An Apple-first attempt at making an affordable computer is underway. The company is working on a new 13-inch laptop that promises to bring the power of its latest iPhone chip to a more budget-friendly computer. Rather than using one of its custom M‑series processors, this model will run on the A18 Pro, which currently powers the top iPhone lineup. By tapping into existing smartphone-grade CPUs, Apple aims to reduce manufacturing costs without compromising everyday performance for students and casual users. According to Ming-Chi Kuo, mass production could start as early as the late fourth quarter of 2025 or the early first quarter of 2026. The design will resemble a slim MacBook Air, with a screen measuring approximately 13 inches across, a unibody case, revised vents (possibly none), and ports, in smartphones the A18 Pro is passively cooled.

To add some flair, Apple plans to offer the laptop in several colors, like silver, blue, pink, and yellow, similar to its earlier iMac palette. This affordable MacBook is a key component of Apple's strategy to boost desktop and laptop shipments back to their pre-pandemic peak of roughly 25 million units, now projected for 2026. Following a slowdown this year, the company anticipates shipping approximately 20 million MacBooks in 2025. The new 13‑inch model alone is forecast to account for five to seven million of those sales, making it one of Apple's most important products next year. How well the A18 Pro SoC handles the desktop load remains to be seen, but for basic office and everyday tasks, it could be a very usable device. The single-core A18 Pro performance is comparable to the latest M4, but the multi-core performance lags behind, so incorporating a mobile-grade chip will be an interesting addition to Apple's Mac product stack.

We've known since 2023 that NVIDIA is working on an Arm-based notebook SoC, and now we're seeing the first signs of the chip. A processor labelled "NVIDIA N1x" surfaced on the Geekbench 6.2.2 online database, where it scored 3096 points in the single-threaded benchmark, and 18837 points in the multithreaded benchmark. This chip is shown powering an HP-branded prototype notebook, labelled "HP 8EA3," which is running Geekbench on Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS. The processor is identified by Geekbench as having 20 logical processors, which means it has a core-count of 20. This could be a multi-tiered big.LITTLE configuration making up those 20 cores. The clock speed being reported is 2.81 GHz. The company could implement reference Arm cores, such as the Cortex-X925 P-cores, and Cortex A725 E-cores. The HP testbed used for the Geekbench run has a whopping 128 GB of RAM.

NVIDIA has been eyeing a specific slice of the PC pie that's addressed by Qualcomm with its Snapdragon Elite line of processors for Windows-on-Arm notebooks, complete with an NPU accelerating Microsoft Copilot+ on device. The N1x could also compete with Apple's M3 or M4 chips powering its iPad Pro and MacBooks. For now, Microsoft has confined Arm-based Copilot+ to Snapdragon processors, but NVIDIA will probably work with Microsoft to open up this platform to its chips. NVIDIA has been an Arm SoC maker for decades, its first rodeo with Arm-based client-segment SoCs has been under the Tegra brand, powering Android smartphones and tablets. The company has been making Arm CPUs all this while, but for the enterprise segment (eg: Grace CPU).

Other World Computing (OWC), a trusted leader in high-performance storage, memory, connectivity, software, and accessories that empower creative and business professionals to maximize performance, enhance reliability, and streamline workflows, today announced the general availability (GA) release of a new 4 TB version of its OWC Aura Pro X2 SSD. The expanded storage option ensures Mac users enjoy speeds up to 5.5x faster and up to 32x more storage capacity, making it easier to tackle larger files, projects, and applications.

The new 4 TB version of the OWC Aura Pro X2 SSD is built for Macs running macOS High Sierra (10.13) or later. Compatible with a wide range of MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac, Mac mini, and Mac Pro models (released from 2013 to 2019), it can deliver read and write speeds over 3200 MB/s (specific performance depends on Mac model).

Global PC shipments grew 6.7% YoY in Q1 2025 to reach 61.4 million units, according to Counterpoint Research's preliminary data. The growth was mainly driven by PC vendors accelerating shipments ahead of US tariffs and the increasing adoption of AI-enabled PCs amid the end of Windows 10 support. However, this surge may be short-lived, as inventory levels are likely to stabilize in the next few weeks. The impact of the US tariffs is expected to dampen the growth momentum in 2025.

