He sure doesn’t.
9,012 karma · joined September 24, 2010
The notification is hardware based; the manufacturer of a USB keyboard or mouse won’t matter.
If you plug a hard drive into the slow USB port, macOS will let you know.
There have been thousands of different USB devices plugged into Macs since they adopted it in 1998; I doubt there’s going to be problems now.
Whether you read it or not is irrelevant.
Apple is usually good at letting users turn off most features.
The article suggests the touchscreen will be a secondary input mode and the keyboard + trackpad (or mouse) will still be the primary mode of interaction.
They say reading is fundamental; you might want to practice to get your comprehension up.
I literally provided the top selling smartphones in China, Japan, Australia and a group of 5 countries in the European Union. The iPhone topped the sales charts in all of them.
> Which iPhone, which Samsung?
All of them? The total of all the iPhone models sold in the US was about 3x the total of all the Samsung models sold here. That’s the 60% vs 22% difference I mentioned earlier.
> Those are the numbers you're so desperate to avoid acknowledging.
Nobody disputes Android’s 72% global market share vs Apple’s 27%. You can calm down now. ;-)
To simplify things for you, Android dominates in developing countries in Africa, Asia, Central and South America. For example, Android has 95%(!) of the market in India, which is ironic since iPhones for the US are made there now.
It goes without saying iPhone does much better in more affluent countries. So does Samsung.
> It's a pretty pathetic display of fanboyism, and it's rather boring - this "conversation" is over.
When someone isn’t doing so well in a debate, they resort to insults and name calling. Sad.
It’s not that your “opinions” are worth responding to on their merits—they’re not.
I’m writing for readers that might come across this thread and learn something they didn’t already know.
Let me get this straight: you believe the iPhone "is very low ranking in the larger world of Smartphones" even though it's the most popular and best selling smartphone in the five largest economies on the planet.
I posted the 5 top selling smartphones in the European 5, United States, Australia, Japan, and China—out of 25 models listed, 80% (20 out of 25) were iPhones.
Don't hate the player, hate the game. No matter what you believe, the number are the numbers:
- Apple’s iPhone marketshare in the US is 60% vs Samsung’s at 22%
- the iPhone alone brought in $209,586 billion in FY 2025 [1]
- if the iPhone were its own company, it would be #9 on the Fortune 500
- Apple's iPhone revenue is greater than the revenue of Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Intel and AMD combined.
[1]: https://s2.q4cdn.com/470004039/files/doc_financials/2025/ar/...
"far outsell" is doing a lot of work in that sentence.
The iPhone has a market share of 60% in the US [1]. The leading Android manufacturer Samsung has a market share of 22% in the US.
These numbers are from last year; the iPhone sold like hotcakes in the European 5, the US (of course), Australia, Mainland China and Japan [2].
BTW, the European 5 consists of Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the UK.
Apple by itself globally makes up about 43% of the revenue in the smartphone market [3].
Yes, devices running the Android operating system sell a lot of units; the majority of them are no-frills devices from manufacturers most people have never heard of. Which is fine—having a phone is better than not having one.
But don’t act like Android is some kind of juggernaut; these five markets represent 2.24 billion people and 60% of the world's GDP. Android isn’t the bestselling phone in any of these countries.
# Top Selling Models
European 5
| Rank | Model |
|------|--------------------|
| 1 | iPhone 16 Pro |
| 2 | Samsung Galaxy A55 |
| 3 | iPhone 15 |
| 4 | iPhone 16 |
| 5 | iPhone 16 Pro Max |
US
| Rank | Model |
|------|-------------------|
| 1 | iPhone 16 Pro Max |
| 2 | iPhone 16 |
| 3 | iPhone 16 Pro |
| 4 | iPhone 15 |
| 5 | iPhone 14 |
Australia
| Rank | Model |
|------|-------------------|
| 1 | iPhone 16 Pro Max |
| 2 | iPhone 16 |
| 3 | iPhone 16 Pro |
| 4 | iPhone 12 |
| 5 | Samsung Galaxy A35|
Mainland China
| Rank | Model |
|------|--------------------|
| 1 | iPhone 16 Pro Max |
| 2 | iPhone 16 Pro |
| 3 | iPhone 16 |
| 4 | Huawei Mate 60 Pro |
| 5 | Huawei Mate 60 |
Japan
| Rank | Model |
|------|--------------------|
| 1 | iPhone 16 |
| 2 | iPhone 16 Pro |
| 3 | iPhone 15 |
| 4 | iPhone 14 |
| 5 | Google Pixel 8a |
[2]: "iPhone 16 secures top-selling global smartphone model in competitive holiday period" — https://www.kantar.com/inspiration/technology/iphone-16-secu...
