbook-like Mac is fascinating. Regardless of whether\nthe company ever does unveil a small, cheap, simple Mac notebook,\nit’s fun to think about the prospect of one. And I’ve come to the\nconclusion that such a machine <em>could</em> be in the works, in a\nmanner that’s consistent with the Apple way and the company’s\nproduct line as it stands today. I’m not calling this a\nprediction. But it is a scenario.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Apple made many $500 “computers” in the years between then and now. But they were iPads, not Macs. I think part of the impetus behind the MacBook Neo is an acknowledgement that as popular as iPads are, and for as many people who use them as their primary larger-than-a-phone computing device, there are a lot of other people, and a lot of use cases, that demand a PC. And from Apple, that means a Mac.</p>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘Another Steve Jobs Quote on Lower-Priced Macs’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/06/jobs-500-computer\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "John Gruber",
"email": null,
"url": "http://daringfireball.net/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42712",
"title": "Steve Jobs in 2007, on Apple’s Pursuit of PC Market Share: ‘We Just Can’t Ship Junk’",
"description": null,
"url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U37Ds3RvyoM",
"published": "2026-03-05T18:43:16.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-05T23:18:13.000Z",
"content": "<p>In August 2007, Apple held a Mac event in the Infinite Loop Town Hall auditorium. <a href=\"https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2007/08/07Apple-Unveils-New-iMac/\">New iMacs</a>, <a href=\"https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2007/08/07Apple-Introduces-iLife-08/\">iLife ’08</a> (major updates to iPhoto and iMovie), and <a href=\"https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2007/08/07Apple-Introduces-iWork-08/\">iWork ’08</a> (including the debut of Numbers 1.0). Back then, believe it or not, at the end of these Town Hall events, Apple executives would sit on stools and take questions from the media. For this one, Steve Jobs was flanked by Tim Cook and Phil Schiller. Molly Wood, then at CNet, asked, “And so, I guess once and for all, is it your goal to overtake the PC in market share?”</p>\n\n<p>The audience — along with Cook, Jobs, and Schiller — chuckled. And then Jobs answered. You should watch the video — it’s just two minutes — but here’s what he said:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I can tell you what our goal is. Our goal is to make the best\npersonal computers in the world and to make products we are proud\nto sell and would recommend to our family and friends. And we want\nto do that at the lowest prices we can. But I have to tell you,\nthere’s some stuff in our industry that we wouldn’t be proud to\nship, that we wouldn’t be proud to recommend to our family and\nfriends. And we can’t do it. We just can’t ship junk.</p>\n\n<p>So there are thresholds that we can’t cross because of who\nwe are. But we want to make the best personal computers in the\nindustry. And we think there’s a very significant slice of the\nindustry that wants that too. And what you’ll find is our products\nare usually <em>not</em> premium priced. You go and price out our\ncompetitors’ products, and you add the features that you have to\nadd to make them useful, and you’ll find in some cases they are\nmore expensive than our products. The difference is we don’t offer\nstripped-down lousy products. We just don’t offer\ncategories of products like that. But if you move those aside and\ncompare us with our competitors, I think we compare pretty\nfavorably. And a lot of people have been doing that, and\nsaying that now, for the last 18 months.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Steve Jobs would have <em>loved</em> the MacBook Neo. Everything about it, right down to the fact that Apple is responsible for the silicon.</p>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘Steve Jobs in 2007, on Apple’s Pursuit of PC Market Share: ‘We Just Can’t Ship Junk’’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/05/steve-jobs-we-just-cant-ship-junk\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "John Gruber",
"email": null,
"url": "http://daringfireball.net/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026://1.42711",
"title": "★ Thoughts and Observations on the MacBook Neo",
"description": "The MacBook Neo is the first major new Mac aimed at the consumer market in the Apple Silicon era. It’s meant to make a dent — perhaps a minuscule dent in the universe, but a big dent in the Mac’s share of the overall PC market.",
"url": "https://daringfireball.net/2026/03/599_not_a_piece_of_junk_macbook_neo",
"published": "2026-03-04T19:40:11.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-10T18:52:21.000Z",
"content": "<p><em>$599. Not a piece of junk.</em></p>\n\n<p>That’s <em>not</em> a marketing slogan from Apple for <a href=\"https://www.apple.com/macbook-neo/\">the new MacBook Neo</a>. But it could be. And it <em>is</em> the underlying message of the product. For a few years now, Apple has <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/search/walmart+macbook+air+m1\">quietly dabbled with the sub-$1,000 laptop market</a>, by selling the base configuration of the M1 MacBook Air — a machine that <a href=\"https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2020/11/introducing-the-next-generation-of-mac/\">debuted</a> in November 2020 — at retailers like Walmart for under $700. But <em>dabbling</em> is the right word. Apple has never ventured under the magic $999 price point for a MacBook available in its own stores.</p>\n\n<p>As of today, they’re not just in the sub-$1,000 laptop market, they’re going in hard. The MacBook Neo is a very compelling $600 laptop, and for just $100 more, you get a configuration with Touch ID and double the storage (512 GB instead of 256).