Spotted by MacRumors, display industry analyst Ross Young has posted a subscriber-only tweet revealing that panel shipments for the MacBook Air M4 should be starting in October.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman then confirmed his own information points to the same conclusion — that Apple will launch the next MacBook Air during the first quarter of 2025.
This timing lines up for the MacBook Air, which is now scheduled for calendar Q1. January – March. https://t.co/PeiR2WLHDN https://t.co/05qJCCon29
— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) September 19, 2024
This information comes from analysts who observe production trends along with company activity to make estimates about new products and launch dates. While often accurate, companies can also postpone plans at any point and throw estimates off. In other words, make sure to take these theories with a grain of salt.
Along with the displays for the new MacBook Air, panels for a low-end 10.9-inch iPad will also begin shipments next month. Unlike the MacBook Air, however, this suggests the iPad will be coming later than expected, as some people were hoping to see it announced with the new M4 Macs next month.
By the end of 2025, it’s expected that Apple will refresh its entire Mac lineup with M4 chips, marking the first time every product has shared the same chip generation. So while the prediction that MacBook Air M4 will launch before March next year could be incorrect, it shouldn’t be off by too much.
Another point of interest for the new MacBook Air is the RAM. There’s currently talk of Apple upping the minimum RAM for its MacBook Pros to 16GB, which means it’s possible that the same could happen for the Air. This is complete speculation at this point, but it feels like Apple will have a harder time defending 8GB of RAM on the Air if it’s already upped the Pro to 16GB.
The biggest problem with the minimum being so small is that people on a budget do feel forced to go as low as they can when purchasing, but this greatly affects the longevity of their PCs and therefore the value they get out of their purchase. Many people also find themselves wanting to use their MacBooks for heavier-duty activities over time, and 8GB just isn’t enough.
Overall, there’s a lot of Mac speculation to be confirmed or debunked over the next year. First up though, are the M4 MacBook Pro, Mac mini, iMac, and iPad mini refreshes that, with any luck, should be announced sometime next month. We’ll keep you updated on event announcements.
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.
Apple has an incredible talent for making me admire its products while simultaneously questioning what on earth it's thinking with the pricing. This isn't even something as bizarre as a monitor stand, but the audacity for starting a new laptop lineup from $2,000 doesn't surprise me.
The newly announced 14-inch MacBook Pro with M6 is just the latest to showcase this. The funny thing is, I already know that it's going to be a reliable workstation. You get a powerful new 2nm M6 processor, a gorgeous Liquid Retina XDR display, and up to 24 hours of battery life. We were impressed by the M5 MacBook Air, so the high-end M6 powered MacBook Pro definitely won't let us down.