Apple and Lenovo delivered strong performances in the quarter, largely due to new product launches and market dynamics. Apple experienced 17% YoY growth in shipments, driven by its AI-capable M4-based MacBook series. Lenovo's 11% growth reflected its expansion into AI-enabled PCs and its diversified product portfolio. Lenovo remained the brand with the largest market share during the quarter. HP and Dell, on the other hand, benefited from the US market pull-ins during the quarter, with 6% and 4% YoY growth respectively, and maintained their second and third places in Q1. We also found that the pull-ins happened for other major brands too ahead of the tariff uncertainty, leading to the market share further consolidating around major brands.

A mysterious HiSilicon Kirin X90 processor was included in a Chinese state report; the official assessment document seems to cover the topics of native CPU reliability and security. Jukanlosreve—a keen watcher of semiconductor industry inside tracks—highlighted the unannounced technology on social media. They alerted TP Huang (aka tphuang) to this discovery, possibly in reaction to the latter's reporting of a wholly Huawei-designed AI laptop. Last week, we heard about a speculated portable enterprise PC series powered by Kunpeng-920 mobile processors. HiSilicon is a Chinese fabless semiconductor firm, operating under Huawei ownership—normally, their Kirin processors are designated as smartphone-based solutions. Industry watchdogs believe that company leadership is paving the way for a new generation of personal and server processors—their current Kunpeng-900 series debuted back in 2019, so natural successors are very likely in the development pipeline. Early last year, insiders proposed that Huawei had prioritized its Ascend 910B AI accelerator chip—despite these rumors, Kirin-related leaks continued to trickle out.

According to industry moles, HiSilicon tends to spread its custom Arm-based Taishan core design across modern Kirin and Kunpeng processor families. Based on Jukanlosreve's initial detective work, Tom's Hardware proposed a plausible outlook for the (leaked) chip's future. Their report theorized: "Huawei's server and PC divisions have been relatively quiet, as evidenced by the lack of new Kunpeng SoC designs. The new Kirin X90, despite its name, could be a possible successor, considering that Huawei is reportedly launching a new 'AI PC' with HarmonyOS next month. It's likely to be fabricated using SMIC's 7 nm process featuring Taishan V120 cores based on either the Armv8 or Armv9 architectures, which are not subject to the US trade ban." Instead of using an old hat Kunpeng-920 SoC, Huawei's forthcoming next-gen "Qingyun" AI laptop could be equipped with a Kirin X90 APU—Tom's Hardware foresees an Apple MacBook-esque "integration of custom hardware and software" with the Chinese tech firm's fully in-house developed model.

It would be incredibly hard to argue that Apple's recently unveiled M4-equipped MacBook Air is the company's best value laptop in quite a while. With a lower starting price and twice the memory, the refreshed MacBook Air sure does a great job enticing students and casual users. The system has recently made its debut on the popular benchmarking platform Geekbench, boasting CPU and GPU performance that is right around what one might expect from the M4 SoC, which we have seen previously in the iPad Pro as well as multiple Macs. In single-core, the M4 MacBook Air managed a score of 3,680 points, and in multicore, the M4 raked in 14,924 points. Of course, the fanless MacBook Air will almost certainly struggle to keep up with its actively cooled siblings in sustained workloads.

In GPU performance, the MacBook Air raked in 54,864 points in Geekbench's Metal GPU benchmark, which is marginally lower than the M4 SoC's average of 57,000 points in the Mac mini and MacBook Pro, both of which are actively cooled. Considering the starting price of $999, the M4 MacBook Air with 16 GB of unified memory is plenty performant for the vast majority of laptop users. Of course, the entry-level storage of a paltry 256 GB is a borderline deal-breaker in 2025, compounded by the fact that Apple refuses to grace its products with user upgradeable storage. For those who can look past it, the M4 MacBook Air sure has a lot going for it.

