After teasing that a new Mac Pro was in the works back in 2017, Apple convened another reporter roundtable to clear up any misconceptions about the timeline — and to illustrate just what we should expect from the new and improved Mac Pro. First off, it’s not coming in 2018. Speaking with TechCrunch, Apple was quick to point out that the Mac Pro is a 2019 product.
“We know that there’s a lot of customers today that are making purchase decisions on the iMac Pro and whether or not they should wait for the Mac Pro,” Apple’s Tom Boger told TechCrunch. “We want to be transparent and communicate openly with our pro community so we want them to know that the Mac Pro is a 2019 product.”
Apple’s reason for coming clean about the timeline is a simple one: the iMac Pro just came out and its professional customers are no doubt eyeballing the powerful — if expensive — all-in-one as a replacement for aging Mac Pro hardware. This year’s roundtable discussion of the upcoming Mac Pro was all about assuaging fears Apple’s professional customers might have about the product, and about its future.
“We recognize that they want to hear more from us. And so we want to communicate better with them. We want them to understand the importance they have for us,” Apple’s Phil Schiller said. “We want them to understand that we’re investing in new Macs — not only new MacBook Pros and iMacs but Mac Pros for them, we want them to know we are going to work on a display for a modular system.”
The new Mac Pro will be built around the needs of its users, the company claims. Apple reportedly paid close attention to how people actually used the Mac Pro in order to develop the next generation of the high-end computer. In fact, Apple even went as far as hiring a number of creative professionals in order to watch how they interact with Apple hardware.
“Apple decided to go a step further and just begin hiring these creatives directly into Apple. Some of them on a contract basis but many full-time as well. These are award-winning artists and technicians that are brought in to shoot real projects,” TechCrunch reported.
This level of attention to detail is what Mac users expect from Apple and it’s refreshing to see the company devote massive amounts of time and energy toward understanding how its customers use its pro-grade products, in order to tailor them to user demands.
Need an Apple fix now? Don’t despair: Apple sells great MacBooks today, the company just launched a new iPad, and it plans to release as many as three new Macs with custom, Apple guts in 2018.
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.