^{Pic is randomly found on the internet of some lucky students opening their new MacBook Neo.}^

For the last several months, reps from Apple Education have been courting our district to make a transition from Windows PCs and Chromebooks to MacBooks and iPads.

The plan has been floated as being done in phases, starting with moving our teachers from their current Dell Latitude 3520 to MacBook Air in the fall of 2027 (one year from now). Then, the following year, we would begin to get students off of Chromebooks and moving to iPads (with MacBook Neo at the high school level).

We already have the infrastructure and MDM in place (we have a few hundred Macs in the district already), and have been in discussions about offering professional learning/training to teachers so they may learn how to best use these devices in the classroom. There is a lot of excitement and energy around using Apple technology for teaching and learning in ways that haven't been possible with our current Windows PCs or Chromebooks.

But the price changes of the last six months have significantly weakened our ability to pursue this model.

Six months ago, Apple quoted us ~$850 per base model of MacBook Air (purchased in bulk, with educational pricing). Today, they're quoting us $1,160 each. This does not include the cost for four years of AppleCare+ (now $245 per device).

We have been trying to approach this from the perspective of total cost of ownership and discussions about financing, but the sticker shock is significant enough that it has scared the school board. Making this move to Apple devices now puts us more than $1M over budget. We cannot justify such a change; taxpayers will not go for it (and for good reason).

The entire project could be scrapped for lower cost Windows laptops. Teachers are currently using Dell Latitude 3520, and we are being pressed to consider Dell Pro Essential 14 with 16GB RAM (which come in at about $850, about what Apple was quoting us previously for MacBook Air).

I understand the pricing situation is not limited to Apple, but if our district's intention to move to Apple is to come to fruition, we will have to change our plan for a proposed teacher device.

Our Apple Education rep is suggesting we pivot to providing MacBook Neo for teachers. We aren't against this, but I have concerns about the limitation of only 8GB of RAM. Whichever device that is chosen needs to remain sufficient for teachers for the next four years. Further, the limitations of connecting to only one external display presents additional challenges.

Apple has provided us a quote for MacBook Neo at $640/ea., with four years of AppleCare+ at $175 per device.

Would the MacBook Neo really be sufficient for our needs? I would feel much more comfortable if it had 16GB of RAM, but I anticipate if that change ever happens, it'll carry yet another price increase and retain the one external monitor limitation.

We are preparing to conduct a pilot of the MacBook Neo against the Dell Pro Essential 14 (16GB RAM, built-in HDMI) as a device for teachers. If the MacBook Neo, its 8GB of RAM and other limitations are too much, we will unfortunately have to abandon our plan to use Apple devices at our district.

Given the price increases, is there not a Mac configuration that could fit between the Neo and the Air? Would the Neo still be a sufficient tool for classroom teachers four years from now? Or would the Dell Pro Essential 14 with 16GB of RAM be the best choice?

I’m not necessarily looking for a solution; I’m mainly just frustrated with the situation.

tl;dr: We have been priced out of issuing MacBook Air to teachers; our Apple rep is suggesting MacBook Neo for teachers to use for the next four years. Will that be sufficient? How will it compare to a Dell Pro Essential 14 with 16GB of RAM?

IMO, we’ll get an iPad Pro M6 instead. Maybe Apple will allow some macOS features to be used on it, or maybe they won’t do anything at all.

A regular MacBook with a touchscreen is a nightmare. On Windows laptops, it’s a useless feature unless they’re 360-degree convertibles. On a Mac, at least you’ll be able to run iPad and iPhone apps, but how are you supposed to use them when the display is just like a traditional MacBook’s? Turn it upside down and buy a stand to hold the bottom case in place? What kind of cringe is that? Although, knowing Apple and its mouse design, I wouldn’t put it past them.

What do you guys think?

Hi everyone!

I have a 2017 MacBook Air with 121 GB of flash storage, of which only 23 GB are currently available. It’s still working reasonably well, but I’m running macOS Mojave 10.14.6 and haven’t been able to update the operating system for years. Or course I’ve tried to delete all possible junk to do so.

Buying a new laptop isn’t an option for me at the moment, so I’m trying to figure out what I can do to keep this MacBook usable and up to date.

What would you recommend? Are there any ways to upgrade macOS on this model, free up enough storage to install a newer version, or improve its performance without spending too much money?
I’d really appreciate any advice, especially from people who have dealt with the same issue with an older MacBook Air.

Thanks in advance!

does anybody know if there's any way to bring back coverflow to the music app on macOS sonoma? I love it and i wish i could just scroll through my albums like I do on my iPod and iPhone 4s

Like clockwork, every time the Mac lineup is updated in any way over half of the comments are about someone's M1 and how it "still runs just fine" and they "couldn't imagine upgrading."

We get it. Your laptop still meets your needs. Apple makes great, long-lasting, high performance products. Know what else that means? Your workloads don't exceed the capability of your hardware. That isn't a flex.

"Who is this for??" is answered in three ways. People who need a new laptop. People who want a new laptop. People whose work demands more performance than the current setup offers.

This might blow the minds of the average 18 year old Redditor, but people who can get another 20% out of their hardware will make that back in about a week. The upgrade is a no brainer for them. You are not in that camp. We get it.

It's not if, but when a market correction happens. Hope when datacenter fever ends Apple will reflect this by rebalancing Mac line prices, especially as unupgradeable machines.

Hola gente, este es mi primera Mac ya que normalmente programo porque soy programador xd. En fin en contexto es que esta es mi primera Mac que es una MacBook Pro 2012, llamarme ignorante o demás, pero me podrían orientar en decirme el dmg de la suite completa de adobe sea 2021 o compatible con esta Mac para poder hacer diseños sea en Photoshop o sí hay que comprarlo o etc. quedo atento muchas gracias por su atención.

