Category Archives: Silicon Mac

March Madness: New iPhone 16e, iPad and iPad Air, Macbook Air and Mac Studio

Hardware, iPhone, Silicon Mac
Apple Mac Studio Pro computer
Mac Studio Pro

This month, Apple without much fanfare, released the replacement to the iPhone SE model as the iPhone 16e. And A18 processor in an aluminum frame similar to the iPhone 14. A new model, the C1, an inhouse Apple modem. No more home button. That is gone. Downside is that its more than the SE 2020 (3rd edition) in cost. Apple is selling this as base model iPhone 16e 128GB for US$599. The previous SE 2020 (64GB) was US$429.  So US$171 more.  YMMV.

Update: Youtubers and review sites, Reddit, all pretty much agree that the price is a disappointment. The SE was the “affordable” iPhone. Tim Cook says “its affordable!” but only when you compare it to the $US1200 models. Sure! It’s 50% less! One lens vs three! Ok, it has USB-C. Face recognition. Better but not brighter display. And again Apple engineers its prices in that you can’t get a refurb model 15 or even 16. Shame on you Apple.

Next, Apple announce something in the Air teaser and it was the iPad Air, along with the iPad models (starting at US$299 and 128GB storage/wifi). There is also a new Magic Keyboard for the new models. The Folio for the iPad is…well..US$249..almost as much as the iPad. Apple prices its accessories and tablets to not compete with its laptops. Think Different? More like Think Next Model to upgrade to.

Then Apple released the new MacbookAir M4. This model is light, offered in Sky Blue now, and more memory and cheaper by US$100 versus last M3 model. Ready for Apple Intelligence, longer battery life. 13″ and 15″ model sizes. This is the notebook you need if you write, surf, facetime or zoom, and do lightweight work.  And lightweight it is. If I needed a notebook, this would be ideal.  I can see students snapping this up. Ok, only 2 USB-C ports, a magsafe port and headphone jack port (I’d rather have one more USB-C/Tbolt port since “most” headsets are wireless buds or over the ear now.

And as of Wednesday, March 5th 2025, the next announcement is the Mac Studio Pro in M4Max and M3 Ultra.  Pricier. Really pushing Apple Intelligence. No longer can you get base model with 64GB as you need to bump up to more cores. I’ve an Mac Studio M2Max model, 64GB and 2TB that was US$2699 (8/3/2023). That  same configuration for the M4Max model, 64GB and 2TB today  is US$3299. Why is this model now US$600 more??? 0.8x faster than…my current M2Max. Oh and it now has Thunderbolt5 ports. Two more cores than my M2Max. Ok, so Wifi6, and 10Gb included, with Bluetooth 5.3. Not going to say it loudly but, not worth US$600 more. Oh and the trade in value of my computer to Apple?… US$1006.

I can wait till the M7Max… wonder if my Applecard will still get 0% financing in 2028…

Its a new M2 Mac Studio for home!

Hardware, Silicon Mac
Apple Mac Studio Pro computer
Mac Studio Pro

Well, thanks to a new Apple Card, I was able to finance a 2023 M2 Mac Studio Pro (Max, not the Ultra). I didn’t go crazy and with a educational discount, all said came to $2600 + Tax. This mac has 64 GB of Unified memory and 2TB of SSD storage, along with the SD card reader and up to 10Gb networking. When I priced a M2 Mac Mini (Pro), it was $300 less but didn’t have card reader or 10Gb interface. Sure, a CalDigit T4 dock would take care of more ports and card reader and yet, would be same price as the Studio.

For now, I migrated, and I did find some issues:

  • Intel apps didn’t come over or if they did, no longer work (Quickbooks, VMware Fusion, …)
  • I migrated from a mac to 2012 Mac Mini to this 2023 M2 studio and there is much junk files, prefs, linger apps and legacy extension that will no longer work or take up space.
  • My VMware ISOs, turns out, were totalling 200GB…It wasn’t until I migrated that I found out… THAT is why I didn’t go with a 1TB SSD but 2TB for the growth. I can’t run those VM’s anymore. 🙁
  • – was able to get a Parallels to download (see 9to5Mac How to install Win11 ARM ) Win11 ARM and then use a version of Fusion (13.x) trial that let me make a Win11 VM. I really only need this for Intuit Quickbooks but trying to figure how to get my QBfile to this new Mac… glad I still have the MacMini and might sneakernet the file over…once I get Quickbooks up on the Win11ARM if there is a version for ARM..

    • .

    All in all, the M2 Mac Studio was worth it. Now, I still need to get FinalCutPro and video cam/DLSR to create videos. I am using a Thunderbolt OWC Thunderbay 4-DRIVE for storage and every so often, a HDD will spin up like something is looking for it. Internet is NOT happy with OWC and the Thunderbay so I may spend $$$$ in the future for a NAS and move my files there. But I need a Thunderbolt array for edit/storage so…that is another article to blog about.

    My only fistpump at Apple is the ram upgrade price greed… from 32GB to 64GB is a $200 jump. Same with storage from 1TB to 2TB is massive cost increase. Lesson learned: get what you think you’ll need, not what you have now, because with Apple, you can’t upgrade later…unless your replace with new computer (cha-ching!).