It’s still very early in the life of the new Mac Pro (shipping dates have already slipped to February), but the first review unit reports are starting to seep out — and they’re positive.
On our all-new CultCast: Apple has a new Christmas commercial and some are hailing it as their best ad yet; Mac Pro is Apple’s most powerful computer ever; Beyonce’s iTunes-only album release breaks all the records; an alarming new study shows pervs can use your Mac’s camera to peep your naked bod; and we choose on our favorite Christmas movies of all time!
Have a few laughs whilst getting caught up on each week’s finest Apple stories! Download new and past episodes of The CultCast on iTunes or hit play below and let the audio enjoyment commence.
Thanks to DigiDNA and MacUpdate for sponsoring this episode. Need an easy way to wirelessly transfer movies, music, and data to and from your iDevice? You need DiskAid. Plus check out Macupdate’s new holiday app bundle and get $400 worth great apps for only $40.
Coinciding with the launch of the redesigned Mac Pro and the upgrade to Final Cut Pro X, Apple’s pro digital audio workstation Logic Pro X has also received a major update — in the form of a Mac Pro-optimized version number 10.0.5.
The new Mac Pro finally went on sale this morning with initial orders shipping by December 30th. After only a few hours of being on sale, shipping estimates slipped to February for all configurations.
Now Apple is saying that it will be awhile before it can catch up with demand.
When Apple announced a completely redesigned Mac Pro this past summer, the biggest question mark was the price tag. As a company that’s known for selling quality hardware at a premium, would Apple price the Mac Pro ultra-competitively or stick to its infamous ‘Apple tax’?
Well, the most expensive Mac Pro you can buy costs nearly 10K by itself. For normal people, that’s a hard price to swallow. But with two base configurations and plenty of build-to-order options, the real pros have no trouble dropping cash on Apple’s new powerhouse.
Here’s what a maxed out Mac Pro looks like:
The Mac Pro has been on sale for barely 12 hours, and most buyers haven’t even gotten their hands on it yet, but that hasn’t stopped Apple from releasing a firmware update. Today the company put out EFI Firmware Update 2.0 in the Mac App Store.
“This update improves system reliability during reboot, resolves an issue with memory self-test, and improves graphics power management when using Boot Camp,” notes Apple. You can also grab it directly from Apple’s website.
Source: Apple
If you haven’t already ordered a new Mac Pro on Apple’s website, don’t count on it arriving before the holidays are over. Shipping estimates for Apple’s just-released Pro have been pushed back to February, which is a sure sign that the computer is facing significant supply constraints.
After being on sale for less than a day, a quick visit to the online Apple store will show that every Mac Pro configuration won’t ship until February. The fact that Apple didn’t start selling it until the latest possible moment in 2013 also speaks to stock shortages. Apple had promised all year that the product would ship by the end of 2013, and it barely fulfilled that promise.
And if you think you’ll be able to just waltz into an Apple Store and pick one up, good luck. Apple’s business clients have had their pick of the litter by now. It’s worth calling an authorized reseller in your area if you’re that desperate, but getting your hands on a Mac Pro before February will be quite the stroke of good luck.
Source: Apple Store
The new Mac Pro is finally here, and considering the fact that it looks exactly like a trash can, what better way to celebrate its release than to replace your Mac’s current trash icon with Apple’s stealthy, space-age new super computer?
Apple’s “fastest Mac ever” is now available to order from the Apple online store, with prices starting at $2,999. The high-end desktop, which is assembled in the United States in Austin, Texas, is currently shipping before the end of the year.
You can also pick one up today from your local Apple retail store, or from an Apple authorized reseller.
If you’re buying a Mac Pro today, you might also be looking around for a 4K monitor or two to hook up to it. Well, LG has you more than covered, with its crazy wide new 19:10 ratio 4K screen, catchily dubbed the 31MU95. The 31-inch screen has a resolution of 4,096 x 2,160, and is so wide you might only need one of them.
Apple’s latest Mac Pro, the high-end desktop built in the U.S. that you’ve been anticipating for years, will finally go on sale tomorrow. Announced at WWDC back in June, the new machine sports a brand new design and cutting-edge hardware throughout, and it will start at $2,999.
Tony Fadell, father of the original iPod and creator of the Nest home thermostat, sparked all kinds of speculation earlier this week after appearing in photos posted to Twitter alongside Jony Ive’s (RED) Mac Pro and rose gold Earpods, which were recently sold at a Sotheby’s charity auction for just under $1.5 million.
It seemed as though Fadell has snapped up both items himself, but he has today confirmed that he is the owner of neither.
Once it was revealed that the new Mac Pro could power up to three 4K displays at once, speculation immediately followed about Apple releasing an updated Thunderbolt Display. Rumors have been scare on that front, and a recent slip up in Apple’s online store indicates that the company may be looking to other manufacturers to supply 4K displays.
Yesterday Apple briefly sold Sharp’s new 32-inch LED monitor in several of its European online stores. After the product was spotted, Apple pulled the listing.
