The Future of Apple's Mac Lineup: Speculation and Excitement
Apple's annual fall event is just around the corner, and as always, speculation is running wild about what new products the company will announce. This year, rumors point to a new 13 or 14 inch MacBook Pro that would go a little bit further to really show us what Apple Silicon can really do in the Mac, especially when the power and thermal constraints are just relaxed quite a bit. The idea is that this machine could be used as a test bed for more powerful and efficient Apple Silicon designs.
Even if it's not the new MacBook Pro, there are also rumors of a new Mac mini or a 24 inch iMac with an all-new iPad-inspired design making the rounds. Even a 16 inch MacBook Pro still using Intel parts, just to put a cap in that lineup in both senses of that word. Either way, we could see Johnny Srouji again, senior vice president of platform technologies, talk us through the new Silicon, or Sri Santhanam, vice-president of Silicon engineering, who showed off the A13 last year, or Tim Millet, vice-president of platform architecture, introduced the A14 back in September. Really, it's always a possibility that Joz will be there to show off the latest Apple Silicon.
Tom Boger, who runs Mac product marketing, could also be joining the stage to show off macOS Big Sur-specific to the new machine or machines. Now, safe bet is we get an A14 that either has some unique Apple's Silicon accelerators discussed for the first time. Something that, like the iPhone and iPad, shares the same chip but optimizes for the different devices in different ways. So too does now the Mac, or we get a whole new letter in the alphabet to make that distinction just more distinct with some maybe unique IP all its own. Either way, it just runs Mac OS and Final Cut and Logic Pro faster than anything else on the planet.
Virtual machines and emulators are running faster than they have any rights to, and even iOS and iPad OS apps as fast as anyone would ever want to run them on a Mac. And the new era has begun. Now with Apple Silicon, do we even need one more thing? In 2020, I would argue that the more things, the better. I would really love it and could use it, but I do doubt it. The biggest outside chance has to be a glimpse of Apple Glasses. Like we got out of the Apple Watch back in September of 2014, but Apple probably doesn't want to distract too much from the Mac this month.
The technology that would make Apple Glasses really a consumer-ready product at this point is still far away. So my guess is that's a 2021 or 2022 thing, when Apple can show them off and demo them in person, when they're 100% certain they're going to ship. Especially with everything else going on right now, I just don't see Apple setting themselves up for any more delays. But if there's any year, any year we could use that bonus, that we need the extras.
That's why Georgia Dow and I are putting extra bonus content for every episode of our new podcast, AppleTalkup, on Nebula, the streaming platform that I'm building along with my educationy fellow creator friends. Like Devin from LegalEagle, BrainCraft, Thomas Frank, Mariana, Ali Abdaal, Mary Spender, EposVox, Jordan Harrod, and so many more. It's a place where we don't need to worry about demonetization or the tyranny of the click-through rate, watch times, algorithms, ads.
You can find all of my videos there completely ad-free, including the new podcast I started with Georgia, AppleTalk, which has a bonus topic only available on Nebula. And yes, what does any of this have to do with CuriosityStream? Well, as the go-to source for the best documentaries on the internet, they just love educational content and thoughtful creators. We worked out this deal where if you sign up for CuriosityStream with the link in the description, not only will you get CuriosityStream, but also a Nebulasubscription for free.
And for a limited time, CuriosityStream is offering 26% off all of their annual plans. And 26% off is just the best deal you'll find anywhere. So click on the link in the description and get both CuriosityStream and Nebula for 26% off or just go to curiositystream.com/reneritchie. It's a great way to support this channel and get educational content directly for just $14.79 per year. Per year. Just click on the link in the description or go to curiositystream.com/reneritchie, and clicking on that link just really helps out this channel.
