MacRumors

In 2025, Apple updated the Mac Studio with the M4 Max and M3 Ultra chips. Apple last year refreshed the Mac mini with the M4 and M4 Pro chips, meaning that the ‌Mac Studio‌ faces a formidable competitor that offers "Pro" capabilities at a substantially lower price point.

There are now two desktop Macs and four Apple silicon chip options for users who do not need the expandability of the Mac Pro. The ‌Mac Studio‌ starts at $1,999, overshadowing the $599 starting price of the M4 Mac mini and even the $1,399 starting price of the M4 Pro ‌Mac mini‌, so do you need the performance of the ‌Mac Studio‌, or is the humble ‌Mac mini‌ sufficient for your needs? Our guide helps to answer the question of how to decide which of these two desktop Macs is best for you.

The ‌Mac mini‌ and the ‌Mac Studio‌ share some fundamental features, including a familiar, boxy silver aluminum design, two front-facing USB-C ports along with HDMI and ethernet on the rear, and Apple silicon chipsets. That being said, the two machines have much more in contrast than they do in common, including different chip options, memory capacities, ports, and external display support capabilities.

‌Mac mini‌ (M4, 2024)	‌Mac mini‌ (M4 Pro, 2024)	‌Mac Studio‌ (M4 Max, 2025)	‌Mac Studio‌ (M3 Ultra, 2025)
M4 chip (made with TSMC's enhanced 3nm (N3E) process)	M4 Pro chip (made with TSMC's enhanced ‌3nm‌ (N3E) process)	M4 Max chip (made with TSMC's ‌3nm‌ (N3E) process)	M3 Ultra chip (made with TSMC's enhanced 5nm (N3B) process)
4.30 GHz maximum CPU clock speed	4.30 GHz maximum CPU clock speed	4.30 GHz maximum CPU clock speed	4.05 GHz maximum CPU clock speed
10-core CPU (4 perform­ance cores + 6 efficiency cores)	12- or 14-core CPU (8 or 10 perform­ance cores + 4 efficiency cores)	14- or 16-core CPU (10 or 12 perform­ance cores + 4 efficiency cores)	28- or 32-core CPU (20 or 24 perform­ance cores + 8 efficiency cores)
10-core GPU	16- or 20‑core GPU	32- or 40-core GPU	60- or 80-core GPU
Improved ray-tracing engine	Improved ray-tracing engine	Improved ray-tracing engine	Ray-tracing engine
120GB/s memory bandwidth	273GB/s memory bandwidth	546GB/s memory bandwidth	819.2GB/s memory bandwidth
16GB, 24GB, or 32GB unified memory	24GB, 48GB, or 64GB unified memory	36GB, 48GB, 64GB, or 128GB unified memory	96GB, 256GB, or 512GB unified memory
LPDDR5X memory	LPDDR5X memory	LPDDR5X memory	LPDDR5 memory
256GB, 512GB, 1TB, or 2TB storage	512GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, or 8TB storage	512GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, or 8TB storage	1TB, 2TB, 4TB, 8TB, or 16TB storage
16-core Neural Engine, 38 trillion operations per second	16-core Neural Engine, 38 trillion operations per second	16-core Neural Engine, 38 trillion operations per second	32-core Neural Engine, 72 trillion operations per second
Video decode engine	Video decode engine	Video decode engine	Two video decode engines
Video encode engine	Video encode engine	Two video encode engines	Two video encode engines
ProRes encode and decode engine	ProRes encode and decode engine	Two ProRes encode and decode engines	Four ProRes encode and decode engines
Dedicated display engine	Dedicated display engine	Dedicated display engine
Support for up to three external displays	Support for up to three external displays	Support for up to five external displays	Support for up to eight external displays
Three rear Thunderbolt 4 ports	Three rear Thunderbolt 5 ports	Four rear Thunderbolt 5 ports	Four rear Thunderbolt 5 ports
Two front USB-C ports	Two front USB-C ports	Two front USB-C ports	Two front Thunderbolt 5 ports
		Two rear USB-A ports	Two rear USB-A ports
Gigabit Ethernet or 10Gb Ethernet port	Gigabit Ethernet or 10Gb Ethernet port	10Gb Ethernet port	10Gb Ethernet port
		SDXC card slot (UHS-II)	SDXC card slot (UHS-II)
Bottom power button	Bottom power button	Rear power button	Rear power button
Starts at $599	Starts at $1,399	Starts at $1,999	Starts at $3,999

Following the ‌Mac mini‌'s redesign last year, the dimensions of the two devices are now radically different, with the ‌Mac Studio‌ dwarfing the ‌Mac mini‌ in every way.

