Middle management is about to learn just how necessary they are

Last night, one of the most senior figures in the IT industry from one of the biggest companies gave the strongest indication that when COVID-19 lockdowns gradually begin to lift, people will not return to the jobs they once had. That means both tech jobs, and how technology supports other business roles.…

It's like three buses showing up at once carrying $8bn

India’s largest mobile carrier, Jio, has just scored a third new investor in three weeks!…

Revisit what it’s like to run a PDP-10 and be eaten by a grue

Source code for seminal adventure game Zork, dating back to 1977 and recovered from MIT tapes, was published this week on GitHub.…

Problems aside, no one is sure how useful phone-based tracking will be

The NHSX, a technology group within the UK government's National Health Service, has released the source code for its Android and iOS COVID-19 coronavirus contact-tracing apps in an effort to allay privacy concerns and improve the code.…

Компания наконец-то признала проблему.

Ну что, поздравляю владельцев – это отличный апдейт, но с одной любопытной оговоркой.

-Album Details- Title: Distant Worlds: music from FINAL FANTASY JIRITSU Publisher: Square Enix Music Catalog Number: SQEX-10659~60 Release Date: September 20th, 2018 Ripped by: dancey -Info- Nothing new or revelatory here other than it was only available at TGS2018, enjoy nonetheless.

A review by Rob Cranley (9). A great flight sim that absorbed many, many hours of my youth

A review by SomeRandomHEFan (46). An excellent showcase of Humongous Entertainment's sense of humour. And I guess there's an acceptable edutainment game in there somewhere, too.

Codemasters готовят одиночную кампанию, восемь режимов гонок, события и мультиплеер.

Every cricket follower fervently needs to watch real-time cricket suit. Nothing can change the excitement, delights and excitement of real-time cricket suit. Live cricket suit is of much worry for a fan during any recurring series or competitions. Every cricket… Continue Reading →

“Even after weeks of staying home, my kids are just not interested in all the stuff we have. Let’s be honest. If a toy isn’t getting any action amid this distraction-free, stuck-at-home living, chances are it’s never getting touched again.” Liz Russell figures out what really engages and changes kids during the quarantine, and will […]

What expression does — did — your mom use all the time? What skill did you learn from her?  What does (or did) she encourage you to do? These are great questions for any mom and child, whether the kid is 5 or 50. And if you click here, you can print out a very […]

Is the new normal a new normal for you?

Contes de fées aux enfants - L'histoire de Jack le fermier.

A pirate is starting his first day aboard his new ship and the captain is giving him the tour. ”There’s the plank for trouble makers, there’s the deck that needs swabbing everyday and there’s the barrel for all you sexual needs.” ”Whatcha mean? my sexual needs?” ”Well, you stick your willy in the hole and […]

The post Those Dirty Pirates appeared first on Funny & Jokes.

Date: April 25, 2020

As COVID-19 continues to impact communities around the world, people are coming together to help one another now more than ever. We’re launching a Doodle series to recognize and honor many of those on the front lines.

Today, we’d like to say: 

To all coronavirus helpers, thank you.
 

---

 

Help stop the spread of COVID-19 by following these steps.  

 

---

Learn more here about the latest ways we’re responding, and how our products can help people stay connected during this time.

Location: Global

Tags: covid, Current Event, covid-19, appreciation, helpers, coronavirus

Hearing loss caused by the death of sensory hair cells of the inner ear is an unfortunate side effect for many patients treated with aminoglycoside antibiotics or platinum-containing chemotherapy agents. In animal models, induction of heat shock confers substantial otoprotection against aminoglycoside- and cisplatin-induced hair cell death. In this issue of the JCI, Breglio et al. demonstrate that inner ear tissue released exosomes carrying heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) in response to heat stress. HSP70 acted by a paracrine mechanism that engaged the Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) on hair cells to protect them from death. Exosomes and the HSP70/TLR4 pathway could thus provide treatment targets for the protection of hair cells from chemically induced death or from other insults, such as noise.

