Though Apple's all-new MacBook stole the spotlight on Monday, the company also updated its legacy MacBook Air lineup, bringing Intel's new Broadwell processors to its notebook collection, along with faster Thunderbolt 2 connectors.
Apple's MacBook Pro lineup was given a refresh on Monday, bringing the new Force Touch trackpad with haptic feedback, as well as Intel's latest-generation Broadwell processors to the 13-inch MacBook Pro.
Apple, Google and other parties accused of being involved in an illegal "no-poach" employee policy may be on the verge of settling the class-action complaint, after the judge overseeing the lawsuit has given initial approval for their proposed $415 million settlement.
Screenshots that surfaced Wednesday on a Chinese web forum purport to show details of a forthcoming MacBook Air refresh that would bring Intel's latest Broadwell chips to Apple's ultraportable, though there is some question as to the shots' validity.
The Intel Foundation will sell its 4.9 percent stake in Imagination Technologies, the company whose PowerVR graphics processors are a key component of Apple's iPhone and iPad, it was announced on Thursday.
With the launch of new MacBook Air models featuring Intel's latest-generation Broadwell processors just around the corner, Apple has begun taking steps to prepare its international distribution partners for the updates, and to sell off remaining inventory of existing Air models, AppleInsider has learned.
Apple may be planning to debut a relatively minor update for its existing MacBook Air lineup in a matter of days, though won't be the anticipated 12-inch redesign with a high-resolution Retina display, according to a new rumor.
While rumors have long claimed that Apple has plans to replace Intel's x86 chips in Macs with its own custom ARM Application Processors, MacGPUs are among a series of potentially more valuable opportunities available to Apple's silicon design team, and could conceivably replicate Apple's history of beating AMD and Nvidia in mobile graphics processors—and Intel in mobile CPUs.
While rumors have long claimed that Apple has plans to replace Intel's x86 chips in Macs with its own custom ARM Application Processors, there are a series of more valuable opportunities available to Apple's internal silicon design team, each of which has the potential to replicate Apple's history of beating Intel in mobile chips.
Between 2005 and 2014, Intel fumbled the ball in mobile chips, losing its position as the world's leading processor supplier by failing to competitively address the vast mobile market and enabling Apple to incrementally develop what are now the most powerful mainstream Application Processors to ship in vast volumes. Here's how it happened, the lessons learned and how Apple could make it happen again.
Amid increasing chatter that Apple may consider migrating the Mac to its own in-house ARM processors, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich on Friday characterized the two firms' relationship as "strong" and reiterated Intel's strategy of competing for business based on performance, price, and reliability.
Shortly after Apple introduced its first custom A4 Application Processor in 2010 to power the original iPad, rumors began to suggest the company could eventually migrate its Macs from Intel x86 processors to ARM chip designs of its own. However, there's a series of significant hurdles the company would need to jump first.
Though many will scoff at the notion of an iPad and Mac that draw from the same family of application processors, it's not as farfetched as it seems. AppleInsider takes a look at why today's chipmaking giants could find themselves on the outside looking in during an Apple product launch in the near future.
Mac buyers in 2016 and beyond could have the option of purchasing a machine powered by Apple's A-series processors, which currently sit at the heart of the iPhone and iPad, according to KGI Securities' Ming-Chi Kuo.
Apple's anticipated MacBook Air with 12-inch Retina display could launch as soon as this quarter following the start of production by Quanta Computer, according to the latest supply chain rumor out of the Far East.
Intel's mobile chip division has lost $7 billion over the last two years while heavily subsidizing the manufacturing costs of Android tablet makers agreeing to use the chipmaker's Atom mobile x86 processors. Microsoft's new Office for Android won't run on any of them.
AppleInsider went hands-on with the updated Basis Peak smartwatch at CES this week, offering a look at the new support for iOS notifications that will be arriving with a future update.
Over the last two years, Intel's mobile chip division has lost $7 billion while heavily subsidizing the manufacturing costs of Android Atom tablet makers. It now plans to phase out those generous incentives, which will make it more expensive for iPad competitors to dump cheap tablets into the market.
Apple's A-series Application Processors that power iPads—including the latest and greatest A8X in iPad Air 2—are inciting billion dollar losses for Intel and threatening major problems for rival tablet chips from Qualcomm, Samsung and Nvidia, along with all the companies that depend upon those vendors for their mobile chips.
Apple's tiny, affordable Mac mini desktop received a hardware refresh and an accompanying price cut on Thursday, featuring 4th-generation Intel Core processors and 802.11ac Wi-Fi, starting at $499.
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AppleInsider Staff
Neil Hughes
Katie Marsal
Daniel Eran Dilger
Sam Oliver
Victor Marks
