Apple unveiled the very first Mac Pro 20 years ago today, dubbing the computer “the ideal system for the most demanding user.” It was the last Mac to make the transition to Intel processors and put the final nail in the coffin of its PowerPC predecessor — quite a statement at the time.

In fact, the Mac Pro was so powerful that it doubled the performance of the Power Mac G5 that had launched less than a year earlier. Talk about earning that “Pro” moniker.

Many different iterations followed, but the one constant was the positioning. The Mac Pro was always the Mac you went for if money was no object but power was an imperative. It was, seemingly, a computer for the ages.

Or not, as it turned out. In March 2026, Apple officially discontinued the Mac Pro and said it had no plans for any future models. It was an ignominious end to the most powerful Mac Apple has ever made.

The very nature of the Mac Pro had always made it vulnerable. But that vulnerability proved to be fatal when combined with market conditions that even a giant like Apple is struggling to deal with today. When we look back at why the Mac Pro (just) failed to make it to 20 years old, there’s one very obvious culprit.

A dangerously niche product

Right from the off, the Mac Pro was designed to be used by people in challenging professions who valued performance above all else. It was made to complement the eye-watering powers of the best Intel chips of the day, which offered far more in the way of output than the PowerPC processors Apple had previously been using.

That meant that the Mac Pro was always a niche product that flaunted its raw power. That was the point of the machine, and although the general public liked to poke fun at its sky-high prices (remember the $400 wheels on the 2019 model?), its intended audience didn’t much care. When your work consists of high-grade film productions, artificial intelligence (AI) data crunching or similarly demanding pursuits, high prices are just the cost of doing business.

But that niche nature meant the Mac Pro was never going to sell on the scale of the MacBook Air or the MacBook Pro. Apple was always taking a calculated risk, determining that it was worth going after a small but loyal audience who craved the Mac Pro’s power and reliability — and would continue to do so over the years.

The problem, though, was that Apple often seemed to take these users for granted. The cylindrical model introduced in 2013 — nicknamed the “trash can” Mac Pro for its tubular shape — went years without an update because, Apple later admitted, the company had “designed ourselves into a bit of a thermal corner”.

Amazingly, the 2013 model wasn’t updated until six years later — a veritable lifetime in computing terms — when the final design iteration of the Mac Pro finally touched down.

The introduction of the Mac Studio also caused a massive problem for the Mac Pro. Its performance was just as good as the Mac Pro, if not better, yet it came in a smaller package that cost far less. The choice for many people was clear.

With the transition to Apple silicon, add-in extras like the Apple Afterburner Card were no longer feasible, meaning the Mac Pro’s only real advantage was its inclusion of a few expansion options like PCIe. But when you’re paying a minimum of $6,999, those returns make less and less sense when compared with a Mac Studio.

Apple had long walked the fine line between infrequent updates and outright abandonment, but still it kept chugging away at the Mac Pro, even after the Mac Studio’s arrival. Instead, it was an external force that finally killed off the Mac Pro — and forced a complete rethink from Apple.

Buried in the dark

On March 26, 2026, news emerged that Apple had discontinued the Mac Pro. The company explained to 9to5Mac that it also had “no plans to offer future Mac Pro hardware,” seemingly sounding the computer’s death knell for good.

The timing might have seemed strange, and it certainly seemed to come out of the blue. But with the benefit of hindsight, we can gain a pretty good idea of what happened and why Apple made the move when it did.

That’s because just three months later, Apple announced bombshell price rises that affected nearly every device it sold.

The Mac range was badly hit, with high-end devices like the Mac Studio coming in for particularly stinging increases. That device saw the single highest price jump by far, rocketing up by a painful $1,300 for the M3 Ultra model. The MacBook Pro, meanwhile, rose $300, the second-highest dollar increase of any Apple product.

These price adjustments weren’t made on a whim. No, they were prompted by the widespread component crisis that’s currently ravaging the entire computing industry.

Parts are getting more expensive by the day thanks to the overwhelming demand from AI data centers. Things are so bad that Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke out, calling the situation “unsustainable” and describing his company’s price increases as “unavoidable”.

When you see how badly pro users were affected by these changes, Apple’s decision to ditch the Mac Pro starts to make a lot more sense. If the Mac Studio now costs $1,300 more than it did previously — a figure that ballooned by almost 33% — what kind of wince-inducing costs would Mac Pro users be faced with had Apple continued to sell the device?

Going with that same 33% jump, we could have been looking at a Mac Pro that started at around $9,299. That’s a roughly 33% step up over the Mac Pro’s old entry price of $6,999. And we’re not even talking about any upgrades here — no beefed-up CPU or additional storage, not even any ultra-premium wheels. Just the base-level Mac Pro and nothing more.

When you think about it like that, it’s obvious why the Mac Pro was killed off just shy of its 20th anniversary. If Apple waited for the computer’s birthday, it would have been forced to escalate its price to frankly outrageous heights alongside all the other affected products.

And in the cut-throat world of business, that would have been a no-go considering the prices we’re talking about here. The Mac Pro was already selling in vanishingly small numbers. Boost its price by 33% — or even 20% — and its sales would have fallen off a cliff. The only thing a move like that would have generated is a torrent of bad press for very little positive return.

So in the end, Apple didn’t afford the Mac Pro a sentimental 20th birthday celebration. Given the ongoing memory crisis and its wide-ranging effects on the entire computing industry, there was no room to stand on ceremony. The Mac Pro was buried in the dark — before its price could become even more contentious.

• Virtual Mac on iPad gets macOS running on compatible iPads
• It requires a jailbroken tablet and specific versions of iPadOS
• Its many limitations mean I don’t think it’s worth the hassle

For years, people have been wondering if Apple is ever going to “merge” iPadOS and macOS into some unholy mutant operating system. While Apple has repeatedly and resoundingly denied that’s ever going to happen, one intrepid developer has taken it upon themselves to do the hard work instead. And while the result lets you run full-fat macOS on your iPad Pro or iPad Air, I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone but the hardiest of souls.

Dubbed Virtual Mac on iPad, this GitHub project ports macOS onto Apple’s best iPads. That means it’s nothing like Apple’s Sidecar feature, which lets you use an iPad as a second display for a Mac. In the case of Sidecar, the Mac is doing all the processing. With Virtual Mac on iPad, however, it’s your iPad that’s actually running the operating system.

Unfortunately, getting that to actually happen is more than a little convoluted. You can’t even get started unless you’ve jailbroken your iPad, which means hacking it so it can run apps and systems not authorized by Apple. As well as that, the jailbroken iPad must be running iPadOS 16 to iPadOS 16.3.1 — nothing more, nothing less — in order to harness an exploit that was patched in subsequent editions. The requirements so far will probably be enough to put a lot of people off.

If you’ve persevered, you’ll need to add a specified repository to your device and install Virtual Mac on iPad from there. But you’ll need to be aware that even with macOS successfully set up, you won’t be able to log into your Apple Account — since you’re using a jailbroken device with an unofficial port of macOS, you’ll run into problems if you try to sign in, putting features like Find My and iCloud syncing out of reach.

Is it worth it?

Why would you go to all this effort to run macOS on your iPad? Well, there are a few reasons, including accessing Mac-only apps and getting a more portable platform to run macOS on.

But I certainly don’t think it’s a good idea. Apple’s iPadOS and macOS systems have been designed for very different use cases, and simply shoehorning a platform designed for a Mac onto an iPad isn’t a guarantee of success.

For one thing, macOS is made for large screens and input devices like mice and keyboards, while iPadOS works best on smaller screens operated by your fingers and thumbs. Sure, there’s some crossover — I’m aware that you can use mice and keyboards with an iPad, for example — but that doesn’t escape the fact that Virtual Mac on iPad puts the Mac’s operating system on a device it was never intended for.

As well as that, it requires a lot of effort for seemingly very small rewards. There are only a handful of cases where installing Virtual Mac on iPad is worthwhile, at least in my opinion: accessing apps like Xcode and Terminal that aren’t available in iPadOS, for example, or getting macOS on the most portable device possible.

But Apple’s best MacBooks are still lightweight and easy to carry around, and with a touchscreen MacBook Pro rumored to be just around the corner and Sidecar already a thing, the need for something like Virtual Mac on iPad feels limited. Is it worthwhile to go to all this trouble just for an ounce more portability? I’m sure it is for some people, but that number is likely to be vanishingly small.

At the end of the day, I know there will be some people for whom this is a welcome development. But its complicated installation process and limited use case just reinforce for me that Apple is absolutely right not to merge iPadOS and macOS. They’re meant to be separate, just as Apple intended.

With back-to-school season in the air, you might be looking to stock up on a new Mac for college. But doing so can be a confusing affair, with many different models and configurations to choose from, and you can waste a lot of time trying to work out what’s best for your needs.

To skip all the bother, just give our guide a read. We’ve put together everything you need to know, from which Mac is best for you to how to get those all-important student discounts. You’ll be kitted out and ready to go before you know it.

How to choose the right specs for your Mac

When you buy a Mac, there are a few specifications you need to choose, including the chip, memory and storage. You’ll also need to pick a color and, with some Macs, extra options like the display coating and power adapter.

The first three factors — chip, memory and storage — are the most important, and the ones where there’s the most to learn.

We’ll start with the chip, which determines how powerful your MacBook is. More powerful and more recent chips will generally be better, and the higher the chip’s number, the more recent the generation it belongs to.

The chip usually comes in a few different tiers. There’s the baseline option, such as the M5, M4, M3 and so on, then Pro chips like the M5 Pro, M4 Pro and M3 Pro. Then there are Max chips, including the M5 Max and M4 Max. The most powerful level is the Ultra, and it’s limited to desktop Macs like the Mac Studio. The latest version there is the M3 Ultra.

Apple’s chips combine CPU, GPU and memory onto a single system on a chip (SoC). The CPU and GPU will have their own core counts, and the more cores you get, the better able the chip is to handle difficult workloads.

So, which do you need? The baseline chips will be more than enough for essay writing and basic research. On the other hand, you might want a Pro or even Max chip if you’re doing anything that involves complex apps, data processing or graphics work.

As for memory, this is built into the SoC, but you can increase or decrease it separately from the chip selection when configuring your Mac (although it’s worth noting that some memory amounts require upgrading to a more powerful chip). More memory helps speed up multitasking and is also useful for demanding workloads.

The amount of storage you choose depends on how long you want to keep the Mac, how much of a digital hoarder you are, and the type of things you’ll be storing. Run lots of large apps or work with high-resolution video files? You’ll need lots of storage.

Here, it’s best to err on the side of caution, as it’s very difficult (although not impossible) to upgrade your storage once you’ve bought your Mac. While it can be done, it’s not for the faint of heart.

One alternative is to plug in an external storage drive to give yourself extra space. This isn’t optimal, though, as it’s one more thing to carry around, and if it becomes accidentally disconnected, you could suffer data loss.

Make sure to regularly back up your Mac, either using an app like Time Machine or with a cloud service like Backblaze.

How to get Apple’s student discount

Apple has a special education store for students, teachers and more. Here, there are various savings available, depending on the product. For example, the MacBook Neo is priced at $599, down from the regular $699 price (bringing it back to the price it had when it launched, before Apple’s recent price rises).

Apple says that student discounts are available to “current and newly accepted college students and their parents, as well as faculty, staff, and homeschool teachers of all grade levels.” You’ll need to verify your student status, which you can do online or at an Apple Store.

Student savings can be had on more than just Macs. In total, the discounts apply to:

• Mac
• iPad and select accessories
• Apple Watch
• Displays
• AppleCare+ for Mac
• AppleCare+ for iPad
• AppleCare+ for Display

Apple says to look out for the mortarboard icon, which indicates a product bought through the education store is discounted.

You get all the same perks as if you were to buy through Apple’s regular store. You can pick components and colors, trade in an old device, personalize your device with engraved monograms and emojis, pay in full or over time, and more.

The three best Macs for back to school

Here, we’ve picked three Macs that we recommend the most for students. All three are Apple laptops, which will be perfect for carrying to lectures and around campus. Note that if you don’t have many lecture hours or are studying from home, you might want to consider the Mac mini, which starts at $699 in Apple’s education store. It’s a brilliant computer with an affordable price tag, but as it requires an external display, it’s not ideal for lectures and seminars.

MacBook Neo

The MacBook Neo is the perfect option for students on a budget. The default model comes with 256GB of storage, an Apple A18 Pro chip and 8GB of memory. It costs $599 from Apple’s education store, marking a saving of $100 over the regular price.

If your school or college work mostly involves writing essays and researching online, the MacBook Neo is exactly what you need and will be able to handle everything you do. The only question is whether you should upgrade to 512GB of storage — doing so also adds a Touch ID button to the keyboard, which is a handy way to log in and verify purchases.

MacBook Air

Stepping up, a solid mid-range option would be the 13-inch MacBook Air with M5 chip. You can choose between M5 chips featuring an eight-core GPU or a 10-core GPU, but we’d stick to the former — if you need more graphical power, the MacBook Pro will be a better option, which we’ll come to later.

Next, you can choose between 16GB, 24GB and 32GB of memory. The option you choose here depends on your workloads, but generally 16GB will be enough for most students. Again, if you need more, go for the MacBook Pro.

