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Following the illustrious line of calendar-spanning corporate events like Lobsterfest and Shark Week, Apple tried something new this year with a celebration unofficially known as Mac Week. (Fortunately for Apple, it just so happens to coincide with its earnings call on Thursday!) The companys three-day product rollout for desktop hardware centered around the M4 chip, built for Apple Intelligence. We recount everything Apple spit out this week, including a new iMac, Mac mini, MacBook Pro and other goodies like Apple Intelligences official arrival on iOS, iPadOS and macOS. iMac (M4) Apple The M4-powered iMac has the same design (apart from some new colors) but with more horsepower inside. Apple says the all-in-one desktop is 1.7 times faster for daily productivity and 2.1 times faster for more demanding tasks like gaming or photo editing. Like all new Macs announced this week, it loses the measly 8GB of RAM previously seen in the cheapest Macs, jumping to 16GB as the baseline. (Woo!) The new iMac still has a 24-inch 4.5K Retina display encased in an aluminum unibody design. However, it adds a new nano-texture glass screen option for reduced glare and a 12MP Center Stage camera that supports Apples Desk View. You can pre-order the M4 iMac now, starting at $1,299. Deliveries and in-store sales begin on November 8. Mac mini (M4, M4 Pro) Apple Apples little Mac that could lives up to its mini branding more than ever. The 2024 Mac mini is a mere five-inch by five-inch box, two inches tall. (Thats only slightly bigger than the Apple TV 4K!) The new Mac mini is available in M4 and M4 Pro configurations. Apple says the M4 variant is up to 1.8 times faster than the M1 model from four years ago. Its graphics are up to 2.2 times faster. It should also be much better for Apple Intelligence: It supports 38 TOPS (tera operations per second) of AI processing power. That dwarfs the 18 TOPS from the (only one-year-old) M3 chip. It, too, starts with 16GB of RAM. For the first time, the machine ditches legacy USB ports. It has two USB-C ports on the front and three Thunderbolt USB-C ports on the back (along with HDMI and Ethernet). The M4 Mac mini is available to pre-order. It starts at $599, while the souped-up M4 Pro variant starts at $1,399. It arrives on November 9. MacBook Pro (M4, M4 Pro, M4 Max) Apple Most of Apples Mac sales are in the MacBook lineup, which makes sense. Not only can you use them on the go, but you can also grab a Thunderbolt cable and hook them up to the monitor of your choice to double as a desktop. So, the climax of Mac Week was the new M4-powered MacBook Pro. The only new Mac with three chip tiers, the MacBook Pro comes in M4, M4 Pro and M4 Max options. Apple says the M4 Pro is up to three times faster than the M1 Pro, and the M4 Max is up to 3.5 times faster than the M1 Max. The M4 variant is up to 1.8 times faster than the M1-powered 13-inch MacBook Pro for photo editing. That jumps to 3.4 times faster for demanding work like rendering scenes in Blender. Its Neural Engine for Apple Intelligence (and other AI) is over three times as powerful as the M1. Helping out on the AI front (and for all-around performance) is the same 16GB of RAM as a baseline. The laptop offers the same nano-texture display option as the iMac and up to 1,000 nits of brightness for SDR content. It also adopts the 12MP Center Stage camera for much better built-in video call capabilities. The device has three Thunderbolt 4 ports and an estimated 24 hours of battery life as Apple puts it, thats the longest ever in a Mac. The new MacBook Pro is available in familiar 14-inch and 16-inch models. The smaller model with the M4 chip starts at $1,599, the M4 Pro variant starts at $1,999, and the ultra-high-end M4 Max will set you back at least $3,199. The 16-inch MacBook Pro starts at $2,499 with the M4 Pro chip, while an M4 Max flavor is $3,499 and up. Apple Intelligence cometh Apple Apples first wave of on-device AI features is now in consumers hands, with no beta software required. This round includes writing tools like proofreading, rewiring and summaries, live call transcriptions and notification summaries. The beginnings of a more intelligent Siri also arrived with this batch, including typed queries and an improved ability to recognize stutters or self-interruptions. You also get a neat new glowing border that announces to the word, This aint the shitty Siri youre used to! But youll have to wait for the next wave of Siri upgrades for a more significant overhaul, like a better understanding of personal context. Now, the bad news. Apple Intelligence is only available on a handful of recent devices in each of Apples major product categories. For the iPhone, thats the iPhone 15 Pro / Pro Max and the new iPhone 16 lineup (including non-Pro models). Youll need a model with an M-series chip on the iPad, although the new iPad mini (with an A17 Pro chip) is an exception. As for Macs, youll also need a model with M-series Apple silicon, which stretches back to the last four years of models. Apple Intelligence (round one) requires iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1 or macOS Sequoia 15.1. The X.2 variants of each OS will bring the next wave of AI features, like ChatGPT integration and Image Playground. AirPods Pro 2 hearing features Apple Not to be missed among the higher-profile announcements is a new series of hearing health tools for AirPods Pro 2 owners. Announced at Apples September iPhone launch, the hearing features include a clinically validated hearing test, hearing protection (like for concerts) and the ability to use the device as a hearing aid if it detects mild to moderate impairment. (If severe, it will nudge you towards a professional.) Engadgets audio guru, Billy Steele, is the person to follow for more on these features. Hes extensively trialed them, including taking hearing tests with an Apple rep and test-driving AirPods-powered hearing protection at concerts. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/everything-apple-announced-during-its-unofficial-mac-week-210115997.html?src=rss
