Apple Caves: A Touchscreen Mac

Apple unveiled a touchscreen MacBook Pro, finally ditching Jobs’s stance. Then Amazon unloaded gadgets: a $500 Echo Show 16, the Echo Time alarm clock, an Alexa Photo Frame, and an Echo Studio with a camera. Not one AI story all day.

• Apple unveils a touchscreen MacBook Pro with a 14" or 16" PROLED XDR display, a light-up Apple logo, Dynamic Island, M5 Pro and M5 Max, for $2,899+ and $3,399+ (Apple)
• The new touchscreen MacBook Pro has a tandem OLED “PROLED XDR” display with up to 2,000 nits and 120Hz, a Dynamic Island, a glowing Apple logo on the lid, M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, and up to 24 hours of battery (The Verge)
• New CEO John Ternus introduced the touchscreen MacBook Pro on stage, reversing Steve Jobs’ long-held opposition to touch Macs, which Tim Cook once compared to merging a fridge and a toaster (Bloomberg)
• Amazon unveils the $500 Echo Show 16, the $200 Echo Time alarm, and the $200+ Alexa Photo Frame, raises smart speaker prices, and previews Alexa Home Map (Bloomberg)
• Panos Panay spent about 45 minutes introducing five new Echo speakers and displays, plus a “new brain” for Alexa Plus that can do “deeper research” and a Card interface that collects each chat (The Verge)
• Hands-on with the Echo Show 16: customizable Screen Styles could make it the versatile family hub Alexa users have wanted, but at double the price of the Echo Show 11 it may be too expensive (The Verge)
• Amazon debuts the Alexa Photo Frame and Echo Time smart clock, plus other upgraded devices (TechCrunch)
• The $199.99 Echo Time smart alarm has a 3.2-inch round touchscreen, a screen that dims below 0.3 nits, and opt-in sleep sensing that wakes you up to an hour early at the optimal point in your sleep cycle (The Verge)
• Amazon’s new Echo Studio speaker has a camera (The Verge)
• The $249.99 Echo Studio with Home Camera lets you ask Alexa about objects in the room, doubles as a home video feed, and handles video calls, though visual information is processed in the cloud (Gizmodo)

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