Newsletter Archives
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Apple announces new Mac products
ISSUE 20.05 • 2023-01-30 APPLE NEWS
By Will Fastie
The MacBook Pro and Mac mini are upgraded to new versions of Apple’s M2 system on a chip.
All models became available last Tuesday.
There’s not a lot of news here. The move to the M2 series of Apple silicon was inevitable and expected for both product lines, so the new products are not much of a surprise. But it’s important to keep up, because Apple silicon keeps evolving.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.05.0, 2023-01-30).
This story also appears in our public Newsletter. -
Apple’s non-event fall event
APPLE NEWS
By Will Fastie
The company went into stealth mode.
On October 18, Apple announced some new products. This fall announcement, coming as it does just before the Christmas season, is usually one of Apple’s Hollywood productions. Not this time. The announcements were so stealthy that I didn’t realize anything had happened until two days later.
I wasn’t the only one. Other commentators expressed surprise over the handling of these announcements. I can only conclude that these new products were not as dramatically exciting as others, although I found at least one of them notable.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.45.0, 2022-11-07).
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What’s a “dynamic island?”
APPLE NEWS
By Will Fastie
Clever. That’s what it is.
In the very limited coverage we give to Apple and its products, our focus has been on the evolution of Apple silicon and its application to Mac desktops and laptops. iPhones? Almost never.
But with iPhone 14, Apple has done something I consider remarkably clever.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.38.0, 2022-09-19).
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The Apple M2 arrives
APPLE NEWS
By Will Fastie
This wasn’t quite the shoe everyone hoped would be dropping.
As you know from previous Apple News installments, our focus has been on developments related to Apple silicon. Our oft-stated reason for this is that, for the first time in decades, Apple devices might be more interesting to our readers, especially the large number who already own an Apple device.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.24.0, 2022-06-13).
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The M1 Ultra debuts
APPLE NEWS
By Will Fastie
Keeping to schedule, Apple drops the next shoe in its master plan to get all its products running on its own, proprietary, silicon.
It’s been about 18 months since Apple announced the original M1 system on a chip (SOC), introduced several products based on it, and laid out its plan to transition to its own silicon in roughly two years.
At its spring event last week, the company took its next step in that transition and went so far as to tease the last shoe. Perhaps “tease” is the wrong word because the company came right out and said it — the last brick in the wall will be a transition of the insanely expensive Mac Pro to Apple silicon.
Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 19.11.0 (2022-03-14).
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Is there a Mac in your future?
APPLE NEWS
By Silvia Eckert
With the new MacBook Pro, Apple takes another step toward its own chip future, leaving Intel behind.
Apple’s event on Monday, October 18, showcased its new MacBook Pro laptops — an all-new 14-inch model and an update to the 16-inch model. But the real news is the new Apple silicon inside, the M1 “Pro” for the 14-inch model and the M1 “Max” for the 16-inch.
Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.43.0 (2021-11-08).
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Apple gives privacy one minute
APPLE NEWS
By Silvia Eckert
“California streaming” ducks the controversial CSAM issue at last week’s annual iPhone event.
As reported by Brian Livingston in his column Apple plans to break its end-to-end encryption (AskWoody 2021-08-30), Apple announced about a month ago an initiative to limit the distribution of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) by looking for inappropriate imagery on its customers’ devices and reporting occurrences to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. But because the technology represented what amounted to surveillance that could be applied to virtually anything, an enormous amount of backlash against the initiative occurred.
Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.36.0 (2021-09-20).
This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.36.F (2021-09-20).