	‌Mac mini‌	‌Mac Studio‌
Height	2.0 inches (5.0 cm)	3.7 inches (9.5 cm)
Width	5.0 inches (12.7 cm)	7.7 inches (19.7 cm)
Depth	5.0 inches (12.7 cm)	7.7 inches (19.7 cm)
Weight	M4: 1.5 pounds (0.67 kg) M4 Pro: 1.6 pounds (0.73 kg)	M4 Max: 5.9 pounds (2.7 kg) M3 Ultra: 7.9 pounds (3.6 kg)

Most customers should choose the M4 Pro ‌Mac mini‌ over the M4 Max ‌Mac Studio‌, saving $700 when looking at the base models. There will likely still be substantial savings when it comes to custom configurations.

You should only consider the ‌Mac Studio‌ if you have an professional workflow that can leverage the extreme power of the M4 Max or M3 Ultra, as well as its additional ports and memory options. If you need the ‌Mac Studio‌, you will likely know that you are looking for a highly powerful machine that is capable of supporting specific intense workflows.

If considering the M4 Max or M3 Ultra ‌Mac Studio‌, it's worth bearing in mind that the cheaper machine uses newer chip technology with faster memory, improved ray-tracing, and better single-core performance. For multi-core, graphics, and video processing tasks, the M3 Ultra ‌Mac Studio‌ will still be considerably more capable at tackling intense workloads.

To some extent, purchasing decisions should be driven by budget, but it is worth bearing in mind that any savings on the desktop computer itself can be put toward a good external display such as Apple's Studio Display, which starts from $1,599. For example, an M4 Pro ‌Mac mini‌ paired with a Studio Display comes to $2,898, which is just $899 more than a lone base model ‌Mac Studio‌ and $1,101 less than the M3 Ultra ‌Mac Studio‌ with no display.

The Apple Intelligence features that Apple introduced with iOS 18 are not pushing people to upgrade their iPhones, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reiterated today. Apple's recent Siri failures are also going to have an impact on 2025 iPhone shipments, which the market is beginning to realize.

As early as last July, Kuo said expectations that ‌Apple Intelligence‌ could drive ‌iPhone‌ upgrades were likely "too optimistic," and in January, he was even more explicit and said that the appeal of ‌Apple Intelligence‌ had "significantly declined" because of the delay between when Apple showed off ‌Apple Intelligence‌ features in June and when they launched starting in October.

Kuo is maintaining his cautious view in light of Apple's Siri debacle, which has seen the company delay heavily advertised ‌Apple Intelligence‌ ‌Siri‌ features that it initially said would come in ‌iOS 18‌.

According to Kuo, Apple is already aware of ‌Apple Intelligence‌'s "underwhelming performance," and has provided suppliers with conservative ‌iPhone‌ shipment forecasts as a result.

Lately, the market consensus has shifted to a more cautious stance on iPhone shipments and Apple Intelligence (Siri), which supports my earlier predictions. Moreover, it's clear that when Apple shared conservative shipment forecasts with its key suppliers early this year, they had already factored in Apple Intelligence's underwhelming performance.

The negative public sentiment that Apple is facing due to the ‌Apple Intelligence‌ ‌Siri‌ delay could further impact sales of the iPhone 16 and iPhone 17 models in the coming months. Apple last week said that ‌Siri‌ personal context and App Intents are being pushed back until the "coming year," and it doesn't seem like the company expected such a critical reaction from the tech community and its customers.

Longtime Apple reporter John Gruber, for example, recently published an in-depth report calling out Apple's ‌Siri‌ shortcomings, and his commentary has resonated with many who have the same feelings about Apple's longtime struggle with ‌Siri‌ improvements.

Many others have also spoken up on the very public demonstrations of ‌Apple Intelligence‌ ‌Siri‌ features that Apple provided over the course of the last year and the subsequent delay that has shaken public confidence in the company's ability to deliver AI features that can compete with OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and others.

Apple Music Classical is now available on the web at classical.music.apple.com.

Apple Music Classical launched in most countries in March 2023, allowing users with a standard Apple Music subscription to stream more than five million classical music tracks, at no additional cost. Apple Music Classical is based on Primephonic, a classical music streaming service that was acquired by Apple in 2021.

To celebrate Apple Music Classical becoming available on the web, an Apple spokesperson said a new recording of Julius Eastman's Symphony No. 2 and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 2 from conductor Franz Welser-Möst and the Cleveland Orchestra will be available exclusively on Apple Music Classical for the next six weeks.

Apple Music Classical is also available as an app on the iPhone, iPad, and Android, and it gained CarPlay support last year. There is still no Mac app.

