Jason Snell, writing at Macworld:

So what makes a Mac Pro a Mac Pro? If it’s a tower enclosure, Apple’s got a relatively fresh one from 2019 that it can just roll out again. (Gurman says that’s now the plan, which is also a little disconcerting when you consider that the original reports suggested a new, half-height enclosure and that quad-M2 chip.) But what’s inside the Mac Pro matters, and if it’s just an M2 Ultra chip, it’s hard not to consider the new Mac Pro just a Mac Studio that moved out of its apartment and into a mini-mansion.

Does it help if there’s expandable internal storage? Sure, I suppose–it’s certainly a lot neater than attaching drives via external ports. Does it help if Apple offers additional M2 GPU cores via some sort of proprietary add-on card system? Maybe, if it’s done the extra engineering work. What about RAM expansion? Sure, but again, such a choice would undercut the work Apple has done to create a pool of fast, shared memory right next to the CPUs and GPUs.

And all that custom work, all those distortions to what makes Apple silicon so successful, would be done for a product that’s a niche of a niche–and it’s work that Apple’s chip design team could have spent on a next-generation chip for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Howard Oakley:

There was a time when the great majority of apps consisted of just an app bundle, created their own settings file in ~/Library/Preferences, and that was that. For various reasons, this became steadily more complicated, with some apps assembling arrays of files and folders in /Library/Application Support, and in recent years many apps have required helpers too. One common reason for this is that they need to perform certain functions with elevated privileges, such as root. To do that, they have become even more elaborate, with Login Items, property lists installed in folders like /Library/LaunchAgents, and more. This article explains how Ventura is trying to make things simpler again.

We spoke about this recently on Mac Power Users. While the new system attempts to give users more control over what’s happening on their Macs, I can’t help but think the UI for it is too confusing for most users:

This is the video I’ve been waiting for:

Chance Miller, writing at 9to5Mac:

Apple’s highly-anticipated big-screen MacBook Air is nearing a launch, according to a new report. DSCC analyst Ross Young reports today that the 15.5-inch MacBook Air has started panel production this month, suggesting an “early April launch.” All I have to say is this: take my money.

Young, as well as Bloomberg, have previously reported on the possibility of a 15-inch MacBook Air. Bloomberg, in particular, previously pointed to a potential launch in the spring of this year. Ross Young then corroborated that spring 2023 launch back in December.

In a post to his Super Follows on Twitter today, seen by 9to5Mac, Young confirmed that this 15-inch MacBook Air is still on track for that spring release. “15.5-inch MacBook Air started panel production this month,” Young said. “We would expect an early April launch.”

Makes sense to me!