Can the new Googlebook succeed where other Google-books failed?
Believe it or not, laptops are suddenly interesting again. Apple kicked things off in March with the Mac Book Neo, a $599 laptop that felt like an aggressive attempt to do to the low end of the market what the Mac Book Air did to the middle. Even with a $100 price hike this week due to the rising cost of components, it remains a cheap and cheerful Mac Book that puts its Windows competition to shame on the merits. When Computex Taipei happened earlier this month, it felt like the rest of the industry had awakened. Dell revived its XPS line as a MacBook Neo rival. Qualcomm announced its Snapdragon C chip, aimed at Windows laptops priced as low as $300. And Nvidia finally made its long-rumored move into PCs with RTX Spark, an ARM-based and inevitably AI-focused chip. {"blockType":"mv-promo-block","data":{"imageDesktopUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/12\/multicore.png","imageMobileUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/12\/multicore-mobile.png","eyebrow":"","headline":"\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESubscribe to Multicore\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E","dek":"Multicore is about technology hardware and design. It’s written from Tokyo by Sam Byford. To learn more, visit \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.multicore.blog\/\u0022\u003Emulticore.blog\u003C\/a\u003E","subhed":"","description":"","ctaText":"SIGN UP","ctaUrl":"https:\/\/www.multicore.blog\/","theme":{"bg":"#f5f5f5","text":"#000000","eyebrow":"#9aa2aa","subhed":"#ffffff","buttonBg":"#000000","buttonHoverBg":"#3b3f46","buttonText":"#ffffff"},"imageDesktopId":91454027,"imageMobileId":91454030,"shareable":false,"slug":"","wpCssClasses":""}} Unsurprisingly for the hardware-heavy Computex show, U.S. players like Microsoft and Dell, along with Taiwan OEMs such as Asus and Acer, are banking on a future where they can compete on local performance, battery life, and tighter integration between software