On Wednesday, August 12, the Moon’s shadow will sweep across a narrow stretch of the Northern Hemisphere. Greenland, Iceland, northern Russia, the Atlantic, Spain and a small corner of Portugal lie in the path of totality. Much of Europe, northwestern Africa, Canada and parts of the United States will see a partial eclipse. It is […]
The post The August 12 Total Solar Eclipse: Where to See It—and Why NASA Is Flying Through Its Shadow appeared first on Curiosmos.
With a new Moon in play, skywatchers anticipate a fine Perseid performance this year.
The post A Perfectly Timed Perseid Meteor Shower appeared first on Sky & Telescope.
The only total solar eclipse of the year coincides with the Perseid meteor shower. Here's what you need to know to watch the eclipse.
The post Rare Total Solar Eclipse-Perseid Meteor Shower Double-Header August 12th appeared first on Sky & Telescope.
MacBook Neo helped Apple move against the global PC market in the second quarter of 2026, delivering double-digit Mac shipment growth while most leading computer manufacturers sold fewer units than a year earlier.
Preliminary data from IDC estimates that Apple shipped 6.7 million Macs during the quarter, up 10.1% from 6.1 million in Q2 2025. Its worldwide market share rose from 8.5% to 9.9%, placing the company within a fraction of the 10% threshold.
The rest of the industry moved in the opposite direction. Global shipments fell 4.9% year over year to 68.2 million units, ending nine consecutive quarters of growth. A separate Omdia estimate placed the decline at 3.6% and Apple growth at 15.9%, but both research groups identified the same pattern: the Mac gained ground while established Windows PC vendors contracted or remained flat.
IDC directly connected the Apple increase with the arrival of its lowest-priced notebook. MacBook Neo began shipping in March, giving the model its first complete quarter of retail availability between April and June.
MacBook Neo entered the market as an alternative for buyers previously priced out of the Mac lineup.
The 13-inch notebook launched at $599 with an A18 Pro chip, 8GB of unified memory, a Liquid Retina display and up to 16 hours of video playback. It also brought macOS, Apple Intelligence and integration with the iPhone ecosystem into a price range commonly occupied by mainstream Windows laptops and Chromebooks.
That positioning attracted students, families and first-time Mac customers who did not need the performance or display technology of a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro. The four-color aluminum design also gave the entry model a more recognizable identity than the older Mac notebooks that frequently remained on sale through discounts.
IDC had already identified the computer as an unusual source of strength when it revised its notebook forecast earlier in 2026. Demand exceeded initial expectations in several markets, and reported inventory shortages appeared shortly after the March launch.
The effect became much more visible in Q2. MacBook Neo was available for the entire three-month period, allowing Apple to increase production, expand retail distribution and serve customers who could not obtain the computer during its first weeks.
The entry model also widened the Mac lineup without replacing the MacBook Air. Buyers seeking more memory, faster ports, longer wireless web use or additional external-display support could continue moving toward the M5-powered Air, while the less expensive machine handled education, office work, web browsing and communication.
That separation allowed Apple to reach lower price points without reducing the value of its premium notebooks.
Apple remained the fourth-largest traditional PC vendor, but its performance contrasted sharply with the companies above it.
Lenovo retained first place with 16.6 million units and 24.4% market share. Its shipments declined 2.1% from the previous year.
HP experienced the steepest drop among the top five, falling 9% to 13 million units. Dell shipped 9.3 million computers, representing a 5% decline. Asus remained nearly flat at 5 million units, up only 0.2%.
Manufacturers outside the five largest brands collectively suffered a 10.5% contraction, indicating that weaker demand and component inflation placed even more pressure on smaller companies.
The figures measure shipments into distribution channels or directly to end users, not confirmed retail purchases by individual consumers. A manufacturer can therefore record shipment growth while some inventory remains unsold in stores or warehouses.
