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Podcast Rewind: The Disappearing Prosumer App Market, Retroid Flip 2 Specs, NPC XL Debuts, and Tony Hawk Remakes Announced

Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts:

AppStories

This week, Federico and I examine the widening gap between consumer and enterprise apps, asking what happened to prosumer and small business app market.

This episode is sponsored by:

  • Incogni – Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code APPSTORIES with this link and get 60% off an annual plan.

NPC: Next Portable Console

This week, Retroid Pocket Flip 2 specs are out, the Legion Go S disappoints, and we try to decipher what AYANEO is doing before reminiscing over a PictoChat clone on the iPhone and discussing the benefits of having a personal videogame shopper in Japan, and Brendon’s experience with the black Miyoo Flip.

NPC XL

Then on NPC XL for Patreon backers, Federico, Brendon, and I share our love of the Sony PSP, from Federico’s long-time obsession to Brendon’s more recent journey down the rabbit hole, to my very first PSP, the gang covers the PSP’s history, their experiences, and the PSP’s impact on handheld gaming.

Back NPC on Patreon for a new episode of NPC XL every week.

Ruminate

Robb is hyped for a new Tony Hawk game, I launched NPC XL, and finally, Robb has a pen and paper update.

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YouTube Launches Premium Lite in the U.S.: A Limited But More Affordable Option→

Today, YouTube introduced a new version of its premium service called Premium Lite. YouTube Premium has been around for a long time offering ad-free video viewing, downloads, and the ability to listen in the background for $13.99/month in the U.S.

Source: YouTube.

Source: YouTube.

With Lite, YouTube is offering a more affordable version of Premium for $7.99/month. The new tier will still include ads for music and music videos and it won’t let you download videos or play them in the background; however, other video categories will be ad-free.

It’s good to see YouTube offer something at a lower price point. YouTube Premium’s price has crept up in recent years, and the features that Lite leaves behind seem like natural break points in the service. For some users, YouTube is music, in which case, they’ll want the full Premium plan to avoid ads. For others like me, who use YouTube occasionally for music, $7.99 is a significantly better deal, though I’d prefer if background play was part of Lite, too.

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Apple Introduces the New MacBook Air

Today, Apple announced the new MacBook Air with the M4 chip, a new sky blue finish, and a reduced starting price. This update brings the latest generation of Apple silicon to the MacBook Air while keeping the external hardware mostly the same – save for a new color option.

The M4 chip comes with a 10-core CPU, an 8-core GPU (configurable up to ten cores), 16-core Neural Engine, 16 GB of RAM (configurable up to 32 GB), and 256GB of storage (configurable up to 2TB), offering up to 2x the speed of the M1 chip according to Apple’s metrics. The new chip enables the MacBook Air to output to two external 6K displays in addition to its attached display, which remains available in 13-inch and 15-inch variants. The device’s built-in LED Liquid Retina display remains unchanged at 500 nits of brightness and 224 pixels per inch.

The MacBook Air’s I/O includes two Thunderbolt 4 ports (upgraded from the previous generation’s Thunderbolt 3/USB 4 ports) a MagSafe 3 charging port, and a headphone jack. It also continues to feature Touch ID, Wi-Fi 6E, and Bluetooth 5.3. Apple claims the M4 MacBook Air can run for up to 18 hours on a single battery charge.

The device’s camera has been upgraded to the improved 12MP version seen on last year’s MacBook Pros. It records video at 1080p resolution and supports Center Stage as well as Desk View.

The most noticeable change to the device is the new sky blue color option, which replaces space gray. Apple describes the finish as “a beautiful, metallic light blue that creates a dynamic gradient when light reflects off of its surface.” The MacBook Air is also available in starlight, midnight, and silver.

With this update, Apple has lowered and simplified the MacBook Air’s pricing structure. The M4 MacBook Air starts at $999 ($899 for education) for the 13-inch model and $1,199 for the 15-inch model. Previously, those starting prices were reserved for older MacBook Airs, not the latest generation, with current-gen models costing $100 more. Now, MacBook Air purchasers don’t have to choose between the newest chip and the best price.