Apple today announced the new MacBook Air, featuring the blazing-fast performance of the M4 chip, up to 18 hours of battery life, a new 12MP Center Stage camera, and a lower starting price. It also offers support for up to two external displays in addition to the built-in display, 16 GB of starting unified memory, and the incredible capabilities of macOS Sequoia with Apple Intelligence—all packed into its strikingly thin and light design that's built to last. The new MacBook Air now comes in an all-new color—sky blue, a metallic light blue that joins midnight, starlight, and silver—giving MacBook Air its most beautiful array of colors ever. It also now starts at just $999—$100 less than before—and $899 for education, making it an incredible value for students, business professionals, or anyone looking for a phenomenal combination of world-class performance, portability, design, and durability. With two sizes to choose from, the new 13- and 15-inch MacBook Air are available to pre-order today, with availability beginning Wednesday, March 12.

"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 color," 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 $999, 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."

Just recently, we covered a report shared by a reliable industry insider that stated Apple is readying a launch event, or press release, for the M4-powered MacBook Air lineup. Now, Apple CEO Tim Cook has borderline confirmed the same, with a social media post that reveals a new product carrying the 'Air' moniker is set to be revealed sometime this week. Judging by the short teaser video accompanying the tweet, it can be foreseen that the product in question is none other than the MacBook Air, which is now almost certain to be updated with the M4 SoC later this week.

The M4 SoC is an excellent performer, boasting commendable CPU and GPU capabilities without sacrificing on the efficiency that the industry has come to expect from Apple Silicon. Unfortunately, however, no major changes are expected this time around, especially regarding the exterior. The MacBook Air is currently in the third year of its lifecycle, and a redesign can only be expected once it reaches its fourth birthday. Despite that, the M4 SoC alone is a welcome upgrade for those planning on purchasing a MacBook Air anytime soon. Students, in particular, have always been the MBA's target audience, and a decent spec bump will surely help the product hold its own against AMD's Krackan Point and Intel's Lunar Lake-powered offerings.

Apple's unannounced M4 MacBook Air family is likely reaching market availability status at some point next month. Last December, slimline notebook enthusiasts started hearing about an updated lineup; macOS's Sequoia 15.2 update reportedly referenced upcoming MacBook Air M4 13-inch and 15-inch models. An early sample unit—named "Mac16,12"—has participated in a Geekbench 6.4.0 (macOS AArch64) gauntlet; results appeared online yesterday. The alleged "MacBook Air 13" candidate posted an overall Metal score of 54,806, and an overall OpenCL tally of 36,305. The two separate Geekbench Browser entries confirm that the sampled device makes use of a 10-core M4 processor, with Cluster 1 containing four performance cores. Cluster 2 consists of six power efficiency-oriented cores. Base frequency is listed at 4.41 GHz; reportedly the highest recorded for an M4 SoC. Said chip accessed 24 GB of unified memory, during its macOS 15.2 (Build 24C2101)-based test session.

Notebookcheck and Wccftech compared the aforementioned data points with slightly older M4-equipped hardware, including a premium model. Both outlets observed a "measly" five percent performance difference. Elaborating on their findings, Notebookcheck stated: "as always, we would recommend taking early benchmark results with a healthy amount of skepticism for the time being. With that being said, the MacBook Air 13 benchmarked falls about 5% short of the median Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Metal results we achieved so far when benchmarking the M4 versions of Apple's Mac Mini and MacBook Pro 14." The rumored next-gen MacBook Air is expected to operate with a fan-less cooling system—press outlets reckon that the MacBook Pro's air-cooled operation puts it at a slight advantage (in benchmarks).

According to reliable tipster Mark Gurman, the M4-equipped MacBook Air is now expected to launch sometime next month. Earlier leaks had hinted at a spec bump for the iPad Pro with the M5 chipset sometime in the middle of this year, although the grapevine now states that the M5 iPad Pro will only arrive sometime in 2026, with the M5 SoC first seeing the light of day in a refreshed MacBook Pro in the third quarter of this year. Unfortunately, no major design changes are expected for either of the upcoming devices - which makes sense, since the iPad Pro received a major update less than a year ago, and the MacBook Pro is expected to boast a major overhaul next year.

