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Apple now says the Mac Pro will arrive in December
After unveiling the new, 100-percent more cheese-grater-inspired Mac Pro back in June, the company promised it would ship this fall. Apple just narrowed that timeline a bit more: A spokesperson tells Engadget that the machine will arrive in December. As our most pedantic commenters would point out, that means as long as it arrives before the winter solstice on December 21, the Mac Pro is on schedule. That's not terribly surprising -- DJ Calvin Harris recently posted images of the Mac Pro to his Instagram Stories, suggesting the machine was in final enough shape that Apple was comfortable seeding it to influencers and pro creators. Though Apple still won't say exactly what day the Pro will go on sale, it did revise one of its performance claims. A spokesperson now says that the machine can handle six simultaneous 8K streams, up from the previous claim of three streams, made back when the machine was unveiled at WWDC in June. Apple chalks that up to further optimizations from the Final Cut Pro development team, suggesting we're not in for any major hardware revisions ahead of launch. We'll look forward to putting that claim to the test once the Mac Pro becomes available (whenever that is). If laptops are more your thing, though, Apple has just lifted the covers off its new high-end MacBook. The 16-inch MacBook Pro replaces the 15-inch model, and is available to pre-order today.
Apple may reveal its 16-inch MacBook Pro tomorrow
Don't worry, that fabled 16-inch MacBook Pro hasn't vanished... in fact, it might be right around the corner. Bloomberg sources hear that Apple may introduce the revamped laptop "as soon as" November 13th (that's tomorrow, if you're reading soon enough). The apparent leak doesn't share more about the design. It would still stuff a 16-inch display into a system roughly the size of today's 15-inch model, and would ditch the notoriously unreliable butterfly keyboard. However, the insiders claim the new MacBook Pro would cost roughly the same as the outgoing model, and would be available this week. You might not have to worry about Apple using this as an opportunity for a price hike.
Calvin Harris already has the new Mac Pro
Apple still won't say when the new Mac Pro will ship besides "this fall," but one of its early adopters might have hinted that it's getting close. DJ Calvin Harris has posted multiple Instagram Stories showing that he already has Apple's workstation as part of his music production setup. He didn't talk about it, to no one's surprise, but this suggests Apple is comfortable enough with the state of the Mac Pro to seed it to big-name creators.
Crowdfunded case will give your Windows PC that Mac Pro look
Do you like the look of Apple's redesigned Mac Pro, but would rather not drop $5,999 on a workstation just to have that cheese-grater-on-steroids casing? You might not have to. Dune Case is close to crowdfunding the Dune Pro, a standard PC case that unsubtly mimics Apple's airflow-centric design. On the outside, it's basically a Mac Pro without Apple's logo -- you'll need to buy a "Dice Y" sound dampening cover to get the full look, but the stainless steel frame and aluminum enclosure are uncannily similar. The main sacrifice is the use of a more conventional side panel instead of the real Mac Pro's pull-up cover.
Final Cut Pro X gets a speed boost through Apple's Metal
The latest Final Cut Pro X update, released today, takes advantage of Apple's Metal API to provide leaps in performance. With a new Metal-based engine, the updated Final Cut Pro X improves playback and accelerates tasks like rendering, real-time effects and exporting on Metal-compatible Macs. According to Apple, the changes will make video editing 20 percent faster on the 15-inch MacBook Pro and 35 percent faster on the iMac Pro.
Apple fails to get tariff exemption for five Mac Pro components
Apple confirmed in late September that it's manufacturing the redesigned Mac Pro in its Austin, Texas plant. That might have been partly enabled by securing exemptions from Trump's China tariffs for 10 out of 15 Mac Pro components made in the Asian country. What happened to the other five, you ask? Well, according Bloomberg, the US Trade Representative's office has refused to grant Apple's requests for the rest of the items. That means those five components, including the computer's optional wheels, will be subject to the 25 percent tariff imposed on goods imported from China.
Apple will manufacture its new Mac Pro in Texas
Apple hinted that it wanted to manufacture the redesigned Mac Pro in Texas, and now it's official. The company has confirmed that it'll assemble the workstation at the same Austin, Texas plant that has produced the cylindrical Mac Pro since 2013. The company isn't shy about the reason for the move: it's reportedly enabled by exemptions from Trump's China tariffs for "certain necessary components" in the system. Production starts "soon."
Apple gets US approval for Mac Pro tariff exemptions
President Trump may have claimed in July that Apple wouldn't get tariff exemptions for the redesigned Mac Pro, but the reality is very different. The US Trade Representative's office has confirmed that regulators approved 10 out of 15 of the company's tariff exemptions for computer components focusing primarily on the Mac Pro. It's not certain how much any remaining tariffs will affect pricing for the workstation, but any damage will clearly be limited.
Watch Apple's 2019 iPhone event here at 1PM ET
It's time for Apple's customary iPhone event, but there are a few twists this time around -- including how you can watch it. The proceedings at the Steve Jobs Theater will still be available on Apple's website and its event app for Apple TV starting at 1PM Eastern, but you can also watch on YouTube (embedded below) for the first time. Yes, it's now more a question of where you'd like to stream the show than whether you can stream it at all. We'll also have a live blog direct from the event if you'd like a blow-by-blow account.
Did Apple fix its Mac Pro problem?
Welcome to the latest episode of Upscaled, our explainer show where we look at the components and parts that make our favorite tech better. This week, we're talking about Apple's new Mac Pro, an insanely powerful new computer that's also a major change from the previous model. The last Mac Pro was a sleek black cylinder, a radical new design for a desktop computer, but one that ultimately limited the ability to upgrade the Mac Pro with new parts. The new design is a return to a typical desktop design, or so it appears. Under the hood, there's a number of unique design decisions and parts that potentially give the new Mac Pro unique capabilities, but may saddle it with some of the same flaws as its predecessor.
