Posts tagged with "mac"

Apple Reveals New M4 MacBook Pros

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

In its third and likely last Mac announcement this week, Apple revealed updates to the MacBook Pro line of laptops, which includes Pro and Max variants of the M4 chipsets in the same 14-inch and 16-inch form factors we’ve seen in the MacBook Pro line for the past few years.

According to John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering:

MacBook Pro is an incredibly powerful tool that millions of people use to do their life’s best work, and today we’re making it even better. With the powerful M4 family of chips, and packed with pro features like Thunderbolt 5, an advanced 12MP Center Stage camera, an all-new nano-texture display option, and Apple Intelligence, the new MacBook Pro continues to be, by far, the world’s best pro laptop.

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Regarding the M4 family of chips, Apple says:

Built using second-generation 3-nanometer technology, the M4 family is the most advanced lineup of chips for a personal computer. The M4 family features phenomenal single-threaded CPU performance with the world’s fastest CPU core,2 along with outstanding multithreaded CPU performance for the most demanding workloads. Combined with machine learning accelerators in the CPU, an advanced GPU, and a faster and more efficient Neural Engine, Apple silicon is built from the ground up to deliver incredible performance for AI. Together with faster unified memory, each chip also includes increased memory bandwidth, so large language models (LLMs) and other large projects run smoothly and on device.

The company also released a video touting the changes to the MacBook Pro line:

Highlights of the revised MacBook Pro line include:

  • Thunderbolt 5 ports on the Pro and Max models
  • Thunderbolt 4 on the base model M4 MacBook Pro, including an additional third port
  • Storage options ranging from 1TB to 8TB depending on the model you choose
  • A nano-texture display option
  • Support for two external displays
  • A 12MP Center Stage Camera like the one on the iMac released earlier this week
  • Up to 24 hours of battery life
  • A 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, and 16–32GB of memory with 120GB/s of bandwidth on the entry-level M4 MacBook Pro
  • A 14-core CPU and a 20-core GPU on the M4 Pro version of the MacBook Pro
  • A 16-core CPU, 40-core GPU, and up to 128GB of memory on the M4 Max version of the MacBook Pro
  • Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3
Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

I’ve been using an M3 MacBook Pro for about a year, and it’s a fantastic laptop. With the added speed and Thunderbolt 5, the latest MacBook Pros should be an attractive upgrade for a lot of users. I look forward to seeing how they stack up in real-world tests against previous models of Apple’s high-end laptop.

The new MacBook Pro is available for pre-order today, with deliveries and in-store availability beginning on November 8th. The M4 MacBook Pro starts at $1,599, the M4 Pro model starts at $1,999, and the M4 Max model starts at $2,299.

The More Mini Mac mini

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Today, Apple announced the new M4 Mac mini via a press release. The new mini’s chip jumped from M2 to M4, which is available in both its base and Pro configurations. However, what’s most remarkable about the Mac mini is its size. The new design measures just 5 inches deep, 5 inches wide, and 2 inches tall. By comparison, the old Mac mini is 1.41 inches tall and 7.75 inches deep and wide, and the Apple TV is 1.2 inches tall and 3.66 inches deep and wide. Also, the old M2 mini weighed 2.6 pounds, while the new M4 model weighs just 1.5 pounds.

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Apple says the new mini is also the company’s first carbon neutral Mac. The company released a video showing off the new Mac too:

Other specs of the new mini include:

  • A choice of M4 and M4 Pro processors that extend up to 14 CPU cores
  • Up to a 20-core GPU
  • Up to 64GB of memory
  • Up to 8TB of storage
  • Three Thunderbolt 5 ports on the M4 Pro model, with up to 120 Gb/s data transfer speeds
  • Three Thunderbolt 4 ports on the base M4 model with up to 40GB/s data transfer speeds
  • Two USB-C ports on the front of the mini, with up to 10Gb/s data transfer speeds
  • A front-facing 3.5mm headphone jack
  • Support for up to three 6K displays on the M4 Pro model and two 6K and one 5K display on the M4 model at 60Hz
  • Gigabit Ethernet with a 10GB Ethernet option

Apple also released a one meter Thunderbolt 5 cable for $69.

