Category: Apple

The 2018 MacBook Air and Mac mini are out in the world, and that means we know a lot more about what’s going on under the hood of these new machines.

iFixit has taken apart the new notebook, and there are a few interesting things to note:

• It has the exact same keyboard as the 2018 MacBook Pros, membrane and all.
• The battery can be replaced separate from the top case, unlike other modern Mac notebooks.
• It does indeed have a fan.

The group has also taken apart the new Mac mini, as Quinn at Snazzy Labs:

Continue reading ⇢

Samuel Axon over at Ars Technica got to sit down with Apple’s Anand Shimpi¹ Marketing Phil Schiller to talk about the silicon powering the new iPad Pro. It’s a fascinating read and shows how deep Apple is into this world.

Intel should feel nervous.

Continue reading ⇢

Benchmarks from the 2018 MacBook Air are trickling out, and they are about what I expected. The machine is faster than the 12-inch MacBook, but not as quick as the entry-level MacBook Pro. Juli Clover has the numbers over at MacRumors: Single-Core Performance:

• 2018 MacBook Air - 4248
• 2017 MacBook Air - 3335
• 1.4GHz 2017 MacBook - 3925
• 1.3GHz 2017 MacBook - 3630
• 1.2GHz 2017 MacBook - 3527
• 2.3GHz 2018 MacBook Pro - 4504
• 2.3GHz 2017 MacBook Pro - 4314

Multi-Core Performance:

Continue reading ⇢

My Internet Friend Quinn from Snazzy Labs has posted a really cool video looking at how the team at MacStadium works.

Continue reading ⇢

Some quick numbers because I’m not making charts anymore:

• Revenue: $62.9 billion, up 20% year-over-year
• Services revenue reached an all-time high of $10 billion
• 46.9 million iPhones were sold, basically flat over last year, but revenue for the iPhone was up 29%.
• 19.7 million iPads were sold, down 6% YOY
• 5.3 million Macs were sold, down 2% YOY
• “Other products” saw 31% growth.

Remember, this quarter ended at the end of September, so it doesn’t include the iPhone XR, or any new Macs or iPads.

Continue reading ⇢

Jordan Kahn, writing at 9to5Mac:

Apple is introducing a new “Repair Vintage Apple Products Pilot” program that will extend the period of time customers can receive repairs for older devices, according to sources familiar with the initiative. The new program at first will include the iPhone 5 and other Apple products that are about to become obsolete, and in the coming weeks will add more products to the list for devices that previously lost repair support.

Continue reading ⇢

Ryan Smith at AnandTech has confirmed that the MacBook Air uses the Core i5-8210Y:

The i5-8210Y is one of Intel’s new Amber Lake-Y CPUs. Launched back in August, Amber Lake is Intel’s latest-generation 5W(ish) chips and goes under the 8th Gen Core branding. Compared to the Broadwell (5th Gen Core) chips in the previous MacBook Air, these chips represent a big step up in capabilities and performance, incorporating a newer CPU core design as well as a newer GPU design. However it’s also notable that the new chips, even in cTDP Up mode, are also much lower power than the older 15W U-series chips Apple used, which means that processor power consumption should be significantly reduced – and the chips thinner as well – though the total performance gain won’t be quite as much as if Apple had stuck with U-series chips.

Continue reading ⇢

Apple Support:

This update:

• Adds support for Group FaceTime video and audio calls, which support up to 32 participants simultaneously, are encrypted end-to-end for privacy, and can be initiated from a group Messages conversation, or joined at any time during an active call.
• Adds over 70 new emoji characters, including new characters with red hair, gray hair and curly hair, new emoji for bald people, more emotive smiley faces and additional emoji representing animals, sports and food.

Get it now, via the new Software Update pane in System Preferences.

Continue reading ⇢

Federico, writing from today’s Apple event:

I believe, however, that one thing is already clear: these new iPad Pros are ushering us into a new era of iPad design and functionality as a truly portable computer that can scale from couch to desk, from wireless accessories to USB-C connections, and from games and note-taking apps to Photoshop, AR, and beyond. It almost feels like Apple has taken the best aspects of the iPhone X experience and applied them to reimagine the modern portable computer in the shape of an iPad.

Continue reading ⇢

Retina MacBook Air.

Retina. MacBook Air.

Retina. MacBook. Air.

It’s a thing, and it comes in silver, space gray and gold. It’s on Apple’s website and everything:

The most loved Mac is about to make you fall in love all over again. Available in silver, space gray, and gold, the new thinner and lighter MacBook Air features a brilliant Retina display, Touch ID, the latest-generation keyboard, and a Force Touch trackpad. The iconic wedge is created from 100 percent recycled aluminum, making it the greenest Mac ever. And with all-day battery life, MacBook Air is your perfectly portable, do-it-all notebook.

Continue reading ⇢

Today, Apple announced a new Mac mini.

I’m just going let us all bask in that for a moment.

The form factor seems to be the same, but now in Space Gray, which according to Apple, “pros just love”. I can’t really argue with that, I suppose, looking at my iMac Pro and MacBook Pro.

(A nice bonus is that all Mac minis are made from 100% recycled aluminum.)

Around back, there’s a new set of IO built for our modern day:

Continue reading ⇢

Going to try something new for this event and just update this blog post as it goes along.

08:57 AM: Cooked some turkey bacon and scrambled a couple of eggs. These morning Apple events are a nice change.

08:59 AM: I’ve gotten my original Mac mini off the shelf and have it here on my desk, as a good luck charm.

09:02 AM: I don’t do drugs, but if I did, this event intro with the morphing Apple logos would be less jarring.

Continue reading ⇢