Apple's 'Unleashed' keynote: thoughts

Just over a month ago I was underwhelmed by the iPhone 13 family, but I'm expecting to be quite excited about today's announcement. We're looking for new MacBook Pros this morning, and I'm expecting them to be quite good. Not sure if we'll see anything else, but only one way to find out! Let's get into it!

Overall event thoughts:

Done and dusted in 50 minutes, I guess the speed was also unleashed in the 'get the keynote done' department ??????. The music bit was a bit bland outside the new AirPods, but I think the Mac announcement lived up to the hype! These laptops are going to fly, both performance-wise and off the shelves. I'm keen to pick one up, and I think it'll just be a matter of timing before I do. It was interesting that Tim let other less known employees announce a device this big- it wasn't even Craig that gave us our first look at it! I don't mind the direction at all, but it's nice to get some face time with the familiar guys at Apple too! I think it was quite a good event overall- and definitely a big win on multiple fronts for those looking for a pro device.

Intro

The intro video is of someone making a song using Apple startup noises and other iconic Apple product sounds (think iPod click wheel, the AirPods case, and MagSafe) in their garage. It's a bit of a tune ??.

Then we're taken to Apple Park and Tim Cook. Tim tells us that the focuses for today are Music and the Mac.

Music

Tim talks about the different ways that Apple supports listening to music throughout daily life. Zane Lowe is introduced, and he talks to curated playlists that have been made specifically for different moods or situations. You'll be able to ask Siri to play music for these different situations and it'll automatically pick the best one based on your request.

There's a new Voice Plan for Apple Music- that one person can use to access Apple Music with your voice only- umm? We'll have to see if this takes off. Having to talk to Siri every time you want to listen to something seems like it'll only work for a small number of users. I guess you don't get a library either? It's not super clear but it seems that way. I'm sure some will benefit from it, but I'm not convinced. Note that this plan also doesn't include Lossless, Spatial Audio, or lyrics. the Voice Plan for Apple Music will be priced at $5.99 per month.

Verdict: *confused noises*

HomePod

HomePod mini is now available in all new colours, including orange, yellow and blue, in addition to the existing white and space grey. It doesn't seem that any other new features were announced- new colours are always cool though! These new colours will be available in November at the existing price of $149.

Verdict: not much to say here- more choice is always good!

AirPods

Didn't expect news around AirPods today but I'm not complaining! I may have missed that rumour. Spatial Audio gets a plug- it is pretty good, definitely give it a try if you haven't yet.

AirPods 3rd generation are announced. They look similar to the first two generations, but they've definitely taken some inspiration from AirPods Pro. AirPods are now sweat and water resistant (IPX4, matching AirPods Pro). Adaptive EQ is coming to AirPods (previously AirPods Pro only), so that music can be tuned to sound more true to recording as you listen. Battery life is up to 6 hours, one more than previously, and 5 minutes of charging gives one hour of listening time. You'll be able to use them for 30 hours all up with a fully charged case, and the case is now MagSafe compatible for wireless charging.

You can order AirPods 3rd generation today and available next week. These guys will set you back $279. AirPods 2nd gen will remain available as the entry level product at a new, slightly lower price of $219. AirPods Pro will remain at $399, and will come with a MagSafe case (unsure how different that is to the current wireless charging case, but ????♂?).

Verdict: A pretty good upgrade for those who don't like noise cancelling or are looking for a budget option. I'm all in on AirPods Pro but this is a nice step up for those who were going to get the standard AirPods.

Mac

Here we go! ??

The Mac had its best year ever last year, and now the M1 Series chips are coming to more Macs. The new MacBook Pro is here.

The M1 Pro (M1X naming fans in shambles ??) chip will be driving these devices. The M1 Pro SoC offers up to 200GB/s memory bandwidth and supports up to 32GB of unified memory (be prepared to pay if you want more than 16GB though!). the M1 Pro has 33.7 billion transistors, more than twice M1. The M1 Pro can be configured to have up to a 10 core CPU. (starts at 8), and up to a 16-core GPU (starts at 14). This means up to 2x graphics performance over the M1. ??

