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OS X Yosemite planned for late Oct. as Apple preps 4K desktop & 12-inch Retina MacBook

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While iOS 8 for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch is set for a September launch, Apple is planning to bring its next-generation Mac software, OS X Yosemite, into the wild a month later, in October, according to several sources. Apple plans to continue releasing OS X Yosemite Developer Previews every two to three weeks until a final Developer Preview is seeded on September 29th, according to the people. Apple is then expected to finish up work on Yosemite in early October and release a golden master build around October 10th, the sources said. Apple is also finishing up preparations to release a version of OS X Yosemite beta tomorrow to the first one million people who signed up for the public beta.

Following the currently planned golden master release around October 10th, Apple plans to release Yosemite for free on the Mac App Store toward the end of October. Like last year, it is possible that Apple will talk final details about the new OS X release at a media event. Apple is planning to unveil its long-in-the-works fitness and health wearable wristband at a media event in October, so perhaps Apple will discuss the final logistics of OS X Yosemite’s launch during that same keynote. Also in the cards for the Mac side, sources say, are at least a couple of next-generation Mac lines. Sources say that Apple is finishing up work on both a smaller MacBook with a high-resolution display and a new desktop computer, either an iMac or a standalone monitor, with a 4K resolution screen.

The new MacBook will include a Retina Display that is approximately 12-inches diagonally and it will include a much thinner and slightly lighter aluminum body, the sources said. Apple believes that this new Retina MacBook will be a significant step forward in the laptop industry, and it is currently unclear if Apple will label this machine as a smaller MacBook Pro, a new MacBook Air, or as an entirely new line. Analysts and foreign forum postings previously indicated that Apple is developing a new 12-inch MacBook. While it is possible Apple will market the aforementioned 4K desktop as a “Retina” machine, the technology for true pixel-doubling of the current 27-inch iMac and Thunderbolt Display’s 2560 x 1440 resolution is not ready for market.

Apple is said to be planning to push these new Macs with higher-resolution displays as a selling point for OS X Yosemite. Yosemite, besides new features for more tightly integrating with iPhones and iPads, includes a refreshed interface aesthetic that utilizes more colorful icons, thinner text, and sharper window corners. “Those interface elements appear especially optimized on higher-resolution screens, so it makes sense for us to debut new Retina Macs around the time of Yosemite’s release,” a source said.

In addition to the new hardware with higher-resolution display panels, Apple is said to be preparing updates to both iMovie and Final Cut Pro to bolster support for editing, exporting, and importing video taken with 4K resolution-capable cameras. The sources also stressed that the computers are currently on pace to ship either in late Q3 or early Q4 this year, but constraints to Intel chipsets as well as resources placed on developing other products for the 2014 pipeline could push back these Mac launches into early 2015. The new MacBook and iMac will likely join refinements to the MacBook Air line and all of the new Macs will be components of Apple’s best product line in “25 years.”

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Comments

  1. flow3dprintingsale - 10 years ago

    Nice Article, I am using the 10.10 beta 4 and its great!

    • Rikin Patel - 10 years ago

      Same!

    • Don-Joe Ferrer Villacorta - 10 years ago

      it’s not reading my iPhone 5 or iPhone 5s and c. I tried to get all devices restore but it just has issues with reading the phone. ill buy an original usb cord, maybe that’s the issue? any of you guys running the 10.10 having the same issues? Thanks.

  2. oreomuncher - 10 years ago

    daymm 4k imac. I don’t have any idea how they’d offer the panels at a price that’s consumer friendly and good adequate hardware to power it. 4k for the 27″ only maybe? I don’t think it’d be worthwhile 4k at the 21.5″ screen size.

    • Greg Kaplan (@kaplag) - 10 years ago

      Maybe they will make an iMac pro. My studio basically runs everything on iMacs. A Mac Pro like version would with retina display and beefed up graphics would be awesome.

  3. Inaba-kun (@Inaba_kun) - 10 years ago

    I’d worry that the iMac lacked the GPU power to run a 4K display. Apple still use puny mobile GPUs in the iMac, even the top end ones. Could be like the first retina MacBook Pro, and simply be underpowered and sluggish.

    • dirpdiddlydirp - 10 years ago

      “Could be like the first retina MacBook Pro” – the issue was non-optimised software! The improvement came with Lion and not with newer hardware. I should know, I own one :)

      • Andrew Messenger - 10 years ago

        ditto. no hardware issue with my MacBook Pro with Retina Display from 2012. Runs just as good as it did the day I bought it, if not better, AND normally I replace my computers every 2 years. This year, I feel no compulsion to even consider it.

      • Arthur P. Johnson - 10 years ago

        Couldn’t agree more. Usually upgrade my laptop yearly, but the 2012 15″ MacBook Pro with Retina is so powerful that I feel no need — still cuts through photo jobs like a buzz through balsa.

    • ray (@rydical85) - 10 years ago

      please check on imac 27″ which is come with geforce gtx 755 (192 bits) or 780 (256 bits).
      The gtx 780 performance is close to desktop gpu Gtx 670.

      I do believe they will boost the gpu performance for every imac line refresh. So no worry to the processing power for 4k display.