That slots the mini right between the new iMac released yesterday and the existing Mac Studio. The mini offers mid-range performance with more CPU and GPU cores, memory, and storage than the iMac, while the Mac Studio can take things further with significantly more CPU and GPU cores and memory.

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Compared to the existing Mac mini, the new model is significantly smaller, fitting almost exactly between the width and depth of an Apple TV and the previous generation mini. The headphone jack and USB-C ports on the front of the Mac mini are welcome additions if you regularly swap in new peripherals as you work.

I’ve used Mac minis since they had CD/DVD slots, sometimes as my day-to-day desktop and other times as a headless server. What I love about the mini is its versatility. The new size and more powerful CPU/GPU configurations should only extend the flexibility of this tiny powerhouse.

The new M4 Mac mini starts at $599 ($499 for education customers), and the M4 Pro model starts at $1,399 ($1,299 for education customers). A fully-loaded M4 Pro Mac mini costs $4,269, and all models can be pre-ordered today, with deliveries and in-store availability beginning on November 8.

Apple Announces New iMac with the M4 Chip, a Nano-Texture Option, and USB-C Accessories

Today, to kick off what Apple-watchers anticipate will be a string of daily announcements, Apple announced a brand-new iMac. Highlights of the update include the M4 system-on-a-chip, a nano-texture display option, a 12MP Center Stage camera, Thunderbolt 4 ports, and new colors.

The new iMac, which comes in green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, blue, and silver, retains its iconic design and 24” 4.5K Retina display, but new with this model is a nano-texture display option that we saw come to the iPad Pro line earlier this year. The camera is new, too. The old 1080p camera has been replaced with a 12MP wide-angle camera with Center Stage, and there are four Thunderbolt 4 ports, replacing the Thunderbolt 3 ports on the previous model. The base model iMac comes with 16GB of memory, which can be upgraded up to 32GB, and 256GB of storage, which can be upgraded up to 2TB. And the color-matched Magic Keyboard, Magic Trackpad, and Magic Mouse finally connect and charge via USB-C.

John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, had this to say about the new model:

iMac is beloved by millions of users, from families at home to entrepreneurs hard at work. With the incredible features of Apple Intelligence and the powerful performance of Apple silicon, the new iMac changes the game once again. With M4 and Apple Intelligence, gorgeous new colors that pop in any space, an advanced 12MP Center Stage camera, and a new nano-texture glass display option, it’s a whole new era for iMac.

It should come as no surprise that the M4 iMac is substantially faster than the M1 model Apple compares it to in its press release. Other updates include the addition of Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3, which were recently added to the iPad mini, too.

The new iMac starts at $1,299, or $1,249 for education customers. It’s available for pre-order today, with deliveries and in-store availability starting on Friday, November 8.

MacPaw Updates CleanMyMac with a Fresh Design and New Tools

MacPaw has released a new version of its cleanup and maintenance utility CleanMyMac, dropping the “X” from its name, refreshing the design, and simplifying the app substantially.

The latest version is divided into six modules that host a variety of tools:

  • Smart Care
  • Cleanup
  • Protection
  • Performance
  • Applications
  • My Clutter

It also includes an assistant that rates the health of your Mac and recommends maintenance actions to you.

A lot of the tools available in CleanMyMac’s update will be familiar to long-time users. The difference is that the app’s modules have been simplified and explained in a less technical manner, which should make the app approachable to a broader audience.

The My Clutter module does more to find file clutter than before, scanning for large, old, and duplicate files, as well as images that are the same or close matches to each other. The scan can take a while depending on the amount of storage on your Mac, but I was impressed with the volume of files it identified that I could summarily delete.

CleanMyMac's menu bar item.

CleanMyMac’s menu bar item.