For a ton more on everything Apple's announcing this fall, because they're still announcing plenty, click on the playlist above. I've got videos on what we know so far, rumors, predictions, and analysis of each product. There's also a bonus episode where Georgia and I discuss some of the biggest questions surrounding Apple Silicon. And as always, be sure to like, comment, and subscribe for more content.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Third time's the charm, I guess.The lights go dark.The music pauses.You know the drill.The Apple logo hits the screen.Tim Cook- Good morning.Good morning.- or wait.- Hello and welcome back to Apple Park.- I mean, it's like we can'tdepend on anything anymore.Not anything, not in 2020,the drop test of years.We've already had the September event,not for iPhone and Apple Watch, but...- Apple Watch and iPad.- And the October event,not for iPad and the Mac, but for...- Home Pod Mini and iPhone.- And that just leaves,That just leaves lucky numberthree for the already teased- First Mac with Apple Silicon.- And, well, drone shot, speedramp, transition, steady camand thenApple TV or AirPods Studio, AirTagsor iPad Pro or maybe,just maybe one more thing.Well, sit back, slap thatsubscribe button and bellor I'll switch you back to Inteland get ready as I break it all down.Sponsored by CuriosityStream with Nebula.Zoom in like mass driverfrom space zoom in,all the way down rightonto Apple CEO Tim Cook.He's on the stage.He's in the theater.He's followed LisaJackson up onto the roof.He's in the secret Blackbird Launch Bayunder the basketball hoop.He's somewhere at ApplePark and he's ready to talk.Maybe Apple TV 4k Plus.Finally, now it could bethat Tim stays on cameraor maybe we cut across to Eddy Cue,senior vice president of servicesor someone on the Apple TV hardware team.And I know, I know the rumorsare saying this won't happenuntil next year, butdammit, I want it this year.So I'm gonna try to justwill it into being anyway.So we start with the Apple TV remote,which still needs a makeover,something a little more asymmetrical,maybe with the home buttoncentered at the bottomlike iPhones have beensince basically year zero.Also, the U1 spatialpositioning chip in it.So we can Find My the stuffing out of itfrom under the cushions orunder the sofa just every day.And fingers crossed for inductive chargingjust MagSafe all the things now, please.The 4k box itself willno doubt look similarif not the same, but has a beefed upA12X processor or thereabouts,to not only better handlethings like HDR compositingand the next generationof Apple arcade games.And please just please,Game Pass, Stadia, Amazon, Facebook,all the games, as well as Fitness+and the rest of Apple services.And maybe, just maybe,there's an Apple TV 4K Pluswith an A14X processor,something that would just,it's clobbering time Triple-A games,especially if some of the moreoutlandish rumors are trueabout Apple sniffingaround the big studiosSony and Microsoft haven'tjust gobbled up yet.And yes, Apple has nevershown any interest at allin hardcore gaming,but that's never going to stopall the rumors or the dreams.Cut back to Tim.Just like 2012 when Appleannounced the iPad 3 in Marchand then came back in Octoberand announced the iPad 4,what if, just,what if Tim Cook wants to tell usthat they're once againnot taking their footoff the electric acceleratorpedal, like at all.So maybe Laura Legros or John Ternus,one of the VPs of hardware engineeringcome out with a secondbig iPad Pro for 2020,this one having everythingthe last one just didn't.Now again, rumors are sayingnext spring is more likelybut nothing makes sense this year anyway.So I'm including it for thesake of just including it.And maybe it's only 5Gwith the Qualcomm X55 modemor maybe it gets 5G and an A14X processor.So it's just all of Apple's major productsall on the same IP generation,or maybe it goes all the wayand get to that fancynew mini LED display.My guess is nothing.But wow, would that be something.Smooth transition pan back to Tim.Now I know you want yourApple Silicon alreadybut the accessories come first.- Apple Watch and iPad.Home Pod mini, an iPhone.- I don't make the rules.I just report on them.So maybe AirTags, finally AirTags.And I'm honestly not sure who comes outto tell us more about them.If they were done lastmonth, back in OctoberKaiann Drance, vice presidentof iPhone marketing,could have handled it thesame way she did MagSafe,or with an even smallerJames Bond briefcase,same as she did with the iPhone mini.So could Greg Joswiak, Joz,senior vice presidentof worldwide marketing,but they didn't.So it's just kind of wide open now.Anyway, someone comes outand tells us more about these tiny,shiny little Apple-emblazoneddisks in two sizesthe ring and the pouchand just everything.Finally, at last, thatyou can stick on your keysand wallets, and yourgym bags and gear bags.On your kids' clothesand your pets' collars.And they have that U1 ultrawideband chip in them,and they work with Apple's Find My networkso you can locate anything,anything lost or stolen or just missingwith down to the inch,AR-guided precision.And Apple addresses privacyconcerns because they have to,because even though Tile hasbeen on the market for years,every headline is going to act likeit's a brand new thing justbecause Apple is doing it now.But then they cut to Craig Federighi,senior vice presidentof software engineering,for the demo for Find My on the AirTags,and maybe for some third party versions.So Tile can't get quite so cranky,along with any other newhardware specific featuresthat are coming with the Tiles,and then blur drop back to Tim.Now, maybe it's time to talk headphones.Most recent rumors suggestthe over the ear ones,the AirPods Studios,have