    • Gregory Wright - 10 years ago

      Are you an expert on GPUs and 4K monitors. I’d think Apple knows what it is doing and will not send an iMac or any device to market that is not up-to-snuff.

  4. nelmat - 10 years ago

    What a waste of processing power in the iMac – anyone sitting close enough to see pixels needs to sit back a bit – I’d rather see massive improvements in performance with both the CPU and GPU – why waste it on increasing the screen resolution of a monitor you face should be no less than 80 cm from?

    Hopefully this is a 4K monitor they are working on for the Mac Pro – that would make far more sense, and be priced at a realistic level for pro users.

    • macmann1980 - 10 years ago

      I beg to differ. When I sit at an iMac I really would rather be looking at a retina version.

    • o0smoothies0o - 10 years ago

      Wasting it would be on CPU and GPU. If you need massive power, get a Mac Pro.

    • mikhailt - 10 years ago

      I disagree, it’s not a waste for those who works on their computer all day long. The retina screens makes a huge difference for your eyes when reading ultra-sharp text all day long. It does for me and I stopped using Apple’s 27″ Cinema in order to use my rMBP’s screen. If Apple releases a retina cinema later this year, I’d buy it.

    • Peter McVeigh Stewart - 9 years ago

      Sitting close to a 4K panel is exactly where it comes into its own because of the level of detail that’s possible at close range. If I have any complaint about 4K its that big, wide crowd scenes, aerial and distance shots seem ‘hyperreal’ because of the level of detail in those images and the fact they they are presented in full focus in a concentrated area. For practical reasons the human eye can’t resolve distant detail as readily as close detail and our brain’s ‘selective attention’ processes have learned to ignore all but gross change in distant images in order to focus on our immediate environment – if we try to focus on distant images, close images are out of focus. 4K images on a panel at close range put 3D image detail within the focal range of our eyes in 2D, with a depth of field our own lenses can’t produce, creating a view of the world we can’t experience in real life. Of course I could be wrong…

  5. I still can’t believe they discontinued Aperture. They’re focusing too much in amateur consumers and letting Pro users in oblivion. How can anybody trust Final Cut not to be discontinued as well? I honestly think there are far more Photograpers that Video production enthusiasts, Aperture was more needed. No IR on iMacs, or MBPs is also a dumb step backwards. As it’s the lack of enough USB ports in MBPs. What about USB 3.1?

    • Marcus R. Moore - 10 years ago

      I’d say Final Cut has a much longer and more prominent place in the professional Video industry than Aperture ever did with Photographers.

      Aperture has never been updated as frequently as Final Cut was, and since the debut of Final Cut X in 2011, the application has seen more frequent updates than ever before. Same goes for Logic.

      Either Apple is ceding the highest-end Photography users to Adobe, or Photos will be much more functional than you think. Even if Photos on it’s own doesn’t do everything Aperture did- 3rd party extensions may fill (and even improve) functionality in those areas.

      As someone who survived and come out the other side of the Final Cut 7 to X transition, I’d caution against making assumptions.

  6. Marcus R. Moore - 10 years ago

    Though it’s great to hear rumblings about a new Final Cut update this fall, I’m finding it hard to imagine what 4K improvements those could be.

    Final Cut Pro X was one of the first applications updated for Retina displays in mid-2012. And FCP X is already an incredibly capable 4K editor. So in short, I’m not sure where they can go.

  7. Carlos Franco (@cf318) - 10 years ago

    Man i hope the bezel on that macbook is thinner then the Air. That’s my only gripe and since this is the laptop iv’e been waiting for I’m so hoping to have it. Well, maybe Gen 2 since i’m not in so much in a hurry this year.

  8. ClickFire_ (@ClickFire_) - 10 years ago

    Cool Looking forward to this Fall,.I use a Nexus 5 and have bene an android fan since 2010 but have been a Mac user since 2003. I might be giving the iphone 6 a look as ios 8 and Yosemite are making the prospect of owning all Apple devices more and more tempting.

  9. Bob Jung (@OrdsWoW) - 10 years ago

    Still running my iMac late 2010 and it starts to get laggy with games. Was surging for a replacement this summer during my holiday, but since this article arises I do sincerely hope its a new iMac 27″ and keeps me waiting what will happen this fall.

  10. Lucretius Luc - 10 years ago

    Maybe Apple will see it in their heart to allow users, in Yosemite, to increase the size of menu text and traffic lights, etc. Apple really needs a desktop OS that is suited to high resolution.

  11. Rob Burnham - 10 years ago

    A 4K iMac sounds great, but I can only assume it would be very expensive. I hope they give us a 4K-ready Mac Mini, so we can pick our own (affordable) monitor.

  12. Marcus Leng - 10 years ago

    Let’s hope it can produces 10 bits color.

  13. Andre Moore - 10 years ago

    My 2009 Mac Pro can’t even use half the new stuff in 10.10 since i don’t have Bluetooth LE. I got a new iPhone 6 thinking id be able to do the handoff stuff and the wifi calls on my mac. But no go. Ive seen some boards say they used some kind of adaptor to get their old 2008 iMac to work with bluetooth LE not sure how true that is.