All the news from Apple’s ‘week’ of Mac announcements

Between new M4-based Macs and the long-awaited arrival of Apple Intelligence in macOS, Apple is taking the entire week to drip-feed us news regarding its new Mac lineup. The 24-inch iMac with M4 was the first up, and now a new Mac Mini has joined the fray with an incredibly small build and an M4 chip. Preorders for the desktop machines start at $1,299 and $599, respectively, and both launch on November 8th.

In addition to the M4 iMac’s new colors, USB-C peripherals, and an upgraded 12MP FaceTime camera, Apple is also increasing the starting RAM from 8GB to 16GB. There aren’t many other drastic performance differences over last year’s model, but the added power and memory are a welcome boost for handling the AI-powered Apple Intelligence features that are arriving this week as part of macOS Sequoia 15.1.

Just like the bite-sized iMac keynote posted on Monday, Apple has released a 10-minute video showing off the M4-equipped Mac Mini. You can find the video on the “Watch the announcement” link on Apple’s Mac Mini page and on YouTube.

The video kicks off with John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of engineering, taking the wraps off the new desktop device (literally). He says the device is “even more mini,” as it measures just five inches long and wide.

As part of the company’s week of Mac-focused announcements, Apple has just introduced a smaller, yet even more powerful Mac Mini. It’s now equipped with Apple’s latest M4 silicon, supports ray tracing for the first time, and ships with 16GB of RAM by default — seemingly the new normal in the Apple Intelligence era. The machine still starts at $599 with the regular M4 chip, while the more powerful M4 Pro model has a starting price of $1,399. Like the refreshed iMac announced yesterday, the Mac Mini is available to preorder immediately and will be in stores on November 8th.

The first thing you’ll notice is the new design. As rumored, the Mini has been shrunken down considerably — and it was already a relatively small desktop machine to begin with. Now it’s downright tiny, measuring five inches in both length and width. If you’re wondering how Apple manages to keep things running cool, the company says it’s through the M4’s efficiency and “an innovative thermal architecture, which guides air to different levels of the system, while all venting is done through the foot.”

Amazon has spoiled Apple’s week of Mac announcements by sharing details of the new Mac Mini a bit early. The listing has been pulled but MacRumors managed to grab a few screenshots first.

The one tiny image of the new silver Mac Mini shows what appear to be a headphone jack and two front-facing USB-C ports, presumably with at least Thunderbolt 4 support. It’s available with a base or Pro version of the new M4 chipset, with up to 14 CPU cores, 20 GPU cores, 64GB of memory, and 8TB of storage. The backside ports will remain a mystery for now.

Apple Intelligence has finally launched in US English, and if you’re in the EU, you’ll be able to use the new AI features on your iPhone and iPad starting in April, according to an Irish Apple newsroom post.

When the features roll out to iPhones and iPads in the EU, they’ll include “include many of the core features of Apple Intelligence, including Writing Tools, Genmoji, a redesigned Siri with richer language understanding, ChatGPT integration, and more,” Apple says in the post.

Apple did more than put out a series of press releases when it announced the new iMac with M4 and the release of its Apple Intelligence software updates. The company also made a video to go with them — although it took a keen eye to spot it at first, as it was tucked away in a “Watch the announcement” link on the company’s splashy iMac page.

Apple has since released the 10-minute video on YouTube as well. In it, Apple Intelligence product manager Allegra Tepper discussed Apple’s AI system, which is now available as a software update for compatible iPhones, iPads, and Macs. Tepper ran through coming features, while specifying that today’s update only includes things like writing tools and slight Siri improvements (including the glowy rainbow edge graphic that shows up when Siri is listening on iPhones and iPads).

Apple’s new USB-C-equipped Magic Mouse somehow still has the charging port on the bottom. While Apple could have used the launch as an opportunity to move the charging port from the underside of the device — where the port has remained for nearly a decade, despite other updates to the mouse and being mocked for the decision — the port is still there, as shown in the “view in your space” augmented reality rendering from Apple’s website.

This new $99 Magic Mouse means that, for the foreseeable future, Apple still thinks that the best way to charge your Magic Mouse is by flipping it over to plug it in, making it so you can’t use it. Why?

Apple is finally removing the Lightning port from its lineup of Mac accessories. Earlier today, the company announced a new iMac with M4 with updated versions of the Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse, and Magic Trackpad that all have USB-C. Apple is also selling them individually in the Apple Store. All three have featured the proprietary Lightning port since 2015.

The prices haven’t changed from their Lightning versions: the USB-C Magic Mouse is $99; the Magic Keyboard, which is so far seemingly only available as the larger model with a numpad, is $199; and the Magic Trackpad is $149. All three are available in black or white. USB-C aside, their designs are overall unchanged. And after tapping the “View in your space” link to look at the 3D model on the mobile version of the iMac page, I regret to inform you that means the Magic Mouse still charges via a USB-C port on the bottom. (There are ways to fix that if you’re desperate.)

