Sean Hollister
That AirJet-equipped MacBook I told you about.
In case you read my story this morning before we added its accompanying vid, here’s how three Frore AirJets affected the sustained performance of a 15-inch MacBook Air.
Laptops
Chris Welch, Allison Johnson and 5 more
Nathan Edwards
Dan Seifert
Antonio G. Di Benedetto
Sheena Vasani
Antonio G. Di Benedetto
Sean Hollister
Dan Seifert
The Sony Vaio P series was the sickest laptop of the late 2000s.
Too bad it was “damn near useless,” as Colin from the This Does Not Compute YouTube channel put it in his look back on the P series and some other Weird Sony laptops from the early 2000s.
Chromebooks are good now. And such low prices!
Monica Chin and Nathan Edwards
Umar Shakir
Apple’s Space Black aluminum took ‘a lot of R&D for the sake of aesthetics.’
iFixit did some digging on the new MacBook Pro and found that Apple’s anodization and dying process must have taken “a huge amount of effort, and trial and error,” according to metallurgist David Niebuhr.
Under a microscope, Space Black had higher peaks and lower valleys from an etching process than Space Gray. It still shows light fingerprints, but iFixit gives Apple an “A-for-effort.”
Dan Seifert
Actually, yes, a brand-new $1,600 computer should come with more than 8GB of RAM.
Apple’s stinginess with the amount of RAM in the new base model MacBook Pro 14 continues to be a story, with news today that vice president of worldwide product marketing Bob Borchers defended it by saying “8GB on an M3 MacBook Pro is probably analogous to 16GB on other systems” with no actual evidence to back that up. This is the same amount of RAM found in a $600 Mac Mini or a sub-$1000 MacBook Air, but here applied to a $1600 MacBook Pro.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Apple silicon and unified memory is impressive but it’s not magic and working memory is still working memory. If you are doing any sort of multitasking, like one might expect to do with a $1600 laptop that has Pro in the name, you will quickly run into limits with 8GB of RAM. Don’t buy the hype.
Apple insists 8GB unified memory equals 16GB regular RAM
[AppleInsider]
Victoria Song
Got questions about the M3 MacBook Pros?
Here’s my review of the M3 MacBook Pro 14. I’ve also been testing the 16-inch with the M3 Max — and while I’m still working on that review, comment on this quick post any burning questions you might have. (Like, does space black really fend of fingerprints?)
I’ll be going live at 2PM ET to answer’em!
Dan Seifert
Actually, yes, a brand-new $1,600 computer should come with more than 8GB of RAM.
I’ve been critical of Apple’s new base-model 14-inch MacBook Pro, which comes with just 8GB of RAM for a starting price of $1,599. Despite Apple Silicon’s excellent performance and the fact that Apple’s unified memory is faster than traditional RAM, working memory is still working memory and more is better, especially if you use a lot of apps or browser tabs.
Jason Koebler at 404 Media agrees and points out that relying on swap, which shifts data to the SSD when RAM is full, also shortens the life span of your computer, making it an environmental issue on top of a bad user experience. We should expect more from our expensive laptops.
In Defense of RAM
[404 Media]
Dan Seifert
Why are Apple’s M3 Pro and Max configuration options so weird?
If you’ve been speccing out a new MacBook Pro this week and have poked around Apple’s configuration tool, you might have noticed that the options for the M3 Pro and M3 Max chips are... kinda weird. Memory is limited to certain configs, you can’t get the best CPU without also springing for the best GPU, and so on.
Quinn Nelson at Snazzy Labs has a compelling theory why: it’s due to the process node Apple is required to use for the 3nm chips TSMC is building and the necessary binning that results. It’s a good watch.
Sheena Vasani
Richard Lawler
Everything you need to know about Apple’s new M3 MacBook Pro and iMac.
Dan Seifert runs down the news from Monday night’s Scary Fast primetime product event, covering what’s new about these updates to the MacBook Pro and iMac lineup and who should be the most interested in an upgrade. (Anyone who needs that Space Black exterior or someone who is replacing an Apple machine with an Intel processor or the first-gen M1 chip.)
Antonio G. Di Benedetto
Richard Lawler
The most expensive MacBook Pro you can buy.
Now that Apple’s Scary Fast event is over, if you actually load a 16-inch MBP up with 128GB of RAM, an 8TB SSD, and the most powerful M3 processor Apple offers, it will cost $7,199.00.
Image: Apple.com
Alex Cranz
We’re finally getting a new color of MacBook Pro!
And it’s all black — space black, to be exact. Very 2006 MacBook, in the best of ways.
1/7Apple’s MacBook Pro in Space Black. Image: Apple
Alex Cranz
The 16-inch MacBook Pro is getting the choice for either a M3 Max or M3 Pro.
And Apple claims it will be up to 11 times faster than the last generation of Intel-based Macs. Which... I would hope so.
Alex Cranz
Heck yeah, a chart that goes nowhere!
Apple’s chip speed charts are improving every year, but they’re still not nearly as functional as they could be.
1/2Apple
Alex Cranz
The M3 and M3 Pro and M3 Max are here.
They’re on 3nm technology, which should mean a whole heckuva lot faster than the current M2 family of chips.
The M1 and M2 were both launched many months ahead of their Pro and Max, but Apple’s dropping the M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max together this time. Fascinating!
Alex Cranz
Apple’s got a brand-new family of chips.
And they’re coming to the MacBook Pro, according to Tim Cook. Fingers crossed we get an iMac announcement tonight as well.
Victoria Song
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