Levodopa-induced dyskinesia (LID) poses a significant health care challenge for Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients. Amantadine is currently the only drug proven to alleviate LID. Although its efficacy in treating LID is widely assumed to be mediated by blockade of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptors, our experiments demonstrate that at therapeutically relevant concentrations, amantadine preferentially blocks inward-rectifying K+ channel type 2 (Kir2) channels in striatal spiny projection neurons (SPNs) — not NMDA receptors. In so doing, amantadine enhances dendritic integration of excitatory synaptic potentials in SPNs and enhances — not antagonizes — the induction of long-term potentiation (LTP) at excitatory, axospinous synapses. Taken together, our studies suggest that the alleviation of LID in PD patients is mediated by diminishing the disparity in the excitability of direct- and indirect-pathway SPNs in the on state, rather than by disrupting LTP induction. This insight points to a pharmacological approach that could be used to effectively ameliorate LID and improve the quality of life for PD patients.

Hair cells, the mechanosensory receptors of the inner ear, are responsible for hearing and balance. Hair cell death and consequent hearing loss are common results of treatment with ototoxic drugs, including the widely used aminoglycoside antibiotics. Induction of heat shock proteins (HSPs) confers protection against aminoglycoside-induced hair cell death via paracrine signaling that requires extracellular heat shock 70-kDa protein (HSP70). We investigated the mechanisms underlying this non–cell-autonomous protective signaling in the inner ear. In response to heat stress, inner ear tissue releases exosomes that carry HSP70 in addition to canonical exosome markers and other proteins. Isolated exosomes from heat-shocked utricles were sufficient to improve survival of hair cells exposed to the aminoglycoside antibiotic neomycin, whereas inhibition or depletion of exosomes from the extracellular environment abolished the protective effect of heat shock. Hair cell–specific expression of the known HSP70 receptor TLR4 was required for the protective effect of exosomes, and exosomal HSP70 interacted with TLR4 on hair cells. Our results indicate that exosomes are a previously undescribed mechanism of intercellular communication in the inner ear that can mediate nonautonomous hair cell survival. Exosomes may hold potential as nanocarriers for delivery of therapeutics against hearing loss.

Curing HIV infection will require the elimination of a reservoir of infected CD4+ T cells that persists despite HIV-specific cytotoxic T cell (CTL) responses. Although viral latency is a critical factor in this persistence, recent evidence also suggests a role for intrinsic resistance of reservoir-harboring cells to CTL killing. This resistance may have contributed to negative outcomes of clinical trials, where pharmacologic latency reversal has thus far failed to drive reductions in HIV reservoirs. Through transcriptional profiling, we herein identified overexpression of the prosurvival factor B cell lymphoma 2 (BCL-2) as a distinguishing feature of CD4+ T cells that survived CTL killing. We show that the inducible HIV reservoir was disproportionately present in BCL-2hi subsets in ex vivo CD4+ T cells. Treatment with the BCL-2 antagonist ABT-199 was not sufficient to drive reductions in ex vivo viral reservoirs when tested either alone or with a latency-reversing agent (LRA). However, the triple combination of strong LRAs, HIV-specific T cells, and a BCL-2 antagonist uniquely enabled the depletion of ex vivo viral reservoirs. Our results provide rationale for novel therapeutic approaches targeting HIV cure and, more generally, suggest consideration of BCL-2 antagonism as a means of enhancing CTL immunotherapy in other settings, such as cancer.

