Only Apple can announce several new products via press release without the need for a big budget launch hosting hundreds of cringey influencers from around the world like many others do.
Over the past week we saw four significant announcements:
- NEW IPADS
- NEW M3 ULTRA CHIP
- NEW MAC STUDIOS
- NEW M4 MACBOOK AIR
Apple saves the big events for WWDC and iPhone. A few weeks ago the iPhone 16e was given a launch video but that was it. All you needed to know was in that video which you can see below.
But the products announced this week, don’t even have a promo video on Apple’s YouTube Channel. It says a lot about Apple’s confidence in its products and shopfronts, both physical and digital. You’ll see plenty of editorial and word of mouth about the latest devices, doing much of the marketing for Apple.
Just like we’re happily doing right here.
NEW IPADS
Apple announced two new iPads, a basic 11-inch model and iPad Air in 11-inch and 13-inch screen sizes.
iPad 11
This is your new entry level iPad, starting at A$599. This basic model with an 11-inch Liquid Retina display starts with 128GB of storage, great news. We have finally seen the end of 64GB. This pricing is pretty good and I reckon with 128GB on board – it’s all you need at this level of device.
You won’t get Apple Intelligence on the basic iPad. It comes with the A16 chip, which still offers a massive performance boost compared with the previous base model.
iPad Air
The 7th generation iPad Air is an M3 powered iPad making it a fully capable Apple Intelligence device. It comes in two sizes, 11 and 13-inches.
The 11-inch iPad Air starts at A$999 and overall it’s a great tablet. The base M4 iPad Pro is A$1,699 so the difference is significant when stepping up to the next level. The processor update is the main reason to upgrade to the latest iPad Air.
There’s also an all-new Magic Keyboard for iPad Air. The larger built-in trackpad is welcome while a new 14-key function row allows easy access to features like screen brightness and volume controls. The new Magic Keyboard attaches magnetically, and the Smart Connector immediately connects power and data without the need for Bluetooth.
The aluminium hinge also includes a USB-C connector for charging. It starts at A$449 for the 11-inch version.
NEW M3 ULTRA CHIP
The ultimate Apple Silicon chip is now the M3 Ultra. But wait you say, isn’t the M4 the new top dog? Not yet, not until Apple makes the M4 Ultra – if they make it.
Unlike previous Ultra chips, the M3 Ultra isn’t made by just joining to Max Chips together. It’s built using Apple’s UltraFusion packaging architecture, which links two M3 Max dies over 10,000 high-speed connections that offer low latency and high bandwidth.
“M3 Ultra is the pinnacle of our scalable system-on-a-chip architecture, aimed specifically at users who run the most heavily threaded and bandwidth-intensive applications,” said Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Technologies.
“Thanks to its 32-core CPU, massive GPU, support for the most unified memory ever in a personal computer, Thunderbolt 5 connectivity, and industry-leading power efficiency, there’s no other chip like M3 Ultra.”
M3 Ultra is built for AI, including ML accelerators in the CPU, Apple’s most powerful GPU, the Neural Engine, and over 800GB/s of memory bandwidth. AI professionals can use Mac Studio with M3 Ultra to run large language models (LLMs) with over 600 billion parameters directly on device, making it the ultimate desktop for AI development.
The unified memory architecture of M3 Ultra starts with 96GB, going all the way up to 512GB.
That’s insane!
NEW MAC STUDIO
Apple also unveiled its most powerful Mac ever.
The updated Mac Studio now has M4 Max and M3 Ultra options with Thunderbolt 5 and up to 512GB of unified memory and up to 16TB off SSD storage. This is computer is not only a media creators dream, it is good enough to tackle AI on device with over 600 billion parameters entirely in memory. Of course you’ll need the M3 Ultra version but it’s incredible to think it can do all that and still fit on a desk, under your monitor.
Mac Studio with M4 Max
- Up to 1.6x faster image processing in Adobe Photoshop when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Max, and up to 2.9x faster when compared to the 27-inch iMac with Core i9.
- Up to 2.1x faster build performance when compiling code in Xcode when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Max, and up to 3.1x faster when compared to the 27-inch iMac with Core i9.
- Up to 1.2x faster ProRes transcode performance in Compressor when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Max, and up to 2.8x faster when compared to the 27-inch iMac with Core i9.
- Up to 1.6x faster video processing performance in Topaz Video AI when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Max, and up to 5x faster when compared to the 27-inch iMac with Core i9.
Mac Studio with M3 Ultra
- Up to 16.9x faster token generation using an LLM with hundreds of billions of parameters in LM Studio when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Ultra, thanks to its massive amounts of unified memory.
- Up to 2.6x faster scene rendering performance in Maxon Redshift when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Ultra, and up to 6.4x faster when compared to the 16-core Intel-based Mac Pro with Radeon Pro W5700X.
- Up to 1.1x faster basecalling for DNA sequencing in Oxford Nanopore MinKNOW when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Ultra, and up to 21.1x faster when compared to the 16-core Intel-based Mac Pro with Radeon Pro W5700X.
- Up to 1.4x faster 8K video rendering performance in Final Cut Pro when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Ultra, and up to 4x faster when compared to the 16-core Intel-based Mac Pro with Radeon Pro W5700X.
And with M3 Ultra, Mac Studio now drives up to eight Pro Display XDRs at full 6K resolution. Yes .. 8 displays!
As an exercise, I priced the Mac Studio M3 Ultra with all the top specs. From a starting price of A$6,999 I managed to ring up a final bill of A$22,149. So how about that? Yes that’s a lot of money but it’s one helluva computer that will last you a long time.
MACBOOK AIR
And finally, Apple introduced a new M4 MacBook Air with a new sky blue colour, and a lower starting price of A$1,699, a reduction of A$100. It’s available in 13-inch and 15-inch models.
It will offer up to 18 hours of battery life and support two external displays in addition to the built-in display. This is a big deal for anyone like me who loves multiple screens. You also get a MagSafe 3 charging port, 3.5-mm headphone jack, Two Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) ports with support for USB 4 (up to 40 Gbps), Charging, DisplayPort and Thunderbolt 4 (up to 40 Gbps).
“MacBook Air is by far the world’s most popular laptop, and today we’re giving everyone even more reasons to love it, including a big boost in performance with the M4 chip, a new Center Stage camera, and a beautiful new sky blue colour,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.
“Combined with its thin and light, fanless design, all-day battery life, and the incredible capabilities of macOS Sequoia with Apple Intelligence, MacBook Air is unlike any other laptop. And with a new lower starting price of RRP A$1,699 inc. GST, MacBook Air delivers more value to consumers than ever before, making this the perfect moment to upgrade or experience the Mac for the first time.”
The M4 chip features a 10-core CPU, an up to 10-core GPU, and support for up to 32GB of unified memory, making the new MacBook Air up to 2x faster than the M1 model, according to Apple.
There’s a also a new 12MP Center Stage camera which automatically keeps users centred in the frame as they move around. It also supports Desk View, which simultaneously displays the user and a top-down view of their desk.
