What’s old is new. I wrote the title for this post in 2011 on July 20th. Apple has now once again discontinued the MacBook and introduced a new MacBook Air. When I originally drafted this post in 2011 (unreleased post), I said the following and I think much of this still applies today…

With the death of the MacBook, we saw an update to the MacBook Air line of notebooks early today. There’s a lot of guessing at Apple’s reasoning for eliminating the MacBook. Most seem to conclude that it helps Apple to streamline their offerings. With the introduction of iPhones, iPods, and iPads, they’ve had a growing line of devices and that really conflicts with the relatively few choices that consumers used to have just a few short years ago when entering an Apple store. To help avoid consumer confusion, it could be that they want to tighten up the lineup once again.

This makes a lot of sense. With iPads flying off the shelfs, they could also see an introductory priced MacBook as too much competition for the iPads pricing and they’re not about to have a $500 notebook in the stores. You could, of course, buy an older MacBook for just about $500 on eBay or Craigslist as well. Apple tends to market themselves as a higher end company and a sub-$900 laptop wouldn’t really fit with that strategy.

The 12″ MacBook had not been updated in 764 days according to the Apple Buyer’s Guide. Apple has taken an average of 301 days to update the MacBook Pro line so it’s logical to think that this was essentially already a discontinued product internally. It’s possible that it could come back again, but I think Apple has likely discovered that having a moniker like “Air” or “Pro” attached to the MacBook (Mac = Computer, Book = laptop) helps to define the specific expectation of performance for users without having to explain it further in store. The “Air” essentially provides a classic highly portable computing experience for those that can’t survive on an iPad alone and does so without compromising the size of screen any longer. If you really need a smaller screen, the iPad is for you. They simply do not sell any full computer that directly competes with the iPad in terms of size any longer.

The iPad has similarly taken on these “Air” and “Pro” monikers and the classic iPad hasn’t been updated in 469 days. I would not be surprised if we see this same naming convention come to the iPhones for the next generation. This would help to keep the entire line up very clear and help with the naming convention. iPhone XI and XIR wouldn’t make sense, but Air and Pro would be simple. Similarly, iPhone 9 or 11 would seem like a random change in the naming patterns. At least Air and Pro have some established base.

Of course, I have no real insight here and just enjoy thinking about the product naming. The iMac was just updated 112 days ago and is simply “iMac” and not “iMac Air” so it’s completely possible that I’m way off base… The new monitor they released is named with “Pro” first instead of at the end. Maybe there is really no master plan and they’re just trimming the fat. It’s still one of the simplest product line-ups in consumer PCs and electronics available and Apple seems to be doing more today to keep it that way.

In 2019, the market is facing different changes – some that have been shifting over the last several years. Activision acquired Blizzard in 2013. EA has continued its efforts to gobble up companies. The 2011 purchase of PopCap supported the impact of casual games on the market. The purchase of Respawn Entertainment in 2018 has brought people a AAA free-to-play game developed by the makers of Titanfall 1&2 entitled Apex Legends. They may have opted for free-to-play for numerous reasons. Among them, I would put their experience with the Star Wars Battlefront 2 cash shop and the impact of games like Fortnite. The free-to-play model has also proved itself and everyone is trying to land their big game.

EA has one of the most diversified portfolios in gaming and tries to stay up with market trends. They’re a massive company now and at times they’ve been slow to react, but Apex Legends seems to be indicative of nothing short of perfect execution and timing. Unfortunately, EA has also gained a bit of a reputation due to all of their acquisitions. It’s really just part of being a big and successful player in the market though. There will always be highly vocal groups that complain about certain aspects of a business. It will be interesting to see if their latest offering in Apex Legends will guide them to more free-to-play games in the future.

While re-reading my 10-year-old post, I realized I didn’t really address Free-to-Play. Ten years ago it was only just starting to transform the landscape on mobile in the US. Today consoles are finally starting to build a pretty decent size of Free-To-Play games and consoles continue to be some of the biggest game markets despite PC gaming getting a stronger reputation and continuing to get more approachable.

Meanwhile, companies like Take Two $TTWO (I currently hold a small position) have a good blend of a buy-to-play single player campaign with an online component that’s free to enjoy with in-game micro-transactions. This company makes some amazing games and I really love this model. It’s also important to me to see stability and see a CEO that is confident in the company. I could see them starting something new. Maybe we’ll see a situation where the tables are flipped and a free-to-play online component is released with full single player campaigns offered as in-game purchases. I’m excited for the future of gaming more now than ever. Streaming services for games is slowly becoming a reality as well. It’s been a long road, but it’s clear to me that the days of buying boxes are numbered.

I really couldn’t do this series without talking about one of my favorite things: Cars. I’m not a huge gear-head, but I love the design, sound and driving experience of vehicles. There’s a lot to talk about and some people have made a name for themselves doing just that. As with all my lists, my intent it just to scratch the surface of some of my favorite channels. If you like it, go smash their subscribe buttons.

• Schmee150
  • Tim has a pretty serious supercar collection and if he doesn’t own something personally, he seems to find a way to drive the craziest cars. His channel is more of a vlog at this point, but it’s focus always seems to be on the cars.
• Doug DeMuro
  • Doug writes great columns over at https://www.autotrader.com/Oversteer along with some other great writers and YouTubers. His YouTube channel has grown a lot and he’s covering a different car at least once a week. He gets cars to review and drive from viewers and/or the car sharing marketplace, Turo. His reviews are known for him identifying all “the interesting quirks and cool features” of the automobiles he discusses. Doug digs deep into the cars interior and details and spends far less time in his videos driving the cars. He’s also created a “doug score” which compares the MANY MANY cars he’s seen against each other.
• Rich Rebuilds
  • Rich has rebuilt a Tesla Model S P85 and is working on a flooded Model S too. He’s got some amazing content and shows all the crazy work that goes into rebuilding cars.
• The Stradman
  • James has come a long way in a very short time. In addition to sharing his adventures in his Lamborghini, he travels and shares so many other amazing rides. The videos are in a vlog style format, but his content really does speak for itself and his passion for cars shines through with everything he does. He comes across as a super nice guy and has a really positive vibe in all his videos.

