This is Technology Bytes, episode 106 for March 16th, 2025.
Technology Bytes is a microcast where I share brief bytes on interesting technology.
Enjoy.
And here we go.
So this past week, maybe two weeks, week and a half, Apple released some products.
They released them very quietly.
Just press releases, no real event or anything.
Videos on their YouTube channel.
And I just want to talk about those devices over the next few minutes.
So the first one they did, I think it was the first one, was the iPad Air, which is just a quick redesign with an M3 processor.
And so it’s a nice bump.
The iPad Air is a great iPad.
I use the iPad Pro because I use it for things that the iPad Air doesn’t really give me.
But the, I don’t know if it’s a heartache or whatever, but my wife and I just purchased her an iPad Air not that long ago, too long to take it back and turn it in for an M3.
But for her use and what she’s doing, the M2 processor is way more than she needs, I guess, maybe more than most of us need.
But it is a nice update.
It is something that’s going to happen on the regular now that Apple controls their own silicon.
Well, I guess they always did with the iPads anyway, but a good release nonetheless.
The other product that Apple released is the MacBook Air, and that always seems to be the leader in new technology.
It’s kind of weird because it’s really their entry level MacBook.
But I think from what I’ve heard and not really read, because mostly it’s just listening, it’s their best selling MacBook that they have.
And so another fairly small update, though some significance to it, it has the M4 processor.
So that’s a better processor than the M3.
It’s built on a different process.
It has more capability.
It’s probably a bigger jump from the M3 to the M4 than from the M2 to the M3, I guess.
So it is a very nice computer.
And I think one of the biggest things is because Apple is preparing, although not too well, if you listen to the news at all for Apple intelligence, they have now set their base RAM at 16 gigabytes.
And so that’s a good upgrade as well.
And then the camera on the device is better with center stage and those kinds of things that the camera has that they’ve released on other products as well, like the latest iMac as well.
The other thing that was big is that they actually dropped the price $100.
Now we’re still talking about $1,000 MacBook to start, so it’s not inexpensive.
But dropping that $100 is interesting because of the improvements that have been made.
And then the other thing that they did was release a color called sky blue.
I haven’t seen it in person.
Haven’t paid a lot of attention.
I did see it on their website.
And I think they picture it in such a light or take their pictures in such a light that that blue might stand out a little bit.
One podcast I listened to, one of the people on that podcast often gets demo units and they thought that he thought that Apple had sent him another silver MacBook Air and he’s like, you came out with a new color.
Why didn’t you send me the new color?
And he looked on the box and it actually was the new color.
So it’s sky blue, but apparently that is maybe just a word.
I’d have to see it in person, but it’s the blueness is very, very faint.
The other thing they did was kept the midnight and that’s what I have.
I have the MacBook Air 15 inch midnight color and the new MacBook Air.
I would really like because I believe the one I have is an M2 processor and I would and it has eight gigabytes of RAM.
I’d really like to get the new MacBook Air with the 16 gigabytes of RAM.
The new camera would be fine, but I think that sets me up for the future better than where I’m at.
And my daughter needs a new computer too.
I use that as an excuse, but we’ve got taxes to pay and I purchased a new car and there’s other things that may keep me from being able to see that purchase happen, but it would be nice.
And it’d be nice if I could give my daughter a new computer as I did to my son when I upgraded my iMac.
Then both my iMac and my MacBook Air, which I use daily, would have the 16 gigabytes of RAM and that would be set up.
I don’t know what my iPad Pro has.
It is the latest one, I think.
Anyway, all the devices then in my Apple ecosystem, including my phone, would all be set up for the future if Apple ever gets their act together with Apple Intelligence.
Now, the other device or product that Apple released was a new Mac Studio.
And this is an interesting computer.
It’s very, very powerful.
A number of people that I listen to that do Apple podcasts use the Mac Studio.
Sorry for the multiple ums in this episode.
I still don’t know how to speak and not do that.
I wish I could learn that of all things.
Okay, back to the Mac Studio.
So I think one thing that confused some, and I think myself included, without doing a lot of research or a deep dive into it, is the fact that the Mac Studio comes with the M4 Max.
And so that’s going to be a great processor.
It’s super powerful, probably as much as almost anyone would need.
But then they did a bump up, which they’ve done on the Mac Studio before with the Ultra.
And many would think, myself included, that that would be an M4 Ultra, but that is not what they did.
They did the M3 Ultra.
So they talk about, they, this is the pundants, right?
And the people who test it, that in single core tests, the M4 Max is going to be faster than the M3 Ultra.
But that is not why those chips exist, not for single core calculations or processing or whatever.
It’s the multiple cores that are in there.
And it is crazy, the number of cores and CPU cores and GPU cores that the M3 Ultra has.
I think it’s, I don’t know, up to 80 GPU cores, maybe 60 CPU cores.
I should have looked that up before I started this microcast.
Well, that’s the problem with not doing a ton of research.
But the reality is that it is a fantastically fast, a screaming machine.
It can come to, you can get up to 512 gigabytes of RAM.
That’s a half a terabyte.
I understand that they’re Mac Pro of the Intel world.
I think that one could go up to, I don’t know, a couple terabytes of RAM or something like that.
But with their integrated RAM and their on-chip, single chip kind of devices with their M-level processors, 512 gigabytes of RAM is just about more unless you’re using it for super high end stuff than you really need.
But with all of that technology, if you were to max it out and that is getting the M3 Ultra, maxing out the RAM, maxing out your storage, which may not be the wisest thing to do because external storage for a desktop would be much less expensive, but you can bump that device to up to $14,000 and that doesn’t even include a screen.
So that’s pretty crazy, but it is super powerful.
Not something I need.
It is fun to see that those kind of computers exist.
And in my past, I might have even thought that I needed that, but clearly not now.
And so those are the devices that Apple released.
Very nice iPad, very nice MacBook Air, very nice Mac Studio.
As always, Apple’s doing great with their software and or with their hardware.
And now they just need their Apple intelligence to make some strides to get better.
And I think they will.
I think they’ve got a little bit of time and you can do a lot of artificial intelligence from other people on Apple devices very well, but I’m not sure that’s where Apple wants you to live.
And so we’ll see what happens.
I’m really looking forward to WWDC.
I’m starting to hear little whispers of things that might go on and it will be fun to see what Apple does, hoping that they put some of their money where their mouth is and get some software developers time and, and expertise to move that product forward in very large steps.
Well, that is all I have for today.
If you have comments, suggestions, or questions, you can send them to technologybytes at merigfamily.com.
That’s M E A R I G family.com.
As always, I want to thank you to, as always, I want to thank you for listening to the technology bytes microcast.
And I look forward to the next time we are together, taking another bite of technology.
