Biggest Mac Event EVER?

The BIGGEST Mac Event since M1!

By my calculations, we should be getting the invitations for Apple’s next event any day now. And maybe it’s just me, but this one is WAY more exciting than the iPhone event.

Last year we got maybe Apple’s weirdest event ever - 5pm Cupertino time on October 30th we saw Scary Fast, an almost entirely not halloween themed event but, with a slightly darker, evening at the Apple Park Campus and shot on the brand new iPhone 15 Pro for the first time - Short, but perfectly formed, and we got M3 Macs just 9 months after the M2 Pro and Max had landed.

But this year, Yes, Macs, and let me know If you’ve already seen this, as the M4 MacBook Pro has already leaked in the wild in an unprecedented way, but also decent potential to see some new iPads, including the iPad mini that I’ve somehow managed to resist since it got its redesign in the 6th generation. But more on that in a bit, including what I think we may see, and it’s not in line with the consensus.

So… Those MacBook Pro M4s that showed up in Russia… are weirdly the least interesting part of the event. Though we saw M4 in the iPad Pro in May, an unusual time for chip launches or even events in general, it feels like it was more of an “oh Crap, TSMC won’t make anything else on the M3 node” kind of thing. That was when A17 Pro died too.

So what might we see at the Mac event?

Well, I guess the safest bet is the MacBook Pro M4. Because, you know, We’ve already seen it, In Russia. Because I guess in Russia, Leakers sniper Apple instead. When there’s such tension in a Cold War II kind of way, are Russians who get their hands on something from Apple early, are you gonna be worried about your own police coming to get you? Probably not that much.

Now the boxes we saw these unboxed from had the same wallpaper as the M3… but I know if I was trying to get one out of a factory early, I’d make it look like the last generation. Just me? Okay. On the other hand, it’s also worth mentioning that the boxes always just used to feature the latest MacOS wallpaper where the screen was visible without having specific wallpapers per device, and we’ve just seen the new iPad mini launch with a slight colour variation on the previous version’s wallpaper, so perhaps we’re moving towards different lines just getting an iconic wallpaper each? Who knows.

BUT… That chip tho…. M4 seems to be pretty GOD level. No kidding. M4 is 26.7% faster than the last generation in single core and 30.6% faster in multicore according to MacRumours. That is a JUMP that we’ve not seen in a Mac since Intel to M1. And just to be clear, that means my title isn’t clickbait, But there’s more to come too.

There has been no indication so far of any M4 Mac chips with less than 16gb of unified memory. That is MASSIVE. Everyone has been whining for quite a while now that 8GB isn’t enough in any 2024 computer, Or 2023, or 2022 or 2021… you get my drift. But if Apple does finally bump the base M4 to 16gb, that’s a massive deal. Especially as the memory is shared between the GPU and CPU, so the base graphics then also get a big bump too. And that will be very helpful for the other rumour doing the rounds, that for the first time, a base M chip will support 2 external displays AND the built in one natively. Of course, there have been hack around ways using hubs, but not with full refresh rates and resolutions, and one more clue that the M4 may well support that is also in those leaked MacBooks - and additional USB-C port on the opposite side to the MagSafe - which kind of didn’t make sense until I paired it up with that extra display rumour. Then it makes all the sense in the world.

It also looks like we’re getting the higher end MacBook Pro models too, just like last year, so M4 Pro and M4 Max models. Again, don’t expect fireworks, we’re talking faster chips, maybe some quicker IO both wireless and otherwise, but not a massive amount more. Don’t expect FaceID, the sensor array still isn’t flat enough to fit in the lid, don’t expect OLED, that’s likely not coming until 2026, and there have been vague murmurs of a redesign with M5, suggesting we may get a less exciting performance leap than this year, so that redesign will likely be the bigger selling point - and maybe it’ll be thinner than the MacBook Air, making the naming convention as stupid as it already is over with iPad Pro and iPad Air. But you know what iPad has the perfect name? The one that arrives tomorrow - iPad mini. Smash the subscribe button so you get to see how I get on with that

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