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Apple marks a remarkable milestone this April 1 — 50 years since Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne founded the company in a California garage on that date in 1976. To commemorate it, Apple said Thursday it will plan a series of global celebrations. And CEO Tim Cook published a personal letter on apple.com. It looks back on five decades of innovation while expressing gratitude to the billions of people who have made Apple what it is today.

“Thinking different has always been at the heart of Apple,” Cook said. “It’s what has driven us to create products that empower people to express themselves, to connect and to create something wonderful.”

Despite the severe DRAM and NAND shortages, Apple will supposedly keep the upcoming iPhone 18 Pro’s price unchanged. The company wants to use current chaos to its advantage and increase its market share.

The memory shortages have already forced several smartphone and PC makers to raise prices.

The folding iPhone will require iOS 27 to be enhanced with support for running two applications side-by-side on its large, foldable display, according to a reliable source.

Split-screen multitasking is a feature borrowed from iPadOS, but Apple’s upcoming premium handset will be an iPhone and therefore run iOS — just a modified version.

Dredge has been described as “a cosmic horror-fueled fishing game,” so don’t expect a knockoff of Bass Masters when it hits Apple Arcade in April. If that doesn’t pique your interest, it got named iPad Game of the Year.

And rather than the usual $25 charge for the app, Apple Arcade subscribers can play for $6.99, plus enjoy hundreds more titles.

When we reported last week that the $599 MacBook Neo set off alarm bells across the PC industry, the hand-wringing was mostly coming from pundits and outside observers. Now PC makers are saying it out loud — on earnings calls, no less.

ASUS co-CEO S.Y. Hsu didn’t mince words on the company’s most recent quarterly call. Apple’s move into budget-friendly territory is “a shock to the entire industry,” he said, adding that across the entire PC ecosystem, “there have been a lot of discussions about how to compete with this product.”

Apple already can’t keep up with MacBook Neo demand, and the low-cost notebook just launched on Wednesday. Sales momentum will keep growing throughout the year, according to an industry analyst.

The laptop’s success will likely be buoyed by reviews that prove the MacBook Neo offers speedy performance, despite its entry-level specifications.

Apple’s affordable MacBook Neo, iPhone 17e, M5 Pro/Max-equipped MacBook Pros and the M4 iPad Air went on sale Wednesday. The M5-powered MacBook Air and new Studio Displays also hit retail stores today.

Apple began accepting preorders for these devices last week, shortly after unveiling them.

The Satechi OntheGo Foldable Stand Hub helps your iPad become the heart of a compact workstation. It holds up the tablet while simultaneously expanding its connectivity with five additional ports.

The multifunction stand also folds down so it’s ready to travel.

Apple is currently putting the finishing touches on a major step forward for the MacBook Pro line, with advanced features no current MacBook can boast of. And the M6 processor is just the icing on the cake. Here’s why you should wait for it.

Yes, the MacBook Pro just got updated with M5 Pro or M5 Max processors making it the fastest Mac ever. But you should think seriously about skipping it. You’ll kick yourself if you have a relatively new model when something far better comes along in a few months.

Two new speakers — one portable, one not — aim squarely at easy home setup for listeners who want room-filling audio without headaches, and both work seamlessly with Apple AirPlay 2, Sonos said Tuesday.

“Much of consumer tech promises innovation, yet too often delivers isolation — new devices replacing old ones instead of building on what already works,” said Sonos CEO Tom Conrad. “We believe a great sound experience shouldn’t reset every time you add something new. It should get better.”

The portable Sonos Play ($299) and mic-free home speaker Era 100 SL ($189) go on pre-order Tuesday with general availability set for March 31.

Apple revealed its versions of eight upcoming new emoji in iOS 26.4 beta 4, which it pushed to developers Monday. Standouts include Distorted Face — sure to become a hit when it arrives to the general public — and Hairy Creature, which looks an awful lot like Bigfoot.

See Apple’s versions of all the new emoji, and all the other changes in the beta, below. 

Apple once again delayed its long-awaited smart home hub with a display — casually known as the “HomePad” — until around September as the company continues struggling to get its revamped Siri voice assistant ready for prime time, according to a report Monday.

Last week Keychron trotted out an ultra-slim wireless keyboard that folds in half for easy portability. At $64.99, the Keychron B11 Pro Ultra-Slim Wireless Foldable Keyboard is aimed squarely at Mac users and mobile workers who want the comfort of a proper keyboard without lugging around a bag.

