MAM
Media frat bonds at first global Aids creative meeting
MUMBAI: A couple of days ago, the first-ever global creative meeting on HIV/Aids was held by the United Nations in New York.
The event was attended by over 100 creative and programming directors from 35 media companies, leading media figures and non-government organisations from around the world.
The participants included Indian director Revathy Menon, whose film Phir Milenge addressed the social problem earlier this year. Actor and long-time activist Richard Gere delivered the keynote address at the meeting. He dwelt on the Heroes Project, a three-year campaign to combat the Aids in India.
Viacom chairman and CEO Sumner M Redstone said, “With two-thirds of the estimated cases preventable through information and education, the power of media is one of the most formidable tools that we have in fighting HIV/Aids. This disease knows no boundaries, no genders, and no ethnicities and so must our response.
“Now, more than ever, our industry must work together to find new and compelling ways to make HIV/Aids relevant to our audiences and to deliver lifesaving information to our viewers. Collectively, we can make a critical difference by helping to save millions of lives.”
Case studies that were featured at the meeting included Sesame Workshop’s co-produced series with South Africa Broadcasting Corporation, Takalani Sesame. This claims to be the first pre-school TV show to tackle the issue of stigmatisation through an HIV-positive five-year-old girl Muppet named Kami.
MTV Networks International creative director Cristian Jofre presented The R-Evolution of HIV/AIDS Communication. This was an overview of how media campaigns have evolved globally since the 1980’s among the film, music, television, sports and advertising industries.
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.