Apple will reportedly manufacture its $6,000 Mac Pro in China
Apple will manufacture its new $6,000 Mac Pro in China, The Wall Street Journal reports. That's not entirely surprising given that most of Apple's products are made there, but the Mac Pro was Apple's last major product manufactured in the US. The decision is an about-face from 2013, when Apple bragged about its plans to keep Mac Pro production domestic.
Apple's new Logic Pro X is built for the Mac Pro
Apple boasted that the redesigned Mac Pro could easily handle the most demanding audio editing tasks, and now the software is ready for it. The tech firm has updated its Logic Pro X music editing app to support the new workstation's many cores, handling up to a whopping 56 processing threads. That lets the Mac Pro juggle up to 1,000 audio and software instrument tracks, or four times as many as the old computer. You won't be hurting for power if you're composing an elaborate orchestral piece for the latest Hollywood blockbuster.
Apple may have narrowed down the Mac Pro's release date (updated)
The Mac Pro was one of the bigger announcements at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference last week, bringing with it immense power and an aesthetically questionable if practical design (it looks like a cheese grater instead of a trash can this time). Apple said it would release the machine in the fall, but it may have accidentally revealed the release month before it intended to.
We cut down Apple’s 2-hour WWDC keynote to under 30 minutes
To say Apple's WWDC 2019 keynote was jam-packed would be an understatement. Apple offered its usual previews of the next versions of iOS, macOS, tvOS and watchOS, but it also broke some new ground. The iPad now has its own operating system, for starters. There were also meaningful updates to the HomePod and a new privacy-focused sign-in. And of course, there's the not-so-small matter of the redesigned Mac Pro -- Apple has finally shown its long-in-the-making workstation. It's a lot to take in. Never fear, though, as we've boiled things down to a shorter video that gives you the gist of Apple's many, many announcements.
Apple's revamped Mac Pro uses new Radeon Pro Vega II GPUs
Apple's revamped Mac Pro isn't just a showcase for the company's industrial design chops -- it also marks the introduction of new AMD graphics technology. The new system will use the Radeon Pro Vega II, a GPU that's built on the 7-nanometer architecture of the Radeon VII (sorry, no Navi yet) with a workstation focus. The base processing power isn't that much different with up to 14 TFLOPS of single-precision computing power, but the memory is another matter. The Pro Vega II touts a whopping 32GB of high-bandwidth HBM2 RAM to handle demanding tasks like 8K video editing or running two 6K displays.
Our first look at the new Mac Pro and Pro XDR 6K display
Apple just wrapped its two-hour-plus WWDC keynote, and though it was mostly focused on the company's software, it was two pieces of hardware news that ultimately stole the show. The company finally debuted its long-awaited new Mac Pro and with it, a $5,000, 32-inch 6K Retina display, the Pro XDR. (That's short for Extreme Dynamic Range, har har.) Neither device will be available until the fall, but we did find both of them set up inside a demo area today at the conference. Before you get too excited, these were hands-off demos; Apple doesn't want a bunch of know-nothings like us trying their hands at pro-grade apps they've never used, only to write about how the new machine looks like a cheese grater. (It totally looks like a cheese grater.) So for now, what we have here is a hands-off, eyes-only look, in the form of photos.
The new Mac Pro: What's changed?
The last Mac Pro came out in 2013 and, while opinions on its trash can-shaped exterior were decidedly mixed, we couldn't fault it on its power. It delivered top of the line specs worthy of the most demanding creative projects, but after almost six years it's definitely time for an update, both inside and out. The new Mac Pro is bigger, boxier and looking a bit like the old Power Mac G5. But of course, it's way more powerful than any Mac we've ever seen. Just how powerful? Check out the specs below, stacked up against the 2013 model, to see how much heat this new "cheese grater" is packing.
Apple finally reveals the new Mac Pro
Apple's been teasing a redesigned Mac Pro for years now -- in fact, it's been well over a year since the company said it would be shipping the computer at some point during 2019 after originally promising it would arrive in 2018. Well, today, we're finally getting a look at the successor to that beautifully-designed trash can that Apple introduced in 2013 and then basically failed to upgrade for years. And guess what? It looks a lot like the old, cheese-grater style tower that Apple sold for years.
Apple dropped the price on several expensive Mac upgrades
Apple's iMac updates weren't the only changes the company made today. With less fanfare, it also lowered the cost of SSD upgrades for the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and Mac mini. It lowered the cost to upgrade the 2013 Mac Pro RAM, too. These changes were first spotted by MacRumors. While they make the priciest SSD upgrades less expensive, the more reasonable upgrades -- the ones most people might actually buy -- haven't changed.
Two Mac Pro cases + woodworking skill = unique bench
With the advent of the new, smaller "trashcan" Mac Pro, we're going to start seeing a lot more of the all-aluminum PowerMac G5 / Mac Pro cases going to the recyclers or - even worse - the dump. Gary Katz of Mac M.D. is a longtime Apple Consultant who saw a really impressive bench designed by a German Mac user that used two of the aluminum cases as stands as "legs". Katz was having his kitchen remodeled and decided to ask the contractors if they'd use their expertise to convert two gutted Mac Pro cases into a similar bench. The bench, which uses African mahogany, Wenge, and Padouk woods in addition to the Mac Pros, is beautiful on its own. Once he had it delivered, Katz added a string of LED rope lights inside the cabinets as well as a backrest to lean against. There are more photos detailing the work done by the contractor and Katz's additions on his personal blog. Have you upcycled a Mac or two into something as functional and beautiful as this? Let us know about it in the comments and please leave a link to some photos.
