As far as I can see, the majority of MacBook Neo reviews are overwhelmingly positive. Other reviews are simply acknowledging that this new laptop will be a huge success, while also recommending other laptops, including the refurbished MacBook Air. These reviews share the same overall message: the Neo, especially after the August-September back-to-school season, will be an immense hit, potentially becoming the best-selling Mac computer of all time, maybe outselling the previous bestseller, I want to say three to four times (just speculating here).

With this upcoming increased volume of sales in the traditional computer market, i.e. not phones or tablets, and with these millions of users new to the Mac platform, what can this mean for MacOS and the ecosystem?

I have a lot of questions, and very few answers, as you can see below.

Will the Neo become a second chance for the Mac App Store? Will the popularity of the Neo, on the contrary, make the Mac App Store experience even worse? Will it become flooded with crappy apps, trying to take advantage of trusting users new to the platform? Will this change the average app price or business model on the Mac?

Looking at the Top Free Apps list on the Mac App Store as I write this line, the 6th most popular app is called “AI Chatbot · Ask AI Anything 5.2”.*1 It sits right after Microsoft Excel and CapCut, and before Microsoft PowerPoint. No, this app — unrelated to OpenAI — is not fishy at all (!) and the Mac App Store is very safe. The 12th most popular app on the list is “HP: Print and Support”. Great, great stuff. I wonder what will happen with millions of extra Mac users.

Will the Neo help the Mac become a proper gaming platform?

The Neo may not be equipped for “serious” gaming, due to its basic screen and “modest” GPU, but all the casual games and older games like Minecraft would be perfectly fine on this machine: there is definitely an opportunity for Apple and developers here, especially with the Mac being compatible with PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch controllers out of the box.

Will the popularity of the MacBook Neo be an opportunity for Apple to mobilise more third-party developers to build apps for MacOS, now that the potential user base can be significantly larger? How many of these new apps will be truly native, and how many will be built on top of frameworks like Electron, since the majority of these new users probably won’t care? Is the Neo a new opportunity for the Swift language? Will the Neo push Apple to finally update the Stickies app? I guess we will have to wait until WWDC 2026 to have parts of these answers.

Will this increased popularity of the Mac, arguably the first modern Mac for the masses, bring more heat to MacOS when it comes to viruses and security flaws?

This is one of the first questions I asked myself when I started to read about how the MacBook Neo could sell millions, on top of the current Mac sales. I understand that MacOS itself is pretty secure, but if MacOS becomes more appealing to apps and games developers, it will also be more appealing to virus makers.

How much of the iPad market will the Neo capture? How much of an impact will it have on the Safari vs. Chrome market share: will new Mac users just use Chrome on their new Macs or stick to Safari? Will the Neo push Apple to release more frequent updates for Safari? How many Safari extensions will be available by the end of the year?

How many of the new Mac users, brought to the platform via the Neo, will eventually become MacOS enthusiasts? What does it mean for the direction of MacOS? If, by the end of 2026, 80 to 90% of active Macs are MacBooks Neo (again, just speculating), what does it mean for the future of Liquid Glass?*2 Is an increased line of revenue for the Mac a reason for Apple to mobilise more people to work on MacOS?

I am a little worried that a never-seen-before popularity for the Mac would encourage Apple to make MacOS look and behave more like iOS.

Will the increased popularity of the Mac make the Mac less cool in the eyes of others, less exclusive? Is the Mac ready to become more than the cooler alternative to Windows?

I have a lot of questions, as you can see. I’m sure most of these questions have been asked hundreds of times already. Answers to these questions will appear obvious to some, less so to others. We don’t even know if the Neo will be as successful as most people predict. But I’m sure the Neo’s success is the one thing that raises the fewest questions…

I promise you I try to avoid linking to more than two articles on the same topic in each edition — and I really want to avoid my readers to feel too depressed reading this blog — but everything seems to be about A.I. or some sort of automation these days, either directly or indirectly. I also notice that most of the topics revolve around the how and rarely on the why, as if accelerating tasks to the max, regardless of their purpose, is unquestionably a good thing.

¶

Emily Tucker’s Open Letter to Georgetown Students, In Response to Recent Announcements by the University about “Generative A.I.” – “It’s a big win for them, in their quest to persuade you of your powerlessness, that they have gotten your university to [adopt] their marketing language for its official statements, to shape its academic programming around the presumption of their indefinite economic primacy, and to pay for you to have free access to technologies that will make it harder — the more you use them — to know yourself to be a free intellectual, creative and moral agent.” (via Dan Gillmor)

Overthinking: A.I. wasn't the first to break my heart – This article from Ana Rodrigues read a little too close to home for my own comfort; the feelings described and words chosen are very accurate and indeed increasingly familiar to a growing number of people.

We’re Training Students To Write Worse To Prove They’re Not Robots, And It’s Pushing Them To Use More A.I. – “[…] the AI detection tool flagged the essay as “18% A.I. written.” The culprit? Using the word “devoid.” When the word was swapped out for “without,” the score magically dropped to 0%.”

The Future Smells Like Paper – “The technology should remove bureaucratic friction while preserving ceremonial weight. Make the process transparent without making it trivial. You can't automate meaning. You can only create conditions where it might emerge.” (via iA Writer)

What I mean when I say that I hate Gen A.I. – “I hate that I do it, and I am angry that I am forced - but I am an adult and I do what I must. I couldn't care less if I write the code I "make", but I am disenchanted with humanity. As a young boy I was full of optimism, I thought we can strive to be better. I was wrong. Money is all that matters.” (via Brain Baking)

Backseat Software – So many quotable parts in this beauty of an article by Mike Swanson. Before writing this very sentence, I successively pasted 3 to 4 quotes, each better than the previous one. What a great read; actually very hard to get through, as you'll want to stop every other paragraph to take notes. (via The Talk Show)

TextEdit and the Relief of Simple Software – An interesting perspective from someone deeply involved in the activity of writing on a computer, but seemingly not as passionate about software as one would assume. I’ll keep an eye on Kyle Chayka’s future columns, as I wouldn’t be surprised if this one is just a first step into the inevitable quest of finding a better writing app on the Mac. I’ve been there, both as a TextEdit-only user and as a text-editing software snob. I even play with Vim in the Terminal from time to time, just so I can feel like Dana Scully typing a report. (via Michael Tsai)

SubEthaEdit – Perfect transition to a really excellent text editor, for people who love “real” Mac apps, with a neat collaboration feature.

The Shape of Paris – At first, I just wanted to watch the first couple of seconds of this to see if it was worth saving for later or not, and I ended up watching it in full. Beautiful scenery that somehow made me nostalgic for the eight years of my life I lived in Paris. Also, has any other sport or hobby ever beaten skateboard in terms of style and looks? I don’t think so, it’s the epitome of cool. (via Kottke)

Shady Characters – Not as cool as a skateboard video in Paris, but this whole website looks incredible thanks to an exquisite typography. Subscribed to the RSS feed, and there is also a book, that I’ve just ordered.

Previous blend of links editions