Apple announced a slew of new products Monday, a mix of both hardware and software. It’s a lot to wrap our heads around, so we put together this list of all the company’s hardware announcements, with links to more info. We’ll follow it up with a list of new software announcements.
iMac
Apple made some major improvements to its iMac line, including new GPUs, new Kaby Lake processors, and a 4K screen on. They can also handle more RAM.
iMac Pro
iMac Pro is an all-in-one iMac aimed at professional users—note that Apple is also still working on the Mac Pro teased to journalists earlier this year. The iMac Pro will support up to 18 cores, 128GB of RAM, AMD Radeon Vega GPUs, Thunderbolt 3 ports, 10Gb Ethernet, and up to 4TB SSDs. They will start at $4,999.
MacBook Pro
Apple iterated on MacBook pro, just 10 months after they were updated in late 2016. The update includes higher drive capacities and new Kaby Lake processors.
MacBook Air
Apple also slipped in a brief mention about a processor update for MacBook Air. The company also lowered the price of the entry level 13-inch MacBook Air
iPad Pro
Apple announced two new iPad Pro models, a 12.9-inch update (starting at $799) and a 10.5-inch model (starting at $649) that replaces iPad Pro 9.7-inch. New features include a new Pro Motion Retina display with higher refresh rates, a new A10X Fusion processor with 6 cores and 12 GPU cores. The 10.5-inch model has a much smaller bezel so that the larger-screen device has the same footprint as the 9.7-inch model.
HomePod
HomePod ($349) is Apple’s entry into both the home music market as well as the home virtual assistant market. Apple is emphasizing music, though, saying it intended to “reinvent home music” with HomePod. Our own Dave Hamilton nailed it when he said the expected “Siri speaker” would compete with Sonos.
Full Wireless Keyboard with Numeric Keypad
At last. At last! Apple has a Full Wireless Keyboard with Numeric Keypad ($129)! We’ve waited for this one forever.
Leather Apple Pencil Case
Another quiet product launch is Leather Apple Pencil Case ($29), which is exactly what you expect from the name.
I’m guessing they can get pretty expensive, geoduck. Still, I guess we should bear in mind that a tricked out Power Mac in the 90s could cost upward of $10,000 in *yesterday’s* dollars. I’m curious to see if HomePod becomes a family of products somewhere down the line, that would be very cool.
Speaking of HomePod, see today’s Joy of Tech comic
http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/2426.html
I want to see the teardown on the new iMac and MacBook Pro. I’ve heard mixed opinions about how hard this will be to upgrade the iMac yourself. As far as the MacBook Pro, in addition to upgrading the processor, did they put the more form fitting, and higher capacity battery they supposedly couldn’t get working for the introduction last fall?
iMac Pro. Drool fest. I can’t wait to play my “How expensive a computer can I configure” game with it. I would love it. But I in no way need it. My 2016 5K 27 in iMac is really allI need for a while.
I am simply astonished they kept and updated the MacBook Air. I totally called that one wrong.
I am going to see what reviews say about the new 10.5 in iPad. The line makes far more sense now. Now the iPad is 9.7 inch and has clearly lower specs. The iPad Pro line both have a larger screen and clearly higher capabilities. I’m interested in a bunch of the iOS11 features for the iPad Pro. I love my iPad Air, but this might be enough to get me to update, maybe. If not this year in another year when iOS 12 won’t run on it.
A full wireless keyboard YES!! I do wish they had been able to get the TouchBar in it. Frankly once they roll out more Pro computers, unless they broaden the TouchBar beyond the MacBooks, developers will be slow to use it. Also a TouchBar makes more sense on a desktop computer. On a laptop it still strikes me as good, but a full touch screen would be better.
Leather Apple Pencil case I DON’T CARE. Even if I do get a new iPad Pro and a Pencil, a leather case for it strikes me as a bit gauche.
And finally the HomePod. I think Apple is very smart positioning it as a fantastic speaker, that also does other things. Amazon and Google have positioned their offerings as mediocre speakers that sell you stuff by monitoring your every word. People are becoming more privacy and security conscious and I think in the long run Apple’s strategy will win out. But it’s not for me.