The app also features a menu bar item that opens a grid of tiles reporting the highlights of your Mac’s health. Clicking on any of the tiles reveals additional details about that component.

The Smart Care, Cleanup, Protection, Performance, and Applications modules include a variety of other maintenance tools. You can tune up your Mac by clearing caches and other unnecessary files taking up your storage, free up memory, scan for viruses and malware, and uninstall or update apps to name just a handful of the many tools at your disposal.

The My Clutter scan may take a while if you have a lot of files.

The My Clutter scan may take a while if you have a lot of files.

I’ve been running the new version of CleanMyMac for about a week, and it’s been running smoothly. The My Clutter file scan does take a lot of time; my 4TB Mac Studio took about 25 minutes to scan, but the app did a fantastic job identifying files I could delete. The other available scans have worked well, too, and are faster, making it simple for me to periodically maintain my Mac.

CleanMyMac is available directly from MacPaw starting at $39.95 per year for one Mac (with multi-device bundles available at a discount), or as a one-time purchase starting at $119.95. Either option includes a seven-day free trial. Alternatively, you can download CleanMyMac as part of a Setapp subscription (affiliate link).

Adding to My Mac’s Swiss Army Knife: A Raycast Extension Roundup

If you have ever heard or seen me talk about my macOS setup, you’ll know that I’m a huge fan of Raycast. A few years ago, Raycast took off on the Mac as an incredible alternative to Spotlight and the long-time Mac power user favorite, Alfred. Today, it has cemented itself as an essential piece of software in my daily workflows.

Raycast’s main strength is that it’s fast. It lets you launch apps, run shortcuts, and manage your windows with straightforward commands, and it is extremely flexible in the way that it allows you to assign keyboard shortcuts and aliases to any command.

That being said, I believe the one aspect of Raycast that drives the tool to its maximum potential is its ecosystem of third-party extensions. Developers can build their own commands and offer them in the Raycast extensions store for free. The store, which users can access by typing “Store” directly in the Raycast search bar, has hundreds of extensions available that vary in functionality and quality. And while some of those optional extensions can be pretty simple or offer a single feature each, the way that they come together to turn Raycast into a Swiss Army knife for your workflows on the Mac makes each of them valuable in their own respect.

So today, rather than highlight Raycast’s well-known built-in features, I thought I would round up some of my favorite optional extensions instead. Here’s a word of warning: some extensions in this list are very specific. But at the same time, though, they’ve each become an integral part of my Mac’s Swiss Army knife.

Alright, let’s get into it.

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First Look: Logitech’s MX Creative Console Is Poised to Compete with Elgato’s Stream Deck Lineup

Source: Logitech.

Source: Logitech.

Today, Logitech revealed the MX Creative Console, the company’s first product that takes advantage technology from Loupedeck, a company it acquired in July 2023.

I’ve been a user of Loupedeck products since 2019. When I heard about the acquisition last summer, I was intrigued. Loupedeck positioned itself as a premium accessory for creatives. The company’s early products were dedicated keyboard-like accessories for apps like Adobe Lightroom Classic. With the Loupedeck Live and later, the Live S, Loupedeck’s focus expanded to encompass the needs of streamers and automation more generally.

Suddenly, Loupedeck was competing head-to-head with Elgato and its line of Stream Deck peripherals. I’ve always preferred Loupedeck’s more premium hardware to the Stream Deck, but that came at a higher cost, which I expect made it hard to compete.

The Logitech MX Creative Console slots nicely into my existing setup.

The Logitech MX Creative Console slots nicely into my existing setup.

Fast forward to today, and the first Logitech product featuring Loupedeck’s know-how has been announced: the MX Creative Console. It’s a new direction for the hardware, coupled with familiar software. I’ve had Logitech’s new device for a couple of weeks, and I like it a lot.

