Daring Fireball

‘In Other Words, Batman Has Become Superman and Robin Has Become Batman’

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Jason Snell, Six Colors:

Here’s the backstory: With every new generation of Apple’s Mac-series processors, I’ve gotten the impression from Apple execs that they’ve been a little frustrated with the perception that their “lesser” efficiency cores were weak sauce. I’ve lost count of the number of briefings and conversations I’ve had where they’ve had to go out of their way to point out that, actually, the lesser cores on an M-series chip are quite fast on their own, in addition to being very good at saving power!

Clearly they’ve had enough of that, so they’re changing how those cores are marketed to emphasize their performance, rather than their efficiency.

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Daring Fireball

Apple Announces Updated Studio Display and All-New Studio Display XDR

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Apple Newsroom:

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 Studio Display 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 Studio Display XDR 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.

Compared to the first-generation Studio Display (March 2022), the updated model really just has a better camera. (Wouldn’t take much to improve upon the old camera.) The Studio Display XDR is the interesting new one. Apple doesn’t seem to have a “Compare” page for its displays, so the Studio Display Tech Specs and Studio Display XDR Tech Specs pages will have to suffice. Update: The main “Displays” page at Apple’s website serves as a comparison page between the new Studio Display and Studio Display XDR.

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?

Unresolved is what this means for the Pro Display XDR, which remains unchanged since its debut in 2019. Update 1: Whoops, apparently this has been resolved. A small-print note on the Newsroom announcement states:

Studio Display XDR replaces Pro Display XDR and starts at $3,299 (U.S.) and $3,199 (U.S.) for education.

Update 2: 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.

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Daring Fireball

New MacBook Air With M5

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Apple Newsroom:

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.

Base storage went from 256 to 512 GB, but the base price 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 “Neo”, 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:

  • 1 TB (+ $200)
  • 2 TB (+ $600)
  • 4 TB (+ $1,200)

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.

A comparison page showing the new M5 Air, old M4 Air, and base M5 MacBook Pro suggests not much else is new year-over-year, other than the Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 support from the N1 chip.

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Apple Newsroom

Apple introduces the new MacBook Air with M5

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Apple introduces the new MacBook Air with M5
Apple today announced the new MacBook Air with M5, bringing exceptional performance and expanded AI capabilities to the world’s most popular laptop.
Apple Newsroom

Apple introduces MacBook Pro with all-new M5 Pro and M5 Max

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Apple introduces MacBook Pro with all-new M5 Pro and M5 Max
Apple announced the latest 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro with the all-new M5 Pro and M5 Max.
Apple Newsroom

Apple debuts M5 Pro and M5 Max to supercharge the most demanding pro workflows

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Apple debuts M5 Pro and M5 Max to supercharge the most demanding pro workflows
Apple today announced M5 Pro and M5 Max, the world’s most advanced chips for pro laptops, powering the new MacBook Pro.
Apple Newsroom

Apple unveils new Studio Display and all-new Studio Display XDR

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Apple unveils new Studio Display and all-new Studio Display XDR
Apple today announced a new family of displays, Studio Display and Studio Display XDR, that takes pro workflows to the next level.
Daring Fireball

[Sponsor] npx workos: An AI Agent That Writes Auth Directly Into Your Codebase

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npx workos launches an AI agent, 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.

The WorkOS agent then typechecks and builds, feeding any errors back to itself to fix.

See how it works →

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Daring Fireball

★ HazeOver — Mac Utility for Highlighting the Frontmost Window

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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.
Apple Newsroom

Apple introduces iPhone 17e

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Apple introduces iPhone 17e
Apple today announced the new iPhone 17e, a powerful and affordable addition to the iPhone 17 lineup.