Two years in the past, Apple skipped its typical second second-half-of-year occasion, focusing solely on a September 2022 unveil of new iPhones, smartwatches, and earbuds. Final yr I believed the corporate may pull the identical disappearing act, however it ended up rolling out the three-member M3 SoC household, together with an M3-based subset of its methods suite. And this yr? Mid-September predictably introduced us new iPhones, smartwatches, and earbuds. However as October’s finish drew close to with nothing however silence from Cupertino (tempting leaks from Russian vloggers apart), I questioned if this yr could be a repeat of the prior or a reversion to 2022 type.
Seems, October 2024 ended up being a conceptual repeat of 2023 in spite of everything…properly, type of. Apple waited till final Thursday (as I write these phrases on Halloween) to cryptically “tweet” (or is that “X”?) an “thrilling week of bulletins forward, beginning on Monday morning”. And certainly, the corporate as soon as once more unveiled new SoCs and methods (plus software program updates) this yr. However the information just about (after all) dribbled out over three days this time, versus dropping at one massive (on-line) occasion. That mentioned, there have been in-depth (albeit, as common, with a dallop of hype) movies accompanying most of the releases. With out additional ado, and in chronological order:
The iPad mini 7
The primary unveil within the October 2024 new-product sequence really occurred two weeks in the past, when Apple rolled out its latest-generation tiny pill. That the iPad mini 7 would sooner-or-later seem wasn’t a shock, though I suppose Apple might have flat-out killed your complete iPad mini line as an alternative, because it’s already accomplished with the iPhone mini. The iPad mini 6 (an instance of which I personal) is greater than three years outdated at this level, as I’d talked about again in Might. And particularly, it’s primarily based on the archaic A15 Bionic SoC and solely embeds 4 GBytes of RAM, each of that are showstoppers to the firm’s widespread Apple Intelligence help aspirations.
SoC replace (to the A17 Professional) and reminiscence replace (to eight GBytes, reflective of deep studying mannequin storage necessities) apart, the iPad mini 7 just about mirrors its predecessor, though it does now additionally help the Apple Pencil Professional and Pencil with USB-C, together with “hover” enhancements, in change dropping help for the Pencil 2, and the USB-C bandwidth has been boosted to 10 Gbps. Claimed enhancements to the “jelly scrolling” show habits seen by some iPad mini 6 customers (reality be instructed, I by no means observed it, though I principally maintain mine in panorama orientation) are muddled by iFixit’s teardown, which suggests the show controller location is unchanged.
And by the best way, don’t be overly impressed with the “Professional” qualifier within the SoC’s moniker. That’s the one model of the A17 that’s been introduced thus far, in spite of everything. And though it’s named the identical because the SoC within the iPhone 15 Execs, it’s really a defeatured variant, with one much less (5, to be exact) GPU core, presumably for yield maximization causes.
O/S updates
Talking of Apple Intelligence, on Monday the corporate rolled out “.1” updates to all of its units’ working methods, amongst different issues including preliminary “child step” AI enhancements. That mentioned, Europe customers can’t entry them for the time being, presumably because of the European Union’s privateness and different issues, which the corporate hopes to have resolved by subsequent April. And for the remainder of us, “.2” variations with much more enabled AI capabilities are scheduled for launch this December.
A few particular notes on MacOS: first off, along with iterating its latest-generation MacOS 15 “Sequoia” O/S, Apple has adopted longstanding extended-support custom by additionally releasing patches for the latest two prior-generation working system main variations, MacOS 13 (“Ventura”) and MacOS 14 (“Sonoma”). And in my case, that’s an ideal factor, as a result of it seems I received’t be updating to “Sequoia” any time quickly, at the least on my inside storage capacity-constrained Mac mini. I’d been excited after I learn that MacOS 15.1 betas have been enabling the flexibility to selectively obtain and set up App Retailer software program both to inside storage (as earlier than) or to an exterior drive (as exists in my specific setup state of affairs).
However because it seems, that capacity is just enabled for App Retailer-sourced packages 1 GByte or bigger in dimension, which is just related to at least one app I take advantage of (Skylum’s Luminar AI which, I discovered within the technique of penning this piece, has been outdated by Luminar Neo anyway). Plus, the MacOS “Sequoia” improve from “Sonoma” is ~12 GBytes, and Apple traditionally requires twice that out there spare capability earlier than it permits an replace try to proceed (proper now I’ve not 25 GBytes, however solely 7.5 GBytes, free on the interior SSD). And the Apple Intelligence capabilities aren’t related to Intel-based methods, anyway. So…nah, at the least for now.
By the best way, earlier than continuing along with your studying of my piece, I encourage you to observe at the least the second promo video above from Apple, adopted by the perusal of an evaluation (or, when you desire, take-down) of it by the all the time hilarious (and, I would, add, brave) Paul Kafasis, co-founder and CEO of longstanding Apple developer Rogue Amoeba Software program, whose glorious audio and different purposes I’ve talked about many occasions earlier than.
The 24” iMac
Apple rolled out some upgraded {hardware} on Monday, too. The corporate’s M1-based 24” iMac, unveiled in April 2021, was considered one of its first Apple Silicon-based methods. Apple then skipped the M2 SoC era for this specific computing platform, holding out till final November (~2.5 years later), when the M3 successor lastly appeared. However it seems that the corporate’s now choosing up the tempo, because the M4 model simply confirmed up, lower than a yr after that. That is additionally the primary M4-based pc from Apple, following within the footsteps of the iPad Professional tablet-based premier M4 {hardware} surprisingly (at the least to me) launched in early Might. That mentioned, as with the defeatured A15 Bionic within the iPad mini 7 talked about earlier on this writeup, the iMac’s M4 can be “binned”, with solely eight-core CPU and GPU clusters within the “base” model, versus the 9- or 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU within the iPad Execs and different methods to come back that I’ll point out subsequent.
