Newsletter Archives
-
M3 powers new MacBook Pros and iMac
APPLE NEWS
By Will Fastie
Apple is infamous for making nebulous comparisons, but this time it has gone too far.
Apple’s dark (Halloween) event a week ago was mildly disappointing. The company finally got around to announcing its previously expected M3 family of silicon and refreshed the MacBook Pro series as a result.
The problem is that it wasn’t all that exciting. With a few exceptions, these were moves the company had to make, even though they will not generate the same sort of excitement as previous M1 and M2 announcements.
The centerpiece of the event was silicon, a set of chips Apple calls “the most advanced chips ever built for a personal computer.”
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.45.0, 2023-11-06).
-
Apple 2030
ISSUE 20.38 • 2023-09-18 APPLE NEWS
By Will Fastie
Mother Nature deems Apple’s ambitious clean-energy goals worthy, albeit surprising.
Oscar winner Octavia Spencer, in her starring role as Mother Nature in Apple’s fall event, stole the show. Apple goes Hollywood all the time in these events, but this was different.
In a nicely done surprise skit, Mother Nature has come to Apple to audit its progress on meeting its green goals, specifically carbon neutrality. This alone was funny because all companies seem to have stated goals, but it’s hard to know whether any are being achieved. Mother Nature was skeptical to the point of assuming Apple was just blowing smoke, so to speak.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.38.0, 2023-09-18).
This story also appears in our public Newsletter. -
The last shoe drops
APPLE NEWS
By Will Fastie
Three major announcements from Apple during WWDC 2023 close the loop for Apple silicon.
No, I’m not talking about Apple Vision Pro, Apple’s new “spatial” computer.
The big news is that Apple’s product lineup no longer includes Macs with Intel silicon.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.24.0, 2023-06-12).
-
Apple announces new Mac products
ISSUE 20.05 • 2023-01-30 APPLE NEWS
By Will Fastie
The MacBook Pro and Mac mini are upgraded to new versions of Apple’s M2 system on a chip.
All models became available last Tuesday.
There’s not a lot of news here. The move to the M2 series of Apple silicon was inevitable and expected for both product lines, so the new products are not much of a surprise. But it’s important to keep up, because Apple silicon keeps evolving.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.05.0, 2023-01-30).
This story also appears in our public Newsletter. -
Apple’s non-event fall event
APPLE NEWS
By Will Fastie
The company went into stealth mode.
On October 18, Apple announced some new products. This fall announcement, coming as it does just before the Christmas season, is usually one of Apple’s Hollywood productions. Not this time. The announcements were so stealthy that I didn’t realize anything had happened until two days later.
I wasn’t the only one. Other commentators expressed surprise over the handling of these announcements. I can only conclude that these new products were not as dramatically exciting as others, although I found at least one of them notable.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.45.0, 2022-11-07).
-
What’s a “dynamic island?”
APPLE NEWS
By Will Fastie
Clever. That’s what it is.
In the very limited coverage we give to Apple and its products, our focus has been on the evolution of Apple silicon and its application to Mac desktops and laptops. iPhones? Almost never.
But with iPhone 14, Apple has done something I consider remarkably clever.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.38.0, 2022-09-19).
-
The Apple M2 arrives
APPLE NEWS
By Will Fastie
This wasn’t quite the shoe everyone hoped would be dropping.
As you know from previous Apple News installments, our focus has been on developments related to Apple silicon. Our oft-stated reason for this is that, for the first time in decades, Apple devices might be more interesting to our readers, especially the large number who already own an Apple device.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.24.0, 2022-06-13).
-
The M1 Ultra debuts
APPLE NEWS
By Will Fastie
Keeping to schedule, Apple drops the next shoe in its master plan to get all its products running on its own, proprietary, silicon.
It’s been about 18 months since Apple announced the original M1 system on a chip (SOC), introduced several products based on it, and laid out its plan to transition to its own silicon in roughly two years.
At its spring event last week, the company took its next step in that transition and went so far as to tease the last shoe. Perhaps “tease” is the wrong word because the company came right out and said it — the last brick in the wall will be a transition of the insanely expensive Mac Pro to Apple silicon.
Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 19.11.0 (2022-03-14).