MacRumors

In a support document published today, Apple said certain SATA hard drives might unexpectedly disconnect from the 2023 Mac Pro after the computer wakes from sleep. Apple said it is "aware of this issue" and will fix it in a "future macOS update."

While the Mac Pro is configured with SSD storage, it has SATA ports for connecting internal hard drives, and some can disconnect due to a bug.

"Certain models of internal SATA drives might unexpectedly disconnect from your computer after your Mac wakes from sleep," said Apple. "This can occur if your Mac automatically goes to sleep or if you manually put your Mac to sleep. If you see a message that your disk was not ejected properly, you can restart your Mac to reconnect to the drive."

As a temporary workaround, users can prevent their Mac Pro from automatically going to sleep by opening the System Settings app, clicking on Displays → Advanced…, and turning on "Prevent automatic sleeping when the display is off."

Released on Tuesday, the new Mac Pro features Apple's M2 Ultra chip. The desktop tower has the same design as the Intel-based model from 2019, but lacks graphics card support and user-upgradeable RAM due to Apple silicon's unified architecture. Customers who do not need PCIe expansion should consider the Mac Studio instead.

Starting August 15, the Apple Card Monthly Installments term for new Apple Watch purchases will change from 24 months to 12 months, according to fine print on Apple's website. This means each payment will be higher, but the Apple Watch will be paid off faster.

In a recently updated support document, Apple also says a carrier connection with AT&T, T-Mobile, or Verizon will be required at the time you purchase an iPhone with Apple Card Monthly Installments starting August 15.

Apple Card Monthly Installments is an interest-free financing option available for most Apple products purchased with the Apple Card on Apple.com and at Apple retail stores. Customers can view their monthly installments, remaining balance, and payment history in the Wallet app, and the balance can be paid off in full at any time.

Apple offers a 24-month installment term for iPhones, a 12-month term for Macs and iPads, and a six-month term for AirPods and Apple TVs. Other eligible products and accessories are outlined in a support document on Apple's website.

(Thanks, Brandon Fawcett!)

With macOS Monterey in 2021, Apple introduced a MailKit framework that developers can use to build modern and secure extensions for the Mail app on the Mac. Extensions can be created to block content, perform message actions, improve security, and more.

In turn, Apple said legacy Mail app plug-ins would stop functioning in a future macOS release, and it appears that time has now come. AltStore today said it confirmed with Apple during WWDC last week that plug-ins are not supported on macOS Sonoma, and that MailKit-based extensions are the only supported solution going forward.

While MailKit extensions are more secure, they have more limited functionality compared to legacy plug-ins, so not all plug-ins may live on as extensions.

Legacy plug-ins cannot be opened in the Mail app as of the first beta version of macOS Sonoma. The update will be released to the public later this year.

(Thanks, @aaronp613!)

Luxury company LVMH today announced that Tap to Pay on iPhone will be available at select Sephora, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co., Celine, and Dior stores in the U.S. later this year. The feature will allow customers to tap their iPhone or Apple Watch, credit card, or other contactless payment option on the store employee's iPhone, and the payment will be securely completed using the same NFC technology behind Apple Pay.

Launched in 2022, Tap to Pay on iPhone allows for iPhone-to-iPhone contactless payments, with no additional point-of-sale hardware from companies like Square or Clover required. The feature is also available in Australia and Taiwan.

LVMH said offering Tap to Pay on iPhone is part of its efforts to ensure that the "customer experience is absolutely impeccable, from the moment people walk in the door to payment for a purchase," and reflects growing demand for contactless payments. LVMH said the feature will be available for purchases of any amount.

Any business can offer Tap to Pay on iPhone via supported iOS apps like Shopify Point of Sale on an iPhone XS or newer running iOS 15.4 or newer.

British mobile phone operators Vodafone and Three UK have agreed a deal to merge their UK-based operations, which if approved by regulators will make it the biggest mobile network in the country.

Currently the biggest players in the UK mobile market are Virgin Media O2, with around 24 million customers, and EE, which has 20 million users.

Vodafone and Three UK are the third and fourth largest mobile firms, but the merger will give them around 27 million customers, taking their combined market share past Virgin Media O2's.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will now examine the merger, specifically to look at whether it will push up customer prices.

Vodafone and Three claimed the deal will be "great for customers, great for the country, great for competition," but the CMA may not see it that way.