Thanks to everyone for the help I ended up looking at both the air and pro in person and ultimately decided on getting the 14 inch pro. I got it with the m5 pro chip 24gb RAM 1tb for £2200 was that a good price?

Thank you again for all the help it was greatly appreciated!!

I bought my MacBook m4 air in March this year and my battery health was at a 100% at the start of the month. Now, at the end of it, it shows it to be 96%

I use this laptop for about 7-9 hours every day, mostly plugged in to my desk. I am super concerned yet but I was surprised to see that 100% drop to 96% under 2 weeks.

Is this normal? I know it's too early, but do you think I'll have to get my battery replaced in a year?

As the title states, I just installed Office 2024 on my Mac, and I have no use for the aforementioned applications. I was under the assumption that Office 2024 included only Excel, PowerPoint, and Word.

Regardless, is there a safe way to remove them without causing annoying errors, especially with Microsoft AutoUpdate? It’s not necessarily ruining my life, but if there’s a way to remove them without making my Mac implode, I’d love to do so (especially Teams and OneDrive).

I'm comparing Mac security options for a research project. macOS has built-in protections, but I'm curious about where third-party antivirus might add value.

What risks would make you consider adding antivirus software?

I currently have a 2023 Mac Mini running MacOS Golden Gate. Computer works fine, my printers however are something all together. I am looking to print regular documents and a few good quality photos on occasion. I have tried HP printers and they cannot print photos a 5x7 or 4x6 sheet. I recently bought an Espon EcoTank 8500 and printing looks great for both photos and docs. However, the printer constantly goes offline even though it still shows connected to wifi. I am always having to restart the printer or remove and then re-add the printer. If anyone can help, I just want a printer that prints photos and documents when I want it to. Thanks.

Hey everyone!

I’m new to macOS and recently got a 13-inch MacBook Air with the M5 chip, 24GB unified memory, and 512GB SSD.

I’m still learning how macOS manages memory, and I’ve been reading about memory swapping. From what I understand, when RAM gets full, macOS moves some data to the SSD to free up memory.

I have a few questions for experienced Mac users:

Does memory swapping reduce performance? If my Mac regularly uses swap memory, will I notice slowdowns during everyday tasks?

Does it affect the SSD lifespan? Since SSDs have limited write endurance, can frequent swapping wear out the SSD significantly over several years?

Is occasional swapping normal? Should I be concerned if Activity Monitor shows several GB of swap being used, even when my Mac seems to run perfectly fine?

Does macOS manage memory well enough that I shouldn't worry about it? I've heard that macOS uses RAM differently from Windows, but I'm not sure how much truth there is to that.

What about demanding workloads? I plan to use my Mac for data science, Python, machine learning, software development, and potentially running smaller local LLMs. Could these workloads cause excessive swapping?

Should I monitor memory pressure and swap usage regularly, or is that unnecessary unless I notice performance issues?

I chose the 24GB configuration because I want to keep this Mac for several years, and I don't want to obsess over normal system behavior or unnecessarily shorten its lifespan.

I'd appreciate answers based on real-world experience, especially from people who have used their Macs for 3–5 years or longer.

My main question: At what point does memory swapping become a genuine concern, rather than just normal macOS memory management?

I am not sure because I know apple capped their fps at 120, but if they capped the gpu’s fps or the macbook’s monitor

So, I dripped some iced tea on my MacBook. Not too much but enough to say it could possibly lead to damage.

Went to ComSpot (Apple Premium Partner in Germany) and they gave me a fixed price for a repair. 1300€. ($1450)

The MacBook works! I can use it normally but supposedly there’s still the liquid inside. I cannot see myself paying that much money to “fix” it. How bad would it be to just continue using it like that with more caution.

Buenas! consulta, desde 1 octubre mi onedrive el que veo en mi mac, sincroniza archivos pero no las fotos, alguien sabe que paso? lo desactive, active de vuelta, cerre sesion volvi a abrir, solo me lo hace con las fotos! alguno sabe? si abro el chrome las veo perfecto, pero no desde el buscador de la mac

I'm planning to buy a Mac mini, but I'm struggling to decide between two configurations:

- Mac mini M5 Pro with 24GB of RAM
- Mac mini M6 with 32GB of RAM

The final price would be very similar, so I'm trying to figure out which one would be the better long-term investment.

My main uses would be:

- Music production: mainly metal and electronic music. I use Reaper, virtual instruments such as Superior Drummer, and various plugins for amp simulation, mixing and mastering.

- 4K video editing: Mostly youtube, not professional works

I don't need a machine for gaming, and I'm not a professional producer or video editor. However, I'd like a computer that can handle fairly complex music projects and 4K footage smoothly, without running into memory limitations too quickly.

Would the M5 Pro's more powerful chip and higher memory bandwidth make a bigger difference than the extra 8GB of RAM on the base M6? Or would 32GB of RAM be more useful for my workload in the long run?

I'd really appreciate feedback from people who use their Macs for similar tasks, especially anyone who has experience with both Pro and base chips.

Which one would you choose, and why?

I'm traveling overseas and packed my MacBook in my my carry on (have done it in the past) the with no issues, but this time I wasn't traveling alone two suit cases plus the carry on... I placed it on top of my luggage and it slipped and boom I opened it and noticed My screen is damaged, it turns on,but can't view anything, Good News I have AC+ they have an Apple store at my final destination, but I'm contemplating just waiting until I get back stateside in case anything weird happens/ quality.

Anyone do repairs overseas without any issues?

Lesson learned never pack a laptop in a carry on