Ok, Apple did a great job this week. A lot has already been said about Apple’s announcements. The MacBook Neo is a killer, even as an entry device. My wife is getting one. It’s the original Mac mini in a laptop shape. Apple did a great balancing act with the Neo. The only two quibbles: only 8 GB of RAM (I wanted 12 GB) and the lack of a MagSafe port. Continue reading →

One vendor doesn’t mind high RAM prices: VMware — The Register

The high price of memory and solid-state storage has almost everyone worried – but not VMware, because the most innovative new feature in the Cloud Foundation 9 (VCF 9) private cloud suite it launched last year is memory tiering tech that allows offload of data from RAM to NVMe drives.

VMware has always promoted VCF 9 memory tiering as offering the chance to reduce infrastructure costs by reducing the amount of RAM needed in new servers, and by creating the opportunity to upgrade the NVMe drives in old boxes and effectively increase their memory capacity.

Well, yeah, memory tiering certainly helps reduce the cost of servers, but even NVMe drives, which are built on electronic chips too, are impacted by price increases. And, servers must be compatible with this feature. No magic bullet here.

People’s reactions to Apple hardware announcements so far have been quite positive, if not enthusiastic, much more so than any software announcements in recent years. The difference is stark.

Apple Does Fusion.:

To understand what Apple launched today, we have to go back just over five years, when Apple launched the M1 in November 2020. I wrote then:

“This approach to integration into a single chip, maximum throughput, rapid access to memory, optimal computing performance based on the task, and adaptation to machine learning algorithms is the future — not only for mobile chips, but also for desktop and laptop computers.”

That turned out to be right.

What Apple achieved with their new M5 Pro and M5 Max is quite impressive. Even more impressive is that the architectural decisions made back in 2020 (or earlier) are still paying off today. If only Apple had the wisdom to make similar smart decisions with Siri architecture. Apple seems stuck on redoing its homework forever with software.

iBook > MacBook Neo ? 🧐

Apple Does Value (Week) — On my Om

Apple has decided that $599 is the new floor for a “real” Apple device—not a hand-me-down, not last year’s leftovers, but a current-generation product with current-generation silicon.

If Om Malik is right, this would put the new entry-level MacBook price at 599 US$. The question now becomes: what do you get for that amount of money beyond the A18 Pro chip?

★ HazeOver — Mac Utility for Highlighting the Frontmost Window: 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. Continue reading →

Apple is still proud of Liquid Glass. Found on the iPhone 17e mini website. 😵‍💫

Prices of the new iPad Air and iPhone 17e seems in line with previous generation products they replace and not affected by the current tech environment where prices are going up drastically… it looks rather well too for the upcoming entry-level MacBook pricing.

During any tech transition, the people who retain old-school knowledge while the new-school is developing are particularly valuable. Nobody needs to know punch cards anymore, but I’m sure that while punch cards were being phased out, extensive knowledge about them was incredibly useful.

The same is true about cloud migration. Those who did traditional data centers and started to get interested and involved in cloud migration were (and still are) very in demand.

Of course, I had to create my own… miniroll… nice mini webapp… still wondering if I’m going to support Chris. Probably.

Welcome (back) to Macintosh, by Jesper @ Take

“My hope is that, just as Apple crawled out of a hardware nightmare pockmarked by thermal throttling, keyboards incapacitated by strands of human hair and lack of respect for its users needs, it can choose to refocus its software and its humility too, and stop doing this to the bicycle for the mind.”

I think we will have to wait, the upcoming week’s releases are about Apple hardware…

Claude hits #1 on the App Store as users rally behind Anthropic’s government standoff — 9to5Mac

While the long-term consequences of this disagreement are unclear, Anthropic appears to be winning in mindshare, at least for now, in terms of app downloads among iPhone users.

If Anthropic was a publicly traded company ten times their current valuation, would they still stand out against the US government? Asking for a fictional friend at Apple.

Apple Reportedly Expects ‘Major Rush’ of Customers This Week:

The new product likely to receive the most interest is the rumored lower-cost MacBook, which is described as an “incredible value” within Apple, according to the newsletter. Apple believes that a more affordable MacBook will help to “drive a serious number of switchers from Windows machines and Chromebooks,” wrote Gurman.

Somehow, I think that if the price is really competitive, Apple’s bet is that services will subsidize this entry-level MacBook price.

Apple believes low-cost MacBook will be an ‘incredible value,’ tempting switchers: report — 9to5Mac

Internally, the low-end MacBook is being described as an “incredible value,” with Apple believing the launch is going to drive a serious number of switchers from Windows machines and Chromebooks. It could even compel iPhone users without computers to buy their first Mac.

I’m trying to convince my wife to buy one as she finds the iPad to be lacking for certain tasks. I suggested that we buy one of those new entry-level MacBook to try it out without much obligation as we can return the thing in less than 14 days.

Done. I exported my ChatGPT memory to Claude. I’m curious to see how Claude’s answers to my prompts will change from now on. Starting March 12th, I’ll be on Anthropic / Claude AI only.

Currently assessing the impacts of unsubscribing from ChatGPT. Image creation is the most obvious impact, but I rarely use it. I could switch to MidJourney for a third of the monthly price. API consumption is another factor, but none of my four API keys have been used in the last 30 days. According to Claude AI’s examination of my current n8n workflows, three are configured with an OpenAI API key. Investigating further.

Since when is this a thing: Switch to Claude? I mean, I wrote “A Case for ChatGPT Takeout” not long ago!

Moving out of ChatGPT / OpenAI is now a movement, right?

You might have noticed more linkposts than usual here today. The reason is that I’m testing this new RSS thing in Micro.blog… or part of Micro.blog future offering. It’s pretty solid.

Flickr’s URL Scheme:

Flickr deserves a lot of praise for a number of technical advances that I wish had seen wider adoption. Their API was one of the first and honestly still one of the most enjoyable to actually use as a developer. It’s still full of incredibly interesting API calls that you wouldn’t expect from it unless you read carefully. Did you know, for example, that flickr API will provide you with the bounding box co-ordinates of different types of places? From a neighbourhood all the way up to a continent?

Maybe one day, Glass will add these, too?