2ilent8cho

What utter nonsense.

We have many apps written with Claude now used in production (mostly mine) from Pupil Passports to full blown SMS/Whatsapp messaging systems, video walls, on-call/behaviour/remove management with CCTV integration it's amazing, but they were all made by IT, we have it documented, we know how it interacts , we know what it does and what it has access to as we made it. We also have the code should we need to make changes. So its more who will maintain these apps and over see them? We had 1 member the SEN staff try to do the same, i pushed back and said we would build what they wanted as what they made worked, but it was a HTML web app and they said can you make this accessible to everyone. They had no concept of the server side for storing the data and authentication/ security and that would be my worry in letting people just make apps. So I re-made it as a native macOS app, SQL back and with Office 365 authentication and reverse proxy'd it through cloud flare for external access.

Just seems like really bad management, many trusts and schools have 1:1 devices, we have since 2009, originally Netbooks until 2009 to 2013, then iPads. We don't have finance issues like that in our trust.

We use DocsPlus for exams. It has text to speech https://cricksoft.com/docsplus/ , works on macOS, iPad OS and Windows.

We have 40 Neo's here, but we were already mainly macOS anyway as have over 600 of Macs. Was very surprised just how nippy these little things are.

Seems a lot of us have Mac's now, for those who are also Age of Empires fans, AOE2 is coming back to Mac on the 26th May (was last on PowerPC, which stopped working with macOS 10.6). Very happy as all my mates now have MacBooks and this is one game we love playing multiplayer together.

Sounds like you have either not defined a Device Management Service for the devices in Apple School Manager, or in JAMF you have not allocated them to a Pre-Stage Enrolment.

The MacBooks have been like that for years, we've swapped them a few times on our M1 MacBook Pros.

I'm sure the parts will be on here https://selfservicerepair.eu/en-GB/home in a few weeks like other MacBooks have a few weeks after launch, I'm eager to see what price they charge for parts on it for the Neo.

looks like its very easy to repair, even has a battery that is screwed not glued in.

Bit confusing, all the screenshots show a macOS interface, yet the system requirements say Windows 10 /11 ?

macOS can, our 140 iMacs in the IT rooms all login directly to Office 365 at the login screen using Platform SSO. Students are then auto logged into Office 365 and OneDrive (though they have to do 2 clicks on the OneDrive screen). Actually getting under £400 price on a tender for these which surprised me.

Looks like they will be around £413.64 without VAT going by KRCS pricing , which is a decent price. https://cdn.krcs.co.uk/media/wysiwyg/PDFs/KRCS_Schools_Price_List_10thMar_2026.pdf

It's good its single core is almost as good as an M4, way better than an M1, think we may use these devices when we refresh our LSA MacBooks. Our Teachers are mainly on 13" MacBook Pro M1's from 2020 still and battery life and performance is still great almost 6 years on and LSA's currently on MacBook Air M1. Not looking to refresh for a couple of years yet though, but likely now Teachers will go from M1 MacBook Pro to M5 or M6 Air and LSA to this MacBook Neo, likely an A19 or A20 Pro by that point. The Apple Self Repair store has been great too, being able to get manuals and any part we have needed even down to just USB-C ports for a MacBook at £15. Just wish the battery or keyboard were more separate and not just an expensive top plate. Will be interesting to see how much parts cost on there once they show up.

I was hoping it was going to be a 12", as I loved my 2017 12" MacBook. Hopefully allows more people into macOS at the price point, especially those that want more than an iPad, but without the pain and frustration of modern Windows.