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Posts tagged with "mac"

OpenAI’s Dots: A First Look

Source: OpenAI.

Source: OpenAI.

Earlier this week, I was at OpenAI’s annual DevDay conference where it launched Dots, a personal agent that lives inside the ChatGPT app. I set up my Dot and named it Puck after the mischievous sprite in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In the days since then, I’ve found myself using Puck more and more. There are still rough edges, but I thought I’d share what’s working and what’s not, and how Dots are different from what’s already available in ChatGPT and Codex.

Dots are persistent, cloud-based agents that use the plugins and other tools you’ve connected to ChatGPT, after you allow them to do so. Your Dot has its own virtual Linux computer to assist you with your work. And at first, your Dot, which is depicted by a colorful character you can customize, doesn’t have access to anything else. However, as you give your Dot tasks that need access to other tools, it will ask for your permission to access other tools. The pacing of this initial interaction with your Dot is really well done. The requests felt natural and allowed me to get comfortable with expanding what I let Puck do without feeling like annoying interruptions.

Customizing my Dot.

Customizing my Dot.

Dots are available on mobile and desktop devices, and because they are cloud-based, your Dot’s chat is always synced between devices. But being a cloud-based agent has its downsides, too. Out of the box, your Dot can’t access your computer’s files and apps. That’s easily fixed by clicking or tapping on your Dot and granting it access to your Mac, so it can use the Mac alongside its own VM. As with Codex’s Remote feature, using a remote Mac with your Dot requires the ChatGPT app to be open on that Mac, too.

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Logitech Releases the Developer-Focused MX Keypad for AI Automation

Source: Logitech.

Source: Logitech.

Today, Logitech introduced the MX Keypad. If it looks familiar, that’s because it’s one-half of Logitech’s existing MX Creative Console. However, instead of bundling a 3 x 3 keypad with a dialpad, the MX Keypad is just the keypad for $99.

I reviewed the MX Creative Console in 2024, and I still use it and write about ways to automate tasks with it. It’s an excellent pair of devices, so it’s not surprising that Logitech has adapted the keypad to a new use case.

Keypad, cable, and kickstand. Source: Logitech.

Keypad, cable, and kickstand. Source: Logitech.

The MX Keypad’s hardware is identical to the keypad from the Creative Console. In addition to the keypad itself, it comes with a kickstand you can use to prop it up at an angle and connects via USB-C to your Mac. My MX Creative Console review has more detail about the hardware, along with images and a short video.

I like the MX Creative Console a lot, and according to Logitech, so did software developers looking for ways to automate their AI workflows. While Logitech didn’t expressly say why it dropped the dialpad for the MX Keypad, it makes sense to me having used the MX Creative Console for months. Dialpads are great for timeline-based creative work, but less so for development work. Yes, developers might want to use the dialpad to control screen brightness or volume, but by limiting the MX Keypad to just the keypad, Logitech was able to hit a lower price point, making the device more appealing to a bigger audience.

I’ve been impressed by the number of ways Logitech has opened its devices up to automators who like to tinker, too. Similar to devices like the Stream Deck, Logi Options+ lets you build Smart Actions based on keyboard shortcuts and macros. But there’s more than that. If you’d prefer to let someone else do the automation, Logitech runs a Smart Actions marketplace with plugins tailored to certain apps. For developers there’s also a Logi Actions API for building plugins with access to each Logitech device’s full capabilities.

Source: Logitech.

Source: Logitech.

From a developer standpoint, the combination of automation options means the MX Keypad opens up a variety of possibilities like:

  • launching agents,
  • monitoring agent activity via the device’s dynamically updated keys,
  • triggering saved prompts,
  • activating voice input, and
  • automating many other repetitive tasks.

Logitech is also teaming up with GitHub Copilot as part of the MX Keypad launch, similar to the partnership that was announced with Adobe as part of the MX Creative Console. There’s a Copilot plugin available that adds Copilot controls to the keypad’s keys. Logitech customers can also take advantage of GitHub’s offer for three months of GitHub Copilot Pro+ for free.