</p>\n\n<p>You can argue that all MacBooks should have Touch ID. My first answer to that is “$599”. My second answer is “education”. Touch ID doesn’t really make sense for laptops shared by kids in a school. And with Apple’s $100 education pricing discount, the base MacBook Neo, at $499, is <em>half the price</em> of the base M5 MacBook Air ($1099 retail, $999 education). Half the price.</p>\n\n<p>I’m writing this from Apple’s hands-on “experience” in New York, amongst what I’d estimate as a few hundred members of the media. It’s a pretty big event, and a very big space inside some sort of empty warehouse on the western edge of Chelsea. Before playing the four-minute Neo introduction video (which you should watch — <a href=\"https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/03/say-hello-to-macbook-neo/?videoid=45c8e3bf69354631f6ee78a782356dbf\">it’s embedded in Apple’s Newsroom post</a>), John Ternus took the stage to address the audience. He emphasized that the Mac user base continues to grow, because “nearly half of Mac buyers are new to the platform”. Ternus didn’t say the following aloud, but Apple clearly knows what has kept a <em>lot</em> of would-be switchers from switching, and it’s the price. The Mac Mini is great, but normal people only buy laptops, and aside from the aforementioned dabbling with the five-year-old M1 MacBook Air and a brief exception when <a href=\"https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2014/04/29Apple-Updates-MacBook-Air/\">the MacBook Air dropped to $899 in 2014</a>, Apple just hasn’t ventured under $999. “<a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U37Ds3RvyoM\">We just can’t ship junk</a>,” Steve Jobs said back in 2007. It’s not that Apple never noticed the demand for laptops in the $500–700 range. It’s that they didn’t see how to make one that wasn’t junk.</p>\n\n<p>Now they have. And the PC world should take note. One of my briefings today included a side-by-side comparison between a MacBook Neo and an HP 14-inch laptop “in the same price category”. It was something like <a href=\"https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/pdp/hp-omnibook-5-ngai-14-he0027nr\">this one</a>, with an Intel Core 5 chip, which costs $550. The HP’s screen sucks (very dim, way lower resolution), the speakers suck, the keyboard sucks, and the trackpad sucks. It’s a thick, heavy, plasticky piece of junk. I didn’t put my nose to it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it smells bad.</p>\n\n<p>The MacBook Neo looks and feels every bit like a MacBook. Solid aluminum. Good keyboard (no backlighting, but supposedly the same mechanism as in other post-2019 MacBooks — felt great in my quick testing). Good trackpad (no <a href=\"https://support.apple.com/en-us/102309\">Force Touch</a> — it actually physically clicks, but you can click anywhere, not just the bottom). Good bright display (500 nits max, same as the MacBook Air). Surprisingly good speakers, in a new side-firing configuration. Without even turning either laptop on, you can just see and feel that the MacBook Neo is a vastly superior device.</p>\n\n<p>And when you do turn them on, you see the vast difference in display quality and hear the vast difference in speaker quality. And you get MacOS, not Windows, which, even with Tahoe, remains the quintessential glass of ice water in hell for the computer industry.</p>\n\n<p>I came into today’s <s>event</s> experience expecting a starting price of $799 for the Neo — $300 less than the new $1,099 price for the base M5 MacBook Air (which, in defense of that price, starts with 512 GB storage). $599 is a fucking statement. Apple is coming after this market. I think they’re going to sell a zillion of these things, and “almost half” of new Mac buyers being new to the platform is going to become “more than half”. The MacBook Neo is not a footnote or hobby, or a pricing stunt to get people in the door before upselling them to a MacBook Air. It’s the first major new Mac aimed at the consumer market in the Apple Silicon era. It’s meant to make a dent — perhaps a minuscule <a href=\"https://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-famous-quote-misunderstood-laurene-powell-2020-2\">dent in the universe</a>, but a big dent in the Mac’s share of the overall PC market.</p>\n\n<h2>Miscellaneous Observations</h2>\n\n<p>It’s worth noting that the Neo is aptly named. It really is altogether new. In that way it’s the opposite of the five-year-old M1 MacBook Air that Apple had been selling through retailers like Walmart and Amazon. Rather than selling something old for a lower price, they’ve designed and engineered something new from the ground up to launch at a lower price. It’s an all-new trackpad. It’s a good but different display than the Air’s — slightly smaller (13.0 inches vs. 13.6) and supporting only the sRGB color gamut, not P3. <em>If you know the difference between sRGB and P3, the Neo is not the MacBook you want.</em> What Neo buyers are going to notice is that the display looks good and is just as bright as the Air’s — and it looks way better, way sharper, and way brighter than the criminally ugly displays on PC laptops in this price range.</p>\n\n<p>Even the Apple logo on the back of the display lid is different. Rather than make it polished and shiny, <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/03/macbook-neo-apple-logo.jpeg\">it’s simply debossed</a>. Save a few bucks here, a few bucks there, and you eventually grind your way to a new MacBook that deserves the name “MacBook” but starts at just $600.</p>\n\n<p>But of course there are trade-offs. You can use Apple’s Compare page <a href=\"https://www.apple.com/macbook-neo/compare/?modelList=MacBook-Neo-A18-Pro,MacBook-Air-M5,MacBook-Air-M1\">to see the differences between the Neo and Air</a> (and, for kicks, the 2020 M1 Air that until now was still being sold at Walmart). Even better, over at 512 Pixels Stephen Hackett has <a href=\"https://512pixels.net/2026/03/the-differences-between-the-macbook-neo-and-macbook-air/\">assembled a concise list of the differences between the MacBook Neo and MacBook Air</a>. All of these things matter, but none of these things are dealbreakers for a $500-700 MacBook. These trade-offs are extremely well-considered on Apple’s part.