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Not going to spoil anything for anyone time shifting - but this England v. Croatia match is a ripper!

Testing out the new(ish) Helium browser. So far, so good in my testing on Mac. Impressive defaults.

The US Treasury and Federal Reserve just met with top bank CEOs about Anthropic’s Mythos AI. This model finds software flaws in minutes that humans missed for decades. Officials now race to secure the financial system.

www.zerohedge.com/technolog…

Anthropic is making a strategic move into the legal sector with the beta release of Claude for Word. This integration allows users to summarize commercial terms, flag provisions, and manage redlines directly within the document editor. While many legal tech companies currently build on top of Anthropic’s models, they now face direct competition from their own provider. Success for existing startups will require offering specialized value beyond core drafting and review capabilities as these AI functions become standard features in Word. https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2026/04/11/anthropic-targets-lawyers-with-claude-for-word/

To truly mimic the Chromebook experience on a Mac, you need your web apps to behave like native .app binaries. This allows them to appear in Spotlight ($Cmd + Space$), the Dock, and the $Cmd + Tab$ app switcher.

Step 1: Create the Application

1. Open Google Chrome and navigate to the service (e.g., gemini.google.com).
2. Click the three-dot menu (⋮) in the top right corner.
3. Select Save and Share > Install page as app…
4. (Optional) Rename the app for easier searching (e.g., change “Google Gemini” to just “Gemini”).
5. Click Install.

Step 2: Ensure Spotlight Indexing

Chrome creates these apps in a specific folder: ~/Applications/Chrome Apps. macOS usually indexes this automatically, but if your apps aren’t appearing in Spotlight:

1. Go to System Settings > Siri & Spotlight.
2. Scroll to the bottom and click Spotlight Privacy.
3. Ensure your Applications folder is not on the exclusion list.
4. If it still doesn’t appear, drag the Chrome Apps folder into the Privacy list, wait 30 seconds, and then remove it to force a re-index.

Step 3: The “Discrete” Experience

When you launch a Chrome PWA, it runs in its own window without the address bar or bookmarks toolbar. This significantly reduces visual clutter and prevents the “tab-hunting” fatigue common in standard browser workflows.

Tech Tip: If you want a truly “distraction-free” environment, right-click the PWA in your Dock, select Options, and check Open at Login. This ensures your core “OS” tools are ready the moment you wake the MacBook Neo.

The MacBook Neo: Apple’s Best Chromebook?

The launch of the MacBook Neo has reignited the perennial debate: Is a laptop powered by an iPhone-class processor and 8 GB of RAM actually practical in 2026? Most reviewers are busy stressing the silicon with 4K video exports, but they might be missing the point.

What if the Neo isn’t meant to be a Pro machine, but rather the world’s most premium Chromebook?

The Experiment: Building a “MacOS-Less” Mac

To test this theory, I staged a clean-room environment on an M1 MacBook Air. My goal was to strip away the “Apple-ness” and see if a web-first workflow holds up on entry-level ARM silicon.

• The “Neo” Profile: I created a local user account (no Apple ID, no iCloud) to ensure no background sync services were taxing the CPU.
• The Browser as OS: I set Google Chrome to launch at login and stripped the Dock of all native Apple apps.
• PWA Integration: I installed Gmail, Calendar, Drive, and Gemini as standalone Chrome Applications (PWAs).

Why PWAs Matter

Running these as discrete windows rather than browser tabs changes the UX entirely. They appear in Spotlight search and the Cmd+Tab switcher just like native binaries. It creates a focused, “discrete” environment that mimics the simplicity of ChromeOS but retains the superior hardware of a Mac.

Initial Observations

The goal here is a “distraction-free” security and productivity layer. Early indications suggest the battery life will easily dwarf my Dell Latitude running ChromeOS Flex. We know the hardware is capable; the question is whether the software overhead of macOS remains a hurdle or becomes a silent backup for when you must run a native app.

Only time will tell if Apple has inadvertently built the best Chromebook of the year.

Do It Yourself

If this experiment sounds interesting to you, take a look at this post where I go into detail on setting up Chrome Apps for your Mac. https://wixtech.net/2026/03/25/howto-configuring-chrome-pwas-for.html