New improved iMacs are coming this quarter. Photo: Apple
It may not be quite the 8K iMac rumored earlier this summer, but Apple is set to refresh its iMac lineup this quarter with faster processors and improved displays, according to ever-reliable KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
The iPhone 6s will reportedly launch in rose gold, alongside a similarly colored Apple Watch Sport. Photo: Martin Hajek
A reputable analyst is predicting the Apple Watch Sport will come in yellow and rose gold. And we won’t have to wait for the Apple Watch 2 to get those colors: They’ll be available alongside the iPhone 6s later this year.
KGI Securities analyst Ming Chi Kuo has become the most accurate Apple seer around. Photo: Digitmes
Over the past several years, one analyst has risen above the rest to become the most reliable voice on all things Apple. His name is Ming-Chi Kuo, and his ability to accurately prophesy Apple’s future product plans is unparalleled. Fittingly, he is also incredibly mysterious.
Kuo is back in the news with a report that the iPhone 6s — due in the fall — will have a new stronger case to make it less ‘bendable.’ The iPhone 6s will be made from the same tough-but-light 7000 series aluminum used in the Apple Watch (it’s also used to make bikes and planes). Kuo also predicts the 6s will come Rose Gold and a darker space grey, again, matching the near-black Apple Watch.
Last month, Kuo reported a long list of features coming to the 6s, including a better, faster A9 processor, a Force Touch screen, a 12-megapixel camera, better Touch ID, new gestures and more.
You can now turn your iPad keyboard into a trackpad. Photo: Apple
Apple’s giant iPad has been one of the rumor mill’s favorite products to gossip about for years, even though no one has seen so much as a chamfered edge of its supposed 12-inch display. However, some assets hidden inside iOS 9 indicate that the new tablet — often referred to as the “iPad Pro” — could make an appearance soon.
According to a developer who’s been digging through iOS 9, the new keyboard scales to a much larger screen size than we’ve seen so far. When the new keyboard is enlarged, it adds an extra row of keys, hinting that Apple’s monstrous new tablet could rear its head in the near future.
An iPad Pro concept. MacBook for scale. Photo: CURVED Photo: CURVED
Apple really is making a giant iPad Pro, according to a new report from Bloomberg, but the Cupertino-based company is running into production issues that have delayed the long-rumored tablet’s release.
According to Bloomberg’s sources, production of the 12.9-inch iPad is now scheduled to start around September, after delays involving the supply of display panels pushed the project back.
We get slammed 24/7 with new Apple rumors. Some are accurate, most are not. To give you a clue about what’s really coming out of Cupertino in the future, we’re busting out our rumor debunker each week to blow up the nonsense.
The Apple rumor mill is going into hibernation mode over the winter, but that’s not stopping a few juicy bits from leaking out. This week we’ve got rumors of Apple Maps coming to the web, the giant iPad facing production problems, and the first batch of Apple Watch orders.
Step up to our crystal ball and see which rumors are likely to come true in 2015.
For some people, rumors and leaks about Apple's upcoming products ruin the inevitable reveal. Photo: Neerav Bhatt/Flickr CC
Many people routinely avoid spoilers for TV shows and movies, but some also steer clear of clues about Apple’s upcoming product announcements.
Next Tuesday, Apple is expected to reveal two new iPhones and an iWatch. While the long-rumored wearable remains shrouded in mystery, many details of the next-gen iPhones are all but confirmed, thanks to an avalanche of rumor reports and parts leaks. So comprehensive are the leaks, some have even managed to build a working iPhone 6 from parts — and the device is still weeks away from shipping to customers.
But some Apple fans remain blissfully ignorant of the details.
With just months before the expected release of the iPhone 6, rumors continue to roll in about Apple’s next-generation smartphone. Will it have a thinner bezel? A bigger screen? A glowing logo on back? In today’s video, we catch up with all the latest speculation regarding the iPhone 6.
No one has seen a single hardware leak of the iWatch but that didn't stopped the rumor mill from going ape-shit crazy for Apple's future wearable device this week. We saw whispers of sweat sensors, problems with the feds, and even celebrity athletes testing Apple's future fitness device.
Once again, we're taking the black cloth off our crystal ball and shining it up to see if we can spot what Tim Cook really has in store for the future of Apple. Come see which rumors are guaranteed to materialize and which are about to vanish like ghosts.
Stare into our crystal ball to see past the rumors and into the future...
One victim of the larger size of the iPhone 6 is the on/off switch, which has reportedly been moved from the top of the phone to its side to make it easier to operate with the larger form factor. The twin volume buttons have also supposedly been unified into a single rocker.
