Easing you in gently, the first announcement was that of the HomePod mini. Soon to be available in three extra color choices - yellow, orange, and blue – alongside the standard white and space gray options, the HomePod mini’s main selling point is how well it ties into your other Apple products. There’s deep integration with Siri, a built-in U1 ultra-wideband chip that makes it easy to hand off audio between your iPhone and speaker, plus you can pair two HomePod minis together for stereo sound. It’s a smart speaker for Apple fans basically and it looks rather cute. It’ll cost $99 and we expect it’ll feature in our best smart speakers line up soon enough.
Apple rolls out new AirPods
More compelling for many users are Apple’s redesigned AirPods which offer spatial audio and Adaptive EQ at a fairly low (for AirPods) $179. These new and improved AirPods offer shorter stems than their predecessor but they’re smart stems thanks to featuring touch-capacitive force sensors like you normally only see on AirPod Pros. That means you can control your music playback with a squeeze of the stem as well as choose to accept calls too. Other features include IPX4 sweat and water resistance, a skin sensor that detects when you’re wearing them (automatically pausing when you’re not) plus far improved battery life. Expect up to six hours of listening and 30 hours in total when you factor in the charging case. The case now supports MagSafe charging too. And, of course, there’s Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking so they’ll sound better plus there’s Adaptive EQ which tunes the audio in real time according to inward-facing mics that are able to monitor sound. They’ll set you back $179. Again, they may well feature on our best headphones (opens in new tab) list soon.
New Apple MacBook Pro models incoming
The big announcement though was the new MacBook Pro. Now available in 14-inch and 16-inch models, both laptops use mini LED technology for a better display with ProMotion high refresh rates up to 120Hz plus superior resolution too. The downside is a small camera notch that’s about the size of the menu bar but you still get far more screen space than before, plus there’s finally a 1080p webcam to use here too. The laptops also use Apple’s latest M1 Pro processor which is better in every way than the M1. It’s 70 percent faster and also provides far superior graphical quality too. You name it, it’s better. Other additions include better port options than we’ve seen on MacBooks in a while including three USB-C/Thunderbolt ports, an HDMI port, and an SD card slot again too. There’s also a new version of the MagSafe connector plus battery life should be a rather mighty 17 hours for the 14-inch model and an even mightier 21 hours for the 16-inch model. Both laptops have fast charge functionality too so you can get 50 percent of your battery life back in just 30 minutes. Neither laptop is cheap though with the base 14-inch version starting at $1,999 and the 16-inch model beginning at $2,499. Count on it shaking up our best laptops (opens in new tab) ranking in the near future. All the new gadgets are available to pre-order right now and they’ll be available on October 26th.