BACKGROUND Since December 2019, an outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) emerged in Wuhan, and is now becoming a global threat. We aimed to delineate and compare the immunological features of severe and moderate COVID-19.METHODS In this retrospective study, the clinical and immunological characteristics of 21 patients (17 male and 4 female) with COVID-19 were analyzed. These patients were classified as severe (11 cases) and moderate (10 cases) according to the guidelines released by the National Health Commission of China.RESULTS The median age of severe and moderate cases was 61.0 and 52.0 years, respectively. Common clinical manifestations included fever, cough, and fatigue. Compared with moderate cases, severe cases more frequently had dyspnea, lymphopenia, and hypoalbuminemia, with higher levels of alanine aminotransferase, lactate dehydrogenase, C-reactive protein, ferritin, and D-dimer as well as markedly higher levels of IL-2R, IL-6, IL-10, and TNF-α. Absolute numbers of T lymphocytes, CD4+ T cells, and CD8+ T cells decreased in nearly all the patients, and were markedly lower in severe cases (294.0, 177.5, and 89.0 × 106/L, respectively) than moderate cases (640.5, 381.5, and 254.0 × 106/L, respectively). The expression of IFN-γ by CD4+ T cells tended to be lower in severe cases (14.1%) than in moderate cases (22.8%).CONCLUSION The SARS-CoV-2 infection may affect primarily T lymphocytes, particularly CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, resulting in a decrease in numbers as well as IFN-γ production by CD4+ T cells. These potential immunological markers may be of importance because of their correlation with disease severity in COVID-19.TRIAL REGISTRATION This is a retrospective observational study without a trial registration number.FUNDING This work is funded by grants from Tongji Hospital for the Pilot Scheme Project, and partly supported by the Chinese National Thirteenth Five Years Project in Science and Technology for Infectious Disease (2017ZX10202201).

IL-17–producing RORγt+ γδ T cells (γδT17 cells) are innate lymphocytes that participate in type 3 immune responses during infection and inflammation. Herein, we show that γδT17 cells rapidly proliferate within neonatal lymph nodes and gut, where, upon entry, they upregulate T-bet and coexpress IL-17, IL-22, and IFN-γ in a STAT3- and retinoic acid–dependent manner. Neonatal expansion was halted in mice conditionally deficient in STAT5, and its loss resulted in γδT17 cell depletion from all adult organs. Hyperactive STAT5 mutant mice showed that the STAT5A homolog had a dominant role over STAT5B in promoting γδT17 cell expansion and downregulating gut-associated T-bet. In contrast, STAT5B preferentially expanded IFN-γ–producing γδ populations, implying a previously unknown differential role of STAT5 gene products in lymphocyte lineage regulation. Importantly, mice lacking γδT17 cells as a result of STAT5 deficiency displayed a profound resistance to experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis. Our data identify that the neonatal microenvironment in combination with STAT5 is critical for post-thymic γδT17 development and tissue-specific imprinting, which is essential for infection and autoimmunity.

BACKGROUND Mirabegron is a β3-adrenergic receptor (β3-AR) agonist approved only for the treatment of overactive bladder. Encouraging preclinical results suggest that β3-AR agonists could also improve obesity-related metabolic disease by increasing brown adipose tissue (BAT) thermogenesis, white adipose tissue (WAT) lipolysis, and insulin sensitivity.METHODS We treated 14 healthy women of diverse ethnicities (27.5 ± 1.1 years of age, BMI of 25.4 ± 1.2 kg/m2) with 100 mg mirabegron (Myrbetriq extended-release tablet, Astellas Pharma) for 4 weeks in an open-label study. The primary endpoint was the change in BAT metabolic activity as measured by [18F]-2-fluoro-d-2-deoxy-d-glucose (18F-FDG) PET/CT. Secondary endpoints included resting energy expenditure (REE), plasma metabolites, and glucose and insulin metabolism as assessed by a frequently sampled intravenous glucose tolerance test.RESULTS Chronic mirabegron therapy increased BAT metabolic activity. Whole-body REE was higher, without changes in body weight or composition. Additionally, there were elevations in plasma levels of the beneficial lipoprotein biomarkers HDL and ApoA1, as well as total bile acids. Adiponectin, a WAT-derived hormone that has antidiabetic and antiinflammatory capabilities, increased with acute treatment and was 35% higher upon completion of the study. Finally, an intravenous glucose tolerance test revealed higher insulin sensitivity, glucose effectiveness, and insulin secretion.CONCLUSION These findings indicate that human BAT metabolic activity can be increased after chronic pharmacological stimulation with mirabegron and support the investigation of β3-AR agonists as a treatment for metabolic disease.TRIAL REGISTRATION Clinicaltrials.gov NCT03049462.FUNDING This work was supported by grants from the Intramural Research Program of the NIDDK, NIH (DK075112, DK075116, DK071013, and DK071014).

