Rich Fletcher

@stephenrobles I’m sure you know this, but the “deceased partner Ai” topic was covered in an early episode of Black Mirror. Season 2 Episode 1.

📺 Just launched my latest “Getting Started Guide,” this time for Mac! It may not be for you, but send to all your friends and family buying a Mac for the first time. Over 1 hour of showing new users everything they need to know: youtu.be/R8oktbDGlAw?si…

@stephenrobles It always has been. 👏

BREAKING: Primary Technology is once again a 5⭐️ podcast! Thank you all 🙏🏼🙏🏼

@elonmusk My BT Broadband contract runs out in September. Starlink all the way for me after that.

March of the 10 thousand

@iAnonymous3000 @Apple Don’t you think the lack of touchID encourages people to use simple, repeatable passcodes to manage their laptop though? I felt like it was a strange omission. If you don’t have an Apple Watch to double-click, you’re password management is going to get tedious.

From a security standpoint, this is the most interesting thing @Apple has done in years at this price point. The MacBook Neo runs the A18 Pro with a full Secure Enclave. Same tier as M series chips. Hardware isolated key storage, DPA protection, second gen Secure Storage Components, and FileVault encryption where the SSD is cryptographically bound to the device via a hardware UID that cannot be read by software. On macOS Tahoe - FileVault is enabled by default during setup. Every Neo ships encrypted out of the box. Apple Intelligence runs simpler tasks locally on the 16 core Neural Engine. More complex requests route to Private Cloud Compute - Apple's server infrastructure running on Apple Silicon with end to end encryption, cryptographic attestation, and NO data retention. The processing is ephemeral and independently auditable. Neither Copilot on Windows nor Gemini on ChromeOS offers anything comparable to this architecture. macOS Tahoe also introduces passkey portability -letting users securely export credentials to third party password managers. [And underneath all of this, macOS layers Gatekeeper, XProtect, and System Integrity Protection.] The base $599 model ships WITHOUT Touch ID. You need the $699 variant for biometric auth. Without it, users default to weaker passwords and longer screen timeouts. If you already own an Apple Watch, macOS lets you authenticate via your wrist, which largely neutralizes this gap. To be fair to the competition, Windows 11 Home now enables Device Encryption by default on modern hardware with TPM 2.0, so the encryption gap has narrowed. But budget PCs still ship with pre installed bloatware that expands the attack surface, and recovery keys are tied to a personal Microsoft account with no enterprise key management. Chromebooks ship with Google's Titan C2 security chip - which provides a hardware root of trust and verified boot. But Titan C2 does NOT match the Secure Enclave's breadth for encryption key management and biometric data isolation. One underrated advantage. Because the Neo uses a current generation chip -- it will receive macOS security patches for years. Budget Windows laptops frequently lose driver and OS support much sooner. The $699 MacBook Neo with Touch ID is the most secure budget laptop you can buy right now.

Totally fantastic to hear @apollozac on Happy Hour last week. Really missed you, buddy.

@zollotech @_im_sigh_ Almost 10 years ago a YouTuber showed you could edit 4k video with a MacBook 12” base model. If the limiting factor is ‘render time’ then I think this is a solid trade-off compared to the MacBook Pro for 4-5 times the price.

@_im_sigh_ Making videos. 8GB is fine for normal use though

what are people doing on a laptop like this that needs more than 8 gigs of ram

@BearMurky @backlon He’s not comparing it to anything else - he’s just extolling the virtues of the device. In the absence of any kind of comparison, how do you judge impartiality?

@backlon I miss when your tech reviews were impartial

🫧 Clean, beautiful design 🌟 Really cool features 🍓 That Berry color! ✔️ Check out the Google Pixel 10A, then ✔️ check out the great price when you... ✔️ check out. :) store.google.com/product/pixel_…

Awesome news

@DurvidImel Fortunately, it’s easy to spot when Sam isn’t telling the truth: his lips move.

Why would the DoD work with OAI under the exact same terms as Anthropic? The answer is the wouldn’t. And someone is lying.

@stephenrobles I used to listen MPU on a Sunday night at bedtime. I can’t do that anymore because the conversations are too engaging for me to fall asleep! No slight on Mr Hackett (he’s fantastic) but this new pairing is awesome.

🔋 New Mac Power Users is out! As you await the deluge of Apple products coming this week, get the deepest dive on iPhone setups you have ever seen! Watch or listen: Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/iph… YT: youtube.com/watch?v=yeNx_E…

Hello from Google 😁! After over 10 years writing about @Android, I'm SO excited to finally be ... working for Android! Just as exciting is that my role includes community engagement, so I'll still be connected to the Android community I love and hope to help people learn to ♥️ Android as much as I do. How am I gonna do that? You'll be hearing much more from me in the near future about these efforts, so stay tuned!

@MishaalRahman @Android So happy for you. Must be a dream come true. I hope we still hear lots from you - @backlon went too quiet. Hope you’re still around on social. Google have a great guy there. 💪

@AnisRza1 @zollotech I think he’s a tech reviewer - covering the best features on smartphones. Why limit himself to Apple only?

@zollotech Aren’t you an Apple product reviewer? Money is his god.

This is such a good feature. Horizontal lock on S26 Ultra.

@JackHickman62 @zollotech I’m an iPhone user but an Android fan! More Android content is most welcome - I like to hear about the best features of smartphones, and they aren’t always present on iPhones.

@zollotech Since all your followers are iPhone users we don’t really care. I’m sure Apple will copy this soon anyway.

@zollotech It’s technically impressive - but what are the practical applications I’m not seeing? Not saying there are none, just that I’m can’t think of them.

@stephenrobles The camera updates on the S26U would have been a 20 minute segment with an accompanying Scientology-style video if it were an Apple event. Come on dude - you’ve been hanging out with Jason too long 😂😂

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra in 5 seconds: - Built-in Privacy Display - 60W Charging - AI that can Order DoorDash

@zollotech The word there being “myself”. You’ve obviously tried it. Bixby has always been AT LEAST as capable as Siri in my experience. It frustrates me when pundits do this. It’s dishonest and erodes trust.

When I got to try the features myself I thought the opposite

@zollotech I’m very interested in A18 iPad. I’m hoping (but not with confidence) that the A18 will be able to handle screen extension rather than just mirroring. I get told all the time about the excess power of the iPad, but that rarely translates to actual features.

With this event we expect new MacBooks, iPhone 17e, iPads and other Macs as well.

With Privacy in mind, is iOS enough or should I be considering Graphene?