Apple’s ‘Unleashed’ Fall 2021 Mac Event: rumors, news, and announcements

If you’re looking at buying the $1,999 base model MacBook Pro 14-inch, there’s one upgrade that you may really want to make — the $20 one that gets you the 96W power adapter instead of the 67W included power adapter. That’s because, according to some wording on Apple’s MacBook Pro configuration page (spotted by MacRumors), you’ll need the more powerful charger if you want to take advantage of the computer’s fast charging feature, which can charge the laptop up to 50 percent in half an hour.

Is it ridiculous that Apple is basically taxing the people who want to buy its least expensive (but still very pricey!) new MacBook Pro? Yes, absolutely — but you should still probably pay it if you want to charge your laptop up quickly. The exception is if you already have a charging brick capable of 100W USB-PD power delivery: Apple tells The Verge that you can fast charge via Thunderbolt as long as your power brick provides enough power. If you already have a beefy power brick, you can skip the upsell.

Apple’s new MacBook Pros are here, and they may actually live up to the “Pro” moniker. But there’s one big question that comes with the new sizes and processors: how’s the battery life? To hear Apple tell it, it’s going to be great — the company even said onstage that the 16-inch had the best battery life ever, besting last year’s M1 Macs (which it also boasted would have the longest-lived batteries). But the metric Apple used to back up that claim is a bit suspect, and its other numbers tell a very different story.

In its keynote and press release, Apple says the 14-inch MacBook Pro will provide 17 hours of video playback and estimates that the 16-inch model can last for an unprecedented-for-Macs 21 hours. But using video playback as a measure of battery life is really only useful if you’re trying to sell a particular narrative — not if you just want to let people know how long their laptops will actually last. For one, Apple says these figures are derived from watching a movie using the Apple TV app. That’s not generally what people use their laptops for unless they’re marathoning the Lord of the Rings extended cuts. Plus, modern CPUs have so much silicon dedicated to video playback that it’s almost become effortless for them. It’s a battery flex, not a battery test.

The day that many have been dreading has finally arrived. Apple has added a notch to its new MacBook Pros. And somehow, Apple — notch pros at this point — managed to utterly botch the notch. Because the new MacBook Pros completely missed out on the most important part of the notch: adding Face ID. 

I’ve been on the record of being extremely pro-MacBook notch: back in 2018, I argued that Apple should do exactly what it’s done here: add a notch to its MacBook laptops, taking up the exact width of the persistent menu bar that already permanently lives on the top of its macOS software (barring the occasional dip into a full-screen app). 

The new Apple Music Voice plan that Apple announced at its “Unleashed” event on Monday is causing some confusion. I’m here to help you understand this new, cheaper option, which capitalizes on the power of Apple’s smart voice assistant, Siri (don’t laugh).

Put simply, the Apple Music Voice plan is a voice control-only access to the service’s catalog of 90 million songs. It arrives later this year, and with it, you can play everything — full albums, individual songs, Apple’s playlists; it’s all-you-can-eat Apple Music. The caveat is you have to use your voice to control it, and you have to play it through a Siri-enabled device, such as a HomePod Mini (now in some spiffy new colors), AirPods, or an iPhone.

Apple’s new 140W charging brick, which works with a new MagSafe charging cable to power the new 16-inch MacBook Pro, uses the USB-C Power Delivery 3.1 standard, Apple has confirmed to The Verge. As well as being included with the new 16-inch MacBook Pro, the brick is available separately for $99 (not including the USB-C-to-MagSafe cable, which costs an extra $49). Meanwhile, the new 14-inch MacBook Pros come with 67W and 96W chargers, depending on the exact model.

Using the USB-C PD 3.1 standard means Apple’s new charging brick will be cross compatible with other devices that use the same power delivery standard, which was announced earlier this year alongside the USB Type-C Release 2.1 specification. It also means that MacBook owners have the flexibility of using compatible third-party charging bricks with the new MacBooks.

Apple debuted a controversial new Safari tab design this summer at WWDC 2021, and since then, it has tweaked that look and even let you turn off many of the changes. With macOS Monterey, however, the company is going back to the way tabs looked before. On Apple’s official page for the upcoming software update, if you scroll down to the section titled “Access Tab Groups anywhere,” you can just barely see Safari’s older (and arguably better) design in the example screenshots on both a Mac and on an iPad (via Daring Fireball). 

Perhaps even more surprising is that the old design is now the default, according to MacRumors, which observed the reverted tabs in the macOS Monterey release candidate. However, if you want to use the design Apple revealed at WWDC, where tabs also function as URL bars, that will be an option you can flip on in the preferences menu, MacRumors says.

Apple announced new M1-equipped MacBook Pros on Monday, and they look like very good upgrades, with powerful chips, adaptive refresh rate displays, the return of some beloved ports, and more. They don’t come cheap, though, with the 14-inch MBP starting at $1,999 and the 16-inch one starting at $2,499.

And if you want to buy the absolute highest-end model, with 64GB of unified memory, 8TB of SSD storage, a 140W USB-C power adapter, and the M1 Max chip, that will cost you a cool $6,099, according to Apple’s online store.