This time on the CultCast: pro television editor and motion graphics artist Mike Gaines tells us the pros and cons of Apple’s new Mac Pro. Plus, Darth Vader has an iPhone 4; Apple makes your face your password; new patents tell a tale wireless charging for your Mac and iDevices; and we pitch our favorite new apps on an all-new Faves ‘N Raves!
Have a few laughs and get caught up on each week’s best Apple stories. Stream or download new and past episodes of The CultCast now on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing on iTunes, or hit play below adventure begin.
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Conrad Electronic, an authorized Apple reseller in Germany, has begun taking preorders for the new Mac Pro. Availability is listed for Monday, December 16th.
Apple has said that the Mac Pro would be available before the end of the year, but an exact date has not yet been given. It could very well be that this reseller is hedging its bets and trying to garner some press attention, but this wouldn’t be the first time a third-party reseller has correctly predicted a recent Apple product launch. The date could favorably coincide with the opening of the Apple Store in Düsseldorf, Germany on December 14th.
Apple has yet to announce a successor to its three-year-old Thunderbolt Display, despite the fact that the company is releasing a new Mac Pro by the end of the year with the ability to power up to three 4K displays at once.
A Redditor did some digging and found that a display supplier overseas with ties to Apple is currently making 4K desktop-sized panels that are designed for Thunderbolt and could very easily be put in future Apple monitors.
Now here’s one for the record books – a special one-of-a-kind Product (RED) Mac Pro, created jointly by Jony Ive and Marc Newson, sold at Sotheby’s on Saturday for $977,000! The upper six figure bid makes the (RED) Mac Pro the most expensive desktop computer ever built or sold.
Last week at Apple’s iPad keynote, Phil Schiller finally unveiled the baseline price for the Mac Pro will start at $2999, to the surprise of many. Keep in mind that’s only for a quad-core unit and the six-core units start at $3999. However, Apple announced 12-core units will also be available as a customized option, meaning that baseline price is just the tip of the iceberg for how deep Apple will reach into your pockets for a maxed out Mac Pro.
Apple still hasn’t announced official pricing for those hefty upgrades, but pros should expect to pay upwards of $10,000 for a top notch Mac Pro. According to the estimations of Unbox Therapy, a top-of-the-line Mac Pro with max upgrades will probably cost around $14k!
Watch Unbox Therapy break down the numbers in the video below:
iPad Air. Retina iPad Mini. New Macbook Pros. The new Mac Pro. Mavericks goes free. So does the new iLife and iWork. There’s a TON to talk about on our Special Edition CultCast! Join us, and special guest (and MacCast host) Adam Christianson, as we discuss our first impressions of the huge pile of hardware and software Apple unveiled at the jam-packed event.
Have a few laughs and get caught up on each week’s best Apple stories. Stream or download new and past episodes of The CultCast now on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing on iTunes, or hit play below and let baseline roll!
We know that the new Mac Pro — and as we learned earlier this week, the new MacBook Pros — sport new Thunderbolt 2 ports, which double the speed of the initial version to a maximum throughput of 20GB/second.
All that speed is academic without peripherals designed specifically for Thunderbolt 2. So today, Promise Technology is the first company to announce Thunderbolt 2 stuff — namely, their Pegasus2 RAID storage boxes and SANLink2 Fibre Channel-to-Thunderbolt 2 SAN device bridge.
Written by Greg Keonig, product designer and publisher of Atomic Delights.
As a product designer, one of my favorite parts about any new Apple product launch is the inevitable “How it’s made” video. The Mac Pro incarnation did not disappoint.
What makes Apple fascinating is not that they are using some wiz-bang alien technologies to make things – even here in Portland, Oregon, all the technologies Apple shows in this video are in-practice across numerous local factories. What makes Apple unique is that they perform their manufacturing with remarkable precision and on a scale that is simply astonishing, using techniques typically reserved for the aerospace or medical device industries.
Apple packed a lot into one hour and 20 minutes today, with announcements about OS X Mavericks, Macbook Pro, Macbook Air, Mac Pro, and the stars of the show: iPad Air and Retina iPad mini. We think that this is about an hour and 18 minutes too long to watch, though, so we’ve condensed it to around 90 seconds.
Here is the Apple iPad Air and iPad mini keynote, right from Yerba Buena, in just 90 seconds:
“We still have a lot to cover,” is Apple’s promise this time around. On October 15th, the company sent out press invitations for a media event that will be held at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco this coming Tuesday, October 22nd.
Last month we saw the unveiling of the iPhone 5s and 5c, and this second event is expected to center around new iPads. But that’s not all; the future of OS X, iOS 7, and the Mac are also rumored to be waiting in the wings.
Here’s what to expect from Apple’s October 22nd event:
More than six months before Apple unveiled the new Mac Pro, we correctly predicted that it would be made exclusively in the USA. Now, as the Mac Pro gears up to start shipping in the coming month, a Texas newspaper is reporting that up to 1,700 workers are being hired near Austin to push the Mac Pro out the door.
We’re still waiting for Apple to send out invitations to a press event on October 22, where we expect the Cupertino company to announce new iPads and possibly new MacBook Pros. According to a new rumor that has surfaced today, the new devices will go on sale before the end of the month, while the new Mac Pro will make its debut in mid-November.