Compared to the second-generation iPhone SE, the new 5G-enabled iPhone SE offers improved battery life thanks to the efficiency of the A15 Bionic chip.
Compared to the previous model, Apple claims the new iPhone SE can last up to two hours longer during both video playback and streamed video playback for a total of 15 hours and 10 hours, respectively. Audio playback sees the most significant jump by 10 hours, offering up to 50 hours of playback.
The new iPhone SE can charge up to 50% in 30 minutes with a 20W power adapter. Despite some rumors, the new iPhone SE does not feature MagSafe technology.
Apple today introduced the M1 Ultra chip with a 20-core CPU, up to a 64-core GPU, and a 32-core Neural Engine. The first Mac to offer the M1 Ultra is the all-new Mac Studio desktop computer, which is available to order starting today.
Tech specs for the Mac Studio confirm that the M1 Ultra chip supports up to five external displays. Specifically, a Mac Studio configured with the M1 Ultra chip supports up to four external displays with up to 6K resolution at 60Hz over USB-C, along with a fifth display with up to 4K resolution at 60Hz over HDMI, according to Apple.
By comparison, 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with the M1 Pro chip support up to two 6K displays, while models configured with the M1 Max chip support up to three 6K displays and a fourth display with up to 4K resolution. MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro models with the standard M1 chip officially only support up to one external display, but users have worked around this limitation with the use of DisplayLink adapters.
The M1 Ultra chip interconnects the die of two M1 Max chips for higher performance and support for up to 128GB of unified memory, compared to a limit of 64GB for the M1 Max chip. The 20-core CPU has 16 high-performance cores and four high-efficiency cores.
"M1 Ultra is another game-changer for Apple silicon that once again will shock the PC industry. By connecting two M1 Max die with our UltraFusion packaging architecture, we're able to scale Apple silicon to unprecedented new heights," said Apple's chipmaking lead Johny Srouji. "With its powerful CPU, massive GPU, incredible Neural Engine, ProRes hardware acceleration, and huge amount of unified memory, M1 Ultra completes the M1 family as the world's most powerful and capable chip for a personal computer."
Apple today announced the Mac Studio and the Studio Display, a setup that includes new Mac situated between the Mac mini and the Mac Pro alongside a new mid-level display.
The Mac Studio and Studio Display are meant to be paired together, but as expected, they are purchased separately to allow users to customize their setups.
To get the full "Apple Studio" experience, customers will need to purchase the Mac Studio itself alongside the 27-inch Studio Display and accessories separately.
While the Mac Studio starts at $1999, the highest-end M1 Max model, which has a 10-core CPU, 32-core GPU, 64GB of memory, and 8TB of storage, costs $4,999 alone.
Adding the highest-end Studio Display with nano-texture glass and the upgraded tilt- and height-adjustable, plus the new Magic Keyboard will push the total cost to $7,497, plus an additional $99 for a Magic Mouse or $149 for a Magic Trackpad.
But if you really want maximum performance, the highest-end Mac Studio with the brand-new M1 Ultra, which has a 20-core CPU, 64-core GPU, 128GB of memory, and 8TB of storage, costs $7,999 alone, without a display, keyboard, or mouse/trackpad.
With the Studio Display and accessories, the complete highest-end "Apple Studio" experience will cost customers $10,497, plus your choice of keyboard and trackpad, and you can obviously go even higher if you want to use multiple displays.
The Mac Studio and Studio Display are available for pre-order starting today.
Following its first event of the year today, Apple has introduced new colors for the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro MagSafe cases and Apple Watch bands for its Spring 2022 collection.
The new case colors for the iPhone 13 Pro include Lemon Zest, Blue Fog, Eucalyptus, and Nectarine. All the cases are $49 and available starting today. The iPhone 13 MagSafe case shares the same colors.
For the Braided Solo Loop Apple Watch band, there is Starlight, Abyss Blue, Bright Green, and Flamingo, available in both 41mm and 45mm sizes for $99.
In the standard Solo Loop band option, there are new colors as well, including Nectarine, Lemon Zest, Mineral Green, and Eucalyptus.
Bright Green, Lemon Zest, and Blue Fog are new additions to the Sport Band. Lavender Gray, Nectarine, Oat Milk, Blue Jay, and Midnight are all replacing the previous colors offered with the Sport Loop.
The Mac Studio that was introduced today may be as powerful as the current Mac Pro, but Apple made it clear that the device is not intended to be a Mac Pro replacement.
Apple senior vice president of Hardware Engineering John Ternus teased a new Apple silicon Mac Pro on stage at today's event to address any confusion about the company's Mac Pro plans.
