Accidental Tech Podcast

682: Medium Core

March 12, 2026 02:16:48 • Download (132 MB)

MacBook Neo details, Studio Display XDR tech and impressions, Marco tries a Garmin, and Casey tries to watch F1.

Pre-show: Casey brings us back to Anniversary Corner
- Related episode of ATP
Follow-up:
- An explanation for John’s post that broke containment (via Thomas Dickson)
- MacBook Neo
  - John’s theory about color & clamshells
  - The M1 MacBook Air was American Walmarts only. (via Pierre-Luc Gagné)
    - Aside also via P-L: does the Neo run Rosetta 2?
  - MacBook Neo inputs 🤝 iPad Air inputs (via Andrew Larson)
  - SSD speeds (via The Verge)
  - The  logo
    - iPhone 5 intro video is what John was thinking of (via Peter Puleio)
    - Jason’s review
  - Dave2D’s review
  - Teardown
  - Tyler Stalman on the Neo running “pro” apps
- Performance Cores vs. Super Cores
  - New in Xcode 24.6β3: CPUFAMILY_ARM_SOTRA (H17S) (via Brendan Shanks)
    - H17S is the missing M5 Pro identifier from iOS 26.3 RC
  - Quinn’s review
    - M5 Pro & Max are on N3P; M5 is N3E
    - Baidu leakers
      - Super cores (“P-Core”)
        
        4.61 GHz
        
        10-wide decoding
      - Performance cores (“M-Core”)
        
        4.38 GHz
        
        7-wide decoding
        
        ~70% the performance of a Super Core
        
        Dual operating mode from efficiency cores
      - Efficiency cores (“E-Core”)
        
        3.05 GHz
        
        6-wide decoding
  - Andrew Cunningham at Ars
    - L2 cache
      - Super: 16 MB
      - Performance: 8 MB
      - Efficiency: 6MB
    - Minimum clock speed:
      - Super: 1,308 MHz
      - Performance: 1,344 MHz
      - Efficiency: 972 MHz
  - Fusion architecture (via Frederic_Orange)
- MacBook Pro Storage pricing (via Richard Allen)
- MacBook keyboard glyphs (via Dan Moren)
- Environmental progress (via Andrew Leahey)
  - TOSTracker
  - Example individual comparison
- Third-party displays (via Dan Boyle)
- Pro Display XDR or Studio Display XDR? (asked by Imthaz)
- Studio Display XDR
  - UFO Test
  - MKBHD’s review states it has 12 GB RAM 🤭
  - Studio Display XDR white paper (PDF) (via Kevin Sliech)
    - Superwide viewing angle
    - Timing controller (TCON)
    - Calibration
    - Display optimization modes
Formula 1 news
- Drive to Survive (Apple TV link)
- Dad jokey-est promo video (Also on YouTube)
- 2026 season preview
- F1TV vs. Apple TV
  - Link accounts
- Romain Grosjean’s
Samsung Galaxy S26 Privacy Display
- MKBHD
- The Verge
Post-show: Marco’s Garmin adventures
Members-only ATP Overtime: The future of x86_64 on macOS
- Tahoe 26.4 warnings
- Slightly more detail from Ars Technica

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681: The Price of Your Nightmares

March 5, 2026 02:46:54 • Download (161 MB)

The MacBook Neo, M5 MacBook Air, M4 iPad Air, MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max, the new Studio Display XDR, and the “new” Studio Display.

Pre-show: The best (but slowest) website on the internet
- Million Dollar Homepage
- 2013 BMW M5 (PDF)
- 2014 Honda Accord (PDF)
M4 iPad Air
iPhone 17e
New displays (‼️)
- Studio Display 2
  - A19 per MacRumors
  - Some excellent throwback snark from Jack Wellborn
- Studio Display XDR
  - Day-one software update
  - Mac support
    - 120Hz-worthy Macs
M5 MacBook Air
- No change in RAM upgrade pricing?
M5 Pro & M5 Max
- Efficiency cores still exist
M5 Pro & M5 Max MacBook Pros
- If you squint, a 64GB MBP got cheaper
MacBook Neo
Post-show: John had a post break containment
- Context collapse
Members-only ATP Overtime: Apple’s video podcast experience

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680: A Lot of Holes in That Cheese

February 26, 2026 02:34:33 • Download (150 MB)

Our home screens, desktop audio setups, document-saving models, what we hope to “experience” next week, and where not to aim snow.