Today we're tracking a collection of discounts on Apple's M4 MacBook Pro at Amazon, including as much as $450 off select models of the computer. All of these deals have been applied automatically on Amazon and do not require an on-page coupon in order to see the final sale price.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Deals include both 14-inch and 16-inch models, and the biggest savings will be found on the latter group. The steepest discount is on the 16-inch MacBook Pro (M4 Max 48GB RAM/1TB), available for $3,549.00, down from $3,999.00. At $450 off this is a new all-time low price on the high-end model.

For the 14-inch models, you'll find up to $350 off these computers on Amazon this week. You can get the entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro (16GB RAM/512GB) for $1,399.00, down from $1,599.00, which is just a few dollars higher when compared to the all-time low price on the computer.

14-inch MacBook Pro

• M4 10-Core/16GB RAM/512GB - $1,399.00 ($200 off)
• M4 10-Core/16GB RAM/1TB - $1,579.00 ($220 off)
• M4 10-Core/24GB RAM/1TB - $1,779.00 ($220 off)
• M4 Pro 12-Core/24GB RAM/512GB - $1,779.00 ($220 off)
• M4 Pro 14-Core/24GB RAM/1TB - $2,129.00 ($270 off)
• M4 Max 14-Core/36GB RAM/1TB - $2,849.00 ($350 off)

16-inch MacBook Pro

• M4 Pro 14-Core/24GB RAM/512GB - $2,229.00 ($270 off)
• M4 Pro 14-Core/48GB RAM/512GB - $2,591.00 ($308 off)
• M4 Max 14-Core/36GB RAM/1TB - $3,129.00 ($370 off)
• M4 Max 16-Core/48GB RAM/1TB - $3,549.00 ($450 off)

Keep up with all of this week's best discounts on Apple products and related accessories in our dedicated Apple Deals roundup.

---

Amtrak on Wednesday announced that it has redesigned its iOS and Android apps to provide more convenient access to train status, tickets, and more.

Amtrak, the national passenger rail company in the U.S., operates more than 30 train routes throughout the country and into Canada.

Here is what is new in the app, according to Amtrak:

• A passenger can now view their train's status and schedule adjustments right on their reservation, within 24 hours of an active trip.
• A new station-to-station train tracker shows how a train is progressing along its route.
• A new "My Trips" tab allows passengers to view their active, upcoming, and past trips on a single screen, separate from promotional content.
• For train routes with assigned seating, the app now offers upfront seat selection during the booking process.

For more details, read Amtrak's press release.

Amtrak's app is available on the App Store for the iPhone and iPad.

At WWDC 2024, Apple announced Swift Assist, an AI-powered coding companion integrated into Xcode 16 that's designed to assist developers by generating code from natural language prompts. At the time, Apple said Swift Assist would be coming "later this year."

We're now three months into 2025, and it's nowhere to be seen.

Unlike Apple Intelligence, Swift Assist never appeared in beta. Apple hasn't announced that it's been delayed or cancelled. The company has since released Xcode 16.3 beta 2, and as Michael Tsai points out, it's not even mentioned in the release notes.

Swift Assist is different from the new predictive code completion engine in Xcode 16 that can suggest the code developers need and runs locally on a developer's device. Here's how Apple described Swift Assist in its Platforms State of the Union:

Building an app is more than just typing code. It's about transforming entire ideas into code. And the easiest way to do that is with natural language. So we created a larger and more powerful model that runs in the cloud. And crafted a unique experience in Xcode that only Apple could deliver. Introducing Swift Assist, a companion for all your coding tasks. And whether you know exactly what you're after, or want help writing the best Swift code, Swift Assist can answer your coding questions and help with tasks like experimenting with new APIs.

Swift Assist knows Apple's latest SDKs and Swift language features, so you'll always get up-to-date and modern code that blend perfectly into your project. So now, tasks like exploring new frameworks and experimenting with new ideas are just one request away. Like all Apple developer services, Swift Assist is built with your privacy and security in mind. Your code is never stored on the server. It's only used for processing your request, and most importantly, Apple doesn't use it for training machine learning models. Swift Assist and the new predictive completions will turbo charge the way you work in Xcode. This marks the beginning of a journey to add extraordinary intelligence into our tools. What an exciting time to be developing for Apple platforms.

Unfortunately, any initial excitement has long been replaced by frustration. Check out some of the comments from the developer community:

Jbmaxwell:

I could really use Swift Assist to deal with some SwiftUI problems I'm having. None of the LLMs are particularly good at SwiftUI, and seem to be wasting more of my time than they're saving. When, Apple???? You're the only ones with the data and the incentive to build a really knowledgeable Swift coding LLM.... super frustrating.