Lipid-rich myelin forms electrically insulating, axon-wrapping multilayers that are essential for neural function, and mature myelin is traditionally considered metabolically inert. Surprisingly, we discovered that mature myelin lipids undergo rapid turnover, and quaking (Qki) is a major regulator of myelin lipid homeostasis. Oligodendrocyte-specific Qki depletion, without affecting oligodendrocyte survival, resulted in rapid demyelination, within 1 week, and gradually neurological deficits in adult mice. Myelin lipids, especially the monounsaturated fatty acids and very-long-chain fatty acids, were dramatically reduced by Qki depletion, whereas the major myelin proteins remained intact, and the demyelinating phenotypes of Qki-depleted mice were alleviated by a high-fat diet. Mechanistically, Qki serves as a coactivator of the PPARβ-RXRα complex, which controls the transcription of lipid-metabolism genes, particularly those involved in fatty acid desaturation and elongation. Treatment of Qki-depleted mice with PPARβ/RXR agonists significantly alleviated neurological disability and extended survival durations. Furthermore, a subset of lesions from patients with primary progressive multiple sclerosis were characterized by preferential reductions in myelin lipid contents, activities of various lipid metabolism pathways, and expression level of QKI-5 in human oligodendrocytes. Together, our results demonstrate that continuous lipid synthesis is indispensable for mature myelin maintenance and highlight an underappreciated role of lipid metabolism in demyelinating diseases.

BACKGROUND Beige adipose tissue is associated with improved glucose homeostasis in mice. Adipose tissue contains β3-adrenergic receptors (β3-ARs), and this study was intended to determine whether the treatment of obese, insulin-resistant humans with the β3-AR agonist mirabegron, which stimulates beige adipose formation in subcutaneous white adipose tissue (SC WAT), would induce other beneficial changes in fat and muscle and improve metabolic homeostasis.METHODS Before and after β3-AR agonist treatment, oral glucose tolerance tests and euglycemic clamps were performed, and histochemical analysis and gene expression profiling were performed on fat and muscle biopsies. PET-CT scans quantified brown adipose tissue volume and activity, and we conducted in vitro studies with primary cultures of differentiated human adipocytes and muscle.RESULTS The clinical effects of mirabegron treatment included improved oral glucose tolerance (P < 0.01), reduced hemoglobin A1c levels (P = 0.01), and improved insulin sensitivity (P = 0.03) and β cell function (P = 0.01). In SC WAT, mirabegron treatment stimulated lipolysis, reduced fibrotic gene expression, and increased alternatively activated macrophages. Subjects with the most SC WAT beiging showed the greatest improvement in β cell function. In skeletal muscle, mirabegron reduced triglycerides, increased the expression of PPARγ coactivator 1 α (PGC1A) (P < 0.05), and increased type I fibers (P < 0.01). Conditioned media from adipocytes treated with mirabegron stimulated muscle fiber PGC1A expression in vitro (P < 0.001).CONCLUSION Mirabegron treatment substantially improved multiple measures of glucose homeostasis in obese, insulin-resistant humans. Since β cells and skeletal muscle do not express β3-ARs, these data suggest that the beiging of SC WAT by mirabegron reduces adipose tissue dysfunction, which enhances muscle oxidative capacity and improves β cell function.TRIAL REGISTRATION Clinicaltrials.gov NCT02919176.FUNDING NIH: DK112282, P30GM127211, DK 71349, and Clinical and Translational science Awards (CTSA) grant UL1TR001998.

