Today Apple has introduced its new iPad Pro and has resurrected both the MacBook Air, now with Retina display, and the Mac mini. In addition to all these new announcements, there's another one the company didn't talk about at the event: an update for the MacBook Pro that will now feature AMD Radeon Pro Vega graphics chips. According to Apple, this will allow a 60% improvement in performance over the Radeon Pro 560X, the most powerful GPUs available to date for the MacBook Pro.

These professional-oriented chips are manufactured on a 14 nm process, this is not the 7 nanometer Vega 20 that's expected to be released later this year for the enterprise space. The GPU is codenamed "Vega 12" and comes with HBM2 memory, which helps reduce space requirements in a notebook, compared to traditional GDDR5 memory. Vega Pro 20 in the MacBook Pro has 20 CUs (1,280 shaders), Vega Pro 16 has 16 CUs (1,024 shaders). Both MacBook Pro configurations will be available on November 14th at a price yet to be determined.

We've been seeing rumors for months about the new iPad Pro and especially the successors to the MacBook Air, and we'll soon be able to confirm whether those rumors were true. Apple has issued media invites for an October 30 event in New York with the tagline "There's more in the making". The company is expected to announce the new iPad Pro, which could be based on a processor more powerful than the Apple A12 Bionic used on the new iPhone XR, XS and XS Max. This new tablet would have both 10.5 and a 12.9 inches models with slim bezels and Face ID. The rumors suggest the new iPad Pro will ditch the Lighting connector and replace it with a USB-C port.

Even more promising is that theoretical successor to MacBook Air (not necessarily called this way) that has been talked about for months. In August Bloomberg pointed out that this machine would have a Retina display whose size is not entirely clear: while DigiTimes talked about a 13-inch screen, Ming-Chi Kuo, analyst at TF International Securities, spoke of a replacement for the current MacBook that would therefore have a 12-inch screen. There is no info around its CPU/GPU, but the recent launch of 8th Gen U-Series and Y-Series processors makes guessing a fun exercise.

Blackmagic Design today announced the Blackmagic eGPU, a high performance graphics processor for pro creative software such as DaVinci Resolve, 3D games and VR. Designed in collaboration with Apple, the Blackmagic eGPU features a built-in Radeon Pro 580, two Thunderbolt 3 ports, HDMI 2.0, 85W of charging power and four USB 3.1 connections. It comes in an integrated design that brings high-end desktop class graphics processing to MacBook Pro for professional video workflows, 3D games and immersive VR. And, the Blackmagic eGPU is the first to support Thunderbolt 3 displays. The Blackmagic eGPU is available now for only US $699 exclusively on Apple.com and in select Apple Retail stores worldwide.

Designed to address the needs of professional video editors, Hollywood colorists and visual effects artists who need to remain mobile, but want the power of a desktop class GPU added to their MacBook Pro, the Blackmagic eGPU is incredibly flexible and simply plugs in via Thunderbolt 3, so users can benefit from improved graphics performance and acceleration of computational tasks. It's perfect for speeding up professional creative application workflows including editing, color correction and visual effects with DaVinci Resolve. The Blackmagic eGPU adds the performance customers need to make the latest 3D games and VR look more realistic than ever. That means customers will get higher resolution images, higher frame rate gameplay, better lighting and more detailed textures for truly immersive experiences, even on a laptop computer.

Apple today updated MacBook Pro with faster performance and new pro features, making it the most advanced Mac notebook ever. The new MacBook Pro models with Touch Bar feature 8th-generation Intel Core processors, with 6-core on the 15-inch model for up to 70 percent faster performance and quad-core on the 13-inch model for up to two times faster performance - ideal for manipulating large data sets, performing complex simulations, creating multi-track audio projects or doing advanced image processing or film editing.

Already the most popular notebook for developers around the world, the new MacBook Pro can compile code faster and run multiple virtual machines and test environments easier than before. Additional updates include support for up to 32 GB of memory, a True Tone display and an improved third-generation keyboard for quieter typing. And with its powerful Radeon Pro graphics, large Force Touch trackpad, revolutionary Touch Bar and Touch ID, dynamic stereo speakers, quiet Apple-designed cooling system and Thunderbolt 3 for data transfer, charging and connecting up to two 5K displays or four external GPUs, it's the ultimate pro notebook.

One of the biggest tech stories of the 2000s was Apple's transition from the PowerPC machine architecture to Intel x86, which brought the Mac closer to being the PC it so loathed. The transition wasn't smooth, as besides the operating system, practically every third-party software developer (eg: Adobe), had to rewrite their software for the new architecture, with new APIs, and new runtime environments. Apple could be bringing about a similar change before the turn of the decade.

