The iMac’s design remains largely the same as its predecessor, with a 24-inch 4.5K Retina display, although Apple has now added a nano-texture option, à la the Studio Display and the new iPad Pro, for some models. There’s also now a 12MP Center Stage capable webcam, replacing the previous 1080p option. Apple also notes that this version supports the Desk View feature that allows it to show the user’s desk in addition to their face.
While the colors remain the same—blue, purple, pink, orange, yellow, green, and silver—Apple has tweaked the backs of the computer with more vibrant versions of most of the colors.
Processor aside, the biggest functional upgrade to the base model may be the bump from 8GB to 16GB of RAM, the first time Apple has bumped up the RAM in a base-model Mac since 2012.
For the M4 iMac models with 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU, all four of the USB-C ports support Thunderbolt 4 transfer speeds of up to 40Gb/s.
It is the most matte display type that Apple makes, and Apple claims that it is useful for high-end, color-managed workflows or demanding ambient lighting environments.
Alongside the new iMac, Apple announced updated versions of the Magic Mouse, Magic Keyboard, and Magic Trackpad. The accessories are now equipped with USB-C charging ports, whereas the previous models used Lightning.
Apple seemingly didn’t think that it needed to make a major change to where the charging port is, so you’ll once again have to turn it over to get some more juice.
I know for a fact that Apple designers have considered designs for a mouse with the port exposed at the front, and everything they came up with looked worse. Putting the port on the belly is putting form over function, but in this case Apple’s designers think the better form is worth the trade-off. With this design, the mouse looks better 100 percent of the time it’s in use, and it looks a bit silly every few months when you need to charge it.
It’s unquestionable that Apple is putting its weight behind these efforts, but what’s been less clear is just how effective and useful these tools will be. Perhaps unsurprisingly, for anybody who has used similar generative AI tools, the answer is a definite maybe.
Whatever the reasons behind the release, there’s no escaping the fact that most of the Apple Intelligence features we see today feel unfinished and unpolished, while others remain months away from release.
I've been living with a beta version of Apple Intelligence for over a month, and life hasn't changed much since its features arrived on my iPhone 16 Pro.
But who reads and remembers the release notes? What we all see is a brand-new Siri, and what we hear about is Apple Intelligence. Surely there must be some improvements beyond being able to ask the Apple assistant about the company’s own products, right? Well, if there are, I struggled to find them.
The update will add the first image generation features, including Genmoji, Image Playground, and Image Wand, plus it includes ChatGPT integration with Siri and new, more flexible Writing Tools options. For iPhone 16 users, the iOS 18.2 update adds visual intelligence, which uses Camera Control to identify and provide additional information about objects and places.
Apple's newsroom post confirms that Apple Intelligence features will roll out beginning in April, with users gaining access to Writing Tools, Genmoji, a redesigned version of Siri, and more.
In April and throughout next year, Apple Intelligence will also work in Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Vietnamese and more. Apple says that support for these languages will arrive with a free software update.
Apple’s state-of-the-art Audio Lab in Cupertino, California, supports the innovative work of its acoustic engineers. They use the lab to conduct user studies in various listening rooms and test new features in its anechoic chambers, which completely absorb reflective sounds and isolate external noise.
The Audio Lab is the hub for the design, measurement, tuning, and validation of all of Apple’s products with speakers or microphones. It’s also the center for Apple’s multiyear, cross-team collaboration to build the groundbreaking new hearing health features on AirPods Pro 2.
AirPods Pro 2 users running firmware 7B19, and iOS 18.1 on their iPhone, will gain access to three powerful new hearing health capabilities: Hearing Test, Hearing Aid, and Hearing Protection.
Fortunately, Apple Intelligence isn’t the only highlight of this release. It also includes a series of changes to the system, from Control Center and the Camera app to Shortcuts and the arrival of new health features for AirPods Pro 2 users.
According to Apple's release notes, watchOS 11.1 adds improvements and bug fixes, including a fix for an issue with writing breathing disturbances data to HealthKit for some users.
Up Next, the queue that tracks things you’re watching and have saved to watch later, is getting a name change to Continue Watching.
And more significantly, the app adds a new Watchlist section which contains some items from Continue Watching.
Apple says that visionOS 2.1 includes bug fixes and security improvements and is recommended for everyone to install.
The new supported countries include Austria, Czech Republic, Ireland, Romania and Sweden, with new payment partners including Adyen, SumUp, and Viva.
Hazel 6.0 can now perform on-the-fly text recognition, lets you specify a password to read encrypted PDFs, enables you to revert files processed by Hazel via Finder’s contextual menu, introduces Custom List Attributes that enable you to to match and store lists of items and then reassign them to other lists, and adds support for locked files.
One of my favorite iPhone features StandBy, which turns your iPhone into a smart display when it’s in landscape orientation and charging. One of the best ways to take full advantage of StandBy is with an upright wireless charger.
Head below for a closer look at some of my favorite MagSafe stands for iPhone, perfect for StandBy.
So far, Apple Intelligence is showing us how to construct a false impression of ourselves, with no incentive to get better.
And while the majority of premium SVODs’ subscriptions are still sold directly, controlling more of those subscriptions will be increasingly important for tech players Apple, Amazon and Google as the new world of media consumption continues to take shape.
As such, losing those Disney subs hurts Apple on not only a financial level (albeit not one hugely material to its bottom line) but a strategic one — and in the cutthroat streaming business, that’s a painful blow indeed.
In the past, when Apple is doing live events with live demos, the presentation typically doesn't start too early, California time. The presenters probably need some time for their coffee to kick in, and all the helpers also need to get up earlier to get Apple Park ready for all the visitors.
And when Apple switched to live video-watching events, logistically speaking, they can also only start late morning. After all, there are still visitors, and all the helpers still need to get there earlier and prepare everything.
So, I am not complaining that, typically, the live show only starts when I am either getting ready for bed, or has already gone to dreamland, and I will only get to see all the new stuff the following morning.
But, now, this week: an all-press-releases with pre-recorded-videos week of Mac stuff, Apple cannot do them earlier so that I, at UTC+8 land, can get to see the new Mac computers at normal waking hours?
After all, everything can be automated. Even if you just need someone to push a button to deploy all the new stuff… Hey, come to think about it, I hear that Mr Tim Cook, an Apple employee, wakes up very early. Maybe you can ask him to help out in pushing that button?
:-)
~
Thanks for reading.