As expected, Apple’s “Unleashed” event brought a number of new additions to Apple’s lineup, including a pair of new laptops in the form of new versions of the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro, as well as a third-generation of AirPods.

Both versions of the 2021 MacBook Pro are configurable with the newly announced M1 Pro and M1 Max CPUs, which build greatly on the improvements made by the M1 CPU that debuted last year. Besides the beefier processor, the new versions of the MacBook Pro have enhanced GPU performance, battery life, and a host of new connectivity options, including a trio of Thunderbolt 4 ports, HDMI output, and an SD card reader in addition to a MagSafe 3 connector.

The tech world may be abuzz regarding the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros, but the new AirPods — announced during Apple’s “Unleashed” event today — have also conjured up a storm. Apple has finally announced a new pair of true wireless earbuds set to launch on October 26th for $179, while lowering the price of the entry-level AirPods 2 to $129.

As expected, the third-generation AirPods mirror their sleeker sibling, the AirPods Pro, mostly in its new design and in some functionality, barring the active noise cancellation. For the first time since 2016, the AirPods include a wider, Pro-like charging case and shorter steams. They also boast Pro features like Adaptive EQ, which customizes your audio experience, and an intuitive force sensor for media control. Apple has also added support for the same head-tracking capabilities found on the AirPods Pro and Airpods Max, as well as Apple’s spatial audio, which allows for a more immersive experience when listening to select content Apple TV Plus, Disney Plus, and other services.

Apple has announced a redesigned MacBook Pro, which now includes a 14-inch screen, Apple’s new M1 Pro and Max chips, a notch, squared-off design, and a wider selection of ports in addition to the standard Thunderbolt ones — it brings back the HDMI port and SD card reader and adds a MagSafe 3 connector for charging (though you can also charge it with the Thunderbolt ports if your house is littered with USB-C power bricks). It starts at $1,999 and can be ordered “today.”

It has a 14.2-inch 120Hz ProMotion Mini LED display, which Apple is branding as “Liquid Retina Pro XDR.” It has slimmer bezels than the previous generation but also includes a notch, which houses a 1080p webcam but not Apple’s Face ID system. Resolution-wise, the 14-inch model runs at 3024 by 1964, and it can run at 1,000 nits sustained brightness and 1,600 nits peak brightness.

Apple has just finished its October 2021 event, which was full of news and announcements from the company — including the long-awaited M1-equipped MacBook Pros. There was a whole lot of news, so if you want to get caught up on the biggest updates from the show, you can catch up with our roundup right here.

Apple revealed a brand-new set of MacBook Pros, available in 14-inch and 16-inch models. The Touch Bar is gone, replaced with a full-size function row. Many ports are back; there’s an HDMI port, three Thunderbolt ports, an SD card slot, a headphone jack, and the return of the MagSafe charger. The 14-inch model starts at $1,999, while the 16-inch model starts at $2,499. They will be available to preorder Monday ahead of availability next week.

Following several beta releases, Apple announced that the next version of its macOS software, macOS Monterey, is about to release. It’ll be rolling out as an update starting on Monday, October 25th.

My colleague Monica Chin previewed the public beta software earlier this year, highlighting Monterey’s improvements to Facetime. The software will bring other exciting features like SharePlay and Universal Control, which will enable Mac and iPad users to move files seamlessly between devices, but perhaps not at launch. In its press release for the new, redesigned MacBook Pros, Apple says that those features are coming “later this fall.” Additionally, Apple made significant tweaks to Safari, its own web browser, for Monterey, but it has since toned down some of the changes.

Apple has just announced its redesigned MacBook Pros, powered by its newly revealed M1 Pro and M1 Max chips, and featuring a huge jump in display technology for the company’s laptops, with Mini LED displays that support Apple’s 120Hz ProMotion technology.

The larger 16-inch MacBook Pro has a 16.2-inch display with a 3456 x 2234 resolution, while the 14-inch model has a 14.2-inch panel at 3024 x 1964. Both sizes feature the same Mini LED technology that Apple debuted on the iPad Pro earlier this year, which offers local dimming on a level beyond traditional LED displays (although it’s still not quite on the level of OLED panels used by competitors like Samsung.)

Apple ditched MagSafe five years ago when it moved to USB-C charging on its new laptops, but MagSafe 3 brings the familiar quick-release connector back to this latest lineup of MacBook Pro laptops.

Other than their M1 Pro and M1 Max chips, the new 14-inch and 16-inch computers ditch the much-hated Touch Bar in favor of physical keys and bring back the additional ports (HDMI, SDXC) power users love. A less familiar addition is the new notch atop those Mini LED-packed 120Hz displays.

Apple has introduced its new 16-inch MacBook Pro, promising an upgrade in both design and performance. Models will be available in silver and space gray next week, with a starting price of $2,499.

The new Pro is configurable with the M1 Pro and the M1 Max, Apple’s new 10-core processors with eight “high-performance” cores and two “high-efficiency” cores. The M1 Max has double the Pro’s GPU cores (32 to the Pro’s 16) and double the memory bandwidth, as well as 64GB of unified memory (the Pro has 32GB).

