Apple will introduce new OLED touchscreen MacBook Pro models and an ‌OLED‌ iPad mini "on or around" Tuesday, October 27, reports Bloomberg. The launch will also include an M6 14-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ and an M6 iMac.


The October 27 follows Apple's October 13 debut of a new smart home hub, a revamped Apple TV 4K, and a refreshed HomePod mini. Earlier this month, MacRumors reported that Apple would do two rounds of product launches during October.

Bloomberg says both the October 13 and October 27 product launches will include "an online video presentation" as well as a hands-on experience for members of the media.

Apple has been working on an ‌OLED‌ MacBook for several years now, and while some rumors indicated it could be named the MacBook Ultra, Bloomberg suggests the 14-inch and 16-inch notebooks will be in the ‌MacBook Pro‌ family. The devices will be thinner and lighter than current ‌MacBook Pro‌ models and they will have ‌OLED‌ displays, touchscreen capabilities, and a Dynamic Island.

The ‌iPad mini‌ will have a landscape camera for video calls, a redesigned speaker system, and a new ‌OLED‌ display.
This article, "Apple to Launch Touchscreen OLED MacBook Pro and OLED iPad mini on October 27" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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CEO John Ternus is making changes to Apple's leadership, reports Bloomberg. Apple veteran Steve Smith will take over mergers and acquisitions and corporate development, which was previously led by Adrian Perica. M&A is an important team at Apple, handling acquisitions and arrangements like the deal Apple had with OpenAI to add ChatGPT to Siri.


Perica will stay at Apple to oversee iCloud, Fitness+, and Apple News, which he has done since 2023, and will now report to App Store and services lead Eddy Cue. While Perica reported to Tim Cook in his M&A role, Smith will report to Apple CFO Kevan Parekh as M&A moves back to the finance division.

Carson Oliver is being promoted to vice president of the ‌App Store‌, and he has been in charge of the ‌App Store‌ since Phil Schiller stepped down from his role as ‌App Store‌ chief in late August. Oliver is reporting to Cue, who is now overseeing the ‌App Store‌ and other services.

According to Bloomberg, Cue is assessing potential successors, and Perica is a lead candidate. Apple Music lead Oliver Schusser is also in the running.
This article, "Apple Has a New M&A Chief as Ternus Reshuffles Leadership" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple today announced an upcoming product launch that will take place on Tuesday, October 13. We are expecting Apple's announcement to focus on new smart home products, including the long-rumored smart home hub, a new Apple TV 4K, and a refreshed HomePod mini.


The home hub is an all-new device that's like a cross between an iPad and a HomePod. It's rumored to have a 6-inch square display, and it's designed as a multi-person device to control smart home products, place FaceTime calls, watch videos, get news and weather information, stay up to date on calendar events, and more. It will integrate with Siri AI, and voice will be the main method of interaction.

Apple envisions people installing a hub in multiple rooms in the house. There will be a version meant to be mounted on the wall and a version with a half-dome speaker base, similar in design to the iMac G4. A camera and a presence sensor will detect when a person is in the room, and the device will be able to tell who it is to show a customized interface with widgets and apps. Pricing could be around $350.


The ‌HomePod mini‌ is going to get new colors, an N1 networking chip for improved Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and a faster S-series processor that will support ‌Siri‌ AI. The ‌Apple TV‌ 4K is going to get an A19 or A19 Pro chip, a RAM upgrade, the same N1 chip as the ‌HomePod mini‌, and an upgraded ‌Siri‌ Remote.

There is an OLED iPad mini in development, and it could come during the home event. The ‌iPad mini‌ is expected to be more water-resistant with a faster chip and the first ‌OLED‌ display in a smaller tablet size.

Timing on the October 13 product launch is unknown, and it is also unclear if there will be an event component or if the devices will debut via press release. Some members of the media have been invited to an "Apple Experience" set to take place in Tribeca, New York on October 13 at 9:00 a.m. Attendees will likely get hands-on time with the new products Apple introduces.

Rumors suggest Apple has several Macs coming before the end of the year, but those could be introduced at later in the year instead of during the home product launch.

This article, "Apple Product Launch Announced for October 13: 'Welcome Home'" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Microsoft today announced launch timing and pricing for the Surface Laptop Ultra that it unveiled earlier this year.


The 15-inch Surface Laptop Ultra is priced starting at $2,599, undercutting Apple's $2,999 16-inch MacBook Pro, and it targets the same creator and developer market. Microsoft says it is built for "demanding creative, software development, AI, engineering, and 3D workloads."

Microsoft's new laptop uses an Nvidia RTX Spark chip, which includes an Nvidia Blackwell RTX GPU with up to 6,144 cores and an Nvidia Grace CPU with up to 20 cores. It supports up to 128GB of unified memory and has a new thermal architecture to support the hardware. The RTX Spark is an Arm-based chip, so the laptop runs Windows on Arm with x86 apps using Microsoft's Prism emulation.

According to Microsoft, the Surface Laptop Ultra is its most powerful notebook to date. It has the "brightest, sharpest, and most vivid display" Microsoft has used in a Surface device, with peak HDR brightness that's 25% higher than the M5 ‌MacBook Pro‌'s. The mini-LED display is a touchscreen, and it supports gestures and navigation, but not pen input.

