Newsletter
Earlier this week, Apple sent out invites for a new virtual event happening next week. It’s happening on Monday, October 30, 2023 at 5PM PT. Which in itself is already quite strange. As Apple events are never on a Monday, and are always at 10AM PT. Apple also seems to be really leaning into the Halloween aspect here, as the next day is Halloween in the US. Using the tagline “Scary Fast”, which they also used on marketing images for the M1 chipset.
Now, ahead of Monday’s event, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has given us the low-down on what we can expect from Apple on Monday. Basically, it breaks down to a new iMac and new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros all running on M3. What’s surprising, is that Apple is planning to announce three chipsets on Monday – M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max. Which is rather interesting, and unprecedented for Apple.
Starting with the new iMac, it’s expected to be a new 24-inch iMac. This one will include some internal design changes and a revamped stand. The colors are expected to remain mostly the same, but there could be a few more additions added. Apple has been testing the iMac with a M3 chipset, so it’s likely that it’s getting the baseline M3 chipset instead of a Pro or Max. Though, Apple could end up releasing it with an M3 Pro option, like the Mac Mini.
New MacBook Pros with up to 48GB of RAM
Gurman says that the new MacBook Pros are expected to be announced this week too. That’s the new 14- and 16-inch models, with M3 Pro and M3 Max processors inside. He also notes that Apple has been testing multiple versions of the M3 Pro processor, including a baseline version with 12 main processor cores, made up of six high-performance cores and six high-efficiency cores. And it also has 18 cores for processing graphics. That would be an increase of two CPU cores and two graphics cores over the current MacBook Pro with M2 Pro. There has also been M3 Pro chips with even more CPU and GPU cores too. Up to 14 main processing cores and up to 30 graphics cores.
Apple has also apparently been testing multiple versions of the M3 Max processor, which includes a top-end version with 16 main processing cores, and 40 graphics cores. On top of that, Apple has also been testing updated configurations for RAM, with new 24GB and 48GB options being available.
That’s not all. Gurman also gives us a preview of what’s coming in 2024. Apparently the MacBook Pro 13-inch isn’t done. It’s coming in 2024 with the base version of the M3 chipset. New M3-based MacBook Air 13 and 15 are coming in 2024, but are not scheduled for the first half of 2024.
Additionally, Apple is preparing M3-based iPads for 2024, which would include a new iPad Pro and iPad Air with M3. Apple is also preparing iPad MIni and a new entry-level iPad for 2024. Now for the bad news, AirPods won’t be updated until next year. The company is apparently working on new low-end models of AirPods Max headphones for late 2024 however, and AirPods Pro will be updated in 2025.