The Experiment: Pushing a MacBook to Its Limits

As we begin this experiment, we're greeted with a sense of skepticism and amusement. The device in question is a MacBook, and its capabilities are about to be put to the test like never before. "Yeah, I don't think so," our narrator says with a chuckle, indicating that they're not exactly optimistic about the outcome. "What a piece of crap this thing is." This tone sets the stage for what promises to be an entertaining and enlightening experience.

The Experiment Begins

We start by attempting to run the Automator script, which we know can push our MacBook to its limits. The narrator's excitement is palpable as they click the "Run" button, and the machine springs to life. However, it quickly becomes apparent that this won't be a straightforward process. "It means we can run the Automator script again," our narrator notes, attempting to downplay their expectations. The computer hums along, slowly making its way towards 3,000. The anticipation builds as they continue to monitor the progress.

The Counter Stalls

As the count reaches 3,000, our narrator remarks that it's "going kind of slow." This observation is met with a mix of amusement and concern. We're not sure what's causing this slowdown, but we know that this is precisely the moment when we'll discover whether or not our MacBook can truly push through to its limits. The narrator attempts to reassure us by stating that "this thing actually works," but it's clear that they're trying to keep their expectations in check.

A Second Attempt at 4,000

Despite initial hesitation, our narrator decides to press on and attempt to reach 4,000. They click the "Run" button once more, and the machine springs into action. This time, however, we witness a miraculous turn of events – the counter finally makes its way past 3,000, reaching an astonishing 4,000. The narrator can't help but feel a sense of accomplishment and pride in their creation. "Okay, so I guess this kind of technically means it's tied with the Retina MacBook Pro now," they quip.

The Quest for 5,000

Eager to see how far our trusty MacBook can be pushed, our narrator decides to set their sights on an even more ambitious target: 5,000. They click the "Run" button once more, and the machine continues its relentless march forward. As we watch in awe, the count creeps steadily along, and it becomes clear that this time, there's no turning back.

The Bounce and Rebound

Just as our narrator is about to declare victory, the computer suddenly "bounces" off course. The Automator script comes to an abrupt halt, leaving us wondering what just happened. Our narrator attempts to shrug off their disappointment by joking that this might be a tie with the Retina MacBook Pro. Undeterred, they decide to power up the machine one last time, hoping that it will recover from its temporary hiccup.

The Recovery Attempt

As we await the results of our recovery attempt, the tension builds. The computer springs back to life, and we're met with an Apple logo on the screen. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem like the outcome we were expecting – a kernel panic error message would have been a more exciting conclusion. Instead, the machine boots up normally, leaving us wondering if it truly crashed or simply froze.

