Latest news with #M3MacBookAir
Yahoo
22-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Hurdle hints and answers for March 20, 2025
If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine. There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it'll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from previous hurdles is shown, with correct and misplaced letters clearly shown. An important note is that the number of times a letter is highlighted from previous guesses does necessarily indicate the number of times that letter appears in the final hurdle. If you find yourself stuck at any step of today's Hurdle, don't worry! We have you covered. SEE ALSO: Hurdle: Everything you need to know to find the answers The human heart has four of these. SEE ALSO: Apple's new M3 MacBook Air is $300 off at Amazon. And yes, I'm tempted. VALVE A pig. SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for March 20, 2025 SWINE To fend off. SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for March 20 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for March 20, 2025 PARRY To ponder. SEE ALSO: NYT Strands hints, answers for March 20 THINK To try hard. SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Games available on Mashable EXERT
Yahoo
16-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
M4 MacBook Air 2025 review: The perfect laptop for most consumers
Apple's new MacBook Air laptops, which the company unveiled alongside a new iPad Air and a disappointing 11th-generation iPad earlier this month, are now on sale. They feature the M4 chip and some additional upgrades that remote workers and desk jockeys, in particular, may appreciate. Why America is turning into a nation of homebodies Angry Americans are hitting Trump where it hurts the most: Elon Musk Danish grocery stores have a new trick for boycotting U.S. products I've been playing around with the new 15-inch M4 MacBook Air with 16GB of memory and 512GB of storage. Here are my thoughts on it, along with the very similar 13-inch model. Let's address the laptop's M4 chip upgrade first, since it features heavily into Apple's marketing. There's no denying that the M4 chip, which comes in two varieties in the new MacBook Air lineup (an 8‑core or 10-core GPU—the more the better for graphics-intensive apps), is the fastest chip ever in a MacBook Air. Apple brags that the M4 delivers '23x faster performance' in some cases versus the fastest Intel chip ever included in older Intel-based MacBook Airs. The company also boasts that the M4 is also up to two times faster than the M1 chip. But there's a reason that Apple is comparing the M4 to chips that are five years old or older. While the M4 is indeed technically faster than the M2 and M3 chips found in the company's 2023 and 2024 MacBook Airs, you're not going to see much of a difference in speed. Indeed, in normal, everyday tasks, including web browsing, photo editing, and word processing, I've yet to see any notable speed improvement between my M3 MacBook Air and the M4 MacBook Air review unit I received. In other words, the inclusion of the M4 is nice, but most users won't see many real-world benefits over the M2 or M3. That being said, the M4 MacBook Air does feature some genuinely notable upgrades that a select group of users will find invaluable. While many aspects of the M4 MacBook Air are nothing more than spec bumps (a slightly faster processor and base RAM upgrades), the laptop series did receive two notable upgrades in 2025, which remote workers and desk jockeys, in particular, will appreciate. First, Apple has ditched the 1080p FaceTime camera found in the M3 MacBook Air for a 12MP Center Stage camera. Center Stage is the name Apple gives to its most advanced webcams. Center Stage uses AI to track your movements in the frame to always keep you in the center of the shot. This is a huge boon when you're on video calls, especially if you are up and about moving around with, say, a whiteboard behind you. Another feature of the Center Stage camera is called Desk View. This is a mode that allows the MacBook's webcam to display what is lying on the desk in front of it. This top-down view makes it easy for those on a call with you to see an object clearly. For example, if you're a clothing designer videoconferencing with a client, you can lay out fabric samples before you, and your client will be able to get a great overhead view of them all. Second, the M4 MacBook Air includes a big display-related upgrade that people who like using multiple monitors will appreciate. The M4 MacBook Air can now power two external displays with resolutions of up to 6K in addition to the laptop's screen. The M3 MacBook Air had been able to support two displays—but only if the laptop's lid was closed. This means the M4 MacBook Air allows you to have a three-display setup on your desk if you want it. The M4 MacBook Air series has gotten a color shake-up. Apple has finally done away with the decade-old Space Grey color