Apple already builds its own application processors for iOS devices, and some of the newer chips such as the A11 Bionic and A10 Fusion have already reached the performance levels of entry-level x86 desktop processors. It's only a matter of time before Apple can build its own SoCs for Macs (that's not just iMac desktops, but also Mac Pro workstations, MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro). That timeline is expected to be around 2020. Since these chips are based on the ARM machine architecture, they will mandate a major transformation of the entire software ecosystem Apple built over the past decade and a half. Intel shares dropped by as much as 9.2 at the first reports of this move.

Plugable's new 480GB external NVME SSD drive hits performance levels not possible before Thunderbolt 3. Connect the drive to a Thunderbolt 3 port to gain 480GB of extra storage with amazing speeds of up to 2400+ MB/sec read and 1200+ MB/sec write, all without the need for an external power connection. These speeds make this external drive a no-compromise performance solution for video editing, backup, and any tasks which demand maximum disk performance. "Thunderbolt 3 is a revolutionary technology," said Bernie Thompson, CEO of Plugable Technologies. "We've created our line of high-end docks, adapters, and drives to show it off."

Promise Technology Inc., a leading storage solutions provider for creative and IT applications, today announced the addition of a Thunderbolt 3 dock to its comprehensive lineup of solutions for rich media workflows. Through the new dock, users can add two 4K displays, charge devices, daisy-chain Thunderbolt 3 hard drives, connect USB devices, transfer SD card content, and more -- over a single connection. The new TD-300 brings it all together to expand the capabilities of Thunderbolt 3-enabled macOS and Windows 10 platforms. The TD-300 is also an ideal choice for small office/home office users.

An ideal complement to Promise's industry-leading Pegasus3 series of desktop RAID storage solutions, the TD-300 provides several connectivity options that set it apart from the competition, including five USB 3.0 ports, an SD card reader and HDMI 2.0. It also features two Thunderbolt 3 ports, Gigabit Ethernet and an audio in/out port. Creative professionals working with Windows workstations, iMac and MacBook Pro can now simply connect the TD-300's Thunderbolt 3 port to any Thunderbolt 3-enabled PC or Mac. There are no drivers to download or install, and no additional utility software is needed.

QNAP Systems, Inc. today unveiled the TS-453BT3, a 4-bay NAS that combines high-speed Thunderbolt 3 connectivity with a pre-installed QM2 PCIe card, providing dual M.2 SATA SSD slots and 10GbE connectivity. Along with its sleek OLED display and 4K HDMI output, the TS-453BT3 provides SMBs, workgroups and media professionals with a feature-rich and high-performance storage solution.

The TS-453BT3 is powered by an Intel Celeron J3455 quad-core 1.50 GHz processor (burst up to 2.30 GHz) with dual-channel 8 GB DDR3L RAM. The pre-installed QM2 card provides SSD caching and 10 GbE connectivity, helping to provide up to 683 MB/s read speeds. The TS-453BT3 also includes a free RM-IR004 remote control that can be coupled with the QButton app to provide one-touch functionality for everyday operations.

Apple today previewed macOS High Sierra, the latest version of the world's most advanced desktop operating system, delivering new core storage, video and graphics technologies that pave the way for future innovation on the Mac. macOS High Sierra offers an all-new file system, support for High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) and an update to Metal, Apple's advanced graphics technology that powers everything from machine learning to virtual reality content creation. macOS High Sierra also includes a number of refinements to the apps Mac users enjoy every day, including Photos, Safari and Mail.

"macOS High Sierra delivers important forward-looking technologies and new opportunities for developers wanting to tap into the power of machine learning and create immersive VR content on the Mac," said Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering. "The core technology innovations in macOS High Sierra, combined with our advances in hardware, will continue to push the Mac forward in exciting new ways."

Apple today updated its iMac line with up to three times more powerful graphics, faster processors, Thunderbolt 3, faster storage options and brighter Retina displays, and added a Retina 4K display and discrete graphics to the $1,299 (US) 21.5-inch iMac. With its incredibly thin and seamless enclosure, fast processors and storage and stunning Retina display, iMac sets the gold standard for desktops. iMac delivers powerful performance for 3D graphics, video editing and gaming, and with macOS High Sierra coming this fall, iMac becomes a great platform for virtual reality content creation. Apple also today updated MacBook and MacBook Pro with faster processors, added faster SSDs to MacBook and introduced a new $1,299 (US) 13-inch MacBook Pro.