</p>\n\n<p>I’ll call out one item from Hackett’s 17-item list in particular:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>One of the two USB-C ports <a href=\"https://www.macrumors.com/2026/03/04/macbook-neo-features-two-different-usb-ports/\">is limited</a> to USB 2.0 speeds of just\n480 Mb/s.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>On the one hand, this stinks. It just does. The two ports look exactly the same — and neither is labeled in any way — but they’re different. But on the other hand, the Neo is the first product with an A-series chip that Apple has ever made that supports two USB ports.<sup id=\"fnr1-2026-03-04\"><a href=\"#fn1-2026-03-04\">1</a></sup> It was, I am reliably informed by Apple product marketing folks, a significant engineering achievement to get a second USB port <em>at all</em> on the MacBook Neo while basing it on the A18 Pro SoC. And while the ports aren’t labeled, if you plug an external display into the “wrong” port, you’ll get an on-screen notification suggesting you plug it into the other port. That this second USB-C port is USB 2.0 is not great, but it is fine.</p>\n\n<p>Other notes:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>I think the “fun-ness” of the Neo colors was overstated <a href=\"https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2026-02-15/tesla-carplay-delays-related-to-ios-26-and-fsd-apple-s-new-siri-delays-ios-27\">in the rumor mill</a>. But the “blush” color is definitely pink, “citrus” is definitely yellow, and “indigo” is definitely blue. No confusing any of them with shades of gray.</p></li>\n<li><p>The keyboards are color-matched. At a glance it’s easy to think the keyboards are all white, but only on the silver Neo are the key caps actually white. The others are all slightly tinted to match the color of the case. Nice!</p></li>\n<li><p>8 GB of RAM is not a lot, but with Apple Silicon it really is enough for typical consumer productivity apps. (If they update the Neo annually and next year’s model gets the A19 Pro, it will move not to 16 GB of RAM but 12 GB.)</p></li>\n<li><p>It’s an interesting coincidence that the base models for the Neo and iPhone 17e both cost $600. For $1,200 you can buy a new iPhone and a new MacBook for just $100 more than the price of the base model M5 MacBook Air. (And the iPhone 17e is the one with the faster CPU.)</p></li>\n<li><p>With the Neo only offered in two configurations — $600 or $700 — and the M5 Air now starting at $1,100, Apple has no MacBooks in the range between $700 and $1,100.</p></li>\n<li><p>To consider the spread of Apple’s market segmentation, and how the Neo expands it, think about the fact that on the premium side, <a href=\"https://www.apple.com/shop/product/mwr53ll/a/magic-keyboard-for-ipad-pro-13%E2%80%91inch-m5-us-english-black\">the 13-inch iPad Pro Magic Keyboard costs $350</a>. That’s a keyboard with a trackpad and a hinge. You can now buy a whole damn 13-inch MacBook Neo — which includes a keyboard, trackpad, and hinge, along with a display and speakers and a whole Macintosh computer — for just $250 more.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<div class=\"footnotes\">\n<hr />\n<ol>\n<li id=\"fn1-2026-03-04\">\n<p>Perhaps the closest Apple had ever come to an A-series-chip product with two ports was the original iPad from 2010, which <a href=\"https://www.phonearena.com/news/apple-ipad-prototype-with-two-ports_id131100\">in late prototypes had two 30-pin connectors</a> — one on the long side and another on the short side — so that you could orient it either way in <a href=\"https://tow.com/2020/04/26/ipad-keyboards/\">the original iPad keyboard dock</a>. <a href=\"#fnr1-2026-03-04\" class=\"footnoteBackLink\" title=\"Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.\">↩︎</a></p>\n</li>\n</ol>\n</div>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "John Gruber",
"email": null,
"url": "http://daringfireball.net/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42710",
"title": "Studio Display vs. Studio Display XDR",
"description": null,
"url": "https://www.apple.com/displays/",
"published": "2026-03-04T17:04:43.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-04T17:04:44.000Z",
"content": "<p>Not sure if this page was there yesterday, but the main “Displays” page at Apple’s website is a spec-by-spec comparison between the regular and XDR models. Nice.</p>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘Studio Display vs. Studio Display XDR’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/04/studio-display-vs-studio-display-xdr\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "John Gruber",
"email": null,
"url": "http://daringfireball.net/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42709",
"title": "Compatibility Notes on the New Studio Displays",
"description": null,
"url": "https://www.macrumors.com/2026/03/03/apple-studio-display-no-intel-mac-support/",
"published": "2026-03-04T15:10:32.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-06T13:25:46.000Z",
"content": "<p>Juli Clover, at MacRumors, notes that neither the new Studio Display nor the Studio Display XDR are <a href=\"https://www.macrumors.com/2026/03/03/apple-studio-display-no-intel-mac-support/\">compatible with Intel-based Macs</a>. (I’m curious why.) Also, <a href=\"https://www.macrumors.com/2026/03/03/studio-display-xdr-120hz-limits/\">in a separate report</a>, she notes that Macs with any M1 chip, or the base M2 or M3, are only able to drive the Studio Display XDR at 60 Hz. You need a Pro or better M2/M3, or any M4 or M5 chip, to drive it at 120 Hz.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Update:</strong> My understanding is that if you connect one of these new Studio Displays to an Intel-based Mac, it’ll work, but it’ll work as a dumb monitor. You won’t get the full features. I’ll bet Apple sooner or later publishes a support document explaining it, but for now, they’re just saying they’re not “compatible” because you don’t get the full feature set. Like with the Studio Display XDR in particular, you won’t get HDR or 120 Hz refresh rates.</p>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘Compatibility Notes on the New Studio Displays’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/04/compatibility-notes-on-the-new-studio-displays\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "John Gruber",
