MacBook Pro: The biggest and baddest Mac laptops

Following the release of macOS Big Sur 11.2.1 with fixes to a bug that prevented MacBook Pro battery from charging, Apple has just announced that the company will replace for free the batteries of 2016 and 2017 MacBook Pro models that won’t charge past 1%.

If Apple made a leather backpack for MacBook Pro models, I’m pretty sure it would look and feel a lot like the Harber London Slim Laptop Backpack.

Regular readers will know I’m a sucker for premium leather bags, and I’m an equal opportunity guy when it comes to different leather styles and finishes. But if you look at things like Apple’s leather sleeve for the MacBook Pro, it’s clear that the company favors extremely smooth and soft leather, at a price that reflects the quality – and that’s exactly what we get with this backpack …

Apple already makes a titanium Apple Watch, but a patent granted today could pave the way for titanium MacBooks, iPads, and iPhones too.

The patent describes how Apple could overcome the challenge of giving titanium an aesthetically pleasing finish, and follows a patent granted last month regarding a method of making a true matte black MacBook …

The future of the Touch Bar was thrown into doubt earlier this month thanks to separate reports from Ming-Chi Kuo and Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The former said that the touch-sensitive strip was definitely being removed, while the latter said Apple was considering it.

There doesn’t seem to be any real consensus view of the Touch Bar, making it a tough call for Apple, but one Apple patent does describe a possible compromise approach that takes the company some way toward a fully dynamic keyboard …

Ming-Chi Kuo, a reliable supply chain analyst for TF International Securities, predicts a bold new class of MacBook Pros this year with MagSafe charging and I/O ports that won’t require dongles. What Kuo doesn’t forecast is a future for the Touch Bar, the strip of touchscreen panel Apple added to the MacBook Pro in 2016. Love or hate the Touch Bar, that’s a bad thing.

Popular Apple accessory maker TwelveSouth has announced its latest product for MacBook and iPad users. The new ParcSlope is an ergonomic stand designed with an 18-degree typing and sketching angle. It will be available directly from Apple via the Apple Online Store as well as Apple retail stores.

Apple has silently extended its worldwide program that offers free repair to 13-inch MacBook Pro models with display backlight issues. While the original program covered eligible laptops for four years after the first unit was sold, the company changed it today to five years.

We just got some exciting news from Ming-Chi Kuo and Bloomberg today about the next-generation MacBook Pro notebooks. While we already knew some of the details like 14- and 16-inch screen sizes and the move to Apple Silicon, an expansion of I/O beyond USB-C ports, the return of MagSafe, a new design, and more have now been predicted. What ports and features are you most interested to see return or arrive on the next-gen MacBook Pro lineup?

We’ve had a couple of reports today, each from solid sources, suggesting that we’ll see significant changes when the 2021 MacBook Pro models appear.

The two reports agree on most things, though there are some differences between them. Notably, Ming-Chi Kuo indicates that removal of the Touch Bar is a done deal, while Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman thinks it is merely being considered at this stage …

Following a report from Ming-Chi Kuo offering a variety of new details on the 2021 MacBook Pro refresh, Bloomberg is out with its own report on the changes. The report adds additional details on the return of MagSafe, and teases a redesign for the MacBook Air.

Reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo today released some interesting details about the upcoming MacBook Pro. Kuo describes this as the first major redesign of the laptop in five years, and will represent a significant upgrade over even the latest 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro. The new MacBook Pro will feature 14-inch and 16-inch sizes and feature ARM Apple silicon instead of Intel CPUs.

However, Kuo shares some much more surprising tidbits, namely that the Touch Bar will be gone in favor of physical function keys, the MagSafe charging connector returns along with more built-in IO ports that mean most users will not need to purchase additional dongles according to Kuo …

A new supply-chain report today says that we can expect to see a 2021 16-inch MacBook Pro with a miniLED screen. This is consistent with a recent report from noted Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

Kuo said just over a month ago that we can expect to see two MacBook Pro models with an all-new form factor, as well as miniLED backlighting …

On the whole, Apple’s M1 MacBooks and Mac mini have been a hit with big improvements across the board. However, the improvements never end and Apple has been asking early M1 MacBook customers a list of questions in a new survey including what they would change about the new generation of computers. How about you, what would like to see with the next iteration of M1 MacBooks?

The M1 chip in the entry-level MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini lines already rivals high-end Intel CPUs. But a new report from Bloomberg indicates that Apple is confident it can fully leave Intel in the dust, as it works on next-generation Apple Silicon chips with higher power budgets.

Bloomberg says Apple is working on successors to the M1 with up to 20 CPU cores, made up of 16 high performance and 4-efficiency cores. In 2021, the company is expected to roll out ARM versions of the higher-end MacBook Pro, “both entry-level and high-end iMac desktops”. An ARM Mac Pro is scheduled to follow in 2022.

If you’ve ever wished Apple made matte black MacBooks, a new patent shows that the company is at least considering the idea.

Apple begins by explaining the likely reason it hasn’t yet done it: it’s really hard to get a true black, rather than a dark grey …

Reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is out with a new investor note today in which he focuses on Apple’s planned transition to mini LED display technology, as well as the possibility that Apple will release “2 or 3 new chargers in 2021.” Kuo reports today that the mini LED transition will happen faster than initially expected.

Has the transition from Intel to Apple silicon on the Mac surpassed all expectations? Watch our hands-on video as we discuss what makes Apple’s M1 MacBooks so special in our MacBook Air and MacBook Pro review.

Apple’s switch from Intel processors to Apple Silicon is the most significant change to the Mac lineup in many years, and yet the exterior design of M1 Macs has been left almost completely unchanged. A few function keys aside on the new MacBook Air, there is no clue that the new machines are radically different from the old ones.

Some believe this is a very deliberate move by the Cupertino company. I agree, but not for the reason that has mostly been suggested …

We continue to learn more about Apple’s new M1-powered MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. This afternoon, the folks over at iFixit have published their full teardowns of the new MacBooks, and things are incredibly similar to the Intel-powered predecessors.

Coming off record-breaking earnings for its fiscal Q3, Apple did it again for Q4. At the time, the company highlighted that new all-time records for Mac and Services were big factors in its September quarter success. Now we’ve got a look at how many Macs Apple may have shipped during its Q4 from Strategy Analytics.