The MacBook Neo Takes on Retro Gaming→

I love when my interests collide, and today, thanks to Russ Crandall, that’s exactly what happened. You see, Crandall runs Retro Game Corps, a YouTube channel covering the world of videogame emulation, handheld consoles, mini PCs, and more. It’s an excellent channel that we’ve covered multiple times on NPC: Next Portable Console, and yesterday, Crandall made a video exploring the MacBook Neo’s emulation capabilities.

It turns out that the Neo pulls its weight with more than productivity apps. It’s also does quite well with game emulation, some Steam titles, and streaming, with a couple of caveats.

Seeing is believing when it comes to emulation, so it’s worth seeing how your favorite systems fare before diving into emulation on the Neo yourself, but I was surprised to see how well the Neo did even on systems as recent as the Nintendo Switch 1. Beyond the GameCube, it’s hit or miss what will run well, but older systems like NES, Game Boy, GBA, SNES, PS1, PSP, 3DS, PS2, Dreamcast, and Saturn games all ran well and in most cases at upscaled resolutions and with shaders applied.

Probably the biggest limitation Crandall ran into is when he tried running games from more recent systems on external storage over the Neo’s USB-C 2 port, while using the USB-C 3 port for a capture card. Games from more recent systems are larger, so for anyone who wants to stream their gameplay, the Neo’s 256GB or optional 512GB internal storage could be a limitation.

That said, I was pleased to see how well the MacBook Neo handled emulation. Paired with lighter-weight Steam games, streaming on services like GeForce NOW, thanks to the Neo’s Wi-Fi 6E, and the App Store’s own catalog of native games, the Neo offers a lot of options for your downtime too.

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Well, I Guess I Like Safari’s Compact Tab Bar in iPadOS 26.4 (Also: Using Vertical Tabs in Safari for iPad)

We're so back.

We’re so back.

Yours truly, back in September 2021:

In case I haven’t been clear enough above, I’ll be blunt: I don’t understand why the compact tab bar exists on iPad, and I think this design shouldn’t have shipped to customers.

My understanding is that Apple thought the benefit of removing a separate address bar, therefore saving a few vertical pixels on the page, would have made all the compromises we’ve seen so far worth the trade-offs in usability. I think that’s a wrong and mismanaged decision driven by an unmotivated pursuit of an iPhone-like design that has no place on iPad. If slightly increasing vertical space on webpages is Apple’s only argument here in favor of the compact tab bar, you tell me if it’s worth the trouble by judging from the screenshots below.

If, like me, you missed this in the release notes for the recently released iPadOS 26.4, the compact tab bar has returned to Safari for iPad after mysteriously disappearing in iPadOS 26.0. And I’m here to tell you that not only do I not despise it like I did five years ago, but I actually like this mode and have been working with Safari on my 13” iPad Pro like this for the past two weeks.

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Deals Worth Checking Out Before Amazon’s Big Spring Sale Ends

Sonos Ace Headphones, The Aqara Hub G5 Pro, and MOFT's Magnetic Wallet Stand.

Sonos Ace Headphones, The Aqara Hub G5 Pro, and MOFT’s Magnetic Wallet Stand.

Amazon’s Big Spring Sale is wrapping up tomorrow, but there is still time to take advantage of some great deals. There are deals across every category, but the smart home and headphones dominate this year’s sale, including some favorites from the MacStories Setups page such as the Aqara Hub G5 Pro outdoor camera that I reviewed last year.

Other great smart home gear on sale includes:

AirPods Pro 3 and Beats Studio Buds+.

AirPods Pro 3 and Beats Studio Buds+.

Headphones, especially Beats, are well-represented, too:

Insta360 Link 2C and WITHINGS Body Smart Scale.

Insta360 Link 2C and WITHINGS Body Smart Scale.

Finally, I wanted to highlight a few other gadgets and accessories I love that are on sale:

That’s it for another Amazon sale season. For hand-picked deals throughout the year, be sure to follow MacStories Deals on Bluesky or Mastodon.

Automatically Approve Claude Code Permissions in iMessage with Shortcuts

Automating Claude Code in iMessage.

Automating Claude Code in iMessage.

Let me start by saying that you probably shouldn’t do this. I’ve been having a surprisingly good time using Claude Code via its new iMessage channel (which is part of my attempt to recreate OpenClaw with an “OpenClaude” system, more about this here), but I find its permission prompt system fairly annoying. You see, while Claude’s Telegram integration allows you to tap on interactive buttons in a chat to grant Claude permission to do something, the iMessage integration (based on primitive AppleScript) supports no such buttons. As a result, the Claude Code team came up with a simple, but tedious idea: you have to manually type “yes” followed by a randomized authorization code every time.

