When iTunes was introduced to MacOS in 2001, it brought along a media revolution but was quickly hindered by the addition of features and capabilities that caused the once lightweight application to become a piece of bloatware. A light appears to be on the horizon as sources, including developer Steve Troughton-Smith, have noted that Apple will plan to split the application into a range of different pieces of software. The purported change is said to be coming with the next major release of MacOS, 10.15.
Troughton-Smith noted on Twitter that he discovered evidence that the split of iTunes is likely to occur shortly. Guilherme Rambo, a technology writer and developer, has also independently confirmed this possibility to be true. Each new application is said to be built upon the latest version of Apple’s Marzipan foundation, meaning that they are likely to be replicas of their iOS app counterparts.
With music, podcast, and TV apps already available on the iPad, it isn’t hard to imagine how the software may appear when launched. Marzipan was shown off at Worldwide Developers Conference 2018, allowing developers to see how they might develop a single application for both iOS and MacOS. Existing Marzipan apps currently on the Mac platform include the news, home, voice memos, and stocks apps — both which have been criticized for their performance.
The soon-to-be-old-fashioned iTunes app is rumored to be kept around a bit longer to assist with features such as manual device syncing for iPods and iPhones — yet another push for individuals to keep their devices managed through iCloud. One last app to see an update in the next version of MacOS is rumored to be the Books app, but it is unknown whether it will be a simple redesign or based upon the company’s Marzipan developer technology.
Apple introduced a new version of MacOS every year since 10.7 Lion was unveiled in 2011. Thus, we have solid ground to expect that MacOS 10.5 is likely to hit later this year with an announcement at WWDC and a launch sometime in autumn. Note, information about WWDC and MacOS 10.15 is deduced based on Apple’s typical release cycle, not insider knowledge.
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.