3Before9

Apple's MacBook Neo Is Real, and It's $599

Apple officially announced the MacBook Neo yesterday at its Special Experience event in New York, London and Shanghai. The name leaked a day early in regulatory filings, but the details are now confirmed: A18 Pro chip (the same one in iPhone 16 Pro), 13-inch Liquid Retina display, 8GB RAM, 16-hour battery life, and four colours: Silver, Blush, Citrus, and Indigo. Base price is $599 with 256GB storage, or $699 for 512GB and Touch ID. Education pricing starts at $499. Pre-orders are live now, with shipping from March 11.

OpenAI Ships a Less Preachy ChatGPT

OpenAI released GPT-5.3 Instant on Tuesday, an update to its most-used model focused on something most users have complained about for months: tone. The previous version would open responses with "Stop. Take a breath." and similar phrases that derailed conversations. The new model cuts unnecessary caveats, reduces moralising preambles, and reportedly brings hallucinations down 26.8% when using web search. Available to all ChatGPT users now. OpenAI then immediately teased GPT-5.4 with a single post: "5.4 sooner than you think."

The Anthropic Fallout Is Getting Wider

Defence tech companies are now actively telling employees to stop using Claude following the Pentagon blacklist. Ten portfolio companies at defence-focused VC firm J2 Ventures have already dropped Claude for government use cases. Palantir, which counts on government contracts for 60% of its US revenue and embedded Claude into classified networks, is under pressure to migrate. Meanwhile Congressional Democrats and at least one Republican senator have called the whole episode "sophomoric," with Senator Ron Wyden pledging to "pull out all the stops" to fight back and seek bipartisan legislation.