Tag: Apples

Apple’s 13-inch MacBook Air with the M3 chip has never been cheaper

Post author By lisa nichols
Post date April 26, 2024
No Comments on Apple’s 13-inch MacBook Air with the M3 chip has never been cheaper

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Apple’s latest MacBook Air with the new M3 chip just hit its lowest price yet at Amazon. The retailer is taking $110 off the laptop’s list price, which is $10 cheaper than the sale price of $999 its been hitting lately. That’s not a huge difference, but still represents a new low for the two-month-old laptop. The discount applies to all four colorways of the entry-level 13-inch model, which gives you 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. If you need more memory, you can get the model with 16GB, which is down to $1,399, or $100 off, at Amazon and Best Buy.

Devindra Hardawar for Engadget

The base model of Apple’s new MacBook Air is $110 off.

$989 at Amazon

We think the 13-inch MacBook Air with the M3 chip is the best laptop for most people and, unsurprisingly, it’s also our top pick for the best MacBook you can buy. Engadget’s Devindra Hardawar gave it a score of 90 in his review when the computer came out last month. It’s slim and light yet sturdy, and the keyboard and trackpads are comfortable to use. The bright display is accurate and the battery will far outlast a typical workday. The new chip gives the notebook a performance boost according to our benchmark testing, though Devindra didn’t feel a noticeable difference when it came to performing real-world tasks — loading apps, editing photos and multitasking was just as speedy using the previous MacBook Air with the M2 chip.

In fact, we noted when the M3 Air was released that the M2 model is now an even better buy — thanks to a permanent price cut and proven stellar performance. It’s still part of Apple’s official MacBook lineup and Engadget’s Daniel Cooper points out, “the fact it’s available as the budget option is almost a flex.” Right now the base level 13-inch MacBook Air with the M2 chip is down to $849 at Amazon. That’s $150 off the list price and the lowest price we’ve tracked. If you don’t need the absolute latest chip, it’s a great buy right now.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

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Tags 13inch, Air, Apples, Cheaper, chip, MacBook

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Apple’s Regular Mac Base RAM Boosts Ended When Tim Cook Took Over

Post author By miranda cosgrove
Post date April 26, 2024
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Apple used to regularly increase the base memory of its Macs up until 2011, the same year Tim Cook was appointed CEO, charts posted on Mastodon by David Schaub show.

macos sonoma feature purple green
Earlier this year, Schaub generated two charts: One showing the base memory capacities of Apple’s all-in-one Macs from 1984 onwards, and a second depicting Apple’s consumer laptop base RAM from 1999 onwards. Both charts were recently resurfaced by the Accidental Tech Podcast.

The graphs show that Apple tended to increase the base memory every two years or so, but that this trend ended when Cook took over the company from Steve Jobs. Memory increased quickly until the Mac Plus was launched in 1986, notes Schaub. “1986 to 1990 were all about decreasing the entry Mac price,” he says. “Then we get a pretty straight logarithmic line until Tim Cook became CEO and there has only been a single increase since.”

all in one base ram chart
The correlation is interesting, but other variables such as market trends and changes in technology can help to account for the plateau in Cook’s era. For example, Stuart McHattie notes that early all-in-one Macs saw a tenfold increase every six years. If that trend had continued from 2006 onwards when the base was 500MB, modern base model Macs would have reached 500GB. Yet today’s consumer PC demand for RAM remains around 8GB to 64GB, and very rarely exceeds double digits.

Computers have also changed a lot over the last several years. RAM has gotten faster. Hard disk drives have been superseded by solid-state storage. Chips and components are more tightly integrated. Apple no longer relies on Intel processors to power its machines, and instead uses high performance system-on-a-chip (SOC) architecture, which fuses CPUs, GPUs, and unified memory into a single package. This is why the company feels confident in arguing that 8GB on a Mac is comparable to 16GB on rival systems.

laptop base ram chart
But that does not change the fact that Apple has offered iMac and MacBook Pro models with 8GB of RAM since 2012. Likewise, the MacBook Air has had the same base memory configuration since 2017. In addition, Apple’s adoption of unified memory means that Macs cannot have their RAM upgraded after purchase, while Apple continues to pursue a strategy of vastly overcharging customers for higher memory configurations. Users often pay out $200 or more at checkout just to future proof their machines.