As for storage, the entry-level M5 chip is locked to 512GB of storage. To get more, you’ll need to upgrade to the higher-end M5 chip, which ups the price. Consider how much storage you need before making this move — if you have an existing computer, see how much you’re using with that. Bear in mind that you can’t change the internal storage after purchase, so if in doubt, opt for more.

Finally, there’s the matter of the charger. The M5 MacBook Air comes with a 40W charger that can handle loads up to 60W. If you want fast charging, which Apple says can power your laptop up to 50% in about 30 minutes, you’ll need the 70W option. This adds $20 to the cost.

MacBook Pro

For the most demanding student workloads, you’ll want to look at the MacBook Pro. Our recommendation is to start with the 14-inch model with M5 Pro chip. Skip the nano-texture display for now — it’s a nice addition, but unnecessary for students on a budget.

Do upgrade to the M5 Pro chip, however, or the M5 Max if you know you’ll be doing really heavy work that requires a lot of computing power. Unlike the MacBook Neo and MacBook Air, the MacBook Pro has built-in fans that mean it has a far superior cooling system that is much better equipped for demanding jobs. With that at your disposal, you can pick a beefy chip if you need it.

With the M5 Pro, your choices for memory are 24GB or 48GB. The former should be enough for most, but if you’re unsure, step up to the higher amount. While there are other options, including 36GB, 64GB and 128GB, these require swapping the M5 Pro for an M5 Max and paying a much higher price.

The configuration we’ve picked so far comes with 1TB of storage included, which is enough for most people. That said, anyone working with large photos and videos, high-grade apps or machine-learning models will likely need more space.

Finally, there’s the issue of the charger. The default option is 70W, which isn’t enough for fast charging (the MacBook Pro uses much more power than the MacBook Air, where 70W is enough for fast charging). Seeing as the 96W upgrade costs just $20 more and enables both fast charging (empty to 50% in about 30 minutes) and High Power Mode, we think it’s worth it.

• The MacBook Air is suffering major shortages due to the memory crisis
• There are other ways to get a MacBook Air, though
• One of the best is to get a refurbished model from Apple

You’d think that increasing its product prices would make it a little easier to pick up an Apple device, what with other customers staying away, but you might be wrong on that one. As per Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, it looks like the MacBook Air is proving to be extremely difficult to find — even with a $200 price increase.

Gurman states that Apple’s most popular Mac is experiencing “unprecedented” delays due to the ongoing memory crisis, with Apple retail employees telling Gurman that the company “is struggling to keep the laptop in stock and that shipments of new units are more constrained than they can ever recall.”

But there’s no need to worry if you’re in the market for a MacBook Air, as there’s one trick that can save you cash and help you get your hands on an Apple laptop despite the shortages. That’s by employing a tried-and-true method: buying refurbished.

Indeed, one of the best ways to do this is through Apple’s own refurbished store. Purchasing a Mac this way gets you a device that has had any faulty or defective parts replaced by genuine Apple alternatives. The product is cleaned, polished, and sent to you in a brand-new box with the same accessories you’d get with a fresh device.

I bought my M1 Pro MacBook Pro this way, and it was virtually indistinguishable from a new Mac while saving me hundreds of dollars. I’d absolutely go down this road again.

A better way to buy

Looking at Apple’s refurbished Mac store in the US, there are currently some choice deals to be had. For example, you can get a 13-inch MacBook Air with an M5 chip, 16GB of memory and 512GB of storage for $1,099, which knocks $200 off the new, more expensive price.

Or you can get a 15-inch MacBook Air with that same combination of M5 chip, 16GB of memory and 512GB of storage for $1,269. That’s $230 off what you’ll pay for a new version of the same Mac.

Over on Apple’s UK refurbished store, you’ll find those same models with similar savings of £200 and £230 compared to new alternatives. That means these discounts aren't limited to only US buyers.

And it’s also worth looking at the MacBook Pro if you want to step up. You can save $380 / £380 on the M5 MacBook Pro with M5 Pro chip, 24GB of memory and 1TB of storage, bringing its price down to $2,119 / £2,119. Unlike the MacBook Air deals, this example reduces the MacBook Pro’s price to less than it was before Apple’s price increases — it used to cost $2,199 / £2,199.

And remember that these devices come extremely close to the experience you’d get with a brand-new MacBook. You might be able to get cheaper deals elsewhere — and it’s always worth shopping around — but I don’t think you’ll get anything up to Apple’s standards anywhere else.

So, if you’ve been trying to snap up a Mac and have found yourself despairing at the lack of availability, don’t panic. There are still plenty of decent bargains to be had if you want that touch of Apple quality while still saving a respectable chunk of change.

Back to school season is here, with students preparing to head to school and college up and down the land. If that’s you and you’ve got one of the best Macs ready to take with you, you might be thinking about kitting it out with some handy accessories. While Apple’s Macs are brilliant devices, they can often be taken to another level with the help of some choice add-ons.

Here, we’ve put together some of the best Mac accessories for heading back to school, from protective bags to keep your Mac safe to useful extras that bring new features and comfort to your Mac experience. Each one is a worthy addition to your setup.

And don’t forget, if you’re getting accessories from Apple itself, be sure to look on Apple’s education store for special student discounts. Many third-party retailers also run back-to-school sales, and these often cover more than just Apple products, so don’t forget to shop around before you pull the trigger.

Laptop backpack: Timbuk2 Authority Backpack

With all the traveling to and from lectures — not to mention flights if you’re studying far from home — student life can take its toll on your Mac. That’s why it’s important to keep it protected to ensure it lasts as long as possible.

A great option is the Timbuk2 Authority Backpack, which is our pick for the best laptop backpack money can buy. It can hold a MacBook of any size, so whether you get a MacBook Air or a MacBook Pro, you know it’ll be safely stowed inside. It’s also got a dedicated iPad pocket and tons of extra storage for all the accessories you might need to carry.

There’s plenty of padding to protect against damage, and it’s also extremely comfortable to wear, even when loaded up with all your kit. And with special protection against downpours and showers, it’ll keep its contents dry and safe come rain or shine.

Portable power bank: Anker 737 Power Bank (PowerCore 24K)

Arrived at a lecture only to find your Mac is about to run out of power? Ensure that never happens again with the Anker 737 Power Bank (PowerCore 24K). This portable battery will keep your laptop juiced up and has enough charge for several other devices to boot.

With a massive 140W of output, it’s got enough power to charge up a MacBook Pro and an iPhone and still have extra left over. With three ports, you can hook up several devices at once, and the built-in display tells you the power bank’s battery health, output level from each port, and how much charge it’s got left.

It’s also safe to take on planes, which is good for students traveling home, and its cuboid shape makes it surprisingly easy to pack into tight corners. It’s capable, well designed, and could be just what you need when your battery is running low.

USB-C hub: Satechi OntheGo 7-in-1 Multiport Adapter

While the MacBook Pro comes with HDMI and an SDXC slot alongside USB-C ports, it’s one of the few Macs to offer anything more than USB-C. If you’ve got a range of incompatible accessories, you’ll want a hub to put things right.

The Satechi OntheGo 7-in-1 Multiport Adapter is a USB-C hub that can do exactly that. It plugs into a USB-C port on your Mac and offers a range of extra connectivity, including two USB-A slots, a USB-C port that can deliver up to 80W of Power Delivery juice to your devices, an SD card reader, a microSD reader, HDMI 2.0 and Gigabit Ethernet.

But it’s about much more than its connectivity. This device’s clever design and extendable cable make it incredibly portable, while its included magnet allows you to quickly snap it to a surface without the risk of losing it. It’s an ingenious product that solves a problem and looks good while doing so.

Monitor: BenQ PD2706QN

As a student, chances are you’ll be spending a lot of time working on your Mac. But if that means hunching over a MacBook for hours on end, you’ll quickly feel the strain. Take it from me — I used to work exclusively on a laptop, but suffered terrible back pain until I bought myself an external monitor that vastly improved my ergonomic situation.

Our pick here is the BenQ PD2706QN. Not only will it help create a more comfortable work situation, but it boasts excellent features that are worth having in their own right.

That includes an expansive 27-inch display size with a 1440p resolution and 100Hz refresh rate, which combine to make on-screen content sharp and scrolling smooth. It offers excellent color accuracy, hitting 95% of the P3 color space, and with 90 watts of Power Delivery, it’s got enough output to keep any MacBook powered up directly from the monitor itself. We also love its Nano Matte coating option that vanquishes reflections in a pinch.

For a more affordable option, there’s the BenQ GW2486TC, which is one of our favorite MacBook Pro monitors. Its 23.8-inch frame and 1080p resolution are a little lower than the PD2706QN, but it’s a well-built display with excellent ergonomic customization that won’t break the bank. That makes it one of the best monitors on the market.

Obviously, an external display isn’t particularly practical for going to lectures, but if you spend a lot of time working in your dorm, it can be a lifesaver.

Laptop stand: Lamicall Laptop Stand

If you don’t want an external monitor but are still in search of something to boost your ergonomics, consider a laptop stand. These raise your MacBook to a more comfortable height without the expensive of an additional screen.

Our choice here is the Lamicall Laptop Stand, which is sized to fit any MacBook available. The key thing with any laptop stand is you need it to not only raise your device, but to do so safely, and that’s exactly what you get here. Lamicall’s product features a solid base to prevent it from tipping over and rubber pads that firmly keep your laptop in place.

Yet at 3.25lbs (1.47kg), it’s light enough to carry with you, and it folds down to easily fit into a backpack. It also comes fully assembled, negating the need to put it together when it arrives. Those factors all make it an ideal option for students.

Mouse and keyboard: Logitech MX Master 4 and Gamakay TK75 V2

An external mouse and keyboard are a must if you raise your Mac up to a new height, as you won’t be able to use your Mac’s built-in keyboard in its new position. But they also come in handy even if you don’t use a stand by bringing extra features and comfort to your setup.

If you’re looking for a mouse, your best choice by far is the Logitech MX Master 4, the latest entry in the incredibly popular MX Master range. Its ergonomic shape is complemented by a handy thumb scroll wheel and a gesture button that lets you move the mouse to activate native macOS gestures. Its main scroll wheel can also automatically switch between ratcheting through individual notches and spinning freely.

As for a keyboard, you can’t go wrong with the Gamakay TK75 V2, which is one of the best keyboards you can buy. Its mechanical switches are supremely comfy and surprisingly quiet, meaning you won’t disturb anyone around you, and it looks great too with its attractive design. The price is affordable and it’s compact enough to lug across campus without a worry.

Bonus: AppleCare+

With all that traveling to and from lectures, you might be concerned about bumps and bruises — or worse — heading the Mac’s way. If you’re concerned, Apple’s AppleCare+ program covers the company’s devices and can provide some peace of mind. It’s not a physical accessory, but it can be a worthwhile addon for your Mac.

AppleCare+ allows for unlimited accident repairs, including drops and liquid spills, plus 24/7 priority support from Apple. All repairs are done with genuine Apple parts so you know you’re getting quality. The price you pay for AppleCare+ depends on the Mac you get — for instance, coverage for a MacBook Pro costs $10.49 a month or $104.99 a year.

Apple also offers AppleCare+ with Theft and Loss as an optional extra. Here, you get coverage if your device is lost or stolen, and you can make up to two claims every 12 months. Note that this only covers iPhones, iPads and Apple Watches — not Macs — so it’s mainly useful if you have these devices rather than as coverage for your Mac or Mac accessories.

Finally, there’s also AppleCare One. This covers up to three products (including ones you already own) and includes theft and loss coverage for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch with up to three claims every 12 months. It costs $19.99 a month. Additional products can be added at any time for $5.99 a month each.

Apple’s macOS 27 release — dubbed ‘Golden Gate’ by the company — is packed with new features, despite Apple saying that this year was more of an evolution than revolution. There are plenty of additions that have got tongues wagging and pens scribbling across the internet.

Yet for every Siri app and Liquid Glass tweak, there are many more upgrades that people are barely talking about. That means that if you don’t dig below the surface, you might miss some of the interesting new ways you can use your Mac once you’ve downloaded and installed macOS 27.

Here, we’ll run through five of our favorite little-known inclusions in the macOS Golden Gate beta. Get to grips with all of them and you’ll have fresh ways to use your Mac on a daily basis.

Visual Intelligence

Previously, Visual Intelligence was only available on iOS. You’d point your iPhone at an object, press the Camera Control, and Visual Intelligence would identify the object or pull out details from an event flyer and add them to your calendar. Now, similar powers can be harnessed on your Mac.

But you might be asking how this will work on a Mac, seeing as you can’t just go up to something and take a picture of it with your laptop. Fortunately, Apple has adapted Visual Intelligence to macOS 27 in a handy new way.

Much like when you take a screenshot, you can drag a box over part of your screen using your mouse. When you let go, you can ask Visual Intelligence to help you with what you have selected. You can ask Siri AI a question about the image and it will respond. You can then go back and forth with the chatbot if you need more information.

If you highlight an event, you can add it to your calendar. Even better, if you use Visual Intelligence on a festival schedule with multiple acts playing at different times, for instance, you can add as many or as few to your calendar as you want, all saved as separate entries with relevant info like the band that’s playing and the stage that you’ll find them on.

