Apple’s WWDC 2026 is locked in for June 8-12, and we’re seeing record first-time Mac buyers jumping in Apple Stores are struggling to keep Apple TV and HomePod in stock—demand is real We dig into the messy Halide co-founder lawsuit with some pretty serious fraud allegations flying around How’s the iPhone Air actually performing in the wild? We’ve got the real talk Tool picks including Terminal tricks, Dropzone 5, Prompt 3.5, and why we’re rewatching MST3K
I watched the pre-show “live” (I only joined the stream after 40 minutes, so technically it wasn’t live when I watched it but the show was live) and I’m pretty excited to listen to this episode. Stephen Hacket is great. This might be one of the earliest I’ve ever seen MBW uploaded. It’s also a shorter episode so maybe that has a lot to do with it.
With the Macbook Neo I’d been getting curious about (and Apple would never do this) other form factors similar to Andy. I’d love the Intel Compute Stick but a Mac. And they basically showed that they can do this in the form of an Apple TV too
My work midnight macbook air is a disgusting fingerprint magnet. Apple’s coating doesn’t work. I do have very clammy hands sometimes though. It shows grime easily. I wish my work machine was just silver but it’s fine, I covered it in stickers on the lid. And there’s chalk often in the palm rests because I use it at the gym so it shows extra in the midnight
I really enjoyed this lineup of people. Stephen really scratches the itch I’ve had ever since Alex left. He would be a great addition to the show, but I know that won’t happen anytime soon as he’s very busy (he even stepped away from one of his other podcasts!). I really like Jason hosting this show instead of Mikah. Not to be a hater; I don’t mind Mikah I just prefer Jason.
I’m noticing that when it comes to the MacBook Neo, almost everyone refers to the education pricing in a way that suggests it’s the typical price when discussing it. That price is not available to the general consumer .
My concern is that it gives a misleading impression of the affordability of the device. Yes, $599 is a good price overall, but to lead people to believe they will pay roughly $500 is a disservice. A $600 price point is a different proposition than a $500 price point, and I think it would be good to stop equating that education pricing as the base amount when it’s not.
Tangentially related: Did Stephen Hackett ever say which version of the Neo he purchased: the base model or the $699 model with TouchID. I’ve 45 min into it and haven’t heard.
Yes it is. I buy all my products with the Apple education pricing and I haven’t been a student in almost 10 years. They don’t validate it (as far as I know. Your mileage may vary)
But I do agree with you, people should talk about the retail price instead
How is that possible? Why wouldn’t everyone say they were a student if that was the case? I’m not saying you’re wrong as you’ve done it and I haven’t - but that doesn’t make any sense to me.
I agree with you 100%. It’s very weird that they don’t do any sense of validation. I used to think it was just an online loophole; but when I bought my M4 iPad Pro last year I took advantage of it in-store. I thought they might try to ID me (Tim Cook is a penny pincher) but nope. I sheepishly asked “C-can I take advantage of the student pricing?” I thought he might realize I was clearly lying through my teeth and nervous, but he didn’t say anything. Just “sure!”. (Technically I’m not lying; I never said I was a student. I just asked if I can take advantage. but the implication is I’m a student, which is a lie)
I’m kind of surprised they don’t make you use a school email account
How would you (i.e., anyone) know what price “almost everyone” is saying? The assertion is not a falsifiable/testable statement. Apple’s MacBook Neo product page clearly says $599/$699, they’re the people who count. Amazon also clearly lists it with a $599/$689 price. One must explicitly go to Apple’s education product page to see the education pricing, and they clearly label the number there as that.
Tangentially related: Did Stephen Hackett ever say which version of the Neo he purchased: the base model or the $699 model with TouchID. I’ve 45 min into it and haven’t heard.