Pre-show: Marco’s Watch and snow ~~blows~~ woes
- TruFuel
Follow-up:
- Casey got the CableCARD email 😭
- YoLink alternatives (via Joe)
- House batteries & V2H/V2L (via Russel Prouse)
  - F-150 Lightning
- On the value of M𝑥 Pro processors (via Rick Baumhauer)
- Tahoe window resizing workaround (via Nathan Manceaux-Panot)
  - defaults write -g AppleEdgeResizeExteriorSize 8
  - defaults delete -g AppleEdgeResizeExteriorSize
- macOS document model
  - …was actually introduced in Mac OS X 10.7
  - …and noted in the beginning of the Mac OS X 10.8 review
  - Final Cut Pro X does auto-save (via Ian Robinson)
    - Technical details (via Videoalex)
  - Microsoft Office 365 also auto-saves onto OneDrive in Windows (via Éric)
  - Saving files in Xcode (via Alex Kent)
  - Returning to Save As… (via Eric deRuiter)
    - System Settings
      - Desktop & Dock → disable Close windows when quitting an application
      - Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts create an entry under All Applications for Save As… (using an ellipsis by typing ⌥ ;) and assign it to ⌘⇧S
  - Notepad++ (via Emily Campbell)
- Alternative to Due (via Patrick Dumontel)
  - GoodTask
Apple March 4 “experience”
- MacRumors’ roundup of low-cost MacBook limitations
Apple to manufacture some Mac minis in the US
Ask ATP:
- What are our current home & lock screens? (via Sagar Patel)
  - ATP Insider: Roast My Home Screen
  - John: lock & home
  - Casey: lock & home
    - Indigo
    - Croissant
  - Marco: lock & home
- What’s our current desktop headphone setup? (via ziplyne)
  - Overtime on ATP #675
  - Casey
    - AirPods Pro 3
    - Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro 32Ω
    - Desktop speakers
      - Sonos Era 100 × 2
      - Sonos Sub Mini
      - Sonos Combo Adapter
  - John:
  - Marco:
    - Podcasting
      - Beyerdynamic DT775 Pro 250Ω
      - Beyerdynamic EDT1770D Earpads
      - Schiit Jotunheim 2 (an older model; current is Jotunheim 3)
    - Music
      - HifiMan HE6
    - Speakers
      - KEF Q150 / LSX II & KC62
      - Amp for Q150: Fosi Audio BT30D
Post-show: Casey’s driven more cars
- BMW i4 M50
- Audi e-tron GT
Members-only ATP Overtime: Skill shortages, Apple Silicon, and AI
- Empowering the Next Wave of Silicon Engineers
- Gell-Mann amnesia effect

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679: An Adversarial Relationship With Myself

February 16, 2026 02:00:49 • Download (117 MB)

Solar and batteries vs. generators, news about Perl (?!), hiding apps as a self-improvement tool, and the age-old debate of "Save As…" vs. "Duplicate", which we basically only see in Preview now.

Pre-show:
- Marco beach… and app… cleanup results
- We’re recording ✨from the future✨.
Follow-up:
- Should Casey look at a used Lucid Air for ~$50k?
- Marco’s ~~defection~~ move to Chrome (via Sarvagnan)
  - Helium Browser
  - unduck.link
- Window resizing in Tahoe (via Jeff Johnson)
  - “Resolved Issue” → “Known Issue”
- AirTag 2 & speaker tampering
- Cloudflare Open Access (via George Black)
  - Explanatory video
- Fastmail 🤝🏻 Perl
  - Fastmail’s donation
  - John’s referral link
- Another Apple purchase migration warning (via Nick)
  - Support document
YouTube is on visionOS (App Store link)
Studio Display 2 to be… 90Hz? 🤨
New devices not on the latest-and-greatest TSMC process?
Where are you, M5 Pro MacBook Pro?
Ask ATP:
- What kind of battery backup should one use? (via Allen Shull)
- Why do we think Ternus is a good idea as CEO? (via Kevin B.)
- What’s the deal with Save As…, Duplicate, etc? (via Carl Walther)
  - The new document model was actually introduced in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion in 2011
  - More from John’s Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion review in in 2012
Post-show: Casey’s Status Board
Members-only ATP Overtime: Apparently everyone is stealing TV
- ReplayTV

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678: Mentoring a Box of Numbers

February 12, 2026 02:34:02 • Download (149 MB)

More on the impact of AI coding, and the Jony Ive-designed Ferrari interior.

Pre-show: Marco HVAC update
🗣️ New ATP Member’s Special: ATP Insider: After Apple
Follow-up:
- Units corner
  - Robert Tait’s video
- WarGames display reincarnated (via everyone)
  - ATP Movie Club: WarGames
  - WarGames
- AI
  - Whoops, we whiffed on disclosing past/future sponsors 🤦🏻‍♂️
  - Steve Troughton-Smith’s experimentations
    - Three apps in one day
    - On usage limits
  - Dread & fatalism
    - We Mourn Our Craft by Nolan Lawson
    - The Tipping Point by Thomas Ricouard (Medium link 🤢)
  - Productivity promise vs. reality
  - Breaking the Spell of Vibe Coding by Rachel Thomas
  - AI-Generated Code Quality by Mark Levison
  - Comprehension Debt by Aman Shekhar
  - Your Brain on ChatGPT by Nataliya Kosmyna et al
- Some related links from our AI conversation:
- Steam Machine & Steam Frame delayed due to component shortages/price increases
Ferrari Luce
- Andrew J. Hawkins at The Verge
- Walkthrough video with Jordan Golon at PRNDL
  - Associated post
- Dieter Rams
- Patek Philippe Nautilus
- Braun
- Gordon Murray Automotive Type 50
  - Shift knob & switchgear (timestamp link to 18:04)
  - Other videos
- Leica
Post-show: Casey is car shopping
Members-only ATP Overtime: China’s ban on electric door handles
- Tesla hit with another wrongful death suit by Andrew J. Hawkins
- Flush door handles & efficiency by Jonathan M. Gitlin

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