When folded, the B11 Pro measures just 196.3mm × 143 mm — roughly the size of a small paperback. That makes it small enough to slide into a jacket pocket.

CAD drawings supposedly revealing the design of the first folding iPhone indicate the device will sport a very different shape than rival foldable smartphones.

The early Monday leak comes from a reliable source, and the design shown matches earlier reports about the so-called iPhone Fold. So this may well be what the new premium iOS device looks like when it debuts in the fall.

Bestselling author David Pogue just published Apple: The First 50 Years, an ambitious book about the history of Apple.

The approximately 600-page, full-color book spans the company’s epic saga, from its founding by two college dropouts to its latest machinations with Apple Intelligence. It’s a fun and informative book, and an easy read despite being a doorstop.

I interviewed Pogue about his book and the wild ride that Apple’s been on for the last five decades.

A major revamp to the MacBook Pro lineup should land later this year, featuring an OLED touchscreen display and faster M6 chips. The upcoming model could sit above the current MacBook Pro as an “Ultra” variant, carrying a higher price point.

If accurate, the move would mark a significant change to Apple’s professional laptop lineup in over a decade.

Apple released no fewer than seven products last week, including the MacBook Neo, the M5 MacBook Air, the iPhone 17e and much more. But there are still three more products likely to be coming out of Cupertino this spring — and one of them is among Apple’s most popular offerings.

Here’s what new Apple products we can look forward to in the next few months across multiple categories.

This week on the Cult of Mac podcast: The MacBook Neo is the obvious star that emerged from this week’s tsunami of Apple product announcements. Its potent combo of good looks, surprisingly good performance and an extremely appealing price tag makes it a powerful lure for bringing new people into the Apple world.

We discuss the new laptop’s strong points — as well as some definite drawbacks.

Also on the Cult of Mac podcast:

• The brawny M5 Pro and M5 Max chips in the latest MacBook Pros sound absolutely mind-blowing.
• The iPhone 17e looks like a great upgrade to Apple’s budget handset.
• The new Airs (iPad and MacBook) also seem great, if not that surprising.
• And we wrap up the show with the results from last week’s predictions game.

Listen to this week’s episode of the Cult of Mac podcast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!) Or watch the video live stream, embedded below.

The recently introduced high-end M5 MacBook Pro may be a spec bump update before the M6 models bring radical new changes. But before you commit to sitting this generation out, you should know the M6 models will likely come with some caveats.

An all-new design with new features (like a slimmer chassis and touch screen) usually brings with it an all-new price that’s higher than before. If you’re holding out for the M6 Pro or Max models, you may be waiting for longer than you expect. And if you’re just getting the base model, well, the rumored changes may not come at all. 

This isn’t pure speculation; Apple has a proven track record of pulling all these tricks. Here are three reasons why the M5 MacBook Pro may actually be the better choice for you.

You can stop worrying whether the new entry-level MacBook Neo is too slow to be useful. The first benchmark scores are out, and they confirm that Apple’s low-cost notebook offers all the performance needed by average computer users, even though it is powered by an A18 Pro chip with 8GB of RAM.

The computer is actually faster than a MacBook Pro model still widely in use. Here’s the proof.

The standout feature of the new MacBook Neo is its $599 price, but it seems a great many buyers are willing to pay more than that. Apple is already running out of pre-launch stock of the variant that comes with additional storage capacity, even though it adds 17% to the price.

Plus, there’s a standout color option. Only one of the four is popular enough that both the 256GB and 512GB version is already sold out.

Coach Lasso’s right-hand man Coach Beard returns in upcoming season four of fan-favorite soccer comedy Ted Lasso, and Apple TV dropped a quick clip Friday seemingly confirming a main plot line. They will coach a Richmond women’s soccer team this season. 

“Same Beard. New book,” said the short video’s caption. The book’s title? Soccer Women.

The bold, unconventional name of Apple’s new entry-level laptop — MacBook Neo — surprised just about everyone, including many folks who expected the simple moniker “MacBook.” And it turns out the reasoning behind “Neo” is just as vivid as the laptop’s color palette, according to a new report.

The first M5 Max benchmarks surfaced online, again showing Apple silicon’s superiority. Early results show the new chip outperforms every other CPU currently on the market.

The Geekbench listing reportedly comes from a 16-inch MacBook Pro powered by the M5 Max.

You can no longer buy an M3 Ultra Mac Studio with 512GB of unified memory from Apple. Instead, the machine can now be configured with a maximum of 256GB of memory.

Apple also raised the price for upgrading the memory from 96GB to 256GB by $400.