MacBook Neo demand appears to have been strong enough to support Apple production increases rather than simply filling channels. The company reportedly doubled its annual production target after the initial response, although later quarters will reveal how much of Q2 reflected lasting demand rather than launch-period enthusiasm.
Apple also benefits from operating at a scale that provides leverage with memory, storage and semiconductor suppliers. Smaller PC brands face greater difficulty securing components at competitive prices when shortages intensify.
The Q2 contraction arrived after manufacturers and commercial customers accelerated purchases during late 2025 and early 2026.
Buyers expected memory and storage prices to rise, encouraging some businesses to replace computers earlier than planned. Vendors also increased inventories while components remained available.
That activity supported nine quarters of market growth but borrowed demand from later periods. Once the early purchases were completed, the industry faced a more difficult combination of expensive components, cautious consumers and elevated retail prices.
The memory shortage is closely connected to the AI infrastructure boom. Chipmakers are dedicating more production capacity to high-bandwidth memory used by data center accelerators, limiting the supply of conventional DRAM needed for personal computers.
IDC expects little relief before the end of 2027 or early 2028. The research company forecasts an 11.3% decline in worldwide PC shipments across 2026, with the fourth quarter potentially falling 20% from the previous year.
Computer revenue may not decline at the same pace. Manufacturers have raised prices faster than shipments have fallen, allowing them to collect more money from fewer units.
That strategy creates another problem. Retailers and distributors can become trapped with expensive inventory if customers refuse the new prices, forcing promotions or production reductions later.
MacBook Neo initially softened that pressure by giving Apple a new product near the bottom of the notebook market. Its original $599 price made the Mac competitive with midrange Windows machines at the moment many rivals were becoming more expensive.
The strongest Q2 MacBook Neo shipments were recorded while most customers could still buy the computer at its introductory price.
Apple raised the U.S. starting price to $699 in late June as memory and storage costs affected the Mac and iPad lineups. The education price remained at $599, preserving the original offer for eligible students and educators.
A $100 increase changes the comparison with discounted Windows notebooks and places the entry model closer to older MacBook Air configurations available through third-party retailers.
Apple must now determine whether the appeal came primarily from the low launch price or from the combination of macOS, battery life, design and iPhone integration.
The company remains better positioned than many rivals to absorb supply disruption, negotiate long-term component agreements and promote several notebooks at different prices. MacBook Neo also uses an iPhone-class A18 Pro processor rather than an M-series chip, providing another way to manage silicon costs and production capacity.
IDC expects the full PC market to deteriorate during the second half of 2026. Apple will enter that period with almost 10% worldwide share, but the September quarter will be the first to measure MacBook Neo demand almost entirely at the higher $699 retail price.
The post MacBook Neo Defies the Global PC Slump appeared first on AppleMagazine.
San Diego Comic-Con has kicked off strong, and we've got a couple of new trailers to show for it: the final trailer for Coyote vs. Acme, and the full trailer for director Zach Cregger's fresh take on Resident Evil. Some lucky folks were also treated to a screening of Resident Evil's first 18 minutes.
We were thrilled when the first trailer for Coyote vs. Acme dropped in April. The film had been shelved for years and is finally getting the broad theatrical release it deserves thanks to Ketchup Entertainment, which acquired it from Warner Bros. The concept alone is sheer brilliance: Wile E. Coyote, after decades of ACME equipment failing him in his efforts to catch that darned Road Runner, decides to sue the corporation. It’s based on a well-known satirical piece by Ian Frazier (also titled “Coyote vs. Acme”) published in The New Yorker in 1990.
Per the official premise:
© Ketchup Entertainment
Apple has rolled out its official 2026 sales tax holiday guide, giving shoppers in select U.S. states a timely opportunity to purchase popular products like Macs, iPads, iPhones, and accessories without paying state sales tax. The promotions vary widely by state in terms of dates, eligible items, and spending caps, so timing and research are key to maximizing savings.