Apple’s Mac memory configuration strategy is likely to become even more contentious if all upcoming iPhone 16 models turn out to include 8GB of RAM. (In the iPhone 15 series, only the Pro models have 8GB, whereas standard models have 6GB.) Why Apple is prepared to increase RAM in a smartphone but not in a multitasking Mac without users paying excessively for the privilege will be the overriding question on many consumers’ lips.

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Tags Apples, Base, Boosts, Cook, ended, Mac, RAM, Regular, Tim

News

Apple’s 2025 M4 Mac Pro: What to Expect

Post author By miranda cosgrove
Post date April 25, 2024
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Apple last updated the Mac Pro in June 2023, adding an M2 Ultra chip and officially completing the transition away from Intel chips. The ‌Mac Pro‌ uses the same ‌M2‌ Ultra chip that’s in the Mac Studio, leading to criticism about its lack of power.

M4 Mac Pro Feature Warm 2
Apple has now gone back to the drawing board and is working on an updated version of the ‌Mac Pro‌ that’s set to come out next year. This guide highlights everything we know about Apple’s ‌Mac Pro‌ progress.

M4 Chip

The next ‌Mac Pro‌ will have a chip that’s in the M4 family, as Apple is working to update its entire Mac lineup to the M4 series across 2024 and 2025.

Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman believes that Apple wants to establish a more regular Apple silicon chip upgrade cycle that would perhaps see Mac chips refreshed on an annual basis much like chips designed for the iPhone.

Gurman says that the ‌Mac Pro‌ will be equipped with the highest-end version of the M4 chip, which is codenamed “Hidra.” Hidra is likely equivalent to an “Ultra” chip based on the way that Apple has differentiated its chips in the past. The ‌Mac Pro‌ is aimed at professional videographers, photographers, designers, and others who need significant processing power, and some pro users are said to have been unhappy with the ‌M2‌ Ultra ‌Mac Pro‌.

As a result, Apple is looking to make the M4 ‌Mac Pro‌ more powerful.

All of the M4 chips will be designed with a focus on artificial intelligence, with Apple aiming to highlight the AI processing capabilities of the chips and how they’ll integrate into macOS. Apple is adding AI features that will run solely on device to the next operating system updates, so the M4 chips will need to have a lot of compute power.

Rumors suggest that the M4 chips will feature an upgraded Neural Engine with more cores to handle AI tasks.

Unified Memory

The ‌Mac Pro‌ could support up to 500GB Unified Memory, way up from the current 192GB maximum.

Will there be an M3 Mac Pro?

It doesn’t sound like Apple is going to bother with an M3 Ultra chip for the ‌Mac Pro‌, with the company instead focusing effort on the M4 update.

Design Updates

The ‌Mac Pro‌ saw a major design update in 2019, with Apple doing away with the cylindrical “trash can” look in favor of a more reserved aluminum computer tower. There were no design changes to the 2022 model when it was refreshed, and so far we’ve heard nothing about design changes to the upcoming M4 variant.

Launch is still more than a year away though, so it’s possible Apple will make some design updates, at least internally to support M4 chip changes.

Launch Date

The ‌Mac Pro‌ is expected to be the last of Apple’s Macs to get the M4 chip, and rumors suggest that it will come out in late 2025.

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Tags Apples, Expect, Mac, Pro

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Best Buy Introduces Record Low Prices on Apple’s M3 MacBook Pro for Members

Post author By miranda cosgrove
Post date April 25, 2024
No Comments on Best Buy Introduces Record Low Prices on Apple’s M3 MacBook Pro for Members

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Best Buy is discounting a collection of M3 MacBook Pro computers today, this time focusing on the 14-inch version of the laptop. Every deal in this sale requires you to have a My Best Buy Plus or Total membership, although non-members can still get solid second-best prices on these MacBook Pro models.

macbook pro purple february Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Best Buy. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Only M3 models are being discounted to notable all-time low prices during this sale, although the higher-end M3 Pro and M3 Max MacBook Pros are seeing a few second-best prices. In terms of the 14-inch M3 MacBook Pro, there are three total models on sale right now at Best Buy. The cheapest model is the 512GB M3 model at $1,399.00, down from $1,599.00.

Note: My Best Buy Plus/Total membership required to see final deal price.

For anyone who doesn’t have My Best Buy Plus or Total, you can still get $150 off the 14-inch M3 MacBook Pro. These MacBook Pro models launched last October, featuring mini-LED displays, MagSafe fast charging, Wi-Fi 6E, a six-speaker sound system, and more.