While this update to the MacBook Air is mostly about the M4, that chip does bring along some niceties, and the upgraded camera and new color option are welcome additions as well. Add the new, lower price point on top of those changes, and this is an upgrade worth getting excited over for those in the market for a MacBook Air.

The new MacBook Air is available for preorder now with deliveries and in-store availability starting March 12.

Apple Reveals New Mac Studio Powered by M4 Max and M3 Ultra

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Today, Apple revealed the new Mac Studio featuring both M3 Ultra and M4 Max options. It’s an odd assortment on its face, so let’s take a closer look at what’s going on.

As with the original Mac Studio, today’s update can be configured with some impressive specs at a steep price. The design hasn’t changed, but the boost to the specs is substantial.

According to John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering:

The new Mac Studio is the most powerful Mac we’ve ever made. A complete game-changer for pros around the world — powering both home and pro studios — Mac Studio sits in a class of its own, offering a staggering amount of performance in a compact, quiet design that fits beautifully on your desk. With this new Mac Studio, we’re delivering even more extreme performance with M4 Max and M3 Ultra, support for half a terabyte of unified memory, up to 16TB of superfast storage, and Thunderbolt 5 connectivity. Mac Studio truly is the ultimate pro desktop.

The M4 Max model has a 16-core CPU and up to 40 GPU cores. Apple says the Neural Engine is over three times faster than the M1 Max and that unified memory bandwidth clocks in at over half a terabyte per second. In a first for the Mac Studio line, the update also adds Apple’s advanced graphics architecture to the desktop. The M4 Max model’s base memory configuration is 36GB but can be configured up to 128GB.

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

In terms of real-world performance, Apple provides the following comparisons of the new M4 Max model:

  • Up to 1.6x faster image processing in Adobe Photoshop when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Max, and up to 2.9x faster when compared to the 27-inch iMac with Core i9. 

  • Up to 2.1x faster build performance when compiling code in Xcode when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Max, and up to 3.1x faster when compared to the 27-inch iMac with Core i9. 

  • Up to 1.2x faster ProRes transcode performance in Compressor when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Max, and up to 2.8x faster when compared to the 27-inch iMac with Core i9. 

  • Up to 1.6x faster video processing performance in Topaz Video AI when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Max, and up to 5x faster when compared to the 27-inch iMac with Core i9.

Apple also introduced an M3 Ultra model of the Mac Studio, which is based on the M3 but outperforms the M4 Max. According to the company’s press release:

It delivers nearly 2x faster performance than M4 Max in workloads that take advantage of high CPU and GPU core counts, and massive amounts of unified memory.

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

The M3 Ultra model can be configured with up to 32 CPU cores with 24 performance cores and up to 80 GPU cores. In addition, the Neural Engine features 32 cores and over 800GB/s of unified memory bandwidth. The M3 Ultra model also starts with 96GB of unified memory, which is configurable up to 512GB. That’s a lot. Like the M4 Max model, Apple’s press release contextualizes the M3 Ultra model’s performance with some examples:

  • Up to 16.9x faster token generation using an LLM with hundreds of billions of parameters in LM Studio when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Ultra, thanks to its massive amounts of unified memory.

  • Up to 2.6x faster scene rendering performance in Maxon Redshift when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Ultra, and up to 6.4x faster when compared to the 16-core Intel-based Mac Pro with Radeon Pro W5700X.

  • Up to 1.1x faster basecalling for DNA sequencing in Oxford Nanopore MinKNOW when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Ultra, and up to 21.1x faster when compared to the 16-core Intel-based Mac Pro with Radeon Pro W5700X. 

  • Up to 1.4x faster 8K video rendering performance in Final Cut Pro when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Ultra, and up to 4x faster when compared to the 16-core Intel-based Mac Pro with Radeon Pro W5700X.

Both models offer internal SSD storage up to 16TB and support Thunderbolt 5 for the first time, which can transfer data up to 120 Gb/s. Also notable is the fact that the M3 Ultra model can drive up to eight Pro Display XDRs at their full 6K resolution.