[3]: "iPhone rakes in 3 times the revenue of any rival" — https://www.cultofmac.com/news/iphone-rakes-in-3-times-the-r...
When I worked in higher education at an Ivy Plus university for 14 years, we were able to get discounts. We also had a campus store where we sold and repaired Macs.
I understand that higher ed is quite different from K-12. It also seems like sales reps have much less leeway now than they used to. I have no doubt there's been multiple reorganizations, etc. and things could be completely different now.
It's not just discounts; even if you pay the normal education price, Apple could throw in some extras (software licenses, AppleCare, etc.) to sweeten the deal.
Are you sure about that? Apparently nicer Android phones not getting updates for very long is real.
No Longer Receiving Updates
Google Pixel [2], [3]
| Phone | Released |Updates Ended|
|---------------|----------|-------------|
| Pixel 3 | Oct 2018 | Oct 2021 |
| Pixel 3 XL | Oct 2018 | Oct 2021 |
| Pixel 3a | May 2019 | May 2022 |
| Pixel 3a XL | May 2019 | May 2022 |
| Pixel 4 | Oct 2019 | Oct 2022 |
| Pixel 4 XL | Oct 2019 | Oct 2022 |
| Pixel 4a | Aug 2020 | Aug 2023 |
| Pixel 4a (5G) | Nov 2020 | Nov 2023 |
| Pixel 5 | Oct 2020 | Oct 2023 |
| Pixel 5a | Aug 2021 | Aug 2024 |
Samsung Galaxy [1], [4]
| Phone |Released | Updates Ended|
|----------------------|----------|--------------|
| Galaxy S9 | Mar 2018 | ~2022 |
| Galaxy S9+ | Mar 2018 | ~2022 |
| Galaxy Note 9 | Aug 2018 | ~2022 |
| Galaxy S10 | Mar 2019 | ~2023 |
| Galaxy S10+ | Mar 2019 | ~2023 |
| Galaxy S10e | Mar 2019 | ~2023 |
| Galaxy Note 10 | Aug 2019 | ~2023 |
| Galaxy Note 10+ | Aug 2019 | ~2023 |
| Galaxy S20 | Feb 2020 | Early 2025 |
| Galaxy S20+ | Feb 2020 | Early 2025 |
| Galaxy S20 Ultra | Feb 2020 | Early 2025 |
| Galaxy Note 20 | Aug 2020 | ~2024–2025 |
| Galaxy Note 20 Ultra | Aug 2020 | ~2024–2025 |
| Galaxy S20 FE | Oct 2020 | Mid 2025 |
| Galaxy Z Fold 2 | Sep 2020 | ~2024 |
| Galaxy Z Flip | Feb 2020 | ~2023 |
On Their Last Legs (Security Updates Only, No More OS Upgrades)
These are still receiving quarterly security patches but will drop off soon:
- Galaxy S21 / S21+ / S21 Ultra — Final OS was Android 15; now on quarterly security patches only
- Galaxy S21 FE — Will receive Android 16 as its final major upgrade via One UI 8, after which it moves to quarterly patches with no further OS updates
- Pixel 6 / Pixel 6 Pro — Now updated to a 5-year support window, with final updates expected in October 2026
- Pixel 6a — Supported until at least July 2027
---
The main takeaway: if you're on a Samsung S20-era or Pixel 5a-or-older device, you're fully unprotected. The Galaxy S21 series and Pixel 6/7 families still have some runway left, though they're winding down.
[1]: Samsung Ends Software Updates for These Galaxy Phones in 2025 — https://r2.community.samsung.com/t5/Tech-Talk/Samsung-Ends-S...
[2]: These Google Pixel Phones Will Not Get Android 16 — https://currently.att.yahoo.com/att/google-pixel-phones-not-...
[3]: How long will my Google Pixel be supported? – https://9to5google.com/2024/12/10/how-long-will-my-google-pi...
[4]: Galaxy S20 series software updates run dry as Samsung ends support* – https://www.androidcentral.com/phones/samsung-galaxy/galaxy-...