This is one of my favorite features in macOS 27 as it’s not only useful, but highly flexible and intelligent. Visual Intelligence is able to understand many different inputs and the contexts surrounding them, turning Siri into much more of the powerful assistant that it was always meant to be.

Automatic password strengthening in Passwords

The best password managers often alert you if your logins stored in the app are weak or compromised, but that usually means updating them to stronger alternatives yourself.

If that requires manually visiting affected websites and changing your login details by hand dozens or even hundreds of times, the task can feel incredibly daunting. Faced with that kind of situation, many people likely just give up, preferring to stick with their untrustworthy passwords rather than go through the hassle of changing them all one by one.

That’s an obvious security risk, and it’s one that macOS 27 has attempted to put right. Although the following change hasn’t had much airtime since the feature was announced at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June, I feel like it could be one of the most important features in the new operating system.

In macOS 27, all you need to do is ask Apple’s Passwords app to fix your dodgy passwords for you. Just one click and it’ll get to work visiting affected websites and updating your logins without you needing to lift a finger.

It’s a great example of how useful AI agents can be, all backed up by Apple’s well-known security and privacy credentials.

Natural language in Calendar

How many times have you opened the Calendar app on your Mac and tried to create a new event with a phrase like “Movie night with James tomorrow at 8pm at home,” only to find none of the details — such as the time or the place — are properly added to the event?

It’s been a recurring problem for years, and a frustrating one, too, as Apple fans have watched other apps race ahead with similar features while Calendar lags behind.

Now, that’s been improved. Changes in macOS 27 mean that you just need to enter an event using the type of natural language that you’d use in an everyday conversation. Any details that Calendar can pick up on — like a person, place, time or date — will turn gray. Click them and select the suggested detail and they’ll be properly added. This feature understands your context, too, such as where your home is located.

Sure, similar features have been present in rival calendar apps for years, and that could explain why Apple’s Calendar update hasn’t exactly lit the world on fire in the weeks and months since it was announced.

But having this feature is nonetheless an excellent addition for users of the Calendar app. The more naturally you can use your apps, the more effortless they become, allowing you to quickly be done with them so you can get on with what matters in your day. This natural language upgrade for the Calendar app lets you do exactly that.

App resizing in iPhone Mirroring

Of all the clever new features announced last year as part of macOS Sequoia in 2024, iPhone Mirroring was one of the more intriguing. As the name suggests, it mirrors your iPhone onto your Mac’s screen, bringing up a software view of your device where you can open apps, type messages, and basically use everything on your iPhone through the Mac sitting in front of you.

But there was one annoying quirk with this system: you couldn’t resize the iPhone window to use different aspect ratios. That meant any apps you opened on the virtual iPhone were limited in size and failed to make use of your Mac display’s larger proportions.

Thankfully, Apple has fixed that up in macOS 27. Instead of being stuck with the unchanging iPhone window of the past, macOS 27 now lets you drag the on-screen iPhone and change its dimensions as required.

You can now make the iPhone window wider or taller and the content inside the app will automatically adapt. It’s far better than what we had before.

So, if you’d given iPhone Mirroring a try before but were put off by the tiny window you had to work with, macOS 27 could make using your iPhone on your Mac a little more comfortable.

Improved support for ultra-wide displays

Before macOS 27, using an ultra-wide display with your Mac could be a downright pain. Many ultra-wide resolutions were not supported natively in macOS, meaning you had to settle for something that wasn’t quite right for your display, which could in turn negatively affect your macOS experience.

And when competing operating systems like Windows could support ultra-wide monitors in a more comprehensive way, the frustration for Mac users was understandable.

Worse, if you ever unplugged your monitor and then plugged it in again, macOS would forget your previous display settings, forcing you to set up your ultra-wide monitor as needed every single time. If you relied on one of the best MacBooks as your daily driver and you frequently disconnected it from your desk display, this was a regular irritation.

In macOS 27, though, that’s finally a thing of the past. You’ll now be able to run an ultra-wide monitor up to 5K resolution and up to 120Hz refresh rate, meaning far more high-end displays will now work with macOS 27 without a hitch.

And Apple has fixed the disconnection issue so that hooking up your monitor no longer requires you to dial in your settings every time. Instead, macOS remembers your preferences so that no manual adjustments are needed.

That makes this a seemingly small change on the surface, but one that will be appreciated by anyone who owns an ultra-wide monitor and has long struggled with the limitations of macOS.

• Apple is rumored to be planning to rent Macs, as well as iPhones and other devices, to consumers
• 'Apple Upgrade' will allow you to pay via a subscription (with financing handled by Klarna), and buy the device eventually if you wish
• This is seemingly Apple's way of sidestepping the RAM crisis and keeping Mac sales going, as we're also hearing about frightening memory price hikes from Framework

We're seeing the continued fallout from the RAM crisis, with Framework outlining plans to deal with massive increases in the cost of memory, while Apple is rumored to be about to unveil new way of selling you a Mac in order to cope with ever-higher sticker prices: it'll rent you the PC.

Let's start with Apple's apparent plan, which is detailed in a report from Bloomberg, in which Mark Gurman tells us that Apple is preparing to launch a device-leasing scheme for consumers in conjunction with Klarna (on the finance side).

We're told this will be announced on July 28 and it'll be called 'Apple Upgrade'. The sell (ahem) is that you can regularly upgrade your rented hardware, as well as avoiding taking a huge dent to your wallet with the sizeable outlay required to buy many Macs these days.

This won't just be for Macs, mind you, but also the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, with most models of all this hardware seemingly set to be included. It sounds like it might be a US-only initiative to begin with, but it could come to other regions later.

Apple Upgrade will seemingly work as a subscription over a 36-month term (or 24 months for iPhones and Apple Watches), although there'll be an option to pay off the device early and buy it outright (or upgrade to a newer model early). When the end of the subscription is reached, you can either return the Mac and upgrade to a newer model on a new financing agreement, or just keep it (with a final payment, naturally).

As mentioned, Klarna is apparently running the finance side, and applications for Apple Upgrade will be subject to a soft credit check.

This new scheme will supposedly take the place of the iPhone Upgrade Program and Apple's standard financing. The former offers a way to buy an Apple smartphone on monthly payments direct from the company (with 0% interest), but there's no Mac equivalent.

Gurman says of the Apple Upgrade scheme: "Apple plans to advertise the program as a way to have lower payments versus current financing programs." The leaker also clarifies that Apple Upgrade won't include AppleCare (unlike the iPhone Upgrade Program, which does).

Some of Apple's cheaper devices won't be eligible for this rental scheme, too, and that includes the MacBook Neo, as well as the Apple Watch SE, entry-level iPad, and iPhone 16.

As for the move with Framework laptops, this was revealed in a blog post that Tom's Hardware noticed. The notebook maker said that with its Framework Laptop 13 Pro: "We recently received a cost update from our LPCAMM2 [laptop memory] supplier that goes far beyond anything we had predicted and anything we're able to absorb without placing our ability to operate at real financial risk.

"Rather than the low-to-mid double digit percentage increase we had forecast from Q2 to Q3 on LPCAMM2 costs, we received prices that are more than double that of the prior inventory we had brought in."

Framework is doing its best to cope (in a commendably transparent way), and is adjusting existing pre-orders as is necessary. That means dropping some 64GB orders down to 32GB, charging the original 32GB price — and the same for 32GB orders going down to 16GB, maintaining the original price for the latter.

Pricing for the 32GB module hasn't quite doubled, but it's up 82% (with Framework absorbing some of the increase), and a 64GB module is up 88%. This means the latter nugget of RAM is now an eye-watering $1,600 in the US, and £1,600 in the UK (yes, nugget seems an increasingly appropriate term these days).

Analysis: own nothing, be happy

Unfortunately, July has brought us a clear picture of the RAM crisis getting worse. We've just been hearing about DDR5 memory seeing a notable uptick in pricing (after plateauing somewhat for a few months), and the boss of a big chip maker has informed us that things are going to get much worse, with 2027 set to be the 'worst year' in the RAM industry's history no less.

Framework's story of a doubling in laptop memory cost is a truly worrying hike on top of all this, and doubtless we can all still recall Apple's price hikes that arrived at the end of June. Particularly those of you who were mulling a Mac purchase, and are regretting not pulling the trigger before the increases were ushered in.

Seemingly Apple has a solution to the RAM crisis, though, but this rental plan hasn't gone down well online. Yes, you can imagine the reaction to this on social media – one Redditor observes that it's "one step closer to owning nothing" (as in 'own nothing and be happy') – but in fairness, this is still a rumor. Although given the details, and the apparent proximity of the launch, it sounds fairly cast-iron – but we shouldn't jump to conclusions.

A lot of how any rent-with-an-option-to-buy scheme will play out is going to depend on the pricing Apple (and Klarna) attaches, and the world out there on social media fears the worst. I don't blame the doubters, frankly, and particularly those who are worried that the final instalment to buy the Mac (or other Apple device) will be punishingly high. Generally speaking, this is, of course, the way these lease agreements tend to run, and the same will likely be true of the option to exercise an upgrade before the current lease is up.

What's interesting is that last week, I spilled my thoughts on how I was worried that Mac sales were going to flag, and how Apple's in a bit of a tricky situation in terms of combating this. Between MacBook holdouts, the continued RAM crisis, and cynicism around an apparent renewed focus on AI from Apple, the Mac waters are getting seriously choppy.

I didn't expect to have a (theoretical) answer so soon, and apparently now we know how Apple plans to keep Mac sales buoyant. The devil will be in the details of the Apple Upgrade scheme, assuming it happens, but the overriding online speculation for now remains that the terms of the rental plan will be more likely slanted in a hellish direction than a heavenly one.

• We just got a fresh info dump on Apple's incoming Macs from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman
• It includes the claim that the MacBook OLED may be on track for a debut later this year, and that it's now being tested with macOS 27.1
• The laptop would have the M5 Pro and Max chips, with a follow-up potentially arriving as early as the end of 2027 with the M7 Pro and Max

Apple will likely launch a whole load of new Macs over the next couple of years, and if you were wondering about the MacBook OLED, seemingly this laptop remains on target for a possible launch later this year.

Mark Gurman spilled a whole lot of info and updates in a Bloomberg report that details Apple's upcoming Mac overhauls, and how things stand right now (as ever, sprinkle seasoning on this liberally).

The model that many people are interested in is that MacBook OLED which will be a high-end effort in 14-inch and 16-inch sizes, sporting a touchscreen for the first time (not everyone's so keen on the latter, mind). They will pack the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, not the M6.

Gurman says that this MacBook is currently being tested with macOS 27.1 by Apple, and that the device "remains on track for release between the end of this year and early next year". The leaker had previously asserted that we're looking at a late 2026 or early 2027 release (although there's a nuance here that I'll come back to shortly).

What about M6 MacBooks? We'll seemingly get a refresh of the low-end MacBook Pro 14-inch this year that packs the M6, and this will be the first launch to use the next-gen silicon. There will be new iMacs with the M6, too, all of which are supposedly arriving this fall (likely around October 2026, in other words, give or take a month).

The MacBook Air isn't being ignored, of course, and Gurman informs us that a refresh of this consumer lineup is coming in early 2027, with 13-inch and 15-inch models that "closely resemble the current version" — so don't expect much in the way of change.

Another MacBook Pro launch is, he says, planned for 2027 in the form of an entry-level 14-inch laptop with a new design that will be similar to the high-end OLED models, but this will have a major upgrade with the M7 (vanilla) chip.

Unsurprisingly, he adds that a refresh of the popular MacBook Neo is underway, which upgrades to an A19 Pro chip and offers more memory (new colors will be added, too).

Further down the line for MacBooks, there might be a more radical change coming for the MacBook Air, with an OLED take on the notebook that Gurman says could arrive in 2028, while a follow-up to the high-end MacBook OLED should debut between the end of 2027 and early 2028, with an upgrade from the M5 Pro and Max to the M7 Pro and Max.

Apple is also working on an iMac with OLED, Gurman believes, and we've heard about that before. (Much of this rumor dump is confirmation of previous speculation, it should be noted, with updates on timelines).

Gurman also tells us to expect refreshes in the realm of the Mac mini and Mac Studio. He claims the Mac mini is in testing with M5 Pro and M6 processors, while Apple looks to be going with the M5 Max and M5 Ultra for the Mac Studio. These would be trickier launches for Apple given the RAM crisis, and the need for beefier memory configurations causing additional headwinds for these particular Macs. Due to this, the launch timeframes for these purported products are, Gurman says, still up in the air.

Analysis: on track – but out of touch?

There's a lot in the pipeline, clearly, but the most interesting update here is that the high-end MacBook OLED is apparently still on target, and we could see it later this year – potentially in just a few months. Remember that not so long ago, Gurman appeared to waver on the idea of this touchscreen MacBook arriving in 2026 at all, but it seems that this is still very much in the cards (although not guaranteed, by any means).

