Brands
McDonald’s offers decade old menu prices for #10yearchallenge
MUMBAI: While several brands have undertaken the #10yearchallenge in the past few days, McDonald’s latest attempt might be the best take so far. The brand is aggravating nostalgia amongst its patrons by offering its products at 10-year old prices. The offer can only be availed by McDonald’s app users for 10 days starting 23 January.
The customers can simply show the offer within the app, which was launched by Hardcastle Restaurants Pvt Ltd earlier this month, to the counter crew while placing the order, at any McDonald’s restaurant across West and South India.
Hardcastle Restaurants general manager – brand extensions Akshay Jatia said, “As the 10 year challenge gained momentum, we at McDonald’s wanted to do something beyond just posting a picture or putting a post out on the social media. Over years, we have delivered unparalleled value to our customers. Through our own 10 year challenge, we wanted to provide our customers a unique value proposition and reinforce that while we have evolved over the last 10 years, we have not changed – we still continue to deliver unparalleled value.”
Speaking further on the ‘McDonald’s’ app launch, he added, “We are committed to enhancing our digital capabilities and leveraging technology to deliver enhanced value and convenience to our customers. The new McDonald’s app, that lets our customers avail of a slew of attractive in-store offers at their fingertips, is a step in this direction.”
Brands
Apple bites back: the $599 MacBook Neo is the cheapest Mac ever made
The tech giant unveils a budget laptop that packs a punch — and a lot of cheek
CALIFORNIA: Apple has never been shy about charging a premium. So when Cupertino rolls out a MacBook at $599 (approx. Rs 55,000) , it’s worth sitting up straight.
The MacBook Neo, unveiled Tuesday, is Apple’s most affordable laptop to date — undercutting its own MacBook Air and taking a sharp swipe at the budget PC market in one fell swoop. It starts at $499 for students, which, for a machine with Apple silicon inside, is frankly a steal.
At the heart of the Neo is the A18 Pro chip — the same muscle that powers the latest iPhones. Apple claims it is up to 50 per cent faster for everyday tasks than a rival PC running Intel’s Core Ultra 5, and three times quicker on on-device AI workloads. Fanless and featherweight at 2.7 pounds, it runs silently and promises up to 16 hours of battery life. Try doing that on a Chromebook.
The 13-inch liquid retina display clocks in at 2408-by-1506 resolution with 500 nits of brightness and support for billion colours — sharper and brighter, Apple says, than most rivals in this price band. It comes dressed in four colours: blush, indigo, silver, and a zesty new citrus, with matching keyboard shades to boot.
Connectivity is modest — two USB-C ports, a headphone jack, Wi-Fi 6E, and Bluetooth 6 — but this is a budget machine, not a pro workstation. The 1080p FaceTime camera, dual mics with directional beamforming, and Spatial Audio speakers round out a package that punches well above its weight class.
Apple senior vice-president of hardware engineering John Ternus alled it “a laptop only Apple could create.” That’s the kind of line that makes rivals wince — because, annoyingly, he might be right.
The Neo runs macOS Tahoe, with Apple Intelligence baked in for AI writing tools, live translation, and the sort of on-device smarts that keep user data away from the cloud. It also boasts 60 per cent recycled content — the highest of any Apple product — for those who like their bargains with a side of conscience.
For $599, Apple isn’t just selling a laptop. It’s selling an argument — that good design and real performance needn’t cost the earth. The PC industry had better have a decent comeback ready.
