It’s Computex week, and that means there is a lot of PC news to take in right now.
Nvidia has announced RTX Spark, its Apple silicon competitor for notebooks and small desktops. This puts Nvidia in the same market as Qualcomm building Arm chips for PCs. Here’s Sean Hollister:
“This is the most efficient PC chip ever built,” says Nvidia senior director of product management Mark Aevermann — without sharing so much as a single statistic or chart to back that up.
A few days after a New Glenn rocket exploded on the launch pad, the damage left behind is coming to light, as Loren Grush writes at Bloomberg:
Photos of the blast’s aftermath reveal that the accident caused significant damage to the launchpad infrastructure in Cape Canaveral, Florida, destroying a key apparatus used to support and transport the rocket for flights and causing one of two lightning towers to collapse. Other hardware nearby also appeared considerably scorched. The explosion was so destructive that it generated seismic waves.
My pals Myke and Jason are launching a new project:
The two of us, Myke Hurley and Jason Snell, have been discussing Apple in depth every week for more than a decade on the Upgrade podcast. We want to go further, creating a podcast series that’s dedicated to telling stories from across all five decades of Apple history. This is a big reach for us, requiring a significant outlay of our time and the time of our audio editor. We have the knowledge and skills—but we need your help to make it happen.
That feeling when a tech support text turns into a podcast episode:
Stephen Hackett returns to the show to help me make sense of a problem that is hard even to describe, let alone solve, regarding Apple One, family sharing, a separate Media & Purchasing account, and iCloud storage space. Also: what we’re expecting from WWDC 2026.
Last night, the sky lit up over Florida’s Space Coast as Blue Origin’s big rocket — named New Glenn — exploded during an uncrewed static fire test at Launch Complex 36.
These tests are designed to test the rocket’s fuel system and motors by firing them when the rocket is clamped down to the launchpad. Thankfully, it seems that no one was hurt.
Stephen has been blogging, Myke has been shopping, and Federico has been… CLI’ing.
There’s a lot of reporting pointing to a new high-end MacBook on the horizon, as Tim Hardwick at MacRumors writes:
Reports and rumors suggest the next MacBook Pro that Apple will release might not be a MacBook Pro at all. It could actually be something altogether new and more exciting – a “MacBook Ultra” – positioned above the Pro as Apple’s top-tier laptop, suggesting that the current M5 Pro and M5 Max models will remain on sale when it launches.
Ferrari has unveiled its new four-door EV, designed by Jony Ive. It’s a quad-motor monster, clocking in at 1,035 horsepower, a mere 757 more than my used Toyota Tacoma.
I like some things about the exterior design, even if the profile has huge Magic Mouse energy. There are little nods to Ferraris past in the design, but there’s no doubt its a big change from its predecessors. Even the interior is wildly new. This car has seen a lot of hate online, but I don’t think it is as bad as most folks do, it seems.
It’s already been fixed, but this story is properly funny.
Update: Well, kinda fixed.
Apple has announced new accessibility features coming to iOS, Google has announced … a lot of things… at IO, and Federico has announced Shortcuts Playground. (Myke and Stephen don’t have anything to announce.)
CNBC is breaking the prospectus down, but a few things jumped out at me right away.
First, this bit from Lora Kolodny:
The company breaks down its business into three units: Space, Connectivity and AI. Connectivity includes the Starlink satellite internet service, which is sold directly to consumers, as well as to government and military agencies.
According to the filing, Starlink generated $3.26 billion in revenue in the latest quarter, accounting for 69% of the total. The company now boasts about 10.3 million Starlink subscribers.
The folks behind the Pocket 8086 are back with a new machine:
The BOOK II is a portable Apple II (Plus) compatible computer, redesigned using standard TTL chips and equipped with ROMs from early Apple II compatibles or clones. Beyond its core Apple II functionality, it integrates several built-in enhancements: an 80-column video card, a 16KB Language Card, a Z80 Softcard, a printer controller, and a Disk II compatible controller.
As a portable computer, the BOOK II features a built-in lithium battery, an RGB LCD, and a low-profile mechanical keyboard. It supports original Apple Disk II floppy drives as well as floppy drive emulators.