This device is notably still missing a name, and the leaker isn't referring to it as the MacBook Ultra, as the broader rumor mill has been doing. That it packs the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips makes sense, because there will only be a vanilla version of the M6, according to what Gurman's heard on the grapevine before – Apple is apparently skipping swiftly over that generation to get to the M7 and more powerful AI capabilities therein. The follow-up to the high-end MacBook OLED will carry the Pro and Max chips from the M7 family, as noted.

In this report Gurman frames all these revamped Macs as Apple looking to "capitalize on demand for powerful laptops and desktops fueled by the artificial intelligence boom", underlining the recent emphasis the leaker has placed on how important AI is for Tim Cook's company now.

Predictably, this notion hasn't gone down well with some Mac fans, and the idea of a touchscreen on a MacBook (with that incoming OLED model) remains contentious, too, based on feedback from social media.

One Redditor puts it in particularly strong terms: "Touchscreen laptops are disgusting. I cannot fathom anyone actually using them. The ergonomics make no sense, the fingerprint factor is horrible, the OS is not built around touch the way tablets or phones are. Why are companies actively pursuing this technology in 2026?"

Another says: "Apple is entering 'the touchbar phase' again. Dark days lay ahead. I'll wait until they inevitably walk back whatever changes they make."

So, while people love the idea of an OLED, the fact that it's touch-capable is certainly dampening enthusiasm in some quarters, not forgetting that it'll add to the price tag, which is one of the other big fears about this laptop.

• The Mac mini has emerged as an affordable system for agentic workloads
• Apple has seen "incredible demand" for the Mac mini and Mac Studio
• Apple silicon can handle an agentic AI while other architectures use a GPU and CPU

If you’re looking for the best way to explore and deploy agentic AI without breaking the budget, the Mac mini might be just what you’re looking for.

Apple’s Doug Brooks has expressed enthusiasm for how the Mac mini and Mac Studio desktop computers are capable of handling agentic AI tasks, thanks to Apple silicon, the ARM-based SoC that the company has introduced over the past half decade.

Success with local AI on these machines has been attributed to design choices made before the arrival of advanced LLMs, with the evolution of Apple’s Neural Engine highlighted as a key factor.

How the Mac mini is ideal for agentic AI

Brooks is the senior product manager of Apple silicon, and referred to the “incredible demand” for Mac minis and Mac Studios when speaking to The Deep View before WWDC 2026.

Describing the Mac mini as an “amazing system” that can “tap into the strengths of Apple silicon and unified memory in a very power-efficient way, and increasingly they're delivering compelling price-performance as well.”

The price point of a Mac mini – compared to the more expensive Mac Studio – makes it particularly suited to teams exploring agentic AI but without the budget to pay for tokens and larger systems.

Neural Engine technology dates back to the A11 chip, and its evolution and inclusion within the current generation of Apple chips, and its high-performance, power-efficient compute processes are pivotal in delivering machine learning to the desktop.

As many AI tools were available first on the Mac (or released exclusively for macOS), it seems that upgrading to the latest Mac mini or switching from Windows has been instrumental in demand.

Mac mini: amazing for AI

Apple’s work on AI has seen deployment in everyday use across computers, tablets, and smartphones, and the company has been a leading exponent of hybrid AI, where an agent can “decide what needs to happen locally and what needs to happen in the cloud based on the workload.”

“For agentic workloads, people often want a system that's under their control, isolated from their primary machine, and capable of running 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

But it is the strength of the Apple Mac mini and Apple Studio – as well Apple’s notebooks – in handling AI that seems to have enthused Brooks the most. He cites security and economics as concerns for developers and creators who are now realising that they can handle AI workloads sitting at their desk – whether using a Mac mini or something more powerful.

MacPaw has spent years building a reputation as one of the most design-conscious developers in the Mac ecosystem. Its flagship product, CleanMyMac, has long included a malware removal module powered by Moonlock's engine. In October 2025, the Kyiv-based company spun that security technology into a standalone product: Moonlock, a full-featured antivirus app that goes well beyond a simple scanner.

Rather than leading with threat counts and detection percentages, Moonlock frames itself as security software that treats users like adults, explaining what malware is, why it matters, and what to do next, instead of firing off opaque alerts. The marketing centers on a 'care, not scare' approach, essentially promising to educate you rather than just bombarding you with red-text alerts.

While many live in the mythical belief that Macs are immune to viruses, MacPaw's own research reports that 66 percent of Mac users encountered at least one cyber threat last year, with a 67% increase in registered macOS backdoor variants in 2025. The research shows a key message: macOS is not immune, are users are being targeted more frequently than ever.

Plans and pricing

Moonlock starts at $54 per year for a single Mac, with licenses available for 2, 5, or more than 10 devices per subscription. Monthly billing and one-time lifetime license options are also available for those who prefer not to commit to an annual cycle.

Discounts of up to 67 percent are advertised on multi-year plans, which is worth exploring if you intend to stick with the product long term.

New users get a seven-day free trial, though a credit card is required to start. That is a common enough practice, but it does mean you will need to remember to cancel if the product does not suit you. To soften the blow of that annual fee, Moonlock offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, which is a considerably more generous safety net than the case-by-case refund process offered by some competitors.

Current Setapp subscribers get access to Moonlock at no additional charge, which may be the most compelling value proposition for those already in MacPaw's subscription ecosystem. At $54 per year for a single device, standalone pricing lands considerably higher than ClamXAV's three-Mac Home plan at $29.95, a gap worth weighing if budget is a primary concern.

Features

Moonlock is organized into six sections: Home, Malware Scanner, VPN, Network Inspector, System Protection, and Security Advisor. That framework reflects a deliberate decision to bundle a security suite rather than deliver a focused antivirus, giving the product a notably broader footprint than Mac-only rivals like ClamXAV.

Real-time protection runs continuously in the background, monitoring file activity, app behavior, and Mail attachments even when the main application window is closed. The Malware Scanner supports on-demand and scheduled scans, with built-in quarantine and removal tools. Detected threats are accompanied by plain-language explanations rather than raw file paths and specialized terms.

The bundled VPN is a simplified version of MacPaw's ClearVPN, covering around 60 server locations across more than 45 countries. Independent testing found no DNS or WebRTC leaks, and MacPaw maintains a no-logging policy. Speed retention is strong, holding around 82 percent of baseline download speeds on transatlantic connections and up to 96 percent on closer servers.

Network Inspector adds a country-level connection blocker, permitting users to block outbound traffic to specific regions. System Protection audits macOS's own built-in security settings and walks you through any gaps. Finally, Security Advisor provides a checklist for basic digital hygiene, including practical guidance on habits such as two-factor authentication and app permissions. AI assists with malware classification on the backend, helping the team update threat databases before new strains reach your device.

Privacy and Security

From a top level perspective, Moonlock was tested by the third-party laboratory AV-Test in September 2025 and earned it's AV-Test certification. It scored a 5.5/6 in Protection, 4.5/6 in Performance, and a full 6/6 for Usability (which I'll dive into in the next section).

As for the credibility of the underlying research arm, Moonlock Lab has made several notable contributions to the antivirus landscape, being the first to identify PyStealer on VirusTotal, and the lab has also been cited by the SANS Institute for discovering new variants of the Atomic macOS infostealer.

Regarding privacy, the VPN operates under a strict zero-logs policy, and all data is processed locally. MacPaw publishes a Trust Center at security.macpaw.com describing its data-handling practices, certifications, and security standards, which is a nice change in transparency from many other antivirus providers.

The one caveat worth noting is that Moonlock is a recent standalone launch. While the underlying engine has been in use in CleanMyMac for some time, the app itself has a limited history as an independently tested product. But it is worth noting that in the time since the last time AV-Test handled Moonlock, MacPaw have likely taken steps to improve protection and performance.

Interface and in use

The interface is highly polished, modern, and immediately legible, with a two-panel home dashboard that separates tasks on the left from status information on the right. Everything is where you would expect it to be, and the visual hierarchy makes it easy to tell at a glance whether your Mac is protected.

Instead of a generic 'Threat Resolved' notification, Moonlock tells you what was found, why it poses a risk, and what your options are. I found I was the one to make the final call on whether to remove a flagged item, which sidesteps the infuriating experience of automated deletion that occasionally catches legitimate software.

The system requirements make it suitable for older devices too, requiring macOS 13 or later and 515MB of disk space. The app runs quickly and, in day-to-day use, does not noticeably drag on performance. Installation requires a MacPaw account, which adds a step that competitors like ClamXAV skip entirely for home users, but the tradeoff is a unified login for managing licenses and accessing support.

Ultimately, Moonlock is a great option for those looking for an accessible and easily navigable Mac antivirus that doesn't bombard you with any overly-technical language, and performs as though you are the one in control.

Support

Moonlock support runs on MacPaw's established infrastructure, with a dedicated knowledge base that covers installation, configuration, and troubleshooting, and those with questions can submit immediate inquiries through the support portal. In-app feedback is also available via the Help menu.

As with many Mac-focused security products, live chat or phone support does not appear to be offered as a standard option. For most home users, the knowledge base and email channel will be sufficient. Teams with more complicated environments should verify support response times before committing, particularly given that Moonlock is a relatively new standalone product and the support documentation is still maturing.

The competition

ClamXAV is the most direct rival in the Mac-exclusive antivirus space. At $29.95 per year for three devices, it is considerably cheaper than Moonlock's $54 single-device starting price, and it also holds a perfect AV-Test score compared to Moonlock's test results. It does not include a VPN, network inspection, or the polished onboarding experience Moonlock offers, but for those who want focused antivirus protection at a lower cost, it is a strong option.

Intego Mac Internet Security X9 sits at a comparable price point and includes a network monitor, with a longer track record in independent third-party testing. Bitdefender Total Security and Norton AntiVirus Plus both offer wider platform coverage and larger feature sets, making them better fits for households with mixed Windows and Mac devices.

Those who are already subscribed to CleanMyMac should also note that its built-in malware-scanning module, powered by the same Moonlock engine, continues to function independently. Therefore the question is whether the full Moonlock standalone app adds enough to justify an additional subscription or an upgrade in spending.

Final verdict

Moonlock is one of the most carefully designed security apps I've encountered in the Mac ecosystem. Its interface is excellent, its feature set is broader than most Mac-specific alternatives, and the research team behind it is doing genuinely credible original work. The 30-day money-back guarantee is also a nice addition, despite the need to enter your payment details first.

At $54 per year for a single Mac, it costs nearly twice as much as ClamXAV's three-device plan. The added value of the bundled VPN and Network Inspector goes some way toward justifying that gap, but those who already have a VPN solution elsewhere may not find the extras compelling enough. Setapp subscribers, on the other hand, get all of this for free as part of a subscription they likely already value.

For long-standing CleanMyMac users who already benefit from the embedded Moonlock engine, the standalone app offers greater depth, visibility, and control, but it's not a replacement for anything missing. It is a fuller version of the protection they have already been relying on, now with a VPN, richer reporting, and a proper home for the security features that were previously contained within a Mac cleaning utility.

For Mac users who want a single subscription that covers antivirus, VPN, network monitoring, and system security guidance, Moonlock makes a strong argument. Just go in aware of what you are paying for relative to the alternatives.

You might also be interested in our report on the best Mac apps of the year.

• AI is forcing Apple to deliver security updates more often
• iOS 26.5.2 is part of Apple's new update strategy
• More updates mean better protection against AI-powered cyberattacks

It seems that the number of ways AI is changing the world is increasing. The requirement for more RAM to run new AI features in Apple products is already being blamed for the recent price increase in Apple products, as well as for the current high price of RAM itself.

Now, according to a recent Reuters report, AI is also to blame for the number of iOS and macOS updates we'll need to install. The bad news is that it's going up, all because of the threat posed by the latest AI models and their potential to aid cyberattacks.

Instead of waiting for the next scheduled operating system update for the latest round of security fixes to arrive, Apple is now delivering individual security updates ahead of the next iOS and macOS 26.6 update.

iOS 26.5.2 is here now

If you look in Settings > General > Software Update on your iPhone, you'll see that iOS 26.5.2 is waiting for you now, unless your iPhone already installed it overnight.

The description for the update reads, rather vaguely: "This update provides security fixes for your iPhone," but it's the dangers posed by AI that are driving this update, so make sure you install it promptly.

Details of the security updates for all Apple operating systems are available on the Apple Security Updates page.

Malicious hacking tools

The Reuters article states that the urgency of the update is due to the risk that AI now poses to Apple devices.

"The company told Reuters on Monday it was adapting to the reality that, given the ability of artificial intelligence to speed the development of malicious hacking tools, it needed to reduce the time between when updates were first made public and when they were put into customers' hands."

It looks increasingly likely that this will become the new normal for security updates, and companies like Apple won't be able to rely on bundling the latest security fixes into the next scheduled operating system update. Stand-alone security patches delivered whenever they're needed are something we're all going to have to get used to.

While it might be annoying to keep updating our tech gadgets more often, it's a small price to pay for better security in the AI era. We'll just have to get used to software updates being less about new features and more about staying ahead of increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks.

At WWDC, Apple finally unveiled the long-delayed, genuinely rebuilt version of Siri — a more context-aware assistant that can understand what’s on your screen, use your personal data across apps, respond more naturally, and work both inside iOS/macOS and as a standalone Siri AI app.