The same competition watchdog in May blocked UK approval for Microsoft's proposed $69 billion takeover of Activision Blizzard.

Speaking to the BBC News, Karen Egan, head of mobile at research firm Enders Analysis, said similar deals in other countries had not led to price hikes, but added that "CMA's hawkish approach to mergers of late is not encouraging."

The Unite union, which represents Vodafone and Three workers, disagreed, saying that the deal was "reckless" and would "hike people's bills and mean job losses."

Vodafone has already set out plans to cut 11,000 jobs, with CEO and CFO Margherita Della Valle admitting in May that its "performance has not been good enough." Both companies have since indicated additional job cuts within five years if the merger is approved.

Amazon has a collection of AirPods discounts today, including savings on the AirPods Pro 2, AirPods 3, and AirPods 2. Across the board, these are some of the best prices of the year so far on each AirPods model, and Amazon has all three in stock and ready to ship today.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Verizon and Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

You can get the AirPods Pro 2 for $199.99, down from $249.00. We very briefly saw a discount on this model to $194.99 back in March, but this rare deal never emerged again and today's deal remains a great second-best price.

Additionally, Amazon has a deal on one of the AirPods 3 models. You can get the AirPods 3 with Lightning Charging Case for $149.00, down from $169.00. This is about $10 off from the all-time low price on this model of the AirPods 3, but we haven't tracked that price in months and Amazon's deal is a solid second-best option.

Lastly, Amazon has the AirPods 2 for $99.00, down from $129.00. Although this is an overall second-best price, we haven't seen an all-time low price on the AirPods 2 since the holiday season, making this the best price of the year so far on the model. It's being matched at Verizon.

We track sales for every model of the AirPods in our Best AirPods Deals guide, so be sure to bookmark that page while you shop around for the wireless headphones. Keep up with all of this week's best discounts on Apple products and related accessories in our dedicated Apple Deals roundup.

Best Buy today announced it has expanded its Upgrade+ program to include the iPad Pro and Apple Watch Ultra. Launched in October in partnership with Apple, the program provides monthly financing via Citizens Bank for select Apple products purchased from Best Buy in the U.S., similar to Apple's iPhone Upgrade Program. APRs range from 0% to 29.99% based on creditworthiness, according to the program's fine print.

The program is also available for the latest models of the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac Studio, and Mac mini, including the new 15-inch MacBook Air.

The monthly payments are spread across three years. After 36 months, customers who purchase an eligible iPad Pro, Apple Watch Ultra, or Mac have the options of upgrading to a newer device, paying off the remaining balance of the purchase in the 37th month and keeping the device, or returning the device and leaving the program.

Upgrade+ also offers customers the option to finance the purchase of an AppleCare+ plan for their Apple device and select Apple accessories. Best Buy Totaltech members who purchase an iPad Pro or Apple Watch Ultra through the program will receive AppleCare+ at no additional charge for up to 24 months while their membership is active.

More details about the Upgrade+ program are available on Best Buy's website.

In macOS Sonoma, currently in beta, you can create individual web apps for any website that you frequent in Safari, and have them sit beside other apps in your Dock. Let's take a closer look at how it all works by turning MacRumors.com into a virtual Mac app as an example.

In macOS Sonoma, any website viewed in Safari can be turned into a web app, thanks to a new "Add to Dock" option in the File menu. In other words, no work is required on the part of web developers to make a site web app compatible, although there are some elements of web apps that developers can have control over (see below).

How to Turn MacRumors into a Web App

1. In macOS Sonoma developer beta, navigate to MacRumors.com in Safari.
2. Choose File -> Add to Dock in the menu bar.
3. If you want, you can change the MacRumors icon by clicking it in the Add to Dock window. You can also edit the web app's name using the title field – "MacRumors" is more succinct, for example.
4. Click the blue Add button.

You will now see the MacRumors web app sitting in your Dock, ready for use independently of Safari. The web app works with Mission Control and Stage Manager just like any app, and can also be opened via Launchpad or Spotlight Search.

On opening the web app, you'll notice its window includes a simplified toolbar with navigation buttons (note: Website developers can control whether these are shown). As you can see in the image, the MacRumors theme color for the site blends into the toolbar for a more seamless look.

