Mac vs PC is.. Back?

kinda. but not really.

Author

Brandon Butch
May 24, 2024 • 📖 Read time: 10 minutes

Welcome back! 🍎
Here’s the latest with Apple.

  • Is Mac vs PC back?

  • Apple’s “rare” bug explained

  • More iOS 18 details

  • & more!

📖 Read time: 3.4 minutes

📊 Poll

Last week, I asked: Do you think iPads should be able to run macOS?

Here are some of my favorite replies:

Yes - “If Apple put macOS on the iPad, yes it would make the iPad do more, but then there’s no point in buying an iPad or a Mac, so for Apple's profits it doesn't make sense. I think the iPad should do something different from the Mac, same with Vision Pro, but it doesn't seem like Apple found a use for the iPad besides being a good drawing tablet. As soon as Apple figures out why the iPad should exist, then we might no longer need to talk about "WhEn WiLl tHe iPaD gEt mAcOs."

No - “Like a handyman, I use my Apple Devices for certain specific tasks. I have a Mac for things that are easiest processed on a computer with a fast M chip with a full-sized keyboard + magic trackpad and a 32" Apple Pro Display XDR so I have a much larger canvas. I use an iPad for lighter tasks during the evening - mostly for consuming content - and during traveling for photo/video editing. I really don't believe in one device that fits all. it's not that I don't understand people's urge to have macOS run on the iPad - I am just in favor of different tools for different tasks and macOS in its current form is not well suited for a small touch screen - even with a keyboard attached. The screen is too small. That said, I completely agree that ipadOS is underwhelming and needs to be tweaked to use the colossal power of the new M4 and to be a real alternative for for instance a MacBook.”

This week: If you have a Mac, would you ever consider switching to Windows? What would entice you to switch?

Would you switch from Mac to Windows?

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🗞️ The Latest

💻 A Worthy Mac Opponent?

ZDNet

This week, Microsoft announced their new Copilot+ PCs with built-in AI hardware. And they name-dropped the Mac several times, claiming that these Windows laptops are faster than the M3 MacBook Air.

  • Copilot+ PCs can run more than 40 trillion operations per second, which Microsoft claims is 2x the performance offered by Apple’s MacBook Air and MacBook Pro.

    • This power comes from a new Neural Processing Unit (NPU) in the Snapdragon X Elite chips.

  • Microsoft also said that these PCs are 58% faster than the M3 MacBook Air in sustained multithreaded performance.

  • One of the new AI features, “Recall,” allows you to search for anything you’ve seen on your screen. It’s explained as a searchable “photographic memory” of PC activity.

  • They also showed off a screen-sharing feature that uses GPT-4o to see, listen, and understand what a user is doing on their computer and answer questions in real-time.

  • Copilot+ PCs will start at $999 and ship with OpenAI's latest GPT-4o models, along with the ability to run 40+ other models.

🍎 user’s take: Having Copilot & GPT-4o running natively on a machine is impressive. Seeing Windows 11 get rearchitected specifically for AI leads me to believe Apple will follow suit. We’ve heard this for a while and the recent launch of the M4 chip further validates this theory. We will see more evidence of this at WWDC in June and at the iPhone 16 event in the Fall.

As for these PCs being faster than a MacBook Air: I don’t think anyone cares much about performance if they’re deciding between a PC and an entry-level MacBook. I don’t think these Copilot+ PCs are enough to bring back the infamous Mac vs. PC wars.

🫣 Apple’s Controversial “Rare” Bug

On Monday, Apple released iOS 17.5.1 to all iPhone users to patch the viral bug that we discussed last week - where old, deleted photos would resurface in the Photos app.

  • Apple noted that this bug was caused by “database corruption” after installing iOS 17.5.

  • A security research team has since discovered exactly what caused this. And it was basically what I explained in my video.

  • Apple also attempted to clarify this bug, but they only covered the security side of the story.

  • They said that the resurfaced photos were not synced to iCloud and that the files could have persisted from one device to another when restoring from a backup or performing a device-to-device transfer.

  • However, hours before the update went live, a post shared on Reddit claimed that the issue was related to photos being saved in the Files app in addition to the Photos app. And that the photos may have been deleted from Photos but not from Files.

  • The replies backed up this theory, as did the security research analysis mentioned above.

  • There was a lot of fear mongering over this bug and how it was a “major security flaw.” It was never a security threat.

🧐 New Emoji & iOS 18 Details

9to5Mac

Another week, another round of iOS 18 rumors.

  • iOS 18 is rumored to include an AI feature to summarize notifications on the Lock Screen, give you a summary of news articles in Safari, improve existing features that auto-populate your Calendar, and more.

  • It’s also said to add AI-based editing features to the Photos app.

As part of the changes, the company will improve Siri's voice capabilities, giving it a more conversational feel, and add features that help users with their day-to-day lives — an approach it calls "proactive intelligence."

That includes services like auto-summarizing notifications from your iPhone, giving a quick synopsis of news articles and transcribing voice memos, as well as improving existing features that auto-populate your calendar and suggest apps.

There will also be some enhancements to photos in the form of AI-based editing, but none of those features will impress people who have used AI in Adobe Inc.'s apps for the last several months.

Gurman, Bloomberg

iOS 18 Emojis

iOS 18 expected emoji

  • The Unicode Consortium previewed the next round of emojis that will be added to Apple devices next year.

  • These preview emoji are straight from Unicode, so the quality will improve once Apple designers put their special touch on them.

  • New emojis are usually added in the .4 updates, so I’d expect these to be added in iOS 18.4, which will likely be released in early 2025.

  • What’s your favorite? I can already see the ‘face with bags under eyes’ emoji becoming instantly popular.

📰 Quick Bites

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