smack416

JinTech said:

A link to the video would be nice....

There is a video link, but it's confusingly labelled as "described as" in the article. But still, the link should be more directly stated and highlighted. And why not embed it? 

In any case, here it is: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/01/how-apple-makes-its-own-chips-for-iphone-and-mac-edging-out-intel.html (And it's also not too clear at that link either; the image at the top of that article is clickable and will load the video).

A direct price comparison helps highlight the value of the Macbook Air over the dated and limited 13" Macbook Pro chassis (worse camera, heavier, no dedicated charging port)

A level up from the HomePod mini would be welcome.

After using a number of original HomePods and HomePods mini alone and in stereo, the minis are a pale comparison to the original HomePod. I think the price difference was reasonable given the more fulsome sound.

Something that gets closer to the original HomePod for $99 more than the mini would be great and maybe a better consumer price point than the original Homepod. I otherwise wouldn't buy or recommend another Homepod mini and will be crestfallen if something happens to my living room HomePods and there's no reasonably close equivalent to replace them.

Here's the thing I discovered using a similar, flat charging matt. The way the sport watch bands sit, if you lay the watch flat, it starts to lift up in the middle, pulling the back of the watch far enough away from the matt that it doesn't consistently charge. Also, your sport loop or other closed watch band will prevent you from charging unless you take at least one end off. So a flat AirPower may not be able to charge the watch without removing the bands. Not ideal.

The trouble with basically any other monitor other than the 27" LG Ultrafine is the PPI. This BenQ is not retina resolution, nor is it well suited to MacOS as a non-retina display (reference: https://bjango.com/articles/macexternaldisplays/).

With the 27" Ultrafine, you're sacrificing a few inches of screen largeness for a noticeable amount of clarity (218PPI vs 138PPI on the BenQ), many more pixels (5120 x 2880 vs 3840 x 2160 on the BenQ), and the LG costs you just $100 more. To me, there's no contest given the value, unless extreme response time is a deal breaker for you.

The knock on the LG monitors is that they are not great in build quality, but the screens are as good as it gets. Simply put: the 27" LG Ultrafine monitor is the only option available today if you're looking for the clarity of a retina screen, and will be the only economical option when Apple releases their pro display. At least until a competitor else releases a +200 PPI monitor. In the meantime, this BenQ monitor doesn't compare.