Taking a look back at another week of news and headlines from Cupertino, this week’s Apple Loop includes the latest reviews of the MacBook Pro, testing the M2 Pro chips, Mac Mini reviews, Apple updates older iPhones, iPhone 15 milestone, a guide to Apple’s mixed reality headset, and the iPhone’s missing apps.
Apple Loop is here to remind you of a few of the very many discussions that have happened around Apple over the last seven days (and you can read my weekly digest of Android news here on Forbes).
Mac Mini (early 2023)
Reviewing The MacBook Pro
As the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro laptops go on sale to the public, those with early access to the hardware have been busy benchmarking the systems, trying out the software, and giving them solid reviews. And they all carry the same note of caution:
“Does the bump in specs between the M1 and M2 family justify moving up to these laptops? For the vast majority of the early reviews, the answer is no; wait for a more significant release before upgrading.”
(Forbes).
The M2 Giveth, The M2 Taketh Away
The raw performance of the M2 chipset has been reflected in much of the coverage of the new MacBook Pro laptops launched last week. With review units going under the microscope, that lift in performance was found in other areas, such as the significant increase in read/write speeds to the SSD:
” Testing a 16-inch MacBook Pro, running the M2 chipset on a machine with 2TV of storage, using the Blackmagic disk benchmarking software, it found that the write speed is improved, albeit there’s a tiny drop in the read speed.”
(Forbes).
The same can’t be said for the ‘entry level’ performance machines. Just as with the cheapest M2 MacBook Air from 2022, a slower configuration of SSD storage is being used:
“With the notable lower SSD performance in my M2 Pro MacBook Pro, I wanted to take a look inside to confirm why. Sure enough, where the 512GB M1 Pro MacBook Pro had two NAND chips visible on the front of the motherboard and another two on the back, the M2 Pro MacBook Pro had only one visible on the front of the board. There is likely a second NAND chip directly opposing this, as the M1 had.”
(9to5Mac).
Mini Reviews
With the extra option of an M2 and M2 Pro version of the Mac Mini, Apple finally has a ‘desktop’ machine that sits at a consumer-facing price point that is well below the price of an iMac or Mac Studio machine. The team at Ars Technica has taken a closer look at this desktop machine that has finally found a place in the portfolio for consumers to understand:
“The $599 M2 version could use more than 8GB of memory, but even with its specs, it’s a capable computer for people who mostly browse and edit documents and occasionally dabble in editing photos and videos from their iPhones. The $1,299 M2 Pro version has enough extra processor power and memory to satisfy experienced amateurs or price-conscious freelancers, and it’s fast enough to play a game or two (for the few that run in macOS).”
(Ars Technica).
Software Updates For Your Older iPhone
In the latest wave of updates to its core operating systems, the latest version of iOS has been updated to version 15.7.3. There’s also an update to iOS 12.5.7; providing the latest security updates to older Apple devices that are not able to run the latest software:
“Apple previously said it would stop providing iOS and iPadOS updates to all iOS 16 and iPadOS 16-compatible devices, but it has made an exception this time — presumably due to the seriousness of these new security vulnerabilities.”
(Forbes).
iPhone 15 Production Milestone
Apple’s Chinese partner Foxconn has begun the next stage of production of the iPhone 15 family. This is effectively the test run of the assembly before everything is turned up to 11 later this year. Curiously, the Indian production line is expected to come online just a few weeks after China, compared to last year’s two-to-three month gap; Apple clearly making sure it has alternatives to China following production issues and ongoing delays to the iPhone 14:
“This phase of the iPhone 15 production process is commonly known as new product introduction, or NPI. It will precede the mass production phase later in the year, ahead of the phone’s nigh-on inevitable autumn launch.
How To Use Apple’s Mixed Reality Headset
How will Apple’s mixed reality headset actually work? Although no details have been confirmed publicly, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has an extensive look at how hand- and eye-tracking will be integrated into a headset that will move between AR and VR:
“The headset will have several external cameras that can analyze a user’s hands, as well as sensors within the gadget’s housing to read eyes. That allows the wearer to control the device by looking at an on-screen item — whether it’s a button, app icon or list entry — to select it.
“Users will then pinch their thumb and index finger together to activate the task — without the need to hold anything. The approach differs from other headsets, which typically rely on a hand controller.”
(Bloomberg).
And Finally…
Innovation will always drive technology forwards, but what do we leave behind? Here’s a fun discussion on Reddit’s r/Apple group this week as the community looks back at apps featured in adverts and online for the early iPhone and iPod models. These historic apps are now nowhere to be seen and almost impossible to run on today’s hardware:
“Many of the apps that were featured in early iPhone and iPod touch commercials no longer exist. I’m thinking of apps like Urbanspoon or the multiplayer foosball game Finger Foos. Arguably a lot of the features for those apps were never reproduced in newer apps either, as I cannot find a 3 player multiplayer foosball game on the App Store, 14 years after that app came out.
(Reddit).
Apple Loop brings you seven days worth of highlights every weekend here on Forbes. Don’t forget to follow me so you don’t miss any coverage in the future. Last week’s Apple Loop can be read here, or this week’s edition of Loop’s sister column, Android Circuit, is also available on Forbes.