В прошлом месяце, изучая содержание исходного кода бета-версии iOS 13.2, журналисты заметили в нем иконку таинственных беспроводных наушников с резиновыми амбушюрами для шумоизоляции. Новая утечка поз...

Источник из Китая опубликовал фотографию, на которой предположительно запечатлена улучшенная версия AirPods. По сообщению инсайдера, беспроводные наушники получат название AirPods Pro и будут представ...

После череды слухов и утечек компания Apple все же запустила в продажу улучшенную версию своих полностью беспроводных наушников. Новинка получила название AirPods Pro и доступна для предзаказа с офици...

Согласно слухам, распространенным тайваньскими источниками, компания Apple планирует включать в комплект смартфонов iPhone 2020 модельного года беспроводные наушники AirPods. Кстати, аналогичное решен...

Apple has launched a new web page that brings together links and information about its online services for customers shopping from home during the global health crisis.


Titled "Everything you love about our stores is online," the new catch-all page links from the Apple.com home page and includes details about no-contact delivery options, Apple Specialist help, financing and credit options, Apple Trade In, Apple Card, order status checking, service and support.

The page also links out to "Today at Apple - At home," a series of fun how-to videos to help users get creative during the ongoing stay-at-home measures, and there's a series of category links for customers to explore products on Apple's online store.

Apple has been gradually re-opening its retail stores in countries where lockdowns have eased, although some are operating on limited hours.

Apple CEO Tim Cook last week said that Apple was going to reopen stores in Austria and Australia this week, and Apple's sole Apple Store in Vienna will be reopening on Tuesday, May 5.

We're still waiting to hear exactly when stores in North America will reopen, but Cook also said that Apple is planning to reopen a few stores in the U.S. starting in May. Store openings will be staggered, with Apple evaluating data that includes local guidelines and recommendations before reopening.
This article, "New Apple Web Page Directs Customers to Its Online Shopping Services" first appeared on MacRumors.com

Discuss this article in our forums

Apple's plan to release an updated version of AirPods later this year has been delayed due to the global health crisis, according to the Nikkei Asian Review.


This lines up with a recent report from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who said that mass production of third-generation AirPods will begin in the first half of 2021, followed by mass production of second-generation AirPods Pro between the fourth quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022. Kuo also expects Apple's rumored high-end over-ear headphones to enter mass production at some point in mid-2020.

Kuo did acknowledge rumors of new AirPods coming in the second half of 2020, but he said they are "more likely to be the new Beats model." Last month, leaker Jon Prosser claimed that Apple was planning to release so-called "AirPods X" around September or October with a BeatsX-like design for sports and running.

Apple's second-generation AirPods launched in March 2019, while the AirPods Pro were released at the end of October.

This article, "Apple's Plan to Introduce New AirPods Later This Year Reportedly Delayed" first appeared on MacRumors.com

Discuss this article in our forums

This week saw a couple of big announcements, led by the launch of an update for the 13-inch MacBook Pro line. Most notably, the update brought the improved Magic Keyboard previously introduced on its 16-inch sibling and the MacBook Air, with high-end models also receiving updated processors.

Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.
The second significant announcement this week was that Apple's first all-digital Worldwide Developers Conference will kick off on June 22. Other news this week included a firmware update for the AirPods Pro, an update on Apple's Mini-LED efforts, and more.

Read on below and check out our video above for recaps of all of this week's most important stories!

New 13-Inch MacBook Pro Announced With Magic Keyboard, 10th-Gen Processors, Up to 32GB RAM and 4TB SSD, and More

Apple this week refreshed its 13-inch MacBook Pro lineup, with key features including the same Magic Keyboard as the 16-inch MacBook Pro, up to 80 percent faster Intel graphics than the previous generation, up to 32GB of RAM, up to 4TB of SSD storage, and 6K display support.