The Post-Mortem Analysis

In the end, our experiment has left us with more questions than answers. Did the MacBook truly reach 4,000, or was this just an illusion? Was the kernel panic error message a sign that something went amiss, or was it merely a result of our machine's natural quirks? These are questions for another day – for now, we can simply marvel at the journey we've shared with our trusty MacBook, and wonder what other secrets lie hidden beneath its sleek exterior.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Can Apple's latest M2 MacBook Airhandle 6,000 Google Chrome tabs?Let's find out.(electronic music)(pixels chime)Hey guys, how are you all doing?If you're new here, welcome.My name is Krazy Ken, andI just got done testing outthis M2 MacBook Air in myfirst impressions episode,so feel free to checkthat out if you want.But I wanted to run thisfun little experiment,it's been over two yearssince I've last tried it,And I thought, well, hey,Apple has a new computer out,let's break it in with 6,000 Chrome tabs,you know, as do you do.Here's the interestingthing about this experiment,the last test subject wasa 2013 Retina MacBook Prowith 16 gigs of RAM,this thing has only eight gigs of Ram,it has only half the amount of memory,so will that affect theresults in a negative way?Not sure.And I gotta thank JonathanMorrison from tldtodayfor making this script.It opens 1,000 tabs at a time,so, let's bust it open andsee if this thing can manage.Here's what I use tokeep track of the tabs,it's just a simple Chrome extensioncalled Chrome Tab Counter,(serious music)and let's launch the Automator workflow.You guys ready?MacBook Air, are you ready?You better be.Run. There we go.As you can see, it isgoing absolutely bananas.Look at that, all thewebsites are just flying in,all the tabs are loading on top,and we'll see how longthis thing can last.The Chrome Tab Counter is currentlynot even showing a number.Oh, wait, there it goes.1,000, ladies andgentlemen, both and neither,we have 1,000 tabs already,but they're still loading.Technically, yeah, we got up to 1,000,but we gotta let themload and see how it does.Holy, oh, just look at allof those loading indicators.Holy crap. (laughs)Out of eight gigs, we'realready using 7.64,and the pressure is in the red.Hey, but the system is still functioning,it's running kind of slow.Each of these tabs, oh gosh, up hereare using like 400,435, 644 megabytes each.Yeah, I'm gonna give it a little more timeto load in here and thenI'll run the script again.(relaxing music plays briefly)While we wait for a bit,I might as well mentionI did do a first impressions episodeabout the M2 MacBook Air, andI also did a retrospectiveabout the first MacBook Airfrom 2008, both were really fun,so go check those out as well.Oh no, the track pad's doing that thingwhere it's not clicking, becauseit's not a physical button,it uses the, like the haptic engineto create haptic feedback when you press,but if the system is going too slow,yeah, you don't feel the click.Oh, that's so weird, the buttonis not responding. (laughs)So what do you say, guys?Should we run the script againfor another 1000 Chrome tabs?Of course, let's tryit, here we go, execute.The button isn't working. (laughs)There it goes.And it's running.Oh no, this is...Oh, I am so sorry, M2, but you can do it.You gotta beat that 4,000,that's the number the counter got up to.Nope, the number is not changing yet.Let's check in on the memory pressure.Oh yeah, we're in the red,It went down a bit for alittle while, into the orange,and now it's absolutelygoing back up into the red.And there we are, at 2000 tabs,the counter has officially hit2000, and I wanted to zoom inbut the system is lagging pretty bad.So now that it's at2,000, I'll give it a sec,and then run the script againand see if we can get to 3,000.And here we go. Ready?3, 2, 1, bam.Goin' for 3000.There it goes, the websites are coming in,doesn't look like they're moving as fastas they were earlier,but we are putting a very unnecessarily,impractically large loadon this poor system.All right, so here's the deal,the system is still responding.It's a little bit laggy, butit's still chugging along.Chrome, on the other hand,seems to be completely stuck,'cause I haven't seen any ofthe loading wheels spin at all,and anytime I try to clickon the tab counter extension,it does not open up the little sheet,so it looks like it's stucktrying to get to 3000.An interesting thing though,even though it's not gettingto a higher tab count yet,it's at least not freaking out too bad.I recall the older Intel systemhaving some checkerboard glitchy issues,and this system hasn'tshown any of those glitches,but the number counterisn't going much higher.I'll give it some more time to think,but we may have to call this one soon,and it looks like thisthing is gonna be beatenby my, let's see,nine-year-older laptop from 2013.You know, maybe it hasn't moved on along'cause I haven't motivated it enoughlike I did in the other episode,maybe I gotta fan it offwith a towel or something.But no, I thought about that,and I have a better idea.If you're a hot MacBook Air,you just need to cool offwith the Blaux Portable AC.Huh? Is that it?Yeah, I mean, hey,this thing can chill a wholeroom in five minutes, right?Certainly it can cool off a computer.Yeah, I don't think so.What a piece of crapthis thing is. (snickers)Oh, oh, hey, whoa, hey, we got3,000, it made it to 3,000.It's going kind of slow.You know what that means,this thing actually works.No, not really.It means that we can run it...