The past few months have been full of speculation, anticipation, and pretty wild rumors concerning the upcoming M4 Macs — and now the predicted release date of November 1 is just a week or so away. Despite the lack of an event announcement, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman still believes the launch is “imminent,” with an announcement reportedly coming on October 30.
According to him, Apple Stores are running very low on iMac, Mac mini, MacBook Pro, Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse, and Magic Trackpad units — and this usually happens when updates are about to be released.
While most of the whispers lately have focused on the Mac lineup, it is true that hints about new peripherals have surfaced, too. It’s assumed that the new Magic Mouse, Magic Trackpad, and Magic Keyboard updates will mostly focus on the switch to USB-C. With any luck, Apple will also make a slight adjustment to the location of the Magic Mouse’s port and bring an end to the decade of ridicule the poor mouse has suffered through.
But turning back to the question of “when” this launch is coming — Gurman has also said on X (formerly Twitter) confirming a media event will take place in Los Angeles on October 30. According to the post, it seems like there won’t be a keynote, just product videos and press releases.
Apple is inviting media/creators at different appointment times throughout the day on 10/30 in my town of LA — they seemingly aren’t bringing a group together to watch a keynote video. So the announcement is online only (video and press releases), as I’ve been indicating. https://t.co/sVk6GjrVeC
— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) October 22, 2024
With this post, hope for a proper event seems almost definitely dead — and in some ways, this does make sense. After all, it’s true that the M4 chip has already been announced and has even launched with the latest iPad Pro, so perhaps an event isn’t strictly necessary.
On the other hand, the Mac mini is due for its first design overhaul in over a decade, so you might have thought Apple would want to show that off in a bit more detail. Plus, assuming the industry experts are correct, there are six product updates due to be announced, and that number in itself seems like enough of an excuse for an event.
Either way, everything should be made clear next Wednesday, and we’ll be sure to report the latest.
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.