also been pushed to next yearbut if they haven't,if they are in fact ready,Tim shows them to us.And then, again, I don't know.My heart says I really want Phil Schillerone last time.We haven't seen him sincehe left his old postanchoring events and became in charge,the Apple fellow incharge of running events,but he still loves his audio gearas much as he loves cameras.So who knows.Anyway, the new AirPodsstudio take everything greatabout the in-ear Prosand just hulkzier them outinto full-on over the ear studio canslike, two Home Pods minijust strapped your headlike Princess Leia hair.It's computationalspatial audio on the go.And we get the full demo,from the Silicon insidethem to the streaming.And you can even swap out the ear pieceslike watch bands,so you can mix up thecolors and the patterns,and then cut back to Tim.And yeah, the main event.Apple Silicon Macs.They were pre-announcedback at WWDC 2020 in June.The Mac, but instead of IntelCPU, is an embedded GPU,or Intel CPUs and AMD discreet GPUs.They're running customApple systems on a chiplike iPads have been doing forjust years and years already.And we've seen, yeah, we'veseen the developer test systems,basically a Mac mini chassis,stuffed with an iPadpro chip set, the A12Z.But now we get to see thefirst real Apple Silicon Macif Apple doesn't have a fancier brand namejust ready to debut along with the event.And rumors have been reallymixed with everythingfrom a new 12 inch MacBook,basically an iPad Pro in Mac clothingthat would kick things offwith something familiar,to a new 13 or 14 inch MacBook Prothat would go a little bit furtherto really show us whatApple Silicon can really doin the Mac, especially when the powerand thermal constraints arejust relaxed quite a bit.And there are alsorumors of a new Mac mini,or of a 24 inch iMacwith an all new iPad inspired designmaking the rounds.Even a 16 inch MacBook Prostill using Intel parts,just to put a cap in that lineupin both senses of that word.Either way we could seeJohnny Srouji again,senior vice president ofplatform technologies,to talk us through the new Silicon,or Sri Santhanam, vice-presidentof Silicon engineering,who showed off the A13 last year,or Tim Millet vice-presidentof platform architecture,introduced the A14 back in September,but really, again,another completely open field with Joz,just always a possibility.Tom Boger who runs Mac product marketing,Craig Federighi to show off macOS Big Surspecific to the new machine or machines.Now safe bet is we get an A14that either has some uniqueApple's Silicon acceleratorsdiscussed for the first time.Something that, like the iPhone and iPad,share the same chipbut optimize for the differentdevices in different ways.So too does now the Mac,or we get a whole newletter in the alphabetto make that distinctionjust more distinctwith some, maybe someunique IP all its own.Either way, it just runsMac OS and Final Cutand Logic Pro faster thananything else on the planet.Virtual machines and emulatorsfaster than it has any rights to,and even iOS and iPad OS appsas fast as anyone would everwant to run them on a Mac.And the new era has begun.Now with Apple Silicon,do we even need one more thing?In 2020, I would argue themore things, the better.I would really love it andcould use it, but I do doubt it.The biggest outsidechance has to be a glimpseof Apple Glasses.Like we got out of the Apple Watchback in September of 2014.But Apple probably doesn'twant to distract too muchfrom the Mac this month.And it seems way too earlystill for that technology.The technology thatwould make Apple Glassesreally a consumer readyproduct at this point.So my guess is that'sa 2021 or 2022 thing,when Apple can show themoff and demo them in person,when they're 100% certainthey're going to shipbecause especially witheverything else going on right nowI just don't see Apple setting themselvesup for any more delays.But if there's any year,any year we could use that bonus,that we need the extras.It's this one.And that's why Georgia Dow and Iare putting extra bonus contentfor every episode of ournew podcast AppleTalkup on Nebula, the streamingplatform that I'm buildingalong with my educationyfellow creator friends,like Devin from LegalEagle, BrainCraft,Thomas Frank, Mariana, Ali Abdaal,Mary Spender, EposVox, JordanHarrod, and so many more.It's a place where we don't need to worryabout demonetization or the tyrannyof the click-through rate,watch times, algorithms, ads.You can find all of my videosthere completely ad-free,including the new podcastI started with Georgia,AppleTalk, which has a bonustopic only available on Nebula.And yes, what does any of thishave to do with CuriosityStream?Well, as the go-to sourcefor the best documentarieson the internet,they just love educationalcontent and thoughtful creators.And we worked out this dealwhere if you sign up for CuriosityStreamwith the link in the description,not only will you get CuriosityStream,you'll also get a Nebulasubscription for free.And for a limited time,CuriosityStream is offering 26% offall of their annual plans.And 26% off is just the bestdeal you'll find anywhere.So click on the link in the descriptionand get both CuriosityStreamand Nebula for 26% offor just go tocuriositystream.com/reneritchie.It's a great way to support this channeland get educational content directlyfor just 14.79 per year.Per year.Just click on the link in the descriptionor go to curiositystream.com/reneritchie,and clicking on that linkjust really helps out this channel.For a ton more on everythingApple's announcing this fall,'cause they're still announcing plenty,click on the playlist above.I've got previews, unboxing,hands-on, full reviews,and much, much more to come,Click on the playlist,and I'll see you next video.\n"