"With major updates to iMac, and a refresh of our MacBook and MacBook Pro lines, the Mac is stronger than ever," said John Ternus, Apple's vice president of Hardware Engineering. "Today iMac gets a huge graphics performance increase, faster CPU performance, Thunderbolt 3 and a brighter Retina display with support for 1 billion colors. We're also increasing CPU and SSD speed on MacBook, adding faster processors and making faster graphics standard on our 15-inch MacBook Pro and introducing a new $1,299 (US) 13-inch MacBook Pro."

AKITIO today unveiled their new Thunderbolt 3 PCIe box, the Node Lite. The new Node Lite is an upgraded version of their popular Thunder2 PCIe Box. The Node Lite features PCIe Gen 3, which provides much improved performance when using new PCIe cards such as video capture cards, RAID cards, NVMe SSD storage, 10G and even 40G network cards. The Node Lite is compatible with both macOS and Windows computers, making it the ideal companion for the new 2016 MacBook Pro as well as new Thunderbolt 3 Windows PC's.

The Node Lite features the same compact, tool-less design as the Thunder2 PCIe Box in a stylish new space gray outer case. Inside the case, the Node Lite features two Thunderbolt 3 ports, which can be used to daisy chain other Thunderbolt 3 devices as well as USB 3 Type-C devices. Another new addition is a DisplayPort version 1.2 port which can be used to connect an additional 4K@60Hz monitor.

OWC, a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company, announced the OWC DEC, the first-ever expansion solution designed specifically for the 2016 Apple MacBook Pro. The OWC DEC is the finishing touch to a MacBook Pro, allowing users to take their laptops to the next level, extending the life and the functionality of the already-exceptional 2016 MacBook Pro. The DEC is the latest in OWC's long line of upgrades for nearly every Mac made, and continues the company's legacy of providing the best solutions for Mac owners.

The OWC DEC attaches completely flush to the bottom of the 2016 MacBook Pro, providing additional flash storage and connectivity, ultimately increasing the performance of MacBook Pros. With the OWC DEC, users will get an enhancement path for their 2016 MacBook Pro and MacBook Pro with Touch Bar to keep their system upgradeable for the long term in a clean and integrated fashion. On top of the core functional benefits, the OWC DEC also touts a sleek design. When installed, the OWC DEC and MacBook Pro will be as thin as a 2012 MacBook Pro, allowing this advanced solution to retain the attractive light weight design that users favor.

OWC, a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company, today introduced the all-new Thunderbolt 3 Dock - the latest in its award-winning lineup of connectivity expansion solutions. Now available for pre-order, the Thunderbolt 3 Dock offers exceptional flexibility and connectivity with 13 ports, up to 40Gb/s of bandwidth, and the capability to power the new 2016 MacBook Pro, all in an elegant, industrial design. For anyone concerned with the limited port options on new Thunderbolt 3-equipped Macs or PCs, the Thunderbolt 3 Dock is the ideal solution for connecting a wide variety of existing and future devices including external hard drives, webcams, audio interfaces, Ultra HD displays, wired networks, and more.

"With our critically-acclaimed Thunderbolt 2 Dock and USB-C Dock, OWC defined a new standard in providing more connectivity at a time when new computers were shipping with fewer ports," said Larry O'Connor, Founder and CEO, OWC. "The all-new Thunderbolt 3 Dock is the best expansion solution we've ever made, offering the incredible speed of Thunderbolt 3 technology coupled with 13 ports of connectivity, perfect for getting the most out of the new 2016 MacBook Pro."

If you were wondering what the exact specs were on AMD's Polaris-imbued Radeon Pro 400 series of graphics cards, recently announced to be the driving GPUs on the 15-inch MacBook Pro, you need not imagine what they could be anymore. Under their "Meet the Creators" program, the company has now published the specifications.

From top to bottom, the Radeon Pro 460 packs a total of 16 Compute Units (CUs), totalling 1024 stream processors, with peak theoretical performance of up to 1.86 teraflops. The middle of pack Radeon Pro 455 cuts those to 12 CUs and 768 stream processors, with peak theoretical performance of up to 1.3 teraflops. Finally, the lowest performer of the bunch is the Radeon Pro 450, which features only 10 CUs (640 stream processors) and has a theoretical bandwidth of up to 1 teraflops. Also of note is the fact that all three of the parts leverage the same 80 Gb/s memory bandwidth.

LG Electronics (LG) is introducing two new displays designed specifically to integrate seamlessly with the newest MacBook and MacBook Pro models. The new UltraFine 27-inch 5K display and its 21.5-inch 4K display from LG are ideal for creating an expanded work space in the home or office and the perfect complement for MacBook and MacBook Pro users who desire expansive, high-quality resolution at all times.

