FeedCity

Nicholas Carr: What is it that MrBeast, as a “creator,” is “creating”? The obvious answer would be “content.” Content, after all, is what we talk about when we talk about digital media. It’s certainly what MrBeast talks about. But the more I think about online programming, ...

After a 23 hour drive, all the way from the Midwest to western Wyoming, I am rewarded with three beautiful days of photography in and around Jackson.

Approaches to Valhalla 

“The game is so large that one sees but a little at a time.” To understand AI, its stakes and its long-term impact, you have to step away from the cacophony of headlines. And instead take the time to think of it as the Great Game. The Great Game was the 19th century strategic rivalry …

Finished reading: Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water by Marc Reisner, a powerful book that will make you despair of humanity. Representative passage: “You’re from the Park Service, aren’t you?” Mulholland demanded more than asked. “Yes, I am,” sa...

Matt Kleberg

What if friends treated their friends as nicely as they treat dogs. When you sensed they needed a little support, you'd look them in the eye and say "Who's the good girl?" Rub behind the ears. When they sit give them a treat. Inside of us, everyone, including you, is a little pup who just wants to know they're in the right place doing the right thing.

Centurium Capital, the controlling shareholder behind Luckin Coffee, is buying Blue Bottle from Nestlé for under $400 million. Smart move.They are not buying just a just a coffee brand. They’re buying a pre-built foothold in the US, plus a brand that still carries a premium in markets where Chinese names have historically struggled, South Korea …

We're having a problem with one of the servers, spending pretty much all day trying to learn about the problem. It means a bunch of services aren't working. Will keep the blog updated, assuming that works. ;-)

The MacBook Neo is the first major new Mac aimed at the consumer market in the Apple Silicon era. It’s meant to make a dent — perhaps a minuscule dent in the universe, but a big dent in the Mac’s share of the overall PC market.

It has been a long time since I used the words “cute” and “want” about a computer. Last time, I probably did when Steve Jobs (RIP) was trying to save Apple and introduced the iBook. Oh, baby, that was cute, cuddly and just different. Apple’s new “Neo” machine made me go cute. And the $699 …

Not sure if this page was there yesterday, but the main “Displays” page at Apple’s website is a spec-by-spec comparison between the regular and XDR models. Nice.

Apple (Hacker News, MacRumors): MacBook Neo starts with a beautiful Apple design, featuring a durable aluminum enclosure in an array of gorgeous colors — blush, indigo, silver, and a fresh new citrus. Its stunning 13-inch Liquid Retina display brings websites, photos, videos, and apps to life with high resolution and brightness, and support for 1 […]

Juli Clover, at MacRumors, notes that neither the new Studio Display nor the Studio Display XDR are compatible with Intel-based Macs. (I’m curious why.) Also, in a separate report, she notes that Macs with any M1 chip, or the base M2 or M3, are only able to drive the Studio Display XDR at 60 Hz. You need a Pro or better M2/M3, or any M4 or M5 chip, to drive it at 120 Hz.

Update: My understanding is that if you connect one of these new Studio Displays to an Intel-based Mac, it’ll work, but it’ll work as a dumb monitor. You won’t get the full features. I’ll bet Apple sooner or later publishes a support document explaining it, but for now, they’re just saying they’re not “compatible” because you don’t get the full feature set. Like with the Studio Display XDR in particular, you won’t get HDR or 120 Hz refresh rates.

The thing that's amazing about Claude.ai is that it understands how software works. I can talk to it about software the way a football coach would talk to a player about football. I gave it some instructions in English about how the outliner was going to evolve. I asked if i...

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.

Apple (Hacker News, TidBITS, MacRumors, ArsTechnica): Apple today announced the latest 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro with the all-new M5 Pro and M5 Max, bringing game-changing performance and AI capabilities to the world’s best pro laptop. […] The new MacBook Pro includes N1, an Apple-designed wireless networking chip that enables Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, […]

Apple (Hacker News, TidBITS, MacRumors): Apple today announced the new MacBook Air with M5, bringing exceptional performance and expanded AI capabilities to the world’s most popular laptop. M5 features a faster CPU and next-generation GPU with a Neural Accelerator in each core, enabling MacBook Air to power through a variety of workflows, from creative projects […]

Apple (Hacker News, MacRumors): The chips are built using a new Apple-designed Fusion Architecture. This innovative design combines two dies into a single system on a chip (SoC), which includes a powerful CPU, scalable GPU, Media Engine, unified memory controller, Neural Engine, and Thunderbolt 5 capabilities. M5 Pro and M5 Max feature a new 18-core […]

Apple (Hacker News, Reddit, MacRumors): 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 […]