512 Pixels

Currently, I’m using a Mid 2015 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display. It has an 2.5 Ghz i7, 16 GB of RAM and a 1 TB of SSD storage. It’s the fastest, most capable Mac I’ve ever owned.

I bought it right before going independent with Relay FM. I knew that I’d have a desk at home as well as space at an office I share with my brother’s non-profit.

I went with the 15-inch because I thought I’d be using it as a notebook way more than I actually do. Both of my desks have external displays, keyboards and mice. I simply show up, plug my computer in and hit the ground running with whatever I need to get done. I’m carrying a 15-inch laptop that lives most of its life as a desktop replacement. At home, the MacBook Pro doesn’t even get to be opened; I have it perched in a BookArc:

All of that’s to say that I don’t use the built-in display very much at all, and would love to carry a smaller notebook again.

Enter the dilemma.

In thinking about what to do for my next Mac, I have two options I can think of: stay with a powerful notebook and shuttle it back and forth or put an iMac on my home desk and carry a MacBook Air when I need to record podcasts at the office or work outside the home. As a two-computer setup would be more complex and a lot more money, my guess is I’ll simply downsize notebooks for now.

Apple makes a lot of laptops these days. I’ve spent time with each model over the years. I’ve used the 13-inch Air and Pro in past jobs. My wife has had both the 11-inch Air and the MacBook with Retina display.

I like the 13-inch screen size a lot more than the smaller notebooks. While it may be weird next to my iPad Pro, I think that’s a pretty decent trade-off between size and portability.

The 13-inch models each come with their own compromises, however. The Air has amazing battery life but a screen that’s far from ideal and it can be configured with fewer options. On the other hand, the 13-inch Pro is a much more flexible from customization stand point and has a Retina display, but the battery life isn’t great.

Of course, the entire notebook could get turned upside down whenever Apple ships Skylake-powered notebooks. The 13-inch Pro could end up much slimmer and lighter, thanks to Intel’s recent power-saving technology. The MacBook Air could go away all together, being replaced with a more powerful MacBook.

I hope the 13-inch Pro continues to be a good machine with a lot of custom options when ordering, but would Apple sacrifice some of that to position lower in the line, closer to where the Air is now?

Whatever happens, I’ll be shopping for a Mac this spring, putting the days of being a 15-inch notebook owner behind me. It should be interesting.

Dennis Overbye:

A team of physicists who can now count themselves as astronomers announced on Thursday that they had heard and recorded the sound of two black holes colliding a billion light-years away, a fleeting chirp that fulfilled the last prophecy of Einstein’s general theory of relativity.

That faint rising tone, physicists say, is the first direct evidence of gravitational waves, the ripples in the fabric of space-time that Einstein predicted a century ago. And it is a ringing (pun intended) confirmation of the nature of black holes, the bottomless gravitational pits from which not even light can escape, which were the most foreboding (and unwelcome) part of his theory.

Don’t miss the video explaining how this all works.

Jason Snell, writing for Yahoo Tech:

While the give and take between NASA and Congress is sure to go on — with the election of a new president later this year as a complicating factor — the fact is that NASA has a $19 billion budget for 2016 and a $19 billion budget proposed for 2017. Here’s some of what the agency is planning on doing with that money.

Got a Cube, but Ethernet has you down? This PDF is your friend.

On this week’s Connected, This week, Federico and I discuss the culture surrounding app updates and answer some listener questions.

This week, with Myke on sick leave, I joined Jason Snell to talk about Apple’s first-party apps, the future of the Mac and VR pizza.

There’s always a better camera than the one you have with you.

Obscura is the simplest, most comfortable way to take great photos. Obscura’s controls are always within in easy reach of your thumb, as are tasteful filters that make getting the perfect photo quick and easy. And with the latest update, Obscura now ( finally) supports the iPad too!

Obscura has everything you’d expect from a pro camera app, like custom exposure controls, grids and a spirit level. But Obscura goes even further with unique features like a unique way of locking settings, and focus peaking.

Obscura has been on my homescreen for a while now, and has become my go-to camera app. It’s fast, fun and powerful. Go check it out.

Joe Rossignol at MacRumors:

Apple has determined that graphics cards in some late 2013 Mac Pros, manufactured between February 8, 2015 and April 11, 2015, may cause distorted video, no video, system instability, freezing, restarts, shut downs, or may prevent system start up.

Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider will repair eligible Mac Pro models affected by the video issues free of charge. Customers can book an appointment with the Genius Bar at an Apple Store or visit an Apple Authorized Service Provider to determine if their Mac Pro is eligible for coverage.

Filed under: “it’s about time.”

Myke Hurley, writing at iMore:

The fact that we have computers in our pockets now — on our person at all times — means that we are all just a tap away from each other. And since we have hosts who live all over the world, there’s someone online at practically any time of the day or night. That’s powerful, and that’s why I love my Apple devices. They not only help me do my work in a practical sense; they also help me stay connected to the people that are most important in my life.

Having my co-founder six time zones and 4,300 miles away isn’t as hard as it may seem. With things like iMessage, FaceTime, Skype and Slack, Myke and I can communicate with each other and our hosts no matter where we are. Relay FM wouldn’t be possible without the technology we use everyday. We do deeply enjoy the handful of times we see each other a year but it hasn’t stopped us from running a growing business from different continent.

The best part is that you’d never know it looking at what we’ve been able to accomplish. Our company could only exist in the 21s century, and I think that’s pretty cool.

Remember the Milk was the first task manager I ever used. Like Gabe, I used Remember the Milk for years. I upgraded to their Pro service way back on July 24, 2008 and have close to 6,000 completed tasks logged there.

The service fell behind, though, and I moved on, but now, it’s back with a huge update. With an all-new look and new apps, the service offers features found in other systems, including start dates, task sharing, subtasks and more. Remember the Milk had things like plain-English parsing and amazing search operators well before anyone else, and these have been updated as well.

Even with these updates, I’m not sure Remember the Milk is powerful enough to handle my task needs, but I’d be lying to say I’m not tempted to give it a run.

I’m not sure I can name another company that has brought so much joy to the world. Happy birthday, Pixar.

Mark Gurman at 9to5 Mac:

The Apple Store Reuse and Recycle iPhone trade-in program currently allows a customer to bring in an older iPhone model and trade it in for credit toward the purchase of a new iPhone model. The main exception since the launch of the program is that this does not apply toward older iPhones with cracked displays, or broken cameras and buttons. That’s about to change …

Starting this week, the updated program will allow Apple Stores to give credit for iPhone 5s and iPhone 6/6 Plus units with damaged displays, cameras, and buttons within reason. Apple believes that this new program will encourage new iPhone upgrades versus a standard iPhone screen repair.

We’ve all seen people out in the world, using phones smashed to smithereens. Maybe there’s some clear tape involved to hold the glass together.

In fact, here’s an iPhone 6 I broke about a year ago:

(It fell down a flight of stairs in a parking garage. Whoops!)

I’m sure money is the main reason people will live with a shattered phone. Repairing a broken iPhone can be expensive, and I think people with broken older phones will just live with until they can upgrade again.

This new program from Apple takes aim at that with the goal for people to upgrade to a newer phone. Before this, a broken iPhone was basically worthless in terms of trade-in, and this will change that. More people may be able to upgrade via this system than before, which will those sales numbers from sliding. Seems like a win-win at this point.