2026-03-08 07:17:33
Apple on Friday added three new executive profiles to its leadership page for Jennifer Newstead, Molly Anderson, and Steve Lemay.
2026-03-08 05:47:44
Apple is promoting the MacBook Neo with a series of intentionally strange TikTok videos that are successfully capturing Gen Z's attention.
Since Thursday, Apple has been posting the videos in sets of three, with each video corresponding to one of the MacBook Neo's Blush, Citrus, and Indigo color options. The laptop also comes in Silver, so there may be a final set of videos tomorrow.
Some of the videos show a lemon receiving a FaceTime call from a lime, the Mac's Finder app icon blushing, and iconic footage from the original Macintosh's introduction in 1984. Other videos are more abstract, with one showing citrus fruit in fizzy water and another showing a pink-hued sunrise, set to the Mac's startup chime.
@apple hello?
♬ original sound - apple
@apple
@malatalia
♬ original sound - apple
Little Finder guy! pic.twitter.com/wUPRB0Acws
— Basic Apple Guy (@BasicAppleGuy) March 6, 2026
2026-03-07 05:14:14
The first benchmarks for the iPhone 17e surfaced in the Geekbench 6 database today, offering a closer look at the A19 chip's performance.
For multi-core CPU performance, the highest score the iPhone 17e achieved so far is 9,241. As expected, this is nearly identical to the standard iPhone 17 model with the A19 chip, which has an average multi-core score of 9,249.
There is one tiny catch, as the iPhone 17e has a 4-core GPU, whereas the iPhone 17 has a 5-core GPU. With one fewer GPU core, the iPhone 17e obviously has slightly lower graphics performance, with the device achieving Metal scores of around 31,000 to 31,500 in early Geekbench results, compared to around 37,000 for the iPhone 17.
In our view, most customers are unlikely to notice a significant difference in graphics performance between the iPhone 17e and iPhone 17.
The previous-generation iPhone 16e with an A18 chip also has a 4-core GPU.
The table below provides a comparison of multi-core CPU scores for some iPhones.
| iPhone Model | Multi-Core CPU Score |
|---|---|
| iPhone 17 Pro (A19 Pro) | 9,805 |
| iPhone 17 (A19) | 9,249 |
| iPhone 17e (A19) | 9,241 |
| iPhone 16 Pro (A18 Pro) | 8,625 |
| iPhone 16e (A18) | 7,977 |
| iPhone 15 Pro (A17 Pro) | 7,199 |
2026-03-07 03:14:19
While the MacBook Neo starts at just $599, or an even lower $499 for college students, Apple has insisted that it did not make any design compromises.
"It's undeniably a MacBook, we're certainly not making any compromises on the design and that's really important," said Apple's vice president of industrial design Molly Anderson, in an interview with architecture and design publication Dezeen.
Anderson added that "it was important" for the MacBook Neo "to be quintessentially a MacBook."
Chiefly, the MacBook Neo is made from aluminum, not plastic.
"It wasn't just a redesign, it was starting from the beginning, and we're not using cheaper materials, it's incredible aluminium," she said.
Available in fun colors like Blush and Citrus, the MacBook Neo is meant to be distinguished from the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, according to Anderson.
"It was important to make it feel part of the family, but with its own personality," she said.
Even though the MacBook Neo is designed with premium materials, Apple did have to make compromises in other areas. For example, the MacBook Neo has only 8GB of RAM, and a Touch ID button is limited to the $699 model. Plus, there is no MagSafe, one of the USB-C ports is limited to USB 2 speeds of just 480 MB/s, and the keys are not backlit.
Despite its limitations, the MacBook Neo will likely be a hit with students and customers who need a Mac mainly for everyday tasks, like web browsing and document editing. Pre-orders began on March 4, ahead of a March 11 launch.
2026-03-07 01:29:27
It's Apple pre-order week, and we're already tracking solid discounts across every new product that was announced this week. This includes free Best Buy gift cards when ordering the new MacBook Neo, Air, and Pro, plus the first cash discounts on M4 iPad Air on Amazon.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
2026-03-07 01:27:10
We now know how much faster the new MacBook Air with the M5 chip is compared to the previous model with an M4 chip, courtesy of a Geekbench 6 result shared by TechRadar's Lance Ulanoff. However, given the 14-inch MacBook Pro and the iPad Pro were already updated with the M5 chip last year, the result is not too surprising.
Ulanoff ran Geekbench on a MacBook Air with an M5 chip, which has a 10-core CPU. The laptop achieved a score of 17,073 for multi-core CPU performance, whereas the MacBook Air with an M4 chip has an average multi-core score of 14,731, so the new model is up to 15% faster than the previous generation. This is in line with what Apple advertised when it announced the M5 chip back in October, so it was entirely expected.
With the M5 chip, the Geekbench database shows that the MacBook Air is up to 16% faster than the MacBook Pro with the M3 Pro chip from a few years ago, but it is still slower than MacBook Pro models with the M4 Pro chip and newer.
The table below provides a comparison of Geekbench 6 scores for various Macs. Each chip has the highest number of CPU cores available for it.
| Mac Model | Multi-Core CPU Score |
|---|---|
| MacBook Pro (M5 Max) | 29,233 |
| Mac Studio (M3 Ultra) | 27,726 |
| MacBook Pro (M4 Max) | 25,702 |
| MacBook Pro (M4 Pro) | 22,490 |
| MacBook Pro (M3 Max) | 20,960 |
| MacBook Air (M5) | 17,073 |
| MacBook Pro (M3 Pro) | 15,260 |
| MacBook Pro (M2 Max) | 14,740 |
| MacBook Air (M4) | 14,731 |
| MacBook Pro (M2 Pro) | 14,451 |
| MacBook Pro (M1 Max) | 12,345 |
| MacBook Pro (M1 Pro) | 12,345 |
| MacBook Air (M3) | 12,020 |
| MacBook Air (M2) | 9,709 |
| MacBook Neo (A18 Pro) | 8,668 |
| MacBook Air (M1) | 8,342 |
