Apple November Event highlights: Apple’s own M1 processor and MacBooks powered by it

The new MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini with M1 are available to order today on apple.com. They will begin arriving to customers and will be in select Apple Store locations and Apple Authorised Resellers soon, according to the company. The new MacBook Air starts at Rs 92,900, and Rs 83,610 for education; the new 13-inch MacBook Pro starts at Rs 1,22,900, and Rs 1,10,610 for education; and the new Mac mini starts at Rs 64,900, and Rs 58,410 for education.

The new MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini with M1 are open for orders today on apple.com. The pre-orders are live on the India website as well. Apple says they will begin arriving to customers and will be in select Apple Store locations and Apple Authorised Resellers soon. Coming to the prices, the new MacBook Air starts at Rs 92,900, and Rs 83,610 for education; the new 13-inch MacBook Pro starts at Rs 1,22,900, and Rs 1,10,610 for education. The new Mac mini starts at Rs 64,900, and Rs 58,410 for education.

The MacBook Pro with M1 processor has a 13.3-inch display with 2560-by-1600 native resolution. It comes with 8GB RAM and 256GB and 512GB storage options, though this can be increased to 16GB RAM and up to 2TB respectively. Apple is promising up to 17 hours of browsing and 20 hours of video playback on the new MacBook Pro. The laptop also comes with two Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports with support for charging, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt 3 and  USB 3.1 Gen 2. The laptop has also the Magic Keyboard along with a Touch ID sensor and a Touch Bar on top. 

Here is a quick look at the specifications of the new MacBook Air: There are two variants: One has the Apple M1 chip with 8?core CPU, 7?core GPU, and 16?core Neural Engine and 256GB storage. The other has Apple M1 Chip with 8-Core CPU and 8-Core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine and 512GB Storage. Both come with 8GB RAM, 13-inch Retina display with True Tone, Magic Keyboard, Touch ID, Force Touch trackpad and Two Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports.

Apple says the M1 is the first personal computer chip built using 5-nanometer process technology and is packed with 16 billion transistors, which represents the most Apple has ever put into a chip. It integrates the CPU, GPU and Neural engine onto a single System-on-Chip (SoC).

Other features of the M1 are: It comes with Apple’s latest image signal processor (ISP), which will ensure higher quality video with better noise reduction, improved auto white balance, etc. It also has the latest Secure Enclave for security. A high-performance storage controller with AES encryption hardware for faster and more secure SSD performance. Better battery performance. It also has an Apple-designed Thunderbolt controller with support for USB 4 with transfer speeds up to 40Gbps.

Apple says the new macOS Big Sur will be available from Thursday, which is November 12. The new MacBooks are available for pre-order starting today. 

Apple MacBook Pro starts at $1299 and $1199 for educational purposes. The MacBook Pro's India pricing and availability is not yet confirmed.   

Apple has also announced a new MacBook Pro powered by the M1. This is a 13-inch MacBook Pro. Apple says it offers five times faster graphics with the new processor. Apple says the new MacBook Pro is three times faster than the best-selling Windows laptop in the market. The new MacBook Pro has two thunderbolt ports with 4K support. 

Apple says the new Mac Mini will start at $699. It is powered by the new M1 chip, with a three times faster CPU and six times faster GPU. 

The MacBook Air will start at $999, though for education it will start at $899. 

Apple has announced a new Mac mini powered by the M1 processor. Mac Mini delivers up to three times faster CPU performance than the previous generation, according to Apple. The Mini is five times faster than top-end desktops in the market, according to the company. 

Apple announces new MacBook Air with M1. Apple says the new MacBook Air is capable of doing a lot more compared to previous generation devices. It can support 4K Pro res video editing, graphics intensive gaming. Apple says MacBook Air is faster than 98 per cent of PC laptops sold in the previous year. Two times faster SSDs will also ensure faster tasks. Plus MacBook Air has no air, and is completely silent. Apple is promising 18 hours of video playback and 15 hours of internet browsing.  

Thanks to the new M1 processors, the new MacBooks will directly run apps created for iPhone and iPads as developers can optimise their code, across the whole family of Apple devices. This also brings tighter integration across Apple's entire hardware lineup. 

The M1 also comes with eight-core integrated graphics and Apple says it performs twice as fast as regular Intel PC. It also comes with a 16-core neural engine designed for machine learning tasks. Apple says the neural engine is  capable of executing massive 11 trillion operations per second. According to Apple, this will accelerate machine learning tasks such as video analysis, image processing. It also comes with Apple's latest generation of secure enclave.    

John Ternus, Apple's VP of hardware engineering is on camera, talking about the next generation of Macs and the new Silicon. Apple announces M1 which is designed for the new Macs. The M1 delivers a single SoC (system on a chip) combining all the technologies. The M1 has four high performance cores, and four high efficiency cores. The high performance cores are for high-end and tasks that require a extra power, while the high efficiency cores are geared for regular tasks.  

'More customers are choosing the Mac,' he says. 'Today over 50 percent buyers are new to the Mac,' he reveals.  

