Kaby Lake, the upcoming 7th generation of Intel Core processors, is currently shipping to computer makers, meaning computers and tablets powered by the chip should be available in a couple of months, when autumn arrives. This information was revealed during Intel’s Q2 earnings call.
Kaby Lake has native USB 3.1 support, native HDCP 2.2 support, native Thunderbolt 3 support, and a thermal design power of up to 95 watts. It’s also built on a 14-nanometer production process, the same as Skylake and Broadwell before it.
That makes Kaby Lake a break in Intel’s longstanding “tick-tock” schedule, established in 2007. This schedule meant each release would either be built on a smaller production process than the previous release, a tick, or a comprehensive architecture update, a tock. This allowed each new Intel chip to directly build on techniques established with the previous generation.
But while Skylake, the previous generation, was a tock, Kaby Lake will not be a tick. Which is to say, it will be built on the same 14nm form factor as Skylake and Broadwell, the previous two generations.
Part of this is Intel coming up against the laws of physics. The smaller chips get, the harder it is to shrink them without finding new complications. With this in mind, Intel announced Kaby Lake as an “optimization” release a year ago. It builds on Skylake, with improved speed and new features, instead of shrinking Skylake.
Cannonlake, scheduled for release in 2017, will be on a smaller 10nm die.
There aren’t many laptops announced with Kaby Lake processors right now, but with chips making their way to laptop makers that will likely change shortly. If this launch proceeds like those in the past, you can expect to see a first burst of devices update to Kaby Lake before the holidays, with the rest following in the first few months of 2017.
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.