(AC thuds)It means we can run theAutomator script again.(laughs and cries)(beep sounds)Let's run the script again.(sings) Switching intoAutomator, nice mouse cursor lag.All right, here we go, 3, 2, 1.Going for 4,000.Well, it has been almost a half hour,and it's still stuck at 3,000,so I think this thing is coming to an end.I don't know how much furtherit's really gonna get,but for fun, let's tryto push it even further.Even though the counter hasn't updated,let's try running thescript one more time.I'm gonna click in the Automator,and once it loads up here,we, oh, I guess I alreadyclicked the run button.Okay, it's going, so we'llsee if we can push it alongor create some weirdcatastrophic explosion,or maybe the universe willimplode, I don't know.Holy crap, I didn't think thatwould actually do anything,it's at 4,000 now.Okay, so I guess this kind oftechnically means it's tiedwith the Retina MacBook Pro now.Well, if we can get itto 5,000, then it wins.Well, at least it winsagainst the Retina Pro.Once this is done running,I'm just gonna run it again.Okay, it bounced, so it is ready.Let's switch back into it, let it load,and 3, 2, 1, go.We are gonna run it yet again.You can see the tab hoveringis actually working,it's lagging, but it's working.It still feels kind ofhot, but not too bad.Logic board temperature,138 degrees, yeah,that is still cooler than it wasduring my video encoding testin that other MacBook Air episode.Okay, Automator bounced,so it's done running.Yeah, it doesn't look likethe extension wants to open,gee, I wonder why,maybe because all the memoryis being used by Chrome tabs.Well, let's try loadingone of those Chrome tabsto see if any of them are usable.Nope, I'm not getting any response.My mouse cursor is also not moving now.And the track pad is also not clicking.Those are two perfect signsindicating that your computeris absolutely in a healthy condition.Oh, it's jumping around, (laughs) ooh.This is probably a tiewith the other MacBook Pro.However, if I can successfullyexit out of Chromewith a force quit,then maybe this oneactually wins a little bit,I don't know how you score this thing.Now, last time when Iwas doing the experiment,I got that force quit window,where it was like a mandatory thing,you had to quit an application.But ultimately, if I recall correctly,it wasn't even functioning properly,I had to hard shut downthe computer. (laughs)But let's see if we can actuallyforce quit the application.So I pressed the Command-Option-Esckeyboard shortcut,let's see if we can summonthe Force Quit window.My mouse cursor is notmoving again. (laughs)Uh-oh. Uh-oh.I also just realized the clock was frozenfor about two minutes.Now the screen is off.That's a good sign, right?No, you were about to win,you were about to beat the Retina.No, you might be tied with him now,'cause you shut yourself down.Oh, come on, recover, recover.You can do it. I believe in you.(whining) Maybe 4,000is just the magic numberand you can't get past it.It's completely off, it'snot rebooting or anything.(laughs) Okay, I guesswe'll just power it back up.I'm pressing the power button,and it's not doing anything.(laughs softly)Let's try it one more time.Oh, the keyboard backlight is on,so it's trying to do something.Okay, now the keyboard backlight is off.Oh, the screen looked like it turned on,oh, there it goes.Hey, we got an Apple logo.Yeah, it must have crashed.I wonder if it was anactual kernel panic though.I don't see the kernel panic screen,so let's see if it gives usan error when it boots up.Oh yeah, \"Your computer wasrestarted because of a problem.\"Let's hit report and see what...(laughs) Oh, it did panic.It actually did panic.So, panic CPU 3 caller... code.Yeah, it did actually kernelpanic, so, impressive.Do I send this report toApple and add a comment?Here, \"Provide any necessary stepsto reproduce the problem.\"(laughs) Open 4,000 Google Chrome tabs.Maybe that will help the feedback team.And, send to Apple.Oh my gosh. We have fun here.Restore pages, Chromedidn't shut down correctly.Do we dare click this restore button?Let's hit Restore and see what it does.Oh no, it's beach balling,(gasps) it's trying to...Oh, there's all the tabs.Oh, we got 2,493 right now.So I guess it was getting to 4,000,but maybe that's the amountthat actually functioned properly,so that's the number itrestored or something,I don't know.Holy crap, dude.These tabs are actually working,I can switch to them andthey're actually doing stuff.Open tabs right here, we got like 2,000,and they're actually functioning.So now we have to goto a judge's decision,the M2 MacBook Air crashed(serious music)before registering 6,000tabs in the extension.So it did not pass the challenge,but did it at least beatthe Retina MacBook Pro?The Retina MacBook Pro couldnot restore the tabs properly,and the M2 MacBook Air wasable to restore over 2,400,so I am declaring the M2 MacBook Airthe winner of this pointless contest.Nice job, man.You get to go in the hall of fame now.And man, this thing isthin and light. So cool.Anyway, again, if you want,feel free to check out my episodewith my first impressions on this,and my retrospectiveon the first-generationMacBook Air as well.And I release new techepisodes every week,usually on Thursdays, 'causeI like making episodesabout rare and retro tech, new tech,and of course, scam tech.And hey, if you liked thisepisode, you know what to do.Thanks, and I'll see you next time.Catch the crazy, and pass it on.(intense electronic music)(logo chimes)\n"