Designed and optimized for the new MacBook Pro with Thunderbolt 3 running macOS 10.12 and later, the stunning 27-inch UltraFine 5K display appeals to a range of creatives, including video and photography professionals. With a breathtaking resolution of 5120 x 2880 and 218 pixels per inch (ppi), the color reproduction capabilities of the UltraFine 5K display allow it to cover 99 percent of the P3 color space. What's more, the monitor's advanced IPS display technology minimizes color shift and color loss from any viewing angle, ensuring that users see the original content as it was meant to be seen.

Today, LaCie, the premium brand from Seagate Technology plc (NASDAQ:STX), announced its Thunderbolt 3 portfolio of storage solutions aimed at helping video professionals excel with ultra high-resolution footage. First, the LaCie Bolt3 combines Thunderbolt 3 speed with the latest M.2 PCIe SSDs to create the world's fastest desktop drive. In addition, the LaCie 12big Thunderbolt 3 and 6big Thunderbolt 3 are ready to handle massive amounts of content thanks to fast transfer speeds, RAID 5/6 security and enterprise-class drives. These storage solutions, design by Neil Poulton, are ideal companions to the all-new MacBook Pro.

For the Bolt3, LaCie harnessed the breakthrough performance potential of Thunderbolt 3 and paired it with two M.2 PCIe SSDs striped into a 2 TB volume. Bolt3 delivers record speeds of up to 2800 MB/s and cuts valuable time off of post-production workflows, such as ingesting RAW footage from RED or Blackmagic cinema cameras or transcoding 4/5/6K footage using Adobe Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve. What's more, videographers can transfer a terabyte of 4K ProRes 4444 XQ footage from the LaCie Bolt3 to RAID storage-such as the LaCie 12big Thunderbolt 3-in only 5 minutes and 11 seconds.

Apple today introduced the thinnest and lightest MacBook Pro ever, along with a breakthrough interface that replaces the traditional row of function keys with a brilliant, Retina-quality Multi-Touch display called the Touch Bar. The new MacBook Pro features Apple's brightest and most colorful Retina display yet, the security and convenience of Touch ID, a more responsive keyboard, a larger Force Touch trackpad and an audio system with double the dynamic range. It's also the most powerful MacBook Pro ever, featuring sixth-generation quad-core and dual-core processors, up to 2.3 times the graphics performance over the previous generation, super-fast SSDs and up to four Thunderbolt 3 ports.

The Touch Bar places controls right at the user's fingertips and adapts when using the system or apps like Mail, Finder, Calendar, Numbers, GarageBand, Final Cut Pro X and many more, including third-party apps. For example, the Touch Bar can show Tabs and Favorites in Safari, enable easy access to emoji in Messages, provide a simple way to edit images or scrub through videos in Photos and so much more.

Belkin, the market leader in mobile accessories, today announced the Thunderbolt 3 Express Dock HD. The Thunderbolt 3 Express Dock HD plugs into devices with a Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) port. With 40 Gbps data transfer rates, dual 4K video support and 85 Watts of power delivery, the Thunderbolt 3 Express Dock HD is a complete single-cable docking solution providing connectivity and power to your notebook.

"Belkin has a long-standing history of designing complementary peripherals and accessories for the industry's most innovative hardware products, such as the all-new MacBook Pro," said Steve Malony, vice president and general manager, Belkin. "The new Thunderbolt 3 Express Dock HD and its exceptional single-cable docking solution for notebooks was developed with a deep understanding of consumers' needs for ideal connectivity solutions."

AMD today unveiled a new family of power-efficient graphics processors, Radeon Pro 400 Series Graphics. Available first in the all-new 15-inch MacBook Pro, select Radeon Pro 400 Series graphics deliver extraordinary performance and efficiency gains over the prior generation to fuel modern creative efforts from anywhere inspiration strikes.

Radeon Pro 400 Series Graphics are designed specifically for today's makers -- the artists, designers, photographers, filmmakers, visualizers and engineers that shape the modern content creation era. Harnessing AMD's acclaimed Polaris architecture, Radeon Pro 400 Series Graphics are built on the industry's most advanced process technology for graphics processors in production today, 14 nm FinFET, resulting in incredibly small transistors.

To enable the thinnest graphics processor possible, AMD also employs a complex process known as 'die thinning' to reduce the thickness of each wafer of silicon used in the processor from 780 microns to just 380 microns, or slightly less than the thickness of four pieces of paper. Operating in a power envelope under 35W, the Radeon Pro 450, 455, and 460 Series graphics processors deliver spectacular energy efficiency and cool, quiet operation to speed through the most demanding tasks in popular creative applications.