"email": null,
"url": "http://daringfireball.net/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42708",
"title": "‘In Other Words, Batman Has Become Superman and Robin Has Become Batman’",
"description": null,
"url": "https://sixcolors.com/post/2026/03/apple-gives-in-to-temptation-and-renames-its-cpu-cores/",
"published": "2026-03-04T12:42:46.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-04T12:42:47.000Z",
"content": "<p>Jason Snell, Six Colors:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Here’s the backstory: With every new generation of Apple’s\nMac-series processors, I’ve gotten the impression from Apple execs\nthat they’ve been a little frustrated with the perception that\ntheir “lesser” efficiency cores were weak sauce. I’ve lost count\nof the number of briefings and conversations I’ve had where\nthey’ve had to go out of their way to point out that, actually,\nthe lesser cores on an M-series chip are quite fast on their own,\nin addition to being very good at saving power!</p>\n\n<p>Clearly they’ve had enough of that, so they’re changing how those\ncores are marketed to emphasize their performance, rather than\ntheir efficiency.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘‘In Other Words, Batman Has Become Superman and Robin Has Become Batman’’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/04/snell-batman-superman\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "John Gruber",
"email": null,
"url": "http://daringfireball.net/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42707",
"title": "Apple Announces Updated Studio Display and All-New Studio Display XDR",
"description": null,
"url": "https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/03/apple-unveils-new-studio-display-and-all-new-studio-display-xdr/",
"published": "2026-03-03T20:25:07.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-08T17:27:59.000Z",
"content": "<p>Apple Newsroom:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Apple today announced a new family of displays engineered to pair\nbeautifully with Mac and meet the needs of everyone, from everyday\nusers to the world’s top pros. The new <a href=\"https://www.apple.com/studio-display/\">Studio Display</a>\nfeatures a 12MP Center Stage camera, now with improved image\nquality and support for Desk View; a studio-quality\nthree-microphone array; and an immersive six-speaker sound system\nwith Spatial Audio. It also now includes powerful Thunderbolt 5\nconnectivity, providing more downstream connectivity for\nhigh-speed accessories or daisy-chaining displays. The all-new\n<a href=\"https://www.apple.com/studio-display-xdr/\">Studio Display XDR</a> takes the pro display experience to the\nnext level. Its 27-inch 5K Retina XDR display features an advanced\nmini-LED backlight with over 2,000 local dimming zones, up to 1000\nnits of SDR brightness, and 2000 nits of peak HDR brightness, in\naddition to a wider color gamut, so content jumps off the screen\nwith breathtaking contrast, vibrancy, and accuracy. With its 120Hz\nrefresh rate, Studio Display XDR is even more responsive to\ncontent in motion, and Adaptive Sync dynamically adjusts frame\nrates for content like video playback or graphically intense\ngames. Studio Display XDR offers the same advanced camera and\naudio system as Studio Display, as well as Thunderbolt 5\nconnectivity to simplify pro workflow setups. The new Studio\nDisplay with a tilt-adjustable stand starts at $1,599, and Studio\nDisplay XDR with a tilt- and height-adjustable stand starts at\n$3,299. Both are available in standard or nano-texture glass\noptions, and can be pre-ordered starting tomorrow, March 4, with\navailability beginning Wednesday, March 11.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Compared to the first-generation Studio Display (<a href=\"https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2022/03/apple-unveils-all-new-mac-studio-and-studio-display/\">March 2022</a>), the updated model really just has a better camera. (<a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/2022/03/the_apple_studio_display\">Wouldn’t take much to improve upon the old camera</a>.) The Studio Display XDR is the interesting new one. Apple doesn’t seem to have a “Compare” page for its displays, so the <a href=\"https://www.apple.com/studio-display/specs/\">Studio Display Tech Specs</a> and <a href=\"https://www.apple.com/studio-display-xdr/specs/\">Studio Display XDR Tech Specs</a> pages will have to suffice. <strong>Update:</strong> <a href=\"https://www.apple.com/displays/\">The main “Displays” page at Apple’s website</a> serves as a comparison page between the new Studio Display and Studio Display XDR.</p>\n\n<p>The regular Studio Display maxes out at 600 nits, and only supports a refresh rate of 60 Hz. The Studio Display XDR maxes out at 1,000 nits for SDR content and 2,000 nits for HDR, with up to 120 Hz refresh rate. Nice, but not enough to tempt me to upgrade from my current Studio Display with nano-texture, which I never seem to run at maximum brightness. I guess it would be nice to see HDR content, but not nice enough to spend $3,600 to get one with nano-texture. And I don’t think I care about 120 Hz on my Mac?</p>\n\n<p><s>Unresolved is what this means for the <a href=\"https://www.apple.com/pro-display-xdr/\">Pro Display XDR</a>, which remains unchanged since <a href=\"https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/06/apple-unveils-powerful-all-new-mac-pro-and-groundbreaking-pro-display-xdr/\">its debut in 2019</a>.