The prospect of having a more intelligent Siri to talk to is hugely exciting, but there were plenty of other smaller announcements made at the recent Worldwide Developers Conference that got overshadowed by the big Siri AI reveal.

In fact, I might actually be more excited about these features than the new Siri. Here’s what I’m looking forward to most:

1. AI-powered Safari tab organization

If you’re anything like me, your Safari browser is a shocking mess of tabs. I try to close them, but they seem to breed like rabbits whenever I’ve been using Safari for more than 10 seconds. In macOS Golden Gate, Safari can use Apple Intelligence to group your open tabs into relevant topics without you having to do anything.

So, if you’re planning a trip, all your open tabs related to that topic will be pulled together into a single group. “Topics” is the word Apple uses to describe this organization. In the case of your holiday, it would likely pick a name for the topic — probably the destination — and all the open tabs would then be accessible from within that topic.

2. Natural-language Shortcuts

Shortcuts already exist in macOS, and they’re awesome. Shortcuts in macOS let you automate repeated actions on your Mac, either with a click, a keyboard shortcut, Siri, the menu bar, Finder, the Share Sheet, or sometimes from inside apps. You can use them to resize images, extract text from PDFs, create calendar events or reminders, and much more.

They can, however, be a little tricky to create. That’s going to change with the new version of Apple’s software. macOS Golden Gate is going to use Apple Intelligence to make creating shortcuts easier. Instead of building fiddly automations manually, you can simply describe what you want using natural language and Shortcuts will build it for you.

3. Improved Photos editing

Clean Up, Extend, and Reframe are coming to Photos to make editing pictures on your iPhone a whole lot easier, thanks to Apple’s on-device AI models, which can enhance your photos in ways that wouldn’t be possible without AI.

First, Clean Up is already part of Photos and is useful for removing distractions, but it’s getting a big upgrade in the next OS. The old version could get tripped up by busy backgrounds and complex textures, but the new version is much more adaptable and works on old photos and photos not taken on an iPhone.

Next, Extend is a way to add more background to any photo, or adjust its aspect ratio. Apple Intelligence simply fills in the new areas after the fact.

Finally, Reframe looks like a very powerful way of improving your photos. It uses Apple’s on-device AI model so you can change the angle a photo was taken at — just drag your finger around on the image in real time to change the angle the camera was pointing in. It looks a little bit like magic, and it’s very cool.

4. AirPods custom EQ

This may look like a small feature for AirPods owners, but it’s a big quality-of-life win, especially if you’ve ever wished that AirPods had more personal sound control, so you can adjust the sound to your tastes, not Apple’s.

So what does it do? Well, you’re able to adjust bass, mids, and treble, although it doesn’t give you exact frequencies or a numerical scale showing how much you’re affecting them. The good news is that older models like the AirPods Pro 2 will support Custom EQ, as well as the newer AirPods Pro 3 and AirPods 4.

5. Smarter parental controls

I don’t know if these features are “smarter” or simply “less confusing,” but I’m all in. Having tried to set up parental controls before for my children on iPhones, I’m in favor of anything that makes the process less tortuous.

Features like the new Ask to Browse, where a child can ask if they can look at a particular website before you grant permission, sound like they’re just making everything easier for the parent to set up. Ask to Buy is another feature that sounds self-explanatory, and exactly what busy parents need. Time Allowances for entertainment, games, and social media also look great and give a handy starting point for concerned parents.

These aren't the AI features you're looking for

A lot of the new features I’m looking forward to here use AI, but they are benefit-first features rather than another excuse to use AI for something nobody actually wants. Siri AI may well be a great step forward for the next generation of Apple devices, but there are plenty of other ways that AI is going to benefit Apple users too — and some of them might turn out to be more useful in everyday life than talking to Siri.

• Apple has announced price hikes will be coming to its products
• These increases could be ‘fairly imminent,’ according to one reporter
• The price changes are due to ongoing component shortages

A few days ago, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced the disappointing news that “unfortunately, price increases are inevitable” for his company’s products, all thanks to the ongoing computing component crisis. And if you were hoping that you could weather the storm a little longer, we’ve got some bad news: Apple device costs could be going up sooner rather than later.

That’s the expectation of Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman, at least, who posted on X to say that he saw the price hikes as being “fairly imminent.” Indeed, rather than waiting until later in the year, Gurman argued that the changes were “happening soon,” before adding that they were “not a fall thing.”

Gurman also noted that Apple’s back to school sale — which usually occurs over the summer — is also “imminent,” and that Apple might have announced the price rises now so that it can soften the blow with a summer sale, with costs ticking upwards once it is over.

That means that events like Amazon Prime Day or Apple’s back to school sale could be your last chance for some time to grab one of the best iPhones, Macs and iPads for a decent price. Because with parts like memory and storage still being sold at inflated levels, it doesn’t look like there’s much relief on the way.

Even more premium

Apple has created a reputation for itself as a premium brand with devices that tend to be on the more expensive side of things. But even if you’re used to that positioning, price rises can hurt.

And as Apple pundit John Gruber has pointed out, “For Apple, prices are part of a product’s brand, so they don’t fluctuate with component costs.” That means that once the higher costs come into play, we should “expect those prices to stick,” Gruber believes.

We’ve seen this in the past: the “trash can” Mac Pro’s price remained at $3,000 even when its specs were well out of date. Similarly, Apple adjusted UK prices to be more in line with those in the US after the 2016 Brexit vote and hasn’t reversed course a decade later.

Gruber also points out that if Apple thinks that component prices will continue to rise throughout 2027, it will simply implement one large price hike now rather than put them up again later on. So, that means we could see a single $200 / £200 / AU$400 jump rather than two separate $100 / £100 / AU$200 increases, for example.

If you’re considering picking up some new Apple tech, this all means it might be wise to act sooner rather than later. But it’s worth noting that there might be a slight difference between Gurman and Gruber when it comes to timing.

While Gurman says the changes are “imminent” and will happen before the fall, Gruber feels that Apple could wait until the new iPhone 18 Pro launches in September.

Still, whatever date Apple picks to implement its price adjustments, you don’t want to wait if you’ve got your eye on some shiny new Apple kit. Before too long, we could see Apple become even more premium than it already is.

• Apple's CEO has warned that "price increases are unavoidable" for its products
• That means more expensive Macs, iPhones and iPads for starters
• Price hikes will likely be substantial, and there are concerns that product lines could be adjusted as seen recently with the Mac mini – is the entry-level MacBook Neo to suffer the same fate?

CEO Tim Cook has warned that Apple is going to substantially hike prices on its products due to the RAM crisis.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal (as spotted by Wccftech), Cook said: "Unfortunately, price increases are unavoidable. We're doing our best to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us, and we've been trying to shield our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable."

The spiralling costs of both memory and storage (SSDs) means that Apple needs to put up prices, and the hikes will be "substantial" the report suggests (as did Cook's previous comments whereby the CEO said that from June, Apple will be facing "significant" cost increases for memory and this will "drive an increasing impact" on Apple's products).

So, this wasn't unexpected, but now it's crystal clear that these price increases are coming due to the "unsustainable" situation around memory chip supply (which is being eaten by AI and data centers to the detriment of consumer products).

What we don't know is the magnitude of these price increases, or what products they might apply to, as Cook didn't furnish us with any specific info along those lines.

It's a safe enough bet that Apple's core products are going to get pricier, though, meaning the iPhone, iPad and Macs. The WSJ even theorizes that the iPhone Pro 18 might cost from $1,299 in the US based on some rough maths.

Analysis: time to buy a Mac?

How soon these price hikes might happen is another key question, of course, but given Cook's previous comments about June, Mac rises could be imminent, as the WSJ indicates – particularly given that we've already seen the Mac mini get pricier at its baseline level. If you recall, Apple discontinued the most affordable entry-level model with 256GB of storage, effectively making the cheapest Mac mini a third more expensive.

The upshot is that if you're thinking of buying a Mac, now seems to be the time to pull the trigger, before these devices get pricier. Any deals that pop up on MacBooks for Prime Day could well be worth pouncing on, and there's already been a discount applied to the MacBook Neo (in the UK).

Grabbing that deal might be a particularly smart move to make, actually, because if the Mac mini is anything to go by, the current base version of the MacBook Neo may not survive the coming quarter. As one of a few such comments on this Reddit thread puts it: "The $599 MacBook Neo was fun while it lasted."

As to what all this means more broadly for Apple pricing moving forward, another interesting point that Cook brings up in the interview with the WSJ is that he says Apple is willing to use its "balance sheet to help be a part of the solution."

By that, the CEO doesn't mean Apple is about to fund the building of its own chip production facilities, and Cook explicitly states that. What it indicates is that the company is going to invest in this side of the tech industry, but exactly how is up for debate.

Some (like Jukan on X) theorize that what Cook is referring to is Apple prepaying to secure more memory supply – and that'll require a serious amount of upfront cash to compete with the major AI players. Others believe this could mean that Apple might help fund expansion plans for memory chip makers as part of some kind of deal to lock in more favorable longer-term pricing for iPhone, iPad and Mac memory supply.

Meanwhile, Jukan also highlighted a message from President Trump on Truth Social which states that "Apple has agreed to work with Intel to design and build its chips in America", as has been previously rumored as a way of diversifying away from Apple's reliance on TSMC.

Tim Cook said before that Apple is exploring a "range of options" in terms of dealing with the RAM crisis, and it seems there's a lot going on behind the scenes right now. Hopefully we'll learn more about the details soon enough, but for now, I'm nervously watching what happens with the MacBook Neo and other Apple laptops.

• More Mac models have now been pulled by Apple
• Mac minis and Mac Studios now available in fewer configurations
• AI and the associated memory shortage is to blame

With AI data center demand sucking up the world's supply of RAM, consumers are feeling the effects: having already removed some configurations of the Mac Studio and Mac mini from its store last month, Apple has now reduced the available options even further.

As spotted by MacRumors, you can no longer buy Mac mini models with 32GB or 64GB of RAM, while the M3 Ultra Mac Studio with 256GB of RAM has also been taken off sale — so right now that particular computer is only available with 96GB of RAM.

Both the M3 Mac Studio and the M4 Max Mac Studio, meanwhile, are showing delivery estimates of 9-10 weeks. Even if the configuration you want can be purchased through the store, you might be waiting a long while for it.

As for Mac minis, you're left with a 48GB of RAM option for the M4 Pro model, and 16GB or 24GB for the standard M4 version. The 256GB SSD storage option has been removed in recent weeks, too, raising the starting price.

'Supply demand balance'

Outgoing Apple CEO Tim Cook has gone on record as saying "the ‌Mac mini‌ and ‌Mac Studio‌ may take several months to reach supply demand balance" — and Cook specifically mentioned AI and agentic tools as reasons why these computers are so in demand.

These Macs are being squeezed in two ways: not only are they ideal for running AI models and software, which increases their popularity, but that same demand for AI processing power is also significantly reducing stocks of memory to go inside these computers.

And there's no sign of the situation getting any better in the short term. The biggest players in the business have been warning that it's going to take a while before supply can catch up, which isn't encouraging for availability and pricing going forward.

Reaction online has been understandably negative: "I've come to despise AI," admits one Redditor, while other commenters want to see more done to limit the number of machines that can be purchased at once (most commonly for large, complex AI projects).

• Apple's entry-level $599 Mac mini with 256GB of storage and 16GB of RAM is no longer available
• It now starts at $799 for 512GB of storage and 16GB of RAM
• Apple's still quoting over a month for delivery as well

Less than 24 hours after Apple’s earnings call in which CEO Tim Cook commented on supply chain issues hitting the Mac mini — shipping dates for the popular entry-level Mac desktop unit have been slipping — the price has gone up, and the former mid-range model is the new entry-level model on Apple.com.

Prior to this story's publication, Apple’s entry-level Mac mini was priced at $599 and came with 256GB of solid-state storage and 16GB of RAM, though that model was out of stock for over a week. That’s no longer an option, though, and the Mac mini now starts at $799 for 512GB of solid-state storage and 16GB of RAM.

MacRumors was the first to spot this change, and the price has increased internationally as well. The Mac mini now starts at £799 in the UK and AU$1,299 in Australia, both with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage.

Essentially, the $599 / £599 / AU$999 model with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage is discontinued, and the previous mid-range $799 / £799 / AU$1,299 Mac mini with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage is now the entry-level. Same hardware specs and cost, but that previous step-up price is now the entry point.

As we noted in our review when this refreshed Mac mini hit the market, it delivered significant value, especially at the $599 price point in the United States. That value’s a bit tougher with a $200 MSRP increase, but one could say the MacBook Neo takes that spot — albeit with less power — while still staying affordable.

Considering the ongoing RAM crisis, which is bleeding into storage, and slipping times for Apple’s Mac mini already stretched out by weeks, this is likely a way for the supply chain teams within the Cupertino-based technology giant to manage the model.

On the earnings call, Cook didn't give many specifics or tease this forthcoming change, but did say, "We think, looking forward, that the ‌Mac mini‌ and ‌Mac Studio‌ may take several months to reach supply demand balance."

