At its Scary Fast event, Apple announced a refresh to the 24-inch iMac, bringing the M3 to its popular all-in-one desktop. The M3 is a big deal, especially since the iMac was the only Mac to not get an M2 update.
There were some things Apple didn’t announce that many were hoping for: new accessories. Rumors leading up to the event pointed to a new Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse, but that didn’t come to fruition. With the iPhone’s recent change to USB-C, some speculated that the Mac peripherals would also move away from Lightning. That didn’t happen.
Some optimistic folks even hoped that Apple was redesigning the Magic Mouse to fix its notorious design. The wireless mouse can’t be used while charging, which has often landed it on lists of the worst-designed Apple products of all time. More than that, it’s been a long, long time since the Magic Mouse 2 came out, and it is long overdue for some attention. But alas — that will have to wait for another day.
On the plus side, the iMac M2 will be replaced outright with the M3 now, and it still starts at the same price of $1,299. Considering how big of an upgrade the M3 is over the M2, that’s great news. The M3 brings architectural improvements across the board now that’s built on 3nm.
Overall, Apple claims that the M3 is two times faster than the M2 and 2.5 times faster than the M1. That depends on the app, but I was shown an early look at the performance, and there was one takeaway that shows how much the M3 iMac brings to the table. With the M3, apps reportedly open 30% faster than on the M1. That’s a meaningful improvement that you can actually feel. Apple even spent some time talking about how the M3 opened up gaming on the iMac, largely thanks to new GPU features like Dynamic Caching, mesh shading, and ray tracing. These obviously play a bigger role on the new M3 MacBook Pros, but the M3 can game too. I was shown an early preview of Myst: Masterpiece Edition smoothly playing on the M3 iMac, complete with ray tracing effects turned on.
More than anything, though, Apple also seems focused on courting those who are still using an old Intel-based 27-inch iMac, pointing to the major jump in performance that comes with the transition to Apple Silicon. Though the larger size is still missing from the lineup, Apple clearly wants to make upgrading an easy sell to the M3 iMac.
For now, this new M3 iMac is a predictable but welcome update that ensures that Apple’s only available iMac has the latest performance improvements.
Touchscreen laptops have been around for years. You can get them in all sizes and shapes. Just not from Apple. For years, the Cupertino giant has treated the idea of a touchscreen MacBook the way I treat a meeting that could have been an email: with open contempt. However, Wednesday looks like the day the company could finally change its mind.
The latest Apple invite puts the “Pro and Tell” showcase in Los Angeles at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET) on October 28, 2026. Instead of a regular live-streamed keynote, it is an invitation-only, hands-on event for a handful of press and creators (similar to what the company did for the MacBook Neo earlier this year).
Two residents of Chicago have filed a lawsuit in the US over claims that robots run by Coco Robotics and Serve Robotics captured their facial and hand measurements without consent, bringing renewed attention to the food delivery robots. The cases raise a troubling question: If a robot delivers food to your door, can it also be gathering sensitive information about you?
According to a report by The Associated Press, the proposed class-action lawsuits were filed in Cook County on Oct. 9 and allege violations of Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act. The complaints claim that the robots’ cameras and LiDAR sensors captured information on customers’ faces and hands as they approached the machines to pick up their orders. Both have denied the allegations.
Nearly a month after announcing the GPT-6.1 Sol model, OpenAI unveiled GPT-6.1 Terra today. The latest addition to the family focuses on computer use, visual reasoning, coding, and professional work, while costing 50% less through the API than GPT-5.6 Terra.
OpenAI says Terra can handle everything from filling out browser forms and working inside spreadsheets to interpreting technical drawings and editing videos. The company says it can also complete computer-based tasks more than three times faster than GPT-6 Astra and GPT-6.1 Sol.