Inside the Mac Pro, Apple's most powerful and configurable Mac
There have been concerns about the fate of the Mac Pro ever since Apple killed off the Xserve a year and a half ago. Although Apple didn’t say the Mac Pro was on the chopping block, the company did let it go without an update for quite some time. Although the Mac Pro didn’t get featured in today’s WWDC keynote like the MacBook lineup, which includes the new MacBook Pro, it did receive a long-needed update.
The biggest reaction to the Mac Pro’s update today is a sense of relief by many creative professionals and Mac-focused IT departments. The update proves that Apple isn’t signing the death warrant for its most powerful and most expandable Mac. That makes the updated specs a symbol of Apple’s commitment to high-end and high-performance systems in addition to being a major product update.
Apple announced a lot of things from the stage at WWDC today, but there was nothing said about the future of the Mac Pro. Rumors speculated that Apple would be updating the two-year-old workhorse today, and the 2012 Mac Pro has just appeared on Apple’s website.
While the physical design of the machine has stayed the same, Apple has upgraded the Mac Pro’s specs: 3.06GHz Intel Xeon X5675 processors, new ATI Radeon HD graphic cards, four 3.5-inch drive bays for up to 8TB of storage, and 2 SuperDrives. A big disappointment is that Apple hasn’t added Thunderbolt I/O or USB 3.0 to the 2012 Mac Pro.
The new Retina display MacBook Pro looks incredible. But can you afford it?
Following those specifications for the new Mac Pro and the new MacBook Pro that we reported on earlier, the specifics for the Retina display MacBook Pro and the new MacBook Airs have now also been leaked. In addition to Intel’s Ivy Bridge processors for all models, highlights include up to 8GB of RAM and up to 512GB of SSD storage for the MacBook Air, and up to 768GB of storage for the MacBook Pro.
Apple’s online store has gone down ahead of the company’s keynote presentation at WWDC in just under four hours. We’ve had our suspicions that the company will be refreshing a number of its Macs, and this almost confirms they’ll be available to order today.
The MacBook Pro might not be going anywhere just yet.
Apple rumor site 9to5 Mac says it has gotten its hands on the entire spec sheet for the Macs expected to be announced today. There will be a a pair of new desktop Mac Pros, along with a server version.
The site also claims that the current 13 and 15-inch MacBook Pros will get a spec bump, and that there will be a new Retina-display 15-inch model.
A hardware bomb! That’s what CultCast special guest and Ars Technica writer Chris Foresman thinks is about to go down at next week’s WWDC. I think he’s right, and on our brand new CultCast we’ll tell you why Apple might be about to refresh every Mac they make. Plus, there’s iOS 6. We’ll tell you what to expect from Apple’s new mobile OS too.
And don’t miss our winner of Faves and Raves, the game where we pitch our favorite hardware/apps and then vote on which is best.
All that and too many LULZ on our brand new CultCast. Subscribe now in iTunes and read on through for our show notes.
Yesterday we told you that Apple is getting ready to breathe life into the Mac Pro at WWDC next week, and today more specs for the upcoming machine have been allegedly revealed. It’s been nearly two years since Apple introduced a new Mac Pro, and there are plenty of internal upgrades that need to be made for it to be considered a computer that meets professional standards.
Apple will finally bring its Thunderbolt I/O architecture to the Mac Pro this year, as well as some other major improvements.
Every year thousands of Apple developers flock to San Francisco to attend Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference to be educated in all things Apple. Over the past decade the conference has undergone some big changes as Apple has introduced products like the iPhone, Mac Pro, Intel Processors, Mac OS X operating systems, and much more. An event that used to be lightly attended has now become the most popular developers conference in the world and sold out within 2 hours this years. Here’s a look at the banner images of WWDC over the past 10 years.
With the MacBook Pro, Air and iMac lineups all expected to see a refresh at Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference next week, it looks like the seemingly-abanonded Mac Pro will also be updated. Apple has begun pulling Mac Pro stock from its retail stores and online shipping estimates are also starting to slip. This type of activity is typical right before a new version of an Apple product is announced, as Apple clears out its old inventory to make room for the new.
The Mac Pro saw its last refresh in July of 2010, and many have begun to lose faith that Apple will continue to support its ‘pro’ users as the company transitions to being more consumer-oriented. It would seem that we can all be hopeful for the future of the Mac Pro, as the machine is about to see its first refresh in nearly two years.
Apple’s tower of power, the Mac Pro, hasn’t been updated in almost two years, but on our latest CultCast, we’ll tell you why that could soon change.
And, did you catch Tim Cook at last week’s All Things D conference? We’ll get you up-to-date quick as we analyze and scrutinize every little thing he said (and didn’t!).
All that and our answers to your questions on our brand new CultCast. Subscribe now in iTunes and read on through for our show notes.