The MX Creative Console is first and foremost built for Adobe users. That’s clear from the three-month free trial to Creative Cloud that comes with the $199.99 device. Logitech has not only partnered with Adobe for the free trial, but it has worked with Adobe to create a series of plugins specifically for Adobe’s most popular apps, although plugins for other apps are available, too.

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Reeder: A New Approach to Following Feeds

15 years into its life, Reeder is one of the most popular and beloved RSS readers available on Apple’s platforms. You can’t have a discussion about the best way to follow RSS feeds without Reeder coming up as a contender – and believe me, we’ve had many such discussions here at MacStories and on the Club MacStories+ Discord. It’s an institution, and one that many people have very strong feelings about.

With a product as successful and engrained as Reeder, it would be easy for the app’s developer Silvio Rizzi to stick to what works and keep it the same without rocking the boat. But to Rizzi’s credit, that’s absolutely not the case with the new version of Reeder, which is available today. Instead, the new Reeder expands the app’s scope far beyond that of a typical RSS reader and fundamentally rethinks the traditional approach to keeping up with feeds. It’s a massive break from the past that will likely prove divisive among Reeder’s longtime user base. At the same time, it has the potential to appeal to a whole new audience of users who’ve never tried RSS readers before.

Reeder Classic (formerly Reeder 5) is here to stay.

Reeder Classic (formerly Reeder 5) is here to stay.

There’s a lot to cover in this update, but first, a word of reassurance for fans of Reeder as we know it: it isn’t going anywhere. The previous version, Reeder 5, has been renamed Reeder Classic and remains available on the App Store. In fact, Rizzi intends to continue developing Reeder Classic in conjunction with the new version. If you want to stick with the Reeder you know and love, you certainly can, and I think offering both versions is the right call given the huge change in direction Rizzi has gone with this update.

The best word to describe the new Reeder is “ambitious.” Its purpose is not just to be your RSS reader, but your inbox for keeping up with feeds of many different kinds from various sources across the Internet – text from websites, sure, but also videos on YouTube, audio from podcasts, posts on social media, and more. It’s a one-stop shop for the feeds you follow online, collecting them together into a single timeline that you can seamlessly browse across all of your devices. As I said, it’s a lofty goal.

It’s also quite different from what previous versions of Reeder were trying to do. In order to take on this new role as an inbox for all of your feeds, Reeder has been rebuilt from the ground up, a characteristic that shows both in its design and functionality. Many new features have been added, but nearly as many have been removed. Whether this update looks like a streamlined evolution or a stripped-down regression depends largely on if you’re interested in this sort of catch-all tool at all, but that’s the risk one takes when reimagining an established product in such a substantial way.

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Moom 4: Mac Window Management, Upgraded

This summer, my all-time favorite window management utility Moom received a major 4.0 upgrade more than 12 years after the initial release of Moom 3. Ever since I went back to the Mac as my main computer, Moom has allowed me to create automations to arrange my windows and easily save and restore specific window layouts. From a fully customizable palette to new keyboard shortcut options to the ability to chain custom commands, Moom 4 offers a wide range of new features that make it an even more advanced utility that will appeal to anyone looking for more flexibility than Apple’s new window tiling feature, which is coming in macOS Sequoia.

Let’s check out the main new features in Moom 4.

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Creating a Custom Weather and Home Climate Control Menu Bar App with MenuBot and Shortcuts

Last year, I wrote about how I was able to display the temperature from my outdoor sensor in my Mac’s menu bar using a combination of Shortcuts, SF Symbols, and small utilities like One Thing and Data Jar. I’ve been using this approach ever since, but this summer, I came across a tool that changed that: MenuBot.

MenuBot is an app for the Mac that lets you build your own indicators and applets for your menu bar directly from the output of a shortcut. The app is more powerful than it may seem at first: you can create entire submenus and even tie URLs and actions to each menu entry. In the end, I was able to use it to completely revamp my outdoor temperature indicator in the menu bar and even enhance it with HomeKit controls.

I’ve been having a ton of fun playing with MenuBot. Let me show you what I’ve done with it.

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