Apple took the wraps off M4-powered MacBook Pros on Wednesday. While the new laptops sport the same design as their predecessors, they deliver faster performance and a staggering 24 hours of battery life, the company said in a press release announcing the M4 MacBook Pro launch.
“MacBook Pro is an incredibly powerful tool that millions of people use to do their life’s best work, and today we’re making it even better,” said John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering.
The new M4 Pro and M4 Max chips Apple unveiled Wednesday for new, higher-end MacBook Pro models will bring more than enough power to handle Apple Intelligence and plenty of other complex computing tasks, Apple said. M4 Pro actually made its debut Tuesday with the redesigned M4 Pro Mac mini. The new chips may find their way into other machines, like Mac Studio, next year.
“Apple silicon has taken the Mac to unprecedented heights, and the rapid pace of innovation continues with M4 Pro and M4 Max,” said Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Technologies. “With the world’s fastest CPU core, immensely more powerful GPUs, and the fastest Neural Engine ever, the power-efficient performance and capabilities of the M4 family extend its lead as the most advanced lineup of chips in the industry.”
Apple added the ability to capture HDR photos with the iPhone 13 Pro back in 2021. Google introduced its own take, Ultra HDR, starting with Android 14 in 2023. Despite this, HDR photos from iPhones typically open as SDR images on Android phones and vice versa.
Thankfully, Apple and Google are working to resolve this issue by supporting a common standard for HDR gain map metadata.
Google Chrome is famous for slowing Macs down, but new performance controls aim to deliver a better browsing experience. The changes include a new “Performance issue alert” and improvements to the Memory Saver mode.
These enhancements should allow users to quickly free resources from heavy tabs that bog down overall system performance.
In a surprising development, Presumed Innocent — Apple TV+’s most-watched drama — will return with a fresh narrative unrelated to Scott Turow’s novel as well as a new female lead replacing star Jake Gyllenhaal for its second season, according to a report Tuesday. These Presumed Innocent season 2 changes spring the adoption of a first-time novelist’s upcoming legal thriller as source material.
You can find blazing-fast, high-bandwidth, high-wattage Thunderbolt 5 cables on the market, but as of Tuesday you also buy one straight from Apple. (And you’ll probably pay more, but hey, at least you know it’s high quality.) The iPhone giant unveiled a fancy new Thunderbolt 5 cable, its first one, to go along with its first Thunderbolt 5-capable computer, the top M4 Pro Mac mini.
Apple unveiled the radically redesigned Mac mini on Tuesday, with versions powered by the M4 chip and a new M4 Pro chip. The smaller-than-ever desktop computer features a new design with convenient ports on the front and back, faster processing speeds and, for the first time, Thunderbolt 5 connectivity and a carbon neutral guarantee.
“The new Mac mini delivers gigantic performance in an unbelievably small design thanks to the power efficiency of Apple silicon and an innovative new thermal architecture,” said John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, in a press release.
The faster Mac mini is available for preorder now, with a release date of November 8.
Apple is expanding the iPhone’s Tap to Pay functionality to five additional European countries. The feature is now available in Austria, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Romania, and Sweden.
Tap to Pay debuted in 2022, with Apple gradually expanding it to more markets.
A product-comparison chart published Monday on Amazon.com accidentally leaked the redesigned Mac mini, which will feature an all-new design and Apple’s M4 chip. After the M4 Mac mini leak, the machine could go official as early as Tuesday.
According to an image in the chart, the new Mac mini looks like a smaller Mac Studio and sports two USB-C ports on the front.
UDATED: M4 Mac mini is out!
Apple launched its AI-powered Apple Intelligence features in the EU on Monday, despite warning earlier that it might not.
In the European Union, the rollout began for Macs, while iPhone and iPad users will have to wait. That’s not true elsewhere. But there’s a significant language limitation for all.
Apple’s new Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad finally ditched the Lightning connector to become USB input devices Monday when they rolled out alongside color-matched versions for the new iMac, the first in this week’s M4 Mac announcements. The input devices, expected to ship October 31, are among the last of the iPhone giant’s accessories to make the change to USB-C.
When it comes to new tech, the focus understandably falls on what’s changed, not what stayed the same.
That’s absolutely the case for the new M4 iMac, which Apple unveiled on Monday. Plenty of attention is (rightly) being lavished on the iMac’s guts. The M4 chip is a screamer, and the machine now comes with 16GB of unified memory as standard, a welcome change. And the new colors look great.
However, one thing that drives Apple customers bonkers has stayed the same. That one thing is Apple’s terrible mouse — or, more specifically, the ridiculous location of the charging port on the Magic Mouse.
Apple developed its groundbreaking Hearing Health experience for AirPods Pro 2 in its state-of-the-art Audio Lab in Cupertino. The innovative features, available in a free software update, turn AirPods Pro 2 into hearing aids and offer advanced tools for testing and protecting the hearing of people who wear the earbuds.
As one Apple engineer put it, with the new Hearing Health features, AirPods Pro 2 become “truly the interface to the ear.”