Apple is updating the iMac with an M4 chip. The new iMac, announced this morning, includes an M4 chip with an 8-core CPU and up to a 10-core GPU. The entry-level model costs $1,299 with two Thunderbolt USB-C 4 ports, while the higher-end models start at $1,499 and have four ports.

It’s also bundled with accessories that now use USB-C charging ports instead of Lightning. Like the prior model, the new iMac has a 24-inch, 4.5K display. However, Apple is offering a new “nano-texture glass option” for $200 extra, which is supposed to help reduce reflections and glare.

Apple’s AI features are finally starting to appear. Apple Intelligence is launching today on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, offering features like generative AI-powered writing tools, notification summaries, and a cleanup tool to take distractions out of photos. It’s Apple’s first official step into the AI era, but it’ll be far from its last.

Apple Intelligence has been available in developer and public beta builds of Apple’s operating systems for the past few months, but today marks the first time it’ll be available in the full public OS releases. Even so, the features will still be marked as “beta,” and Apple Intelligence will very much remain a work in progress. (You’ll have to get on a waitlist to try Apple Intelligence, too.) Siri gets a new look, but its most consequential new features — like the ability to take action in apps — probably won’t arrive until well into 2025.

Another round of Apple devices is about to arrive. After launching new iPhones, Apple Watches, and AirPods in September and a new iPad earlier this month, Apple is now gearing up to launch updated Macs. After weeks of rumors and speculation, Apple SVP Greg Joswiak came out and directly teased the arrival of new computers to be announced during the final week of October.

We’re expecting a fresh round of chip upgrades, at least one redesign, and maybe an October surprise or two (the good kind). Since there was no hyped-up save-the-date sent out for an in-person or livestream event, we’re expecting a series of early morning press releases — in the past, Apple has tended to drop them around 9AM ET.

Apple may not be doing a formal product event this October, but Apple SVP Greg Joswiak is teasing a “week” of Mac announcements starting on Monday morning.

Rumors have been swirling about announcements of updated Macs. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has been all over them, saying in an early October Power On newsletter that Apple was planning to announce a suite of Macs powered by M4 chips as well as a refreshed iPad Mini — though that has since been announced.

Apple plans to release MacBook Airs with M4 chips in early 2025, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports. The company just refreshed the lineup with M3 chips this spring, but the M4 update will “likely” launch between January and March 2025, Gurman says. Both the 13-inch and 15-inch models will apparently get the M4 update, and they’ll have a similar design to the M2 MacBook Air.

The potential spring launch for M4-equipped MacBook Airs means that product line won’t be part Apple’s rumored announcements for next week. With those updates, Apple is going to reveal new MacBook Pros, Mac Minis, and iMacs, Gurman says.

At least two Russian creators have posted videos in which they unbox what appears to be the next base model 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M4 chip. Apple, which hasn’t announced the laptops yet, is rumored to have a launch planned for November.

Over the weekend, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman pointed to a video posted by the Russian YouTube channel Wylsacom. He points out that the packaging looks the same as the M3 MacBook Pro, down to the wallpaper on the label that Apple tends to change annually.

Apple is planning to announce in late October that new Macs, including a rumored Mac Mini that’s about the size of an Apple TV, will be available to buy starting on November 1st. That’s according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who also writes in his Power On newsletter today that the iPad Mini is getting an overdue refresh — its first since 2021.

The Mac Mini may be the most exciting of the updates, given the rumored significant physical revamp coming along with a new M4 chip. Despite its shrunken size, the M4 Pro version might have a healthy connectivity spread (albeit without any USB-A ports).

Tomorrow’s iPhone 16 launch won’t be the final Apple event of the year, as the company plans to debut some M4 Macs and new iPads with another showing in October, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in today’s Power On newsletter.

Apple could be announcing a new iPad Mini for the first time since 2021 in October, as well as a Mac Mini with an M4 chip, packed into a box about the size of an Apple TV, making that the first real redesign of the diminutive desktop in over a decade. So it’s about time for both! The event will include new versions of the iMac and MacBook Pro, both with M4 chips, as well, Gurman writes.

Apple’s next Mac Mini won’t have USB-A ports, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who writes in today’s Power On newsletter that the new desktops will start to hit Apple’s warehouses in September. The higher-end variant with an Apple M4 Pro chip will ship in October, he writes.

The version with an M4 Pro will still cram a lot of ports, including five USB-C ports (two in the front and three in the back), an ethernet port, an HDMI port, and a headphone jack, according to Gurman’s sources. And the new Mac Mini will apparently have an internal power supply. That’s not too shabby for a computer that’s expected to be about the size of an Apple TV.