First introduced on the 16-inch MacBook Pro last year, the Magic Keyboard features a far more reliable scissor mechanism with 1mm of key travel. After five years, Apple has finally transitioned its entire notebook lineup away from its issue-prone butterfly keyboard.

10th-generation Intel processor options are only available on higher-end models, with the $1,799 configuration proving to be up to 16.5% faster than the $1,299 base model with an older 8th-generation processor.

Apple's Virtual WWDC Event to Kick Off on June 22

Apple has announced that its first-ever online-only WWDC will begin Monday, June 22 via the Apple Developer app and website. The weeklong event will include a virtual keynote, sessions, and labs, with more details to be shared in June. And it's free!


Apple is expected to introduce iOS 14, iPadOS 14, macOS 10.16, tvOS 14, and watchOS 7 at WWDC 2020, with beta testing to take place over the summer.

Student developers from all over the world can enter Apple's Swift Student Challenge by creating an interactive scene in Swift Playgrounds that can be experienced in three minutes. Winners will receive an exclusive WWDC20 jacket and pin set. Submissions are open through May 17.

Apple Updates AirPods Pro Firmware to Version 2D15

Apple this week released a new firmware version 2D15 for the AirPods Pro, replacing version 2C54.


In recent months, some AirPods Pro owners have been complaining about reduced noise cancellation and crackling or static sounds, so users have listened for any improvements following the update.

Perhaps proving how subjective sound quality can be, feedback has been decidedly mixed, with some users noticing an improvement, some noticing no change, and some noticing further degradation to noise cancellation.

Apple has offered some help in the form of two new support documents for users to troubleshoot noise cancellation or crackling sound issues.

10 Tips and Tricks for the iPad Pro Magic Keyboard

Have you recently picked up a new Magic Keyboard for the iPad Pro? Here's a list of our favorite tips and tricks that you need to know.


The tips and tricks relate to adjusting the backlight brightness, customizing the cursor's behavior, enabling tap-to-click on the trackpad, other trackpad gestures, accessing the Emoji keyboard, and more.

Apple's Mini-LED Product Roadmap May Have Been Pushed Back to 2021

Disappointed that the new 13-inch MacBook Pro was not the rumored 14-inch model? That may be due to a slight delay in Apple's plans to release a range of new products with Mini-LED backlit displays.

Kuo believes Apple's first Mini-LED products might not launch until 2021. The analyst has previously said these products would include a new 14.1-inch MacBook Pro, 16-inch MacBook Pro, 12.9-inch iPad Pro, and more.


Kuo has previously said that Mini-LED displays will allow for thinner and lighter product designs, while offering many of the same benefits of OLED displays used on the latest iPhones, including good wide color gamut performance, high contrast and dynamic range, and local dimming for truer blacks.

NFC-Based Digital Key Specification Released Ahead of Apple's Rumored CarKey Feature on iPhone

Amid rumors that Apple is working on a digital "CarKey" feature for iPhone, the Car Connectivity Consortium has announced that its NFC-based Digital Key Release 2.0 specification has been finalized and made available to its members, which includes Apple.


"CarKey" will allow an iPhone or Apple Watch to unlock, lock, and start an NFC-compatible vehicle. Just like credit cards and boarding passes, users will be able to add a digital car key to the Wallet app, eliminating the need to use a physical car key or key fob.

MacRumors Newsletter

Each week, we publish an email newsletter like this highlighting the top Apple stories, making it a great way to get a bite-sized recap of the week hitting all of the major topics we've covered and tying together related stories for a big-picture view.

So if you want to have top stories like the above recap delivered to your email inbox each week, subscribe to our newsletter!
This article, "Top Stories: New 13" MacBook Pro, WWDC Starts June 22, AirPods Pro Firmware Update, and More" first appeared on MacRumors.com

Discuss this article in our forums

Apple recently updated the 13-inch MacBook Pro, and the $1,299 base model remains a popular alternative to the $999 MacBook Air. To help with your buying decision, read our comparison of the notebooks below.


