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Yesterday at Costco, I was looking at a new MacBook Air and thinking the $589 price tag was a great bargain, even for the warehouse giant, which sells a lot of goods at very low markups.
I must have been hungry or something, because it took me a sec to realize I was actually looking at the MacBook Neo.
Comparing the two machines side by side, there’s no difference I could discern in terms of industrial design and build quality.
The difference is in the guts, and the all-important price tag.
The Neo is flying off shelves, and even Tim Cook has been taken a bit by surprise.
“The customer response to MacBook Neo had just been off the charts, with higher-than-expected demand,” Cook said during last week’s earnings call.
To meet this demand, Tim has a surprisingly simple plan.
Also in today’s newsletter:
Curiously, the MacBook Neo is easier to get right now than a Mac mini. Amazon is offering overnight delivery on the Neo (in cities like San Francisco, at least), but appears to have absolutely zero inventory of the Mac mini (except for refurbs). If you’re in the market for a new Mac, right now is the time to pull the trigger. Availability and pricing is only going to get worse from here on out.
I’m impressed by Incogni, the personal data removal service, which worked great to remove a relative’s data from the internet. This deal bundles Incogni with Surfshark’s highly regarded VPN and antivirus software. Overall, it looks like a pretty good package for protecting your privacy and security.
🔥 DEAL OF THE DAY: This is a fat discount (23%) on a really nice compact charger. Thanks to GaN, it pumps out 140W but isn’t much bigger than an AirPods case. It has a cool display, too.
This is very interesting. Every year, Apple’s Swift Student Challenge highlights work from aspiring programmers. This year, they all have one thing in common that I previously would have thought would be disqualifying.
Here’s a handy button to know about: Safari’s Hide Distracting Items, which cleans up the web for a much nicer browsing experience.
Some of the best speakers I ever owned were an old set from Logitech with a giant subwoofer. Here are our picks for the best budget computer speakers available right now.
— Leander Kahney, EIC.
A message from Wispr Flow
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A message from the Cult of Mac Deals team
A message from the Cult of Mac Deals team
Cult of Mac’s buyback program
A message from Spot and Tango
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Tweets of the day
Wallpaper of the day
One more thing ...
I used to say that Apple should be the Sony of this business, but in reality, I think Apple should be the Apple of this business.
Today’s poll
Buying a new Mac now or waiting?
Results from yesterday’s poll:
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