And while the ports aren’t labeled, if you plug an external display into the “wrong” port, you’ll get an on-screen notification suggesting you plug it into the other port. [1]
That version of the Magic Mouse is also over 10 years old…
Apple doesn't sell anything where they're taking a bath; their margins have been high 30's to low 40's for many years. All of the technology in the Neo already existed; they didn't have to create anything new.
One reason Apple can get away with 8 GB of RAM is their SoC does realtime compression of data in RAM and they use high bandwidth memory; the A19 Pro RAM bandwidth is 60 GB/s. This enables them to treat the SSD like an L3 cache.
It's nearly 5 years since the M1 was released; I suspect Apple has gotten really good with their RAM > compression > SSD system since then.
A nitpick: there are two USB ports, one of them is a 10GB/s USB 3 port.
> Apple has put out plenty of subpar experiences in the past, and there's no reason they wouldn't do it in the future.
Come on—that was 16 years ago! Y'all gotta let some things go after a while.
The hardware lasts but they usually stop getting software updates after a few years, especially if they're not high-end models.
Last month, Apple released an update for the iPhone 8 and iPhone X [1]. The iPhone 8 was released September 2017. I seriously doubt 9-year old Android phones, even flagship models, are still getting software updates.
[1]: https://www.macrumors.com/2026/02/02/apple-releases-ios-16-7...
Of course, it does. The price difference is small enough now that the Neo is in the running. There's no doubt the build quality is going to be much better than a Chromebook.
I worked in education for 20+ years; that $499 is just the starting price; a school or school district that buys them in quantity is going to get an even better price.
Sure, a Chromebook is better than nothing, and if you’re an impoverished school district, you may have no choice but to go with Chromebooks. But if there's an opportunity to get Macs at this price point, most school districts are going to take it.
Don't underestimate Apple's sales and support infrastructure. Many of the schools in the US are in areas with Apple retail stores, where sales and support work out of.
It's hard to imagine a school committee going with Chromebooks instead of Mac Neos for a little more money and likely better support. The parents aren't IT experts, but they know Apple is a trusted brand, and Macs are "better".
When Apple transitioned from PowerPC to Intel, it wasn’t clear that was going to work. Being able to boot into Windows was sort of an insurance policy that’s no longer necessary.
Also the era when companies were trying to “kill” each other’s devices is no longer a thing.
They all get the reality it’s a multi device world and they need to work within it.
In the past, Apple alerted users (journalists, political activists, dissidents) when a "state-level actor" attempted to hack their iPhones [1].
Apparently, the FBI couldn't get past Lockdown Mode: FBI stymied by Apple’s Lockdown Mode after seizing journalist’s iPhone [2]"
And don't forget about Memory Integrity Enforcement (MIE) that debuted on iPhone 17 and iPhone Air [3]:
MIE is described as the industry's first always-on, comprehensive memory safety protection, built on the Enhanced Memory Tagging Extension (EMTE) in synchronous mode, combined with secure typed allocators and tag confidentiality protections.
[1]: https://www.sentinelone.com/blog/so-state-sponsored-attacker...
[2]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/02/fbi-stymied-by-a...
[3]: https://security.apple.com/blog/memory-integrity-enforcement
You can run open source models like Kimi K or Qwen locally. Apple recently updated Xcode 26.3 to support local models.
70W USB-C Power Adapter (included with M5 Pro with 16-core GPU)
96W USB-C Power Adapter (included with M5 Pro with 20-core GPU, configurable with M5 Pro with 16-core GPU)
USB-C to MagSafe 3 Cable (2 m)They also probably had RAM contracts in place far enough in advance to avoid the worst of the price spikes.
If you need internet connectivity on the road regardless if Wi-Fi is available, only the iPad has that option.
Yes, you can use a Mac laptop with your phone acting as a hotspot but unless you have unlimited data, that gets expensive real fast.
Now that Apple makes their own cellular modems, it should be feasible to add them to MacBooks in the near future.
This clearly isn’t the case—the iPad Pro got the M4 processor in May 2024; the Mac didn’t get the M4 until October. So for a few months, Apple’s most powerful chip was only available for the iPad Pro.
And while the M5 MacBook Pro and the M5 iPad Pro were announced together in October 2025, none of the other Mac models have been updated to the M5.
It’s possible more M5 Macs will be announced this week; we’ll see.
I don’t think it matters to Apple whether you spend $1,000+ for an iPad or for a MacBook.