So it’s going to be called the MacBook mini, right?

[UltimateSyn]

This.

Just "MacBook".

It sounds like what the 12" MacBook should have been.

(Personally, I really, really want a MacBook Pro mini, i.e. the smallest and thinnest practically usable macOS device Apple could possibly make, with best hardware specs the form factor could possibly support. They are 90% of the way there with the 11" iPad Pro.)



And the G4 Cube.

I would absolutely buy a 12” MacBook Pro. It would be so fun.

 

[mdcmdcmdc]

And the G4 Cube.

Don’t forget the 20th Anniversary Mac. 🤣

 

[Arctic Moose]

Don’t forget the 20th Anniversary Mac. 🤣

Not a Steve product though, and he reportedly hated it.

 

[mdcmdcmdc]

Not a Steve product though, and he reportedly hated it.

You’re right, it was the 20th anniversary of Apple in 1997, before Steve came back. I was thinking 20th anniversary of the Macintosh in 2004. My memory is fuzzy these days. 🤣

 

[conmee]

MacBook Neo evidently…

 

[maruyama]

Neo is about the last thing I thought they'd call it, but kind of cool that they're staking out a new tentpole for the Mac!

It suggests that they're going to market this thing seriously. If they really do hit the $599 price point, it could be a sleeper.

 

[JPack]

Neo is about the last thing I thought they'd call it, but kind of cool that they're staking out a new tentpole for the Mac!

It suggests that they're going to market this thing seriously. If they really do hit the $599 price point, it could be a sleeper.

Many people missed it when Kuo revealed Apple told the supply chain to expect 5-7 million units this year. That's 20-30% of Mac unit sales.

 

[dumastudetto]

MacBook Neo (Nay-Or) is my prediction. It will run a special version of macOS Neo that is locked down to App Store apps only. As a result, this will be the most affordable AND secure legacy-style computer Apple has ever made.

 

[JPack]

MacBook Neo (Nay-Or) is my prediction. It will run a special version of macOS Neo that is locked down to App Store apps only. As a result, this will be the most affordable AND secure legacy-style computer Apple has ever made.

Debunked.

 

[dumastudetto]

Debunked.
View attachment 2609611

How does that debunk it?

 

[JPack]

How does that debunk it?

It doesn't say "Mac OS Neo," "Mac OS Bullet Time," "Mac OS Red Pill," or any other silly thing.

 

[dumastudetto]

It doesn't say "Mac OS Neo," "Mac OS Bullet Time," "Mac OS Red Pill," or any other silly thing.

It says “Mac OS” as a plain, generic term. The listing doesn’t even match Apple’s own naming structure or marketing materials (macOS).

 

[MultiFinder17]

It says “Mac OS” as a plain, generic term. The listing doesn’t even match Apple’s own naming structure or marketing materials (macOS).

So does every other version of this form for all their other Macs on their website. For example, this is the M4 Air.

 

[mansplains]

How about “MR Reject” for the name, seeing how so many here feel this forum represents mainstream people who aren’t Apple nerds?

I read MR as Mr. at first
“That’s Mister Reject to you.”

 

[Jalu]

MacBook Neo (Nay-Or) is my prediction. It will run a special version of macOS Neo that is locked down to App Store apps only. As a result, this will be the most affordable AND secure legacy-style computer Apple has ever made.

They might sell a subscription to unlock regular macos.

 

[jtdx99]

Just "MacBook" makes the most sense to me, and it used to exist in the product line.

 

[dumastudetto]

So does every other version of this form for all their other Macs on their website. For example, this is the M4 Air.

View attachment 2609649

Yes precisely the point I was trying to make.

 

[dumastudetto]

They might sell a subscription to unlock regular macos.

Doubt it. Apple likes locking things down and doesn’t like giving people paths to unguarded access. That said, they also like making a lot of money. 😃

 

[Apple_Robert]

MacBook Neo (Nay-Or) is my prediction. It will run a special version of macOS Neo that is locked down to App Store apps only. As a result, this will be the most affordable AND secure legacy-style computer Apple has ever made.

That will not happen. Doing so would damage consumer sales and hurt the brand.

 

[JPack]

Just "MacBook" makes the most sense to me, and it used to exist in the product line.

I have low confidence in the name. Below is the reported marketing name according to filings to ISED Canada.

"Neo" may be just an internal placeholder name to differentiate it from the 12-inch 2015 model.

A18 MacBook

M5 MacBook Air

M5 MacBook Pro

 

[maruyama]

This will all be very funny if it turns out "Neo" was just a placeholder some content manager threw in because their department hadn't been given access to the final name yet.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

I have low confidence in the name. Below is the reported marketing name according to filings to ISED Canada.

"Neo" may be just an internal placeholder name to differentiate it from the 12-inch 2015 model.