It will be interesting to see if these powerful new Mac Studios mean the end of the line for the Mac Pro. Apple touts these new desktops as solutions for running LLMs locally, video editing, 3D animation, and gaming – all pro-level uses that may render the Pro superfluous for all but the most extreme use cases.

The new Mac Studio is available for pre-order now with deliveries and in-store availability beginning March 12. The M4 Max version starts at $1,999, and the M3 Ultra version starts at $3,999.

Apple Challenges UK’s Demand for iCloud ‘Back Door’→

Yesterday, the Financial Times reported that Apple has filed a complaint against the UK government seeking to overturn a secret order demanding that it create “back door” access to iCloud. Apple has not commented on whether it received an order because doing so would violate UK law. Instead, the company announced that it would remove Advanced Data Protection, the feature that enables end-to-end iCloud encryption, from the devices of UK customers. However, that move did not end the dispute because the UK order reportedly applies not just to the iCloud accounts of UK citizens but also anyone outside the UK that British security services have a judicial warrant to investigate.

The Financial Times’ sources say that Apple has appealed the British government’s order to the Investigatory Power Tribunal, a judicial body that handles disputes with UK security services. If accurate, the challenge is believed to be the first of its kind. The Financial Times further reports that a hearing on Apple’s challenge to the order may take place as early as this month, although it is unclear to what degree the hearing will be made public.

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Introducing NPC XL: More NPC, Every Week

Welcome to NPC XL.

Welcome to NPC XL.

Ever since Brendon, John, and I started our podcast about portable gaming – NPC: Next Portable Console – last year, I knew I’d found something special. It’s not just that the three of us are obsessed with handhelds and portable consoles; it’s that we work well together, and we’re having so much fun doing the show every two weeks. Who wouldn’t want to do even more with a project they love?

So today, we’re announcing some big changes to NPC:

  • We’re taking the regular show weekly, for free, for everyone!
  • We’re introducing NPC XL, a members-only version of NPC with extra content, available exclusively through our new Patreon for $5/month.
  • NPC is getting its own YouTube channel. With an expansion of the show, it made sense to let it grow beyond the MacStories YouTube channel.
  • NPC is joining the (awesome) TWG Discord server with a dedicated channel for community feedback and participation.

You can find our Patreon here, and we also dropped a surprise episode of NPC today announcing the expansion of the show:

Now, allow me to spend a few more words on why we’re doing this and what you can expect from becoming a patron of NPC XL.

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Apple Reveals New Magic Keyboard for iPad Air

Alongside today’s announcement of the M3 iPad Air and A16 iPad, Apple also revealed the all-new Magic Keyboard for iPad Air. The iPad Air line has traditionally inherited previous versions of the Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro, so this Air-exclusive version is a first. It offers some of the new features that came to the iPad Pro’s Magic Keyboard last year as well as an interesting set of tradeoffs when compared to the Pro model.

The Magic Keyboard for iPad Air adds a 14-key function row above the number keys for adjusting screen brightness, controlling volume and audio playback, and more. It also features a larger trackpad than the previous version for the iPad Air as well as the new hinge design introduced on the Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro last year. As before, it connects to the iPad Air via the Smart Connector and includes a single USB-C port for passthrough charging.

It’s great to see these features from the iPad Pro’s Magic Keyboard make their way to the iPad Air. At the same time, the Air version does include some compromises, most notably its omission of backlit keys. It also lacks the aluminum palm rest and trackpad haptic feedback found on the Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro, and it only comes in a single color option: white.

The iPad Air’s Magic Keyboard is marginally cheaper than the iPad Pro version (and the Magic Keyboard for last year’s iPad Air), costing $30 less at $269 for the 11-inch version and $319 for the 13-inch version. It’s compatible with a far wider range of devices, too. While the Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro only works with the latest M4 models, the iPad Keyboard for iPad Air works with the new M3 models, last year’s M2 versions, and models going back to 2020.

