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Apple's big event is here, and we're expecting one major announcement: a brand-new, thinner, lighter MacBook Pro. But you can also keep your eyes peeled for some changes to the MacBook Air and iMac. We'll have all the latest news right here.
You need an adapter to plug your iPhone into the new MacBook Pros
Apple just announced a lineup of three new MacBook Pro laptops , each of which is decked out with four (four !) USB Type-C ports. And as is the case with all things Apple these days, you know what that means — you’re going to need more dongles.
More specifically, you now need purchase either a USB 2.0 (old USB) to USB Type-C dongle or a Lightning-to-USB-C cable to connect your shiny new iPhone 7 (or any old iPhone, to be clear) to use any of these new MacBook Pros.
Now, do you need to plug your phone into your computer? Not necessarily. You’ll get a faster charge from a wall outlet, for one thing. But — and I can’t believe I’m saying this — if iTunes is good for anything these days, it’s managing apps, music, and sometimes even iOS updates on your iPhone. Doing any of those things just got one step harder.
A future where phones, laptops, and other products all use USB Type-C could be a great one . Certain USB-C ports can handle data and power at the same time, and a reversible universal connector that works on both ends of the cable — and across products that run iOS, macOS, Android, and Windows — sounds like a good future!
But that future is still out on the horizon, and to get there we have to paddle through a sea of dongles . At least the new MacBook Pro has a headphone jack.
Here's everything you can do with the new MacBook Touch Bar
Apple has unveiled the new MacBook Pro and the most interesting part of it by far is the Touch Bar — a touch-sensitive, context-aware OLED strip that replaces the function keys above the keyboard. Buttons on the Touch Bar change depending on the software you're using, so that when you're in your mail app it'll show you a button for deleting emails, for example, whereas in a photo app it'll show you buttons for adjusting the image.
The most useful keys look like they'll stick around in all contexts (that includes brightness and volume controls on the far right, and the escape key on the far left), but the rest will change based on what you're doing. Third-party developers can also add their own functionality. Here's what we've seen it do so far:
Edit pictures. In Apple's own photo app there are buttons for adjusting tilt, crop, picture rotation, and adding filters. You can also scroll through images in a carousel.
Edit videos. In Final Cut Pro you can scrub through an individual clip, or navigate the whole timeline of a larger video project.
Add emoji . In Messages and Mail you can select an emoji from the Touch Bar, and it'll even suggest emoji to replace words you're typing.
Suggest words . Like autosuggest in iOS, the Touch Bar will prompt you with basic response to conversations.
Edit documents. Format options like bold, italicize, and underline are accessible in the Touch Bar.
Control music . Basic playback controls, such as play, pause, skip track, etc, all appear when you're listening to music.
Browse the web . When using Safari you get buttons for new tabs, starting search, and navigating back and forward in web pages. You can also see tab previews in the Touch Bar or access your bookmarks.
Manage your email . In Mail, you can use the Touch Bar to create a new message, reply, function, move an email to the trash, or archive it.
Make presentations. In Keynote you can use the Touch Bar to adjust things like text and pictures and navigate through your slides.
Access Siri. Along with brightness and volume controls, it looks like accessing Siri is also a permanent addition to the Touch Bar on the far right-hand side.
Accept or reject FaceTime calls. You'll need an iPhone and Continuity running on your Mac to get your calls sent there in the first place though.
Find places in Maps . When using Apple's mapping app you get shortcut buttons for basic searches — for cinemas, restauraunts, coffee shops, etc.
Scroll through your calendar . Use Apple's calendar app and the Touch Bar will let you quickly navigate between weeks.
Use Touch ID. This doesn't appear to be part of the Touch Bar's OLED display, but lives just to the right of it. You can use Touch ID to pay for purchases, log in to your account, or switch accounts on the same machine.
Customize your Touch Bar. The default buttons are what you'd normall get on a MacBook, but you can switch this up, with shortcuts for things like locking the screen, taking screenshots, and dictation.
Code code code. The Touch Bar even works in Terminal and Xcode, bringing up a number of common navigation functions.
Access the function keys . Yep, F1 through F12 aren't going away — you'll just need to hold down the function button on the keyboard to bring those up.
And that's all we've got so far, but remember: third-party developers can also add their own functionality. We know there are custom Touch Bar buttons for Photoshop, Skype, and Office, and presumably more will follow. What's more, the Touch Bar even feels good, says our own Dieter Bohn, who had a chance to try it out today . Maybe we won't miss physical function buttons after all
The new MacBook Pro looks and feels so good it's unreal
The new MacBook Pro is here — literally available for preorder today — and I’ve just tried it. The best thing I can say about is simple: everything about it looks and feels so good I almost didn’t believe it.
We’ll start with the marquee feature, the Touch Bar . What you might not have gathered from the keynote is that it has a matte finish, which makes the buttons on it somehow feel a little more physical. It’s bright, but not so bright that it distracts — it seems to be about on par with the brightness of the backlit keyboard.
THE TOUCH BAR LOOKS REALLY GOOD, THE SCREEN LOOKS INCREDIBLE
I have questions about whether or not all these changing function buttons will be comprehensible, but in my brief time with them they all made sense to me. There’s no haptic feedback on them, unfortunately, but obviously they all worked perfectly. That included quickly applying filters in Photos and sorting emails in Mail.
I also rearranged buttons (you can find the option in a menu) and it worked, well, as advertised. What’s neat about dragging buttons down from the screen to the Touch Bar is that you can keep moving them with the mouse on the second screen.
They keyboard is almost identical to the Butterfly keyboard found on the tiny MacBook. That’s going to cause some people to grind their teeth, but I think it’s great and easy to type on — and I do think the keys might have sightly better travel, but don’t hold me to that.
Apple stops selling computer released in June 2012
Apple just announced a new generation of MacBook Pro laptops, which means it's probably time to stop selling the prior range. Or at least the the one before it. Yes, the 13-inch MacBook Pro from June 2012, which made up for its lack of Retina display with an optical disc drive and an extra pound or so in weight, has finally been killed after inexplicably remaining on sale at $1,099 for years without a spec bump. New models are no longer on sale, although some refurbished units are still available.
So, pour one out if you really wanted a portable Mac with a DVD drive — you'll have to use Apple's USB SuperDrive accessory now. Possibly with a USB-C to USB-A adapter.
Apple's $1,499 13-inch MacBook Pro has an escape key, but no Touch Bar
Alongside the new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar , Apple just introduced a third new MacBook Pro model that's something of an unofficial successor to the MacBook Air. The company plans to continue selling its 13-inch Air, Phil Schiller said, but this specific MacBook Pro will likely be a preferable option for those who can afford it. It's 13 percent smaller in volume than the existing Air and weighs the same 3 pounds. It retains traditional, physical function keys — yes, like escape — so there's no Touch Bar on this version.
But the entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro does get some of the same upgraded hardware found in its pricier counterparts like Thunderbolt 3 (two ports), the latest Intel processors, and improved second-generation butterfly keyboard. Unfortunately, like the other models, it also loses the SD card slot.
The display is a Retina display, which alone may be enough to convince many consumers to step up from the Air. Rumors before today's event had suggested Apple might update the Air with USB-C ports and faster internals, but instead, Phil Schiller spent several minutes explaining why this cheaper 13-inch Pro, which starts at $1,499, is such a superior machine. It begins shipping immediately today, whereas the Touch Bar MacBook Pros won't launch for 2 to 3 weeks. At this stage, the MacBook Air remains in Apple's lineup mostly for its alluring, low price point.
Apple's new MacBook Pros will keep your fingerprint secure like the iPhone
Apple has included a surprising new chip in its
new MacBook Pro. Onstage at the company’s Fall event, Apple’s Phil Schiller revealed a new T1 chip, manufactured by Apple, that will bring the Secure Enclave on the new generation of laptops. iPhones and iPads have included Secure Enclave hardware for years, but this is the first instance of those protections on an Apple laptop.
The T1 isn’t the main processor, and most functions will still rely on Intel’s Core i5 or i7chips, but including an Apple-made chip enables a number of important security features. Apple’s A7 chip — included in iPhones and iPads — is encoded with an inextractible private key at the factory, as part of the A7’s Secure Enclave. That private key is then used for a number of security functions, including decrypting iMessages. Previous MacBooks have typically stored private keys in software-accessible memory, a less secure alternative made necessary by reliance on third-party chips.
Those features are particularly important for TouchID, which is built into the new MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar . That TouchID sensor, included on a MacBook for the first time, enables a single machine to switch between user accounts immediately after recognizing a registered print.
The Secure Enclave’s protections are central to TouchID, ensuring that attackers can’t extract fingerprint information from the device, an attack that has been demonstrated on some Android phones .
Apple adds Touch Bar and Touch ID to the new MacBook Pro
Apple has added the Touch Bar to the new MacBook Pro the company announced during an event today. The new Touch Bar, which leaked out two days ago, replaces the row of keys and will allow app-specific commands to be displayed on the keyboard.
Apple has added the Touch Bar to the new MacBook Pro the company announced during an event today. The new Touch Bar, which leaked out two days ago, replaces the row of keys and will allow app-specific commands to be displayed on the keyboard.
For example, when you open Mail, the Touch Bar will display buttons to create a new message, replying, or moving an email to the trash. In Safari, you can preview tabs and switch through them using the Touch Bar, open a new tab, or go to one of your favorited sites without having to use the trackpad. You can even swipe through your images in Photos with previews, scrub through videos, and make edits like rotating photos, cropping, and adding filters. Apple says users will be able to customize the Touch Bar, and add the features and buttons they need the most.
A second generation Touch ID sensor covered with a sapphire crystal has been included to the right of the Touch Bar on the new MacBook Pro. Users will be able to use it to authenticate purchases using Apple Pay in Safari. More importantly Touch ID will let users with multiple profiles on their MacBook Pro quickly switch between them using a fingerprint. So if you share a MacBook and hate logging out to get back into your desktop, Touch ID just cut your wait time down.
Apple has also doubled the size of the force touch trackpad, and built a second generation version of the butterfly keyboard on the 12-inch MacBook for the Pro. The company says it has improved the speakers on the 15-inch Pro, which now feature "twice the dynamic range of audio" according to Marketing boss Phil Schiller.
Apple announces new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar
The main attraction of Apple’s "Hello Again" event today has just been made official with the new 2016 MacBook Pro. It’s been a very long time since Apple meaningfully redesigned its flagship laptop, which has felt somewhat neglected with only the addition of a Force Touch trackpad as a major change in the past two years. But today Apple is rectifying all that in a big way with a fundamentally redesigned MacBook Pro.
Follow along here as we enumerate everything that's changed with the brand new MBP.
- Metal on all sides in the new design, "incredibly extreme," according to Phil Schiller.
- The OLED touch strip at the top that had been rumored is present, as expected. Apple calls it
Touch Bar and it does actually have an Esc key, it's just in software rather than a dedicated button. It's claimed to be a Retina display in its own right, and it responds to both taps and gestures. To the right of the Touch Bar is a
Touch ID fingerprint authentication module. It's the second-generation Touch ID and it's protected by a sapphire glass cover.
- Thinnest and lightest MacBook Pro ever. Comes in silver and space gray color options. The 13-inch MBP weighs 3 pounds and measures in at 14.9mm of thickness, down from 18mm currently.
- Much larger Force Touch trackpad, twice the size in fact, and the butterfly mechanism keyboard — second generation of the technology — of the thin MacBook.
-The new display is 67 percent brighter, has a 67 percent better contrast ratio, and displays 25 percent more colors. Apple says that despite these developments, it consumes less power than before.
-For processor, the new 15-inch MacBook Pro has a quad-core Intel Core i7 chip and 2,133mHz memory. It has an ATI Radeon Pro graphics card with up to 4GB of RAM. You can get up a 2TB SDD that's up to 50 percent faster and the 15-inch model comes with 16GB of RAM. Apple claims the 15-inch's speakers are louder and have twice as much dynamic range.
-The 13-inch model has either Core i5 or i7 processors and Intel Iris Pro graphics. It has the same faster memory as the larger model, but only has 8GB of it.
-Both machines have four Thunderbolt 3 USB Type-C ports, any one of which can be used for charging. They also have a 3.5mm headphone jack, but no SD card slots or other types of ports. Apple says the USB-C ports replace power, Thunderbolt, USB, DisplayPort, HDMI, and VGA ports. Unfortunately, this means that the new MacBook Pro doesn't have a MagSafe power cord anymore, much like the 12-inch MacBook.
-Battery life is said to be "up to 10 hours" for both versions, which is slightly longer than the old models.
-In addition to the 13-inch and 15-inch models with the TouchBar, Apple is also introducing a 13-inch model without the touch strip, which is designed to take the place of the MacBook Air. Compared to the old MacBook Air, the new MacBook Pro is over 2mm thinner and has 13 percent less volume. It has two Thunderbolt 3 USB-C ports instead of the four of the other Pro models and a lower spec Core i5 processor.
Apple announces a TV app to put all your content in one place
Apple may not be building its own TV, but it at least has its own TV guide. Sort of. The company unveiled a new app — simply named TV — at its Mac event today, promising users it will unite of all their digital TV content in one place. The app brings together content from different services including the likes of Netflix and HBO, as well as iTunes purchases and live content.
The app is free, available on iOS and Apple TV, and works with Siri, so you can use voice commands to find shows and control playback. It also integrates the single sign-on feature Apple introduced for tvOS earlier this year, meaning users only have to sign in once to access content from different services. It'll be available for download in the US some time at the end of the year.
A TV app might sound basic, but it could be a clever way around some of Apple's problems in the industry. The company has been trying to do for TV what it did for music for years now, serving up its own package of content to consumers, but it's been stymied by negotiations with media execs, who have reportedly balked at Apple's aggressive negotiating style.
By creating an app that unifies different streams of content, Apple places itself between users and the people who control the content — making the iPhone maker and its services more integral. On stage, Apple CEO Tim Cook also noted that there are already some 1,600 Apple TV apps from content providers. If anything, that's too many, and funneling all that content into one app makes sense. It remains to be seen how useful the app is in practice, but it certainly looks slick, and it's another step forward for Apple's TV ambitions.
Microsoft is bringing Minecraft to the Apple TV
Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed today that Microsoft is planning to bring Minecraft to the Apple TV. While it was a brief mention on stage at Apple's event, Cook did reveal you'll be able to build worlds straight from the Apple TV. It's likely that the app will be similar to the existing Pocket Edition for iOS, allowing you to play with other Minecraft players across multiple platforms.
http://www.theverge.com/2016/10/27/13438932/apple-special-event-october-2016-macbook-pro
You need an adapter to plug your iPhone into the new MacBook Pros
Apple just announced a lineup of three new MacBook Pro laptops , each of which is decked out with four (four !) USB Type-C ports. And as is the case with all things Apple these days, you know what that means — you’re going to need more dongles.
More specifically, you now need purchase either a USB 2.0 (old USB) to USB Type-C dongle or a Lightning-to-USB-C cable to connect your shiny new iPhone 7 (or any old iPhone, to be clear) to use any of these new MacBook Pros.
Now, do you need to plug your phone into your computer? Not necessarily. You’ll get a faster charge from a wall outlet, for one thing. But — and I can’t believe I’m saying this — if iTunes is good for anything these days, it’s managing apps, music, and sometimes even iOS updates on your iPhone. Doing any of those things just got one step harder.
A future where phones, laptops, and other products all use USB Type-C could be a great one . Certain USB-C ports can handle data and power at the same time, and a reversible universal connector that works on both ends of the cable — and across products that run iOS, macOS, Android, and Windows — sounds like a good future!
But that future is still out on the horizon, and to get there we have to paddle through a sea of dongles . At least the new MacBook Pro has a headphone jack.
Here's everything you can do with the new MacBook Touch Bar
Apple has unveiled the new MacBook Pro and the most interesting part of it by far is the Touch Bar — a touch-sensitive, context-aware OLED strip that replaces the function keys above the keyboard. Buttons on the Touch Bar change depending on the software you're using, so that when you're in your mail app it'll show you a button for deleting emails, for example, whereas in a photo app it'll show you buttons for adjusting the image.
The most useful keys look like they'll stick around in all contexts (that includes brightness and volume controls on the far right, and the escape key on the far left), but the rest will change based on what you're doing. Third-party developers can also add their own functionality. Here's what we've seen it do so far:
Edit pictures. In Apple's own photo app there are buttons for adjusting tilt, crop, picture rotation, and adding filters. You can also scroll through images in a carousel.
Edit videos. In Final Cut Pro you can scrub through an individual clip, or navigate the whole timeline of a larger video project.
Add emoji . In Messages and Mail you can select an emoji from the Touch Bar, and it'll even suggest emoji to replace words you're typing.
Suggest words . Like autosuggest in iOS, the Touch Bar will prompt you with basic response to conversations.
Edit documents. Format options like bold, italicize, and underline are accessible in the Touch Bar.
Control music . Basic playback controls, such as play, pause, skip track, etc, all appear when you're listening to music.
Browse the web . When using Safari you get buttons for new tabs, starting search, and navigating back and forward in web pages. You can also see tab previews in the Touch Bar or access your bookmarks.
Manage your email . In Mail, you can use the Touch Bar to create a new message, reply, function, move an email to the trash, or archive it.
Make presentations. In Keynote you can use the Touch Bar to adjust things like text and pictures and navigate through your slides.
Access Siri. Along with brightness and volume controls, it looks like accessing Siri is also a permanent addition to the Touch Bar on the far right-hand side.
Accept or reject FaceTime calls. You'll need an iPhone and Continuity running on your Mac to get your calls sent there in the first place though.
Find places in Maps . When using Apple's mapping app you get shortcut buttons for basic searches — for cinemas, restauraunts, coffee shops, etc.
Scroll through your calendar . Use Apple's calendar app and the Touch Bar will let you quickly navigate between weeks.
Use Touch ID. This doesn't appear to be part of the Touch Bar's OLED display, but lives just to the right of it. You can use Touch ID to pay for purchases, log in to your account, or switch accounts on the same machine.
Customize your Touch Bar. The default buttons are what you'd normall get on a MacBook, but you can switch this up, with shortcuts for things like locking the screen, taking screenshots, and dictation.
Code code code. The Touch Bar even works in Terminal and Xcode, bringing up a number of common navigation functions.
Access the function keys . Yep, F1 through F12 aren't going away — you'll just need to hold down the function button on the keyboard to bring those up.
And that's all we've got so far, but remember: third-party developers can also add their own functionality. We know there are custom Touch Bar buttons for Photoshop, Skype, and Office, and presumably more will follow. What's more, the Touch Bar even feels good, says our own Dieter Bohn, who had a chance to try it out today . Maybe we won't miss physical function buttons after all
The new MacBook Pro looks and feels so good it's unreal
The new MacBook Pro is here — literally available for preorder today — and I’ve just tried it. The best thing I can say about is simple: everything about it looks and feels so good I almost didn’t believe it.
We’ll start with the marquee feature, the Touch Bar . What you might not have gathered from the keynote is that it has a matte finish, which makes the buttons on it somehow feel a little more physical. It’s bright, but not so bright that it distracts — it seems to be about on par with the brightness of the backlit keyboard.
THE TOUCH BAR LOOKS REALLY GOOD, THE SCREEN LOOKS INCREDIBLE
I have questions about whether or not all these changing function buttons will be comprehensible, but in my brief time with them they all made sense to me. There’s no haptic feedback on them, unfortunately, but obviously they all worked perfectly. That included quickly applying filters in Photos and sorting emails in Mail.
I also rearranged buttons (you can find the option in a menu) and it worked, well, as advertised. What’s neat about dragging buttons down from the screen to the Touch Bar is that you can keep moving them with the mouse on the second screen.
They keyboard is almost identical to the Butterfly keyboard found on the tiny MacBook. That’s going to cause some people to grind their teeth, but I think it’s great and easy to type on — and I do think the keys might have sightly better travel, but don’t hold me to that.
Apple stops selling computer released in June 2012
Apple just announced a new generation of MacBook Pro laptops, which means it's probably time to stop selling the prior range. Or at least the the one before it. Yes, the 13-inch MacBook Pro from June 2012, which made up for its lack of Retina display with an optical disc drive and an extra pound or so in weight, has finally been killed after inexplicably remaining on sale at $1,099 for years without a spec bump. New models are no longer on sale, although some refurbished units are still available.
So, pour one out if you really wanted a portable Mac with a DVD drive — you'll have to use Apple's USB SuperDrive accessory now. Possibly with a USB-C to USB-A adapter.
Apple's $1,499 13-inch MacBook Pro has an escape key, but no Touch Bar
Alongside the new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar , Apple just introduced a third new MacBook Pro model that's something of an unofficial successor to the MacBook Air. The company plans to continue selling its 13-inch Air, Phil Schiller said, but this specific MacBook Pro will likely be a preferable option for those who can afford it. It's 13 percent smaller in volume than the existing Air and weighs the same 3 pounds. It retains traditional, physical function keys — yes, like escape — so there's no Touch Bar on this version.
But the entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro does get some of the same upgraded hardware found in its pricier counterparts like Thunderbolt 3 (two ports), the latest Intel processors, and improved second-generation butterfly keyboard. Unfortunately, like the other models, it also loses the SD card slot.
The display is a Retina display, which alone may be enough to convince many consumers to step up from the Air. Rumors before today's event had suggested Apple might update the Air with USB-C ports and faster internals, but instead, Phil Schiller spent several minutes explaining why this cheaper 13-inch Pro, which starts at $1,499, is such a superior machine. It begins shipping immediately today, whereas the Touch Bar MacBook Pros won't launch for 2 to 3 weeks. At this stage, the MacBook Air remains in Apple's lineup mostly for its alluring, low price point.
Apple's new MacBook Pros will keep your fingerprint secure like the iPhone
Apple has included a surprising new chip in its
new MacBook Pro. Onstage at the company’s Fall event, Apple’s Phil Schiller revealed a new T1 chip, manufactured by Apple, that will bring the Secure Enclave on the new generation of laptops. iPhones and iPads have included Secure Enclave hardware for years, but this is the first instance of those protections on an Apple laptop.
The T1 isn’t the main processor, and most functions will still rely on Intel’s Core i5 or i7chips, but including an Apple-made chip enables a number of important security features. Apple’s A7 chip — included in iPhones and iPads — is encoded with an inextractible private key at the factory, as part of the A7’s Secure Enclave. That private key is then used for a number of security functions, including decrypting iMessages. Previous MacBooks have typically stored private keys in software-accessible memory, a less secure alternative made necessary by reliance on third-party chips.
Those features are particularly important for TouchID, which is built into the new MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar . That TouchID sensor, included on a MacBook for the first time, enables a single machine to switch between user accounts immediately after recognizing a registered print.
The Secure Enclave’s protections are central to TouchID, ensuring that attackers can’t extract fingerprint information from the device, an attack that has been demonstrated on some Android phones .
Apple adds Touch Bar and Touch ID to the new MacBook Pro
Apple has added the Touch Bar to the new MacBook Pro the company announced during an event today. The new Touch Bar, which leaked out two days ago, replaces the row of keys and will allow app-specific commands to be displayed on the keyboard.
Apple has added the Touch Bar to the new MacBook Pro the company announced during an event today. The new Touch Bar, which leaked out two days ago, replaces the row of keys and will allow app-specific commands to be displayed on the keyboard.
For example, when you open Mail, the Touch Bar will display buttons to create a new message, replying, or moving an email to the trash. In Safari, you can preview tabs and switch through them using the Touch Bar, open a new tab, or go to one of your favorited sites without having to use the trackpad. You can even swipe through your images in Photos with previews, scrub through videos, and make edits like rotating photos, cropping, and adding filters. Apple says users will be able to customize the Touch Bar, and add the features and buttons they need the most.
A second generation Touch ID sensor covered with a sapphire crystal has been included to the right of the Touch Bar on the new MacBook Pro. Users will be able to use it to authenticate purchases using Apple Pay in Safari. More importantly Touch ID will let users with multiple profiles on their MacBook Pro quickly switch between them using a fingerprint. So if you share a MacBook and hate logging out to get back into your desktop, Touch ID just cut your wait time down.
Apple has also doubled the size of the force touch trackpad, and built a second generation version of the butterfly keyboard on the 12-inch MacBook for the Pro. The company says it has improved the speakers on the 15-inch Pro, which now feature "twice the dynamic range of audio" according to Marketing boss Phil Schiller.
Apple announces new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar
The main attraction of Apple’s "Hello Again" event today has just been made official with the new 2016 MacBook Pro. It’s been a very long time since Apple meaningfully redesigned its flagship laptop, which has felt somewhat neglected with only the addition of a Force Touch trackpad as a major change in the past two years. But today Apple is rectifying all that in a big way with a fundamentally redesigned MacBook Pro.
Follow along here as we enumerate everything that's changed with the brand new MBP.
- Metal on all sides in the new design, "incredibly extreme," according to Phil Schiller.
- The OLED touch strip at the top that had been rumored is present, as expected. Apple calls it
Touch Bar and it does actually have an Esc key, it's just in software rather than a dedicated button. It's claimed to be a Retina display in its own right, and it responds to both taps and gestures. To the right of the Touch Bar is a
Touch ID fingerprint authentication module. It's the second-generation Touch ID and it's protected by a sapphire glass cover.
- Thinnest and lightest MacBook Pro ever. Comes in silver and space gray color options. The 13-inch MBP weighs 3 pounds and measures in at 14.9mm of thickness, down from 18mm currently.
- Much larger Force Touch trackpad, twice the size in fact, and the butterfly mechanism keyboard — second generation of the technology — of the thin MacBook.
-The new display is 67 percent brighter, has a 67 percent better contrast ratio, and displays 25 percent more colors. Apple says that despite these developments, it consumes less power than before.
-For processor, the new 15-inch MacBook Pro has a quad-core Intel Core i7 chip and 2,133mHz memory. It has an ATI Radeon Pro graphics card with up to 4GB of RAM. You can get up a 2TB SDD that's up to 50 percent faster and the 15-inch model comes with 16GB of RAM. Apple claims the 15-inch's speakers are louder and have twice as much dynamic range.
-The 13-inch model has either Core i5 or i7 processors and Intel Iris Pro graphics. It has the same faster memory as the larger model, but only has 8GB of it.
-Both machines have four Thunderbolt 3 USB Type-C ports, any one of which can be used for charging. They also have a 3.5mm headphone jack, but no SD card slots or other types of ports. Apple says the USB-C ports replace power, Thunderbolt, USB, DisplayPort, HDMI, and VGA ports. Unfortunately, this means that the new MacBook Pro doesn't have a MagSafe power cord anymore, much like the 12-inch MacBook.
-Battery life is said to be "up to 10 hours" for both versions, which is slightly longer than the old models.
-In addition to the 13-inch and 15-inch models with the TouchBar, Apple is also introducing a 13-inch model without the touch strip, which is designed to take the place of the MacBook Air. Compared to the old MacBook Air, the new MacBook Pro is over 2mm thinner and has 13 percent less volume. It has two Thunderbolt 3 USB-C ports instead of the four of the other Pro models and a lower spec Core i5 processor.
Apple announces a TV app to put all your content in one place
Apple may not be building its own TV, but it at least has its own TV guide. Sort of. The company unveiled a new app — simply named TV — at its Mac event today, promising users it will unite of all their digital TV content in one place. The app brings together content from different services including the likes of Netflix and HBO, as well as iTunes purchases and live content.
The app is free, available on iOS and Apple TV, and works with Siri, so you can use voice commands to find shows and control playback. It also integrates the single sign-on feature Apple introduced for tvOS earlier this year, meaning users only have to sign in once to access content from different services. It'll be available for download in the US some time at the end of the year.
A TV app might sound basic, but it could be a clever way around some of Apple's problems in the industry. The company has been trying to do for TV what it did for music for years now, serving up its own package of content to consumers, but it's been stymied by negotiations with media execs, who have reportedly balked at Apple's aggressive negotiating style.
By creating an app that unifies different streams of content, Apple places itself between users and the people who control the content — making the iPhone maker and its services more integral. On stage, Apple CEO Tim Cook also noted that there are already some 1,600 Apple TV apps from content providers. If anything, that's too many, and funneling all that content into one app makes sense. It remains to be seen how useful the app is in practice, but it certainly looks slick, and it's another step forward for Apple's TV ambitions.
Microsoft is bringing Minecraft to the Apple TV
Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed today that Microsoft is planning to bring Minecraft to the Apple TV. While it was a brief mention on stage at Apple's event, Cook did reveal you'll be able to build worlds straight from the Apple TV. It's likely that the app will be similar to the existing Pocket Edition for iOS, allowing you to play with other Minecraft players across multiple platforms.
http://www.theverge.com/2016/10/27/13438932/apple-special-event-october-2016-macbook-pro