option (it looked like metallic ash). In its place, the company unveiled a new Sky Blue color option, which was the color of the review unit I received. The thing is, the color doesn't look that blue. As a matter of fact, when I took the MacBook Air out of its box, I thought there had been a mix-up, and they accidentally sent me the silver color. If you're hoping for a blue laptop, you should definitely check out the color in person before buying it because you may be disappointed with how light the shade of blue looks. While the M4 MacBook Airs are great machines, I was let down by a few of Apple's choices. First, I'd hoped that Apple would finally address its frustrating USB-C port placement on this year's model. Recent MacBook Airs (the 2025 model included) have 2 USB-C ports. That's enough for most people. But the annoying thing is that both ports sit on the laptop's left side. I'm not sure why Apple doesn't just move one of the USB-C ports to the right side of the laptop so that users can plug their accessories in from either end. Doing so would allow users to spread their accessories more evenly across their desktop, leading to a more comfortable workspace. Second, on the 2024 M4 MacBook Pro series, Apple allowed users to upgrade the display from glossy to a nano texture, giving it a more matte-like look. As I wrote late last year, the nano texture display is a sight to behold, and if Apple had added that option to the 2025 M4 MacBook Air, I'd seriously have considered upgrading from my M3 MacBook Air this year. But they have decided not to give users that choice—and that's disappointing. Despite being merely a collection of minor spec bumps in many respects, the M4 MacBook Air is still the perfect laptop for most consumers. It is incredibly thin, light, and powerful. It's also got one additional element that I haven't mentioned yet, which makes the computer more compelling than ever. Apple has reduced the price of the new MacBook Airs by $100 from last year's models. This was unexpected (especially with Trump's tariffs threatening to see the prices Americans pay for electronics rise in the coming months). Now, the 13-inch MacBook Air starts at $999, and the 15-inch starts at $1199. If you want to lock in these attractive lower prices, you might want to purchase the new MacBook Air sooner rather than later in case those threatened tariffs do force Apple and others to raise prices in the months ahead. The M4 chip is powerful enough to run artificial intelligence tasks such as Apple Intelligence and even LLMs like DeepSeek and others locally, meaning that this laptop likely has the power to get you through the next three or four years of a rapidly changing AI landscape. My advice, however, is to upgrade the new MacBook Air to at least 24GB of memory when you buy it (the MacBook Air series now starts with 16GB). More RAM will make compute-intensive tasks, like AI, run faster. While users with M2 or M3 MacBook Airs could probably hold off on upgrading for a few more years, if you have a Windows PC or an M1 MacBook, the M4 MacBook Air makes for a compelling upgrade—and it's a no-brainer if you still have an old Intel-based MacBook. This post originally appeared at to get the Fast Company newsletter:
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Yahoo
The M4 MacBook Air is displaying some odd behavior we don't understand yet
People are getting their hands on the new M4 MacBook Air this week, which means they're posting lots of discoveries about its performance (and the blueness of the new Sky Blue color). While editing photos in Lightroom Classic, YouTuber Vadim Yuryev noticed that the CPU workload was being handled almost completely by the laptop's six efficiency cores. Spotted by Wccftech, this behavior is interesting because the image editing software is so CPU-intensive that anyone would assume it needed the performance cores to run. This was certainly the case for the M3 MacBook Air, which Yuryev shows using all four performance and all four efficiency cores to get the work done. We don't know why this behavior has changed, how purposeful it is, or if it's specific to Lightroom Classic — but the benefits could be significant. Keeping the efficiency cores busy and limiting the activity on the performance cores could improve battery life and keep temperatures down. That said, we don't know from Yuryev's post how well the software is running while in this state — we can assume he's pointing it out because it's running fine but we don't know for sure. It's also not entirely impossible that this is a bug of some kind — the performance cores are there to be used, after all, or else they'd be pointless. So the sheer amount of activity on the efficiency cores while the performance cores sit almost unused does seem quite odd. With outlets like Wccftech and tech influencers everywhere experimenting with this new model, we'll likely find out soon whether this was a fluke or an intended feature of the new MacBook Air.