Logitech’s MX Keypad is primarily a repackaging of an existing device with a GitHub Copilot deal thrown in to make it a better value. But it’s good to see the company addressing the developer market more directly. Having used the MX Creative Console primarily for automation and development-type work myself, dropping the dialpad from the package to lower the price is a good tradeoff. I use the dial and its other buttons occasionally, but for automation, the keypad is where it’s at, and between Smart Actions and a full plugin SDK you can point your agent at, the MX Keypad is a great choice for automators.

The Logitech MX Keypad is available directly from Logitech and from Amazon.

Perplexity Introduces ‘Hybrid Compute’ for Computer Agent on Apple Silicon Macs

Source: Perplexity.

Source: Perplexity.

Perplexity has announced hybrid compute for Personal Computer on Apple silicon Macs. Personal Computer already combined cloud-based Computer tasks with access to local files and apps, but its AI processing was primarily cloud-based. Recently, Perplexity also introduced Portable Computer, a local-first version of Computer that can escalate work to the cloud with a user’s permission.

Hybrid compute approaches the problem from a different direction. Tasks start in the cloud but if a new local classifier detects potentially sensitive information, the user is alerted and asked whether they want to route it to a local model, although users also have the option to let the flagged data be used by a frontier cloud-based model. Gemma E4B, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B, and a Perplexity post-trained version of Qwen3.6 35B are available at launch for that local work, with more models to come in the future.

Tasks that don’t require sensitive information are handled in the cloud by frontier models that also orchestrate the cloud and local tasks. Users select the cloud orchestrator and Perplexity chooses the helper frontier models used.

Another key feature is that hybrid compute works with tasks begun from an iPhone or iPad, too. Those devices could already kick off a session, but now they can also run tasks that use sensitive information locally if your Mac is turned on and running Perplexity.

Yesterday, I got a demo of the feature that walked through three scenarios:

  • an attorney researching a legal brief, with sensitive client data on their Mac, allowing them to update it locally,
  • an analyst using web-based data to update a confidential slide deck for a presentation about a company’s financials, and
  • a small business owner kicking off pricing research from her iPhone that was combined with private pricing data for her business that never left her Mac.

I haven’t tried hybrid compute myself yet, but if it works as advertised, it’s a big step forward for Perplexity, and one that a lot of its competitors are also chasing. AI agents are only as good as the tools and data to which they have access. Tool calling has been a big focus over the last year and more, but data privacy is an equally important issue that needs to be solved before more companies, especially those in regulated industries, adopt agentic tools like Personal Computer. It’s good to see Perplexity tackling this head-on.

Hands-On with ChatGPT Work’s New Cloud Browser Feature

Yesterday, OpenAI introduced a new ChatGPT Work feature designed to let it navigate websites that require a login without revealing your credentials to the model.

Like a lot of people, I spend far too much time clicking around websites that require a login, looking at analytics and other data, checking whether new sponsors have been booked for our podcasts, and more. It’s a tedious but necessary part of my week that slows me down and takes me away from writing and other creative work. ChatGPT’s new Work feature is designed to handle that sort of work for you.

The feature works by signing into websites using a virtual, cloud-based computer. That separates the browsing session from any browsing session on your local computer, walling the agent’s computer use off from your open tabs, cookies, browsing history, passwords, and other data. Because the login and browsing happen in the cloud, that also means work can continue whether you close the ChatGPT app or power down your computer.

According to OpenAI, an additional review model checks the sign-in request and credential destination for signs of phishing or deception. ChatGPT Work then pauses while the user signs in. Credentials entered through its secure sign-in form go directly to the cloud browser and are not visible to the model. After the user authenticates, ChatGPT resumes its work.

OpenAI also explains that its cloud-based browser doesn’t store your username and password. Instead, it saves cookies that allow you to return to a previously authenticated session. If you don’t want to remain logged in, ChatGPT’s cloud browser settings allow you to clear browser data for individual websites or all sites.

Similar to other features in ChatGPT and Codex, users have choices when it comes to which sites ChatGPT Work can access. “Always ask” is the default, requiring the agent to check with the user before using a website, but the permission level can also be set to “Auto approve” after ChatGPT checks a site for relevancy and risk or “Always allow,” which OpenAI discourages. Individual websites can also be allowed or blocked. These settings control website access, but consequential actions require separate confirmation.

