The Morning After: Our verdict on Apple’s $600 Macbook Neo
Apple's new family of laptops might have a cringeworthy name, but don't let it fool you. Despite the MacBook Neo running on a built-for-iPhone A-series processor and being limited to 8GB of RAM, it delivers on what Macs do best. It has a capable screen, keyboardand trackpadand its overall build quality should embarrass other laptop-making rivals that have compromised on those areas with their $600 laptops.
Engadget
Don't expect a gaming rig – it struggled predictably to run Lies of P, but for most of the things you need a laptop for – especially for students and desk workers – it handles them with aplomb. Yeah, I said aplomb.
Check out our full Neo review by Devindra Hardawar – surely you're intrigued by the idea of a $600 MacBook?
— Mat Smith
The other big stories (and deals) this morning
Bumble is the latest dating app to add an AI assistant
Alexa+ can now swear
I guess this wasn't an Xbox after all
RAMaggedon is not expected to ease this year as IDC cuts 2026 PC market forecast again.
Rabbit teases its modern take on the netbook, built for vibe coders
I don't have to like the Cyberdeck name.
Rabbit
Project Cyberdeck is Rabbit's attempt to make a PC tailored for vibe coding. The company began working on Project Cyberdeck after its CEO, Jesse Lyu, saw how extensively his software engineers were using Claude Code. Unfortunately, existing cheap, lightweight machines had bad keyboards and other limitations. So Rabbit is making its ownand it's taking a big serving of inspiration from the tiny, almost pocket-sized laptops that VAIO made back in the late '00s and early 2010s.
Continue reading.
Microsoft's Project Helix consoles will head to game studios in 2027
Xbox wants a do-over.
In a bid to distract from corporate reshuffles, fears of generative AI game slop and a pretty poor showing against the PS5, Microsoft is getting ahead of its rival. At GDC 2026, the company said that it planned to get Project Helix dev consoles in the hands of game devs as soon as 2027.
Jason Ronald, vice-president of next generation for Xbox, reiterated that the new system would be capable of playing both Xbox console games and PC games. (Sony's decision to halt porting its games across to PC makes more sense. ) Ronald said it would incorporate a custom AMD-made system-on-a-chip, offering "a magnitude leap in ray tracing performance and capability".
Continue reading.
Meta bought another social network
Filled with bots, but on purpose.
The owners of Facebook are buying Moltbook, the hyped Reddit-like social network for AI agents that has only been around since January. The company hasn't disclosed the terms of the deal, but Moltbook and its creators will be joining Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL) when the deal closes.
And that definitely doesn't sound like a cabal of comic book villains that fights the Justice League.
Continue reading.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-120553713.html?src=rss
