Apple Upgrades The MacBook Pro, Releases M2 Pro & M2 Max

Multiple reports have circulated indicating that next year will be an interesting one for the Apple "Smart Home" sector. Accordingly, Apple is brainstorming several ideas to give the division newfound momentum. One approach could offer small displays for both the HomePod and as individual devices.

After the announcement of Apple Music Classical and its respective appearance in the App Store, many new details concerning the app have leaked. In the meantime, many users have also expressed wishes for similar such specialized services for other music genres.

Twitter inventor and founder, Jack Dorsey, is working on an alternative microblogging platform to compete with Twitter – Bluesky. The app is now available for iOS, although only as a beta version currently containing several limitations.

For almost three years now, the European Commission has investigated Apple's business model in the App Store – to some extent at Spotify's behest, and hones its sights on the iPhone manufacturer's behavior in the streaming services market. Now, there are concrete measures and potential fines.

After announcing the results for last quarter, Intel has needed to accept a dramatic decrease in revenue. Now, there are new saving measures at the company – including an end to investment in the network division, NEX, and the Pathfinder program.

Deliveries for the next MacBook Pro began more than a week ago. Although the majority of user who only look at their devices from outside, iFixit has come with yet another teardown video that reveals the device's interior and scores its design.

iPhones are currently set to remain as they are, with no foldable variants – unless users accidentally destroy their devices. Things are different in the iPad-sector, where yet another report mentions a foldable variant of the tablet. However, a great deal of patience is necessary for customers hoping to purchase such a device from Apple.

Sometime this year, the new Mac Pro should come out. Optimistic predictions place estimates around this spring, whilst more conservative estimations this fall to be more likely. One thing is ensured: The device won't be modular or very upgradeable.

Apple views the release of it's next chip-generation as another chance to even more clearly differentiate itself from the rest of the market. This perspective is resulting in significant change for the company. The entire chip-team's efforts are now to target development of the next generation of A/M-chips.

The official system requirements for macOS Ventura have ended support for models released in 2016 or earlier, as Apple has done away with many of the old drivers. However, an open-source project targeted on Macs from 2007 or later hopes to confront the matter head on.

The new MacBook Pro 2023 and the Mac mini M2 are repeating a trend witnessed last summer with the release of the MacBook Air M2. Basic models of the device with the standard SSD come with a drastic drop in performance – well under that of the 2020/2021

Those hoping to get their hands on the new HomePod will need to be patient: Wait time are currently multiple weeks in many countries, and up to 4 weeks or more in the United States. In some European countries, devices won't arrive until March.

Word has been out for some time that WhatsApp is working on a native Mac version. After the closed beta phase via TestFlight, there's now an open beta version available for all users. Now, interested users can test the messenger out on Mac.

Apple has yet to start shipping Macs with M2 Pro or M2 Max chips, however, the first few benchmarks for the new Apple Silicon chips ahead of the devices' for the public. The M2 Max's graphics performance even approaches that of the top model – the M1 Ultra.

There's also an important update for the Mac – macOS 13.2 is now available for immediate download. The second update for Ventura underwent a very short beta phase and comes with a well-arranged number of innovations.

The next round of afternoon updates has finally arrived, as Apple comes out with software updates for iPhones, iPads, the Apple Watch, and the Apple TV. There's even a new OS version for the HomePod mini. Get a summary of the most important improvements here.

Mark Gurman just released another round of his weekly newsletter, covering multiple topics – and two very important points: The future of HomePod's smaller cousin and Apple's plans for the iPad Pro. Some big innovations are pending for the latter, but we'll need to wait some time until they can be implemented.

Apple has sold the refashioned version of the Apple TV 4K for several months now. The 2022 version of the streaming box is significantly more powerful than its predecessor yet still slimmer and lighter. However, its troublesome remote has caused issues for many users.

Apple invited select journalists to an internal event where it presented the new HomePod – guests were provided the opportunity to construct a first impression of the recent second generation of the smart speaker.

After a few days of speculation, it's now certain that the recent outage of all external Twitter apps was neither a coincidence nor a technical problem. Instead, Twitter has now forbid third-party developers from operating Twitter clients from now on.

There are plenty of good reasons to couple two HomePods for use as a stereo pair. However, it's not possible to pair the newest HomePod with its previous generation for surround sound usage. Apple has now clarified several concrete limitations.