Asteng88:

Unfortunately Apple are so far behind the AI curve right now. They spent so much time on the useless AR glasses that every other company has killed off. I think [Tim Cook] thought the AR was his iPhone moment. Should have spent the time and money on AI like everyone else. Code complete is a joke compared to VSCode with Copilot.

Rennarda:

It's feeling more and more like this is something that will get rolled back to Xcode 17 this summer. Has anybody heard anything about it? Maybe it'll be quietly pulled all together, in favour of better Xcode integration with Chat GPT and the like?

WWDC is starting to feel more and more like a preview of what Apple might release over the coming year - but normally the dev tools they show are shipped by the end of the summer.

It's a bad look for Apple, especially given the current controversy surrounding the company's delayed personalized Siri features. WWDC 2025 is less than three months away, and it seems that developers are beginning to wonder whether they'll ever see Swift Assist in Xcode 16 at all. We've reached out to Apple for comment.

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on Wednesday issued its final verdict on the state of the country's mobile browser market, and the regulator has concluded that Apple's policies are largely responsible for hampering competition and innovation.

The CMA's independent inquiry group's investigation found that Apple's requirement for all iOS browsers to use its WebKit engine is stifling competition, and effectively prevents rival browsers from introducing unique features or optimizations on iPhones and iPads, regardless of their capabilities on other platforms.

The full report outlines several problematic Apple practices beyond the WebKit requirement, including giving Safari preferential access to iOS features compared to competing browsers, imposing limitations on in-app browsing, and prominently displaying Safari as the pre-installed default browser on all iPhones.

Google also came under scrutiny for pre-installing Chrome on Android devices, but the investigation found that Apple's restrictions were more fundamental to market competition. The CMA also flagged the lucrative arrangement where Google pays Apple billions annually to remain the default search engine on iOS devices, noting this deal "significantly reduces their financial incentives to compete."

Both companies have made some concessions since the CMA published its preliminary findings last November. The report acknowledges these improvements have "addressed some, but not all, of the concerns relating to choice architecture," specifically mentioning Apple's December software update that modified how users can change default browsers.

However, to address the remaining issues, the regulator proposed several potential remedies including forcing Apple to allow alternative browser engines on iOS, implementing browser choice screens during device setup (similar to the one found in the EU), and restricting the revenue-sharing search deal between Apple and Google.

These recommendations aren't immediately enforceable, as the CMA is first proceeding with separate investigations to determine whether Apple and Google should be designated with "strategic market status" (SMS) under the UK's Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act. The designation is expected to be decided later this year, and would give the CMA authority to impose stricter regulations on the companies.

If granted SMS designation, Apple and Google could face legally binding conduct requirements and risk substantial penalties — up to 10% of their annual global turnover — for violations.

The cloud gaming portion of the investigation, which had previously raised concerns about Apple's App Store restrictions, concluded that "no further action is necessary" following policy changes Apple made during the course of the investigation.

The UK report follows similar scrutiny from other global regulators, including the European Commission and the United States Department of Justice, which are also examining mobile browser competition.

Apple's upcoming iPhone 17 Pro models are expected to feature a significant design overhaul, and a new image apparently taken on an assembly line for the unreleased devices appears to confirm the biggest rumored change.

The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are rumored to adopt a horizontal camera bar reminiscent of Google's Pixel series, and this bar is expected to span the width of the device's back, housing the triangular triple-camera setup on the left, and the flash, microphone, and LiDAR sensor on the right. It is not clear why Apple would use this design, nor what the extra space would be used for, but it has shown up several times now.

The image below, shared on X (Twitter) by leaker Majin Bu, purports to show CNC-machined aluminum or titanium chassis components for the iPhone 17 Pro Max that mirror these expected changes, while the large circular openings likely correspond to areas for internal components like the MagSafe coil or battery. The stacked-together parts look precision-milled with visible CNC tool paths, suggesting they are freshly machined structural elements ready for further processing.

There have been reports that Apple may revert to using aluminum frames for the iPhone 17 Pro, moving away from the titanium used in the previous iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models.

Rumors suggest Apple plans to use a half glass, half aluminum build, which would increase durability. The glass would allow wireless charging to continue to be available, but a partial aluminum frame would be less prone to breakage.

There is said to be a glass section around the Apple logo that's integrated into an overall metal chassis, so the circular openings in the image could also be related to this change. Then again, the openings could be associated with a new wireless reverse charging feature.

Apple has apparently tested a 7.5W reverse wireless charging for the iPhone 17 Pro, which would allow the iPhone to provide wireless power to other Apple devices like AirPods and Apple Watch. Current iPhones are able to provide 4.5W of power to the Apple Watch and AirPods over USB-C, but there is no option for reverse wireless charging.

