Something Is In The Air -- March 6, 2025

Locator: 48461APPLE.

Surprised a lot of folks. The new M4 MacBook Air.

Later: The Verge -- first look, hands on.

Other surprises:

• MagSafe charging cable.
• headphone jack -- are you kidding me! I thought we would lose that! Amazing.
• kids still use these jacks; and,
• it's a much improved jack -- wow
• Sky Blue along with three other colors
• battery life: 18 hours
• video camera: "when you move, it moves," keeping you center stage
• includes "desk view" -- wow
• can connect up to two external displays: gives you three displays simultaneously

I have two old MacBook Air computers -- all of a sudden I can have three displays simultaneously -- 

Link here.

Top story over at The Verge.

Huge, huge upgrade. Lowers cost. Now under $1,000!

WSJ scooped: hasn't posted the story yet!

Just one of many huge stories over on MacRumors, link here:

The new ‌MacBook Air‌ introduces a 12-megapixel Center Stage camera, which automatically keeps users centered in the frame as they move around during video calls. It also supports Desk View, which simultaneously displays the user and a top-down view of their desk.

The ‌MacBook Air‌ now features a lower starting price of $999. Education pricing starts at $899. It is available to pre-order today, with availability beginning Wednesday, March 12.

It looks like I can get one for Sophia and take advantage of "education pricing." 

Other headlines at MacRumors: 

• BestBuy already introducing first discounts on Apple's new M3 iPad Air. For members: $549.00;
• Apple discontinues M2 and M3 MacBook Air
• Apple introductes M3 Ultra chip with up to a 32-core CPU, with 24 performance cores and eight efficiency cores; a 32-core Neural Engine
• up to 1.5x faster than the M2 Ultra chip and up to 1.8x faster than the M1 Ultra chip
• wow, wow, wow -- can be configured up to an 80-core CPU
• Apple introduced new Mac Studio with M4 Max and M3 ultra chips, Thunderbolt 5 ports
• Qualcomm claimes its new modem will create a "huge delta" in performance versus Apple, largely thanks to its AI-powered features -- will be use in Android devices
• download speeds up to 12.5 Gbps
• peak upload speeds of up to 3.7 Gbps
• for more on Qualcomm modems vs Apple's C1, click here.