ChatGPT Work's browser control works best on a mobile device and with simple login systems.

ChatGPT Work’s browser control works best on a mobile device and with simple login systems.

I gave ChatGPT’s browser use a try and the results were mixed. I wasn’t able to get the feature to work at all using ChatGPT Work in Safari on my Mac. Some websites had security measures in place that prevented me from logging in. Other times, the cloud browser asked me to take over manually, but I was unable to do so because the UI was frozen or login panels didn’t appear.

Logging into a site with a CAPTCHA required manual intervention.

Logging into a site with a CAPTCHA required manual intervention.

I had better luck using my iPhone. On one site with a simple username and password system, a login sheet appeared. I entered my credentials, was logged in, and the agent navigated the site to answer my queries. On Apple’s affiliate link dashboard website, I had to take over the browser interaction manually to satisfy a CAPTCHA, which worked after several challenges. Once logged in, the agent pulled and analyzed the data I requested. Also, after I’d signed in to both of those sites on my iPhone, I remained logged in to ChatGPT’s cloud browser, which meant I could also use them from my Mac.

In its current form, the idea of having ChatGPT Work browse signed-in websites on your behalf is better than its implementation. If you can get logged in, having an agent collect and analyze things like analytics data is fantastic. However, getting past the initial login screen is still too frustrating. That said, I’ll be keeping a close eye on the feature, which is available on eligible plans depending on rollout and workspace settings, for future use collecting and analyzing data that would otherwise require a lot of clicking around.

Apple Updates a Power Adapter for the EU and Vietnam and Drops the Price of Its Polishing Cloth

The Magic Keyboard isn’t the only accessory Apple updated today. As Juli Clover reports for MacRumors, the 40W Dynamic Power Adapter that can charge up to 60W was also updated for users in Europe and Vietnam:

The updated variant of the power adapter has a retractable two-prong design. The prongs pop back into the power adapter’s enclosure, making it easier to tuck into a bag or a pocket. Apple previously debuted a standard U.S. variant in September 2025 alongside the iPhone 17 models, and a type G plug version in November 2025.

At this price, why not buy two?

At this price, why not buy two?

Plus, as Chance Miller covered for 9to5Mac, there’s a new Apple Polishing Cloth. It’s not clear whether the new cloth is different from the one that came before it, but in one respect it’s a big improvement. The updated Polishing Cloth has dropped in price to $9 from $19. In a world of high-priced memory and storage, I’ll take the pricing wins where I can get them.

Apple Updates Magic Keyboards→

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Earlier this year, Apple swapped the text on some of its laptop keyboard keys for glyphs. MacRumors reports that the trend has now spread to four of the company’s Magic Keyboard models:

On the new keyboards, the tab, caps lock, shift, return, and delete keycaps are labeled with glyphs rather than edge text.

The keyboards with numeric pads get even more glyphs than the more compact models.

It’s a small change, but I like it. I burn through keyboards pretty fast with the amount of typing I do, and these come just in time to replace the Magic Keyboard on I use with my Mac Studio that has a slowly disappearing “A” key.

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Apple Announces New M6 and M5 Pro Mac minis, Along with M5 Max and M5 Ultra Mac Studios

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Today, Apple announced a new M6 chip that will debut in the Mac mini and an M5 Ultra that is coming to the Mac Studio. The company also announced an M5 Pro Mac mini and an M5 Max Mac Studio. Let’s take a look at the headline specs.

The headline feature of the M6 chip is that it’s Apple’s first 2-nanometer chip. The chip also includes “a larger 12-core CPU complex with the world’s fastest CPU core, a larger 12-core GPU with Neural Accelerators, a Dual 16-core Neural Engine, and up to 170GB/s of unified memory bandwidth.”

Looking more closely at the M6, Apple says it consists of two super cores, four performance cores, and six efficiency cores and is 1.2x faster in multithreaded performance than an M5 and up to 2.4x faster than an M1. Apple says the GPU delivers nearly 30% more peak GPU compute for AI than the M5. The M6’s 10% faster memory bandwidth will help with AI tasks, too, but its 32GB memory ceiling will limit which models can run locally.