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Podcast Rewind: Folding Phones, a Big Switch 2 Update, Discovering New Mac Apps, and Setups Changes

Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts:

AppStories

This week, Federico shares his experiences with foldable Android phones and what Apple might do for its first foldable hardware and its software.

On AppStories+, Federico shares his experience using Samsung DeX.

NPC: Next Portable Console

This week, Nintendo dropped a big Switch 2 software surprise, Anbernic got back to being weird, Federico went large with his PC streaming setup, and more.

Comfort Zone

Matt poisons the show with Android, Niléane brings us back with Forkflift, and everyone finds a really great Mac app they’ve never used before.

On Cozy Zone, we discover who has a good backup system, who has a robust backup system, and who basically doesn’t care about their data.

MacStories Unwind

This week, Federico and John share the highlights of their recent MacStories Setups update. Plus, John has an offbeat movie pick, and Federico is revisiting a game that’s an old favorite.

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Apple Discontinues the Mac Pro→

In a move that should suprise no one, Apple discontinued the Mac Pro today.

From Chance Miller at 9to5 Mac:

It’s the end of an era: Apple has confirmed to 9to5Mac that the Mac Pro is being discontinued. It has been removed from Apple’s website as of Thursday afternoon. The “buy” page on Apple’s website for the Mac Pro now redirects to the Mac’s homepage, where all references have been removed.

Apple has also confirmed to 9to5Mac that it has no plans to offer future Mac Pro hardware.

This change has felt inevitable ever since the introduction of the Mac Studio. Although the Mac Studio lacks the Mac Pro’s expansion slots, it packs a lot of performance into a much smaller package, meeting a wide variety of professional needs, which undoubtedly cut into the Mac Pro’s sales.

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ETA Prime Answers the Question: What if the MacBook Neo Had Thermo-Electric Cooling?→

By all accounts, the MacBook Neo is a great budget laptop. However, because it has no active cooling system, the A18 Pro thermally throttles pretty quickly, degrading performance of games and other applications.

Thanks to how easy it is to take the Neo apart, you’ve probably already seen videos of users adding a thermal pad to transfer some of the heat from the Neo’s chip to its aluminum chassis. The result is a meaningful boost in performance.

ETA Prime decided to take things further with an external liquid-cooled solution that attaches magnetically to the Neo to see if even more performance could be squeezed out of the computer. The first step was to add a custom copper plate and thermal pad layer that transfers heat from the A18 Pro to the Neo’s case, which like other thermal pad solutions made a meaningful difference in game performance. Next, ETA Prime attached a thermal-electric cooling device typically used for gaming on mobile phones to the bottom of the Neo to push the A18 Pro’s operating temperature consistently below the throttling temperature.

The results were substantial. It’s worth watching the full video, but a game like No Man’s Sky, which throttled quickly and ran at around 30fps on the Neo, ran at around 60fps with ETA Prime’s mod. While a thermal-electric cooling device goes beyond what a typical user would be willing to do, it does make you wonder what the Neo would be capable of with a more robust built-in cooling system.

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MacStories Setups: Refining and Simplifying

Federico's setup (left) is as sleek as mine is chaotic (right).

Federico’s setup (left) is as sleek as mine is chaotic (right).

I always enjoy these MacStories Setup updates because everyone is different, with its own unique themes and trends. Last year, Federico spent a lot of time paring back his gadgets, while I was busy expanding my office setup, driven largely by moving away from a Studio Display. For this setup update, I’d say we’re a little more in sync. Federico was a busier shopper than I was over the past few months, but we both spent time refining and simplifying our setups. Let’s look at where we landed.

At the end of 2025, I treated myself to a new 4K 32” OLED display and mini PC for gaming. The combo is great, and I don’t regret not waiting for the new Studio Display, but it did require a few adjustments.

Here's a glamor shot of the Elements E5 Hub from CalDigit because in reality, hubs with cables coming out of every side look messy.

Here’s a glamor shot of the Elements E5 Hub from CalDigit because in reality, hubs with cables coming out of every side look messy.

The biggest change has been the addition of a CalDigit Elements E5 Hub. My ASUS display has fewer ports than my old Studio Display, so it was time to expand. What I love about the Elements hub is that it’s tiny compared to CalDigit’s docks. That’s because all it has is Thunderbolt 5 and USB-A ports. I didn’t need HDMI, Ethernet, and the rest of what the CalDigit docks offered, so I saved some space and money and filled every port available.

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