After a couple of glittery launch events in September and October, where a new Apple Watch, a new iPad, a new HomePod, and four new iPhones were all released, we thought we were done with virtual trips to Cupertino, California.
Yet Apple had to unbox one more stash of shiny baubles. The company held its third media event of the fall on Tuesday, this time trotting out a newly built PC processor, displaying three new Macs with a custom chip, and sharing some more information about the next iteration of Apple's desktop operating system, Large Sur macOS 11.
Here are the highlights from the presentation on Tuesday.
Apple revealed earlier this year that it would move away from Intel processors on its computers and instead start putting its own chips on Macs. The first chip for Macs was unveiled during Tuesday's case. Apple calls this new chip the M1, and in the new design, the company's presentation trumpeted a host of gains in performance and power consumption.
For about a decade, Apple has produced its own custom chips, but their use has been mostly restricted to iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, headphones, HomePods, and Apple TVs, the company's smartphone and platform devices. The release today marks the appearance of a specially made Apple chip for Mac computers.
The business has vowed to gradually migrate all of its machines to the new spec, so we can expect the entire lineup of Apple desktops and laptops to make the transition within the next year.
Making their debut this month are the first Macs with Apple's latest M1 chip. One is the MacBook Air 13-inch, which is going on sale for $999 today. It will ship next week.
With 3.5 times the performance of the CPU and a 5X improvement in graphics performance, Apple says the computer is much faster than the previous Air, but still provides up to 18 hours of battery life. The new device is also fanless, so those efficiency improvements come without the normal excess heat penalty. The keyboard and monitor seem to be the same, but the efficiency of the camera has been increased, so your endless Zoom sessions should look a little better at least. The machine comes with two Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports for charging and expansion, and that's it.
Last spring, Apple only launched an updated MacBook Air, and that laptop is no longer available from Apple as of today. The only choice for a new MacBook Air if you go to the company's web store is a device powered by the M1 processor.
A updated Mac Mini is one of Apple's most exciting announcements. It goes on sale today and ships next week, just like the MacBook Air. The Mini starts at $699 for SSD storage of 256 gigabytes and 8 GB of RAM. If you want more memory or room, the price climbs from there.
The little desktop PC is a slightly larger silver block with rounded corners than an external hard drive. According to Apple, the new M1 chip inside gives it three times the previous Mac Mini's output. The company also reports that it sees major improvements in multitasking and running resource-hungry applications For example, Apple claims that video rendering in Final Cut Pro is six times faster.
The Mini has two ports for Thunderbolt/USB 4, an HDMI link, and two ports for USB-A. Two monitors can be run at once, but one has to be linked via the HDMI port, which maxes out at 4K resolution.
Mobile creative professionals, of course, also get a taste of the latest silicon. Today, $1,299 is on sale for a new 13-inch MacBook Pro powered by an M1 processor (and with a Touch Bar). That's the same price that the new computer replaces for the Intel-powered Pro. For the new Pro laptop, the same statements regarding speed and power-efficiency improvements made by Apple for the other devices still apply. With the latest M1 processor, the MacBook Pro is faster in CPU and GPU performance, and has a huge battery life bump—up to 20 hours, Apple says. Two Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports come with the computer.
The new MacBook Pro starts shipping next week, much like the Air and Mini. The 16-inch MacBook Pro has not yet received the M1 update, so only the more portable machine is available with the new chip.
For months, the next desktop operating system for Macs has been in beta and now Apple has assigned it a definite release date. Big Sur will be available as a free download on Thursday 12 November.
With the latest M1 chips in mind, the OS was designed. Apple says its silicon makes machine software twice as sensitive as before, while giving programs such as Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro major boosts as well. It is important to remember that Big Sur can run on both Intel-powered and M1-powered computers, so to get the latest software updates, it is not required to buy a new Mac.
Big Sur's most notable alteration is its overhauled style. Like in iOS app icons are rounded. The menu bars are translucent, so that the landscape behind them can be seen. All in all, the latest design of Big Sur signifies a convergence of the three operating systems of Apple: macOS, iOS, and iPadOS. For users and app developers alike, the aim is to streamline the process. Desktop apps will run on mobile devices and vice versa, making switching between devices a seamless experience (hopefully). To that end, Apple also released "universal apps," which were designed to function simultaneously with Apple Silicon and Intel processors. MacBooks from 2015 or newer should be backward-compatible with these applications.
Apple's emphasis on privacy, as usual, is also on show in Big Sur. Earlier this year when it unveiled the OS at its summer Worldwide Developer Conference, the company touted some of these features. Overall, consumers gain greater control over the knowledge obtained by applications and websites from third parties. For instance, the latest Privacy Report" from Big Sur actively monitors the ad trackers that show up in Safari and keeps a log to tell the user how many times websites attempt to collect their details.
We're going to have more of this week's switch to Apple Silicon and a deeper dive into macOS. As soon as we get the chance to try them, we will also publish reviews of the latest M1-powered Macs.
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