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

The M6 mini’s GPU sounds impressive, too, with two more cores, Neural Accelerators for each core, which is a first for the mini. According to Apple, that leads to an up to four-fold increase in AI performance and a 2x graphics bump compared to the M4 mini. The Neural Engine has also been improved.

Apple also introduced an M5 Pro mini. It’s understandable if you find it confusing that the base model Mac mini has a more recent generation chipset than the more expensive model. What matters more than the chip generation is the “Pro” in M5 Pro, which makes it more capable than the M6, which has been designed for entry-level models. The same sort of asymmetry occurred with the 2025 Mac Studio, which included an M4 Max model alongside the M3 Ultra. A big part of that difference is the M5 Pro mini’s support for 64GB of memory (double the M6 version’s top memory spec) and its 307GB/s of memory bandwidth compared to the M6 model’s 170GB/s memory bandwidth.

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

As for the M5 Ultra, which debuts in the Mac Studio, it sounds like a beast. According to Apple, the chip uses a next-generation version of its UltraFusion technology, resulting in a quad-die architecture for the first time in an Apple silicon chip. In addition, the M5 Ultra features an “up-to-36-core CPU and up-to-80-core GPU with a massive 1.2TB/s of unified memory bandwidth, 50 percent more than M3 Ultra.”

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Big Walk: A Good Hang with Friends

I dove into Big Walk with no expectations at all. I’d seen trailers leading up to the launch and knew that it was a co-op puzzle game from House House, the makers of Untitled Goose Game, but that was about it. And because most of my gaming is done solo, I initially tuned out most of the game’s post-launch headlines. Still, Big Walk is published by Panic, which has a great track record for finding and publishing great indie games, so I decided to give it a try earlier this week. And you know what? I love it.

Big Walk is about as low-key as a puzzle game gets in the best possible way. Co-op is the only mode, so you’ll need to coordinate a time to play it with a friend or group. One person takes the lead, setting up the session and inviting the others. The process is far simpler than trying to find a time that works for everyone in your group.

As players join, you’re dropped into a space to wait for the others and explore a little. This lobby space is where you’ll learn the game’s controls, too. Big Walk supports keyboard and mouse input as well as a controller, which is what I used, playing on an M4 Max MacBook Pro.

Once you get your bearings, it’s time to exit the lobby and start exploring. That exploration is core to what Big Walk is all about. You aren’t told what to do, but there are just enough clues to push you forward, figuring out the goals on your own without too much trouble.

I played using AirPods Pro 3, and the game made great use of their mics and speakers, simulating the environments we were in. Closed spaces were echoey, and speech was distant and faint when we were separated. Sound even becomes part of the mechanic in some puzzles, such as an early one where you have to look through an open window to hear each other properly and help guide the other player’s actions.

That cooperation is the key part of the game’s loop. You may see how to solve Big Walk’s puzzles on your own, but implementing the solution will require you and a companion to work together.

The togetherness of it all extends beyond the puzzles, too. Big Walk’s environment (at least in the early stages) is mountainous with large rocks and trees that make it possible to get separated from others. Add to that day and night cycles where it’s almost impossible to see where you’re going at night without a light, and you have every incentive not to wander off on your own without a plan for how to reconnect.

I’ve played through Big Walk’s first couple of sections, and it was a blast. The puzzles were clever and challenging without being frustrating, but most of all, I enjoyed working through them with someone else. There’s no time pressure or monsters lurking around corners – just puzzles and a chance to chat.

Ultimately, that’s what makes Big Walk work. It’s a good hang built against the backdrop of a beautiful landscape and low-key, fun challenges. I highly recommend giving it a try.

Big Walk, which supports crossplay and 2–12 players, is available on the Mac App Store for $14.99. The game is also on Steam, the Switch 2, and PS5.

Apple Upgrade Trades Ownership for Lower Monthly Payments

Apple has revealed its new hardware leasing program called Apple Upgrade, which is being offered in collaboration with Klarna. This is Apple’s pitch:

Introducing Apple Upgrade, a new way to always have the Apple products you love. Lease a new iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple Watch with pocket-friendly payments and terms that work for you. Then easily upgrade to something new at the end of your lease, and return your current device. It’s that simple.