</s> <strong>Update 1:</strong> Whoops, apparently this <em>has</em> been resolved. A small-print note on the Newsroom announcement states:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Studio Display XDR replaces Pro Display XDR and starts at $3,299\n(U.S.) and $3,199 (U.S.) for education.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p><strong>Update 2:</strong> I neglected to mention what might be the biggest upgrade: Thunderbolt 5 with support for daisy-chaining multiple displays. With the original Studio Display (and Pro Display XDR), each external display needed a cable connecting it to your Mac. Now, you can connect your Mac to one Studio Display, connect that one to a second, and connect the second to a third. Nice.</p>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘Apple Announces Updated Studio Display and All-New Studio Display XDR’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/03/updated-studio-display-and-all-new-studio-display-xdr\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "John Gruber",
"email": null,
"url": "http://daringfireball.net/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42706",
"title": "New MacBook Air With M5",
"description": null,
"url": "https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/03/apple-introduces-the-new-macbook-air-with-m5/",
"published": "2026-03-03T20:08:42.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-03T20:09:56.000Z",
"content": "<p>Apple Newsroom:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>MacBook Air now comes standard with double the starting storage at\n512GB with faster SSD technology, and is configurable up to 4TB,\nso customers can keep their most important work on hand. Apple’s\nN1 wireless chip delivers Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 for seamless\nconnectivity on the go. MacBook Air features a beautifully thin,\nlight, and durable aluminum design, stunning Liquid Retina\ndisplay, 12MP Center Stage camera, up to 18 hours of battery life,\nan immersive sound system with Spatial Audio, and two Thunderbolt\n4 ports with support for up to two external displays.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Base storage went from 256 to 512 GB, but the base <em>price</em> went from the magic $999 to $1,100 ($1,099, technically, which doesn’t make the 99 seem magic). Presumably, those in the market for a $999 MacBook will buy the new about-to-be-announced-tomorrow lower-priced MacBook “<a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/03/macbook-neo-name-leak\">Neo</a>”, which I’m guessing will start at $800 ($799), maybe as low as $700 ($699), but will surely have higher-priced configurations for additional storage. Today’s new M5 MacBook Airs have storage upgrades of:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>1 TB (+ $200)</li>\n<li>2 TB (+ $600)</li>\n<li>4 TB (+ $1,200)</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Colors remain unchanged (and in my opinion, boring): midnight, starlight, silver, sky blue (almost black, gold-ish gray, gray, blue-ish gray). RAM options remain unchanged too: 16, 24, or 32 GB.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/compare/?modelList=MacBook-Air-M5,MacBook-Air-M4,MacBook-Pro-14-M5\">A comparison page showing the new M5 Air, old M4 Air, and base M5 MacBook Pro</a> suggests not much else is new year-over-year, other than the Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 support from the N1 chip.</p>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘New MacBook Air With M5’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/03/new-macbook-air-with-m5\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "John Gruber",
"email": null,
"url": "http://daringfireball.net/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42705",
"title": "Apple Might Have Prematurely Leaked the Name ‘MacBook Neo’",
"description": null,
"url": "https://www.macrumors.com/2026/03/03/apple-accidentally-leaks-macbook-neo/",
"published": "2026-03-03T19:59:43.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-03T19:59:44.000Z",
"content": "<p>Joe Rossignol, MacRumors:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>A regulatory document for a “MacBook Neo” (Model A3404) has\nappeared on Apple’s website. Unfortunately, there are no further\ndetails or images available yet. While the PDF file does not\ncontain the “MacBook Neo” name, it briefly appeared in a link on\nApple’s regulatory website for EU compliance purposes.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>My money was on just plain “MacBook”, but I like “MacBook Neo”.</p>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘Apple Might Have Prematurely Leaked the Name ‘MacBook Neo’’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/03/macbook-neo-name-leak\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "John Gruber",
"email": null,
"url": "http://daringfireball.net/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.42704",
"title": "Apple Introduces MacBook Pro Models With M5 Pro and M5 Max Chips",
"description": null,
"url": "https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/03/apple-introduces-macbook-pro-with-all-new-m5-pro-and-m5-max/",
"published": "2026-03-03T19:01:28.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-04T21:55:07.000Z",
