Giveaway of the Day Forums

1. 

   gergn
   Member

   Recently, I bought an Apple MacBook Neo. It has 16 GB RAM and 512 GB storage. It uses an iPhone CPU. It is currently the cheapest MacBook, but still more expensive than a comparable Windows 13 inch laptop. The main reason for buying it, was to find out if it is a real alternative to Windows.

   My first experiences are that setting up is quite easy, if you already have an iPhone. It will automatically copy all settings. With Spotlight, activated by pressing the Apple key and the adjacent space bar, you will not need the Start Menu, making running your favourite apps, files and sites very simple. SA will run its Safari browser, GI opens the Givewayoftoday site, etc. BE will start the mail programme Betterbird. Etc. Some of the iPhone and Windows apps I use daily, such as Sticky Password and PDFGear, do not function correctly on the Neo. Perhaps these apps need an M CPU?? On the other hand, LibreOffice, Thunderbird and Betterbird run smoothly. And pCloud too, my Swiss data storage cloud.
   It does not run the iPad Dutch banking apps, so it cannot function as a replacement for my wife's ageing iPad.

   Tuning the settings of MacOS is simpler than Windows. Apple produces both the OS and the hardware, and that definitely is an advantage. Installing and de-installing software is simpler than on a Windows machine. And it needs updates not as often as my Windows machines. Having 16 hours of usage time on a single battery charge is nice if you need to take it with you.

   If you get fed up with Windows, the cheapest solution still is to switch to Linux. But the MacBook Neo is easier to use and manage. If you want to edit videos, you will need a real MacBook with an M-processor and more RAM.

   Posted 2 weeks ago #
2. 

   gergn
   Member

   Sorry: it only has 8 GB RAM.

   Posted 2 weeks ago #
3. 

   mikiem2
   Moderator

   They've been extremely popular, selling more than Apple expected. That's caused a problem as they use *binned* [defective] iPhone CPUs that otherwise Apple would have thrown out, and they're going to run out of them. I haven't read if they've decided to stop making them at that point, or use non-defective chips. I have read that Apple's considering a higher end version for next year using newer iPhone chips. One thing that makes them more competitive today is that the RAM is part of the CPU, so they don't suffer from higher RAM prices the way PCs do. Allegedly Google is working on releasing something similar. They're supposed to be working with MediaTek, who makes ARM CPUs for quite a few phone makes/models, and plan to release laptops running their new OS, which is supposed to be somewhere between Chrome OS & Android.

   A LOT of people just want something simple to use that works. A Windows PC/laptop can do that, as long as you don't have hardware issues & you've got someone to act as tech support/repair when you get struck by problems with Windows, which is pretty much unavoidable. Most of the cheapest Windows laptops are also limited by CPUs that have too little power to run Windows, let alone run Windows well. For many, switching to Linux is only a little bit better -- you don't have the same sort of OS problems, but initially you wind up spending more time than you'd like using Google search to figure things out and get some hardware parts working properly. With Apple products, and possibly with the new Google OS, you're more likely to just pick it up & figure things out as you go. It's simple enough & just works. IMHO there's a huge audience begging for that, when you consider the number of people ditching their PCs/laptops because Win10 is EOL, when they could use a free, 2MB app [Rufus] to install Win11 instead.

   BTW, came across this & thought it might interest:

   zdnet[.]com/article/turn-on-mac-firewall-stealth-mode/

   Posted 2 weeks ago #
4. 

   gergn
   Member

   see https[:]//www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DgowdzbFQzp0&ved=2ahUKEwjHjdCk_pSUAxWtgv0HHXlQHKEQwqsBegQIFxAB&usg=AOvVaw0U1M2ebHYlq6NTzsjfdlvX

   on Apple binning.

   Posted 2 weeks ago #
5. 

   mikiem2
   Moderator

   One of the reasons Intel profits are suddenly up is because they've discovered there's a hot market for what would have been scrap.

   tomshardware[.]com/pc-components/cpus/more-details-emerge-about-how-intel-now-earns-more-revenue-from-each-wafer-by-looking-to-the-edges-analyst-reports-say-reduced-yield-variability-across-each-wafer-leads-to-more-sellable-cpus

   Customers did not care, just said 'I will take it all.' That is the demand environment we are in for CPUs.

   Neowin reports that now Samsung may be ditching Windows on their laptops, running Android 17-based OneUI 9 instead.

   neowin[.]net/news/upcoming-samsung-galaxy-book-laptops-may-ditch-windows-11-in-favor-of-android-17/

   Samsung is apparently working on three Android 17-based notebooks, just like the current series of Galaxy Book6 laptops. The flagship variant's design is said to be very sleek, but Samsung may make further changes to challenge the MacBook Neo before details are locked down. Of course, a laptop running Android will also bring along all the other goodies, such as Galaxy AI capabilities and a refined version of Samsung DeX.

   Posted 2 weeks ago #
6. 

   mikiem2
   Moderator

   neowin[.]net/news/google-unveils-googlebook-a-new-gemini-first-laptop-category-powered-by-a-new-modern-os/

   Google just announced their new Googlebook, a higher end notebook that will be sold alongside their cheaper Chromebooks.

   Posted 2 days ago #

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