🍎 Apple Unveils New MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro, Supercharged by the M2 Chip

Apple has introduced a completely redesigned MacBook Air and an updated 13-inch MacBook Pro, both powered by the new M2 chip. The M2 chip builds upon the breakthrough performance and capabilities established by the M1 chip.

✨ New MacBook Air Highlights

The new MacBook Air features an entirely new, strikingly thin design and enhanced performance. Key features include:

• A larger 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display.
• A 1080p FaceTime HD camera.
• A four-speaker sound system.
• Up to 18 hours of battery life.
• The return of MagSafe charging.
• Available in four finishes: silver, space grey, midnight, and starlight.

Apple’s Senior VP of Worldwide Marketing, Greg Joswiak, noted that the Air’s thin, light, and fanless design is only possible with Apple silicon.

🚀 Updated 13-inch MacBook Pro Highlights

The M2 chip also powers the updated 13-inch MacBook Pro, which is described as the world’s second best-selling laptop. This portable Pro notebook delivers:

• Incredible performance and ProRes acceleration.
• Up to 24GB of unified memory.
• Up to 20 hours of battery life.
• All within a compact design.

💻 The Strongest Mac Lineup

The new MacBook Air and updated 13-inch MacBook Pro join the existing 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models (featuring the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips) to form what Apple calls its strongest-ever lineup of Mac notebooks.

Both the new MacBook Air and the updated 13-inch MacBook Pro will be available next month.

M2 Supercharges Apple’s Most Popular Systems

🧠 The Apple M2 Chip: Second Generation Performance

The M2 chip marks the start of the second generation of Apple’s M-series silicon, building upon the significant features of the M1 chip.

Key M2 Chip Enhancements

Designed with industry-leading power efficiency, a unified memory architecture, and custom technologies, the M2 brings enhanced performance to the new MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro.

Component	M2 Specification	Upgrade Detail
CPU	Next-generation 8-core CPU	Advancements in both performance and efficiency cores.
GPU	Next-generation GPU with up to 10 cores	Two more cores than the M1 chip.
Unified Memory Bandwidth	100GB/s
Unified Memory Capacity	Supports up to 24GB of fast unified memory	Allows for handling larger and more complex workloads.
Media Engine	Next-generation Media Engine and a powerful ProRes video engine	Enables hardware-accelerated encode and decode, significantly speeding up video workflows and allowing playback of more streams of 4K and 8K video.

13-inch MacBook Pro with M2

🚀 13-inch MacBook Pro Performance Boosted by M2

The 13-inch MacBook Pro, known for delivering strong performance in a compact design, gains even more capabilities while retaining its familiar form factor, thanks to the new M2 chip.

Key Performance Gains

The M2 features a faster 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU, resulting in significant speed improvements:

Task	Speed Improvement (vs. previous 13-inch Pro)	Speed Improvement (vs. non-Apple silicon model)
Working with RAW images (e.g., in Affinity Photo)	Nearly 40% faster	Up to 3.4x faster
Playing graphics-intensive games	Nearly 40% faster	Up to 3.3x faster

The 13-inch MacBook Pro retains its active cooling system, which is essential for sustaining this professional-level performance during intensive tasks.

Memory and Video Workflow Enhancements

The M2 chip drastically improves memory and video handling:

• Unified Memory: Supports up to 24GB of unified memory combined with 50% more memory bandwidth, ensuring smooth multitasking and handling of large files.
• ProRes Video: The M2’s media engine supports ProRes encode and decode, allowing users to:
  • Play back up to 11 streams of 4K or up to two streams of 8K ProRes video.
  • Convert video projects to ProRes nearly 3x faster.

Battery Life

The 13-inch MacBook Pro continues to offer excellent battery life, providing up to 20 hours of video playback.

Better for the Environment

♻️ Environmental Commitment: Sustainable Design

Both the new MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro were designed to minimize their environmental impact through the use of recycled and sustainable materials.

Recycled Materials

• Rare Earth Elements: Both notebooks now use 100% recycled rare earth elements in the enclosure magnets.
• MacBook Air Enclosure: The new MacBook Air enclosure is made with 100% recycled aluminum.
• Recycled Steel: The MacBook Air is the first Apple product to use certified recycled steel.

Efficiency and Packaging

• Both products meet Apple’s high standards for energy efficiency and are free of numerous harmful substances.
• The packaging uses wood fiber sourced from responsibly managed forests.

Apple’s Carbon Neutrality Goals

This means that every Mac Apple creates, from design to manufacturing, will be 100% carbon-neutral.

Apple is currently carbon-neutral for its global corporate operations.

By 2030, Apple plans to achieve a net-zero climate impact across its entire business, which includes its manufacturing supply chain and all product life cycles.

iPadOS 16 takes the versatility of iPad even further with powerful new productivity and collaboration features

🖥️ Preview of iPadOS 16: Versatility and Productivity

Apple previewed iPadOS 16, a significant update designed to make the iPad experience more versatile and powerful.

Multitasking and Collaboration

• Stage Manager: This new feature utilizes the power of the M1 chip to introduce a new way to multitask, featuring multiple overlapping windows and full external display support.
• Collaboration: Working with others is simpler than before, with new ways to start collaborating in system-wide apps using Messages.
• Freeform: A new app providing a flexible, shared canvas for group brainstorming.

App and Productivity Enhancements

• Mail: Includes new tools aimed at boosting user productivity.
• Safari: Adds shared Tab Groups for collaborative web browsing and enhances security with passkeys.
• Weather App: Newly available, taking full advantage of the stunning iPad display.
• Live Text: Now supports interaction with text found within video.

Professional Features

iPadOS 16 introduces new pro features that solidify the iPad’s role as a powerful mobile studio:

• Reference Mode
• Display Zoom

Combined with the power of Apple silicon (M1 chip), iPadOS 16 is designed to make it faster and easier for users to accomplish more on their iPad.

Apple unveils an all-new Lock Screen experience and new ways to share and communicate in iOS 16

📱 Preview of iOS 16: Major Updates to iPhone Experience

Apple previewed iOS 16, which brings the biggest update ever to the Lock Screen, along with new sharing, communication, and intelligence features that fundamentally change how users interact with their iPhone.

Key Features of iOS 16

Feature Area	Detail
Lock Screen	Re-imagined design with exciting new features that make it more personal and helpful.
Sharing	Introduces iCloud Shared Photo Library for seamless photo sharing among family members.
Communication	Updates to Messages and Mail help users stay in touch with greater ease.
Intelligence	Powerful enhancements to Live Text and Visual Look Up.

Craig Federighi, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Software Engineering, summarized the release: “iOS 16 is a big release with updates that will change the way you experience iPhone… [We have] streamlined communication through new capabilities in Messages and Mail, and harnessed enhanced intelligence with updates to Live Text and Visual Look Up.”

watchOS 9 delivers new ways to stay connected, active and healthy

⌚ Preview of watchOS 9: Enhanced Features for Apple Watch

Apple previewed watchOS 9, a major update that introduces new features and enhanced experiences to the Apple Watch operating system.

Personalization and Workouts

• Watch Faces: Users gain access to a wider selection of watch faces, featuring richer complications that offer more information and greater opportunities for personalization.
• Workout App: The updated Workout app now includes advanced metrics, views, and training experiences inspired by high-performing athletes, designed to help users elevate their workouts.

Health and Wellness

Sleep Tracking: watchOS 9 brings sleep stages functionality to the existing Sleep app.

Medications App: A new app that allows users to conveniently and discreetly manage and track their medications.

Talk to the Apple experts at Imagetext if you would like any further information