Apple is adding a notch on the display of its new MacBook Pro models. It’s a cut-out that will house the camera system, much like how Apple moved to a notch design for its iPhone X launch in 2017. The surprising addition of the notch comes in the new 14-inch MacBook Pro and 16-inch models, both of which are equipped with updated Apple M1 silicon inside.

Both the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro models are completely redesigned, and the bezels have been trimmed down thanks to this notch. The bezels at the side are 3.5mm — that’s 24 percent thinner than before — and up top, it’s 60 percent thinner. The macOS menu bar now wraps around the camera, and it seems to look a lot better with dark mode enabled so the notch isn’t as noticeable.

With Siri now socializing on other smart speakers, Apple took to the stage at its October event to announce a new look for its HomePod Mini smart speaker. In addition to white and black (space gray), you will soon be able to pick up a HomePod Mini in yellow, orange, and blue.

Apple is catching up with the competition here. Google’s Nest Mini smart speakers have blue and orange options, and there’s also a blue Amazon’s Echo Dot, plus some fun animal-themed colors offered on the Echo Dot Kids edition.

Apple has officially announced its most powerful chips ever: the M1 Pro and M1 Max, souped-up versions of the M1 chip that it debuted last fall and the heart of its new MacBook Pro models.

The original M1 chip was announced a little less than a year ago as Apple’s first in-house, Arm-based chip for laptops. At launch, it was featured in Apple’s revamped MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and the entry-level Mac Mini, in addition to the 2021 iMac and iPad Pro refreshes.

Apple unveiled a new Voice plan for Apple Music during its Unleashed event on Monday that will be $4.99 per month. You can use only your voice and its Siri voice assistant to access all Apple Music content across Apple devices. It will be available later this fall in 17 countries.

“Apple Music and Siri are natural partners and already work seamlessly together,” Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice president of Apple Music and Beats, said in a press release. And non-subscribers can sign up for a free, seven-day trial without auto-renewal to check out Voice before they commit.

Apple has just introduced its third-generation AirPods, the latest set of the company’s massively popular true wireless earbuds. With a new design that blends aspects of the prior AirPods and AirPods Pro, the third-gen AirPods retain a hard plastic, one-size-fits-most fit in the ear. But the form factor is seeing significant change for the first time since 2016: the new earbuds have much shorter stems than before. Priced at $179, the third-generation AirPods will be available to preorder today and will go on sale next week.

They’re now water- and sweat-resistant. Battery life has been extended to six hours of continuous listening. With the case, you’ll get a total of 30 hours. The third-gen AirPods have a redesigned custom driver and adaptive EQ that automatically tunes and optimizes audio output. Apple has carried over the “force sensor” controls of the AirPods Pro, and it also says the new AirPods are compatible with its MagSafe charging system.

Apple is kicking off the very best week in tech with a rare Monday event, one it’s decided to call “Unleashed.” That could refer to any number of things, but at a high level we are expecting it to be about new, redesigned MacBook Pro laptops with Apple’s own processors. Will they be called M1X, M2, or something else? What will the GPU performance be like? Will battery life match the excellent quality of the original generation of M1 Macs? All open questions we hope to see answered today.

There should be two sizes, with 14- and 16-inch screens. There have been long-standing rumors that Apple will bring back an SD card reader slot, MagSafe for charging, and may even switch these Macs over to more advanced, Mini-LED displays. Apple is also said to be doing away with the unloved (except by a few) Touch Bar and will have a regular row of honest-to-goodness function keys.

It’s been hard to be an Apple power user for the last half-decade. The glory days of the original Retina MacBook Pro have long since vanished into the sunset, and recent years have seen computers with too many compromises and too few ports. 

And while Apple’s first wave of M1-powered computers have been excellent, they’ve all been — relatively — low-powered. The MacBook Air, the M1 MacBook Pro, Mac Mini, and iMac are the cheapest computers Apple makes, meant more for checking email, writing essays, and the occasional light photo editing than they are for cranking out 4K video or Photoshop projects hundreds of layers deep.

Apple has announced an event for October 18th, with a video containing the title “Unleashed.” If you’ve been watching the rumor mill, it won’t come as a surprise — the company still has a lot of products that are expected to come out this year but haven’t shown up in an Apple keynote.

Chief among those are new, more powerful MacBook Pros, which will follow the incredible Apple Silicon-powered 13-inch MacBook Pro that launched last November. The company is also expected to release new AirPods, and it’s got an entire OS that was announced but hasn’t shipped. Read on for a deep dive into the rumors surrounding these products and more.

Apple’s next hardware event will take place on October 18th, according to invites it sent out today. The company is widely expected to use its second fall event to launch a pair of new MacBooks, a redesigned higher-end Mac Mini, and possibly a pair of third-generation AirPods.

The invite video teases one word: Unleashed. As seen below in a tweet from Apple marketing exec Greg Joswiak, it appears in a dotted font that could hint at mini LED tech on the way. The “special” event will stream live on Apple.com at 1PM ET / 10AM PT.