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Currently hosted on Kickstarter is a Raspberry Pi project called CrowPi2; a device its creator describes as a “STEAM Education platform and Raspberry Pi laptop” (sic). With 50 days to go at the time of writing, it has achieved more than $150,000 in pledged donation from 580 backers.

The project, created by Elecrow, aims to deliver a working product by August 2020 with the basic kit costing about $170 (circa £140/AU$250), and with various optional extras capable of almost doubling the price. Surprisingly, the most expensive bundle (the Advanced Kit) is also by far the most popular.

Available in three color schemes, the CrowPi2 laptop is a surprisingly well designed product – at least on paper. It also has a 2-megapixel front-facing camera, which is superior to models than feature in more expensive laptops like the Dell XPS 13 or the Apple MacBook Pro 16, both of which sport a 720p HD webcam.

Raspberry Pi powered

The CrowPi2 has an 11.6-inch full HD IPS display and its removable keyboard hides a myriad of nifty features, like a customized design bin (we call it a secret compartment) for components or a power bank/laptop battery charger.

The most basic kit comes with a RFID card + tag, 9G servo, stepper motor, IR receiver and remote controller, moisture sensor, DC motor with mini fan, micro HDMI and a full sized HDMI connector.

There’s also a card reader, 32GB SD card preloaded with an OS, pack of components and – because the $100,000 goal was reached – an earphone with microphone.

Note, it doesn’t come with a Raspberry Pi module (you have to provide your own) but it is compatible with a wide range of operating systems; Windows 10 IOT, CenOS, KALI, FreeBSD, Ubuntu, Raspbian etc.

Amazon is currently offering the Apple’s 16-inch MacBook Pro Core i9 2.3GHz/16GB/1TB for $2,499 shipped in both Space Gray and Silver. Also available for the same pice at B&H. Saving you $300 compared to the going rate, today’s offer matches our previous mention for the Amazon low. Centered around Apple’s refreshed Magic keyboard and a larger Retina display, the 16-inch MacBook Pro comes outfitted with 1TB of SSD storage and 16GB of RAM, as well as an enhanced AMD Radeon Pro GPU. As accustomed for the Pro line these days, you’ll find four Thunderbolt 3 ports plus the Touch Bar, which has been upgraded this time around to add physical escape and power buttons. Check out our hands-on review for additional details. Head below for more.

Use some of your savings to outfit your new MacBook Pro in Apple’s official 16-inch Leather Sleeve. It’s comprised of high-quality European Leather and filled with an interior soft microfiber lining for keeping your machine protected on-the-go. Dive into our hands-on review for a closer look.

Be sure to swing by our Apple guide for even more discounts including deals on HomePod, the 2018 Mac mini, and more.

Apple 16-inch MacBook Pro features:

The Apple 16″ MacBook Pro features a 16″ Retina Display, a Magic Keyboard with a redesigned scissor mechanism, a six-speaker high-fidelity sound system, and an advanced thermal design. This MacBook Pro also features an AMD Radeon Pro 5500M graphics card, a 7nm mobile discrete GPU designed for pro users. With 4GB of GDDR6 VRAM, pro users will be able to tackle GPU-intensive tasks with this MacBook Pro.

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Apple recently announced that it would be eventually transitioning the entire product lineup to ARM right from the iPhone all the way to the Mac Pro. Since then, the internet has been abuzz with the kind of interoperability benefits that this unified architecture model would entail. Apple has been able to somewhat bridge the gap between iPad OS and Mac via Catalyst, but what if there is just a single codebase that can adapt according to the usage scenario? 

According to known leaker Mauri QHD, Apple is working on a prototype iPhone running macOS that will offer Project Linda/Samsung Dex-like functionality. Mauri QHD seems to be pretty confident about this insider info and is sure that Apple would choose either of the implementation for the final product, which apparently is not too far away.

While we have no way of verifying this particular info, come to think of it, an iPhone running full-fledged macOS is not a far-fetched concept anymore assuming that Apple is also trying to make macOS touch-friendly. That being said, this is not be first of its kind. There have been several attempts to provide a seamless transition between mobile and laptop/desktop experiences  but none have been really successful so far. 