In terms of navigation, the scope of the web app is dictated by the host of the webpage – in this case www.macrumors.com – so you can navigate anywhere within the MacRumors website, but if you click a link outside of the host page, such as the MacRumors Forums, which is separately hosted at forums.macrumors.com, this will open the linked webpage in Safari. Therefore, if you are a frequenter of both the MacRumors website and the MacRumors Forums, you should create separate web apps for each.

Web developers have the ability to refine the scope of a web app to a specific path on their site if they wish. For example, MacRumors could theoretically provide a facility to make web apps dedicated to navigating only how-to articles or guides. This is something MacRumors may implement in the future.

Website Logins and Notifications

By default, Safari copies a website's cookies to its web app. So if you create a MacRumors Forums web app and you were logged into your account at the time, you will remain logged in inside the web app. Even if you weren't logged in, you can do so within the web app with minimal effort, since Apple has integrated support for Password and Passkey AutoFill.

If a website already supports web push notifications – as MacRumors does – and you have signed up to them, you will receive web app push notifications that display the corresponding MacRumors icon, giving you more context than a standard Safari notification and icon would.

The web app icon in the Dock will also show a badge when a notification is received. Web app notifications are silent by default, although developers can change them to play a sound. However, the end decision over sound and icon badges is left to the user in System Settings -> Notifications.

Web apps also respect Focus modes, so you can include or exclude them from allowed notifications based on what you're doing. Lastly, with privacy in mind, Apple has added options to control web apps' access to camera, microphone, and location in System Settings -> Privacy & Security, just like for native apps.

For those who wish to delve further into macOS Sonoma, it is currently available to download as a developer beta, although caution is warranted, as beta versions can be unstable and buggy. For those willing to wait, the official public release is expected to land in the fall.

In a pair of support documents, Apple has listed various external display combinations that can be used with the new Mac Studio and Mac Pro. For example, both Macs support up to eight 4K displays at 60Hz when configured with the M2 Ultra chip.

The new Mac Studio has an HDMI 2.1 port, and the new Mac Pro has two. These ports each support an 8K display at 60Hz, or a 4K display at 240Hz. Apple says the M2 Ultra chip also supports up to six Pro Display XDRs.

The previous Mac Studio supported up to five external displays when configured with the M1 Ultra chip, so the new model supporting up to eight is a considerable improvement. Apple silicon has come a long way in this area since the first Macs with the M1 chip were released in 2020 with native support for only a single external display.

Apple has also published support documents explaining how to install PCIe cards in the Mac Pro and listing compatible types of PCIe cards. Unlike the Intel-based Mac Pro, the new model does not support graphics cards due to Apple silicon's unified architecture.

The new Mac Studio and Mac Pro launched today after pre-orders began last week.

It's been just over a week since Apple introduced a whole line of new Macs at WWDC, including a new 15-inch MacBook Air. We picked up Apple's latest notebook and thought we'd check it out for MacRumors readers who are curious whether it's worth picking up over the 13-inch version of a MacBook Pro.

Apple hasn't offered the ‌MacBook Air‌ in two sizes since the 11-inch ‌MacBook Air‌ was discontinued in 2016. The 13-inch ‌MacBook Air‌ was the sole model until the June introduction of the larger 15-inch option, but with this change, the ‌MacBook Air‌ line is more on par with the ‌MacBook Pro‌ line as there are two sizes for customers to choose from.

Design wise, the 15-inch ‌MacBook Air‌ looks identical to the 13.6-inch ‌MacBook Air‌ that was released last year, with the exception of the larger display and larger chassis size. The 2022 design works well on a 15-inch machine, and the 15-inch ‌MacBook Air‌ is sleek, thin, and pleasant to use.

The 15-inch model features a 2888 x 1864 resolution with 224 pixels per inch, which is the same pixels per inch you get with the 13-inch ‌MacBook Air‌. It's also 500 nits brightness and doesn't have the ProMotion technology that Apple continues to reserve for the ‌MacBook Pro‌ line.

In addition to using the same design as the 13.6-inch ‌MacBook Air‌, the 15-inch model also has the same chip inside. It's equipped with the M2 chip that Apple introduced last year, so it's already just a bit outdated. The ‌M2‌ chip is speedy enough with an 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU, and 8GB memory for the base model, but we may see notable gains with the future M3 chip, for those who want to wait for newer chip technology.