When the Tax Holidays Hit
The savings windows open soon and stretch through mid-August:
• Alabama: July 17–19 (with a $1,173 total limit; local taxes may still apply)
• Florida: July 20–August 20 (the longest period, with a $1,500 cap per computer or accessory)
• New Mexico & Tennessee: July 31–August 2
• West Virginia: July 31–August 3
• Arkansas: August 1–2
• Missouri, South Carolina & Virginia: August 7–9
• Massachusetts: August 8–9
Purchases can be made online through Apple or in physical stores, though tax relief may appear on the final receipt rather than at checkout.
What Qualifies Where?
Eligibility rules differ significantly, creating big opportunities in some states and more limited ones in others:
• Arkansas stands out with the most generous terms: nearly all Apple products—including Macs, iPads, iPhones, Apple Vision Pro, printers, and many accessories—qualify with no price limit.
• Massachusetts allows most individual items up to $2,500 each, and you can buy multiple qualifying items in one transaction.
• Florida and Missouri cap computers and accessories at $1,500 per item.
• Tennessee applies a $1,500 limit to the combined total of a computer plus eligible accessories.
• New Mexico sets lower thresholds: $1,000 for computers and $500 for related hardware.
• West Virginia restricts savings to iPads priced at $500 or less.
• Virginia is the most limited, covering only cell phone chargers and batteries up to $60.
• Alabama has its $1,173 overall cap.
Some states also tie accessory eligibility to purchasing a main device or require school-related use, so checking Apple’s state-specific details is essential.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s tax holiday page provides full breakdowns and qualifying product lists to help customers plan ahead. Whether you’re eyeing a new MacBook for work, an iPad for school, or everyday accessories, these limited-time windows could deliver meaningful discounts depending on your state.
Shoppers should act within their state’s dates and review the fine print to ensure their intended purchases qualify. For the complete list and terms, visit Apple’s dedicated 2026 Tax Holiday page here.
Please help support MacDailyNews — and enjoy subscriber-only articles, comments, chat, and more — by subscribing to our Substack: macdailynews.substack.com. Thank you!
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The post Apple spotlights 2026 sales tax holidays: Save big on Macs, iPhones, iPads, and more across 10 U.S. states appeared first on MacDailyNews.
The Spanish-language broadcaster has won over millions of US viewers with its energetic commentary during games
Soccer fans looking to watch the 2026 World Cup on US television have been presented with two very different options this tournament.
The first is Fox Sports, a cousin of Fox News owned by the same parent company and the sole network airing matches in English in the US. Audiences tuning in to Fox, which acquired the exclusive English broadcast rights in 2015, are met with coverage that reflects the network’s “America first” aesthetic, with promos for pro-Donald Trump talkshows, advertising breaks during games and the frequent, grating presence of host Alexi Lalas.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Sarah Yenesel/EPA
© Photograph: Sarah Yenesel/EPA
© Photograph: Sarah Yenesel/EPA
Adam Engst at TidBITS took the time to extract every item on the WWDC 2026 keynote slide that captured our attention last week. Even better, Adam grouped the changes into operating systems, apps, and other categories. While the 27 OSes dominate the list with improvements and revisions, you can also note how many changes Apple is making to Photos and Shared Albums, Find My, Music, and a number of other across-the-ecosystem tools.
Then Marcin Wichary used Adam’s post to slice the data in a different way, counting the number of times the slide used words like fast (59 times) and reliable (22 times). Marcin reasonably argues that speed is the easier problem to attack, while reliability is fuzzier and much harder to pin down.
Apple’s pattern of updates is often described as two beats, maybe like the lub-dub sound of your heart: a year of big changes, followed by a year of tweaks that feature just a couple of marquee improvements.1 The 27 series of operating systems marks a big dub year, but there’s a backbeat to the rhythm, too, as Apple retreats from what most of us believe were overreaches in the interface department.
Liquid Glass was not beloved. I didn’t mind it so much on the Mac, and I found some iPhone and iPad improvements worthwhile, and the rest tolerable. Some people hated it. John Gruber notably decided to hold off on updating his primary Mac to Tahoe. Apple ironically highlighted a slider in its WWDC keynote that one could describe as “mostly forget about Liquid Glass,” with an option from “full-on, nobody wanted this” to “as close to zero as we can go without breaking the interface.” Good.