Be sure to visit our full Deals Roundup to shop for even more Apple-related products and accessories.

Netflix’s Wednesday season 2 cast clicks into gear with Westworld star addition as Apple’s Neuromancer series finds its lead

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There’s good news for fans of William Gibson’s fictional AI Neuromancer and Wednesday, the ongoing tales of Charles Addams’ creepy and kooky family. Both shows’ already impressive casts have just announced some equally impressive new additions.

First up, BAFTA award-nominated Callum Turner from Masters of the Air and The Boys in the Boat is going to be appearing in Neuromancer. Based on Gibson’s book of the same name, it’s a 10-part Apple TV Plus series following a largely broken top-tier hacker called Case (Turner). Case stumbles into a tangled web of electronic espionage and corporate skulduggery with suitably thrilling results, and the source novel won stacks of literary awards and helped define what would come to be known as cyberpunk.

I’ve got high hopes for this one. I loved Gibson’s books but despite Keanu Reeve’s best efforts in Johhny Mnemonic, which was based on one of Gibson’s short stories, he’s proved hard to adapt well. This new series is coming from the same production company as Foundation, so the omens here are very good indeed.

See you next Wednesday

Every new casting announcement for Wednesday season two is an exciting one, and fresh from the revelation that Steve Buscemi would be appearing in the second season of the Netflix show we have another massive name: Thandiwe Newton. Best known for her Emmy-winning role in Westword, Newton was also great in movies such as Crash, Beloved and The Pursuit of Happyness.

The casting news comes via Variety, which has the exclusive – but unfortunately Variety’s sources don’t yet know any more details. And that’s true of season two more widely. As Variety says: “Few details are available about the new season of Wednesday, aside from the fact Jenna Ortega will return as the titular Addams Family daughter going through her teenage years.” The show is one of Netflix’s biggest ever hits and racked up an incredible 12 Emmy nominations, of which it won four – so you can see why Netflix managing to attract such big-name talent for the second season.

Both Neuromancer and season two of Wednesday are expected to stream this year, although there’s no news of a streaming date for either show just yet.

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Tags addition, Apples, Cast, clicks, Finds, Gear, lead, Netflixs, Neuromancer, Season, series, Star, Wednesday, Westworld

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Apple Watch Series 9 Now Available on Apple’s Refurbished Store in U.S.

Post author By miranda cosgrove
Post date April 24, 2024
No Comments on Apple Watch Series 9 Now Available on Apple’s Refurbished Store in U.S.

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Apple today began selling certified refurbished Apple Watch Series 9 models in the U.S. for the first time since the device was released in September.

Apple Watch Series 9
The refurbished Series 9 models are discounted by approximately 15% compared to the equivalent brand new models, with pricing starting at $339, down from $399. A variety of configurations are available as of writing.

Apple says it puts all of its refurbished products through a thorough cleaning process and inspection, and performs full functionality testing. In general, refurbished products sold directly by Apple have a very good reputation.

Like new Series 9 models sold directly by Apple in the U.S. currently, we expect that the Blood Oxygen app is deactivated on the refurbished models, due to a legal battle with medical technology company Masimo. Last year, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) banned Apple from importing and selling Apple Watch models with blood oxygen sensing after it ruled that the feature infringed on Masimo’s patents. Apple is appealing the decision, and could re-enable the Blood Oxygen app with a watchOS update if it is overturned.

As a reminder, Apple began selling refurbished Apple Watch Ultra 2 models in the U.S. and select other countries last week.

Apple’s new iPad Pro 11-inch could be in short supply due to Samsung

Post author By miranda cosgrove
Post date April 24, 2024
No Comments on Apple’s new iPad Pro 11-inch could be in short supply due to Samsung

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Apple is ready to launch its new flagship iPads, and the company has teased its next launch event for May 7. That’s when Apple’s new OLED-equipped iPad Pros will likely be unveiled, but one of those iPads could be in short supply due to Samsung.

Apple’s OLED 11-inch iPad Pro could face shortages

Apple is expected to launch two versions of the iPad Pro, one with an 11-inch OLED screen and the other with a 12.9-inch OLED screen. The 11-inch variant reportedly uses LG Display’s and Samsung Display’s OLED panels, while the 12.9-inch variant exclusively uses LG Display’s OLED panel. However, according to industry insider Ross Young (via 9To5Mac), the shipments of the 12.9-inch OLED iPad Pro seem to be higher than those of the 11-inch variant.

