Over the last few weeks, we’ve seen a spate of leaks showing off what are alleged to be the upcoming M4 MacBook Pro. From photos of retail boxes to full-blown unboxing videos, the internet has been awash with the next MacBook Pro, despite the fact that Apple hasn’t even announced it yet.
Despite the constant media attention, there have been consistent doubts about the leaks — for some, they just had a few too many question marks to be trusted. Yet Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman has just dropped a bombshell by throwing his weight behind the leaks, writing in his latest Power On newsletter: “I can confirm that these are indeed Apple’s upcoming M4 MacBook Pros.” Gurman is one of the most accurate and consistent Apple leakers in the business and claims to have sources deep inside the company. So, when he says something is genuine, there’s a good chance he’s right.
According to Gurman, there are a few reasons to vouch for the devices shown online. For one thing, “the specifications — as well as the internal model numbers for the device — all align with what I’ve been reporting for weeks,” Gurman says. Presumably, Gurman has been able to confirm the leaks’ veracity with his sources inside Apple, leading him to be confident in his conclusions.
If Gurman is right and these are the actual M4 MacBook Pro laptops that we’ll be seeing at Apple’s October event in a few weeks’ time, there are some major implications from this whole affair, for us as consumers and for Apple as a company.
If you’re a consumer and are interested in getting a new MacBook Pro, the confirmed leaks come with a healthy dose of good news. For instance, Gurman believes that the leaked photos and videos depicted the base configuration of the new MacBook Pro, rather than a higher-end option with upgraded parts.
If that’s so, then the entry-level MacBook Pro should be getting some tasty upgrades. The models shown in all the leaks bore the same internal configuration: M4 chip, 16GB of memory and 512GB of storage. The difference here when compared to the M3 MacBook Pro is that Apple appears to be doubling the memory in the entry-level MacBook Pro, up from 8GB to 16GB. That should provide a welcome boost to multitasking and any memory-intensive workloads, while also fixing a problem that Apple has been denying for close to a year.
As well as that, the leaked MacBook Pro models are equipped with three Thunderbolt 4 ports. That’s a serious upgrade on the two Thunderbolt 3 slots the current MacBook Pro gets, both in terms of quantity and capability. And if you’re a fan of Apple’s SpaceBlack colorway, it looks like that will no longer be restricted to high-end MacBook Pro models, with the base M4 version sporting this color as well.
But while the implications of the leaked MacBooks are pretty encouraging for us consumers, they’re far less so for Apple. That’s because a breach of this scale and audacity has never happened to the company before. Sure, the iPhone 4 leaked in 2010, but that was just a single unit. This time we’ve got 200 units of the M4 MacBook Pro apparently up for sale, as well as multiple hands-on videos by Russian YouTubers and photos revealing all of the product’s internal specs. When it comes to the M4 MacBook Pro, it seems that nothing is secret or unknown anymore.
Before Gurman’s Power On report, the major doubt surrounding these leaks was that the M4 MacBook Pro appeared to have the same desktop wallpaper on its packaging as the M3 MacBook Pro. It’s incredibly rare for Apple to do this from generation to generation — I certainly can’t think of a time when Apple has used exactly the same wallpaper two versions running — and it seemed like a huge giveaway that these laptops were not authentic.
Yet while Gurman concedes that this is move is “an odd and rare choice,” he maintains that “I am certain these machines are the real deal.” Somewhere deep inside Apple, someone must have confirmed to Gurman that Apple has made this strange choice and that the laptops are legitimate.
As for how the Russian YouTubers got the laptops despite Apple enforcing a trade embargo with Russia, Gurman says, “I believe these [laptops] were stolen elsewhere in Europe before being sent to the country.” Without access to Gurman’s connections, none of us can confirm this for ourselves, but it certainly seems plausible.
With just a few weeks to go until the M4 MacBook Pro hits store shelves (Gurman expects it to go on sale around November 1), there’s not long before we find out if these leaks are on the money. With someone as prominent as Gurman giving them his blessing, you wouldn’t want to bet against them.
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.