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Proton announced the debut of an Apple TV app for its virtual private network. The new app, which was "among the most requested features from our community," according to the company's blog post, is available for download from the App Store on any Apple TV. It will allow customers with a paid Proton VPN plan to stream their media content from any location on Apple's set-top box. Proton VPN was our favorite when we reviewed it in 2023, and it's still our top pick this year for a virtual private network. The service boasts excellent features for security, privacy and usability. Our only real complaint was that the free tier comes with a lot of limitations. But if you're interested in the company's platform, Proton is currently running an early Black Friday deal where you can snag one or two year plans at a steep discount. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/vpn/proton-brings-its-vpn-to-apple-tv-with-new-app-204549019.html?src=rss
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Its no secret that X has become an even bigger cesspool of misleading information, unchecked claims and flat-out falsities since Elon Musk took over. Two new reports from The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) and The Washington Post reveals that the safeguards Musk removed and replaced arent controlling Xs problems with misinformation. The CCDH published a report on its investigation into Xs Community Notes feature, a user-driven reporting system in which anonymous users write and rate correction for misleading posts. Researchers took a sample of 283 misleading election posts from the social media platform that received proposed Community Notes between January 1 and August 25. The report says that 209 of those misleading sample posts did not show the Community Notes correction to all X users. Even more alarming, the 209 misleading posts in question racked up 2.2 billion views. The Washington Post followed the CCDHs report with its own investigation into Xs Community Notes feature and found that Xs problems with misinformation go far beyond the election. Former President Donald Trump made the bold claim during his only presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris that Haitians were eating peoples pets in Springfield, Ohio. Moderator and ABC news anchor David Muir corrected Trumps statement as false because no such cases were reported to local police or government entities. The fact checking website Politifact rated Trumps claim its lowest false rating of Pants on Fire. That didnt stop this falsehood from spreading across X among conservative-leaning users. The Post found that an account called End Wokeness with a following of 3.1 million X users started disseminating the former Presidents claim about Haitian immigrants. The post remained unchecked for four days until one Community Notes user flagged the post as incorrect, citing five different articles to back up the correction. Unfortunately, the note failed to garner enough votes to label the post as false and it went uncorrected. As of Wednesday, the post is still on @EndWokeness account with a Community Note where its racked up 4.9 million views. Musks account hasnt helped the problem. The Post reports that hes become one of the X users most often targeted with proposed Community Notes with one of 10 posts receiving a proposed correction note. The publication cited a July post from @elonmusk containing a manipulated video of Harris spouting about President Joe Bidens senility and how she became the nominee because shes the ultimate diversity hire. You know where this is going. Theres no Community Notes or correction and the post is still on X even though thousands of replies from other X users are pointing out that its a fake. The post has a whopping 136.6 million views. The CCDH is one of Musk and Xs most vocal opponents. The British non-profit continually monitors Musks account for false posts that failed to earn a Community Note, particularly when it comes to the Presidential election. Its CEO Imran Ahmed said in August that X is failing woefully to contain the kind of algorithmically-boosted incitement that we all know can lead to real world violence. X took the CCDH to court over claims the non-profit created a scare campaign to bring down its advertising revenue. A US district court judge dismissed the lawsuit in March.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/xs-community-notes-feature-has-one-job-and-its-failing-to-do-it-202645987.html?src=rss
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