The Essence of a Machine by Om

Customers and reviewers alike look at a laptop and ask all sorts of wrong questions. How much RAM? What GPU? Can it run Final Cut in real time? Nobody stops to ask what they actually need it for.

The spec sheet becomes the thing. The benchmark becomes the measure. The webpage becomes a place to extract every cent. Every human relationship on Instagram an opportunity to transact. And somewhere in all that maximization, the person using the machine disappears.

Also, John Gruber’s review was fun to read.

And I can buy one, just like this one, for $700. That’s $170 less than an 11-inch iPad Air and Magic Keyboard. And the Neo comes with a full-size keyboard and runs MacOS, not a version of iOS with a limited imitation of MacOS’s windowing UI. I am in no way arguing that the MacBook Neo is an iPad killer, but it’s a splendid iPad alternative for people like me, who don’t draw with a Pencil, do type with a keyboard, and just want a small, simple, highly portable and highly capable computer to use around the house. The MacBook Neo is going to be a great first Macintosh for a lot of people switching from PCs. But it’s also going to be a great _secondary_Mac for a lot of longtime Mac users with expensive desktop setups for their main workstations — like me.

I have three devices as well - the iPhone 16 Pro, MacBook Air M1, and iPad Air. I so want to use the iPad - it is great as a focus device, but would I miss it if I did not have it anymore? I think not. I have not started drawing on it yet though. Maybe I would after that. I used to read on it, not right now though. But in that case I would have two devices - the Mac and the iPhone. Both of these are essential to me.