451: ‘Taking Drugs to Get Fat’, With John Moltz

We pushed this taping because you ran out to buy Apple TV 4Ks, which is perfect timing for our favorite bit, spend Tim Cook’s money, while Tim’s still in the big chair.

I joked that Apple TV would never be the one to spike, then it got the harshest bump of the bunch.

Apple took the store down, brought it back, and prices were higher across much of the line, with Apple TV hammered the most and the Ethernet plus Thread model now way up.

Home gear like Apple TV and HomePod mini sat in limbo for ages, and now they’re pricier, which stings even if we get why.

I’m fine with people being upset; these aren’t slow inflation bumps but sharp jumps likely tied to the AI data‑center bubble driving RAM and SSD costs through the roof.

They held the line on memory and storage costs longer than rivals, but even Apple couldn’t dodge it forever.

Some products avoided hikes for now, like iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods, but education pricing on machines like the new Neo still leapt.

There were rumors the Neo’s chip bins would be the problem, but parts scarcity on memory looked like the real limiter.

I never bought the chip theory; if they needed more, they’d bin a newer A‑series and move on, but RAM and SSD are the choke points.

If you’re Apple, you could stop selling Apple TV for a bit, but if people will pay two hundred fifty dollars, why leave money on the table?

I think they set the new higher prices now so when refreshed Apple TVs land, they can say prices did not rise, even though they already did.

The base Mac mini shuffle shows the same play: configs move, capacities change, and the headline price anchors up.

Apple treats margins like Safari treated performance back in the WebKit days: you don’t check in a change if it makes things slower, and Apple doesn’t accept compressed margins if it can avoid it.

That’s who they are; if you want to push back, you slow your buying or step down a tier, like skipping Pro.

Higher prices will cool demand—that’s basic economics—but Apple Silicon gave us wild value for years, so some of us were coasting happily on older M1 machines anyway.

I kept an M1 Air for roughly five years with zero real pain and only upgraded because it felt earned.

My M1 Max MacBook Pro from 2021 still feels snappy, yet I regret not buying the M4 with nano‑texture when glare ruined my remote‑work days, and now the 128GB RAM config is nearly ten thousand dollars where it used to be seven.

No one needs to applaud these hikes; we just need to be clear‑eyed about Apple’s priorities.

Vision Pro only went up about six percent, which reads like a signal that the platform’s alive rather than a memory‑cost story.

Everything else jumped between roughly fifteen and a third, with Apple TV at the top end and Vision Pro the odd outlier.

If any product could have skipped an increase, it was Vision Pro, but keeping a small bump helps the perception game.

The Apple TV leap still feels strange unless you assume it’s pre‑pricing for the fall refresh.

Pausing sales would be un‑Apple; they’ll likely eat the awkward summer and swap in the new box as soon as they can, because Apple TV has a small but devoted base that swears by it.

And plenty of us refuse to use TV smart apps, so the box is non‑negotiable, even if we skip the top tier.

Apple’s note that more hikes may come reads like a warning that new iPhones and Apple Watches will be pricier, even if today’s models held steady.

They may also have supply and pricing locked for Pro parts this cycle, so they can hold for now and move when the new phones hit.

Rumors say September brings the iPhone 18 Pro and a folding Ultra, with the regular 18 and the next Air sliding to spring, creating a staggered ladder.

Raising the 17 prices when the Pros go up could make the 17s look like the deal, but Apple likes neat one‑hundred‑dollar steps, so we’ll see how they fill the gaps.

Either way, sticker shock on a foldable will dominate headlines, and a pricier Pro will not soften that story.

You also noted Tim isn’t retiring to a porch swing; he’s shifting to more global work while handing the keynote baton.

Part of that is wrangling policy makers as memory geopolitics heat up: China‑linked CXMT and YMTC get state help, and Apple’s 2022 idea to use Chinese RAM in China‑market phones drew instant bipartisan fire.

Is the worry spyware in RAM or market control?

It reads like market power, not hidden chips; RAM can’t phone home by itself, but letting subsidized suppliers dominate would hand leverage to Beijing.

We’ve seen that movie with rare earths, and with AI hardware restrictions trying to slow China’s lead.

Micron went from losses to eye‑popping margins in a few years, which shows how brutal and capital‑hungry memory is, and why a handful of players and TSMC‑style concentration exist.

Meanwhile, long‑timers remember squeezing bytes with RAM Doubler and DiskDoubler, which somehow worked and sometimes terrified.

I ran both back in the classic Mac days, and against all instinct they delivered more headroom with bearable slowdowns.

On software looks, I like Golden Gate more than Tahoe, which felt harsh; I’m waiting to skip straight to the nicer one.

Tahoe’s visual choices felt like all downside to me, while Golden Gate is at least livable, though the menu bar highlight still looks timid instead of proudly tabbed.

They keep hiding interface chrome to feel phone‑like, even though desktop screens have the room.

On iOS 27, pro tip: install iOS 26.6 first to pre‑index, then Apple Intelligence lights up instantly after you upgrade.

That’s perfect for me; I keep a note called where the heck is it and want to just ask for whatever I stashed.

Apple Intelligence even answered a question from a scanned letter in Notes, which is exactly the small, magical stuff I want more of.

I’m convinced the new Siri AI is the biggest shift to hit these Macs in years, and I’m already treating it like normal. I keep wanting it on my main M1 Max MacBook Pro, so I’m itching to throw the Golden Gate beta on there even though that machine’s still on Sequoia.

That’s the trap with betas on daily gear; the instant convenience makes you reckless. Back then I barely backed up because storage was pricey, and at most I’d toss a few files on a Zip disk.

Tape backups with tools like Retrospect were expensive and a slog, and the unit I bought basically never got used because the process was miserable. In that era skipping backups felt almost rational when a spare forty megabyte drive cost a fortune and you’d just fill it with new stuff.

I did Mac triage in the nineties with utility disks and shortcuts, and I saw plenty of unbootable machines with corrupted drives where people lost everything.

Alright, that’s the show—before we go, got any TV picks?

If you’re up for spooky, From on MGM Plus is well made with a Lost vibe, and somehow it’s four seasons in with a final fifth coming.

Season one hooked me; season two lost me a bit, and I didn’t realize it kept going, but that first run was great.

I’ll add Widow’s Bay on Apple TV Plus; two episodes in, my family and I love the funny-plus-creepy blend, and the roughly thirty five minute run time keeps it tight.

It’s a little spooky without being punishing like From, and it moves with no filler.

It has a filmic look with a touch of grain, and the no cell service island neatly explains the old-school vibe. It also scratches that Twin Peaks itch with a town of lovable oddballs, including a memorably awful waitress named Kathy whose scenes are a feast.

One more: Legends on Netflix, a British one-season series based on real events from the team behind The Gold, which covers an early eighties gold heist and is also excellent.

I watched The Gold and liked it; dramatized, but grounded in true stories.

Thanks again to CoaxTheApp for a delightful Plex front end, Even Realities for smart glasses and a companion ring, and Squarespace for building websites. Alright, John—thanks again.