Interestingly, however, the M4-powered Mac Studio and Mac Pro are still on track for launch in the middle of this year, likely during WWDC. Of course, the M4 'Ultra' - and perhaps an even higher-end M4 SoC - will offer significantly higher core counts than M5-powered MacBook Pros, but it would certainly be quite off-putting to see Apple's highest-end Macs lag a full generation behind MacBook Pros less than half a year after launch. Although the M5 SoCs will continue leveraging TSMC's 3 nm process, the high-end Pro and Max SKUs are expected to integrate TSMC's SoIC technology, enabling 3D chip-stacking, with discrete GPU and CPU units for improved efficiency and cost-savings.

A recent rumor appears to have some good news in store for Apple display aficionados. The Cupertino giant has largely ignored its display lineup for several years at this point, considering that its $5,000 Pro Display XDR is almost six years old, while the $1,599 Studio Display is about to complete its third year on sale next month. According to reliable display analyst Ross Young, Apple is working on a mini LED upgrade for the Studio Display, which is expected to hit shelves towards the end of this year. It is unclear whether the rumored mini LED Studio Display will boast Apple's ProMotion technology, although it does seem quite likely given Apple's track record.

So far, only three Apple devices have boasted mini LED displays - MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and the Pro Display XDR. The iPad Pro has moved to an OLED solution, and the MacBook Pro lineup is expected to follow in its footsteps towards the end of next year. While mini LED displays are not quite as contrast rich or fast as OLED displays, they sure are a massive improvement over the traditional LED-backlit displays found in Apple's iMacs and the Studio Display in terms of brightness, contrast, and if the ProMotion rumors are true, then refresh rate as well. Unsurprisingly, the affordable iMac 24" is not expected to sport mini LED technology anytime soon. As for the pricey Pro Display XDR, it is unclear what the future has in store for it, going by the absence of information.

A fresh report from the reliable publication "The Elec" has revealed that the OLED panel destined for the 2026 MacBook Pro is already in the prototyping stage at Samsung Displays. The report adds that the company expects to produce somewhere between three and five million OLED panels yearly, which can be expanded to up to 10 million if demand increases. The MacBook Pro lineup is also expected to boast 2 nm Apple M6-series SoCs in 2026, although details regarding the SoCs are unsurprisingly scarce as of this writing.

Interestingly, as we have already reported on before, the MacBook Air has once again been rumored to receive the OLED treatment no sooner than 2029. An upgraded LCD panel, however, is still on the cards for the entry-level laptop. The iPad Pro was updated with tandem OLED panels last year, although reports since have failed to indicate a substantial jump in demand. Whether the OLED MacBook lineup will meet a similar fate remains to be seen, although there is no denying that OLED panels will bring a plethora of improvements for MacBook Pro customers, especially those who happen to be creative pros.

Apple's M4 SoC was released to overwhelmingly positive reviews, particularly regarding the commendable performance and efficiency benefits it brought to the table. The chip first appeared in the OLED iPad Pro lineup last May, arriving in the company's MacBook Pro lineup only much later, giving Intel's Lunar Lake and AMD's Strix Point a run for their money. Now, it appears that the company is cognizant of the heat brought by AMD's Strix Halo, and has already commenced mass production for the first SoC in the M5 family - the vanilla M5, according to Korean news outlet ET News.

Just like last time, the M5 SoC has been repeatedly rumored to first arrive in the next-generation iPad Pro, scheduled to enter production sometime in the second half of this year. The MacBook Pro will likely be next-in-line for the M5 treatment, followed the rest of the lineup as per tradition. Interestingly, although Apple decided against using TSMC's 2 nm process for this year's chips, the higher-tier variants, including the M5 Pro and M5 Max are expected to utilize TSMC's SoIC-mH technology, allowing for vertical stacking of chips that should ideally benefit thermals, and possibly even allow for better and larger GPUs thanks to the separation of the CPU and GPU portions. Consequently, yields will also improve, which will allow Apple to bring costs down.

Apple is off to a great start in 2025, thanks to a record-breaking fourth quarter. Net revenue soared to a whopping $124.3 billion - the highest ever for the Cupertino giant - with iPhones driving 55.6% of revenue. Macs and iPads, as usual, appear to be a drop in the bucket compared to iPhones, with $8.98 and $8.088 billion in net sales respectively. Services witnessed commendable growth, adding $26.34 billion to Apple's pile.

