paulmacintosh

Right now, AI is a gimmick. Until it’s actually useful, it won’t make much impact. As I once read online, on a comment thread: people don’t want AI to do art and poetry so they can do their washing (laundry), they want AI to do their washing/laundry so they can do art and poetry. The Microsofts, Googles and Samsungs of the tech industry are falling over each other to go headfirst in the wrong direction. Let them; Napoleon would. Slow and steady wins the race. As in the nursery rhyme; and the parable: it was the tortoise, not the hare, which won the race; and the guy who took the low road got to Scotland before the guy who took the (glitzy/gimmicky) high road.

So, basically, in 2026, Apple wants to release a low cost MacBook with a two year old chip it launched in 2024 for an iPhone; and this MacBook may only have 8GB RAM to play with. Once you spec it out with more RAM or a bigger SSD, it won’t be so budget friendly.

The only thing this machine will have going for it is its colours, which won’t even pair up to the iMac that comes in seven colours.

It might be good for the primary and secondary education markets, and maybe also for older users new to computing, but I can’t see its colours luring away users looking for a machine that can perform (like the Air or the Pro).

Apple is still also selling its first generation Apple Pencil as an optional accessory with this new 10th gen (11th gen) iPad. The first gen Apple Pencil pairs and charges via a lightning connector, but this iPad has USB C - so nobody will be able to pair it with this 2025 iPad! The second gen Apple Pencil with USB C, which is cheaper than the OG Apple Pencil, is the only viable pencil accessory. Sometimes, you must wonder what is going on in the minds of Apple’s product teams. 😆

Steve wouldn’t’ve launched this iPhone, it’s terrible!