When talking about the transition to Apple silicon across the Mac lineup, Ternus said that there's "just one more product to go: Mac Pro," before adding "that's for another day."
Apple did not provide additional details on when we could see a refreshed Mac Pro, but it's possible such a machine will be introduced as soon as WWDC. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has said that Apple has additional Mac-related announcements planned for May and June of this year.
The Mac Studio is equipped with M1 Max or M1 Ultra chips. The M1 Ultra features a 20-core CPU and up to a 64-core GPU, along with a 32-core Neural Engine.
Though the Mac Studio does not replace the Mac Pro (or the high-end Mac mini), it does appear to be a replacement for the 27-inch iMac, which Apple has now discontinued.
With Apple's debut of the new third-generation iPhone SE at its spring "Peek Performance" event, Apple has dropped the previous second-generation iPhone SE from its lineup on the online Apple Store, which means the cheapest new iPhone Apple offers has gone up in price.
The old iPhone SE 2 featured an A13 Bionic chip, 3GB RAM, and a low starting price of $399. It came in white, black, and red, and was offered with 64GB or 128GB of storage.
By contrast, the new iPhone SE 3 features the A15 Bionic processor - the same chip found in the iPhone 13 series – as well as improved battery life, a new 12MP Wide camera system, and 5G connectivity (although not the fastest mmWave). As a result, pricing for the new model starts at $429, up $30 from the previous model, and is offered in the same three colors.
The new version of the iPhone SE also includes a new 256GB storage option not offered on the previous model, coming in at $579. The iPhone SE continues to be compatible with Qi-certified chargers for wireless charging, and also supports fast charging.
Preorders for the new iPhone SE 3 begin on Friday, March 11, with the first devices shipping on March 18.
The new $429 iPhone SE and $599 iPad Air with 5G connectivity do not appear to support the fastest mmWave 5G bands, based on the technical specifications listed on Apple's website.
Both the iPhone SE and the iPad Air mention support for the following 5G bands in the U.S.: 5G NR (Bands n1, n2, n3, n5, n7, n8, n12, n20, n25, n28, n29, n30, n38, n40, n41, n48, n66, n71, n77, n78, n79), but there is no listing for mmWave bands as there is for the iPhone 13 models that do support faster 5G technology.
With no support for mmWave 5G speeds, the iPhone SE models will be limited to sub-6GHz 5G. sub-6GHz 5G is still faster than LTE in most cases, but it is not the super fast impressive 5G speed that you see in marketing materials.
Sub-6GHz 5G is much more widespread and will be the 5G available in rural and suburban areas, as mmWave 5G is shorter range and limited to more urban spots. That said, AT&T and Version have been expanding their faster 5G networks drastically in the U.S. with the release of C-band spectrum, and it is not clear if the new iPhone SE models will be compatible with the higher speed 5G available from the carriers.
The iPhone SE 5G and the iPad Air will be available for preorder this Friday and will launch on March 18.
With the launch of the new Mac Studio that replaces the higher-end 27-inch Intel iMac, Apple has just two Intel Macs left in its lineup - the Mac Pro and the Mac mini.
Though the Mac Studio appears to be something of a Mac mini and Mac Pro hybrid, Apple has not discontinued the high-end Intel Mac mini and it remains in the lineup. This suggests a new version of the high-end Mac mini is likely to be coming at some point, despite multiple rumors that Apple would refresh it this event. Apple already sells an M1 Mac mini, but the Intel version remains as the more expensive option.
Rather than a new Mac mini, Apple instead introduced the Mac Studio, which is priced starting at $1,999. The Mac Studio can be ordered with either the M1 Max chip or the new higher-end 20-core M1 Ultra chip.
Apple is still selling the 6-core Intel Mac mini with UHD Graphics 630 for $1,099, and the Mac Pro is available with its Xeon W chips that go up to 28-cores. At today's event, Apple said that the M1 Ultra Mac Studios are faster than the 28-core Mac Pro models in terms of CPU and GPU performance.
Apple also said that it does plan to introduce a refreshed version of the Mac Pro, but that the machine was an announcement "for another day."
It's likely we'll see a new version of the Mac mini when Apple introduces the M2 chip later this year, and that could be when the Intel models will be phased out. We're also expecting the refreshed Mac Pro at some point in 2022.
Alongside the Mac Studio and Studio Display, Apple today launched peripherals in new black color options that are available to buy on a standalone basis.