The livestream for the Apple November 2020 event has begun. Apple CEO Tim Cook comes on screen. 'This year, we've had more new products this fall than ever before,' he says. Cook is recounting all the launches from 2020 from the new Watch SE, Apple One, HomePod mini, and the iPhone 12 series. 'There is just one more thing,' he says. 'It is time to talk about the Mac.' 

For Apple users, they can catch livestream of the event on the Apple TV app itself be it on their iPhone or iPad or MacBook. Of course, there's also the option of watching the event on YouTube. Link for YouTube is on top. Apple's event starts in another five minutes. 

While Apple will announce its first laptops powered by ARM-based processors, the transition of the entire MacBook lineup to these is expected to take around two years. Of course, Apple will continue to provide support to its older Intel-based Macs and has Intel-based Macs in development as well, according to the company's announcement made back in June. 

Apple will also confirm the release for its next operating system for Macs: macOS Big Sur. Currently the public and developer beta is available for testing. Big Sur will bring major design changes to macOS, bringing it more in line with the overall look and feel of iOS.  

Apple will be kicking off its One More Thing event at 11:30 PM IST. At the event, we expect the company to launch the first lot of its new Macs powered by Apple Silicon based on the ARM architecture. Apart from this, it is also expected to announce the rollout date for macOS Big Sur.

You can watch the event streamed live on the company's own website and its official YouTube channel.

The new ARM-based Macs will be based on the A14 chipset, which currently powers the latest iPhone 12 series. Apple will offer improved battery performance with these new MacBooks, according to an earlier report on Bloomberg. 

Apple at its One More Thing event is expected to announce the roll-out dates for macOS Big Sur.

The new operating system was first announced at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference back in June. It will bring major updates to the Safari web browser, refreshed Maps, new Messages app and more.

Big Sur will be the biggest design update since OS X. The interface will get a design overhaul and from the looks of it, the operating system feels much more touch friendly.

Well, that's the million-dollar question. For months, it's being reported that Apple is gearing up to launch its over-the-ear wireless headphones but the company hasn't confirmed the mysterious AirPods Studio yet. But Apple could finally tease the AirPods Studio, its first self-branded over-the-ear headphones, on Tuesday. Reports suggest that AirPods Studio will now launch alongside an Apple silicon Mac at a November event. A Sport version of the AirPods Studio will reportedly cost $350, whilst a luxury version could cost as much as $599.

With Apple getting ready to introduce Macs powered by its own custom ARM-based processors, it will also mean that the tech giant would have end-to-end control on the design, hardware and software as well as the supply chain of all its devices. Apple's iPhones, iPads, Watch series are already powered by its own A-series processors. Now, Macs will join the list as well. In another first, Apple's Macs will use ARM (Advanced RISC Machine), the CPU architecture that powers most smartphones. Read here to know what analysts have to say about this change. 

Two new MacBooks are expected:13-inch MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro. Apple had confirmed the transition to its own custom siilcon back in June 2020 at its annual Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC).

The change for MacBooks will also mean that there is a "common architecture across all Apple products, making it far easier for developers to write and optimise their apps for the entire ecosystem," is what the company had said when it first made the announcement. Apple is expected to complete the transition to its own custom chips in two years.

It will however, continue to support Intel-based Macs for years and also said it plans to launch new Intel-based Macs in the future. Apple is promising "industry-leading performance per watt and higher performance GPUs" with its custom processors. It will also provide access to Neural Engines, which are already a part of the chipsets on iPhones and iPads, and thus ensure that developers can use the platform for machine learning.

The focus of the Apple event will be the new MacBooks powered by Apple's own processors. This will be similar to how the iPhones and iPads are powered by Apple's own A series processors. But given the event is named 'One More Thing', Apple could showcase something else. Rumours have talked about Apple-branded over-the ear headphones, dubbed AirPods Studio, which might make an appearance at the event. There is also speculation about Apple's long rumoured AirTags. 

Apple will also give a final release date for its macOS Big Sur, which is the next generation operating system that will power its MacBooks. 

Apple's November Event will be streamed live on the company's official website, on its YouTube channel and on the Apple TV app. If you have a MacBook, iPhone, iPad or Apple TV device, you can stream the event on these devices. PC and Android users can rely on the YouTube livestream. Apple's event will start at 11.30 pm IST, which is 10.00 am Pacific Time. 

Apple's November Event will be streamed live on the company's official website, on its YouTube channel and on the Apple TV app. If you have a MacBook, iPhone, iPad or Apple TV device, you can stream the event on these devices. PC and Android users can rely on the YouTube livestream. Apple's event will start at 11.30 pm IST, which is 10.00 am Pacific Time. 

Apple will reportedly launch a 13-inch MacBook Air and two MacBook Pro models at its "One More Thing" event, according to Bloomberg. The report said a redesigned iMac, a Mac Mini and a new Mac Pro with Apple silicon will launch at a later date. This will be for the first time Apple is introducing a Mac with its own processor and not using an Intel chip.