There are a ton of other amazing creators out there making great content on YouTube. This is in no sense an organized list or a complete list, but I just wanted to give you some food for thought if this is something you’d like to see more of on YouTube. Check out these great channels and thanks for reading.

This is a huge segment of the YouTube community. I’ll have a lot of the major YouTubers here, but hopefully also some people that you haven’t heard of before. This is not a complete list of all the Tech YouTubers that I subscribe to and this is just an overview — click through if they seem interesting and hit that subscribe button! These people often do collabs with others so you’re bound to find some of my other favorites just by checking these out.

• MKBHD aka Marques Brownlee
  • MKBHD. Need I say more? He’s been at this for a very long time and it’s been amazing to watch him grow over the years. Marques is the go to YouTuber for cell phone reviews, but also has a ton of other interesting content.
• Dom Esposito
  • Dom is a hard working YouTuber. He’s dedicated to his community and has even started a second channel to focus on unboxing non-tech items. His videos are clean, clear and he does a good job of covering all kinds of consumer products.
• Linus Tech Tips
  • A Tech list without Linus wouldn’t be complete… Linus was doing video online for a very long time before branching out on his own. He took a lot of risks starting his YouTube career, but has done a great job. Linus and team are a huge asset to this space. Linus Tech Tips leads his pack of YouTube channels and is where you can find product reviews, PC builds, and a lot of crazy projects that provide a lot of entertainment value, but are not really meant to be tutorials of any kind.
• Paul’s Hardware
  • Paul has a lot of experience in PC building and has a great channel where he spends most of his time reviewing products, doing PC builds, giving advice and lately doing some more vlog style content. Paul is well spoken and seems really comfortable on camera – almost like the camera isn’t even there. He always just appears to be himself.
• TheGeekPub
  • There’s not enough content here, but what is posted is very high quality and informative. There’s been some great videos about crypto mining, home network setups and I imagine there will be a lot more to come.
• Paul Hibbert aka Hibbert’s Home Tech
  • I’ve watched Paul for quite a while now and he wasn’t posting for a good bit of time. At some point, he started posted content very regularly and it’s been great. He’s always done really fun videos focused on home automation and reviews around the subject.

Do you like this series?

Let me know if you like the idea of these posts and if there’s anything I can improve. I realize that these are not deep dives into each channel. It seems like their video content would speak for itself, but let me know if more specific videos to watch or more detail about the YouTuber  — or more content creators in general would be better.

With so many platforms for Internet video, YouTube has really shined as the king of high production quality user generated content (UGC). The biggest challenge with YouTube is how to know what to watch outside of YouTube’s recommendations.

I subscribe to a _lot_ of channels, but YouTube doesn’t really appear to spend much time helping users navigate their subscriptions, sort them into subjects or make it easy to favorite certain subscriptions or anything like that. I’ve heard some people don’t even use the “subscriptions” page on YouTube and just use the YouTube.com homepage / recommended page. So, I’m starting a series of posts to help share channels sorted by subjects that I enjoy on YouTube! I’ll probably post a few of these and maybe go beyond YouTube, but for now I just wanted to start with YouTube.

Focus on DIY and making

For this post, I’m going to focus on some of my favorite DIY and builder channels. I’m mostly an armchair maker and just love to watch. They are educational and the creators have great personalities. These are in no particular order. ALL of these channels are good for all ages as far as I can tell (most of the time), but really not meant for kids and probably would not hold their attention anyway.

• I Like To Make Stuff
  • Bob is an awesome maker. I get great ideas that inspire me, but don’t have the drive to make anything just yet… I may have to make a simple plinko board though. What a great thing to have at parties!
• Woodworking for Mere Mortals
  • Steve Ramsey does a great job of building fun projects and really breaking down woodworking for non-woodworkers. His content covers a lot from small tips to slightly larger projects. His sense of humor and the length of his content is just right. One of my favorite videos is about Screws.
• HomeMadeModern
  • Ben and his friends partner with some great brands and have made some really fun projects. They’ve done a ton with Quikrete, Ryobi and others. They’ve always done projects with inexpensive materials and things that seem in reach of everyone. A perfect example is this $5 bucket stool.
• Tested
  • Tested really goes on lots of different lists, but I’d be negligent if I failed to mention it here. Specifically, the Adam Savage’s One Day Builds series (this playlist is incomplete for some reason) is what fits in on this list. Yes, Adam Savage from the Mythbusters brought his magic to YouTube and it is terrific. It is completely different from Mythbusters and is much more genuine. While he builds amazing costumes, props and more, some of my favorites are more practical builds like a File Filing System.
• Punished Props Academy
  • I found this channel via Tested one day. They changed their focus over time and now have some amazing build videos that are a lot of fun. This build for a Venom Symbiote Tube based on the prop from the movie, Venom, would make an amazing decoration for your Halloween party.

What do you think?

This is such a small sample of some of my favorite YouTube channels in the DIY/maker realm. I’d love hear from you and get some suggestions of things to tune into. Post your favorites in the comments! There’s so much amazing content being shared these days and it’d be insane to keep up with it all, but knowing that it’s out there is awesome. I wanted to use this series as a way to highlight some of my favorites.