Interesting question. The TWiT transcript has not been posted yet. The Apple Podcasts app can view transcripts for the current podcast. I searched the text but could not find the answer to your question. My guess is he didn’t say; I’m going to presume he paid the normal price. Here’s the closest I cam to finding an answer:
”Now, staying on MacBook Neo for a minute, I just wanted, Stephen Hackett is here. He bought two MacBook Neos for his house.
How’s it going, Stephen? How’s MacBook Neo life? It’s great.
I’ve got the Indigo here with me, which I think is the best color. It’s a fantastic computer. I bought one for myself for a secondary Mac when I’m not at work, and bought a second one for one of my kids who is getting ready to enter middle school, and is going to need a computer at home for school stuff.
The price made it really easy to pick up two of these at once. Having used it a lot now for personal computer stuff, not work computer stuff, it’s absolutely fantastic. There’s YouTube and YouTubers and writers editing video on it.
It’s awesome that can do all that stuff, and it’s very impressive. But even just like the day-to-day stuff, the photos, the email, the browsing, social media stuff, it is absolutely incredible.”
From MacBreak Weekly (Audio): We Found a Google, and Put it in - WWDC 2026 Dates Announced!, Mar 24, 2026
I had not used Apple Podcasts in a long time. I did it here because I was curious about your question and wanted to see how they handled transcripts. They clearly have gone out of their way to prevent an export of the entire transcript! They may do that for fear of liability or maybe some other dynamic in play. As I noted here, Marco Arment now has transcripts in a beta of Overcast (using the same Apple transcript-generation API). I am not on that beta. Features are limited in that first version, but Marco mentioned the world-changing utility of feeding a transcript to an AI in ATP 683. A transcript of ATP 683 is available here.
Someday, we will reminisce when people actually listened to an entire podcast episode like an animal (spoken in my best Rene Ritchie voice). The world is changing.
You’re a little too literal sometimes. Everyone in the media is saying that, everyone is not literally everyone, but the majority of voices (presumably) in the sphere of this show. I’ve seen a handful of people mention both prices though. But lots of people refer to the student pricing for this machine. And that’s a bit odd
I’m not sure we will start reading podcasts the way you think we will. I’m sure it’ll be great for the deaf & hearing impaired. But I don’t think you’re right. People still read & listen to books (despite books being a literal transcript)
In this case, one must be literal. If everyone in the media – but not literally everyone – is saying something, what does that mean? Can you give five examples where news articles are explicitly saying that the price is $499 while not mentioning that’s only an educational discount? How about three examples? How about one?
I have no idea what in the sphere of the show means. If we’re both within that sphere, my questions should be easy to answer, right?
I asked Claude Sonnet 4.6; it didn’t know of anyone who was doing this. Perhaps I’m asking the wrong question? I asked, “Who in the media is saying that the MacBook Neo is priced at $499 and neglecting to say that is an educational discount?”
@vernonlvincent gave the perfect example: he wanted to know what config/price Stephen Hackett paid for his two MacBook Neo units and got tired listening ~45 minutes into the podcast. If one wants an answer and transcripts are available in the wild, that’s an easy way to find it.
Marco gets it: he’s adding auto-generated chapter markers into the Overcast podcast app. People who have no interest in a particular section of a podcast can simply skip over it. Marco is the smartest programmer I know anywhere. He single-handedly implemented and deployed a podcast transcription engine for every single podcast on the planet. Then he devised an ingenious system of analyzing sound-signatures in podcasts to essentially do an end-run around Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI) in podcasts. He predicts other podcast makers will do exactly the same thing: such tools will be “table stakes” for any podcast app.
Some percentage of people will listen to podcasts from end to end. Some will use them to get summaries and find a particular passage that interests them. Some will do both.
(sigh) It’s generally accepted that the use of the word “everyone” is not to be taken literally but is instead used to represent a common usage. In the context of this discussion, in my experience when listening to podcasts - the typically discussed pricing for the Neo has been the educational pricing and not the general pricing.
I had believed that the typical poster on these forums would inherently understand this context and accept the usage of the word in this manner. It appears I was mistaken.