The laptop is lighter than the 16-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌, with a large haptic trackpad and upgradeable storage. Microsoft even adopted a MagSafe equivalent, adding support for Magnetic Connect. Microsoft says Magnetic Connect is the "world's first built-in magnetic USB-C charging on a laptop." The device has three USB-C ports, a USB-A port, an HDMI port, an SD card reader, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Along with the Surface Laptop Ultra, Microsoft announced the $5,999 Surface RTX Spark Dev Box to compete with devices like the Mac Studio and Mac mini. It is equipped with an Nvidia RTX Spark chip and offers up to 1 petaflop of AI performance with support for AI models up to 120B parameters.

Microsoft is offering a bonus to customers who "break up" with their MacBooks. MacBook owners can get up to $1,000 cash back when purchasing a Surface Laptop Ultra by trading in an eligible MacBook. The Surface Laptop Ultra launches on October 16.

"We're confident that once today's creators and developers experience everything Surface Laptop Ultra has to offer, they won't look back," reads Microsoft's website.

The Surface Laptop Ultra will directly compete with Apple's rumored OLED MacBook, which could also have an Ultra name. The MacBook Ultra is expected to feature a touchscreen, M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, and a thinner and lighter design.
This article, "Microsoft Launches $2,599 Surface Laptop Ultra to Take on MacBook Pro" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Google today said it is making its SynthID Detector available to everyone for identifying content created using AI.


SynthID Detector first rolled out to members of the media last year, and it is now available worldwide in English. SynthID Detector is a website that lets users upload a photo, video, or audio file to determine whether it has a SynthID watermark that identifies it as AI-generated. Google's tool cannot distinguish between AI-created and AI-edited media, and it requires signing in to use.

SynthID embeds digital watermarks into content created by AI. The watermarks are not visible to humans but can be detected with Google's website. SynthID Detector can identify media generated using AI from Google, OpenAI, Nvidia, and Kakao. Apple also plans to support SynthID later this year.

Google says its website is not a general AI detector and can only detect media that uses the SynthID technology. SynthID checks are already integrated into Search, Gemini, and Chrome for users who want an alternative to SynthID Detector.
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OpenAI today introduced Intelligent UI, a new feature that will let ChatGPT answer questions with "fully interactive user interfaces." OpenAI says everyday answers will be more visual, and the feature will make it easier for users to understand complicated topics.


ChatGPT responses will include graphics, tappable buttons, forms, charts, diagrams, and other interactive experiences. Sample comparisons between GPT–5.6 and GPT–6 on OpenAI's website show more visuals in responses, an interactive recipe widget that can automatically tweak quantities based on guest count, checklists, integrated maps, and multiple-choice follow-up questions to narrow down results.

ChatGPT can quickly create tools to complete tasks, like a bill splitter, small games, and a calculator. GPT–6 is also able to start answering while it's still thinking for quicker responses.

According to OpenAI, Intelligent UI uses a library of native, streamable components with a compiler that processes the interface as the model generates it.

In addition to introducing Intelligent UI, OpenAI is expanding GPT–6 models to more users. GPT–6 with Intelligent UI is rolling out to ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise users today, and tomorrow, the rollout will expand to Free and Go tiers.

Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise users get GPT–6 Sol, while Free and Go tier users get access to GPT–6 Luna. GPT–6 is limited to the Chat tab, and the models for Work and Codex aren't changing.
This article, "ChatGPT Gets GPT-6 and New Intelligent UI With Visual Answers" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Repair site iFixit this week continued taking apart the latest Apple devices, this time tearing down the Apple Watch Series 12 and the Apple Watch Ultra 4.


The ‌Apple Watch Ultra 4‌ has no repairability changes. There are copious amounts of glue between the casing and the display for waterproofing, and getting to the battery has to be done through the screen. It's easy to slice through the display cable when attempting to pry the device open.

The Apple Watch Series 12 is also difficult to get into, but it has a pull tab for the adhesive holding the battery in place, which iFixit says is a "modest" repairability improvement. The Series 12 also drops the ZIF connector that made repairs more difficult, which makes for a simpler process. There is no way to access the battery without removing the display, and no way to swap the display without removing the battery.

The ‌Apple Watch Ultra 4‌ has a 2.444Wh battery, up from 2.313Wh in the Apple Watch Ultra 3. The 46mm Series 12 has a 1.461Wh battery, up from 1.403Wh for the Series 11.

With the pull tab and the improved cable layout, iFixit gave the Apple Watch Series 12 a repairability score of 4 out of 10, an improvement over the last base model iFixit scored. The Ultra 4 also earned a 4 out of 10, which is the same score iFixit has given to all prior Apple Watch Ultra models.

The site points to Google as proof that a wearable can be repairable. Google's Pixel Watch 5 earned a repairability score of 9 out of 10. The Pixel Watch 5's display and battery can be accessed by removing a few screws and a gasket, with no adhesive to deal with.

iFixit claims Apple is "out of compliance" with the Right to Repair laws in Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Colorado, Minnesota, Texas, New York, Maryland, and Connecticut because it does not sell Apple Watch repair parts or service tools, nor does it offer repair manuals.

iFixit says it is preparing evidence to help attorneys general in states with Right to Repair laws understand that Apple is not complying with the law.
This article, "Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 Score 4/10 for Repairability" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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