This is Technology Bytes, episode 157 from March 8, 2026.
Technology Bytes is a microcast where I share brief bites on interesting technology.
Enjoy, and here we go.
So this past week, I went starting with so again, this past week, Apple released quite a bit of new hardware, and they had an event in New York and somewhere else and somewhere else around the world.
Anyway, to let people get hands on with these things, I haven’t read a whole lot about the reviews of what is had been released.
But I thought I’d go over some of my thoughts on what they released and what I think of the products.
So Apple released what one, two, three, I don’t know, maybe four or five, six, seven things.
But they started with the iPhone 17 E and it really is the I guess in Apple’s world, it’s the budget iPhone.
It’s not necessarily inexpensive, but it is their lowest cost iPhone.
And it is really good for what it is.
It’s probably pretty good for the money.
It doesn’t really fit what I use my iPhone for.
But it has a lot of the basics that people would like to get with their phone.
It just has a single camera.
So that might be a drawback depending on how you use your phone.
But it is a good camera and it has MagSafe and MagSafe charging.
It has a good processor, the A19 processor.
It is built to be an iPhone and it is built to be a good iPhone.
And I think it’s a phone that would be really good for, I don’t know, maybe your children, maybe anybody who can’t afford maybe the next step up, just the standard iPhone 17 or maybe not even close to the Pro or Pro Max.
So a good device.
It is an Apple product and it will perform like an Apple product and it will last like an Apple product.
So it is a good purchasing value.
They also released the new iPad Air with the M4 processor in it.
Just really kind of a bump.
Most of it is the processor, but they have done a couple things.
So Apple has their own modem chip that they put in the iPhone 17 and maybe the iPhone 17 Air.
I can’t remember which ones, but not in the Pros.
And it’s called the CX chip and now they’ve got the CX1 as kind of the next version.
They’ve put it in, I believe they’ve put it in an iPad at this point.
But in the iPad Air they’ve put that.
They also have their own Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip called the M1 for networking.
And so we’ll be interested to see how that goes.
I don’t know what else that chip goes in, but the iPad Air also supports Thread and that’s kind of the Thread matter smart home stuff if you’re into that.
But a good update regardless and a fairly good value for what you are purchasing.
Apple also released new MacBook Pros and the basics for these is really just the new chip.
It’s the M5 chip, which I think is already out in the iPad Pro.
I start to get confused over this.
But they’ve got the M5, they’ve got the M5 Pro and the M5 Max, so three different versions of that chip.
Really it’s just how much power you want and also how much RAM you want to support because each one of those devices supports up to a given amount of RAM.
I don’t remember what it is, but really this MacBook Pro is just more than whatever they released before.
Not a huge difference between that and the last MacBook Pros they did except for the M5, which is a big step.
It’s got a lot of power.
It’s built for artificial intelligence and if this is where you need to live, it’s a great product.
So for the first time in a while, Apple released a brand new Mac and it’s called the Mac Neo.
Not sure why the name, but that’s fine.
And this is their entry-level MacBook offering.
And even though they don’t call it a MacBook, they call it the Mac Neo.
It’s the same thing.
It’s a sub-600, okay, $599 laptop from Apple, but it’s aluminum.
It’s got lots of colors.
It’s attractive for the audience that Apple is trying to reach, whether it be maybe into the education market for some of the younger people.
It has an A18 chip that is powering it.
So they’ve pulled an iPhone chip from actually a couple years ago to power this device.
It’s 8GB of RAM, which may not be enough for some of what people want to do, but for what this Mac is, I think it’s probably pretty good.
You can get 256 or 512GB of storage.
Overall, it’s a pretty cool device to have in their lineup.
It’s got some pretty neat colors, if you like colors, and it’s got a price point that allows people to get into the Mac universe or the Apple universe and start to see how that works and then maybe grow from there as they need more capability for things in the future.
The one I left for last is the M5 MacBook Air, and the reason I left it for last is because that is where I live.
Every MacBook I’ve had for the last two or three have been MacBook Airs, and I don’t see myself changing from that.
It fits what I do.
It fits how I use the computer, and as always, when Apple releases products, I’m like, yeah, I don’t need anything.
I think I have the M4 MacBook Air, but I made a small mistake.
I bought it with only 256GB of RAM.
Now, that has served me well over the last three computers that I’ve purchased and also passed on to my kids, but this recent release of the Creative Suite has tested that storage limit that I have set on myself, and the new MacBook Air comes with the M5 processor, so pretty significant bump.
The specs on their website say it’s four times faster than the M4, which is what I have.
That sounds pretty cool, but it also comes at a minimum of 512GB of RAM, so twice what I have.
It seems like a pretty good deal, and so I decided I’m not purchasing, but I kind of hope to.
I have to run it by my wife first, but I did a pre-order kind of thing, but didn’t push the button to see what it would cost me.
So, the MacBook Air that I have right now I will pay off at the end of March, and these are all coming out in this month, and so I looked at what would happen if I trade in that MacBook Air to get a new MacBook Air, and so with that trade in, I can get a brand new MacBook Air, the same one that I have really except for twice the storage and obviously much faster, for about five, just under $600, or I could pay $41 a month on my Apple Card, you know, no interest, that kind of things.
So I’m leaning towards doing that.
Again, I have to talk to my wife, but if I do, obviously I will be talking about that in the weeks to come.
This has been quite a week for Apple, lots of new products, lots of things for people to talk about.
They release products like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday with really just press releases and then have press people and pundits and whoever else that they’ve invited to touch it.
I’ll be looking forward to hearing from those people, many of who I listen to through their podcast world, and seeing what their thoughts are about what Apple released.
Oh, just realized I forgot two things.
They did their Apple Studio display and Apple Studio XDR display.
I don’t live in that world.
I don’t use those.
I heard people complaining about price.
Yeah, that’s Apple for you.
That’s what happens, but it’s probably a really good display, and yeah, my boss would buy one.
I’d put one in my office, but I’ve purchased all my hardware that I use at work because I like to live in the Apple world.
So that is two things that I left off, so now they’ve released, I don’t know, nine, but it was a huge week of release for Apple.
Whether you want products, whether you need products, it was still quite a bit of things coming out right here at the beginning of the year.
Well, that is all I have for today.
If you have comments, suggestions, or questions, you can send them to technologybytes at merrickfamily.com.
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.
