Top Stories: MacBook Air, Mac Studio, iPad Air, and iPad Updates

There was definitely 'something in the air' this week as Tim Cook promised, with Apple making a number of product announcements to breathe new life into several of its Mac and iPad products.

Some aspects of the announcements were expected while others were a bit of a surprise as was Apple looking to entice potential customers with some interesting choices for its new products, so read on below for all the details!

Everything Apple Announced This Week

It was a busy week for Apple with multiple new products announced on both Tuesday and Wednesday. We're now caught up on what's been rumored for a spring launch, so check out our recap and video going over everything Apple announced.

All of the new products are available for pre-order now and will launch on Wednesday, March 12.

Apple Announces New MacBook Air With M4 and 'Sky Blue' Color Option

Apple on Wednesday announced refreshed 13- and 15-inch MacBook Air models featuring the M4 chip, an upgraded Center Stage camera, and a new Sky Blue color option to replace Space Gray.

The M4 chip features a 10-core CPU, an up to 10-core GPU, and support for up to 32GB of unified memory, and Apple says the new ‌MacBook Air‌ is up to 2x faster than the M1 model.

The M4 MacBook Air also comes with a lower $999 starting price, allowing Apple to simplify the lineup by eliminating both the M2 and M3 models.

Apple Announces New Mac Studio With M4 Max and M3 Ultra Chips, Thunderbolt 5, and More

Wednesday's other big announcement was an updated Mac Studio with M4 Max and M3 Ultra chip options, Thunderbolt 5 ports, and more.

The M4 Max chip was already released last year in the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro, and it can be configured with up to a 16-core CPU, up to a 40-core GPU, and up to 128GB of unified memory. The all-new M3 Ultra chip features up to a 32-core CPU with 24 performance cores and eight efficiency cores, up to 80 GPU cores, and up to 512GB of memory.

Apple Announces New iPad Air With M3 Chip, Updated Magic Keyboard

Apple on Tuesday introduced new 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Air models with the M3 chip, along with an updated Magic Keyboard for the device.

With the M3 chip, the new iPad Air should offer up to 20% faster performance compared to the previous-generation model with the M2 chip, which was released in May 2024. In addition, the M3 chip brings hardware-accelerated ray tracing to the iPad Air for the first time, providing improved graphics rendering in games.

The new Magic Keyboard for the iPad Air features a larger trackpad and function keys for easy access to features like display brightness and volume controls.

Apple Unveils 11th-Gen iPad With A16 Chip and More Storage

Alongside the M3 iPad Air, Apple on Tuesday also announced the 11th-generation iPad, now featuring the A16 chip and more storage.

While the new iPad won't support Apple Intelligence, the A16 chip represents a significant upgrade over the A14 Bionic chip in the previous model, and the new iPad offers a better value as Apple has doubled the starting storage to 128GB. There's also a new 512GB tier at the high end.

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Each week, we publish an email newsletter like this highlighting the top Apple stories, making it a great way to get a bite-sized recap of the week hitting all of the major topics we've covered and tying together related stories for a big-picture view.

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