Even with the new entry-level model, the Mac mini is still showing a multi-week delivery estimate. If I were to order it now, the estimated delivery is between June 9, 2026, and June 16, 2026 — actually after WWDC 2026 starts.

We've reached out to Apple to request comment on the changes to the Mac mini and will circle back when we receive a response. And in the meantime, let us know what you think about this change to the Mac mini starting point.

Tim Cook’s reign as Apple boss is coming to an end. The long-time leader of one of the world’s largest tech companies is stepping down on September 1 and installing the company’s hardware chief John Ternus as his replacement. A new Apple era is almost here.

Ternus has been at the company for around 25 years, so we’ve had plenty of time to get acquainted with him. That hasn’t stopped fevered speculation surrounding what he might do to shape Apple in his own image. Yet there are plenty of ways that things will stay very much the same with this old hand at the wheel. If you’re curious to see what lies in store under Ternus’s watch, read on to learn five ways that Apple probably won’t change — and two ways that it might.

Hardware and software integration

Apple is world-famous for the way it controls the whole widget, to paraphrase Steve Jobs. The company makes its own hardware and software and integrates them together incredibly well. Could that change under Ternus’s leadership?

Don’t bet the farm on it. Given that Ternus has been part of the Apple furniture for a quarter century, building hardware and software that work together impeccably is now part of his DNA. And while he might currently be the firm’s Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, he’s also played a role in much of Apple’s software. He strongly pushed for the creation of iPadOS, for example, and took on the role of “executive sponsor” for design in recent months, which unsurprisingly includes software. If you’re expecting him to break with Apple tradition when it comes to integration, you’ll be disappointed.

Emphasis on design

As executive sponsor for design, Ternus is becoming intimately attuned to the design situation at Apple. His role involves explaining current projects and sticking points to Apple’s board, requiring a deep understanding of how the cookie crumbles at a company defined by design.

According to Bloomberg, Ternus and Cook held a staff meeting after the CEO transition was announced. There, Ternus reportedly told employees: “We’re going to keep focusing on design, because design is core to what we do at Apple. Apple’s brought truly incredible design to more people than any company in history.”

What’s more, there’s no way Ternus could have ascended to the lofty heights that he has without a proven grasp of Apple’s design inclinations. With that being so, the likelihood of him suddenly rewriting the playbook in this area is next to zero.

Durability over repairability

In his role as head of Apple’s hardware, Ternus has been repeatedly questioned about the company’s policies on product repairability. And on this subject, he’s been clear that Apple prioritizes durability rather than repairability, with the logic being that a product that lasts a long time doesn’t need to be repaired.

Speaking to TechCrunch, Ternus explained: “Repairability in isolation is not always the best answer.” As he went on to describe, “The reality is repairability is a means to an end. The goal is to build products that last, and if you focus too much on [making every part repairable], you end up creating some unintended consequences that are worse for the consumer and worse for the planet.” One example could be a removable part that introduces a new point of failure, thereby negatively affecting the device’s longevity in the long run.

Given Ternus has long been responsible for setting Apple’s hardware priorities, you can expect this emphasis on durability over repairability to remain. Although he has insisted that “We want to make things more repairable,” the focus will continue to be on making long-lasting products that, with any luck, won’t need to be repaired during their lifespans.

Privacy and security

Steve Jobs liked to insist on user privacy, but it was under his successor Tim Cook that the company really made this a defining trait. Now that John Ternus is next in line, you might be questioning whether that commitment to privacy and security will endure.

The good news is that it almost certainly will. In the comments reported by Bloomberg, Ternus told Apple staff that he will continue to work on these efforts, with no change in policy on this front. As before, this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise – you don’t get as far within Apple as John Ternus has without believing in the program.

Environmental policy

In those same remarks cited by Bloomberg, another core Apple policy that Ternus pledged would not change is its stance on the environment. During Cook’s time in charge, Apple has made strenuous efforts in this area by reducing packaging and cutting emissions, so much so that Apple aims to ensure that both the company and its entire supply chain are carbon neutral by 2030.

Speaking to Apple employees, Ternus explained that: “there are some things that can never change and won’t change,” with action on the environment being one of them.

A renewed focus on hardware

Despite all those aspects that Ternus has promised will remain the same, there are a few areas where the new CEO might want to put his own stamp on affairs. Naturally, given his background, one of those could be a renewed focus on hardware. After all, Ternus has headed up Apple’s hardware division for many years now, so it seems reasonable to assume he’d bring plenty of that acumen to the table.

Tim Cook cut his teeth in operations and was not, by all accounts, a product person. John Ternus, though, most definitely is, and he’s been ultimately responsible for ensuring Apple’s physical products are up to scratch for years. With that in mind, we might see the company double down on hardware quality and innovation, which could be just what troubled devices like the Vision Pro need going into the future.

A drive into home tech

Before he got started in the world of work, Ternus studied mechanical engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. There, his senior project was a mechanical feeding arm designed for use by people with quadriplegia. I say this because it coincides nicely with a product that Apple is rumored to be working on: a smart home display that’s mounted on a robotic arm.

This device is just one of Apple’s mooted smart home products that are reportedly just around the corner. These devices were initiated under Tim Cook, but with Ternus heading up the company, we might see a new push into this arena. Given the parallels between his senior university project and at least one of Apple’s smart home devices, that could be a fitting change for Apple to embrace.

The online world is buzzing with the news that Apple is going to have a new chief executive later this year. Tim Cook has announced that in September, he'll be handing over the reins to John Ternus, who is currently Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering at Apple.

In short, Ternus is head hardware honcho across all Apple's products, but not for much longer, as the big promotion is less than half a year away.

You may not know a whole lot about Ternus, as he hasn't been in the limelight as much as some of Apple's other major execs. Cook said of his replacement: "John Ternus has the mind of an engineer, the soul of an innovator, and the heart to lead with integrity and with honor."

What he is, by all accounts, is a reliable presence, and a steady hand — with a similar temperament to Tim Cook — to take over the rudder of the company and steer it through whatever choppy waters the RAM crisis may bring for the remainder of this decade. He's also 50 years old, which, interestingly enough, is the exact same age at which Cook took the top job at Apple back in 2011.

However, while there are clear similarities between the two execs, there are notable differences, too, which we're going to explore in this list of surprising and perhaps even weird ways that Ternus definitely isn't Cook.

1. The hardware guy who started in VR

While John Ternus may have a measured and more risk-averse demeanour (as Bloomberg reports), which is close to Tim Cook's nature, one clear difference is that he's an engineer at heart. Ternus has been intimately involved with the ins and outs of hardware in his career, and the hope of many is that the presence of an engineer in the CEO job is going to be reflected in the design and implementation of future Apple products.

Given his background, when it comes to top-level decisions, Ternus should be in a better position to understand the nuts and bolts of what Apple is trying to do with its hardware. And interestingly, his first job after leaving university was with a VR company. From 1997 through 2001, before he joined Apple, Ternus was a mechanical engineer at Virtual Research Systems, working on VR headsets. Bear in mind that this was still early days for VR, of course.

For one thing, this experience should give Ternus a unique position and understanding to help develop the Vision Pro headset, which has certainly had its issues (notably the price tag, though it's making strides of late as an entertainment powerhouse).

2. Robotic arm

Before Virtual Research Systems, Ternus attended the University of Pennsylvania, where his senior project was a mechanical 'feeding arm', as Apple Insider reports. This was an invention for quadriplegics that could be controlled by their head movements.

It's interesting to note that Apple has a rumored project in the works, which consists of a robotic arm with a screen attached, and Ternus would be a very well-informed CEO for this venture. Mind you, Apple's tabletop robot is just a theory and is likely years away (if it ever comes to fruition). But still, it's another interesting element of potential product-based synergy with the appointment of Ternus.

3. Rush to the top

As highlighted on Reddit, apparently, Ternus is a fan of the rock band Rush. This comes from what's reportedly his yearbook quote: "Some are born to move the world to live their fantasies."

It's a lyric taken from the song "Losing It" by Rush, and seemingly, Ternus isn't the only Rush fan at Apple. Apparently, Craig Federighi may also enjoy hearing "The Spirit of Radio" or similar (as per Wikipedia), possibly singing the prog rock band's hits at office karaoke parties. (But not Tim Cook — well, I'm guessing, and presumably not all of Apple's top execs are Rush addicts, unless that's a hitherto hidden qualification for entrance to the C-suite inner circle).

4. The other side of Ternus

If you think Ternus might be a typical hardware nerd, think again. As Fortune reports, he was quite the swimmer in his youth, and Ternus was an 'all-time letter winner' for the men's swimming team at the University of Pennsylvania.

Bloomberg also highlighted that he's a keen cycling enthusiast, and very much into car racing, seemingly taking Apple colleagues to upstate Washington for a spot of off-road rallying now and then. Underneath that calm exterior, then, there appears to be something of an adrenaline junkie.

5. Ternus has a LinkedIn page — of sorts

Unlike Tim Cook, Ternus does have a LinkedIn profile — but you've got to wonder why, seeing as it's been left as a truly barebones effort.

Again, this was picked up by an eagle-eyed Redditor, who spied the page for Ternus, which is as sparse as can be (and is barely ever looked at by the incoming CEO, by all accounts — although most denizens of Reddit consider that to be a good thing, mind).

There wasn't even a photo on the profile page when the Redditor took a screenshot, but interestingly, now there is — maybe Ternus will populate it a bit more thoroughly going forward. Or maybe the exec will just delete it. Watch that space.

It looks like the global RAM shortage has claimed more victims, as it’s becoming increasingly difficult to buy new Mac desktop PCs.

As Mac Observer noticed, if you try to order a Mac mini or Mac Studio from Apple’s online store you could end up waiting several months for your new device — especially if you add extra memory.

I’ve tried this myself to confirm, and the situation does indeed appear bleak. Attempting to buy a standard M4 Mac mini from Apple's US store, the website informs me that shipping will be four to five weeks — that's a big delay for people expecting the usual next-day delivery.

Upping the memory from the default 16GB to 24GB extends the delivery estimate to 10 to 12 weeks, and increasing the memory again to 32GB pushes it back to 16 to 18 weeks, which means some people could potentially be waiting over four months for their new Mac.

It’s a similar story in the UK and Australia, with waits of up to 18 weeks for the Mac mini with 32GB of memory.

This is a real shame, as the current Mac mini is one of my favorite products of all time — if you’re looking for a compact PC, there really is no better alternative. However, it’s difficult to recommend to people if they can’t get hold of one.

Is this why we’ve not had an M5 Mac mini yet?

The fact that changing the amount of memory on the Mac mini makes the delivery delays worse certainly suggests that Apple isn’t as immune to the global RAM shortage as some had thought.

Because Apple uses what it terms ‘unified memory’, which is soldered directly onto its M-series chips and shared between computing and graphics tasks, rather than that off-the-shelf RAM that other laptop makers use, it had initially looked like Apple might escape the worst impacts of the memory shortages, but it seems not.

This could also explain the absence of an M5 Mac mini (and Mac Studio), despite Apple releasing M5 versions of its MacBook Pro and MacBook Air laptops. If the company is struggling to get enough memory for its existing portfolio of products, I can understand why it would be reluctant to launch any more.

On the other hand, could Apple be holding some of its memory stock in anticipation of the M5 versions? Apple is typically tight-lipped about these things, so we can only guess.

What I do know, however, is that if you want a Mac mini that will be delivered in a relatively reasonable time, you’re going to have to either buy one from another retailer, or stick with the base 16GB model if you buy from Apple.

It’s important to remember, however, that because of the compact design of the Mac mini, as well as Apple’s frustrating antipathy to designing products that can be upgraded and fixed by its customers, if you do buy a Mac mini (or Studio) with a reduced amount of memory, you won’t be able to add more later.

Don't get me wrong; I like my 2024 MacBook Air M3. I don't want to seem ungrateful for how capably it assists me throughout my work day. But do I love it like I loved my iPod Nano? I do not. That purple, palm-sized gadget accompanied me through my university years and beyond, and it's still in a drawer somewhere, just in case I'm ever brave enough to relive the music choices of my youth.

If you too are nostalgic for a previous era of Apple, the internet is awash with gadgets to help you relive that boxier, beige-r time. My pick, of course, is a silicone cover that makes your AirPods Pro cover look like an iPod scroll wheel. You can also get little hats that turn your Mac Mini into an old Macintosh — in looks, not functionality, of course — with options from a range of classic eras.

If Apple's modern experiments in color aren't hitting the spot, then there are plenty of options based around the iconic iMac G3. (The new MacBook Neo's snotty Citrus is not a patch on these juicy, tropical tones, in my opinion.) Spigen has a dinky G3 that's actually an Apple Watch charging stand, with the watch screen playing the part of the computer screen. Scroll down for a look at more of my favorite picks, with options for Apple fans in both the US and UK, and lose yourself in old-school tech nostalgia.

US — Retro Apple accessories and gadgets

UK — Retro Apple accessories and gadgets

You’ve just got a shiny new MacBook Neo and you’re keen to see what it can do. But before you go racing off to browse the internet or play some games, there are a few things it’s worth doing first.

Here, we’ll show you 7 of the best changes you can make to your Mac, from strengthening your privacy to customizing it to your liking. These quick fixes and adjustments will make all the difference to your macOS experience, and these tips are great for anyone new to macOS, no matter what Mac or MacBook you have.