Jefferies analyst Peter Misek is one of our favorite Apple analysts in the entire world. Mostly because his Apple predictions are usually horribly wrong.
After the disastrous Apple TV SDK Event rumor he created earlier in the month, Misek is back with a new note to Apple investors, and it’s not a happy one. According to Misek, Apple is about to face a very rough two-year period, and he might actually be right.
I’m excited to announce Cult of Mac’s shiny new audio podcast, The CultCast — made with absolutely 0% child labor!
Why should you listen to The CultCast, you ask? Simply put, it’s the best 30 minute conversation about Apple you’re going to hear all week. Join Leander Kahney, Buster Heine, and me, Erfon Elijah, as we banter about all the most popular Apple news, rumors, and products. Hear the stories behind the stories of our favorite Cult of Mac pieces, and get caught up on all the best things from the world of Apple in a fun, 30 minute chunk each week.
Our maiden CultCast episode will be released Thursday night, but you can subscribe right now on iTunes to make sure you never miss an episode. We’ll have a new CultCast for you every Thursday evening!
UPDATE: Seth at 9to5Mac is now backtracking. While he says he’s received multiple tips that Mac Pros will be updated, he thinks the MacBook Pros tip might have been fake. “Shame on us,” he says.
Our friend Seth Weintraub at 9to5Mac thinks MacBooks and Mac Pros will be updated within a week. Seth received a tip that Apple’s pro desktop and portable line are being refreshed in the next few days — maybe as early as tomorrow, but more likely next Tuesday.
A refresh of the Mac Pros is already widely-rumored. The desktops are expected to be refreshed next week with the Intel Core i7-980x, a six-core screamer. But maybe new MacBooks are in line also? The new MacBook Pros will get Intel i5 and i7 processors, just like the current line of higher-end iMacs. The basic 13-inch MacBook Pro will have an Intel i5 processor, while the 15-inch and 17-inch MacBooks will have quad-core i7 processors.
If true, these machines will be screamers.
In February, MacRumors readers claimed to have found a GeekBench benchmark from a Core-i7 M620 MacBook Pro running an unreleased version of Mac OS 10.6.2. Current MacBook Pros score in the 3700-4000 range. However, this result is to be taken with a very large pinch of salt: forum readers say they’ve been planting fakes.
Either way, DO NOT BUY A MacBook Pro or Mac Pro for a while: updates are imminent.
According to Kingsley-Hughes, the next Mac Pro will pack the Intel Core i7-980x CPU… which jives with a rumor we heard late last year, which also hinted a March release.
The Intel Core i7-980X is a 32nm chip, maxing out at 3.33GHz but packing six cores and twelve threads per chip… which could ultimately result in a dual-core Mac Pro boasting twelve physical and twenty four logical cores. Each Core i7-980X CPU also has 128MB of Intel Smart Cache, hyperthreading support, an integrated memory controller and supports DDR1066MHz memor. In other words, Mac Pros built on the Core i7-980x processor will see a huge performance boost over the current model.
Unfortunately, Kingsley-Hughes doesn’t have anything to report on the other high-end, pro-level Mac waiting for an Intel Core iX upgrade: the MacBook Pro. I think we can all take it as read that it’s coming, though: we’ll just have to bide our time patiently in the meanwhile.
Last month, we reported the rumor that in the titanium ensconced bunkers of their development labs, Apple was busy testing a new, sextuple core Mac Pro, to be introduced in the first quarter of 2010.
Proven true or not, the rumor certainly wasn’t a bad guess. The release of Apple’s new iMacs, which come in Intel Core i7 configurations, has made the beefiest of Apple’s desktops look like a poor deal for the price, capably beating the benchmarks of Apple’s existing, Xeon-toting Mac Pro for a comparable price. Apple needs to refresh their Mac Pros soon if they want to avoid their iMac line cannibalizing Mac Pro sales.
It’s not so surprising, then, to see this rumor dusted off. According to Polish website PCLab, the next Mac Pro will sport dual Intel Xeon Core i9 CPUs, offering 12 physical and 24 logical cores. Their test results of the CPU show it to run about 50% faster than the Mac Pro’s existing quad-core Xeon processor. The Core i9 features 32nm engraving, so it sips power more daintily than the previous chip, which is also in line with Apple’s increased interest in rubbing the animal blood out of their furs and providing more environmentally-conscious machines.
Of course, it takes a lot more than a Polish website to make a rumor a fact, but it’s hard to imagine what other course Apple would take with the Mac Pro line besides the Intel Core i9. And while it means absolutely nothing, Intel quickly asked PCMag to remove the information from their website. Verification by cover-up or warrantless supposition? You decide!