The Magic Keyboard with Touch ID and Numeric Keypad is now available with black keys, while the Magic Trackpad and Magic Mouse are both available with a black multi-touch surface. The accessories themselves are identical to the slightly redesigned versions that were introduced with the 24-inch iMac last year, but feature a black colorway with a black braided Lightning cable.
The new black and silver color options complement the design of the new Mac Studio and Studio Display. Neither the Mac Studio nor Studio Display come with peripherals, so users who want an Apple keyboard, trackpad, or mouse will need to buy them separately.
To date, black and silver peripherals have only been available exclusively with the Mac Pro and have not been available to purchase separately. The Mac Pro appears to still come with black and silver peripherals with the older design.
The Magic Keyboard with Touch ID and Numeric Keypad is available for $199, the Magic Trackpad is available for $149, and the Magic Mouse is available for $99, and they are all available to order starting today to ship within one business day.
Apple today seeded the release candidate version of an upcoming macOS Monterey 12.3 update to developers for testing purposes, with the new software coming a week after the release of the fifth macOS Monterey 12.3 beta. The RC represents the final version of macOS Monterey 12.3 that will be released publicly next week.
Registered developers can download the beta through the Apple Developer Center and after the appropriate profile is installed, betas will be available through the Software Update mechanism in System Preferences.
macOS Monterey 12.3 is a major update that introduces Universal Control, a feature that Apple first teased at WWDC and then delayed for several months. Universal Control is designed to allow you to use a single mouse/trackpad and keyboard across multiple Macs and iPads (with iPads running iPadOS 15.4).
After updating your devices to macOS 12.3 and iPadOS 15.4, Universal Control works automatically, allowing your Mac's cursor and keyboard to work on the iPad and vice versa. It's simple and intuitive to use.
macOS Monterey 12.3 adds support for updating the AirPods firmware when the earbuds are connected to a Mac, plus it deprecates kernel extensions used by Dropbox and Microsoft OneDrive, and it eliminates Python 2, with Apple instructing developers to use an alternative scripting language like Python 3 going forward.
There are also new emoji characters, including melting face, biting lip, heart hands, bubbles, beans, face with diagonal mouth, palm up hand, eggs, troll, low battery, coral, lotus, and more.
Update: The update is now also available to public beta testers.
Apple today seeded the release candidate versions of upcoming iOS 15.4 and iPadOS 15.4 updates to developers for testing purposes, with the new software coming one week after Apple seeded the fifth betas of iOS 15.4 and iPadOS 15.4. The RCs represent the final versions of the updates that will be released to the public next week.
Developers can download iOS 15.4 and iPadOS 15.4 through the Apple Developer Center or over the air after the proper profile has been installed on an iPhone or iPad.
iOS and iPadOS 15.4 introduce some of the most significant changes we've seen in an update since iOS 15 launched. On the iPhone 12 and 13 models, there's now an option to use Face ID while wearing a mask with no Apple Watch required for authentication. It works just like Face ID, but it scans the area around your eyes when you're wearing a mask.
On iPad, iPadOS 15.4 brings the long awaited Universal Control feature. Paired with a Mac running macOS Monterey 12.3, Universal Control allows multiple Macs and iPads to be controlled with a single cursor and keyboard. It's a feature that works seamlessly after installing the updates, and it is simple and intuitive to use.
There are 37 new emojis with the addition of Emoji 14 characters, so you can now use emojis that include melting face, biting lip, heart hands, bubbles, beans, face with diagonal mouth, palm up hand, eggs, troll, low battery, coral, lotus, and more.
The second beta added support for the "Tap to Pay on iPhone" feature that is designed to allow NFC-compatible iPhones to accept payments through Apple Pay, contactless credit and debit cards, and other digital wallets, without requiring additional hardware.
Tap to Pay on iPhone is enabled in the iOS 15.4 beta, but it does require third-party providers to add support, so it is not yet available for use.
In the fourth beta, Apple added a new Siri voice for American users and support for AirTag anti-stalking features announced in February. When setting up an AirTag or a Find My accessory, there is now a warning that the device is locked to an Apple ID and that using it to track someone without consent is a crime.
"You can locate this item using the Find My network," reads the setup screen. "Using this item to track people without their consent is a crime in many regions around the world. This item is designed to be detected by victims and to enable law enforcement to request identifying information about the owner."
There are also signs that Apple may be planning to roll out support for digital IDs and driver's licenses in iOS 15.4. There isn't a ton of evidence for this at the current time, but there was a mention of the feature in the PassKit code in beta 2. "Find out when your driver's license or state ID is ready to use and get important updates about your ID," it reads.
