Paul Stenhouse: Apple launches Macbook Neo, iPhone 17e, Anthropic designated a Supply Chain Risk

Apple has launched a more affordable laptop and phone  

If you spend a lot of your day on email, browsing the web, or in docs and spreadsheets, this is the machine for you. Designed for the 'everyday' type activities, the Macbook Neo is competing with lower-end Chromebooks and Windows PCs. It does come in one the high side of that market but has a premium feel with its all-aluminium design.  

This is the first time Apple has used one of its phone chips in a MacBook. It is able to connect to an external display, has two USB-C ports, and a headphone jack. There are two models – one with TouchID and one without. The only drawback is that it's missing a backlit keyboard. It comes in silver, black, and two fun colours and starts at $NZ1,149.  

 

They also launched the iPhone 17e  

Slightly smaller than the iPhone 17, it is missing the wide-angle lens, the 'dynamic island', and 'center stage' feature which keeps you in frame on video calls. But it does have industry leading features like the satellite SOS mode, MagSafe, and 4K video. It starts at $NZ1,199 – $500 less than the 17, $1,150 less than the 17 Pro. 

 

Anthropic has been designated a Supply Chain Risk  

As we talked about last week, the beef with the DOD/W has turned into the designation. But it's narrower than the department was alluding to last week – it’s only preventing Anthropic from working with companies specifically in their work with the Pentagon, rather than a blanket ban across all departments. Anthropic is taking this to court. 

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame podcast
from News Talks at B.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Apple has launched a more affordable by ample standards important caveat,
a more affordable laptop and phone Our Picksbo polstine House
is here with the details. So Paul tell us about
the MacBook Neo.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
Yeah, you took the words out of my mouth, dear Jack,
because it's it's designed to be competing with these lower
end kind of Chromebooks and lower end Windows PCs, but
low end for Apple is still high end for those devices.
I took a look at the New Zealand price and
going to start at one one four nine, so not
exactly still the cheapest option, but certainly a very affordable

(00:49):
way to get into that Mac ecosystem. And I do
think that they have really found I think they probably
should have done this a very long time ago, and
I think they're doing I think they're going I saw
a comment on one of the websites with one comment
to see that Apple's going to sell these by the palette,
and I do they probably are because so the people
who spend a lot of their day on email doing

(01:12):
things in your browser in a couple of docks and
some spreadsheets. You don't need all the power of a
MacBook Pro. This is kind of the machine for you.
And if you think about kind of the student market,
you know, you want to listen to some music, you
want to watch some movies every now and then, you
want to do some schoolwork. Maybe, hey, perfect machine. So
it's kind of designed for that everyday type person. And

(01:34):
if you have an iPhone and you you know you
want to get into that Apple ecosystem a bit more.
I really think this is going to be a really
great device, especially if you want the keyboard, you can
dock it to an external monitor. The one thing it
doesn't have that I think I think it's missing. I
don't think it's a deal breaker, but it doesn't have
a backlick keyboard.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Ah, right, which, and the backlick keyboard is useful for
if you're just sitting in the dark, or just because
it looks nicer, just.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
Because if you're sitting in the dark the lights are
a bit dim, you can also just turn a lampin.
So just just to point out, I mean, you're saving
you're saving literally hundreds of dollars to not have a
backlick keyboard. Yeah, right, so it's probably not actually affected.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah, okay, yeah, I put to you know, I'm an
Apple yuppie. I think it's a really good idea. I
think the truth is that the vast majority of us
overstate the kind of computing or overthink the amount of
computing that we're actually doing. Yes, so the vast majority
of us are just using like Microsoft Word or Google
Docs and some emails, and we've got our browsers open.

(02:37):
We're just kind of sculling through the Internet, and maybe
there's an Excel sheet every now and then, but we're
not actually doing high end video editing or the kind
of gaming that requires really complicated graphics chips and all
that kind of thing. So this is probably perfectly adequate.

Speaker 3 (02:50):
And can I just see too? So I have a
MacBook here, love it again, perfectly adequate. I do every
now and then need to edit some videos. It's not often,
but it's perfectly capable of doing that too. I'm not
editing a feature film, no here, No, I'm editing like
a three minute video down to like cutting out some
stuff out of there. More than capable. And they've done
the same thing with the phone too, So they launched
the iPhone seventeen E. Basically it's missing a couple of

(03:15):
kind of nice to have features to the dynamic island
and the center stage there's the thing that kind of
keeps you in center on the on the video calls.
It does stough have things like that satellite SOS mode,
which is I think industry leading game changer. I think
everybody in New Zealand probably should have that, given how
vast and remote New Zealand is. But the price of that,

(03:36):
so it's going to start at one one ninety nine
New Zealand dollars. That is five hundred dollars less than
the normal iPhone seventeen and one one hundred and fifty
dollars less than the seventeen pro. So yeah, I mean, again,
a really good option if you're thinking about getting a
new phone, if you want.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
To be in the Apple ecosystem. We're going to find
a better term than ecosystem, don't we because it's not
an ecosystem, you know, like just the Apple system doesn't
quite sound right. But I know what you may monopoly
don if you want me no, but yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, anyway,
we'll work on that. Hey, thank you so much, Paul,
really interesting, and yeah, it'll be intriguing to see just

(04:16):
how popular these things are. My intuition is the same
as yours, and that I think they'll be very, very popular.

Speaker 3 (04:22):
Indeed.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to News Talks at B from nine am Saturday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.