Apple Reaches New Frontiers Unleashing Years Of Research And Giving Us A New Jewel Of Computing Power

In today’s Covid-19 stricken world, tech launches by big tech corporations had taken a huge hit. These in-person events used to be an experience that included engaging with new tech and the event used to have a cult-like following. As the world tried to embrace the new norm of lockdowns and indoors, these companies drastically changed their product launches from in-person conference-like settings to a feature movie-like production and engagement that may now seem to rival the in-person events. Enthusiasts have taken the effort to critique different parts of these new-style launch events, so much that the big tech has pushed harder than ever to create the finesse of film production.

 

With Techtober (Tech + October) taking a late start, the race is on for these tech giants to shine their lights. This week is one of the most packed as big shots Apple, Google and Samsung have back-to-back launches from October 18 through October 20. However, one of the most anticipated dates was October 18 as no other company has been able to come up to heights of production quality and engagement as Apple has.

 

The Cupertino-based tech giant had unveiled their flagship smartphones (iPhone 13 series), apple watch series 7, iPad and, iPad mini in their first event last month. However, they weren’t done for the year and decided to feast the eyes of tech-savvy enthusiasts. Lasting about 45 minutes, the Unleashed event has taken the computing world to new heights with new groundbreaking technology and in-house perfection and integration that Apple never fails to deliver.

 

Here are the key takeaways from the event.

 

1. The Apple Music Voice Plan allows users to access all of Apple music content using Siri alone. The plan starts at $4.99/month and will be available later this fall in 17 countries. The existing regular plans include the Individual plan costing $9.99/month and the Family planning costing $14.99/month.

 

1. The Home Pod mini has been updated with minor audio and aesthetic tweaks and a new set of colorways bringing a new fresher and vibrant look to spaces. These will start at $99 and will be available in November. You can pre-order them here

 

1. After almost 2.5 years, Apple has updated its baseline Air Pods wireless earphones. The Air Pods 3rd gen takes on the same design as the existing Air Pods Pro and will also have spatial audio. Also, these buds are now water and sweat resistant and battery life has been extended to 6 hours on a single charge and a total of 30 hours with the case. This new model, costing $179, is now almost on par with the Air Pods pro only lacking in sound cancellation and interchangeable silicon ear tips. The new 3rd gen Air Pods can be pre-ordered here and will be available October 26.

 

1. Apple had released refreshed designs to its already benchmark-crushing M1 chip. Introducing the M1 Pro and M1 Max, the most powerful chips ever designed by Apple. Both chips contain 10- core CPUs along with 16-core GPU and memory bandwidth of 200GB/s (on the M1 pro featuring 2,048 execution units), and up to 32-core GPU and memory bandwidth of 400GB/s (on the M1 Max featuring 4,096 execution units). The Pro chip can be configured to 32 GB of integrated RAM storage while the Max to 64 GB. The Max chip features 57 billion transistors, making it the largest chip Apple has produced and giving it the ability to now connect to 4 external displays. The new chips are promised to offer 1.7 times better CPU performance per watt and 4 times better GPU performance compared to the M1. This tight integration of in-house ARM chips and hardware is taking performance and efficiency to heights that are unreached by competing flagship PCs.

 

1. With the new chips comes a new look for the MacBook Pro lineup. The new lineup consists of a 14-inch model and a 16-inch model. These new models have been revamped keeping pro users in mind. New features include additional ports (including 3 thunderbolts 4 ports, HDMI port, SD Card slot, MagSafe charging port, and a headphone jack) making it more versatile without the need for external dongles. The F keys were reintroduced taking out the much-debated Touch Bar. MagSafe (MagSafe 3) charging was also bought back after 5 years as a result of requests from users and can be used alongside USB C charging. The audio and camera systems were updated giving it six new speaker units and an ultra-wide 1080p webcam. The display has also been massively updated with mini-LED 120 Hz refresh rate displays utilizing Apple’s latest Promotion technology which was debuted in the iPhone 13 pros. These displays offer up to 1000 units of sustained brightness with 1600 peak brightness and a 1 million to 1 contrast ratio, and the same Liquid Retina XDR that Apple uses for its Pro Display XDR monitor. Also, new this year is a notch on the screen which houses the camera systems. With thinner bezels, Apple claims that screen real-estate has been expanded with thinner bezels and the menu bar wrapping around the notch making it almost invincible with darker themed wallpapers. Wrapping all the desired features and some of the most powerful chips on the planet right now make these MacBook Pro’s beasts of a machine. The 14-inch model will be starting at $ 1,999 and the 16-inch model at $2,499. These new models can be preordered here and will be available next week.