Ross Young claims that Samsung has been facing technical challenges in producing 11-inch OLED panels for new iPad Pros. He also claims that this situation could persist throughout May and affect the availability of the upcoming iPad Pro. A 9To5Mac report claimed that drivers found in iPadOS 17.5 reveal that the upcoming iPad Pros use display panels from LG and Samsung.

Previous reports claim that upcoming iPad Pro models from Apple use a completely new type of OLED panel. It is called a two-stack tandem OLED panel with two emissive layers. Such a panel is said to offer longer life, higher brightness, and a lower chance of pixel burn-in.

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Tags 11inch, Apples, due, iPad, Pro, Samsung, Short, Supply

News

Apple’s M4 Mac Studio: What We Know So Far

Post author By miranda cosgrove
Post date April 23, 2024
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Apple is planning to refresh the entire Mac lineup with updated M4 chips starting in late 2024 and continuing into 2025, and that will include a new M4 chip for Apple’s mid-tier desktop machine, the Mac Studio.

M4 Mac Studio Feature

M4 Chip Rumors

Apple has a lineup of M4 chips in development, including the standard M4, the M4 Pro and M4 Max, and a higher-end version that’s codenamed “Hidra.” This higher-end chip could be an “Ultra” version that’s equivalent to the M2 Ultra, or it might even be something even more powerful.

With the ‌M2‌ lineup, the ‌M2‌ Ultra is a chip that is in fact two ‌M2‌ Max chips linked together. There is no M3 Ultra at this time, but the architecture of the M3 Max chip has led to speculation that future Ultra chips might be standalone chips rather than constructed from two Max dies.

The M3 Max seems to lack the UltraFusion interconnect that allowed the ‌M2‌ Max chips to function as an Ultra. Because that’s missing, it’s likely the Ultra chip would have dedicated development with customizations for heavy workloads. Apple could tweak the number of performance and efficiency cores to focus on power, and add more GPU cores.

Current ‌Mac Studio‌ machines use ‌M2‌ Max and ‌M2‌ Ultra chips, so we can expect the M4 models to be equipped with M4 Max and M4 Ultra (or its equivalent) chips. Aside from the Mac Pro, the ‌Mac Studio‌ is the only Apple machine that uses “Ultra” chips.

The ‌Mac Studio‌ is designed for Mac users who have system intensive workflows that require advanced compute and graphics capabilities. There isn’t a lot of differentiation between the ‌Mac Studio‌ and ‌Mac Pro‌ as of right now, so Apple may be planning for a more powerful M4 Ultra variant for the ‌Mac Pro‌.

Apple is going all-in on artificial intelligence across its product lineup in the coming months, so the M4 is expected to have a focus on boosting AI and machine learning performance. Rumors suggest there will be an updated Neural Engine with a greater number of cores to handle AI tasks.

Memory Updates

The next ‌Mac Studio‌ and ‌Mac Pro‌ could support as much as 500GB of Unified Memory, up from the current 192GB maximum.

What About the M3?

With Apple planning to refresh the ‌Mac Studio‌ with M4 chips in 2025, it’s not entirely clear as of yet if there will be an M3 refresh this year.

The iMac, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air lines have been updated with M3 chips, but the Mac mini, ‌Mac Studio‌, and ‌Mac Pro‌ are still using ‌M2‌ chips. With the M4 refresh already planned, Apple could skip the M3 update for its desktop machines, but it’s also possible we’ll get an M3 refresh around the middle of the year and a second M4 refresh next year, which would put a year between each update.

Apple is testing a version of the ‌Mac Studio‌ with an M3 processor, so an update this year and then a second update next year is plausible.

Design Changes

The ‌Mac Studio‌ hasn’t had a design update since it was first launched in March 2022, but it hasn’t really existed long enough to need a refresh. Apple tends to wait several years before making major changes to Mac hardware, and we are not expecting the ‌Mac Studio‌ to get a refreshed look in the near future.

It will likely be closer to 2026 or 2027 before Apple considers updating the design, though it could be even longer. The ‌Mac mini‌ has not seen notable design changes since 2010.

Release Date

According to Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman, the ‌Mac Studio‌ with M4 chip is expected to be released in mid-2025, which would suggest a possible introduction at the 2025 Worldwide Developers Conference.