The M4 24” iMac comes first-time customary with 16 GBytes of base RAM (to my earlier observe in regards to the iPad mini’s AI-driven reminiscence capability replace…and as a foreshadow, this received’t be the final time on this protection that you just encounter it!), and (additionally first-time) provides a nano-texture glass show choice. Akin to the Lightning-to-USB-C updates that Apple made to its headphones again in mid-September, the corporate’s pc peripherals (mouse, keyboard and trackpad) now as an alternative recharge over USB-C, too. The entrance digital camera is Heart Stage– and Desk View-enhanced this time, each options benefiting from the mix of a wide-angle lens and a few nifty computational pictures tips, and as can even be the case for the opposite pc bulletins to come back. And commensurate with the SoC replace, the Thunderbolt ports at the moment are gen4-supportive.
The Mac mini and M4 Professional SoC
Tuesday introduced a extra radical evolution. The newest iteration of the Mac mini is now formed like a shrunk-down Mac Studio or, when you desire, a considerably larger spin on the Apple TV. The linear dimensions and general quantity are notably altered versus its 2023 precursor, from:
to:
Stated one other means, the “footprint” space is lower than half of what it was earlier than, on the tradeoff of practically 50% elevated top. And the load loss is notably too, from 2.6 kilos (1.18 kg) or 2.8 kilos (1.28 kg) earlier than to 1.5 kilos (0.67 kg) or 1.6 kilos (0.73 kg) now. I additionally ought to observe that, regardless of these dimension and weight decreases, the AC/DC conversion circuitry remains to be 100% inside the pc; Apple hasn’t pulled the “trick” of shifting it to a standalone PSU outdoors. That mentioned, legacy-dimension “stacked” peripherals received’t work anymore:
And the new underside location of the facility button is, in a phrase and IMHO, “bizarre”.
The 2 “or” qualifiers within the earlier weight-comparison sentence beg for clarification which can concurrently be silicon-enlightening. Akin to the sooner iMac dialog, there’s been a SoC era skip, from the M2 straight to the M4. The early-2023 model of the Mac mini got here in each M2 and M2 Professional (which I personal) SoC variants. Equally, whereas this yr’s baseline Mac mini is powered by the M4 (on this case the complete 10 CPU/10 GPU core “spin”), a high-end variant containing the model new M4 Professional SoC can be out there. On this specific (Mac mini) case, the CPU and GPU core counts are, respectively, 12 and 16. Reminiscence bandwidth is dramatically boosted, from 120 GBytes/sec with the M4 (the place as soon as once more, the bottom reminiscence configuration is 16 GBytes) to 273 GBytes/sec with the M4 Professional. And the M4 Professional variant can be Apple’s first (and solely, at the least for a day) system that helps latest-generation Thunderbolt 5. Talking of connectors, by the best way, built-in legacy USB-A isn’t any extra, although. Deliver on the dongles.
MacBook Execs, the M4 Max SoC and a MacBook Air “yet one more factor”
Final (apparently, we shouldn’t take Apple actually when it guarantees an “thrilling week of bulletins forward”) however undoubtedly not least, we come to Wednesday and the unveil of upgraded 14” and 16” MacBook Execs. The smaller-screen model is available in variants primarily based on M4, M4 Professional and brand-new M4 Max SoC flavors. This time, when you dive into the tech specs, you’ll discover that the M4 Professional is “binned” into two totally different silicon spins, one (as earlier than within the Mac mini) with a 12-core CPU and 16-core GPU, and a higher-end variant with a 14-core CPU and 20-core GPU. Each M4 Professional variations ship the identical reminiscence bandwidth—273 GBytes/sec—which undoubtedly can’t be mentioned in regards to the high-end M4 Max. Right here, at the least on the 14” MacBook Professional, you’ll once more discover a 14-core CPU, though this time it’s mated to a 32-core GPU, and the reminiscence bandwidth additional upticks to 410 GBytes/sec.
In the event you suppose that’s spectacular (or possibly simply difficult), wait till you see the 16” MacBook Professional’s variability. There’s no baseline M4 choice on this case, solely two M4 Professional and two M4 Max variants. Each M4 Professional base “kits” include the M4 Professional outfitted with a 14-core CPU and 20-core GPU. The third variant contains the aforementioned 14-core CPU/32-core GPU M4 Max. And as for the highest-end M2 Max 16” MacBook Professional? 16 CPU cores. 40 GPU cores. And 546 GBytes/sec of peak reminiscence bandwidth. The thoughts boggles on the try at comprehension.
Talking (one final time, I promise) of reminiscence, what about that “yet one more factor” on this part’s subhead? Apple has bumped up (with one notable Walmart-only exception) the baseline reminiscence of its current MacBook Air cellular computer systems to 16 GBytes, too, at no worth improve from the unique 8 GByte MSRPs (or, mentioned one other means, delivering a 16 GByte worth minimize), bringing your complete product line to 16 GBytes minimal. I draw two basic conclusions:
With that, closing in on 2,000 phrases, I’ll log out for now and await your ideas within the feedback!
—Brian Dipert is the Editor-in-Chief of the Edge AI and Imaginative and prescient Alliance, and a Senior Analyst at BDTI and Editor-in-Chief of InsideDSP, the corporate’s on-line publication.
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