Perhaps is more controlled outside of the North Americas. I actually never talked to people overseas about using education discounts; only people in NA.
I’d be curious if it’s still that way. Seems a bit unfair haha
I did not say I got tired 45 minutes into the podcast. I said I was 45 minutes into the podcast. I am continuing to listen as time permits.
Honestly - if the discussions are going to devolve into this kind of nit-pickery, I can find better ways to spend my time than here. I would not like that as the Twit community has been pretty decent, even when we’ve had vigorously dissenting opinions. But this is exhausting.
Which exact episodes on which podcasts have done this? Any on the TWiT network?
If someone says:
I expect them to show what they’re talking about. Everyone should be a bit of a skeptic. Everyone should be wary that they’re under the influence of some malevolent *reality distortion field.
*
Which exact episodes on which podcasts have provided misleading information about MacBook Neo pricing? Any on the TWiT network?
I’m not going to justify my perspective to you. I feel like it’s a commonly echoed perspective. You don’t - that’s fine. I don’t care enough about the topic to dig for my receipts. It was just a comment.
Vernon, I fired up the Apple Podcasts app, loaded up MBW 1017, and activated the podcast transcript. I searched for “purchase” in the transcript, and provided the discussion with the words following that. Stephen did not mention the price anywhere in that part of the podcast. If there were a straightforward way to export the entire transcript to parse it, I would have done that. Based on incomplete information, I don’t think Stephen ever mentioned anything about what he purchased and/or any education discounts. The question seemed important to you, so I did the best I could to answer your question immediately. I thought you would appreciate the due diligence I applied to your question.
Based on your comments, you don’t like inaccurate pricing information floating around about this specific computer. OTOH, there’s no reason to be upset about that unless podcasters are actually doing that. I cannot imagine that it happened on any TWiT podcast.
I don’t think your complaint is real. Even if it were real, people who were deceived by the “false” claims embedded in those hypothetical podcasts can take whatever actions to resolve that problem. As this discussion abundantly shows, people are naturally skeptical about claims that are too good to be true. That also applies to claims that are too “bad” to be true.
I hope you appreciated my due diligence to address your question about Stephen Hackett’s purchases.
I’ve seen around 20 “reviews” on YouTube in the last couple of weeks and all of them say $599, or with student discount just $500,blah blah blah, for $500 it is a amazing deal, or words to that effect.
The TWiT transcript for MBW 1017 has dropped. Stephen noted he bought 2 of the Neo laptops. He brought the indigo Macbook Neo; there was no mention of the details of the other model. There’s no mention if he bought the $500 or $600 model. There’s also no mention about an education discount. “The purchase decision is framed entirely around the attractive $500 price point, not any discount.”
Phil, please stop prosecuting the other members. You’re not the judge nor on a jury. Jeepers. If they say “almost everyone refers to the education pricing” presumably that means that they’re seeing a lot of occurrences in the content about the product, wherever that may be. It might be a lot of things, it seems likely their content consumption is their private business, and they don’t have to justify their personal experience to you. I’ve told you before to stop this kind of thing… I’ve warned you many times this is not an acceptable way to treat other people. PLEASE STOP ACTING LIKE YOU CAN INTERROGATE OTHERS or else please stop posting here.
It is, and @floatingbones needs to get a handle on himself. He has been warned before. His next infraction will come with consequences for his ability to participate here as I am tired of getting constant complaints.
Apple’s WWDC 2026 is locked in for June 8-12, and we’re seeing record first-time Mac buyers jumping in
Apple Stores are struggling to keep Apple TV and HomePod in stock—demand is real
We dig into the messy Halide co-founder lawsuit with some pretty serious fraud allegations flying around
How’s the iPhone Air actually performing in the wild? We’ve got the real talk
Tool picks including Terminal tricks, Dropzone 5, Prompt 3.5, and why we’re rewatching MST3K