Obsidian Web Clipper Obsidian Web Clipper is flat out the best web clipper I’ve ever used thanks largely to its Defuddle parser, an open-source project that I highly recommend playing around with. The latest update to the web clipper switches to the Defuddle Markdown converter, adds YouTube transcripts to the content and new transcript variables,...
MacBook Neo Review Roundup
The MacBook Neo reviews are in and by all accounts, Apple’s new budget Mac is impressive, packing a lot of bang for the buck. The laptop, which comes in a 256GB configuration with no Touch ID and a 512GB version with Touch ID, is Apple’s most affordable laptop ever as well as one of its most fun, thanks to several color options.
I think the review that caught my eye first was Tyler Stalman’s. Tyler is the sort of person the MacBook Pro was built for because he works with video and high-resolution RAW photos for a living. It’s a fun video because it demonstrates just how capable the laptop is, even after Tyler had opened every app, scrolled around in his photo library, and launched a 4K project in Final Cut Pro, while every other app was still running. Amazingly, the Neo handled it all well.
Apple Announces 50th Anniversary Celebration
Apple announced today that it will spend the coming weeks celebrating its 50th anniversary. The company also published a letter from CEO Tim Cook in which he shares what the anniversary means to him.
Apple’s not known for looking back, as the announcement post acknowledges, but 50 years is a big deal and a good time to reflect on the impact the company has had on so many people around the world. As Cook put it:
At Apple, we’re more focused on building tomorrow than remembering yesterday. But we couldn’t let this milestone pass without thanking the millions of people who make Apple what it is today — our incredible teams around the world, our developer community, and every customer who has joined us on this journey. Your ideas inspire our work. Your trust drives us to do better. Your stories remind us of all we can accomplish when we think different.
Apple hasn’t said what the anniversary celebrations will include, but I’m looking forward to what they have in store. I’m also pleased to see that the celebration is framed as 50 Years of Thinking Different. The Think Different ad campaign and Steve Jobs’ monologues about the intersection of Technology and the Liberal Arts have always resonated with me the most. And, at a time of turmoil in the world and uncertainty about Apple’s path into the future, Think Different is a good North Star to celebrate and refocus on.
M5 MacBook Pro and MacBook Air Review Roundup
The reviews are in, and it looks like my initial impressions from last week’s press releases hold up pretty well.
The M5 MacBook Pro
What was clear to me from what Apple said is that the M5 MacBook Pro is an especially nice upgrade, even from the M4 models. As Jason Snell put it on Six Colors:
The pace of Apple silicon progress is breathtaking, not just at the base level that powers the MacBook Air and iPad Pro, but up here at the level of bespoke chips designed for Apple’s most powerful systems.
Jason reviewed a MacBook Pro with an M5 Pro (18-core CPU, 20-core GPU) chip, which he reported is overall 23% faster than his personal M4 Max laptop. Even with its 32 GPU cores, Jason’s M4 Max was only 14% faster than his M5 Pro MacBook Pro review unit, which has just 20 GPU cores. I’ve noticed similar GPU improvements between my M1 Max Mac Studio and the M4 Pro Mac mini. I’m working on a story about my recent tests, which show that even the last-generation M4 Pro can run circles around the M1 Max’s GPUs. It’s astonishing.
What I find remarkable about this is that it has allowed Apple to embrace both ends of the computing spectrum at once. The longevity and capabilities of prior generations of Apple silicon chipsets allow for laptops like the MacBook Neo, which by all accounts is a champ at tackling day-to-day workloads. At the same time, the M5 Max exists, which is the sort of chipset that AI workflows and other pro use cases demand. The spread of capabilities has never been wider, which is great for users who can dial in exactly what they need better than ever.
Cameron Faulkner at The Verge was a little less enthusiastic:
People who bought the last-gen MacBook Pros aren’t missing out on a ton, save for the incredibly fast read/write SSD speeds. But if you bought the M2 Max three years ago and you’re already pushing it to its limits, the M5 Max looks like a significant upgrade.
I can’t disagree that if you have an M4-series MacBook Pro, you already have a powerful laptop that most people don’t need to upgrade, but buying decisions aside, I don’t think you can downplay 2× faster SSDs and significantly faster CPUs and GPUs. Given the right workload, those factors matter.
The M5 MacBook Air
In many ways, I find the M5 MacBook Air just as exciting. It’s not as powerful as the M5 MacBook Pros, but I’m intrigued by the 15” model. I’ve been using a 14” MacBook Pro for quite a while, and it has convinced me that I’m not interested in going back to a 13” laptop.
What interests me most about the 15” MacBook Air is using it as a companion to my desktop Mac Studio. The reality is that when I’m away from my desk, I rarely need the power of a MacBook Pro or Mac Studio. Instead, most of what I do on a laptop can be accomplished with the Air, connecting via Screen Sharing to my desktop Mac as needed for heavier workloads.
As Dan Moren put it at Six Colors:
The Neo may vie for the title of Apple’s bestselling Mac, but it’s got its work cut out for it: the crown remains the MacBook Air’s to lose and if you come at the king, you better not miss.
For Dan, the SSD performance was a highlight coming in at a 125% improvement over the M4 Air for read speeds and 219% of the M4 Air for write speeds, using Blackmagic’s disk testing tool. That’s better than what Apple claimed in its press releases and the sort of difference that will have practical impacts when working with large files.
I also found Lance Ulanoff’s perspective on the Air interesting:
The M5 brings the level of performance we’ve previously seen in the MacBook Pro — I had trouble finding anything the laptop couldn’t do.
Consistent with what Jason Snell said of the M5 MacBook Pro, it’s the pace of progress that’s so astonishing. What the MacBook Pro could do yesterday, the M5 Air can do today.
Based on these reviews, I expect the Air will continue to be the best overall laptop in Apple’s lineup for most people. I’m intrigued by the Neo and love what the Pro can accomplish, but the Air sits in a sweet spot that makes it a great value even though it’s no longer the lowest-priced laptop Apple makes.
With these new laptops arriving on customers’ doorsteps and in stores today, I’m sure we’ll hear more firsthand accounts of their capabilities soon. From where things stand today, though, Apple’s laptop lineup has never looked better.
Apple’s Big Neo Week
FedericoThis week on AppStories, Federico and John discuss Apple’s latest hardware announcements.
Then on AppStories+, Federico explains Notion Agents and Workers and how he’s using them.
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This Week on MacStories Podcasts
This week on MacStories podcasts: AppStories This week on AppStories, Federico and John cast their wishes for Apple hardware in 2026, covering everything from the latest rumored gear to more outrageous hopes. On AppStories+, John and Federico share their top three everyday uses of AI tools. Listen on: Apple Podcasts Overcast Pocket Casts Castro Spotify...
Interesting Links
Demos of what you can build with Claude Code are beginning to show up in mainstream media publications like this story in The Washington Post. It will be interesting to see if this drives more people to try building their own apps and websites. (Link) Qualcomm introduced a new chip at Mobile World Congress this...
My Favorite Apple Announcements This Week
The MacBook Neo I don’t need a MacBook Neo, but I’d love to try one for a while. You see, I still have a perfectly serviceable M1 MacBook Air with 16GB of memory and a 2TB drive. The chipset isn’t as fast as the Neo is expected to be, but for the kind of work...
App Debuts
Dockside Dockside is a relatively new Mac utility that serves as a shelf app and place to easily access files in your most frequently used folders that sits on the ends of your Mac’s Dock. It’s an interesting approach with lots of customization that works best if your Dock doesn’t already span the entire length...