Yesterday, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality Permit Board (MDEQ) unanimously granted xAI a permit for an expanded power plant in Southaven, Mississippi. The plant will be powered by 41 natural gas turbines.
Some of those turbines are already in place, with questions surrounding their legality now finalized.
The way in which MDEQ went about this process has left many local — and national — critics of xAI unhappy, as Kailynn Johnson writes for The Memphis Flyer:
dreamwieber’s video on Hypercard is one of the best things I’ve seen on the topic:
via Kottke
All I know about Lil Finder Guy is that it’s freakin’ adorable, assuming it means me no harm. And instead of doing literally anything productive or tending to my adult responsibilities like bills, taxes, or work, I have spent my weekend tumbling down the rabbit hole trying to build a life for this mysterious little creature despite knowing next to nothing about it.
Google Gemini (aka the next Siri) has been helpful in modeling out the rest of its body from the single TikTok post. From there, I started generating what Lil Finder Guy might look like working, angry, running, jumping, laughing, and more. Of course, this is all abstraction stacked on abstraction at this point. I do not know if Lil Finder Guy can laugh, what it finds funny, or whether its short, knee-less legs are even capable of jumping.
In the midst of the whirlwind of news this week, Apple renamed its CPU cores. At Six Colors, Jason Snell has the details:
Here’s what happened:
Apple renamed its most powerful CPU cores, which had previously been called performance cores. As of the M5 Pro and Max, those cores are now called “super cores.”
Surprise! Since those cores also shipped in the M5 MacBook Pro, M5 iPad Pro, and M5 Vision Pro, they have all been retroactively renamed as super cores. I am writing this very story on a device that sports four super cores, but I didn’t even know that until I heard the news early Tuesday morning.
There are a handful of fun videos on Apple’s page, but these citrus ones are fun:
@apple i love limes
pop pop pop pop
hello?
Then there’s this little Finder character, as pointed out by Basic Apple Guy:
I can’t find any information about him beyond the fact that he appeared in Apple’s “Matcha Break with MacBook Neo” livestream on TikTok on Wednesday. I also haven’t been able to track down the video itself. The first post I found mentioning it came from user m2macmini on Twitter.
Apple has released an avalanche of new and updated products, and on this episode of the podcast, we come up for air to judge our predictions.
After years of rumors, Apple has finally taken the wraps off its new entry-level notebook. In some ways, the MacBook Neo is exactly what we expected, but in others, it’s not. I’ve been excited about this rumor for a long time, since it’s been a while Apple has done anything new and unusual in the Mac line.
The Neo certainly checks both of those boxes.
I think everyone was betting the company would use the “MacBook” name for a third time, but instead we’ve all got to contend with “MacBook Neo.” I don’t love it, but I don’t hate it either, and I assume it will fade into the background like many other of Apple’s weird product names.1
With a price point of $599 (or $499 for students!) Apple had to make some cuts when designing the MacBook Neo.
The Neo’s screen is 13 inches, a full half inch smaller than that of the $1099 MacBook Air’s, but the rest of the dimensions are closer than I would have thought:
| Model: | Weight: | Thickness: | Width: | Depth: |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Neo | 2.7 pounds | .50 inch | 11.71 inches | 8.12 inches |
| 13-inch Air | 2.7 pounds | .44 inch | 11.97 inches | 8.46 inches |
Here’s a list of what else separates the MacBook Neo from the Air:
For the first time since the Cinema Displays went away in 2005, Apple has more than one display for sale with the same family name. Meet the 2026 Studio Display lineup:
Yes, those are two different products, but they both feature 27-inch, 5K displays in the same enclosure as the previous Studio Display.
Starting at $1599, the new Studio Display is a slight upgrade to the 2022 model. Apple:
The new Studio Display features a 12MP Center Stage camera, now with improved image quality and support for Desk View; a studio-quality three-microphone array; and an immersive six-speaker sound system with Spatial Audio. It also now includes powerful Thunderbolt 5 connectivity, providing more downstream connectivity for high-speed accessories or daisy-chaining displays.
It’s a big day for Mac laptop buyers. Let’s start with the simplest of the updates, the MacBook Air:
M5 features a faster CPU and next-generation GPU with a Neural Accelerator in each core, enabling MacBook Air to power through a variety of workflows, from creative projects to complex AI tasks. MacBook Air now comes standard with double the starting storage at 512GB with faster SSD technology, and is configurable up to 4TB, so customers can keep their most important work on hand. Apple’s N1 wireless chip delivers Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 for seamless connectivity on the go.
Apple’s week of news has begun. Up first is an updated iPad Air:
With a faster CPU and GPU, iPad Air boosts tasks like editing and gaming, and is a powerful device for AI with a faster Neural Engine, higher memory bandwidth, and 50 percent more unified system memory than the previous generation. With M4, iPad Air is up to 30 percent faster than iPad Air with M3, and up to 2.3x faster than iPad Air with M1. The new iPad Air also features the latest in Apple silicon connectivity chips, N1 and C1X, delivering fast wireless and cellular connections — and support for Wi-Fi 7 — that empower users to work and be creative anywhere. Available in two sizes and four gorgeous finishes that users love, the 11-inch iPad Air is super portable, and the 13-inch model provides an even larger display for those who want more space to multitask. With game-changing iPadOS 26 capabilities, advanced cameras, all-day battery life, a powerful app ecosystem, and support for accessories like Apple Pencil Pro and Magic Keyboard, iPad Air delivers a remarkable and versatile experience for anyone who wants to do more on iPad, from students and creators, to business users and gamers.
Ashley Belanger, writing at Ars:
For miles around xAI’s makeshift power plant in Southaven, Mississippi, neighbors have endured months of constant roaring, erupting pops, and bursts of high-pitched whining from 27 temporary gas turbines installed without consulting the community.
In a report on Thursday, NBC News interviewed residents fighting to shut down xAI’s turbines. They confirmed that xAI operates the turbines day and night, allegedly tormenting residents in order to power xAI founder Elon Musk’s unbridled AI ambitions.