This week we feature commentator Josh Centers, Managing Editor for TidBITS, and author of “Take Control of Apple TV” and other titles, who covers Apple’s surprising release of a major update for the MacBook Pro. The refresh features 6-core processors, solid state drives as large as 4TB and up to 32GB RAM, twice as much as Apple has previously offered. Is this the professional  notebook that many users have craved after expressing disappointment with the models offered over the past two years? Josh will also provide speculation about a possible future successor to the Mac, using an ARM-based CPU instead of Intel. Will this be a sort of convergence machine offering features derived from the iPad and Mac, or something altogether new? There will also be a discussion about health and fitness privacy, where Gene wonders if anyone would care if it got out that he’s just shy of six feet one inch tall and weighs 178.5 pounds?

In a special encore presentation, you’ll also hear from tech columnist and former industry analyst Joe Wilcox, who writes for BetaNews. During this episode, Joe will explain why he regards Apple’s Siri voice assistant as worse than Microsoft’s Skype, despite all the connection glitches with the latter. Will hiring former Google executives help Apple make Siri more responsive and accurate, without sacrificing your security? You’ll also hear about Google I/O and Android P, and about all those fake news reports that the iPhone X was unsuccessful. For two quarters straight, however, Apple reported that the iPhone X was not only its best selling smartphone for each week it was on sale, but the hottest selling smartphone on the planet. Gene shares his 20 years experience with the iMac, which began with the original Bondi Blue model that he beta tested for Apple as part of the former Customer Quality Feedback (CQF) program. You’ll also hear about the Apple Watch and whether it makes sense for Apple to switch Macs from Intel to ARM CPUs.continued to spread false rumors about iPhone sales over the years.