According to one rumor, the body thickness of the iPhone 17 Pro Max will increase to 8.725mm, up from the 8.25mm of the iPhone 16 Pro Max, which may be to fit a bigger battery.

The camera module redesign extends to the new iPhone 17 Air model, which is set to replace the Plus variant in Apple's lineup. This thinner device will allegedly feature a similar horizontal camera bar design, though it will accommodate just a single camera lens.

In contrast, the base iPhone 17 is expected to maintain the current camera design language seen in the iPhone 16 series, helping to further differentiate Apple's premium and standard offerings. Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 17 series next September. Are you excited by the expected design changes? Let us know in the comments.

Daring Fireball's John Gruber today shared some strongly-worded comments about Apple's delayed personalized Siri features. Gruber is a well-known Apple pundit who has been writing about the company for more than two decades.

In a blog post titled "Something Is Rotten in the State of Cupertino," Gruber said Apple's credibility has been "damaged" by the delay:

Keynote by keynote, product by product, feature by feature, year after year after year, Apple went from a company that you couldn't believe would even remain solvent, to, by far, the most credible company in tech. Apple remains at no risk of financial bankruptcy (and in fact remains the most profitable company in the world). But their credibility is now damaged. Careers will end before Apple might ever return to the level of "if they say it, you can believe it" credibility the company had earned at the start of June 2024.

This obviously isn't the first time that Apple has failed to deliver. However, Gruber said other examples like the canceled AirPower charging mat "tended to be around the edges," whereas he believes that generative AI is going to be "big" and "important."

It's not the delay by itself that bothers Gruber. He said the true "fiasco" here is that Apple "pitched a story" last year "that wasn't true":

The fiasco here is not that Apple is late on AI. It's also not that they had to announce an embarrassing delay on promised features last week. Those are problems, not fiascos, and problems happen. They're inevitable. Leaders prove their mettle and create their legacies not by how they deal with successes but by how they deal with — how they acknowledge, understand, adapt, and solve — problems. The fiasco is that Apple pitched a story that wasn't true, one that some people within the company surely understood wasn't true, and they set a course based on that.

Gruber said the personalized Siri features announced during the WWDC keynote last year were merely conceptual, and therefore "bullshit":

What Apple showed regarding the upcoming "personalized Siri" at WWDC was not a demo. It was a concept video. Concept videos are bullshit, and a sign of a company in disarray, if not crisis.

He was even more explicit here:

You can stretch the truth and maintain credibility, but you can't maintain credibility with bullshit. And the "more personalized Siri" features, it turns out, were bullshit.

Gruber said Apple's repeated unwillingness or inability to demo the personalized Siri features in action since WWDC last year "should have set off blinding red flashing lights and deafening klaxon alarms" in his head that something was wrong.

Gruber went as far as saying that Apple's culture of excellence could be at risk if this situation is not handled correctly within the company:

Tim Cook should have already held a meeting like that to address and rectify this Siri and Apple Intelligence debacle. If such a meeting hasn't yet occurred or doesn’t happen soon, then, I fear, that's all she wrote. The ride is over. When mediocrity, excuses, and bullshit take root, they take over. A culture of excellence, accountability, and integrity cannot abide the acceptance of any of those things, and will quickly collapse upon itself with the acceptance of all three.

The full post is worth a read.

We're not going to get a first look at iOS 19 until the June Worldwide Developers Conference, but as work picks up on the operating system at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, California, rumors are starting to leak out. ‌iOS 19‌ promises to be a major update, with some changes that we haven't seen Apple make for at least 10 years.

Overhauled Design

Apple is apparently planning to overhaul the design of all of its operating systems this year, including ‌iOS 19‌, iPadOS 19, and macOS 16. The goal is a more unified design language and feature set that makes the transition from iPhone to Mac and vice versa feel like less of a shock.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says this will be the biggest update Apple has made to the ‌iPhone‌'s design since iOS 7 was released in 2013, and it's not just cosmetic, either.

Apple is planning to overhaul icons, menus, apps, windows, system buttons, and more, while also tweaking navigation and control.

The new look is based on the Apple Vision Pro interface, which features a lot of translucency and a design feel that causes the operating system to kind of fade into the background to put content front and center.

We've heard rumors of what the updated design will do to the Camera app, and it will supposedly have a look that provides more screen space for photo previews with translucent pop-out menus that can be swiped through to select different camera modes.

