Month: June 2022

Enlarge / Apple's new MacBook Air. (credit: Samuel Axon)

CUPERTINO, Calif.—Today, Apple unveiled the first major redesign in a long while to its most popular laptop, the MacBook Air. After a few minutes with the device, we can confirm that it feels quite different to hold compared to its predecessor.

The new laptop drops the tapered design of the previous model in favor of a flat, rectangular design reminiscent of the iPad Pro or last year's 24-inch iMac redesign. It adds the new and improved MagSafe (as seen recently in the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro) and includes an unusual charger with a different shape and two USB-C ports.

We handled the device for a few minutes at Apple's Cupertino headquarters and found it to be noticeably lighter than other recent Apple laptops (as its name suggests). But because it borrows those iPad, iMac, and MacBook Pro elements, it also looks and feels familiar—right down to the MacBook Pro's screen notch and slightly taller display.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

On Monday, the Biden administration announced a suite of policy changes intended to boost the use of solar power within the US. While each individual policy change is relatively minor, combined, the changes address everything from manufacturing and importing to installation and integration with the power grid. While the administration is continuing to try to negotiate a deal that expands renewable energy via legislation, none of the initiatives announced today requires anything beyond executive action.

Who makes the panels?

At present, China dominates the manufacturing of solar cells and panels. But the Trump administration included solar hardware in its tariff war with the country. The Biden administration chose to eliminate the tariffs on the solar cells most often used in utility-scale installations but maintained them on other classes of cells. Complicating matters further, the US Commerce Department recently started an investigation into whether other countries in Asia were being used as conduits to ship panels around the tariffs.

Combined, these issues raised worries that tariffs would limit the growth of solar in the US, which is a problem given that it's the cheapest way to generate power in many areas of the country and is central to the government's plans to limit carbon emissions.

Enlarge / The 2016 MacBook Pro is one of the Macs that's being left behind by macOS Ventura. (credit: Andrew Cunningham)

Apple unveiled Ventura, the next major version of macOS, at its Worldwide Developers Conference this afternoon. Like most macOS releases, its changes are mostly incremental, but it does include a new multitasking UI called Stage Manager, new Continuity features to help your Mac mesh with your iPhone and iPad, and several redesigned and updated apps.

The bad news is that Ventura drops support for a wide range of Intel Macs. The full compatibility list is below:

• 2017 iMac/iMac Pro and later
• 2018 MacBook Air and later
• 2017 MacBook Pro and later
• 2019 Mac Pro and later
• 2018 Mac mini and later
• 2017 MacBook and later
• 2022 Mac Studio and later

Compared to the compatibility list for Monterey, Apple has dumped all Macs released before 2017, including the 2013 Mac Pro (which it sold until December 2019) and the 2016 MacBook Pro models that introduced the Touch Bar. If your Mac is using an Apple T2 or Apple Silicon chip, you're safe. If you're using an older Intel Mac, it's clear that Apple is aggressively dropping support for those systems.

Enlarge (credit: Apple)

iOS 16 drops support for a few generations of older iPhones, including most hardware that used Apple’s A9 or A10 chips. Usually, iPadOS follows suit when iOS drops older hardware, but it looks like iPadOS 16 will be more forgiving of iPads running older chips.

According to Apple's press release, iPadOS 16 will run on the following models:

• Fifth-generation iPad and newer (that's the one from 2017, the first $329 iPad).
• iPad Air (3rd generation) and newer.
• iPad mini (5th generation) and newer.
• All iPad Pro models.

That means that 2014's iPad Air 2 (which Apple sold for years as a lower-cost model, before the $329 iPad came along) and 2015's iPad mini 4 won't support the new OS but that most other models that can upgrade to iPadOS 15 will also be able to run iPadOS 16. Apple may continue to provide iOS and iPadOS 15 security updates for devices that can't upgrade to iPadOS 16, but we'll need to wait for confirmation before we know that for sure.

Enlarge (credit: Apple)

One of the selling points of iPhones and iPads is that you'll get several years of prompt software updates, released at the same time to all devices regardless of your specific model or cellular carrier. Today Apple announced iOS and iPadOS 16, and with those new versions comes a new set of minimum hardware requirements.

Apple's press release and preview page say that the OS will support "iPhone 8 and later." That means that the new update won't be compatible with phones using Apple A9 or A10 chips, including the iPhone 6S, 6S Plus, 7, 7 Plus, the first-gen iPhone SE, and the seventh-generation iPod Touch.

Here's the official list of compatible devices: