The Apple 2021 Fall Mac Event Live Blog 10am PT (17:00 UTC)
by Andrei Frumusanu on October 18, 2021 12:22 PM EST
12:57PM EDT - Following last month’s announcement event of Apple’s newest iPhone and iPad line-ups, today we’re seeing Apple hold its second fall event, where we expect the company to talk about all new things Mac. Last year’s event was a historic one, with Apple introducing the M1 chip and new powered Mac devices, marking the company’s move away from x86 chips from Intel, taking instead their own future in their hands with their own custom Arm silicon. This year, we’re expecting more chips and more devices, with even more performance to be release. Stay tuned as we cover tonight’s show.
12:58PM EDT - We're about to start so hold on to your seats.
01:00PM EDT - And here we go
01:01PM EDT - Intro video starting, retro reminder about the Mac bootup sound was created.
01:01PM EDT - Apple is starting with the ususal artistic-styled opening video, this time playing with the Mac startup sound
01:02PM EDT - Tim taking the stage.
01:02PM EDT - And here's Tim Cook
01:02PM EDT - Focusing on two areas: Music and Mac
01:03PM EDT - Music production on Mac has always been quite prevalent due to many professional editing tools.
01:03PM EDT - Talking about music consumption in all of Apple's devices as well as Apple Music
01:04PM EDT - "Taking the Apple Music experience forward"
01:05PM EDT - Apple Music integration into Siri for a music assistance experience
01:05PM EDT - New Apple Music plan "Voice plan"
01:06PM EDT - New Apple Music plan that is only accessible over Siri
01:06PM EDT - Moving fast onto the Homepod Mini
01:07PM EDT - New colours for HomePod Mini - infused into the mesh fabric
01:09PM EDT - $99 starting in November
01:09PM EDT - Tim talking about AirPods now - some exciting news coming up
01:10PM EDT - Talking about spatial audio Dolby Atmos mastered audio content.
01:11PM EDT - 3rd Generation AirPods
01:11PM EDT - "New AirPods with Spatial Audio"
01:12PM EDT - Force Sensor on the side for control
01:12PM EDT - Newly redesigned dynamic driver for better audio quality.
01:13PM EDT - Adaptive EQ integration - this is actually a huge deal.
01:13PM EDT - Adaptive EQ is able to adapt the frequency response to your ears for a better accurate audio experience.
01:14PM EDT - $179 - orders starting today and availability next week.
01:14PM EDT - Moving onto Mac - the meat of the show
01:15PM EDT - "Tight integration between hardware and software that is unprecedented"
01:15PM EDT - One year since the introduction of the M1
01:15PM EDT - Mac had its best year ever since the M1 introduction
01:16PM EDT - Hints at a new MacBook Pro
01:16PM EDT - "Reimagining the MacBook Pro"
01:16PM EDT - "M1 Pro" - next chip in M1 family
01:16PM EDT - Johny Srouji taking the stage
01:17PM EDT - "The M1 has shocked the PC world"
01:17PM EDT - "Some users need even more"
01:17PM EDT - M1 Pro is all bout more power
01:17PM EDT - Contrasting CPU and discrete GPUs in traditional architectures
01:19PM EDT - 10-core CPU, 16-core GPU
01:19PM EDT - Two new chips
01:20PM EDT - M1 MAX
01:20PM EDT - Based on M1 Pro, but bigger
01:20PM EDT - 57 billion transistors
01:21PM EDT - 32-core GPU
01:21PM EDT - "Industry leading performance per watt"
01:21PM EDT - "Crushes the competition"
01:22PM EDT - 1.7x the perf/w than the competition
01:23PM EDT - 100W less power than a comparable discrete GPU setup at 160W
01:24PM EDT - 2.5x to 3x faster GPU speed at comparable power levels
01:24PM EDT - "The world's most powerful chip for a notebook"
01:24PM EDT - "These new chips are phenomenal"
01:25PM EDT - "Improvements across the system in the most demanding apps"
01:25PM EDT - Intelligent allocation and scheduling between performance and efficiency cores
01:26PM EDT - ML 3-20x faster than a Core i9
01:27PM EDT - All Pro apps optimised for M1 Pro and M1 Max
01:27PM EDT - 10000 universal apps now available - meaning both x86 and Arm binary compatible
01:28PM EDT - Catching up the fast pace here - the 57bn transistor M1 MAX is quite insane and vastly exceeds anything else on the market - we're not longer talking a SoC with a GPU but a GPU with a SoC alongside it
01:30PM EDT - Apple's GPU wattage comparisons would point out peak performance around that of a Radeon 6700
01:30PM EDT - "it's just awesome for our vision for Apple Silicon come to life"
01:30PM EDT - Moving onto the MacBook Pro itself
01:32PM EDT - 16" and new 14" models
01:32PM EDT - The 14" model would offer amazing performance in in the package
01:32PM EDT - New thermal design and fans that are super quiet
01:33PM EDT - TouchBar has been retired for normal keys
01:33PM EDT - Connectivity next
01:34PM EDT - on one side, HDMI, USB-C, and SDcard reader
01:34PM EDT - Two USB-C, 3.5mm and Magsafe on the other side
01:35PM EDT - 2 ProDisplay XDR for M1 Pro, 3 of them for M1 MAX
01:35PM EDT - "New breathtaking display"
01:35PM EDT - Thinner bezels, but now has a camera notch.
