Sunday Reboot: Flea Problems, Oranges and Tony Awards

In this week’s “Sunday Reboot,” a good chip problem for Apple, regulatory comparisons to oranges and “Schmigadoon!” earned 12 Tony Award nominations.

Sunday restart is a weekly column covering some of the more light-hearted stories in the Apple reality distortion space from the past seven days. All this to start next week with a good first step.

This week, Apple faced Maryland lawmakers who sided with Apple Towson employees after the store’s closure was announced, Canada wants Apple to weaken encryption, and Apple failed to narrow the scope of a $4.1 billion iCloud lawsuit in the United Kingdom.

A tale of two chip struggles

Apple faced two chip shortage situations this week, but with very different results.

On Tuesday, it was discovered that Apple had removed some configuration options for the Mac mini and Mac Studio. Consumers planning to purchase models with mountains of memory have been left in their tracks as Apple has removed the 256GB option from the M3 Ultra Mac Studio.

At the same time, if you wanted a Mac mini M4 Pro with 64GB of memory, you’re out of luck. You only have the 24GB or 48GB options available.

These aren’t the only changes to the lineup, as the Mac Studio lost the 512GB RAM option in March and the 256GB SSD version of the M4 Mac mini is also gone.

The result is that, although this is obviously a problem arising from the global memory crisis that is affecting the entire technology industry, it is one of the ways Apple is trying to avoid a significant price increase. Of course, eliminating high RAM options isn’t the best solution, but the alternative would be to significantly increase prices.

By doing so, this may allow existing memory inventory to last a little longer for models, while still allowing lower capacity options to remain on sale. Lower memory variants will also not be as affected by cost compared to a configuration that is RAM heavy in nature.

Some might think that it’s not really a RAM issue, but is Apple getting ready to release new models by reducing existing stock. This is something we’ve seen before, but current CEO Tim Cook’s remarks during recent financials indicate we won’t see real Mac upgrade options until September.

The other chip problem was Apple’s fault.

The MacBook Neo is an extremely popular model, beyond Apple’s expectations. As a budget MacBook, it managed to generate so much demand that Apple had to double its production plans for this model.

This presented a new problem for Apple, in the form of a lack of A18 Pro chips.

The MacBook Neo is cheap for Apple to produce, in part because it relies on using existing component inventory. It was a recycling effort, using surplus chips that Apple had already paid for, allowing it to reduce the price for consumers because they were cheaper to produce.

With the massive success of the model, it is believed that Apple must now launch another production run for the A18 Pro chips.

Obviously, even if Apple has a good idea of ​​what can make a product successful, it can sometimes even surprise itself.

Apple and oranges in logos

Big companies are extremely protective of their brands, and Apple is one of the most defensive. Adding the Apple logo to something that vaguely resembles Apple will quickly lead to legal problems from Apple’s lawyers.

This makes sense because Apple must pursue anyone who misuses its trademarks to avoid diluting its value. It is also to prevent consumers from purchasing counterfeit products using the brand without authorization.

However, Apple’s battle for its prized Apple logo sometimes takes strange directions.

The latest example is a filing with the European Intellectual Property Office, attempting to convince the regulator not to grant a trademark to another company. This turned out to be a partly successful act for Apple, because the brand cannot be used for keyboards and computer equipment.

The disputed logo, used by keyboard maker Yichun Quinningment Electronics Co., was not an apple, but a citrus fruit. It was a circular fruit with a top leaf, a section removed on the right side, and segments and “keys” visible in the middle.

You could say the cut out part is reminiscent of Apple’s bite section and the leaf is pretty close, but they are not the same. The EUIPO acknowledged that they were “visually similar, but clarified that this was “to a very small extent”, but it was still enough to create a “mental link” between the two companies for consumers.

Apple has done this several times in the past, going after people submitting fruit-based trademarks and complaining about how they were trading on Apple’s logo.

Examples include the Norwegian Progress Party sticking an F motif in the middle of an apple, the pear-shaped logo used by Prepear and the battle against Fruit Union Suisse. In the last case, it was a century-old organization that for many years used an image of a red apple with a white cross, and Apple complained about an anniversary redesign.

In trying to determine how far Apple will go with fruit-based brands, I discovered that there are limits to its reach. In November 2018, it failed to block the logos of Banana Mobile and Banana Computer in Europe.

At the time, the EUIPO concluded that an apple was not a banana.

Canceled, but nominated

Apple TV shows are frequently listed as nominated for awards. Sometimes these awards are given after the show has ended, usually the following year, but there are exceptions.

Wednesday, “Schmigadoon!” received a massive 12 nominations for the 2026 Tony Awards.

This is a great achievement, but there are huge asterisks at play here. The awards were not for the show itself, but for the Broadway production.

Apple ended the TV version in early 2024, killing it after two seasons when the third had already been written. The show’s popularity was not enough to stop it from continuing, but it endured in the theater.

A stage adaptation of the musical arrived in 2025, a precursor to the Broadway version, co-produced by Apple.

This is not the first time that the series has won awards. This includes a Creative Arts Emmy in 2022, a Critics Choice TV Award nomination in 2021, and a spot on the American Film Institute’s “TV Shows of the Year” list for 2021.

With 12 Tony Award nominations, the Broadway musical may end up winning more trophies during its stage life after its television death.

Who knows, maybe a big win will convince someone at Apple that they made a bad choice and ordered this third season.

Last week’s Sunday Reboot covered Apple’s F1 ambitions, its huge second-quarter financial results and the return of “Ted Lasso” in August.