For the tech industry, fall is the most exciting time of year — especially for Apple fans. Apple held its annual iPhone event last month, which introduced the latest lineup, Apple Watch Series 7 and ninth-generation iPad and iPad Mini. Although, the company still had a few products left to unveil in 2021. Apple’s additional livestream event, which took place today, introduced products such as a redesigned MacBook Pro, HomePod, and AirPods.
The start of the livestream showed the Apple logo with a “warp speed” effect, along with the tagline “Unleashed.” It’s apparent that Apple was trying to tease fast performance and it did just that with techno-inspired music blasting while waiting for the event to start.
The stream began with a song created in Logic Pro using a variety of sounds from Apple notifications to an AirPods case closing and opening. Before revealing the news we’ve been waiting for, they built anticipation to its peak. It was one of the most exciting Apple events I’ve seen in a long time. Here’s everything we know about Apple’s announcement today.
Key Highlights of Apple’s “Unleashed” Event:
- M1Pro, M1Max Silicon Chips
- 14-inch and 16-inch Redesigned MacBook Pros
- New HomePod Mini colors
- AppleMusic Voice Plan
- AirPods 3rd Generation
Apple Music
The new Apple Music plan will be available exclusively through Siri and will cost half as much as its regular individual plan. The Apple Music Voice plan will launch later this fall and will cost $4.99/month. Siri voice commands will let listeners launch any song, pick from hundreds of preset playlists, and access Apple Music Radio with full playback controls including unlimited skipping.
Certain features of Apple Music Voice will be missing — including the ability to create your own playlists. Apple Music is now available in three great ways: voice plan, family plan, and individual plan. Take advantage of expertly crafted playlists and Apple Music with your voice.
Home Pod Mini
A new variety of colors (yellow, orange, and blue) are infused into the fabric and controls. Brighten up your home and sync up with multi-room audio via Siri. Ask Siri to set reminders and calendar events. Rally everyone to dinner using Siri as an intercom in rooms where there’s a HomePod mini. It will look great in any room of your home. The new Home Pod Mini is available for preorder for $99.
Airpods
More artists are creating music using spatial audio and Dolby Atmos than ever before. Airpods Pro and Max offer spatial tracking and now, the full spatial audio experience is available in the 3rd generation AirPods with spatial audio. A new sensor gives you more control over your music and phone calls.
A brand new low distortion driver was created just for AirPods that provides powerful bass and crisp high frequencies. The new generation is also sweat and water-resistant, which was a highly sought-after feature.
Since everyone’s ears are unique, there’s a new contour design that directs sound to the ear, as well as a new adaptive EQ available exclusively on the Pro models. With real-time frequency adjustment, music is heard as it was intended. AirPods automatically pair with all of your Apple devices with one touch. Battery life was improved and can now last up to six hours on a single charge. A five-minute fast charge will give you up to an hour of use. Magne Safe has also made the holding case more convenient for charging. The new AirPods are available for preorder for $179.
MacBook Pros and Silicon Chips
The most exciting part of the event was the announcement of two new silicon chips and completely redesigned MacBook Pros that offer relentless power efficiency and ports. Instead of eliminating, Apple added just the right amount of ports that users want and need.
Apple M1 Pro chip has a 10-core CPU with eight high-performance cores and two efficiency cores along with up to 32GB of unified memory. You get 70% faster CPU performance versus the M1. There’s also a 16-core GPU (up from eight cores before), which delivers up to 2x graphics performance.
Apple M1 Max is the super chip with up to 400 GB/s of memory bandwidth (vs 200 GB/s for M1 Pro). You get up to 64GB of unified memory — double the M1Pro. There’s a 10-core CPU but even more powerful graphics with a 32-core GPU.
Ports
On one side, you’ll find an HDMI, thunderbolt 4, and an SD card slot. Meanwhile, on the other side, you’ll get a headphone jack and two thunderbolts. The MagSafe charger is also back with MagSafe 3. For those who prefer, you can still charge with a thunderbolt. M1 Pro supports two external monitors while the Pro Max supports up to 3 XDR displays. This still leaves you with extra ports available and no need for extra adapters.
Key Features of the MacBook Pro:
- Available in 14” and 16”
- M1 Max or Pro Chipsets
- New chips keep cooling down so fans turn on less
- 16.8mm thick and 15.5mm thick
- New keyboard
- Retina Pro Motion Display, 120hz refresh rate
- Liquid Retina XDR with mini LED technology
- Faster SSD read speeds
- 1080 FaceTime Camera, bigger aperture, better low light performance
- 1M:1 Contrast ratio for increased detail, shadows, and deeper blacks
It seems Apple finally got rid of the touch bar and replaced the area with tactile keys. The keyboard is an anodized black color, backlit, and there’s a force touch trackpad.
As rumors built this week, it appears the display also includes a notch while the bezels are slimmer. Apple showed some content where the notch ate into it while other times it did not. The ProMotion display has a 120Hz refresh rate and dynamically adjusts to the content you are watching. Creators of all types can set the refresh rate rather than have it automatically adjust.
The studio-quality mics also received an upgrade with a 60% lower noise floor. Larger tweeters offer clearer sound in the mids. Meanwhile, the increased woofer size allows for an increased range of motion and the ability to push more air for an approximate 80% increase in bass. Both models support spatial audio for theater-like performance when watching movies.
These are certainly the most powerful MacBooks ever created. They are extremely power-efficient whether plugged in or not. Battery life has improved to up to 21 hours. They are available in Silver and Space Grey. The 16” MacBook Pro is available for preorder starting at $2,499 while the 14” MacBook Pro will start at $1,999.
Today was huge for fans of the MacBook Pro. It seems that Apple is finally listening to some complaints from their users, namely power and ports in the MacBook Pro. Those were certainly addressed during today’s announcements. To find more Apple products, visit Adorama today.