"content": "<p>Apple Newsroom:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Apple today announced the latest <a href=\"https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/\">14- and 16-inch MacBook\nPro</a> with the all-new M5 Pro and M5 Max, bringing\ngame-changing performance and AI capabilities to the world’s best\npro laptop. With M5 Pro and M5 Max, MacBook Pro features a new CPU\nwith the world’s fastest CPU core, a next-generation GPU with a\nNeural Accelerator in each core, and higher unified memory\nbandwidth, altogether delivering up to 4× AI performance compared\nto the previous generation, and up to 8× AI performance compared\nto M1 models. This allows developers, researchers, business\nprofessionals, and creatives to unlock new AI-enabled workflows\nright on MacBook Pro. It now comes with up to 2× faster SSD\nperformance and starts at 1TB of storage for M5 Pro and 2TB for M5\nMax. The new MacBook Pro includes N1, an Apple-designed wireless\nnetworking chip that enables Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, bringing\nimproved performance and reliability to wireless connections. It\nalso offers up to 24 hours of battery life; a gorgeous Liquid\nRetina XDR display with a nano-texture option; a wide array of\nconnectivity, including Thunderbolt 5; a 12MP Center Stage camera;\nstudio-quality mics; an immersive six-speaker sound system; Apple\nIntelligence features; and the power of macOS Tahoe. The new\nMacBook Pro comes in space black and silver, and is available to\npre-order starting tomorrow, March 4, with availability beginning\nWednesday, March 11.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs/\">MacBook Pro Tech Specs page</a> is a good place to start to compare the entire M5 MacBook Pro lineup. One noteworthy change is that last year’s M4 Pro models only supported 24 or 48 GB of RAM; the new M5 Pro models support 24, 48, and 64 GB. Memory configurations for the M5 Max are unchanged from the M4 Max: 36, 48, 64, and 128 GB. (You could get an M4 Pro chip with 64 GB, but only on the Mac Mini.)</p>\n\n<p>Also worth noting — Apple’s RAM pricing remains unchanged, despite the spike in memory prices industry-wide. With the “full” M5 Max chip (18-core CPU, 40-core GPU — there’s a lesser configuration with “only” 32 GPU cores for -$300), base memory is 48 GB. Upgrading to 64 GB costs $200, and upgrading to 128 GB costs $1,000. Same prices as last year. This means the price for a MacBook Pro with 64 GB of RAM — if that’s your main concern — <em>dropped</em> by $800 year over year. Last year you needed to buy one with the high-end M4 Max chip to get 64 GB; now you can configure a MacBook Pro with the M5 Pro with 64 GB. Nice!</p>\n\n<p>Ben Thompson and I wagered a steak dinner on this on <a href=\"https://dithering.fm/\">Dithering</a>. Ben bet on Apple’s memory prices going up; I bet on them staying the same. My thinking was that this industry-wide spike in RAM prices is exactly why Apple has always charged more for memory — “just in case”. I’m going to enjoy that steak.</p>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘Apple Introduces MacBook Pro Models With M5 Pro and M5 Max Chips’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/03/apple-introduces-macbook-pro-models-with-m5-pro-and-m5-max-chips\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "John Gruber",
"email": null,
"url": "http://daringfireball.net/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/feeds/sponsors//11.42702",
"title": "[Sponsor] npx workos: An AI Agent That Writes Auth Directly Into Your Codebase",
"description": null,
"url": "https://workos.com/docs/authkit/cli-installer?utm_source=tldrdev&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=q12026",
"published": "2026-03-02T23:20:21.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-02T23:20:22.000Z",
"content": "<p>npx workos <a href=\"https://youtu.be/kU88lUqdduQ?utm_source=daringfireball&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=q12026\">launches an AI agent</a>, powered by Claude, that reads your project, detects your framework, and writes a complete auth integration directly into your existing codebase. It’s not a template generator. It reads your code, understands your stack, and writes an integration that fits.</p>\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https://workos.com/?utm_source=daringfireball&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=q12026\">WorkOS</a> agent then typechecks and builds, feeding any errors back to itself to fix.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://workos.com/docs/authkit/cli-installer?utm_source=tldrdev&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=q12026\">See how it works →</a></p>\n\n<div>\n<a title=\"Permanent link to ‘npx workos: An AI Agent That Writes Auth Directly Into Your Codebase’\" href=\"https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/2026/03/npx_workos_an_ai_agent_that_wr\"> ★ </a>\n</div>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Daring Fireball Department of Commerce",
"email": null,
"url": null
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026://1.42701",
"title": "★ HazeOver — Mac Utility for Highlighting the Frontmost Window",
"description": "What HazeOver does is highlight the active window by dimming all background windows. That’s it. But it does this simple task with aplomb, and it makes a significant difference in the day-to-day usability of MacOS.",
"url": "https://daringfireball.net/2026/03/hazeover",
"published": "2026-03-02T22:41:11.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-03T17:38:32.000Z",
"content": "<p>Back in December <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/12/03/alan-app\">I linked to</a> a sort-of stunt project from Tyler Hall <a href=\"https://tyler.io/2025/11/26/alan/\">called Alan.app</a> — a simple Mac utility that draws a bold rectangle around the current active window. Alan.app lets you set the thickness and color of the frame. I used it for an hour or so before calling it quits. It really does solve the severe (and worsening) problem of being able to instantly identify the active window in recent versions of MacOS, but the crudeness of Alan.app’s implementation makes it one of those cases where the cure is worse than the disease. Ultimately I’d rather suffer from barely distinguishable active window state than look at Alan.app’s crude active-window frame all day every day. What makes Alan.app interesting to me is its effectiveness as a protest app. The absurdity of Alan.app’s crude solution highlights the absurdity of the underlying problem — that anyone would even <em>consider</em> running Alan.app (or the fact that Hall was motivated to create and release it) shows just how bad windowing UI is in recent MacOS versions.