418 - Apple's Neo Boom, Vision Pro Updates & Router Ban Confusion

Apple's MacBook Neo has ignited a tech revolution, with production ramped to 10 million units amid unprecedented demand—more than double initial projections. This surge is driven not just by the device's performance, which rivals the iPhone 17 Pro Max in single-core benchmarks, but by a broader AI boom, as consumers and enterprises alike snap up Mac Minis and Neos for local AI model training. Meanwhile, Apple's Vision Pro ecosystem faces a tragic setback: Clara Lomas, a pioneering paraplegic adventurer, died in a fatal plane crash during filming for an Apple Immersive Video series, raising questions about safety in high-risk content creation. On the software front, Apple's 26.5 beta introduces subtle but significant shifts—Suggested Places in Maps, E2EE testing for RCS, and third-party wearable integration—hinting at a deeper AI-driven personalization strategy. In a bizarre policy twist, the FCC's router ban, which exempts Netgear while targeting Chinese manufacturers like TP-Link, has been widely criticized as arbitrary and ineffective, with experts calling it political theater. Yet, the real story may be Google's sudden release of a native Gemini app for Mac, signaling a new arms race to dominate AI on desktops. Finally, a shocking exploit revealed that attackers could steal $10,000 from a locked iPhone using a Visa transit payment loophole—proving that even Apple's security isn't immune to real-world physical attacks.