Secure your Mac

The last thing you want to happen to your new Mac is for it to be compromised. Luckily, privacy and security are two of Apple’s core strengths, and macOS is well equipped to keep your digital life safe and sound.

First, you’ll want to enable automatic updates to ensure your Mac always has the latest security patches and new features. To do so, open the System Settings app and head to General > Software Update in the left-hand sidebar. From there, click the i button next to Automatic Updates and switch all the toggles on.

While the entry-level MacBook Neo lacks Touch ID, the more expensive model comes with Apple’s fingerprint recognition system. To register your fingerprint with macOS, go to the Touch ID & Password section of the System Settings app and click Add Fingerprint, then follow the instructions.

If your MacBook Neo model doesn’t have Touch ID, you can still protect your login details with Apple’s Passwords app. This is the free, built-in password manager that comes with macOS, and you’ll find it in your Mac’s Applications folder that’s accessed using the Finder. Just open it up and follow the on-screen instructions. Make sure you click Passwords > Get Browser Extension in the app’s menu bar to install it in your favorite web browser. That way, you can save and fill passwords on the web without needing to leave your browser.

It’s also a good idea to turn on FileVault. This encrypts your files so that even if you lose your laptop, no one else can access your private documents and information. To set it up, open System Settings and go to Privacy & Security > FileVault in the sidebar, then enable the toggle to start protecting your files. Just make sure you make a note of your Mac’s password so you don’t get locked out. Your Recovery Key is also synced to every Apple device you own with iCloud Keychain enabled.

All about apps

While iOS is very restrictive about where you get your apps (although that’s beginning to change), Mac users have long been able to install apps from anywhere they like. But in order to do that, you’ve got to change a simple setting first.

Go to the Privacy & Security section of the System Settings app, then scroll to the bottom of the page. Under the Security header, you’ll see ‘Allow applications from.’ Click the pop-up menu and select App Store & Known Developers. This gives you wider access to apps from outside the App Store while maintaining the security of your device.

Once you’ve installed a few new apps, it’s a good idea to change which ones are used to open certain files. After all, you might not always want videos to open using QuickTime, for example. There are a few ways to change your default apps.

Firstly, let’s say you want to change the app that’s used to open JPG images. Right-click a JPG file, click Get Info, then expand the Open with section and pick an app from the pop-up menu. Click Change All to make sure every JPG file opens with this app rather than just the one you selected.

To switch to a different default web browser, open System Settings, click Desktop & Dock in the sidebar, then scroll down to the Widgets section. There, next to ‘Default web browser,’ click the pop-up menu and pick a new app.

Finally, you can change your default email client by opening the Mail app and clicking Mail > Settings in the menu bar. Now click the General tab and choose a new app from the ‘Default email reader’ pop-up menu at the top of the page.

Customize your Dock

The macOS Dock permanently houses all your favorite apps, shows recently opened apps, and has spots for downloaded items and the trash. It’s a pretty powerful tool when you know how to use it.

To rearrange app icons in the Dock, just drag them to a new position. You can add new apps by dragging them onto the Dock and remove apps by dragging them out until the word Remove appears, then letting go.

By default, the Dock shows recent apps on the right-hand side. That can be handy, but can also clutter the Dock. To change this, open System Settings and navigate to Desktop & Dock in the sidebar, then disable the toggle next to ‘Show suggested and recent apps in Dock.’

You can also hide the Dock itself by adjusting the ‘Automatically hide and show the Dock’ toggle. It disappears by default and will reappear if you move your mouse pointer to the bottom of your Mac’s screen.

Finally, Apple’s standard configuration has apps use a ‘Genie’ effect when they’re minimized. This sucks them down into the Dock at an angle, but it’s not to everyone’s taste. If you don’t like it, change Genie Effect to Scale Effect next to ‘Minimized window animation’ in the same System Settings window.

I’ve written about the Dock in more detail, including highlighting some clever tricks to help you get even more out of it. Check that guide out if you want to learn a bit more about this macOS feature.

Set up Time Machine

If anything was to go wrong with your Mac, you don’t want to find out you’ve lost all your files. One way you can prevent that is by using Time Machine to back up your Mac. For this, you’ll need an external storage drive with enough space to hold your Mac’s files.

Now, ensure your drive is connected to your Mac, then open System Settings and go to General > Time Machine > Add Backup Disk. Choose your external drive from the list and click Set Up Disk. Once you’ve followed the on-screen instructions, you should be good to go. Your Mac will now automatically back up as long as your drive is connected.

Make full use of your trackpad

Apple’s MacBook trackpads are some of the best in the business, and even though the MacBook Neo doesn’t use a Force Touch trackpad, its offering is still incredibly well refined. You’ll find a range of intuitive gestures are enabled by default, like pinching your fingers together to open the Applications pane or moving four fingers upwards to show all your open app windows.

But you can unlock extra trackpad gestures that are hidden in your Mac’s settings. The first one can be found in System Settings by scrolling to the bottom of the sidebar and clicking Trackpad. From there, click More Gestures, then click the pop-up menu next to App Exposé and choose a gesture. App Exposé shows all the open windows of just the foremost app – rather than those of all currently open apps – allowing you to quickly flick between them.

The second secret gesture relates to dragging and dropping files. Sometimes, you might find you run out of space on your trackpad when moving a file. But if you go to System Settings > Accessibility > Pointer Control > Trackpad Options, you’ll find some handy ways to fix that. At the bottom, enable the toggle next to ‘Use trackpad for dragging,’ then pick one of the options from the pop-up menu. These choices let you do things like let go of the trackpad to reposition your fingers as you move a file, all without dropping it, making the process a lot easier.

Keep your battery going for longer

The better you look after your MacBook Neo’s battery, the longer it’ll serve you. Apple’s laptop batteries are already some of the most effective in the industry, but a few quick tweaks could help you get even more out of them.

The first thing to do is head to System Settings > Battery. Next to Charging, click the i button, then enable Optimized Battery Charging. This learns your daily usage routine and charges at optimal times to prevent overcharging.

Back in the Battery section, scroll to the bottom and click Options, then enable ‘Slightly dim the display on battery’ to make sure your screen isn’t eating into your battery too much while you’re not using a charger.

If you really want to eke as much juice out of your laptop as you can, click the pop-up menu next to Low Power Mode and select a scenario. This disables certain features to prolong your battery as much as possible.

Tune up your display

MacBooks have beautiful displays, and the MacBook Neo is no different. A few little changes here and there, though, can make it even better.

If you tend to use your laptop at night, you know how painful it can be to have your eyes blasted by a bright screen. To put that right, go to System Settings > Displays > Night Shift, then click the pop-up menu next to Schedule. Night Shift automatically changes your screen’s color temperature, which helps ease the strain on your eyes. You can either set up a custom schedule or use Apple’s Sunset to Sunrise option.

Back on the Displays pane, enable the toggle next to ‘Automatically adjust brightness.’ As the name suggests, this detects the brightness of your surroundings, then changes your display to match. It can help ensure your screen is never too bright or too dark for your needs.

On April 1, 2026, Apple will officially be 50 years old, and the Cupertino company is planning some big celebrations. If, like me, you've been using Apple's iconic products for at least some of those 50 years, then why not join the celebrations with some retro gadgets that give modern Apple devices like the excellent Mac mini (M4) the look and feel of iconic Apple products from the past five decades?

Even better, Amazon Big Spring Sale US early deals are now popping up, and many of the cool gadgets I've highlighted below have had price cuts, so it's never been a better time to be an Apple fan looking for a bit of retro flair!

• View the full Amazon Big Spring Sale

First up is the Elago W4 stand, which is compatible with all models of the standard Apple Watch. Not only does this give you a handy place to charge your Apple Watch, but it turns your wearable into a cute iMac-like computer, straight from 1998.

Next is my personal favorite: the Wokyis M5 Retro Dock Station for Mac mini (M4). This sits over Apple's tiniest Mac, and turns it into a 1980s-style Mac computer. Not only does it look incredibly cool, but it also has a built-in 5-inch screen which can be used to display information, widgets, and more. It's also an excellent dock in its own right, giving your Mac mini more USB-C ports, extra storage, and an SD card slot. Just note that due to the new design, this dock is only compatible with the latest Mac mini model with the M4 chip.

Fancy starting your day with a blast of nostalgia? The GIISSMO Maclock Wb-8 Retro Pixel Alarm Clock could be perfect for your bedside table. This cute little alarm clock is inspired by the iconic Macintosh 128K (Apple's first personal computer), and features an LCD screen that shows the time, date, and temperature, five alarm settings, and adjustable brightness depending on the time of day.

I've also picked out the Elago Retro Floppy Disk AirTag case, Spigen Classic LS MagFit Case for AirPods Pro 3, and Spigen Classic LS MagFit Case for iPhone 17 Pro. These cases protect your modern Apple devices while giving them a retro makeover.

Meanwhile, the Elago W6 Apple Watch Stand turns your Apple Watch into an iPod while charging, and the Spigen Classic C1 Stand holds and charges your phone, while looking like an iMac straight out of the early 2000s.

I've also included the Keychron R6 Retro Wireless Mechanical Keyboard, which adds a retro flair to your Mac setup (it's also compatible with PCs). While it looks like it was built in the 80s, this is a thoroughly modern full-size keyboard with hot-swappable mechanical switches. If you're like me and love the tactile feel of a mechanical keyboard, you're going to really enjoy this one.

Retro gadgets for Mac fans

Apple’s latest M5 Pro and M5 Max chips have taken Mac performance to a new level, and there’s no doubt that gaming on Apple’s computers is in better shape than it’s been in for years. The days of Mac gaming being a distant pipe dream are well and truly over.

But at the same time, we’d be remiss to say Mac gaming performance is anywhere near that of the best graphics cards like Nvidia’s RTX 5090. Chances are you’re still going to have to make a few accommodations on your Mac if you want to get good performance in any of the best and most demanding games.

And that’s what this guide is all about. Here, we’ll show you the little-known hacks and tweaks you can make in macOS that will improve your Mac gaming performance like never before. Put these changes into effect and you’ll get an enjoyable experience, no matter what your favorite Mac game is.

Start with Game Mode

Back in 2023, Apple introduced Game Mode for Mac users. This feature makes a range of automatic adjustments – like giving the game priority access to your CPU and GPU, reducing background tasks, doubling the Bluetooth sampling rate, and more – in order to improve gaming performance.

Game Mode runs automatically, providing you’re playing a game in full screen mode and have macOS Sonoma or later installed on your Mac. Because of that, you might not realize it even exists.

Luckily, switching it on and off is easy. While your game is running, press Command + Esc or click the rocket ship icon in your menu bar to open the Game Overlay (the rocket icon is replaced by a controller icon in macOS Sonoma and macOS Sequoia).

In the Game Overlay, click the settings button, then click Game Mode to enable or disable it. Your Mac will remember your decision, so there’s no need to enable or disable Game Mode repeatedly.

Modify your game's settings

All games come with varying graphical demands, and while one game might run well on your Mac, that’s not a guarantee that another will. To ensure you consistently get smooth, playable frame rates across your favorite titles, it’s a good idea to delve into each game’s graphics settings and make a few adjustments.

The choices you get here will depend on the game in question. Often, games give you presets (such as Low, Medium and High, for example) that change a range of settings in one go. It’s a good idea to start on the lowest preset, see if the performance is good enough, then move up to a higher preset and test the performance again (some games have built-in benchmarks that show your performance at various settings). A good target to aim for is 60 frames per second (fps), although higher is always better if you can get there without sacrificing too much visual quality. Once you’re more or less happy, you can then start adjusting individual settings to your liking.

One of the most consequential settings you can change is the game’s resolution – simply put, the higher resolution, the more pixels your Mac has to render, leading to greater strain on your hardware. Many games are starting to integrate Apple’s MetalFX Upscaling, which renders the game at a lower resolution, then uses artificial intelligence (AI) to improve the graphical fidelity. It’s a good way to get a crisp picture while reducing the load on your Mac’s chip.

Some games, such as Cyberpunk 2077 and Crimson Desert, have a graphical setting called For This Mac. Click this and the game automatically adjusts settings based on your computer, providing a more tailored approach than the broad Low, Medium and High presets. Give it a try if it’s available.

Finally, many games are incorporating another AI technology that can help gamers: frame generation. This uses AI to add generated frames alongside those actually rendered by your hardware, giving you higher frame rates than you’d normally enjoy. Apple calls this MetalFX Frame Interpolation, but whether it’s called that or “frame generation,” try enabling it to see if you can get smoother gameplay.

Native Mac games

With Mac gaming gaining in popularity, increasing numbers of developers are starting to optimize their titles specifically for Apple’s computers. You can see that in both Cyberpunk 2077 and Crimson Desert, mentioned above, due to their For This Mac options. But there are plenty of other game developers that have worked hard to ensure their products work well on macOS.

The ideal situation is finding a game where the developers have worked directly with Apple to ensure their game takes advantage of Apple’s software, APIs and more, which will give you the best experience. After that, games optimized for macOS (without Apple’s direct involvement) should also offer good-quality performance.