Apple Intelligence

Apple is going to expand Apple Intelligence features to more of its built-in apps, but we haven't heard a lot of rumors about what's to come. Prior to when iOS 18 came out, it was suggested Apple could use Apple Intelligence for things like generating Apple Music playlists, so that's an example of what we could see.

Siri Updates

We do know about some of the ‌Apple Intelligence‌ features coming, and that's because Apple actually announced them for ‌iOS 18‌ and then had to delay them.

Apple planned to add new ‌Apple Intelligence‌ features to Siri in ‌iOS 18‌, making the personal assistant smarter and perhaps actually useful, but ‌Siri‌ changes are now being held until ‌iOS 19‌ or an update to ‌iOS 19‌.

We're waiting on personal context, onscreen awareness, and deeper app integration. Personal context will let ‌Siri‌ keep track of everything on your ‌iPhone‌, from emails and files to photos and messages, helping you complete tasks and find content that you're looking for without. ‌Siri‌ will be able to do things like find a specific photo someone sent you, locate files, or even find information like your passport number if you've written it down in notes.

With onscreen awareness, ‌Siri‌ will be able to see what's on your screen and complete actions involving what you're looking at. If someone sends you an address, for example, you can tell ‌Siri‌ to add it to their contact card.

Deeper app integration, or App Intents, should make a notable difference in what ‌Siri‌ is capable of. ‌Siri‌ will be able to do more in and across apps, performing actions and completing tasks that are just not possible right now. Apple says ‌Siri‌ will be able to do things like move files from one app to another, complete multi-step tasks like editing a photo and sending it to someone, and more.

Apple is also working on a full LLM version of ‌Siri‌ that would be similar to chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, and Google Gemini, but with the ‌iOS 18‌ ‌Siri‌ features delayed, it's likely LLM ‌Siri‌ won't be coming until at least iOS 20.

A Staggered Rollout

With ‌iOS 18‌, not all features were in the update that we got in September. Key ‌Apple Intelligence‌ functions were held back until iOS 18.1 and iOS 18.2, and that's a trend we could see continue with ‌iOS 19‌.

Apple is holding back features slated for ‌iOS 19‌ until spring 2026, at least in part due to the work on ‌Siri‌ ‌Apple Intelligence‌ features that were supposed to come in ‌iOS 18‌.

Compatibility

Rumors suggest that ‌iOS 19‌ will be compatible with all of the devices that can run ‌iOS 18‌, so if you have ‌iOS 18‌ installed, you should in theory be able to run ‌iOS 19‌. There are typically always features that require the processing power of a newer device, so it's quite possible that some new additions could be limited to the upcoming iPhone 17 models.

Release Date

‌iOS 19‌ will be previewed at WWDC in June, then beta tested for several months before launching in September alongside new iPhones.

Read More

For more on what's coming in ‌iOS 19‌, make sure to check out our iOS 19 roundup. If you want to keep up with rumors, you should bookmark the page, because we update it every time a new rumor comes out.

When new iPhone models come out, Sebastiaan de With, the developer behind the popular Halide camera app, does a deep dive into the new camera technology. Last month, Apple released the iPhone 16e with an all-new standalone 48-megapixel camera, and de With checked it out to see how it compares to the cameras in Apple's flagship iPhone 16 models.

On paper, the ‌iPhone 16e‌, the ‌iPhone 16‌, and the iPhone 16 Pro seem to have the same main camera, described as a 48-megapixel Fusion camera that's able to take both 1x and 2x shots, but when you drill down into the specs, there's a difference. The ‌iPhone 16 Pro‌ has a camera with an f/1.78 aperture, while the ‌iPhone 16‌ and 16e have a camera with an f/1.6 aperture. The ‌iPhone 16e‌ does not have sensor-shift optical image stabilization, while the ‌iPhone 16‌ does, so it's clear these are different cameras.

According to de With, what Apple has done with the ‌iPhone 16e‌ is pair current-generation image processing enabled by the A18 chip with a smaller, older camera component. With just a single Wide lens, there's no Macro mode, no spatial photo or video capture, no Night mode for Portrait images, and no Cinematic or Action mode options when capturing video. There also aren't pro features like ProRAW.

In an image test compared with the ‌iPhone 16 Pro‌, the ‌iPhone 16e‌ trended toward warmer images and it had a narrower field of view. The smaller sensor captured less detail, which de With said was most noticeable in lower light. 2x photos with the smaller sensor were lower quality with unpleasant processing.

According to de With, the ‌iPhone 16e‌ isn't on par with the ‌iPhone 16 Pro‌ or even the ‌iPhone 16‌, but it is on par with prior non-Pro iPhones and the ‌iPhone‌ 14 Pro. The fact that it has no sensor-shift stabilization was the biggest limiting factor because it cuts down on image quality in low light and in night shots.