Windows 10 Mobile offered the Continuum feature wherein a compatible phone such as the HP Elite x3 can connect wirelessly or via USB-C to a monitor, keyboard, and mouse and run supported UWP apps on a larger canvas. However, Continuum was just a glorified phone screen and though the desktop looked familiar, it’s functionality was far from it. Eventually, Microsoft pulled the plug on Windows 10 Mobile and shifted focus to porting Windows 10 for ARM processors.

Samsung has been offering DeX Mode on Galaxy devices for quite some time now, and it has become quite feature-rich over time including the ability to now run as an app within Windows or macOS. DeX, though very useful, does suffer from several limitations such as not all apps scaling properly to bigger screens, no real multi-tasking, and the inability to run heavier apps. 

Samsung DeX does support VMware and also briefly offered Linux on DeX, which allowed users to download and run a full Ubuntu distro from within DeX. Though Linux on DeX seemed fairly capable, Samsung terminated its development citing incompatibility with One UI 2.0 and a general lack of developer interest. 

Razer too showed off its Project Linda prototype at CES 2018 that essentially allowed users to dock-in a Razer Phone into a Blade Stealth-like laptop chassis and enjoy a bigger screen Android experience. 

Apple is known for letting technologies mature and the company takes its own time to perfect things. If Apple is indeed working on porting macOS to the iPhone, we may see, for perhaps the first time, a seamless transition between mobile and desktop. Just dock the iPhone to a display and behold, a fully functional macOS desktop without too much of a compromise. 

Of course, this feature may not appear on the upcoming iPhone 12 or even the one after that. That being said, Apple’s SoCs are among the fastest out there and by the time this project comes to fruition, we would be seeing very capable Apple Silicon that can easily take on some of the 15W processors of today. Apple would also have to develop frameworks that allow apps to utilize the capabilities of both macOS and iOS/iPad OS in a way that would efficiently blur the line between devices.

While it is only natural that Apple would look towards eventually developing this synergy between mobile and desktop, this particular news still needs to be taken with a pinch of the proverbial salt. 

13-inch 2020 MacBook Pro. At the very least, you might want to put your MacBook purchase on hold.

Credit: Apple

This week Apple killed the MacBook until further notice.

Apple couched it as a “transition” away from Intel but the net effect is the same: any Intel-based MacBook Pro or MacBook Air you buy from here on out is ultimately dead in the water.

Here’s some simple advice: don’t buy a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro.

People who know a lot about Mac hardware are offering that advice too.

PC World Executive Editor Gordon Mah Ung offered similar guidance this week: “Why Apple’s move from Intel to ARM means we should stop buying Macs”

As did others, including: You shouldn’t buy a new Mac right now (MacWorld).

Here’s what Ung said.

“There’s a practical, real reason why you shouldn’t drop $1,500 or $4,500 on a new Mac: You’ll be abandoned.” —PC World, June 22, 2020

I would offer this as a rough analogy: would you buy a Windows phone? Yeah, it’ll work and run some apps but it’s a dead platform — and good luck getting any support. That kind of scenario may be in the not-too-distant-future for Intel-based Macs.

I asked PC World’s Ung about Apple’s transition to its A Series processors.

“I would be concerned that longer term—even if Apple doesn’t dump Intel-based Macs overboard as quickly as it did PowerPC Macs—optimizations won’t flow as fast since it will be a legacy platform,” he told me in an email.

That bothers me too. There is little incentive for Apple to optimize going forward, i.e., less need to ensure Intel processors run smoothly, efficiently on macOS.

If I bought*, for instance, a 2020 13-inch MacBook Pro, there would always be that nagging feeling that a glitch or overheating or slow performance or buggy software would be due to a lack of support and/or focus from Apple.

I could wrong. But, then again, I could be right. That doubt alone kills the deal.

Barring unexpected snafus in the transition of the Mac to Apple’s processors, buying an Intel-based MacBook doesn’t make any sense.

“Intel Macs will soon be those curiosities sitting at the corner Mac Repair shop yellowing in the sun with the PowerPC macs,” Ung told me.

——

*Until Apple’s announcement, I was planning to buy the high-end 2020 Core i7 MacBook Pro 13. I’ll wait for the ARM Macs.