Of course, this does not mean that the grass is all green for the company. Apple Intelligence witnessed a tumultuous launch, suffering from multiple setbacks and lukewarm reviews. Tim Cook does believe that there is still a lot of innovation on the table for the iPhone, which he revealed in a recent interview. Considering that the company is widely rumored to be preparing a major redesign for the iPhone, along with a brand-new Air/Slim variant, it does appear that this year will turn out to be quite an interesting one for iPhone enthusiasts.

MacBook Air aficionados, at least most of them, have been longing for an OLED-equipped variant for quite a while now. OLED displays, especially the tandem-style units that Apple ships with its iPad Pros, have undeniable advantages over tradition LCDs, such as a near-infinite contrast ratio, near-instant response times, and excellent color reproduction. The fear of panel burn-in does exist, although as OLED technology progresses, such fears continue to subside. That said, for those who are holding out for it, the grapevine indicates they will have to hold their horses for a while longer.

A recent report by The Elec has stated that the MacBook Air, which was previously expected to get the OLED treatment sometime in 2027, has now been delayed by another two years. As such, the MacBook Air is now not expected to boast an OLED display before 2029 at the earliest. The Elec claims that the primary cause behind the delay is the lackluster sales boost brought by the OLED upgrade to the iPad Pro lineup, which fell short of what Apple anticipated. That said, the MacBook Air will utilize "Oxide TFT" technology for its LCDs starting 2027, allowing for improved color accuracy, energy efficiency, and contrast. MacBook Pros have already utilized the technology since 2022, and are still expected to boast OLED panels by 2026.

The Apple M4 hardly needs any introduction - the latest desktop-class SoC from the Cupertino giant is remarkably fast, while being impressively efficient. Its recently unveiled Pro and Max variants are equally praiseworthy, although none of the 4th generation Apple Silicon goodness is available on the extremely popular MacBook Air as of right now. However, that is about to change soon according to a reliable recent report.

According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, the M4-powered MacBook Air has already entered production, and is scheduled to witness the light of day by the spring of next year, possibly even earlier. However, it is certainly worth noting that unlike the MacBook Pro, the MacBook Air does not feature active cooling, making its performance rather limited in demanding, sustained scenarios as compared to the MacBook Pro. Even then, the M4 is likely to be much snappier than its primary x86 rival, Intel's Lunar Lake, if the M4 iPad Pro's performance is anything to go by.

MacBook Pro users have long demanded the benefits of OLED screens - an upgrade that has been rumored innumerable times in the past. A recently leaked report from the market analysis firm Omdia claims that the MacBook Pro is set to feature an OLED screen by 2026, whereas the MacBook Air will receive the update in 2027.

However, considering that a similar timeframe has been rumored multiple times in the past, this fresh leak may not sound so enticing. That said, the roadmap does contain some information that is fascinating to say the least. According to Omdia, OLED MacBook Pros will no longer be burdened by the infamous notch, instead opting for a punch-hole camera setup. Now of course, as MacRumors points out, this could easily mean that Apple will use the pixels around the punch-hole to make it function something like the iPhone's dynamic island, which may not be welcomed by everyone.

AMD Ryzen AI MAX 300-series processors, codenamed "Strix Halo," have been on in the news for close to a year now. These mobile processors combine "Zen 5" CPU cores with an oversized iGPU that offers performance rivaling discrete GPUs, with the idea behind these chips being to rival the Apple M3 Pro and M3 Max processors powering MacBook Pros. The "Strix Halo" mobile processor is an MCM that combines one or two "Zen 5" CCDs (some ones featured on "Granite Ridge" desktop processors and "Turin" server processors), with a large SoC die. This die is built either on the 5 nm (TSMC N5) or 4 nm (TSMC N4P) node. It packs a large iGPU based on the RDNA 3.5 graphics architecture, with 40 compute units (CU), and a 50 TOPS-class XDNA 2 NPU carried over from "Strix Point." The memory interface is a 256-bit wide LPDDR5X-8000 for sufficient memory bandwidth for the up to 16 "Zen 5" CPU cores, the 50 TOPS NPU, and the large 40 CU iGPU.

