Ever since they changed from Intel processors to Apple silicon chips, Apple’s MacBooks have boasted phenomenal battery life. Now, it looks like the new 16-inch and 14-inch MacBook Pro laptops due out this year could take their battery power even further.
That’s if a new report from DigiTimes (via MacRumors) is to be believed. The outlet has claimed that the new MacBooks — which it says will launch later this year — will feature improved displays that are even more power-efficient than the company’s existing ones.
Specifically, DigiTimes cites industry sources who believe that the upcoming laptops will come with “mini-LED backlighting that can increase the display brightness by 10% compared to the first-generation specifications.”
Interestingly, DigiTimes notes that “The brightness enhancement is not meant to improve picture quality, but rather to save power and improve battery life.” If the mini-LEDs inside the display are brighter by default, the laptop will need to supply less power to them to get the same brightness as in the existing MacBook Pro models. That could potentially see battery life soar to even greater heights.
There’s a little uncertainty concerning one detail in the report, though. DigiTimes claims the updated MacBook Pro models will be released in the fourth quarter of 2023, which falls between October 1 and December 31. However, that doesn’t really jibe with the launch date other experts have predicted.
For instance, journalist Mark Gurman has claimed that Apple’s high-end MacBook Pros — that is, the 14-inch and 16-inch versions — probably won’t be updated until the middle of 2024, while analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has also pegged next year as the launch date. The current models were only refreshed in January 2023, so it would be highly unusual for Apple to upgrade the same laptops twice in a single year (especially considering how expensive these ones are).
Just this week, though, it was reported that Apple will soon update its Mac trade-in program to accept more products, which could be a sign that a new Mac is about to launch. Yet as we said at the time, it’s not even certain if this new Mac will be a laptop, never mind one of Apple’s high-end MacBook Pros.
Ultimately, we’ll have to wait to see if DigiTimes is right regarding both the release date and the display brightness. If it’s correct about the new screens, though, we could see Apple’s MacBooks make one of their best features even better.
After spending years with touchscreen Windows laptops, I've become rather accustomed to reaching out and tapping the screen if I just want to interact with something quickly. It's a small convenience, one that feels natural as soon as you get used to it. But whenever I use a MacBook for a bit, I inevitably find myself reaching for the screen before realizing that Apple has never offered this feature for its notebooks.
Apple has resisted touchscreen Macs for years, but that might finally change. The company is reportedly preparing to introduce its first touchscreen MacBook Pro, complete with an OLED display and a redesigned interface that accommodates touch input. Not to be confused with the new $2,000 M6 MacBook Pro, which just launched with minimal updates over its predecessor.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Google DeepMind's AI world model Genie 4 can now build interactive worlds that you can explore and reshape as they run. It also generates ambient sounds, music, and dialogue that respond to your actions.
The new world model builds on Genie 3 with improved realism, more natural human movement, and better simulations of real-world physics. It could eventually help with everything from game development to training robots.