UPDATED 15:25 EDT / OCTOBER 18 2021

APPS

Apple debuts M1 Pro and Max chips to power new MacBook Pros

Apple Inc. introduced new M1 Pro and M1 Max chips that will power its new 16-inch and 14-inch MacBook Pro notebooks during its “Unleashed” press event today.

According to Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook, the new chips represent a tremendous jump in power and that the company is a year into a two-year transition, which started with the M1, the first chip designed specifically for the Mac.

The company also announced the third generation of AirPods and new colors for the HomePod mini.

M1 Pro and M1 Max chips

Apple today announced two new custom chips, the M1 Pro and M1 Max. Both significantly scale up the M1 system-on-a-chip architecture and are capable of delivering high-performance upgrades over the previous generation of chip.

The M1 Pro can deliver up to 200 gigabits per second of memory bandwidth and supports up to 32GB of memory. The M1 Max doubles that with 400GB/s of memory bandwidth – almost six times that of the M1 — and supports up to 64GB of memory. According to Apple, the M1 Pro has more than 33 billion transistors and the Max exceeds 57 billion transistors.

“The performance of the M1 chip in MacBook products released to date is a major endorsement of Apple’s investment in custom silicon,” said Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight told SiliconANGLE. “The M1 Pro and the M1 Max chips take this to new levels with further improvements in performance and battery life.”

Now with a 10-core central processing unit, including eight high-performance cores and two high-efficiency cores, the M1 Pro is 70% faster than the M1. It also has an up-to-16-core graphics processing unit. The M1 Max features the same 10-core CPU and a much larger 32-core GPU.

“With massive gains in CPU and GPU performance, up to six times the memory bandwidth, a new media engine with ProRes accelerators, and other advanced technologies, M1 Pro and M1 Max take Apple silicon even further,” said Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Technologies.

The M1 Pro and M1 Max also include an Apple-designed engine that accelerates video processing and maximizes battery life. This accelerator works with the ProRes professional video codec, allowing high-quality ProRes 4K and 8K video playback while using very little power.

New 16-inch and 14-inch MacBook Pros

The new MacBook Pro announced by Apple comes in two models, a 16- and a 14-inch model, and both are powered by the new M1 Pro and M1 Max chips.

“The all-new MacBook Pro adds a breathtaking XDR display, more ports like MagSafe 3, an advanced 1080p camera, and a sensational six-speaker sound system, all in a stunning new design,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing.

The new MacBook includes an improved keyboard set in a double-anodized black well with backlit keys. The physical function keys, including a wider escape key, now replace the Touch Bar.

The MacBook Pro now also offers a Liquid Retina XDR display capable of delivering up to 1,000 nits of sustained, full-screen brightness and extreme dynamic range for deeper backs and more vivid colors. And for the first time, ProMotion technology comes to the Mac on this new display, which enables adaptive refresh rates up to 120Hz. ProMotion allows the refresh rate to automatically match the motion of the user’s onscreen content to help preserve battery life and makes visuals look more fluid and responsive.

The new models feature a number of connectivity ports such as three Thunderbolt 4 ports, an SDXC card slot for media access, an HDMI port for TV displays and an improved headphone jack. The new MacBook Pro also supports MagSafe 3, which makes connecting and disconnecting a charger cable quicker and safer than before, while protecting the notebook.

“Although it could be considered a mundane feature, there are many users will be ecstatic that the MagSafe power connector has returned,” said Wood. “When you’ve invested a small fortune in a MacBook, the last thing you want is for a careless trip over a power cable to see it crashing off the desk onto the floor.”

With the M1 Pro chip, users can also now connect up to two XDR displays at once and with the M1 Max, users can connect up to three XDR displays and a 4K TV.

Third-generation AirPods

The new third-generation AirPods from Apple feature spatial audio, Adaptive EQ, a new contoured design as well as extended battery life.

According to Apple, the new design is lightweight and contoured, designed to be more subtle in appearance with a shorter stem than the previous generation, with the same force sensor as AirPods Pro for media control. The new AirPods are also resistant to sweat and water.

Third-generation AirPods feature computational audio to bring Adaptive EQ capabilities and spatial audio with dynamic head tracking to users.

Adaptive EQ allows for better listening, allowing music to sound closer to how it was intended, it tunes sound in real time based on how AirPods fit in the user’s ear. An inward-facing microphone monitors for sound and then computational audio tunes the low and mid frequencies adjusts.

Spatial audio capabilities create a three-dimensional theater-like experience by placing sound around the user as if they’re actually present. With Dolby Atmos and head-tracking, spatial audio can make concerts, movies and music feel more real.

The new AirPods offer an extra hour of battery life over the previous generations, with up to six hours of listening time and up to four hours of talk time. And, with five minutes of charging time about an hour of battery life. Using the case, the earbuds can get up to 30 hours of battery life as well.

HomePod mini gets new colors

Apple announced that HomePod mini was getting a few new colors: yellow, orange and blue.

The new colorful versions of the HomePod mini will join the black and white versions and will cost $99 just like the others. No other new features were announced. They will begin shipping at the beginning of November.

Images: Apple

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