The differences between the base 13-inch MacBook Pro and the MacBook Air are quite nuanced, with each notebook possessing some unique features.

What's the Same

• 13-inch Retina display with 227 pixels per inch and True Tone support


• Magic Keyboard with reliable scissor switch design


• Force Touch trackpad


• 2 × Thunderbolt 3 ports


• 3.5mm headphone jack


• 256GB of SSD storage standard, configurable up to 2TB


• Touch ID


• T2 security chip


• 720p webcam


• 802.11ac Wi-Fi, also known as Wi-Fi 5


• Bluetooth 5.0


• Three-microphone array with directional beamforming


• Dolby Atmos surround sound

Advantages of Base 13-Inch MacBook Pro

• The display supports the P3 wide color gamut for more vibrant and lifelike colors


• The display is brighter at up to 500 nits vs. 400 nits on MacBook Air


• Touch Bar


• Slightly better sounding speakers

Advantages of MacBook Air

• Up to 11 hours of battery life vs. 10 hours on base 13-inch MacBook Pro


• Weighs slightly less at 2.8 pounds vs. 3.1 pounds for base 13-inch MacBook Pro


• Faster RAM: 3733MHz LPDDR4X vs. 2133MHz LPDDR3 for base 13-inch MacBook Pro


• 6K display support vs. 5K on base 13-inch MacBook Pro

Unlike the MacBook Pro, the MacBook Air also has a gold color option.

Performance

Generally speaking, the MacBook Air remains best suited for lightweight day-to-day tasks like web browsing and creating spreadsheets, while the MacBook Pro is better equipped to handle more intensive tasks like rendering large video files. This is not only because the MacBook Pro has faster processors than the Air, but also because it has a more advanced thermal design for dissipating heat inside the computer.

While the MacBook Air has been updated with Intel's latest 10th-generation processors, the base 13-inch MacBook Pro continues to use older 8th-generation processors. However, the Air uses lower-wattage Y-series chips with lower clock speeds, so the Pro still has faster overall performance, as confirmed by benchmarks.

Geekbench 5 scores for the latest 13-inch MacBook Pro and MacBook Air configurations:

• MacBook Air / 1.1GHz dual-core Core i3: 1,002 single-core and 1,998 multi-core


• MacBook Air / 1.1GHz quad-core Core i5: 1,055 single-core and 2,645 multi-core


• MacBook Air / 1.2GHz quad-core Core i7: 1,102 single-core and 2,843 multi-core


• MacBook Pro / 1.4GHz quad-core Core i5: 927 single-core and 3,822 multi-core


• MacBook Pro / 1.7GHz quad-core Core i7: 1,036 single-core and 3,909 multi-core

Takeaways:

• The base model 13-inch MacBook Pro for $1,299 has up to 91 percent faster multi-core performance than the base model MacBook Air for $999


• If considering the MacBook Air, upgrading to the quad-core Core i5 option is well worth the extra $100, as it is up to 32 percent faster than the base model and more closely rivals the base 13-inch MacBook Pro

Geekbench 5 scores are calibrated against a baseline score of 1,000, which is the score of an Intel Core i3-8100. Higher scores are better, with double the score indicating double the performance. Compare with other Mac benchmarks here.

Bottom Line

If you value portability and up to an extra hour of battery life, and are willing to sacrifice some performance, the MacBook Air is a relatively good value. Just remember to consider spending an extra $100 on the quad-core Core i5 processor option, as the $999 base model is equipped with a particularly sluggish dual-core processor.

For more intensive tasks, the 13-inch MacBook Pro's faster processors and more advanced thermal design will allow you to push the limits more without the fans running obnoxiously. You'll also get the Touch Bar, a brighter and more vibrant display, and slightly better sounding speakers with high dynamic range.
This article, "Base 13-Inch MacBook Pro vs. MacBook Air" first appeared on MacRumors.com

Discuss this article in our forums