This new keyboard offering for the iPad Air is a mixed bag, but I think it’s a net positive. Apple is taking a step towards simplifying the iPad accessory lineup by clearly separating iPad Air features from iPad Pro features. It will be an adjustment for Air owners who are used to getting all of the features of the previous-gen iPad Pro keyboard, but it sets a clear expectation for what Apple thinks the iPad Air experience should be.

The Magic Keyboard for iPad Air is available to preorder today with deliveries and in-store availability starting March 12.

Apple Announces the New iPad Air and Base Model iPad

The new iPad Air. Source: Apple.

The new iPad Air. Source: Apple.

Apple today introduced an update to the iPad Air featuring the company’s M3 chip and a new base model iPad with the A16 chip and more starting storage at 128GB.

According to Apple’s press release, the new Air is almost twice as fast as the model with an M1 chip and up to 3.5 times faster than the Air with an A14 Bionic chip. Apple elaborates:

The powerful M3 chip offers a number of improvements over M1 and previous-generation models. Featuring a more powerful 8-core CPU, M3 is up to 35 percent faster for multithreaded CPU workflows than iPad Air with M1. M3 features a 9-core GPU with up to 40 percent faster graphics performance over M1. M3 also brings Apple’s advanced graphics architecture to iPad Air for the first time with support for dynamic caching, along with hardware-accelerated mesh shading and ray tracing. For graphics-intensive rendering workflows, iPad Air with M3 offers up to 4x faster performance than iPad Air with M1, enabling more accurate lighting, reflections, shadows, and extremely realistic gaming experiences.

The new model is available in blue, purple, starlight, and space gray and in 11-inch and 13-inch screen sizes. The Air also has 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB storage options.

The 11-inch iPad Air starts at $599, and the 13-inch model starts at $799 with education customers getting $50 off those prices. The cellular models add $150 to the price tag. The iPad Air can be preordered today for delivery and in-store pickup on March 12th.

The base model iPad. Source: Apple.

The base model iPad. Source: Apple.

As for the base model iPad, it comes in blue, pink, yellow, and silver, starting at $349 for the 128GB model. Cellular costs an additional $150, and education customers get $20 off. The other storage options for the iPad update are 256GB and 512GB. Like the iPad Air, the base model iPad can be ordered today for delivery March 12th.

Gemini for iOS Gets Lock Screen Widgets, Control Center Integration, Basic Shortcuts Actions

Gemini for iOS.

Gemini for iOS.

When I last wrote about Gemini for iOS, I noted the app’s lackluster integration with several system features. But since – unlike others in the AI space – the team at Google is actually shipping new stuff on a weekly basis, I’m not too surprised to see that the latest version of Gemini for iOS has brought extensive support for widgets.

Specifically, Gemini for iOS now offers a collection of Lock Screen widgets that also appear as controls in iOS 18’s Control Center, and there are barebones Shortcuts actions to go along with them. In both the Lock Screen’s widget gallery and Control Center, you’ll find Gemini widgets to:

  • type a prompt,
  • Talk Live,
  • open the microphone (for dictation),
  • open the camera,
  • share an image (with a Photos picker), and
  • share a document (with a Files picker).

It’s nice to see these integrations with Photos and Files; notably, Gemini now also has a share extension that lets you add the same media types – plus URLs from webpages – to a prompt from anywhere on iOS.

The Shortcuts integration is a little less exciting since Google implemented old-school actions that do not support customizable parameters. Instead, Gemini only offers actions to open the app in three modes: type, dictate, or Talk Live. That’s disappointing, and I would have preferred to see the ability to pass text or images from Shortcuts directly to Gemini.

While today’s updates are welcome, Google still has plenty of work left to do on Apple’s platforms. For starters, they don’t have an iPad version of the Gemini app. There are no Home Screen widgets yet. And the Shortcuts integration, as we’ve seen, could go much deeper. Still, the inclusion of controls, basic Shortcuts actions, and a share extension goes a long way toward making Gemini easier to access on iOS – that is, until the entire assistant is integrated as an extension for Apple Intelligence.