For the last week, I’ve been using the new Rivian Apple Watch app, and it’s pretty great. There are separate screens for security, climate control, and charge level, in addition to a mini dashboard that has everything you need.
Rivian Phone App Dashboard
Rivian Gear Guard
Energy Screen
Climate Screen
Related, their recent integration of the digital car key into Apple Wallet has been running on my iPhone (and Apple Watch) flawlessly for six weeks. Not a single failure to unlock. It’s interesting how good Rivian is getting at supporting Apple devices with their applications while at the same time resisting CarPlay. In some ways they are a great Apple partner. In other ways, not so much.
Apple announced the MacBook Neo today, and I think it’s a bigger deal than most people realize.
The headline is the price. $599. That’s it. And if you’re a student, $499. Yesterday, the cheapest way to get a Mac laptop was north of a thousand dollars. Today, it costs less than a lot of Chromebooks. That is a massive shift.
I’ve been teaching people how to use Macs for a long time. The number one barrier has always been cost. People want to try the Mac, but they can’t justify the price. That excuse just evaporated. A college kid working a summer job can afford this. The Mac is available to a lot of people it wasn’t available to yesterday.
It comes in four colors: blush, indigo, silver, and citrus. I love that Apple is having fun with this. They’re bright and playful, and that’s exactly right for a computer aimed at bringing new people into the Mac. I’m a little sad there’s no orange, though. I would have been first in line.
But for the person this Mac is designed for, none of that matters. If you’re writing papers, browsing the web, managing email, taking video calls, and maybe editing a few photos, this machine does all of that. And it does it with 16 hours of battery life in a fanless design. Stephen Robles put together a good video walk-through the new machine if you want to see more.
I think part of the reason this computer exists is the continued payoff from Apple silicon. Apple’s chips are so good that a chip from the iPhone can drive a full Mac. That’s not a compromise. That tells you how far ahead Apple is in chip design. The A18 Pro handles Apple Intelligence, runs macOS, and does it all in a thin, silent chassis. The silicon advantage is what makes this price point possible. No other laptop maker could do this.
I understand why Apple went with a 13-inch form factor. It’s the sweet spot for most people, and it keeps costs down. But part of me would have liked to see this as a 12-inch machine.
I’m probably mixing my own signals, though. What I really want is an ultra-light MacBook built on Apple silicon. A spiritual successor to the 12-inch MacBook from 2015, but done right this time with chips that can actually handle the thermal constraints. That’s a different product for a different day. The Neo isn’t trying to be the lightest computer Apple makes. It’s trying to be the most accessible. And at $599, it nails that.
My friends at Rogue Amoeba are back to sponsor MacSparky, and this time I want to spotlight SoundSource, their essential audio control app for Mac.
SoundSource provides audio control so useful, it ought to be built in to MacOS. Get instant access to your Mac’s audio settings right from the menu bar, along with powerful per-app volume and routing control, and the ability to apply effects to any app’s audio.
Supercharged AirPlay support: Stream audio to HomePods, Apple TVs, and more.
Output Groups: Send audio to multiple devices at once.
Quick Configs: Save your entire audio configuration so you can switch setups with a click.
A powerful new Audio Devices window: Get deep control over settings for all your audio devices.
All of Rogue Amoeba’s apps offer fully functional free trials, so you can download SoundSource and be up and running in under a minute. And as a MacSparky reader, you can save 20% on SoundSource or any Rogue Amoeba purchase through the end of this month. Just use discount code SPARKYMARCH26 in their online store.
My thanks to Rogue Amoeba for supporting MacSparky and making Mac audio better for everyone.
Apple announced the M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pros today, and they look like fine computers. The new chips bring an 18-core CPU with six “super cores”, GPU-level neural accelerators, and memory bandwidth topping out at 614 GB/s on the M5 Max. If you’ve been waiting for a Mac that can handle local AI models without breaking a sweat, this is it. I’m looking forward to the benchmarks rolling in over the next week.
That said, there’s an asterisk here. The M6 MacBook Pro is expected before the end of this year, and it’s rumored to be a substantial redesign with OLED displays, a touchscreen, the notch replaced by a Dynamic Island, and chips built on TSMC’s 2nm process. If even half of those rumors pan out, it will be the biggest MacBook Pro refresh in years. If you’re thinking about buying an M5, go into it with open eyes.
The biggest story for me, though, isn’t the chips. It’s the memory pricing.
DRAM prices have gone haywire. Memory manufacturers have pivoted their production capacity toward HBM chips for AI data centers. The result is a global shortage that has driven DRAM prices up 80 to 90 percent in recent months. PCs are going up in price as a result.
So I wondered if Apple would also bump their memory upgrade pricing on these new Macs. They didn’t. The upgrade from 48 GB to 64 GB is still $200. The jump to 128 GB is still $1,000. Those are the same numbers as last generation.
I have to eat some crow here. For years, I lampooned Apple for their inflated memory prices. The component costs have gone up substantially, and Apple has held the line. Maybe they locked in long-term contracts with their suppliers at lower rates. Maybe they just don’t want to raise prices.
I don’t think this lasts forever. If memory prices keep climbing at this rate, something has to give. But right now, Apple deserves credit for keeping their pricing reasonable when they had every excuse not to.
If you need a pro laptop today, the M5 MacBook Pro is a solid choice, especially for local AI work. Just know that a much bigger update is likely around the corner.
When it comes to Austin Kleon, I definitely fall in camp “fan boy”. I like the way he thinks and, more importantly, I like the way he makes me think. And he has a new book on the way.
I’ve been using Stream Deck for years, and like many of you, I’ve cobbled together various plugins to make it work with my Mac automation setup. KMLink for Keyboard Maestro and separate plugins for shortcuts. It was messy. My friend Stephen Millard fixed all of that… This is a post for MacSparky Labs Pathfinder and Insider Members only. Care to join? Or perhaps do you need to sign in?
Apple kicked things off today with the iPhone 17e and a refreshed iPad Air powered by M4. Both look like solid updates. The iPhone 17e brings the A19 chip and doubles the base storage to 256GB while keeping the same $599 starting price. The iPad Air gets the M4 with more memory and a faster Neural Engine. Pre-orders for both start Wednesday.
But the announcement I’m most excited about is the new budget MacBook, expected later this week. A low-cost Mac laptop could open the platform to a whole new group of users. People who’ve been priced out of the Mac or stuck on Chromebooks will finally have an on-ramp. That’s good for them and good for the platform. I’ll have more to say once Apple makes it official.
On this episode of Mac Power Users, Stephen and I break down our entire iPhone setups including Home Screens, widgets, Focus Modes, Control Center, Action Button, and more! Stephen may have inspired me on this one.
I was sitting in the dark of my backyard last night, admiring the planets, as you do, when I noticed a blob of something in the tree looking down at me. My distance vision is 20/20, yet I still could not make it out. I pulled out my iPhone and used the 5x lens in dark mode. It kept the shutter open for a few seconds and returned this image.
