[object Object]
what do you call the psychological phenomenon where you hallucinate a human face onto a corporation like Apple and decide it must have goals other than profit maximization and exploitation
Mar 15 at 8:55pmWeb
Show thread[object Object]Mar 15

“the macbook neo will usher in a new age of software tinkering” cool! so they finally rereleased HyperCard?

…no? ok fine, at least they published some new developer guidelines such that developers will need to ensure their apps run great on the neo for 8 years since it’s such a performance gap from the high end macbook pro they’re using to develop, right?

…also no? oh dear, how strange. the neo is starting to look a lot like the utterly obvious: an overgrown iPad for SaaS apps

Show thread[object Object]Mar 15
the macbook neo is a device that’s designed to normalize low-end devices as consumption-only SaaS clients. it’s the soft opening blow for the death of general purpose computing for anyone who doesn’t have a corporation’s budget for a $10k+ a pop pro laptop. the future looks like a macbook neo but more expensive, less powerful, and more locked down.
Show thread[object Object]Mar 15

if you’re considering a macbook neo or defending the macbook neo in my replies like a fucking weirdo, please do our environment a solid and get a used device that’ll outperform the neo instead

if available, a surplus thinkpad running linux will knock your fucking socks off, I guarantee it. it is the repairable, tinkerable, cozy system you imagine the neo must be.

Show thread[object Object]Mar 15

believe it or not you don’t need to buy a brand new device that’s, by both its spec sheet and benchmarks, less performant than a 2020 MacBook Air, in the opening stages of a global economic depression

you don’t actually owe these capitalists your attention, your free advertising, or your money. they do not give a shit that you’ll be the goodest little consumer and use your neo to make cozy little indie games and ssh into servers and program mcus and post on fedi. you’re invisible to them.

Show thread[object Object]Mar 16

gimme some of that ✨apple magic✨ that makes a 6 year old device a miserable experience but a new device with worse specs and benchmarks than the 6 year old device somehow wonderful until 2034

what do you mean the magic is that it’s built for apple intelligence and other SaaS horseshit and as an entry-level market wedge for Apple’s take on adobe’s horrifically exploitative Creative Cloud suite

Show thread[object Object]Mar 16
it’s almost like 8GB RAM, non-expandable, split between the CPU and GPU, is the absolute minimum needed to make the trainwreck that is Liquid Glass macOS run at all and Apple isn’t planning on changing any of their development practices for an entry level device
Show thread[object Object]Mar 16

like I know damn well this thing isn’t for me, a lot of things aren’t for me. but which of these things am I supposed to clap for?

- tinkerers get nothing. there’s much better, faster, cheaper, much much more open tinkering devices out there
- students get a bad device that’ll be exactly as locked down as an iPad due to school policy
- creatives get Adobe Creative Cloud but Apple aka exploitation
- your dad probably won’t buy one cause macOS is weird and $600 is still too expensive for compute

Show thread[object Object]Mar 16

you don’t in fact have to waste your advocacy on the macbook neo. you don’t have to clap for a situation where Apple makes money. it doesn’t matter to me that this device will be a success, and I don’t doubt it will. it doesn’t deserve my recognition or my attention and I’m kind of shocked that it’s become a bizarre little outlet for OLPC-style techno-optimism.

“but zzt aren’t you giving it your att-“ yeah thanks for that motherfuckers, shove more garbage into my face til I flinch

Show threadtootbruteMar 16
@zzt tim apple knows his users are part of the cult now. they'll buy anything, overpay for the privilege, and praise Apple for inventing it, too.
Show threadtootbruteMar 17
feels like this Apple NEO thing is going to be ewaste so fast. nobody should be allowed to sell computers with 8 gb of ram ONLY. too little for what people expect.
Show threadtyilMar 17
@tootbrute It still feels insane to me that to some people, 8gb of ram seems like nothing. I have machines running right now with less than that, and they're performing just fine.
Show threadtootbruteMar 17

@tyil me too, but for normies trying to raw dog youtube inside of chrome without ad blockers or pihole it's going to be slow.

i have a machine with 4 gb of ram running Nixbook.

this neo thing is going to feel fast for 1 year and then, it will feel slow and 'old'.

Show threadtyilMar 17
@tootbrute Maybe normies should feel the slowness of the garbage that gets peddled to them. Maybe if normies would, for once, feel the effects of the garbage they've been giving up their money, privacy, and self-respect for, some of them might for once think about their actions.

I don't think rewarding idiots with ever expensive hardware to do stupid shit is the way to go. We've tried it for a couple decades, and things only get worse.
Show threadtootbruteMar 17

@tyil true. anyone buying a NEW computer with only 8gb of ram is asking for trouble and not really buying a computer that will last them for the next 5-10 years. the learned helplessness of computer users is not good.

i can't wait until users start complaining that their new mac is slow. should be fun. 

Show threadTony “Abolish ICE” Arcieri🌹🦀Mar 16
@zzt I am actively avoiding upgrading to Tahoe because of that monstrosity of a UI. I don’t think I’ve actively avoided an OS upgrade for similar reasons since Windows Vista
Show threadyoasifMar 16
@bascule @zzt I was off the train on Big Sur. The low contrast mess started at that point.
Show threadskryMar 16

@bascule @zzt

I hope Tahoe has useful accessibility settings like iOS does. I'm just not having transparent text backgrounds, bouncy bouncing, or low contrast.