</p>\n\n<p>Turns out there exists an app that attempts to solve this problem in an elegant way that you might want to actually live with. It’s called <a href=\"https://hazeover.com/\">HazeOver</a>, and developer Maxim Ananov first released it a decade ago. It’s <a href=\"https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hazeover-distraction-dimmer/id430798174?mt=12\">in the Mac App Store for $5</a>, is included <a href=\"https://go.setapp.com/stp130?refAppID=212&stc=index\">in the SetApp subscription service</a>, and has <a href=\"https://hazeover.com/\">a free trial available</a> from the website.</p>\n\n<p>What HazeOver does is highlight the active window by dimming all background windows. That’s it. But it does this simple task with aplomb, and it makes a significant difference in the day-to-day usability of MacOS. Not just MacOS 26 Tahoe — all recent versions of MacOS suffer from a design that makes it difficult to distinguish, instantly, the frontmost (a.k.a. key) window from background windows.<sup id=\"fnr1-2026-03-02\"><a href=\"#fn1-2026-03-02\">1</a></sup> Making all background windows a little dimmer makes a notable difference.</p>\n\n<p>Longtime DF reader <a href=\"https://www.faisal.com/\">Faisal Jawdat</a> sent me a note suggesting I try HazeOver back in early December, after I linked to Alan.app. I didn’t get around to trying HazeOver until December 30, and I’ve been using it ever since. One thing I did, at first, was <em>not</em> set HazeOver to launch automatically at login. That way, each time I restarted or logged out, I’d go back to the default MacOS 15 Sequoia interface, where background windows aren’t dimmed. I wanted to see if I’d miss HazeOver when it wasn’t running. Each time, I did notice, and I missed it. I now have it set to launch automatically when I log in.</p>\n\n<p>HazeOver’s default settings are a bit strong for my taste. By default, it dims background windows by 35 percent. I’ve dialed that back to just 10 percent, and that’s more than noticeable enough for me. I understand why HazeOver’s default dimming is so strong — it emphasizes just what HazeOver is doing. (Also, some people choose to use HazeOver to avoid being distracted by background window content — in which case you might want to increase, not decrease, the dimming from the default setting.) But after you get used to it, you might find, as I did, that a little bit goes a long way. (Jawdat told me he’s dropped down to 12 percent on his machine.) I’ve also diddled with HazeOver’s animation settings, changing from the default (Ease Out, 0.3 seconds) to Ease In & Out, 0.1 seconds — I want switching windows to feel <em>fast fast fast</em>.</p>\n\n<p>Highly recommended, and a veritable bargain <a href=\"https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hazeover-distraction-dimmer/id430798174?mt=12\">at just $5</a>.</p>\n\n<div class=\"footnotes\">\n<hr />\n<ol>\n<li id=\"fn1-2026-03-02\">\n<p>The HazeOver website also has a link to a beta version with updates specific to MacOS 26 Tahoe. To be clear, the current release version, available in the App Store, works just fine on Tahoe. But the beta version has a Liquid Glass-style Settings window, and addresses an edge case where, on Tahoe, the menu bar sometimes appears too dim. <a href=\"#fnr1-2026-03-02\" class=\"footnoteBackLink\" title=\"Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.\">↩︎</a></p>\n</li>\n</ol>\n</div>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "John Gruber",
"email": null,
"url": "http://daringfireball.net/"
}
],
"categories": []
},
{
"id": "tag:daringfireball.net,2026://1.42686",
"title": "★ A Sometimes-Hidden Setting Controls What Happens When You Tap a Call in the iOS 26 Phone App",
"description": "Apple’s solution to this dilemma — to show the “Tap Recents to Call” in Settings if, and only if, Unified is the current view option in the Phone app — is lazy. And as a result, it’s quite confusing.",
"url": "https://daringfireball.net/2026/02/sometimes_hidden_setting_phone_app",
"published": "2026-02-27T17:12:53.000Z",
"updated": "2026-03-02T14:12:20.000Z",
"content": "<p>Back in December, Adam Engst wrote <a href=\"https://tidbits.com/2025/12/07/hidden-setting-controls-what-happens-when-you-tap-a-call-in-the-phone-app/\">this interesting follow-up</a> to his feature story at TidBITS a few weeks prior <a href=\"https://tidbits.com/2025/11/10/comparing-the-classic-and-unified-views-in-ios-26s-phone-app/\">exploring the differences between the new Unified and old Classic interface modes</a> for the Phone app in iOS 26. It’s also a good follow-up to <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/01/28/comparing-the-classic-and-unified-views-in-ios-26s-phone-app\">my month-ago link</a> to Engst’s original feature, as well as a continuation of my recent theme on the fundamentals of good UI design.</p>\n\n<p>The gist of Engst’s follow-up is that one of the big differences between Unified and Classic modes is what happens when you tap on a row in the list of recent calls. In Classic, tapping on a row in the list will initiate a new phone call to that number. There’s a small “ⓘ” button on the right side of each row that you can tap to show the contact info for that caller. That’s the way the Phone app has always worked. In the new iOS 26 Unified mode, this behavior is reversed: tapping on the row shows the contact info for that caller, and you need to tap a small button with a phone icon on the right side of the row to immediately initiate a call.