I’ve been listening to ATP—Accidental Tech Podcast—for its entire decade-plus run. Self-described as “Three nerds discussing tech, Apple, programming, and loosely related matters,” the hosts (Marco Arment, Casey Liss, and John Siracusa) bring a thoughtful yet playful approach to their Apple and tech conversations. Every episode is a joy to listen to (even though they sometimes rile me up), and it’s one of a small handful of podcasts I (gladly) pay to support.

On episode 647: You Get One Exclamation Point, The Boys™ discuss various ways Apple might achieve cost savings on a rumored low-cost Apple laptop. Their ideas, presented draft-pick style, were mostly serious, focusing on components Apple might remove to reduce the price of this hypothetical new hardware.

After the show aired, I quipped on Mastodon:

One option not suggested by The Boys™ on the latest @atpfm for cost savings on the rumored “low-cost Apple laptop”:

Ads on the boot, login, and wake screens—and, for good measure—the screensaver 🤑

Coming Soon: “Apple MacBook (Fall 2025, with ads)”… with a $150 option to remove them 🤪

One enjoyable ATP bit is that each episode starts with Follow-up (copyright John Siracusa), where they expand, correct, or simply comment on previous topics. That often includes commentary from their listeners.

On episode 650: Whatever It Takes to Get the Laundry Folded, came this follow-up:

Alright, with regards to the low-cost Apple laptops, Jason Anthony Guy writes…

Nerd achievement unlocked! 🔓🎉 Imagine my shock in hearing this last week (the episode came out today, but I listened to the “bootleg,” released immediately after recording ends—it’s one of the perks of membership). I was utterly delighted. It’s the nerd equivalent of having your Letter to the Editor printed in the newspaper or your timestamp opening NPR Politics.

(Ask your parents, kids.)

One thing you may have noticed in my Mastodon post: I wrote “Apple MacBook (Fall 2025, with ads)”. Casey dutifully explains the joke (it’s an Amazon Kindle reference), but John and Marco humorously correct him that Kindle has “special offers,” not “ads”.

I apologized to Casey for botching the joke and forcing him to bear the brunt of Marco’s and John’s joshing for my humor fail.

But wait! Turns Out™, the Kindle purchase options are “Ad-supported” and “Without Lockscreen Ads.” No mention of “special offers”!

Vindication!

OK, well, partial vindication: the Kindle device management page (where you can remove lock screen ads), does call them “Special Offers”.

#CaseyWasRight to call them “ads” and deserves both partial credit and a tearful (and no doubt begrudging) apology from his doubting cohosts in the next follow-up.