A bigger body allows for a bigger battery in the 15-inch ‌MacBook Air‌, but unfortunately battery life is still at 18 hours because of the power usage of the larger display.

For those who don't need the power of a ‌MacBook Pro‌ but appreciate a larger screen size, the 15-inch ‌MacBook Air‌ is the perfect machine. It's cheaper than a ‌MacBook Pro‌ at a $1,299 starting price, and a solid alternative to the 13-inch model.

If you have any kind of recent ‌MacBook Air‌ or ‌MacBook Pro‌, it's probably not worth updating at this point, but if you have an older Intel Mac or need to get a new notebook, the 15-inch ‌MacBook Air‌ is worth considering if larger display size is a feature you're looking for.

As expected, the 15-inch MacBook Air with 256GB of storage is equipped with a single NAND chip, according to YouTube channel Max Tech. This will result in the 256GB model having slower SSD read and write speeds compared to 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB models that have multiple NAND chips for faster speeds, but real-world results will vary.

256GB models of the latest 13-inch MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini also have a single NAND chip, with benchmark results showing a 30% to 50% reduction in SSD speeds compared to previous-generation models. Apple previously used two 128GB chips for 256GB Macs, but it switched to a single 256GB chip for newer models.

Slower SSD speeds can impact tasks such as transferring files to an external drive, and overall system performance can take a slight hit during heavy workloads, as Macs temporarily use SSD space as virtual memory when physical RAM is fully used. However, the average customer purchasing an entry-level 15-inch MacBook Air is unlikely to notice the slower speeds. Customers who need the fastest speeds should configure their 15-inch MacBook Air with at least 512GB of storage, which is a $200 upgrade over the 256GB model.

The 15-inch MacBook Air launched today after orders began last week. The laptop has the same M2 chip and overall design as the 13-inch model, with key new features including a larger display and two additional speakers. Pricing for the 15-inch model starts at $1,299, while the 13-inch model now starts at a lower $1,099.

Tech accessory company Rolling Square is winding down a successful Kickstarter campaign for AirCard, an innovative Find My-enabled digital business card, with over $700,000 raised so far. Similar to a few other Find My trackers like the Eufy SmartTrack Card, Rolling Square's AirCard is a thin card-sized device intended to be carried in a wallet that can leverage Apple's ‌Find My‌ network of hundreds of millions of devices to help you keep track of your wallet.

In addition to location tracking, AirCard supports other ‌Find My‌ features like left behind reminders and a 105 dB speaker that helps you narrow down its location once you're relatively close, although the Precision Finding feature of AirTags is not available to AirCard and other third-party ‌Find My‌ trackers.

An advanced lost mode for AirCard can also help reunite you with your wallet even if ‌Find My‌ fails, with a QR code on the AirCard enabling anyone who finds your wallet to scan the card to obtain your contact information.

Beyond the ‌Find My‌ features, AirCard can also serve as a digital business card via both NFC and QR code, allowing you to quickly and easily share your contact information with others, and at just 2.2 mm thick (about the thickness of 1.6 typical credit cards), it won't add much bulk to your wallet.

The main body of the card is made of CNC-machined aluminum with a panel of high-resistance tempered glass to allow for the best possible transmission of Bluetooth signals. The AirCard itself can also be used as an RFID blocker, so if you place it on the outermost side of your wallet it can help protect your other cards from being skimmed.

When it comes to battery life, Rolling Square says AirCard will last up to 30 months, but it can't be recharged. Once the battery in your card dies, Rolling Square will send you a coupon code for 50% off a new card. You can then either return the spent AirCard to Rolling Square for component reuse or keep it to continue using its digital business card and QR-code scan-to-find capabilities that don't require battery power.

The Kickstarter campaign for AirCard ends in just over a week, with shipments expected to begin in August. Early bird pricing for a single AirCard is available starting at €27 or around $30 in the U.S. plus shipping, with various multipacks available at decreasing per-unit prices.

While crowdfunded campaigns can carry some risk of commitments not being met, Rolling Square has run over a dozen campaigns via Kickstarter and Indiegogo that appear to have largely met expectations with perhaps some minor delays in shipping schedules.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Kickstarter and Rolling Square. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman on Monday told Reddit employees that he is unconcerned about current protests over the company's sudden API changes. In a letter shared by The Verge, Huffman said that while there's a "lot of noise" right now, it "will pass." He also said that Reddit "has not seen any significant revenue impact so far."