01:36PM EDT - Static pixel density between the 16" and 14" models, with different resolutions.
01:36PM EDT - Static pixel density between the 16" and 14" models, with different resolutions.
01:36PM EDT - 120Hz refresh rate
01:37PM EDT - 10-bit panel for 1bn colours
01:37PM EDT - Mini-LED backlight
01:38PM EDT - "Thousands of mini LEDs"
01:38PM EDT - "Extreme dynamic range"
01:38PM EDT - New camera and audio system next
01:39PM EDT - 2x better low-light performance and 1080p
01:40PM EDT - 4-speaker with tweeters and woofers
01:40PM EDT - 80% more bass, and deeper frequencies
01:42PM EDT - Huge performance claims both on CPU and GPU - 4x a Radeon 5600M
01:43PM EDT - 64GB DRAM on the M1 MAX
01:44PM EDT - 7.4GB/s SSD points at PCIe 4.0 4x or 3.0 8x
01:44PM EDT - 2x better Lightroom Classic, 4x code compile in Xcode battery life
01:45PM EDT - 21 hours video battery life on the 16" model
01:45PM EDT - "The new MacBook Pro is simply extraordinary"
01:48PM EDT - $1999 and $2499
01:48PM EDT - "A huge step in the Mac's transition to Apple Silicon"
01:50PM EDT - That's a wrap for today's show - stay tuned for our articles.
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web2dot0 - Monday, October 18, 2021 - link
Too bad you don't have a valid rebuttal. Don't get butthurt and call people names because you can't stand it.artk2219 - Monday, October 18, 2021 - link
Stand what? That Apple price gouges on hardware with niche uses and isnt as flexible in most situations, theres nothing to defend. Its great if what you want to do is only what is supported by Apple, but as soon as you step outside of those bounds they will give you no support, and actively discourage you from doing it since they cant control it. No thanks. It doesn't matter how much of an improvement it is if they will never sell it to anyone else or allow others to use their hardware in ways they didn't foresee, and you still have to buy into the ecosystem anyway if you weren't already in it. It was a stupid comment that deserved a stupid answer, but remember, "think different".eek2121 - Monday, October 18, 2021 - link
Curious as to why you think that. Macs can’t run 90% of the software out there. That makes them not just inferior, but useless for many.noone2 - Monday, October 18, 2021 - link
Yeah, but 90% of people use mainly the same 1% of software out there. I use all the same software on my Mac as I did on my PC.blanarahul - Monday, October 18, 2021 - link
That slower, inferior hardware can run Steam and my favorite AAA games. The day I can do that on a Macbook is the day I'll switch, not before. Having a 32 core GPU is worthless if I can't use it.web2dot0 - Monday, October 18, 2021 - link
Steam is being ported to Apple Silicon my guy.This is only ONE step towards total domination. Imagine M3 Max .... you'll be crying to your mom.
artk2219 - Monday, October 18, 2021 - link
Nah, because I'll still be able to do what I want with my computer vs being stuck with whatever Apple lets me do, oh and i can still likely add more ram or change out a disk if it fails without replacing the entire thing, you know, simple things like that.MamiyaOtaru - Monday, October 18, 2021 - link
god you're incredible. If a Mac ever does what I want it to (run my software, not cost a whole lot more than the alternative) I'll use one. Why wouldn't I? Attaching part of my identity to a massive company that doesn't give a shit about me is not something I care to do. Right now, Macs do not do what I would need to for me to buy one. I do wish the laptops that do could come close to matching Apple's performance per watt etc. I've got no problem admitting they have an incredible chip here. Again, why would I? Bottom line: if Apple met peoples needs we'd see them with a lot larger market share. If they are or become manifestly superior (not discounting certain aspects like affordability) they'll be a lot more ubiquitous. Until then what's the point of all your fanboying? Why play cheerleader for a company? Get a fucking gripRSAUser - Monday, October 18, 2021 - link
You're missing the power segment qualifier, the has to run Rosalyn for pretty much all my work stuff with most of it not actually being able to run on MacOS (since Net Framework stuff still exist everywhere as a C# dev...).That's without the premium price tag taken into account or that we're right around the corner for both Intel and AMD launching their new products which will probably be quite competitive.
Alistair - Monday, October 18, 2021 - link
You didn't notice the massive price increases? Macbook Pros used to start at $1300, now they have a fake old one running an iPad CPU, and the actual Macbook Pro starts at $2000. So you have to compare with Windows laptops that start at $2000. And btw, you have to pay $1150 CAD plus tax to upgrade that GPU to the 24 core model (never mind the 32 core one), so basically you are starting at $3000 USD for the GPU capable Macbook Pro.Let's do fair comparisons when Alder Lake and the next gen GPUs are out. $3000 laptop comparisons.