That pitch comes with a footnote that includes other details worth considering:

  • The program is U.S. only (excluding U.S. territories).
  • You need to be a U.S. resident who is at least 18 years old, or whatever the legal age is where you live.
  • There are eligibility and credit approval requirements and you must have a credit or debit card and an Apple ID.
  • When a device is returned, it must be in good condition or damage fees will be assessed.
  • Upgrades require a new lease subject to whatever eligibility and credit requirements apply at that time.
  • For iPhones, you have to have a carrier and can’t use a prepaid plan.
  • The program isn’t available for refurbished devices or through the Apple Employee Purchase Plan, corporate Employee Purchase Plans, Apple at Work, Government, Education, or Veterans and Military Purchase Programs.

Okay, so maybe it’s not “that simple” after all.

The program is available for the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch product lines. For the iPhone, monthly payments start at $17.99 for an iPhone 17e and start at $34.99 for an iPhone 17 Pro Max, for leasing periods of either 12 months or 24 months.

For iPads, the starting prices range from $12.99/month to $24.99/month, Macs range from starting prices of $24.99/month to $48.99/month, and the Apple Watch ranges from starting prices of $11.99/month to $47.03/month. But again, these are just starting prices. You can configure a fully loaded 16-inch MacBook Pro that is just under $230/month, and it won’t include AppleCare.

As a point of comparison, under the current program that is being discontinued, I pay $69.50/month for an iPhone 17 Pro Max, but I have a 512GB model, so my lease price for the same phone would be $40.83/month, significantly lower, but keep in mind that doesn’t include AppleCare+, which would add $13.99/month or $139/year for that iPhone. On a monthly basis, that puts a new iPhone 17 Pro Max with 512GB of storage and AppleCare+ at just under $55/month. Still a superior deal, but not nearly as good as the landing page might initially lead you to believe.

At the end of your lease you’ll have six months to decide to return the leased device, during which you’ll continue to make monthly payments, or pay a fee equal to the difference between the original purchase price and your lease payments to buy it outright. Your other option is to enter into a lease for a new device. If you return your leased device in poor condition, Klarna will charge you a damage fee. You can also terminate your lease early if you pay the remaining lease payments in full plus any taxes and fees.

If you lease accessories for your device, those don’t have to be returned. Why? Presumably because they have no value to Apple or Klarna.

Of course, if you have a device to trade in, that monthly figure could be significantly reduced. If I had the iPhone 16 Pro Max I had last year to trade in and leased a 17 Pro Max for 12 months, my monthly payments would be under $1. However, keep in mind that once you’re on the leasing train, you no longer own your iPhone, so future upgrades won’t reduce your payments the next time you swap your device for a new model. If you don’t own it, the value isn’t yours to trade in.

If you’re on the existing iPhone Upgrade Program like me, it’s being discontinued, but Apple has a transition offer for you. The old program spread payments over 24 months with the option to turn in an iPhone for a new one after 12 months. That’s not changing. If you’re paid in full on your first 12 months of an iPhone, you can sign up for the new program, get a new iPhone, and return your old iPhone to Apple, which will close your old account but won’t reduce your lease payments. You’re not obligated to join the new leasing program, though. You can also trade in your old iPhone, ending your finance contract, and buy a new full price iPhone.

As you may have figured out by now, I’m not a fan of this program, though I expect it will be successful.

Apple products, like all consumer electronics, are getting more expensive every day. The monthly payments on a leased device look very attractive compared to the pay-up-front price. For years, car leases have induced people into monthly payments that can become a burden when their financial situation changes. Now the same will be true of iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Apple Watches.

Maybe as a practical matter this program isn’t that different from the old financing program, but at least there, you owned your device at the end and could just keep using it indefinitely. With the new program, that’s not an option. When your lease is over, you’re empty-handed and faced with leasing again, buying out the lease, or buying at full price with no trade-in, which is objectively worse.

Ultimately, Apple isn’t responsible for customers’ bad financial decisions, but this program feels like Apple is putting its customers in harm’s way.