A number of community-moderated subreddits began shutting down and going private on Monday, June 12, with the blackout set to last until Wednesday, June 14 in many cases. Subreddits with millions of subscribers are participating in the protest. Going private means that no new posts are able to be submitted to a given subreddit, and in some cases, the content from the subreddit is not viewable at all.

Huffman's full letter is below:

Starting last night, about a thousand subreddits have gone private. We do anticipate many of them will come back by Wednesday, as many have said as much. While we knew this was coming, it is a challenge nevertheless and we have our work cut out for us. A number of Snoos have been working around the clock, adapting to infrastructure strains, engaging with communities, and responding to the myriad of issues related to this blackout. Thank you, team.

We have not seen any significant revenue impact so far and we will continue to monitor.

There's a lot of noise with this one. Among the noisiest we've seen. Please know that our teams are on it, and like all blowups on Reddit, this one will pass as well. The most important things we can do right now are stay focused, adapt to challenges, and keep moving forward. We absolutely must ship what we said we would. The only long term solution is improving our product, and in the short term we have a few upcoming critical mod tool launches we need to nail.

While the two biggest third-party apps, Apollo and RIF, along with a couple others, have said they plan to shut down at the end of the month, we are still in conversation with some of the others. And as I mentioned in my post last week, we will exempt accessibility-focused apps and so far have agreements with RedReader and Dystopia.

I am sorry to say this, but please be mindful of wearing Reddit gear in public. Some folks are really upset, and we don't want you to be the object of their frustrations.

Again, we'll get through it. Thank you to all of you for helping us do so.

While the protest was only meant to last for a couple of days, Huffman's callous response to user and moderator concerns could potentially escalate the situation. Some subreddits have already pledged to remain inaccessible until Reddit makes a meaningful change. Popular Apple-related subreddit r/Apple, for example, has decided to remain closed indefinitely.

The blackouts are in support of third-party Reddit app Apollo and other third-party apps, some of which will soon be forced offline by the amount of money that Reddit wants to charge for API access and the limited mount of time that developers have to make changes before accruing fees.

Apollo developer Christian Selig said that his app would cost $20 million per year, which is why he made the decision to shut it down on June 30. Apollo and other third-party apps offer a range of features that are not available through the subpar official Reddit app.

Reddit does not offer a similar app experience for users or for moderators, who also use Apollo as a moderation tool. Subreddit moderators work for free, overseeing their respective communities with no compensation. Moderators have expressed growing frustration at the lack of tools provided to them by Reddit, and have said that the loss of Apollo will make their work harder.

Huffman has refused to back down on the API pricing changes or the implementation timeline, and he has also maligned Selig multiple times, lying about the interactions that Reddit had with Apollo despite documentation provided by Selig.

As of right now, more than 8,000 subreddits with millions of Reddit users have gone dark.

Anker continues to offer steep discounts on its Eufy-branded Bluetooth trackers, portable power stations, MagSafe-compatible charging solutions, and more. All of these deals can be found on Amazon this week, and many of them will require you to clip an on-page coupon in order to see the discounts at the checkout screen.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

A highlight of the sale is Eufy's SmartTrack line of Bluetooth trackers with 1-Pack, 2-Pack, and 4-Pack options for non-Prime members. If you're a Prime member, you can get a SmartTrack Card for $19.99. These trackers work with Apple's Find My app and are perfect for keeping track of luggage and other necessities while traveling.

Another notable discount is on the PowerHouse 757 Portable Power Station, which is available for $899.99, down from $1,399.00. This is $50 lower than the deal price we tracked last month, and a new best-ever price on this accessory. The Power Station features a 1229Wh capacity and 1500 wattage, with six AC outlets, four USB-A ports, and two USB-C ports.

