Apple Event 2022: Everything you need to know
We may never know what Apple meant by “Peek” (it certainly wasn’t the AR glasses we envisioned) but the performance claims for the new Apple Silicon M1 Ultra the company revealed are certainly eye-opening. The powerful new flavor of the M1 family shared the stage with a new iPhone SE (A15 Bionic and 5G), a brand new Mac Studio that looks like a mini on steroids, a refreshed Studio Display to go with it, and an M1-running iPad Air 5 (We tracked everything on our Apple Event live blog).
It was a lot — but also not entirely what we hoped for or expected.
The big news is undoubtedly the Apple M1 Ultra chip, a sort of hybrid upgrade of the M1 Max in that it taps into a Max capability Apple failed to mention when unveiling the pro-level chip last year. Apparently, you can do something called a “die-to-die interconnect” to create what Cupertino calls “UltraFusion.”
This coupling of processors in one SoC that applications can see as a single processor – one built with a stunning 114 billion transistors – let Apple promise out of this world performance. One stat has it beating a 16-core desktop system on a performance versus power consumption basis.
All the key details on the Apple M1 Ultra #AppleEvent pic.twitter.com/AtYOpnlKwEMarch 8, 2022
Mac Studio and Studio Display
Naturally, Apple has to put the M1 Ultra somewhere. It will arrive on desktops in the form of the new Mac Studio, a box-like, all-aluminum, pro-level system that Apple is pairing with the new Studio Display, which includes an A13 processor and Apple’s Center Stage Face Time technology.
iPad Air 5
Apple didn’t redesign the iPad Air 5 for 2022, but the company’s product people did add M1 silicon (the same chips you’ll find in iPad Pros) and 5G capabilities. The introduction of the more power-efficient and powerful M1 means, potentially, better battery life.
iPhone SE 3
Apple didn’t redesign the iPhone SE, either – it still looks like an iPhone 8, but now it has Apple’s best mobile CPU in it: the A15 Bionic. Like virtually all of Apple’s other mobile devices, the iPhone SE now also supports 5G. At least Apple upgraded the glass to the same sturdy material found on the iPhone 13 lines (which also has the A15 Bionic).
Apple did try to sell the continuation of the Touch ID, which means you get just a 4.7-inch Retina display, as a positive thing. Sure.
Baseball!
Friday night lights are coming to Apple TV — no, not the football kind. The kind played on a diamond. Apple opened the big event by revealing a new partnership with Major League Baseball for a show called “Friday Night Baseball,” a weekly doubleheader with live pre- and postgame shows that will be available to fans in eight countries exclusively on Apple TV+ as soon as the regular season begins. That’s if the season begins — you heard the players and owners can’t agree on anything right?
No Glass
Even though Apple pushed “Peek” as a watch word in the week leading up to the event, there was nothing directly visual about the announcements, aside from the 5K Studio Display.
Apple did not mention or hint at Apple AR Glass. In fact, the term augmented reality surprisingly never came up. Apple usually touts its work in these fields when it details new phones and tablet computers.
What did come up, though, was a passing mention of the Mac Pro, Apple’s last mac system still running Intel silicon. That change, though, is “a story for another time,” said Apple.
No MacBook
Despite rumors (and hopes from some corners) leading up to today’s event, Apple did not reveal a new MacBook. Apple’s redesign for the iMac (2021) was a huge hit and finally broke Apple out of the stale neutral gray and silver of the Pro models, with the only personality that we’ve seen in years being a Rose Gold MacBook Air. Could they give us colored MacBooks? Purple, perhaps?
No. No they will not.
Audio player loading… We may never know what Apple meant by “Peek” (it certainly wasn’t the AR glasses we envisioned) but the performance claims for the new Apple Silicon M1 Ultra the company revealed are certainly eye-opening. The powerful new flavor of the M1 family shared the stage with a…