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Best M2 MacBook Air Deals: Save Up to $300 Off While You Still Can
Following the launch of the M4 MacBook Air the older M2 version has fallen further down the pecking order. And with the M3 MacBook Air's demise, the M2 version seems to be on borrowed time. But that just means that you can find the M2 MacBook Air at a discount, and right now there are some huge savings to be had if you know where to look. This laptop is still incredibly capable, and with prices now starting at just $699, this could be the Mac to buy right now. So what does the M2 MacBook Air range look like? Well, the 13-inch M2 MacBook Air can be found for $999, but there are often discounts available. Unfortunately, the larger 15-inch M2 MacBook Air is a little more challenging to find because stocks have been dwindling since the M3 version's debut. There are still deals available, but we don't expect the best prices to hang around for long. Hey, did you know? CNET Deals texts are free, easy and save you money. No matter which M2 MacBook Air you choose, you'll get one with a fast M2 processor. With an increase in performance of up to 40% over the M1 and 18 hours of battery life, this is a great laptop. It's not just the increased battery life that makes the MacBook Air M2 worth considering. It also comes with an improved, slightly larger screen compared to its predecessor. We've rounded up all the best M2 MacBook Air deals and have listed them below. We'll continue to update this roundup as prices and availability change. Looking for the best prices on the latest models? Be sure to check out our collection of the best M3 MacBook Air deals. Following the release of the 15-inch MacBook Air, the original 13-inch model saw a $200 price cut. That's a rare move for Apple, and the device is even more attractive at its new $999 starting price. It's possible to spend even less on one with the below deals. You can currently get the 13-inch MacBook Air M2 for $759, a $155 savings on the price listed at Apple. This price is for the 16GB model and is available in four colors: midnight, silver, space gray and starlight. See at Walmart Amazon is offering various discounts on the M2 MacBook Air, with the base model now available for just $699. That's $300 off the original price and other discounts are offered across the range, too. See at Amazon You can now save $100 on the MacBook Air M2 at Best Buy while also getting up to $370 in credit when you trade in a similar device. Note that this is the model with 8GB of RAM, whereas some others available elsewhere have twice as much. See at Best Buy The 15-inch MacBook Air M3 has been on the market for only a few months. The launch of this latest model came with the announcement that Apple would discontinue the 15-inch MacBook Air M2. We've found a few places still carrying it at a discount. The 15-inch version is hard to find right now and Amazon's stock levels are extremely limited. There aren't any available right now, but check back later and you might be in luck. See at Amazon Best Buy has no discounts currently available for the M2 version, however, if you fancy getting the M3 it's down by $300 in various configurations and colors in a limited-time deal. This is due to end in the next 24 hours, so act fast. Walmart's M2 15-inch MacBook Air stock is extremely low right now, with almost no models available. The only way to get one is via an open-box, which doesn't save you much compared to a new one. Hopefully new stock will arrive soon. See at Walmart
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Save Up to $300 Off Your New M3 MacBook Air With These Huge Discounts
It's no secret that Apple makes some of the very best laptops available right now, and the brand-new M4 MacBook Air is set to up the ante even further. The previous-gen M3 MacBook Air might have been superseded, but it's still an excellent laptop with a fast chip and modern design. The arrival of the M4 model also means that you can now get the M3 version for less than you might think, but you'll need to act fast -- we can't promise these discounts will last long. With discounts of up to $300 off, we expect these laptops to fly off the shelves. There are plenty of different configurations in Amazon's sale for you to choose from, with the cheapest being the 13-inch M3 MacBook Air linked above for just $799. It comes with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, and this price is a full $300 off the original asking price. Hey, did you know? CNET Deals texts are free, easy and save you money. Need something a little more powerful? The 13-inch M3 MacBook Air is available for $1,279, a $300 discount. This laptop comes with 24GB of RAM, while the storage doubles to 512GB. All of these laptops are available in multiple colors, so be sure to choose the one you like best before adding anything to your cart. These are just two examples of the deals on offer as well, so don't worry if neither of them fits the bill for you -- we're sure there will be a MacBook Air deal for you in there somewhere. The MacBook Air is iconic, and the M1 version was a huge upgrade over the Intel-powered version that it replaced when it arrived a few years ago. The M3 version is even better, so anyone who has an M1 or older model will be stunned at the improvements, especially when it comes to speed. With these discounts, the M3 MacBook Air is impossible to ignore.