Show threadTony “Abolish ICE” Arcieri🌹🦀Mar 16
@skry it practially broke springloaded folders. I wish I could shut it all off
Show threadskryMar 16
@bascule I skipped Mountain Lion, Leopard, El Crapitan, and several others in the past for less. I hope the next OS will be better as they changed designers again.
Show threadskryMar 16
@zzt 8GB is just an insult. My iPad has more. My desktop has 8x that.
Show threadtruhMar 16

@zzt Wait the 700€ laptop only has 8GB RAM? That's what people are hyped about? Enjoy barely opening a web browser.

They sure know to hide that detail well on their sales website.

Show threadyoasifMar 16
@zzt I will say, I am interested in seeing these show up in the used market as fun Linux machines.
Show threadMoses IzumiMar 15
@zzt
My load-bearing 9-cell battery can beat your dented aluminium case that renders the USB-A port nearly unusable*.
* I've had this exact problem with my secondary school Elitebook (8th gen i5)
Show threadMoses IzumiMar 15
@zzt
wake me up when CoolerMaster, Lian Li or the International Coalition of Gadget Dads drops a mini-ITX laptop kit and conquers the CAD/gaming laptop market overnight
Show threadrpgwaiterMar 15
@zzt afaik the neo is more powerful than the m1 macbook that I daily for coding, playing runescape, admining servers, etc.
Show threadNina KalininaMar 15
@rpgwaiter @zzt according to PassMark, A18 Pro is slightly faster per core, but M1 has better performance overall
Show thread[object Object]Mar 15

@nina_kali_nina @rpgwaiter that’s in line with the specs I pulled and had to double check cause I couldn’t believe them at first: by the spec sheet, the neo is almost the same as a 2020 M1 MacBook Air but with 2 fewer cores. the neo also cannot be expanded to 16GB of memory.

(for the screenshots, the first screenshot with the white background is the neo)

Show threadckfiniteMar 15

@zzt In many senses I have the opposite take; what you describe is in many senses the low end de jure. Is the chromebook not just a macbook neo but more expensive, less powerful, and more locked down? Chromebooks were literally and specifically designed to be SaaS consumers and nothing more, and against that background the neo is doing much better.

When held up against chromebooks, smartphones, and tablets, the macbook neo is much more flexible and user-adjustable. It's just as powerful as the smartphones that much of the web is already designed for, and offers a far more customizable computing experience than those smartphone platforms do.

It's not at all a savior, but it's also a breath of fresh air compared to a computer that literally only runs a web browser.

Show thread[object Object]Mar 15
@ckfinite this reads like an ad and has so many factual inaccuracies that I’m somewhat convinced it is one
Show threadcanllaithMar 15
@zzt @fincham It is significantly more powerful than machines I still use to write code, write proposals, flash firmware, draw diagrams, manage infrastructure, read very strange takes like this. Do not take me for an Apple sycophant I do not like closed systems. But the narrative that you cannot compute without 64GB of memory serves no-one.
Show thread[object Object]Mar 15
@canllaith @fincham my guy please get off the soapbox and buy a used lenovo or a chromebook and put linux on it like a normal person
Show threadGlyphMar 15
@zzt This seems like a strange take to me because the products to compare against are iPads and the worst Chromebooks on the market, both of which are tilted much more heavily in the "consumption device" direction. And the marketing is congruent with the technical story, where the apps they linger on the longest are GarageBand and Numbers. To put an "exploitative corporation" gloss on this, why do you think they want more consumption, rather than a ready market for Creator Studio subscriptions?
Show threadRabbitMar 16
@zzt So you mean the future looks like an iPad Pro.
Show thread🦕 Justus ☠️ Tóth 🏁 RömethMar 16
@zzt @vascorsd tbh since I own a mac mini and a PC for gaming I could run Linux from it‘s exactly the kind of mobile terminal I need, an iPad just does not cut it.
Show threadDave AlvaradoMar 16

@zzt Apple doesn't have that level of relevance in the personal computer market.

Also, it's not even a new concept. It's the Apple Chromebook.

Show threadDavid HowellMar 15

@zzt It's interesting that the iPad Air iterative update released on the same day, at the same price, quietly bumped up to 12GB RAM as well as rocking a chip that's on another level of performance...

...and the reviewers say that's not like-for-like because "you need the $300 keyboard!" (that's got usable third-party alternatives for a fraction of that)

If MacOS runs on phone chips and iPadOS on desktop chips, how long before the two are merged? At which point the Neo buyers are revealed to have bought the (much) worse $600 2026 device

Show threadtruhMar 16
@shinybat @zzt I assume they will keep it separate at least from a consumer POV so they can sell you an iphone, an ipad and a MacBook.
Show threadLoïc DenuzièreMar 15
@zzt Pareidolatry
Show threadChristina JenniferMar 15
@tarmil @zzt I would assume pareidolatry means the process of assigning meaning to the output of a statistical word generator and declaring it a god.
Show threadJeroen Mar 15
@zzt Anthropomorphism?
Show threadKirtai 🏳️‍⚧️Mar 15
@zzt
Anthropomorphisation?
...
Holy shit, I spelled that correctly first go 
Show threadStephen FoskettMar 15
@kirtai @zzt Pareidolia?
Show threadskryMar 16

@zzt

Branding, a successful corporate mascot.

Show threadI AM BANKSY ☕ / 🗑‍🔥Mar 16
@zzt
Corporate paredolia?
@oblomov
Show threadJoão Tiago Rebelo (NAFO J-121)Mar 16
@xinit reverse company-Capgras delusion?
@zzt @oblomov