Now that this year’s iPhones are out of the way, it’s time to focus all our attention on MacBooks. Apple’s Unleashed event kicks off today at 10 a.m. PT/1 pm ET – 4am for those of us on Australia’s east coast – and, as always, we’ll be liveblogging the whole thing right here. We’ll update you with everything announced over here, but stay tuned for announcements.
Leakers have been hinting at 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros for nearly all of 2021, so those are the two main products we’re expecting to see. These refreshed MacBook Pros will purportedly kick the Touch Bar to the curb, as well as bring back the SD card slot and HDMI port. We’re also expecting Apple to tell us a bit about the shiny new processor powering the devices: the so-called M1X (though Apple might end up calling it something different).
While we’re pretty dang sure the MacBook Pros are on the docket, it’s not clear if we’ll see any other Macs. Rumours have hinted that a higher-end Mac Mini might make an appearance, but it could very well not.
Apple will also likely announce the public release of macOS Monterey. It’s the only one of Apple’s annual OS upgrades that’s still in beta, and it makes sense to launch it alongside the new MacBook Pros. We’ve got a preview of what you can expect to see in macOS Monterey, but TL;DR: It’s an iterative update that’ll make your Apple devices play nice together.
Also: Don’t count out new AirPods. We’ve been expecting these for a long, long time and word on the street is they’re on track for a 2021 launch — which would make this probably the last chance for a splashy debut this year.
So that’s the rundown. The entire Gizmodo consumer tech team is on deck, so don’t worry if your stream stutters or you have to take a bathroom break. We’re committed to blogging this whole shebang until our fingers fall off.