De With felt that the ‌iPhone 16e‌'s sensor has a grainy, moody sensor that he enjoyed as an alternative to the ‌iPhone 16 Pro‌'s larger sensor. "As the kids would say today, it's a vibe," de With wrote.

De With's full review, complete with comparison images, can be read over on the Lux website.

iPhones are finally getting a much-requested setting, but availability is limited.

The upcoming iOS 18.4 update introduces an option to set a default navigation app, other than Apple Maps, but unfortunately this new setting is limited to users in the EU. There, you can now set an app like Google Maps or Waze as your default navigation app on the iPhone by opening the Settings app and tapping Apps → Default Apps → Navigation.

Apple made this change in response to the EU's Digital Markets Act.

Apple, we would love to see this option made available worldwide.

Apple has at least made a small concession for U.S. users, allowing them to set a default translation app on iOS 18.4. For example, you can set Google Translate as your iPhone's default translation app, instead of Apple Translate.

iOS 18.4 is currently in beta testing. The update will be released to the general public in early April, according to Apple's website.

Sonos has ended work on a high-end streaming set-top box that was expected to launch sometime in 2025, reports The Verge. Sonos informed employees of the streaming box's cancelation in a meeting today, and has reassigned those that were working on the product to other teams.

The set-top box was supposed to be Sonos' major product for the second half of 2025, and Sonos spent considerable resources on it. It was almost completed, and was even beta tested for months, but interim CEO Tom Conrad has decided to reprioritize Sonos' roadmap, and a push into video is no longer happening at the current time.

Sonos planned to compete with the Apple TV and other streaming boxes with its now-canceled "Pinewood" project, and the device would have been priced between $200 and $400. It was described as a simple black box with a "beautiful" Android interface that offered content from Netflix, Max, Disney Plus, and other streaming services.

Sonos wanted to reduce fragmentation in the streaming ecosystem, and to distinguish the streaming box from competing products, it would have doubled as an HDMI switch. Users would have been able to plug in gaming consoles, soundbars, and other devices using passthrough functionality, and it is said to have solved a latency problem that long annoyed Sonos.

Sonos plans to work on software improvements to continue to repair the damage done by last May's disastrous app update.

The new Mac Studio models with M4 Max and M3 Ultra chips support Low Power Mode, according to an Apple support document updated today.

Apple says turning on Low Power Mode reduces the Mac Studio's fan noise, which is useful for tasks that require a quieter environment, and it also allows for reduced power consumption if the computer is left running continuously.

The reduced fan noise aspect of Low Power Mode requires macOS Sequoia 15.1 or later. The new Mac Studio ships with macOS Sequoia 15.3.

A few Reddit users said that macOS Sequoia 15.3 enabled Low Power Mode on the previous-generation 2023 Mac Studio with the M2 Max chip, and presumably on M2 Ultra configurations too. This is not reflected in Apple's support document. (Update: Following our report, Apple revised its support document to confirm that the 2023 Mac Studio indeed supports Low Power Mode, starting with macOS Sequoia 15.3).

In any case, Low Power Mode on the Mac Studio is fairly new.

As obvious as it may sound, Apple's support document also confirms that the Mac Studio still lacks High Power Mode for additional cooling.

Apple's document has a list of Macs that support Low Power Mode with reduced fan noise.

Apple refreshed the MacBook Air lineup last week, and those new models are available starting today. We picked up one of the M4 ‌MacBook Air‌ models for a quick unboxing and first impressions overview.

If you've seen the M2 or M3 ‌MacBook Air‌ models, then you know exactly what the M4 version looks like. Apple didn't change the design one bit, though there is a new Sky Blue color that replaces Space Gray. It's a subtle blue that doesn't even look blue depending on the lighting, so it's not the most exciting update.

What's new is inside, and it's primarily the M4 chip. The M4 chip is Apple's latest, and you don't need us to tell you that it's fast. CPU performance is up to 30 percent faster, and GPU performance is up to 21 percent faster compared to the M3.

Both the M3 and the M4 are built on a 3-nanometer process, so there isn't a huge year-over-year improvement, but the new ‌MacBook Air‌ models weren't designed for people coming from M3. If you're upgrading from an Intel-based Mac, a Windows PC, or even the M1 ‌MacBook Air‌ from 2020, you're going to see a night and day leap in performance.

You can get the ‌MacBook Air‌ in 13-inch and 15-inch sizes, and they're about identical except for the display size, the weight, the speaker system, and the cost. There aren't differences in battery life, and both last for up to 18 hours when streaming video or 15 hours when browsing the web, so you can work all day without needing a charge.