Other new features include full 120Hz ProMotion support for app animations on iPhone 13 Pro models, EU vaccine certificates in the Wallet app, the ability to turn off notifications for Shortcuts automations, keyboard brightness controls in Control Center on the iPad, an Apple Card widget, iCloud Keychain notes, support for adding custom email domains to iCloud Mail right on device, and a SharePlay option in the share sheet.
Apple today introduced the Mac Studio, an all-new Mac that's a hybrid between a Mac Pro and a Mac mini, with the new machine equipped with M1 Max and M1 Ultra chips.
Priced starting at $1999 for the M1 Max version and $3999 for the M1 Ultra version, the Mac Studio can now be ordered from Apple's website.
Alongside the Mac Studio, Apple introduced the new 5K 27-inch Studio Display, which is also available to be ordered starting today. Adding nano-texture glass will cost $300, while the adjustable tilt display that Apple described is priced at $400.
Both the Mac Studio and the Studio Display will begin arriving to customers on Friday, March 18.
Preorders for the new iPhone SE and the new iPad Air will begin this Friday, and those products will also begin shipping on March 18.
Following the launch of the new Mac Studio and Studio Display, Apple has discontinued the 27-inch iMac.
The 27-inch iMac had remained in the iMac line alongside the smaller 24-inch iMac with Apple silicon and was one of just a few Macs that still featured an Intel processor.
Now with the 27-inch Studio Display that can be connected to any Mac, Apple has seemingly felt there is no need for a large-sized all-in-one desktop computer. The 24-inch iMac is now the only all-in-one desktop computer offered by Apple.
The Studio Display features an all-screen design with narrow borders in a slim, all-aluminium enclosure like the 24-inch iMac. The display can be tiled up to 30 degrees thanks to its built-in stand.
To customize the display, customers can choose a more versatile, height-adjustable stand with a counterbalancing arm for an additional $400, or opt for a VESA mount adapter option, and there is also the option of nano-texture glass for an additional $300.
The screen itself features a 5K retina resolution with over 14.7M pixels. It also has an anti-reflective coating, up to 600 nits of brightness, P3 wide color, support for over one billion colors, and True Tone.
The Studio Display also contains the A13 Bionic chip to support its camera and audio system. It features a 12MP Ultra Wide front camera like the iPad, with Center Stage for the first time on the Mac.
With a high-fidelity six-speaker setup, the display contains four force-cancelling woofers that minimize distortion and two high-performance tweeters, featuring support for Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos. The Studio Display also includes a studio-quality three-mic array that is optimized for calls and voice recordings.
The rear of the Studio Display features three USB-C ports and a Thunderbolt port to connect peripherals. The display can deliver 96W of power to a notebook, and can fast charge the 14-inch MacBook Pro. Up to three Studio Displays can connect to a single MacBook Pro.
The Studio Display starts at $1,599. Alongside the Mac Studio, the Studio Display is available to order today and orders will begin to arrive on March 18.
With a 3.7-inch tall enclosure, the Mac Studio looks like a larger Mac mini, but it is far more powerful. The computer can be configured with the same M1 Max chip as found in the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro or the just-announced M1 Ultra chip, which features a 20-core CPU, up to a 64-core GPU, and a 32-core Neural Engine. The computer can be configured with up to 8TB of SSD storage and up to 128GB of unified memory.
On the back of the Mac Studio, connectivity options include four Thunderbolt 4 ports, two USB-A ports, one HDMI port, one 10-Gigabit Ethernet port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack with support for high-impedance headphones. On the front, there is an SD card slot (UHS-II), along with two USB-C ports for M1 Max configurations or two Thunderbolt 4 ports for M1 Ultra configurations. The computer supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0.
Apple says the Mac Studio remains "incredibly quiet" under the "heaviest workloads," with over 4,000 perforations on the back and bottom of the computer's enclosure guiding air through the internal components to help cool the high-performance M1 Ultra chip.
Key features of the Studio Display include a 27-inch screen size, a slim all-aluminum enclosure, 5K resolution, up to 600 nits of brightness, support for the P3 wide color gamut and over one billion colors, a built-in stand that allows the user to tilt the display up to 30 degrees, an A13 Bionic chip that powers advanced camera and audio features, a 12-megapixel Ultra Wide camera with Center Stage, a six-speaker sound system, and more.
Studio Display has three USB-C ports and a Thunderbolt 4 port that delivers 96W of pass-through power to charge a connected MacBook Air or MacBook Pro.
Customers can order the Mac Studio and Studio Display starting today through Apple's online store, with availability starting March 18. In the U.S., pricing starts at $1,999 for the Mac Studio with M1 Max and at $3,999 with M1 Ultra. The Studio Display is priced at $1,599 with a tilt-adjustable stand and at $1,999 with a tilt- and height-adjustable stand.