A18 MacBook
View attachment 2609680

M5 MacBook Air
View attachment 2609681

M5 MacBook Pro
View attachment 2609677

Honestly, at this point it could go either way.
Apple almost always keeps the true marketing name of a product as close to the chest as they can until about 48 hours before launch, and these filings are from a week ago.
Meanwhile the “MacBook Neo” listings were literally only found this morning, and crucially were directly from Apple‘s official website.
It definitely would be a strange name, but, not the first time that’s happened within the last year. This is the same company that randomly changed up the iPhone’s lowest end model from “SE”, which they used for nine years, to “16e” with the lowercase e and everything. Also “iPhone Air”, no numbers. And yet still kept around the Watch SE…
Consistency is never really what they’ve ever gone for.

 

[tonmischa]

It will run a special version of macOS Neo that is locked down to App Store apps only.

Lots of people in this forum have now made predictions like this. AppStore-only. Online-only. Subscription-only. No Intel Apps.

Honest question: Where is this stuff coming from? Is there some kind of campaign going on? Some influencers trying to gain publicity by inventing clickbait-y rumors?
It's not from Gurman, it's not from Kuo, its not from any Weibo leakers. None of the usual rumor sources have said even one word about Apple locking down anything.
So who is spreading these ideas around?

A18 = iPhone = "Locked to AppStore"
Is that the chain of causation you are coming from?

 

[Takoyaki]

Lots of people in this forum have now made predictions like this. AppStore-only. Online-only. Subscription-only. No Intel Apps.

Honest question: Where is this stuff coming from? Is there some kind of campaign going on? Some influencers trying to gain publicity by inventing clickbait-y rumors?
It's not from Gurman, it's not from Kuo, its not from any Weibo leakers. None of the usual rumor sources have said even one word about Apple locking down anything.
So who is spreading these ideas around?

A18 = iPhone = "Locked to AppStore"
Is that the chain of causation you are coming from?

I’m excited for tomorrow just so I’ll never have to hear those specific predictions again, along with people somehow thinking the A18 Pro is worse than the M1 when benchmarks are all out there.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

Lots of people in this forum have now made predictions like this. AppStore-only. Online-only. Subscription-only. No Intel Apps.

Honest question: Where is this stuff coming from? Is there some kind of campaign going on? Some influencers trying to gain publicity by inventing clickbait-y rumors?
It's not from Gurman, it's not from Kuo, its not from any Weibo leakers. None of the usual rumor sources have said even one word about Apple locking down anything.
So who is spreading these ideas around?

A18 = iPhone = "Locked to AppStore"
Is that the chain of causation you are coming from?

Oh, don’t even worry about it, there has been fear mongering about Apple locking the Mac down to the App Store since the Mac AppStore and Lion was introduced in 2010.
People were certain it was going to happen when they introduced the launchpad.

Terrible Move

This is a very bad development indeed. This smells of the thin edge of the wedge of a closed ecosystem. I don't like this one bit. Hopefully Apple will not try to exercise more control down the road of non-appstore apps. Personally if I were a developer I'd be very very worried by these developments.

People were certain it was going to happen when Apple introduced gatekeeper.

Well we all knew this was coming. After Mountain Lion we'll have to jailbreak to run apps from outside the App Store.

RIP desktop computing

It's so sad everyone is seeing this as a good thing and is downvoting those who say otherwise. I guess that's why Apple can get away with locking down Macs so much.

People were certain it was going to happen when Apple introduced catalyst…

As long as Apple still allows Mac Apps to be downloaded from the internet people were convinced a DMG opening an apple silicon Mac would never be allowed…

I hope they only do this for low end macs. I use too many virtual machines for this ever to work for me professionally.

I’m a bit worried that the MacOS will turn even more into a “walled garden” with the transition to ARM. I’m sure there’s some smart folks working on it though, but wonder if the Mac will become like the iPad and iPhone where it’s harder to install apps that don’t explicitly come from the App Store.

As a software developer, I do wonder how all the Unix/bsd subsystems will be affected, but only time will tell. Looking forward to hearing the announcement (if it’s a correct rumor of course).

Somehow I think Intel will be around for quite some time. I can’t really imagine an ARM Mac Pro.

Presuming the OS for the ARM based Mac will be iPadOS on steroids, then as long as it runs apps well then all is good. I'll be very surprised of they go with macOS for ARM.

The end of the road for me and Macs then. I don’t want my Mac to be a glorified Raspberry Pi.

I half hope I'm proven wrong on this and half very excited, but I have a feeling that the transition has already begun, we just haven't noticed it yet. The iPad Pro with keyboard is an ARM computer, Apple even market it as such. I believe the fabled ARM Mac will not be a Mac, but a 2 in 1 iPad Pro with a beefed up version of iPad OS. Apple have been improving iPad OS to the point where it's a strong desktop replacement for a decent section of the market.

Why port Mac OS to a new architecture when you already have a perfectly good OS on that architecture?

And this is just a couple examples. The “Apple is locking down the Mac, it’s going to be an iPad on steroids, you won’t be able to download anything out of the AppStore” moaning and groaning, never seems to die.
Now it’s a low end MacBook, surely this time the fear mongering will be correct and an AppStore only, WebKit only iPadOS running Mac is coming… because after 16 years eventually they have to be right yeah? Yeah? No?