The unveiling of the Vision Pro headset was a big moment for Apple, but not one without its fair share of lukewarm responses. And now, the company may be facing another issue: production problems.
According to a report from The Financial Times, Apple is having to dramatically cut the production of the Vision Pro from over one million to less than 400,000. This reportedly comes from two sources close to both Apple and the manufacturer, Luxshare. The China-based company has increasingly become an important supplier to Apple since last year when it took on more of the share of production of iPhones, AirPods, and other Apple devices in the wake of the protests over pandemic lockdowns at Foxconn.
The over one million was reportedly the target internal sales goal, which is pretty ambitious for a brand-new device that costs $3,499. The report doesn’t indicate that the drop in production is due to lowered expectations around demand. Rather, it seems to be more of a problem with actually getting these things made.
The industry is still catching up to the manufacturing issues created during the pandemic, even for a company as commanding as Apple. But a new product is a new product, especially one as custom and high-end as the Vision Pro. TechCrunch’s summary of the report notes the difficulty of the tiny, 4K mini-OLED displays in particular.
The report also notes that there may be a trickle-down effect on the release of the cheaper version of the Vision Pro — presumedly called just the Vision. While the Vision Pro was scheduled for a release in 2024, the cheaper model is rumored for 2025. We’ll have to see how the release dates play out, but clearly, bringing these new “spatial computing” devices into existence isn’t going to be easy as a new MacBook or iPad.
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.