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Apple has already announced the new iPad Air and iPad, Apple Watch Series 6, and an iPhone 12 lineup in an earlier event. The November event was all about new Mac announcements with Apple introducing the first Apple Silicon Mac. Here's a quick overview of the announcements made at the "One More Thing" event on 10th November 2020.
Better Chips
The most significant announcement of the day was the M1 chip - that's what Apple is calling their first Mac chip. They would be shifting all the new Macs to these new in-house chips. Built and designed by Apple, the M1 will power the new Mac mini, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air.
While Apple has been manufacturing chips for their iPhones, iPads and Watches for some time now, moving from third-party suppliers to in-house chips for Macs is a big move. They promise better performance, improved power efficiency and overall higher efficiency with the M1.
These are the specifications of the M1 chip
- A GPU with up to 8 cores
- Uses around 16 billion transistors
- Has Apple's Secure Enclave system built-in
- Supports both Thunderbolt and USB4
New Macs
Apple announced new MacBook Air, Mac Mini and MacBook Pro at the event.
The new MacBook Air will run on Apple’s M1 chip and will be fanless! The device is supposed to be around 3.5 times faster than its predecessor and the absence of a cooling fan will make the MacBook Air much quieter than the previous generation. It will run for up to 15 hours on a single charge while using the internet and 18 hours of just watching videos! That is pretty impressive. The MB Air features a 13.3-inch display and SSD of up to 2 TB. The device will support Wi-Fi 6, Thunderbolt connectivity, and USB 4. The new device will cost $899 and above.
The next to be announced was the new Mac Mini. It will also feature the M1 chip and is priced at $699. The device will support SSD with up to 2TB capacity and has 16GB memory. The Mac Mini also features a 3.5mm headphone jack, along with space for HDMI 2.0 and Gigabit Ethernet cables. Considering it is priced cheaper than the older models, it will considerably boost sales.
With the M1 chips, the new MacBook Pro will supposedly last for up to 17 hours with internet with a single charge and up to 20 hours for just video playback. The pro will also have a 13.3-inch display like the Air and will have SSD with up to 2TB capacity. It has 16GB of storage and supports both Thunderbolt and USB 4 for connectivity. The new MacBook Pro is available from $1199 onwards.
Big Sur
Another major announcement Apple made was regarding the new macOS update. The new version 11.0 named Big Sur, announced in June during the WWDC finally got a release date at this event. The OS will be available starting November 12 (that is tomorrow). We are excited to see what changes this update brings.
iOS apps to run on Macs
As mentioned in the WWDC this year, iOS apps will now run on Mac devices. The One More Thing event highlighted this. Apple showcased Among Us and HBO Max running on both macOS and iOS devices.