A new pair of bookshelf speakers from Edifier should catch the attention of Apple users who love clear sound from a compact package — the Edifier MR3 2.0 Monitor Speaker System. And the near-field monitor system brings studio-quality audio to your desktop at a surprisingly accessible price point of $120.
The wired or wireless MR3 speakers earned the coveted Hi-Res Audio certification, making them an ideal companion for Apple Music’s lossless audio streaming. With a flat frequency response in a wide range, from 52Hz to 40kHz, these speakers deliver the kind of neutral, transparent sound reproduction that audio professionals and discerning listeners demand.
The wait for Apple Intelligence is over. iOS 18.1, macOS Sequoia 15.1 and iPadOS 18.1 can all be installed now, and they all include Apple’s AI-powered features.
“Apple Intelligence introduces a new era for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, delivering brand-new experiences and tools that will transform what our users can accomplish,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook in a press release Monday. “Apple Intelligence builds on years of innovation in AI and machine learning to put Apple’s generative models at the core of our devices, giving our users a personal intelligence system that is easy to use — all while protecting their privacy. Apple Intelligence is generative AI in a way that only Apple can deliver, and we’re incredibly excited about its ability to enrich our users’ lives.”
But that’s not everything coming out of Cupertino today. watchOS 11.1, tvOS 18.1 and visionOS 2.1 went out, too — alongside upgraded iMacs powered by Apple’s M4 chip.
Apple launched an upgraded iMac with an M4 chip and support for Apple Intelligence on Monday, calling it “the world’s best all-in-one for AI.” The new computer looks like the old iMac it replaces but packs major internal upgrades. Thanks to the M4 system-on-a-chip, the 2024 iMac brings a notable leap in performance over previous iMacs.
“With the incredible features of Apple Intelligence, and the powerful performance of Apple silicon, the new iMac changes the game once again,” said iMac product manager Sree Panuganty in a launch video released Monday.
Apple cannot sell the iPhone 16 in Indonesia following a government ban for failing to meet local investment requirements.
Apple’s Indonesian arm invested around $95 million, about $15 million less than its commitment of $108 million.
iFixit’s iPad mini 7 teardown reveals that Apple made almost no internal changes to the device. Its internal layout is also the same as that of the iPad mini 6.
Interestingly, rumors previously indicated Apple rotating the iPad mini 7’s display controller to fix the jelly scrolling issue. But that’s not the case.
iPad 11 might not make the list of products Apple launches during its upcoming week of announcements. A generally reliable source of Apple insider information says iPad 11 release date won‘t arrive until next year.
If true, Apple’s October product launch non-event will only include M4-powered Macs and related accessories.
Apple’s upcoming smart home display could feature an iMac-like base from a couple of decades ago. The smart home screen also could sport a display size similar to “two iPhones side by side.”
And a reasonable price tag could put it in range for many buyers.
Apple is secretly testing a new health app designed to help individuals with prediabetes manage their diet and lifestyle choices, according to a new report. The experimental app, tested with select employees earlier this year, focuses on helping users understand how different foods affect their blood sugar levels. That might help stave off Type 2 diabetes for some.
Some might use it just to marvel at how that cookie is spiking their blood sugar and choose an apple next time, instead.
With Apple Intelligence features coming out to much fanfare, it seems smartphone users don’t actually rank AI very high on their wishlists when considering smartphone upgrades, according to a new survey out Friday. With AI low on smartphone upgrade wishlists, what do they crave? Much higher among their hopes are longer battery life, more storage and better cameras. You know, the “classics.”
Billy Crystal has enjoyed a long career in comedy as a standup and in film and TV roles, but that’s not all he does. The unnerving trailer Apple TV+ dropped Tuesday for his new series Before, billed as a psychological thriller and a “supernatural mystery,” pushes a truckload of horror tropes fit to run you down in the dark of night. You weren’t sleeping anyway.
And Crystal not only stars but also executive produces the creepy-looking limited series, set to premiere October 25 on Apple TV+.
Update: Billy Crystal’s psycho-thriller limited series Before started streaming Friday on Apple TV+, so have at it. Reviews so far seem mixed, by the way. Some call Crystal “convincingly somber” and “spooky.” Others call the series “the year’s most disappointing show” and a “stagnant, repetitive mess.” Wow, tell us how you really feel.
In central London, thieves snatch an iPhone out of someone’s hand every 6 minutes, often via passing moped. The problem is so pervasive someone came up with a new line of comically intimidating iPhone cases as part of an awareness campaign called “The Unsnatchable.”
One case bristles with silver spikes. Another looks like an angry electric eel. A third conveys a curse within. And a fourth takes the form of a gauntlet you wear to clutch the handset in an iron grip.
A new AirPods Pro 2 hearing aid firmware update sets the soundstage for the new Apple Hearing Health features expected with Monday’s public release of iOS 18.1 and iPadOS 18.1. Apple began rolling out the update Thursday. The new features are Hearing Test, Hearing Aid and Hearing Protection.
Intended for both Lightning and USB-C versions of the earbuds, firmware version 7B19 updates from the previous version 7A305.