New MacBook Air Laptops With M3 Chips

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We’re happy to see an update to the MacBook Air models:

13-inch ‌MacBook Air‌ 15-inch ‌MacBook Air‌
13.6-inch Liquid Retina display 15.3-inch Liquid Retina display
M2 or M3 chip M3 chip
Starts with 8-Core GPU 10-Core GPU
Four-speaker sound system Six-speaker sound system with force-cancelling woofers
52.6-watt-hour battery 66.5-watt-hour battery
30W USB-C Power Adapter or 35W Dual Port Compact Power Adapter 35W Dual Port Compact Power Adapter
$1000 and up $1300 and up

Apple is saying these are 1.6X more powerful than the M1 versions which makes us think that this M3 version is not that much faster than than the M2 version but time will tell.

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Stable Diffusion 3

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The open source, locally ran software Stable Diffusion has announced their next version which is not yet available to download.  Current versions of Stable Diffusion don’t produce text coherently but this new versions appears to change that significantly, amongst some other incremental improvements to image generation, especially with multiple subjects.

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Nikon Z9H Camera With Global Shutter

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There are now rumors of Nikon releasing a global shutter camera using Sony’s global shutter sensor.  Likely a lower megapixel model compared to the Z8/Z9.  However, for Nikon’s purposes a non-global shutter with a fast read out would make a lot of sense so we’re not at all certain that there is any truth to this rumor.

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Nvidia RTX 5000 Blackwell Series

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Rumors seem to be indicating that we might see the Nvidia RTX 5000 Blackwell cards in 2024.  We certainly hope this is true.  Not much is known about these cards yet although we are seeing several sources say there could be a 40% generational improvement which would be quite significant.

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Nintendo Switch 2

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Some updates about the forthcoming Nintendo Switch 2:

  • Nvidia SoC using Samsung’s 8nm technology
  • Better than expected performance
  • Delayed until 2025
  • Can output 4K with reasonable image quality
  • Like 12GB of ram

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MSI CLAW A1M Handheld Game System

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The MSI CLAW is already available in some places but will be coming to most of the world in later March.  There will be 3 versions available:

  1. Entry level MSI Claw A1M featuring an an Intel Core Ultra 5 135H CPU with integrated Arc graphics and 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM and a 512GB SSD. $700
  2. Intel Core Ultra 7 155H APU version with 512GB of storage. $750
  3. Intel Core Ultra 7 155H APU version with 1TB of storage. $800

They all have the same 7-inch screen with 120Hz VRR, Thunderbolt 4 USB-C port, a microSD card slot and a power button with a fingerprint reader.  The ergonomics look decent and we’re looking forward to this unit.

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ZEISS Nano Prime High-Speed Cine Lenses

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As mirrorless becomes more dominant and relevant to filmmakers, manufactures have started to produce more lenses for their platforms.  Mirrorless mount physics should make possible a better quality of lens than what was possible before.

Zeiss has released this interesting set of lenses with 6 focal lengths all at T1.5: 18mm, 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, 75mm, 100mm.  It’s $26,000 for the set which works out to $4,333 a lens.  These lenses are “initially available for the Sony E-mount” but we expect that the Canon R-mount is just around the corner.

ZEISS Nano Primes are cinema lenses designed for modern full frame mirrorless cameras — initially available for Sony E-mount. Lenses for everyone looking for highest performance and cinematic look in a small package. The six focal lengths all feature a consistent high speed of T1.5, come with a small and robust real cine lens housing with professional cine ergonomics and have an interchangeable mount.

Nano Primes are lenses for all cinematographers. No matter if up-and-coming or seasoned DP. For all budgets. No matter if small or big. For all projects. No matter if for commercials, documentaries or music videos, for series, independent or features films. Lenses that check all the boxes when it comes to look, ergonomics, size and weight or lens data workflow. Lenses that you can afford. Lenses that won‘t let you down.​

​ZEISS Nano Primes are the go-to lenses for everyday: True Cinema. For All.​

Visit Zeiss’s website for more information.

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AMD Zen 6 Ryzen Medusa CPUs

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It looks like we’re finally going to see a significant architecture change (new 2.5D interconnect tech) with AMD’s Zen 6 generation that will lead to better bandwidth, latency, better scaling, and power efficiency.  This will increase cost, however.  AMD is on a roll and have been able to consistently produce meaningful generation over generation performance increases.  Zen 5 itself is already claimed to have a nice performance increase.  We’re still waiting for more leaks and benchmarks for Zen 5 which should be coming out any day now.

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Nikon Z6 III

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This camera is really overdue.  Nikon’s doing well at the high end with their Z8 and Z9, but their mid-range camera bodies have been lacking for quite a while, especially on the video side.

We’re starting to get excited about this camera though as it’s looking to be decently video oriented and full-featured.  Really, like with the Z8, it seems like Nikon is throwing everything at this camera to make it all you need as long as you can live with the 24MP sensor.

Some key specifications that intrigue us:

  • 6K video with strong codecs
  • Significantly improved IBIS
  • Strong dynamic range and low-light performance
  • N-RAW video
  • Improved AF
  • $3000

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AMD Navi 44 and 48 Video Card Information Leaks (RDNA 4)

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Finally some reliable information has come out about AMD’s next generation of video cards.

What we’ve learned:

  • Monolithic dies via TSMC 4NP (all this really means is that they got slightly better dies than NVIDIA has right now)
  • We’re seeing boosting of between 3.0-3.3 GHz
  • FP8 and matrix hardware now present
  • RDNA 4 will be ready for Q4 of 2024, however the marketing team will decide when these will ultimately launch (possibly 2025)
  • Navi 41 and 42 to have GDDR7 memory

We’re always happy to see anyone compete against NVIDIA as they’re the kind of company that needs competition to keep them from bad behavior.

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