Wow- there's another chip! The M1 Max. This chips delivers up to 400GB/s memory bandwidth, 6 times that of the M1. It has a 10-core CPU and a 32-core GPU (4x faster graphics performance than the M1), 57 billion transistors, and supports up to 64GB unified memory ??. The power/performance ratio is incredible for both these chips, much better than leading competitor products.

Craig Federighi is up to talk us through the software/hardware integration. There's a bit of talk about how the software works together with the hardware to provide the best experience. A few different creatives talk to the stats and power of the new Apple chips in a promo video. Nothing too exciting here. ??

Time for our first look at the new MacBook Pro. It's different. It comes in 14" and 16" screen sizes, just as was rumoured, and the notch is there! The enclosure looks almost like a vintage MBP (I think it's the rounded edges)- it was quite weird at first but an hour later and it's already fine. It's 1.55 cm high and 1.6 kg for the 14" model, and slightly larger on both fronts for the 16" (1.68 cm, 2.15 kg)- pretty reasonable although bigger than their predecessors.

The function keys are back- goodbye TouchBar ??. It's funny how Apple manages to make something like going back to function keys sounds like an innovation. There's a HDMI port, an SDXC port, 3 Thunderbolt (USB-C) ports, and a MagSafe connector for charging (yep, it's back). Impressive connectivity coming from the current generation of MacBook Pros that were all in on USB-C. The M1 Pro supports 2 external screens, and the M1 Max supports up to 4 external screens.

The side bezels are thinner (14%), and the top border is 60% thinner (apart from the notch). The menu bar has been moved up to sit in line with the notch, of course. The 14" has a 14.2" screen and the 16" has a 16.2" display. ProMotion is coming to the Mac, with refresh rates up to 120hz. The screen is miniLED- this is big. Up to 1000 nits of sustained brightness, and 1600 nits of peak brightness. It looks nice. 1080p camera! Finally! I was talking to a friend yesterday pre-event, and said that this was the biggest weakness of Mac notebooks. 1080p is a lot better! Both sizes have a 6-speaker sound system, delivering 80% more bass, a wider audio range, and spatial audio.

Time for some performance comparisons with the current gen of MacBook Pros. The 16" has up to 2x faster CPU performance and up to 4x faster GPU performance than the last 16" MacBook Pro. The 14" is up to 3.7x and 13x faster respectively when compared with its predecessor. The SSDs deliver up to 7.4GB/s read speeds. It supports up to 8TB storage. The battery life is crazy ??. Up to 17 and 21 hours for the 14" and 16" respectively, and Fast Charge means it can charge up to 50% in 30 minutes. Sounds pretty good to me!

We get an ad for the new laptops and then some final info before it's handed back to Tim for closing. And now for the price. It's not cheap! The 14" MacBook Pro starts at $2999, and the 16" starts at $3749 ??. The 13" M1 will be the entry level MacBook Pro, and these two new devices will replace all other MBPs. Orders start today, and you can get one of these new laptops in your hands next week.

Verdict: Yep, it met expectations! These are awesome devices, and if you've been waiting for the announcement, congrats! I think the wait was worth it. If you're in the market for a new laptop, this is a must consider. ?

Other news

The only other thing worth mentioning is that iOS 15.1 will be out next week- not sure there are any major changes worth noting.

Also, you can now buy your own Apple polishing cloth for $29. Who wouldn't want a tiny piece of cloth at that super reasonable price? ??

Closing:?

A short but great event, some of the first bits aside. The new Macs lived up to the hype- I'll be looking to grab one at some stage I think. I don't expect another Apple event this year, so it's until 2022 for these posts! Thanks for sharing these events with me again this year! ?