With the Vision Pro out of the way, the question as to what Apple’s next big project will be has been a mystery. The Apple Car seems to have been canned, and we now have some hints at what could be coming next — and get ready, because it’s sounds absolutely wild.
According to a report from Mark Gurman at Bloomberg, Apple is pursuing a new project that involves a tabletop robot that can function like a home base for your smart home. With a 360-degree arm that includes an iPad-like device attached to the end of it, the robot will reportedly accomplish tasks like monitoring your home security, connecting you to video calls, and more. The arm is reportedly “thin” and uses actuators for tilting the screen up and down.
Gurman is reporting that “a team of several hundred people” are now on the project, and it’s being led by the executives who abandoned the Apple Car. In particular, Kevin Lynch, vice president of technology, will be in charge of bringing the project to fruition.
The report, which references unnamed sources “knowledgeable of the matter,” claims that Apple is shooting for a launch for the product in 2026 or 2027. The estimated cost, as you can imagine, is quite high at around $1,000.
Rumors about Apple pivoting into robotics aren’t new, but this report seems like the firmest evidence that the company is getting serious. Of course, this is still a distant project, and as we’ve learned with the Apple Car, these types of efforts don’t always come to fruition.
Still, it’s fascinating to imagine Apple investing heavily into robotics, especially in the home setting.
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.