</p>\n\n<p>Engst really likes this aspect of the Unified view, because the old behavior made it too easy to initiate a call accidentally, just by tapping on a row in the list. I’ve made many of those accidental calls the same way, and so I prefer the new Unified behavior for the same reason. Classic’s tap-almost-anywhere-in-the-row-to-start-a-call behavior is a vestige of some decisions with the original iPhone that haven’t held up over the intervening 20 years. With the original iPhone, Apple was still stuck — correctly, probably! — in the mindset that the iPhone was first and foremost a cellular telephone, and initiating phone calls should be a primary one-tap action. No one thinks of the iPhone as primarily a telephone these days, and it just isn’t iOS-y to have an action initiate just by tapping anywhere in a row in a scrolling list. You don’t tap on an email message to reply to it. You tap a Reply button. Inadvertent phone calls are particularly pernicious in this regard because the recipient is interrupted too — it’s not just an inconvenience to <em>you</em>, it’s an interruption to someone else, and thus also an embarrassment to you.</p>\n\n<p>Here’s where it gets weird.</p>\n\n<p>There’s a preference setting in Settings → Apps → Phone for “Tap Recents to Call”. If you turn this option on, you then get the “tap anywhere in the row to call the person” behavior while using the new Unified view. <em>But this option only appears in the Settings app when you’re using Unified view in the Phone app.</em> If you switch to the Classic view in the Phone app, this option just completely disappears from the Settings app. It’s not grayed out. It’s just gone. Go read <a href=\"https://tidbits.com/2025/12/07/hidden-setting-controls-what-happens-when-you-tap-a-call-in-the-phone-app/\">Engst’s article describing this</a>, if you haven’t already — he has screenshots illustrating the sometimes-hidden state of this setting.</p>\n\n<p>I’ll wait.</p>\n\n<p>Engst and I discussed this at length during <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/thetalkshow/2026/02/25/ep-441\">his appearance on The Talk Show earlier this week</a>. Especially after talking it through with him on the show, I think I understand both what Apple was thinking, and also why their solution feels so wrong.</p>\n\n<p>At first, I thought the solution was just to keep this option available all the time, whether you’re using Classic or Unified as your layout in the Phone app. Why not let users who prefer the Classic layout turn off the old “tap anywhere in the row to call the person” behavior? But on further thought, there’s a problem with this. If you just want your Phone app to keep working the way it always had, you want Classic to default to the old tap-in-row behavior too. What Apple wants to promote to users is both a new layout and a new tap-in-row behavior. So when you switch to Unified in the Phone app, Apple wants you to experience the new tap-in-row behavior too, where you need to specifically tap the small phone-icon button in the row to call the person, and tapping anywhere else in the row opens a contact details view.</p>\n\n<p>There’s a conflict here. You can’t have the two views default to different row-tapping behavior if one single switch applies to both views.</p>\n\n<p>Apple’s solution to this dilemma — to show the “Tap Recents to Call” in Settings if, and only if, Unified is the current view option in the Phone app — is lazy. And as a result, it’s quite confusing. No one expects an option like this to only appear <em>sometimes</em> in Settings. You pretty much need to understand everything I’ve written about in this article to understand why and when this option is visible. Which means almost no one who uses an iPhone is ever going to understand it. No one expects a toggle in one app (Phone) to control the visibility of a switch in another app (Settings).</p>\n\n<p>My best take at a proper solution to this problem would be for the choice between Classic and Unified views to be mirrored in Settings → Apps → Phone. Show this same bit of UI, that currently is only available in the Filter menu in the Phone app, in both the Phone app <em>and</em> in Settings → Apps → Phone:</p>\n\n<p><img\n src = \"https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/02/phone-26-classic-or-unified.png\"\n alt = \"Screenshot showing the Classic/Unified choice from the iOS 26 Phone app's Filter menu.\"\n width = 335\n /></p>\n\n<p>If you change it in one place, the change should be reflected, immediately, in the other. It’s fine to have the same setting available both in-app and inside the Settings app.</p>\n\n<p>Then, in the Settings app, the “Tap Recents to Call” option could appear underneath the Classic/Unified switcher only when “Unified” is selected. Switch from Classic to Unified and the “Tap Recents to Call” switch would appear underneath. Switch from Unified to Classic and it would disappear. (Or instead of disappearing, it could gray out to indicate the option isn’t available when Classic is selected.) The descriptive text describing the option could even state that it’s an option only available with Unified.<sup id=\"fnr1-2026-02-27\"><a href=\"#fn1-2026-02-27\">1</a></sup></p>\n\n<p>The confusion would be eliminated if the Classic/Unified toggle were mirrored in Settings. That would make it clear why “Tap Recents to Call” only appears when you’re using Unified — because your choice to use Unified (or Classic) would be right there.</p>\n\n<div class=\"footnotes\">\n<hr />\n<ol>\n<li id=\"fn1-2026-02-27\">\n<p>Or, Apple could offer separate “Tap Recents to Call” options for both Classic and Unified. With Classic, it would default to On (the default behavior since 2007), and with Unified, default to Off (the idiomatically correct behavior for modern iOS). In that case, the descriptive text for the option would *need* to explain that it’s a separate setting for each layout, or perhaps the toggle labels could be “Tap Recents to Call in Classic” and “Tap Recents to Call in Unified”. But somehow it would need to be made clear that they’re separate switches. But this is already getting more complicated. I think it’d be simpler to just keep the classic tap-in-row behavior with the Classic layout, and offer this setting only when using the Unified view. <a href=\"#fnr1-2026-02-27\" class=\"footnoteBackLink\" title=\"Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.\">↩︎</a></p>\n</li>\n</ol>\n</div>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "John Gruber",
"email": null,
"url": "http://daringfireball.net/"
}
],
"categories": []
}
]
}