Apple launches M6 iMac and 14-inch MacBook Pro ahead of touchscreen MacBook event

According to 9to5Mac, the new iMac retains the same 24-inch display and overall design as the previous model, with the M6 chip as the main change. The chip offers up to a 12-core CPU, 12-core GPU and dual 16-core Neural Engine, compared with up to a 10-core CPU and GPU and a 16-core Neural Engine on the M4 iMac. Apple says users should expect up to 40% faster CPU performance, twice the graphics performance, twice the storage speed and five times faster AI performance, 9to5Mac reported. The iMac also adds Apple's N1 wireless chip for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, plus 2.5Gb Ethernet that Apple says offers up to 2.5 times faster wired connectivity than the previous generation. TechCrunch reported that the iMac has a 24-inch 4.5K Retina display, up to four Thunderbolt 4 ports, color-matched accessories, macOS 27 and a choice of blue, green, pink, yellow, purple, orange and silver finishes.

TechCrunch reported that the 14-inch M6 MacBook Pro offers 24 hours of battery life, Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, 16GB of unified memory configurable to 32GB, memory bandwidth of up to 170GB/s and a 12-megapixel camera. It includes HDMI, MagSafe 3, three Thunderbolt 4 ports, an SDXC card slot and a headphone jack, and supports fast charging to 50% in 30 minutes with a compatible high-wattage USB-C adapter. Apple says the M6 has a 12-core CPU with what it calls the world's fastest CPU core and a 12-core GPU that delivers up to 30% faster graphics and up to 25% faster AI workloads than the M5; the company also claims up to 13 times the LLM prompt-processing speed of the M1 MacBook Pro and up to 1.3 times faster performance than the M5 model. 9to5Mac reported that the M6 has two super cores, four performance cores and six efficiency cores, along with Neural Accelerators, hardware-accelerated ray tracing and a dual 16-core Neural Engine, and that the 14-inch model is otherwise a spec-bump update with the N1 chip.

The high-end redesign expected Wednesday was described by Mark Gurman in a post on X, according to 9to5Mac, as having a slightly thinner case, thinner bezels, a noticeably lighter body and a revamped hinge. Gurman highlighted the hinge as a focal point because of reports that a small number of iPhone Duo displays had cracked, potentially in connection with a malfunctioning hinge. The redesigned MacBook Pro is also expected to offer an OLED touchscreen, use M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, and replace the notch with a hole-punch cutout and Dynamic Island, 9to5Mac reported. The Verge reported that Apple is expected to announce a touchscreen MacBook at the event, reversing a long-standing stance by Apple executives against touchscreen laptops; reported details include OLED displays, 14- and 16-inch sizes, M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, a thinner and lighter chassis and touch-friendly enhancements in a revised macOS 27 Golden Gate. It remains unclear whether the machine will use a conventional clamshell design, a more flexible hinge or Apple Pencil support, The Verge reported.

Engadget reported that Apple began the week on Monday with the eighth-generation OLED iPad mini, which has an 8.5-inch display, 1,200 nits of peak brightness and a 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio. The tablet runs on the A20 Pro chip with a seven-core GPU, supports Apple Intelligence and Siri AI, and includes the N1 chip for Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 and Thread, plus an Apple C2 modem that Apple says delivers up to 50% faster data speeds than the previous iPad mini. It has a 12-megapixel Center Stage front camera on the landscape edge, no Face ID, an IP67 rating and Apple's first Acoustic Display. The iPad mini starts at $699, $150 more than the previous model after Apple raised that model's price in June; preorders open Oct. 28 and it goes on sale Nov. 6, Engadget reported.

Separately, TechCrunch reported that Apple released iOS 27.2 with Siri AI support in beta for French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish, along with the ability for Siri to remember details from past conversations and draw on sources including photos in Messages, calendar attendees, voicemails, Safari history and reading lists. The update adds Apple Pencil support for the foldable iPhone Duo in Notes and Preview, FaceTime Dual Capture, a third-party sign language interpreter or live captioner option, and Multiview for up to four live sports streams on Apple TV. TechCrunch also reported that iOS 27.2 includes more than 160 security fixes, that about 80% of iPhone owners remain on iOS 26, and that Apple backported a fix to iOS 18 for a flaw that may have been exploited in an extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals on versions before iOS 27.

9to5Mac reported that Apple also announced updates to Apple Creator Studio with new AI features using Apple Intelligence and OpenAI models, to be available as a free update for existing subscribers in November. Final Cut Pro for Mac gains built-in MotionVFX and seamless editing in Pixelmator Pro; Logic Pro for Mac adds a beta intelligent assistant, an enhanced Stem Splitter and a redesigned Browser with a Splice library; Pixelmator Pro adds Generate Fill; and Keynote, Pages and Numbers add beta assistants that understand document context, along with Model Context Protocol support for workflow automation.