There are two Thunderbolt 4 ports for connecting peripherals, and this year, the ‌MacBook Air‌ can drive two external displays at 6K resolution at 60Hz with no compromises. Apple added a new 12-megapixel front-facing camera this year, and it's a huge improvement over the 1080p camera that's been in multiple generations of prior ‌MacBook Air‌ models. The camera supports the latest features like Center Stage for keeping you in frame and Desk View if you need to demonstrate something on your desk.

The 13-inch ‌MacBook Air‌ is priced at $999 and it comes with 16GB RAM, an 8-core GPU, and a 10-core CPU. If you want the larger screen size, the 15-inch ‌MacBook Air‌ starts with 16GB RAM, a 10-core GPU, and 10-core CPU. You can upgrade the 13-inch ‌MacBook Air‌ to the 10-core GPU, and both models support up to 32GB RAM if you want to improve performance for tasks like video editing, gaming, and AI.

While the ‌MacBook Air‌ only got an incremental update this year, it's still the best Mac for most people. The $999 model is a solid deal with the M4 chip and the 16GB RAM. You can't get a cheaper current-generation notebook from Apple, but if you don't need portability, you can get a Mac mini with about the same specs for $599.

The main compromise between the ‌MacBook Air‌ and the more expensive MacBook Pro is essentially the display. The ‌MacBook Pro‌ has a much brighter mini-LED display that supports HDR and ProMotion. It also has more ports, a longer battery life, and the option to upgrade to faster M4 Pro or M4 Max chips for those who need even more performance.

It's probably going to be a few more years before Apple makes any notable design changes to the ‌MacBook Air‌, so it's not a bad time to upgrade from an older Intel or ‌M1‌ ‌MacBook Air‌ model.

Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo today reiterated his belief that a new HomePod with a screen will enter mass production in the third quarter of 2025.

Kuo is likely referring to Apple's rumored smart home hub, which is expected to have a square iPad-like screen that can be attached to a HomePod-like speaker base, or mounted on a wall. If his timeframe is accurate, it means that the device would enter mass production after Apple's annual developers conference WWDC in June.

Kuo originally predicted that the HomePod with a screen would enter mass production in the first quarter of 2025, but he said manufacturing was pushed back due to "software development issues," including Apple Intelligence. Last week, Apple said that the more personalized version of Siri that it previewed at WWDC 2024 last year is taking longer than it expected, and it now anticipates rolling out the new Siri features "in the coming year." It would make sense if Apple's smart home hub has been postponed too, as a result.

Kuo said another reason for the delay is ensuring that the device's interface aligns with software updates coming later this year, including iOS 19. Maybe (or maybe not) this relates to Apple's rumored visionOS-like software redesign plans, which could extend to the all-new homeOS operating system that is expected on the smart home hub.

Apple's smart home hub is rumored to feature a 6-inch or 7-inch display, and an A18 chip. It would allow users to control smart home accessories, make FaceTime video calls, use Apple's intercom feature between rooms in a house, and more. It might even double as a home security system with an Apple-designed camera.

It is unclear if the home hub will launch in late 2025, or if the delays will push it back until 2026.

Today we're tracking a handful of Apple accessory discounts on Amazon, including all-time low prices for both the Apple Pencil Pro and AirTag 4-Pack. Neither deal requires a coupon code this time around, as both have been applied automatically by Amazon.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Starting with the AirTag 4-Pack, you can get this accessory for $64.49, down from $99.00. This is an all-time low price, and you can find the 1-Pack on sale as well on Amazon, available for $22.99, down from $29.00.

Secondly, Amazon has the Apple Pencil Pro for $99.00, down from $129.00. This is a match for the record low price on the Apple Pencil Pro, and it's a deal that doesn't typically stick around long on Amazon, so if you've been waiting for it to return, be sure to check it out soon.

If you're on the hunt for more discounts, be sure to visit our Apple Deals roundup where we recap the best Apple-related bargains of the past week.

---

Money can buy an ultra-fast Mac, but it cannot buy ultra-fast delivery, apparently.

Apple's new Mac Studio with M4 Max and M3 Ultra chip options began arriving to customers today, but the highest-end model is facing delays.

If you order a maxed-out Mac Studio with a 32-core M3 Ultra chip, 512GB of unified RAM, and 16TB of SSD storage on Apple's online store today, the mind-boggling $14,099 configuration will not arrive until late March. Unsurprisingly, it is the massive 512GB of RAM upgrade option that seems to be causing the longer wait here.

If ordered today, that configuration is estimated for delivery between March 26 and March 31, so there is currently a two- to three-week wait.

Thanks, Paul!