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Tags Apples, Mac, Studio

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Get Up to $105 Off Apple’s M3 iMacs on Amazon, Starting at $1,199

Post author By miranda cosgrove
Post date April 23, 2024
No Comments on Get Up to $105 Off Apple’s M3 iMacs on Amazon, Starting at $1,199

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Amazon is back with a big sale on the newest 24-inch M3 iMac, including both 256GB and 512GB models. This time around, the deals do not require any sort of coupon in order to see the final discounted price.

iMac Deals Blue Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Starting with the 8-core GPU/256GB M3 iMac, this model is available for $1,199.00 in two colors, down from $1,299.00. Amazon also has the 10-core GPU/256GB M3 iMac on sale for $1,409.00, down from $1,499.00. This one is available in four colors.

Note: You won’t see the deal price until checkout.

Lastly, the 10-core GPU/512GB M3 iMac has hit $1,594.00 in three colors, down from $1,699.00. All of Amazon’s deals today are solid second-best prices on the M3 iMac, and right now many of the computers can be delivered as soon as this Friday, April 26 if you have a Prime membership.

Apple launched the M3 iMac back in October 2023, bringing significant speed and efficiency improvements with the upgrade from the M1 to the M3 chip. Otherwise, there are no major design changes to the newest iMac model. Keep up with all of this week’s best discounts on Apple products and related accessories in our dedicated Apple Deals roundup.

Apple’s M4 MacBook Pro Lineup: What to Expect

Post author By miranda cosgrove
Post date April 19, 2024
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Apple is planning to refresh the MacBook Pro with M4 chips starting in late 2024, and this guide aggregates everything that we know about Apple’s M4 MacBook Pro plans.

M4 AI Optimized Feature Siri

M4 Update

Apple built the M3 chip on a new 3-nanometer process, and we are not expecting a node change for the M4. It too will be a 3-nanometer chip, but Apple supplier TSMC could introduce updates that make it more efficient and faster.

New artificial intelligence capabilities are rumored for Apple’s upcoming products, and so the M4 will focus on AI. Apple wants to improve performance for AI functionality, and rumors suggest that the M4 (and the A18 chips for iPhone) will have an upgraded Neural Engine with “significantly” more cores.

The M3 chips all have a 16-core Neural Engine, and Apple has not increased the Neural Engine cores for several years.

Entry-Level 14-Inch MacBook Pro

With the M3 chip launch last year, Apple did away with the 13-inch MacBook Pro. It’s been replaced with the 14-inch MacBook Pro, which Apple now offers with three different chip options.

The entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro has an M3 chip and a $1,599 starting price, and this is the model that will get the standard M4 chip. The current M3 chip has an 8-core CPU and up to a 10-core GPU, and the M4 could be similar.

Higher-End 14-Inch and 16-Inch MacBook Pro Models

For customers who want a more “pro” machine, the higher-end 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models are set to be refreshed with M4 Pro and M4 Max chips, which are more powerful versions of the faster M4 chip.

The current M3 Pro has up to a 12-core CPU and up to an 18-core GPU, while the M3 Max has up to a 16-core CPU and up to a 40-core GPU. CPU and GPU improvements for the M4 Pro and M4 Max aren’t yet known.

Design Changes?

There are no rumors of a design change for the MacBook Pro at this time, and we’re not quite due for one. Apple last updated the MacBook Pro design in 2021 with the transition to Apple silicon. In recent history, Apple has redesigned the MacBook in 2012, 2016, and 2021, so following that pattern, we’ll see the next design tweak in 2025 or 2026.

This year’s M-series update will likely be limited to the MacBook Pro’s internals.

Launch Date

According to Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman, the entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro could get an M4 chip in late 2024, while the timeline for the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro refresh is estimated at late 2024 to early 2025.

We could see the M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max variants come out all at once like the M3 chip lineup, or Apple could space them out across several months.

The M3 MacBook Pro models came out in October 2023, so a refresh around October 2024 would come at the one-year mark.

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Tags Apples, Expect, lineup, MacBook, Pro

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M4 Chip

Unified Memory

Will there be an M3 Mac Pro?

Design Updates

Launch Date

Popular Stories

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Apple’s OLED 11-inch iPad Pro could face shortages

M4 Chip Rumors

Memory Updates

What About the M3?

Design Changes

Release Date

Popular Stories

M4 Update

Entry-Level 14-Inch MacBook Pro

Higher-End 14-Inch and 16-Inch MacBook Pro Models

Design Changes?

Launch Date