Stacey Ford, Apple’s Vice President of OS Program Management, called out a broad mandate in the keynote. “We scoured every part of the OS for opportunities to refine our systems from the UI to the foundations,” she said. “Nothing was off limits, no enhancement too small.” In other words, there are no sacred cows leftover from the design team that left, and maybe Ford and her group hate the same things that we do, and they’ve been given the authority to fix them.
Maybe as a consequence, Liquid Glass will improve legibility through several changes, which you’ll see even with the slider set to zero. The layers of Liquid Glass elements will now be rendered so that the diffusion of the underlying material won’t interfere as much with legibility. When content moves beneath a floating bar, the bar will now—shocking!—float on top and increase contrast to keep its contents comprehensible, too. Edges will now be darker, and icons sharper.
Gruber despised a secondary macOS change perhaps as much as Liquid Glass: the tiny icons on drop-down menus that were unhelpful, patronizing, and inconsistent across apps. Those are effectively gone now, with new guidance from Apple that is nearly contemptuous of the one-year glitch in the approach.
A lot of digital ink was also spilled about corner radii, dragging, and consistency with macOS 26. So much so that Apple’s Shubham Kedia—Director, Human Interface—said in the keynote this remarkable phrase: “…every window on macOS now has the same tighter corner radius ensuring greater consistency across all of your apps, even if they haven’t been updated.” It’s the weirdest time in the company’s history that an Apple leader had to utter those words, but there you go, and there was mostly rejoicing. The lower-right-corner drag area appears fixed, too, in my testing with the first beta.
Tahoe’s other missteps that will be drawn back to the norm include ending the weirdly inset sidebars, such as in Photos, which now extend to the edges; the mouse-over hand cursor has mostly reverted to pre-Tahoe format, with slightly different finger positions, and indications that it’s a Mickey Mouse-style glove; and even the default wallpaper has rolled backwards, with iOS, iPadOS, and macOS all having access to the same set, if that’s the kind of thing you like.
More generally, I heard grumblings and read long essays about the instability people experienced with Tahoe, and still do, even though we’re at version 26.5. Often, the “tweak” year involves thousands of under-the-hood fixes. Apple was more frank about making things better this year than it has been since, I want to say, the year after Yosemite.2 It would be like Microsoft making fun of blue screens of death.
Apple’s Ford said, “We made things faster, smoother, even easier to use, and we took care of a bunch of things you’ve been asking about.” She later described speed improvements in iOS and iPadOS app launch times, a fix for a long-running Wi-Fi/cellular poor handoff issue, a complete overhaul of Spotlight, and much more. She noted, “We’ve all had that moment where you search for something you know is there, but it just won’t show up. So on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, we’ve rebuilt the foundation of search that powers Spotlight, Photos, and Mail.” That is a heck of an admission of the truth we experience day to day—almost un-Apple-like.
There’s more I won’t enumerate in detail, such as the “OS improvements” section that appears on Apple’s sites for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, in which Apple confesses to imperfections and proclaims it has solved them. Because all iPhones, most iPads,3 a few Apple Watches,4 and all M-series Macs (but no Intel Macs) that could run version 26 can run 27, no harm, no foul, right? Just took a year.
These rollbacks and improvements may finally push people like Gruber to, er, cross the Golden Gate in a way that they could never bring themselves to plunge into the imperfect, quirky, and irritating waters of Tahoe. Because of how Apple pushes users to upgrade, I expect that iPhone and iPad users may find more relief, as they’re running the current release!
My summer’s work will include a lot of reading to write updates for around 10 Take Control Books titles. I’ll also be working to keep a new micro-site, currently called Apple Specs, up to date, where you can look up operating system and hardware features to figure out which devices and releases support them. I welcome feedback via a link on each page of the site.
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