Bluetooth Trackers

• SmartTrack Link (1-Pack) - $13.99, down from $19.99
• SmartTrack Card - $19.99 for Prime members, down from $29.99
• SmartTrack Link (2-Pack) - $27.99 with on-page coupon, down from $35.99
• SmartTrack Link (4-Pack) - $54.99 with on-page coupon, down from $69.99

Cables and Wall Chargers

• USB-C to USB-C Cable (6ft 2-Pack) - $10.99 for Prime members, down from $16.99
• 100W USB-C Power Adapter (2-Port) - $39.09 with on-page coupon, down from $45.99
• Nano 65W USB-C Charger (3-Port) - $39.09 with on-page coupon, down from $55.99
• Compact Power Strip - $79.99 with on-page coupon, down from $99.99

Portable Batteries

• MagGo Battery 5,000 mAh - $29.99, down from $31.99
• PowerCore 24,000 mAh with Smart Digital Display - $119.99 with on-page coupon, down from $159.99
• PowerHouse 757 Portable Power Station - $899.99 with on-page coupon, down from $1,399.99

Hubs and Charging Stations

• 7-in-1 USB-C Power Strip - $45.99 with on-page coupon, down from $65.99
• 11-in-1 USB-C Hub - $61.29, down from $99.99
• 3-in-1 Cube with MagSafe Charging - $127.46 with on-page coupon, down from $149.95
• 3-in-1 MagSafe Station - $129.99, down from $139.99

Bluetooth Speakers

• Soundcore Motion Boom Plus - $149.99 with on-page coupon, down from $179.99

Head to our full Deals Roundup to get caught up with all of the latest deals and discounts that we've been tracking over the past week.

The first Geekbench 6 benchmark result for the new Mac Pro surfaced today, providing a closer look at the M2 Ultra chip's CPU performance in the desktop tower.

The result lists a single-core score of 2,794 and a multi-core score of 21,453, compared to 1,378 and 10,390 for the highest-end Intel-based Mac Pro with a 28-core Xeon W processor, a configuration that started at $12,999. This means the new Mac Pro is over twice as fast as the fastest Intel-based model, and given that all configurations include the M2 Ultra chip, this performance can be had for a much lower $6,999.

Unsurprisingly, these scores are virtually identical to those that surfaced for the Mac Studio with the M2 Ultra chip a few days ago. The new Mac Pro is aimed at customers who need PCI Express expansion, but anyone else should consider the Mac Studio for their desktop computer needs, as it can be configured with the M2 Ultra chip for $3,999.

The new Mac Pro has the same overall design as the 2019 model, but it no longer supports graphics cards and does not have user-upgradeable RAM due to Apple silicon's unified memory. The computer launched today following pre-orders last week.

Apple's new 15-inch MacBook Air is now available to purchase, and Amazon still has the first deal on these notebooks. You can get the 256GB model for $1,249.99 in two colors on Amazon, down from $1,299.00.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

This $49 discount is still the steepest markdown that we've seen so far on the brand new notebook. Amazon has the Silver and Midnight colors at this price, with delivery estimates between June 15 and June 19.

There's also a discount on the 512GB model, which is available for $1,449.99, down from $1,499.00 in select colors on Amazon. The Space Gray option has the same delivery dates as the 256GB models, but the Starlight color has a late June arrival date.

The new MacBook Air comes with a 15.3-inch Liquid Retina display, M2 processor, MagSafe charging, two Thunderbolt ports, a headphone jack, and more. For a full rundown on what's new in the MacBook Air, be sure to read our launch post.

Be sure to visit our full Deals Roundup to shop for even more Apple-related products and accessories.

Apple's VP of hardware engineering Kate Bergeron and marketing employee Laura Metz recently spoke with Tom's Guide's Mark Spoonauer about the design of the new 15-inch MacBook Air, including its larger display and two additional speakers.

Bergeron said the 15-inch MacBook Air having the same battery life as the 13-inch model is the result of "thermal control loops and software optimizations."

There's definitely thermal control loops and software optimizations that we use.

The workloads for a typical MacBook Air owner are fairly bursty, meaning they may do something for a few minutes and then walk away from their computer and either have a background process running that's pretty light or just doing nothing at all. And so we can go in and tweak the levers in the silicon and software to be able to take advantage of these gaps in time and really take the power down to the most minimal level.

When asked if Apple considered adding an additional USB-C port or SD card slot to the 15-inch MacBook Air, Metz said Apple believes the existing port selection is "very complimentary to the thin and light design of the product."

There aren't too many particularly revealing comments shared in the interview, but it is a worthwhile read for those interested in Apple's design considerations for the 15-inch MacBook Air. The laptop launched today following pre-orders last week.