Golden Pig Upgrade leaked what looks like a company slide from a notebook OEM, which reveals the iGPU model names for the various Ryzen AI MAX 300-series SKUs. Leading the pack is the Ryzen AI MAX+ 395. This is a maxed out SKU with a 16-core/32-thread "Zen 5" CPU that uses two CCDs. All 16 cores are full-sized "Zen 5." The CPU has 64 MB of L3 cache (32 MB per CCD), each of the 16 cores has 1 MB of dedicated L2 cache. The iGPU is branded Radeon 8060S, it comes with all 40 CU (2,560 stream processors) enabled, besides 80 AI accelerators, and 40 Ray accelerators. The Ryzen AI MAX 390 is the next processor SKU, it comes with a 12-core/24-thread "Zen 5" CPU. Like the 395, the 390 is a dual-CCD processor, all 12 cores are full-sized "Zen 5." There's 64 MB of L3 cache, and 1 MB of L2 cache per core. The Radeon 8060S graphics solution is the same as the one on the Ryzen AI MAX+ 395, it comes with all 40 CU enabled.

Early benchmark results have revealed Apple's newest M4 Max processor as a serious competitor to Arm-based CPUs from Qualcomm and even the best of x86 from Intel and AMD. Recent Geekbench 6 tests conducted on the latest 16-inch MacBook Pro showcase considerable improvements over both its predecessor and rival chips from major competitors. The M4 Max achieved an impressive single-core score of 4,060 points and a multicore score of 26,675 points, marking significant advancements in processing capability. These results represent approximately 30% and 27% improvements in single-core and multicore performance, respectively, compared to the previous M3 Max. This is also much higher than something like Snapdragon X Elite, which tops out at twelve cores per SoC. When measured against x86 competitors, the M4 Max also demonstrates substantial advantages.

The chip outperforms Intel's Core Ultra 9 285K by 19% in single-core and 16% in multicore tests, surpassing AMD's Ryzen 9 9950X by 18% in single-core and 25% in multicore performance. Notably, these achievements come with significantly lower power consumption than traditional x86 processors. The flagship system-on-chip features a sophisticated 16-core CPU configuration, combining twelve performance and four efficiency cores. Additionally, it integrates 40 GPU cores and supports up to 128 GB of unified memory, shared between CPU and GPU operations. The new MacBook Pro line also introduces Thunderbolt 5 compatibility, enabling data transfer speeds up to 120 Gb/s. While the M4 Max presents an impressive response to the current market, we have yet to see its capabilities in real-world benchmarks, as these types of synthetic runs are only a part of the performance story that Apple has prepared. We need to see productivity, content creation, and even gaming benchmarks to fully crown it the king of performance. Below is a table comparing Geekbench v6 scores, courtesy of Tom's Hardware, and a random Snapdragon X Elite (X1E-00-1DE) run in top configuration.

CD PROJEKT RED today announced Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition will be arriving natively on Macs with Apple silicon, including the new iMac, Mac mini, and MacBook Pro, powered by the M4 family of chips. The game is optimized to take full advantage of Apple silicon and Metal to bring the immersive world of Night City - and the deadly district of Dogtown - to Mac gamers for the very first time.

The game will include advanced features like path tracing, frame generation, and built-in Spatial Audio for even more immersive gameplay and stunning visuals. Coming to Mac early next year, it will be available to purchase via both the Mac App Store and Steam, and existing Steam PC purchases will carry over to the Mac. More details and a release date for early next year will be announced at a later time.

Apple today unveiled the new MacBook Pro, powered by the M4 family of chips—M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max—delivering much faster performance and enhanced capabilities. The new MacBook Pro is built for Apple Intelligence, the personal intelligence system that transforms how users work, communicate, and express themselves, while protecting their privacy. Now available in space black and silver finishes, the 14-inch MacBook Pro includes the blazing-fast performance of M4 and three Thunderbolt 4 ports, starting with 16 GB of memory, all at just $1,599. The 14- and 16-inch models with M4 Pro and M4 Max offer Thunderbolt 5 for faster transfer speeds and advanced connectivity. All models include a Liquid Retina XDR display that gets even better with an all-new nano-texture display option and up to 1000 nits of brightness for SDR content, an advanced 12MP Center Stage camera, along with up to 24 hours of battery life, the longest ever in a Mac. The new MacBook Pro is available to pre-order today, with availability beginning November 8.