"We couldn't be more excited to introduce an entirely new Mac desktop and display with Mac Studio and Studio Display," said Greg Joswiak, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "Mac Studio ushers in a new era for the desktop with unbelievable performance powered by M1 Max and M1 Ultra, an array of connectivity, and a compact design that puts everything users need within easy reach."
A key new feature of macOS 12.3 is Universal Control, allowing a single mouse or trackpad to control multiple Macs and iPads placed side by side. macOS 12.3 also introduces several new emoji, deprecates kernel extensions used by cloud storage providers Dropbox and OneDrive, eliminates Python 2 as a preinstalled scripting language, and more.
Apple's press release:
With next week's release of iPadOS 15.4 and macOS 12.3, Universal Control will enable users to work with a single mouse and keyboard and move between Mac and iPad for a seamless experience, with no setup required. Users can even drag and drop content back and forth between devices — great for sketching with Apple Pencil on iPad and placing it into a Keynote slide on the Mac.
M1 Ultra consists of two M1 Max chips connected with die-to-die technology called "UltraFusion." The new highest-end chip of Apple Silicon features 114 billion transistors, with higher support for bandwidth memory at 800GB/s.
"M1 Ultra is another game-changer for Apple silicon that once again will shock the PC industry. By connecting two M1 Max die with our UltraFusion packaging architecture, we're able to scale Apple silicon to unprecedented new heights," said Johny Srouji, Apple's senior vice president of Hardware Technologies. "With its powerful CPU, massive GPU, incredible Neural Engine, ProRes hardware acceleration, and huge amount of unified memory, M1 Ultra completes the M1 family as the world's most powerful and capable chip for a personal computer."
UltraFusion allows two M1 Max chips to connect together across more than 10,000 signals, offering 2.5TB/s of bandwidth, according to Apple.
M1 Ultra has a 20-core CPU, with 16 high-performance and four high-efficiency cores. M1 Ultra supports up to 128GB of unified memory, an increase from the up to 64GB memory supported by the M1 Pro and M1 Max.
In graphics, M1 Ultra has a 64-core GPU, which offers 8x faster graphics than M1. M1 Ultra has a 32-core Neural Engine, which can operate 22 trillion operations per second and has two separate media engines.
As is common with Apple Silicon, Apple claims that M1 Ultra offers "unprecedented" power efficiency with equally unprecedented power.
It delivers 90 percent higher multi-threaded performance than the fastest available 16-core PC desktop chip in the same power envelope. Additionally, M1 Ultra reaches the PC chip's peak performance using 100 fewer watts.2 That astounding efficiency means less energy is consumed and fans run quietly, even as apps like Logic Pro rip through demanding workflows, such as processing massive amounts of virtual instruments, audio plug-ins, and effects.
The first Mac to feature the M1 Ultra is the Mac Studio, which is aimed at creative professionals. The Mac Studio is available for order today.
Apple announced a new iPad Air today at its "Peek Performance" event, featuring Apple's powerful M1 chip previously found in the iPad Pro, as well as optional 5G connectivity, a new front camera with Center Stage, and even faster USB-C connectivity.
Available in a new array of colors, iPad Air features Apple's Ultra Wide front camera with Center Stage for a more natural video conferencing experience, a USB-C port with up to 2x faster transfer speeds, and 5G on the cellular models.
In terms of the M1's pure performance, the 8-core CPU delivers up to 60% faster performance, and the 8-core GPU delivers up to 2x faster graphics performance compared to the previous iPad Air. That makes it faster than the fastest competitive tablet, and 2x as fast as the best-selling Windows laptop in its price range, according to Apple.
The USB-C port is now up to 2x faster than the previous generation, with data transfers up to 10Gbps, enabling it to support a range of USB-C accessories, including cameras, external storage, and displays with up to 6K resolution. Lastly, the new iPad Air supports the second-generation Apple Pencil.
"Whether it's a college student taking elaborate notes, a content creator working on their latest project, or a gamer playing graphics-intensive titles, users love iPad Air for its amazing performance and versatility in such a portable design," said Greg Joswiak, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "With the breakthrough M1 chip, Ultra Wide front camera with Center Stage, and ultra-fast 5G, iPad Air is now more powerful, more capable, and simply more fun than ever."
The new iPad Air is priced from $599. It is available in 64GB and 256GB configurations, and comes in space gray, starlight, pink, purple, and blue colors. The new iPad Air will be available to pre-order on Friday, March 11, and will be available from March 18.
