ICYMI: Apple’s new product rollout

Graphic+of+the+Apple+logo+on+a+nighttime+background

Photo courtesy of Images via Creative Commons

Graphic of the Apple logo on a nighttime background

In case you missed it, Apple recently revealed its new Macbook Pro, Airpods, Homepod mini and more during its Oct. 18 Apple Event, which was streamed via Youtube.

Prior to the event, Apple made a short film to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Steve Job’s death. In the film, Steve Jobs states “ I think you have to be different to buy an Apple computer.” And that quote resonates with all of his Apple products and vision for the company itself.

Here are the products unveiled at the event:

Apple Music

Thanks to Apple’s new updates, we can enjoy our favorite songs in the comfort of our homes or while we’re working out in the gym.

Apple wants to enhance that experience by creating playlists that are perfect for any setting we’re in. For example, if you ask Siri to start an exercise playlist, you’ll get an auto-generated selection of songs from different artists.

Apple has also revealed the Voice Plan for $4.99 a month, which allows you to work together with Siri to access every song, playlist or station available on all Apple devices.

Homepod Mini

Delivering nothing but comfort to your home, Apple has revealed how the Homepod Mini, Apple’s new smart speaker, can complement your home even more.

The Apple Homepod Mini comes in yellow, orange and blue. These colors are bold and can enhance any home space allowing anyone to enjoy music throughout their homes with multiroom audio.

On top of that, you can set reminders for yourself, using only your voice. The Homepod Mini starts at only $99 starting in November.

Airpods

By moving music between different channels, spatial audio immerses you in whatever you’re listening to.

Spatial audio is available on devices like the Airpods Pro and Airpod Max; however, Apple wants to improve its user experience by introducing its third generation of Airpods.

The new sweat and water-resistant Airpods have a force sensor that allows users to have more control over their music and phone calls.

Furthermore, the new Airpods have a higher bass, cleaner high frequencies and six hours of listening time (30 hours with the charging case) to keep your music going.

You can experience the third generation of Airpods for $179 and Apple is taking orders today as the Airpods will be available next week.

M1 Pro & M1 Max

Introducing the M1 Pro, Apple has created a new architecture based on the prior M1. This doubles the width of the memory interface and uses faster DRAM delivering up to 200 gigabytes per second of memory bandwidth (nearly three times of M1), custom packages that support up to 32 gigabytes of unified memory, and 70% faster CPU performance with more 8 GPU cores than the M1.

The M1 Max, is an enhanced version of the M1 Pro, with higher bandwidth and doubled memory interface that delivers up to 400 gigabytes per second of memory bandwidth and 64 gigabytes of unified memory, making it their largest chip yet.
The M1 Max’s GPU performance is four times faster than the M1 with less power consumption than a normal PC chip. Like the M1 Pro, the M1 Max scales up the architecture even further.

It goes without saying that the M1 has been a major aspect of the Apple iMacs’ performance and during the event, we saw how Apple took the M1 to the next level reimagining the Macbook Pro.

MacOS

Working with Apple Silicon, MacOS is designed to take advantage of the unified memory architecture in the M1 Pro & M1 Max allowing pro apps to manipulate huge images or video streams and move them between the CPU and GPU.

Apple Silicon allows various apps to perform even better than before because every app runs natively on Apple silicon. A dynamic binary translator, called Rosetta 2, was introduced as part of the Apple Event (a platform that ensures compatibility between different instructions set architectures for MacOS/macOS apps) in order to boost app performance within the MacOS/macOS technologies. This allows apps like Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro to run even faster than before.

Macbook Pro
Offering a higher resolution than its predecessors, the 2021 Macbook Pro has more ports for HDMI, SDXC cards, and MagSafe charging.

Thanks to M1 Pro and M1 Max, the Apple team has been taking full advantage of the performance and capabilities they have for their new Macbook Pro. This Macbook offers up to two external displays up to 6k resolution at 60Hz with the M1 Pro while the M1 Max offers up to three external displays with up to 6k resolution and one external display with up to 4k resolution at 60Hz.

Furthermore, the charging is faster than it was before offering 50% battery within 30 minutes.

Both of the 14-inch and 16-inch models have the same custom build options. Despite the prices for the new Macbook Pros starting at $2,000, the upgrades from its previous computers are worth it. You probably have a good idea of which specs are right for your workflow if you’re considering the new MacBook Pro.