Apple today announced M4 Pro and M4 Max, two new chips that—along with M4—bring far more power-efficient performance and advanced capabilities to the Mac. All three chips are built using industry-leading, second-generation 3-nanometer technology, which improves performance and power efficiency. The CPUs across the M4 family feature the world's fastest CPU core, delivering the industry's best single-threaded performance, and dramatically faster multithreaded performance. The GPUs build on the breakthrough graphics architecture introduced in the previous generation, with faster cores and a 2x faster ray- racing engine. M4 Pro and M4 Max enable Thunderbolt 5 for the Mac for the first time, and unified memory bandwidth is greatly increased—up to 75 percent. Combined with a Neural Engine that's up to 2x faster than the previous generation and enhanced machine learning (ML) accelerators in the CPUs, the M4 family of chips brings incredible performance for pro and AI workloads. And they deliver blazing performance for Apple Intelligence, the personal intelligence system that transforms how users work, communicate, and express themselves, while protecting their privacy.

While Apple laptops have never really been the first stop for PC gaming, Linux is slowly shaping up to be an excellent gaming platform, largely thanks to open-source development efforts as well as work from the likes of AMD and NVIDIA, who have both put significant work into their respective Linux drivers in recent years. This makes efforts like the Asahi Linux Project all the more intriguing. Asahi Linux is a project that aims to bring Linux to Apple Silicon Macs—a task that has proven rather difficult, thanks to the intricacies of developing a bespoke GPU driver for Apple's custom ARM GPUs. In a recent blog post, the graphics developer behind the Asahi Linux Project showed off a number of AAA games, albeit older titles, running on an Apple M1 processor on the latest Asahi Linux build.

To run the games on Apple Silicon, Asahi Linux uses a "game playing toolkit," which relies on a number of custom graphics drivers and emulators, including tools from Valve's Proton translation layer, which ironically was also the foundation for Apple's Game Porting Toolkit. Asahi uses FEX to emulate x86 on ARM, Wine as a translation layer for Windows apps, and DXVK and vkd3d-proton for DirectX-Vulkan translation. In the blog post, the Asahi developer claims that the alpha is capable of running games like Control, The Witcher 3, and Cyberpunk 2077 at playable frame rates. Unfortunately, 60 FPS is not yet attainable in the majority of new high-fidelity games, there are a number of indie titles that run quite well on Asahi Linux, including Hollow Knight, Ghostrunner, and Portal 2.

Kensington, a worldwide leader of desktop computing and mobility solutions for IT, business, and home office professionals, is greatly enhancing the visual productivity of MacBook users with today's launch of the SD5900T EQ Thunderbolt 4 Quad 4K 40 Gbps Dock with DisplayLink Technology.

Ideal for busy professionals juggling multiple tasks and projects, the powerful and stylish dock unlocks the full potential of the MacBook by providing support for up to four external displays, 40 Gbps data transfer speeds, up to 100 W (96 W certified) charging for the MacBook and connected accessories, and a 16-in-1 design. Optimized to support MacBook running macOS 11 or above, the SD5900T leverages the power of Thunderbolt 4 and DisplayLink technology to expand the user's visual workspace, boost productivity, and provide a future-proof solution for the MacBook workstation.

BenQ, the global innovator of visual display technology and digital lifestyle devices, today announced the launch of the MA Series, the industry's first monitors specially designed for MacBook users. With a sleek style that perfectly complements MacBooks, the MA series sets a new standard for external macOS monitors by providing perfect color consistency and seamless integration with Mac devices.

"Most external monitors struggle to replicate the exact colors displayed by MacBooks," said Peter Huang, CEO of BenQ Corporation. "MA Series debuts our proprietary Mac color-tuning technology, ensuring MA Series monitors provide consistent, true-to-life Mac colors that perfectly match those of your MacBook Air or MacBook Pro."