Apple announced its deal with OpenAI as part of Apple Intelligence at WWDC 2024, and now more details have been released about the partnership. According to reports from Bloomberg, Apple will get an observer role on OpenAI’s board of directors — just like Microsoft.
Former marketing chief and current Apple Fellow Phil Schiller is the one taking the job — he’ll get to look in on OpenAI’s board meetings and find out what the company is planning and how it makes its decisions. As the “observer” role name suggests, however, he will not be able to vote or otherwise participate in meeting procedures.
According to earlier reports, the partnership between Apple and OpenAI is totally cash-free. Instead, it appears OpenAI gets long-term exposure for ChatGPT, and in return, Apple gets this opportunity to stay up-to-date with the development of OpenAI products. However, there could easily be other factors at play as well.
ChatGPT broke records as the fastest-growing consumer application in history, so you might wonder if it really needs any “exposure” from Apple. But talk of the so-called “AI bubble” suggests we don’t yet know whether interest in AI will stand the test of time. By teaming up with the oldest tech giants around, OpenAI can prepare for multiple outcomes.
OpenAI’s other observer, Microsoft, has already been working closely with the company for a long time, and even made investments when it was still a startup. Recently, they partnered up on Microsoft Copilot — which makes it seem like ChatGPT is behind all the big AI products right now. Despite their long friendship, however, macOS was the first operating system to get a native ChatGPT app.
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.