NVIDIA could be close to scoring design wins with Apple, for its MacBook, iMac, and Mac Pro families. This came to light in a job posting at NVIDIA, which calls for applicants to "help produce the next revolutionary Apple products." Although Apple has offered options of both NVIDIA and AMD GPUs on its Mac products in the past, the company hasn't offered NVIDIA GPUs for several generations now, with AMD Radeon being the only discrete GPU choice for MacBook Pro, iMac, and Mac Pro products, with the only other choices being integrated GPUs by Intel.

Apple is preparing its first major design overhaul for the MacBook Pro in four years. The next-generation premium notebook from Apple, reportedly features a thinner form, a touchscreen strip in place of function keys, acting as a second display; and an upscaling of the USB type-C based universal connector concept introduced with the new MacBook.

Apple's Touch ID feature could be ported to the Mac ecosystem with the new MacBook Pro, which could feature a fingerprint reader. Under the hood, the new MacBook Pro could be the launchpad for the company's next MacOS "Sierra" software, which brings Siri to the Mac platform, and deeper iCloud integration. Its processor supplier is unclear at this point, but its graphics processing could be care of an AMD "Polaris" GPU.

OWC Digital, a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company, today announced the all-new Aura SSD for Mid 2013 and Later Mac laptops, the most anticipated SSD upgrade release in OWC's history. In an era of ever-expanding storage needs, this long-awaited upgrade allows users, for the first time ever, to expand the stock storage that came with their Mac laptops and reuse their original factory drive to transfer data and as a high-performance external storage solution.

Available in 480GB and 1TB capacities, Aura SSD upgrade kits are the first and only PCIe-based flash storage upgrades available for MacBook Pro with Retina display (Late 2013 and newer) and MacBook Air (Mid 2013 and newer) models.

Apple today updated the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display with the new Force Touch trackpad, faster flash storage, longer battery life and faster discrete graphics, delivering even more performance and capabilities to the MacBook Pro line. Apple also today introduced a new $1,999 configuration of the 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display featuring a breathtaking 14.7 million pixel display, quad-core processors and AMD graphics, and lowered the price of the top-end iMac with Retina 5K display to $2,299.

"The response to the new MacBook and updated 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display has been amazing, and today we are thrilled to bring the new Force Touch trackpad, faster flash storage and longer battery life to the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "Customers love the groundbreaking iMac with Retina 5K display, and now with a new lower starting price, even more people can experience the best desktop we've ever made."

Sonnet today announced the Echo Express SE I, the latest addition to the award-winning Echo Express line of Thunderbolt 2-to-PCIe expansion systems. Like the other members of the Echo Express family, the SE I enables the use of a wide variety of high-performance PCI Express (PCIe) cards - originally designed for use in desktop computers - with any Mac or Windows computer with a Thunderbolt port. The new single-slot model supports nearly every Thunderbolt-compatible PCIe card on the market, including double-width cards (PCIe card plus daughter card).

The Echo Express SE I features Thunderbolt 2 technology, which provides ample bandwidth for many of the most demanding, highest performance PCIe cards, and incorporates support for the DisplayPort 1.2 protocol, which enables video streaming to a 4K video monitor. The new expansion chassis is ideally suited for use with a wide variety of pro video capture, audio interface, SAS or SATA HBA, 16Gb or 8Gb Fibre Channel, 10 Gigabit Ethernet, and RAID controller PCIe cards, allowing them to connect with Thunderbolt-enabled iMac, Mac mini, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro computers, as well as Mac Pro computers that lack PCIe expansion slots. Plus, the Echo Express SE I's dual Thunderbolt 2 ports not only support full-bandwidth connectivity with 20Gbps Thunderbolt 2-equipped host computers, but provide full backward compatibility with 10Gbps Thunderbolt-equipped computers and devices, and support daisy-chaining of other Thunderbolt 2 and Thunderbolt devices.

Apple today updated the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display with the all-new Force Touch trackpad, fifth generation Intel Core processors and Intel Iris Graphics 6100, two times faster flash and longer battery life, bringing even more performance and capabilities to our pro customers.* Apple also today updated the 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air with fifth generation Intel Core processors, Intel HD Graphics 6000, and Thunderbolt 2, and added up to two times faster flash to the 13-inch MacBook Air, making the perfect everyday notebooks even better.

"Today the popular 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display, 11-inch MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Air all received significant upgrades," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "The 13-inch MacBook Pro has been updated with the latest processors, more powerful graphics, faster flash, longer battery life and the all-new Force Touch trackpad. We're also bringing the latest processors and graphics, and faster Thunderbolt 2 to the 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air, as well as up to two times faster flash to the 13-inch MacBook Air."