But even a game that works natively on macOS – even if it’s not been painstakingly optimized for Apple fans – will perform better than one that only works on your Mac through a compatibility app like CrossOver.

A quick way to tell what kind of performance you can expect is to simply check the game’s compatibility information. If it has detailed Mac requirements, you know it’s compatible, although that doesn’t tell you if it’s well optimized. Once you know it works on macOS without needing software like CrossOver, you can research how well optimized it is. And if it is – well, that’s a good sign that performance should be up to par.

Opt for Ethernet

Not every game requires you to be online while playing, but those that do will obviously benefit from having a strong, stable connection. If you’re running up against lag spikes and frustratingly poor performance while gaming online, you might need to start looking beyond your Mac.

One of the best ways to improve your internet connection is to hook up an Ethernet cable directly into your Mac. A wired connection will almost always be more reliable than internet beamed over Wi-Fi, as it doesn’t get affected by thick walls and signal black spots.

That said, there is a significant caveat: many modern Macs have ditched their Ethernet ports. You won’t find Ethernet slots on any MacBook (of the Air, Pro or Neo variety), but desktop Macs – including the iMac, Mac mini, Mac Studio and Mac Pro – all either possess Ethernet by default or can be configured to come with it. Be sure to check before you buy.

The good news is that even if your Mac doesn’t have an Ethernet port, there are other ways of getting a wired connection. Ethernet can be run over USB-C and Thunderbolt ports, at least one of which is preset on every modern Mac. To get Ethernet running this way, you’ll just need an adapter or a docking station.

Try cloud gaming

These days, even the most affordable low-end Mac can run the most demanding games. How? By tapping into cloud gaming services like Nvidia’s GeForce Now and Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass.

Instead of loading games locally on your Mac’s hardware, these services run on powerful computers connected to the internet, then stream the gameplay to your Mac. That takes your hardware out of the equation – as long as you have a reliable internet setup, you’re good to go.

Of course, this option puts even more emphasis on having stable internet than regular gaming (giving you another good reason to try Ethernet). Cloud gaming services can also quickly get expensive. The cheapest paid GeForce Now membership, for example, costs $9.99 a month and limits both your play time and frame rates. Higher tiers cost upwards of $19.99 a month, and while there is a free option, it’s ad-supported and cuts off your gaming sessions after an hour.

Still, cloud gaming could be a good option if your Mac hardware can’t handle the games you want to play. While it requires an ongoing payment, it might still be cheaper than buying a new Mac.

Bonus: Spec your Mac out for gaming

Speaking of buying a new Mac, there’s one more important consideration in all of this. So far, all of our tips focus on things you can do after you’ve got a Mac. But one of the most important decisions you can make for Mac gaming comes before you pull the trigger.

Simply put, make sure you configure your Mac with adequate hardware specs for the games you want to play. It’s no good cheaping out by picking the lowest-end components if you want to play Cyberpunk 2077 at 120fps, after all. And considering how difficult – or impossible – Macs are to upgrade post-purchase, you don’t want to make a costly mistake.

The key aspect here is your Mac’s graphics capability, indicated by the chip’s GPU. If gaming is your thing, you’ll probably want to opt for the most performant GPU – with the highest number of graphics cores – that you can afford.

The CPU is also of high importance, and many games rely more on this than the GPU. Again, choose the best CPU within Apple’s chips that you can afford, and make sure to research whether your favorite Mac games harness the GPU or CPU more before starting.

Both the GPU and CPU are built into your Mac’s chip (they’re not discrete components, as they are in the best gaming PCs), so that’s where you’ll want to look when speccing out these components.

Next, consider memory (also known as RAM). This is less important than your Mac’s chip but could have an impact. Thankfully, modern Macs all start with at least 16GB of memory, but the most demanding games might benefit from having more (do you research before needlessly spending extra here, though). Apple uses what it calls “unified memory,” which allows the CPU and GPU to draw from the same memory pool. This means that 16GB of unified memory often offers better performance than 16GB of regular PC memory, so be sure to check Mac benchmarks rather than PC ones when it comes to RAM in order to get an accurate idea of what you need.

Aside from that, consider your prospective Mac’s display. The MacBook Pro’s screen, for example, offers refresh rates up to 120Hz, while the MacBook Air tops out at 60Hz. The former costs more but will offer much smoother gameplay (provided your chosen chip can provide the power needed for high frame rates, of course).

Finally, there’s storage. Apple’s SSDs are incredibly fast, which should ensure speedy loading times when it comes to games. Just make sure you opt for enough capacity to hold all the games you want to play.

Take all those considerations into account and you should be well positioned for an enjoyable spot of Mac gaming, whatever titles you have in mind.

I’ve been a long-time Windows user, going back to when Windows 95 was the operating system of the times. I’ve been through every iteration of Microsoft’s OS since, with Windows XP and Windows 7 being my favorite editions. Moving to Windows 10 was a natural progression when I purchased a Lenovo ThinkPad Carbon X1 in 2018 and used it with no complaints until I upgraded to Windows 11 in 2021 on the same machine.

Windows 11 increasingly became frustrating to use, with the ads on the start menu and the constant push to make me use Edge and OneDrive. AI functionality and Copilot were being suggested just as aggressively, with even the most basic programs like Notepad and File Explorer getting AI buttons.

The whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth, exacerbated by Microsoft’s planned Windows 10 obsolescence in October 2025, which basically rendered several older and still-functioning PCs obsolete. In my case, the Lenovo hardware still holds up — Intel Core i7 processor and 16GB of RAM — and is enough for most of my needs but, alas, Microsoft forced my hand and thus began my hunt for a replacement.

macOS: On the outside looking in

With the ongoing RAM shortage and other components like storage getting expensive, I was worried that I had made this decision at the wrong time. Thankfully, most laptops and computers with fixed components were still unaffected by these shortages, so prices haven’t gotten out of control just yet. Interestingly, the best deal to me was switching OS and going down the Apple route.

I’d played around with Linux a bit, trying Ubuntu in the 2010s and, while it was fine, I kept retreating to the familiarity of Windows. macOS, on the other hand, felt more user-friendly and suitable as a full-time replacement for Windows.

The only reason I never switched earlier is because I felt Macs were overpriced before Apple’s own silicon made them compelling options — and since my Lenovo was still going strong, I erred on the side of monetary caution these last few years.

Gradually, Apple started to bump the RAM of its base-model Macs from 8GB to 16GB while retaining the same price. And that’s when the M4 Mac mini became a standout with its starting price of $599 / £599 / AU$999, making it hard for most PCs to beat in terms of the same computing power.

The base configuration with 16GB RAM and 256GB of storage was enough for my personal needs, and I finally made the switch to macOS.

Easy, quick setup, but still a learning journey

Apple makes getting set up on a Mac device very easy — I was only asked to sign in to my Apple ID, which is optional if you don’t have one or don’t want to create a new account.

In comparison, a fresh Windows install mandates a Microsoft account during setup, and you need to be connected to the internet to move to the next steps (or employ some increasingly locked-down workarounds). I'd previously even get rid of some bloatware like the Xbox app and Clipchamp, some apps even requiring third-party software to remove.

A fresh Mac install, on the other hand, has a comparatively clean and streamlined experience.

I’m not a complete beginner with macOS, but I’m still finding my feet — it’s a bit of an adjustment coming over from Windows and I haven’t quite memorized all the keyboard shortcuts yet. I’m also still getting my head around all the menus.

The overall experience, however, is such a massive improvement from Windows 11 — everything just works, and not a single ad or upsell to distract me.

Now, macOS isn't perfect, and I agree with my colleague Matt when he says Windows has a better clipboard (the built-in Clipboard Paste feature is sorely missed), and snapping two separate windows to either edge of the screen to have them take both halves of the screen equally still works more effortlessly on Windows.

And yes, it has to be said that gaming is still much better on Windows than on a Mac, even though it's getting better now.

But can it run Crysis?

Gaming was not top of mind when I decided to get the M4 Mac mini, so I wasn’t too fussed when I found that a lot of the games I used to play aren’t natively supported on macOS. There are plenty of workarounds, including a third-party program called Crossover, to allow Windows-only games to run on Macs, but I don’t feel the need to buy it just yet.

There are still a lot of titles in my Steam library that run on macOS natively — from less-demanding games like Stardew Valley to some graphically-intensive ones like No Man’s Sky. I was happy to hit anywhere between 40-60 frames per second as my monitors only have a 60Hz refresh rate and, for the most part, the M4 Mac mini can easily hit that mark with most of my games (albeit with some resolution adjustments).

Getting the upgraded M4 Mac mini can yield better results than that if gaming is a key criterion when choosing a new Mac. If you’re curious about what games can run well on this machine, MacGamingDB has user-reported benchmarks on a range of titles tested across all of the M-series Macs.

And yes, the M4 Mac mini can run Crysis, but only through Crossover.

The best deal in computing amidst this RAM crisis?

I live in Australia where the M4 Mac mini is still in stock at several retailers, but reports suggest it’s starting to sell out in some regions.

In any case, the M4 Mac mini still hasn’t received a price increase from Apple, and the RAM and storage upgrade costs remain unchanged — well, at least for now — making it a competitively priced option.

My experience with the M4 Mac mini has been very positive — snappy performance, a cleaner user interface, seamless integration with my iPhone 16 Pro Max, Apple TV and iPad mini (6th Gen), plus it's a surprisingly capable gaming machine too. It’s definitely money well spent.

• A new report says the touchscreen MacBook Pro will get the Dynamic Island
• This feature comes from the iPhone and will be found in the OLED display
• Don’t expect Face ID, as the report makes no mention of this feature

We’ve been hearing for some time now that Apple is planning to release a touchscreen MacBook Pro later this year. Now, Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman has boosted that idea by revealing fresh details about Apple’s plans — but there’s one key thing missing.

Gurman outlined what we can expect in a new report, wherein he explained that the forthcoming MacBook Pro will likely use the Dynamic Island currently found in all the best iPhones, as well as a new touch-oriented interface that adapts to your actions.

Starting with the Dynamic Island, Gurman says the implementation of this feature in the MacBook Pro will differ from the version found in the iPhone 17 series. That’s because the MacBook Pro version will be “built around a hole-punch-sized cutout for the computer’s camera,” Gurman contends, making it “smaller than the pill-shaped notch in current iPhones.” That should complement the redesigned Dynamic Island that is set to launch with the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro that are due to arrive later this year.

As for the new interface, this will apparently be integrated into an OLED display with touchscreen capabilities. Gurman believes that Apple has created a system that adapts to your input, whether that’s the traditional mouse and keyboard or a finger. If you use the latter, macOS will enlarge the on-screen controls to make them easier to tap, for example.

This interface also involves the addition of a new type of menu that surrounds the user’s finger, putting controls close at hand. Certain menus, such as the emoji selector, will have touch-optimized interfaces if you’re using touch controls. And you’ll be able to use common gestures found in iOS, such as fast scrolling and pinching to zoom in on photos.

Where’s Face ID?

The influence of iOS on both the rumored Dynamic Island and the touch interface is clear to see. It would reflect a growing crossover between iOS and macOS, which has seen Apple introduce universal apps and tools like iPhone Mirroring and Universal Control in recent years.

However, one key feature that apparently won’t make the leap to the Mac is Face ID, despite it being a vital part of the iPhone’s Dynamic Island. Gurman’s report makes no mention of Face ID, and it looks like Mac users will have to stick to Touch ID for the time being – especially considering Gurman previously claimed that Face ID on the Mac is “years away” from being realized.

That said, Apple has published numerous patents over the years concerning the process of incorporating facial recognition into a Mac, so it appears that the company is at least considering adding it to its laptops. But for now, it appears that Face ID is one feature that will remain absent from the MacBook Pro.

Apple is expected to release the touchscreen MacBook Pro near the end of 2026. Before that happens, a new version of the laptop – with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips but lacking the Dynamic Island and touchscreen display – is slated for this spring, or sometime between March and May.

• Apple plans to build some Mac Mini computers in the US
• Tim Cook made the announcement while showing off some behind-the-scenes manufacturing video
• AI may be one of the driving forces here

The suddenly hot Mac mini will soon be made in the United States. Apple CEO Tim Cook announced the move on Tuesday in a post on X.

"As part of our $600B commitment, Mac mini will be produced in the US for the first time later this year!" wrote Cook.

The $600B investment he refers to is the billions Cook promised US President Donald Trump last year he'd be funneling into US manufacturing efforts as part of a new "American Manufacturing Program" (AMP). He made the promise while also presenting Trump with a golden plaque featuring the words "Made in America."

This Mac mini news, though, may be far more valuable to American consumers interested in buying one of Apple's increasingly popular tiny desktop computers.

A mini piece of the pie

The Mac mini has accounted for only about 1% of Apple's Mac sales in recent years, but the mini's star is on the rise. According to recent reports, 2024 M4 Mac minis have been selling out (along with Mac Studios). Why? Blame AI. The tiny box computer is considered a perfect fit for handling localized agentic AI tasks, and so they're apparently flying off the shelves.

Now, it's unclear if all those sales are helping the Mac mini draw closer to, say, it's best-sellign MacBook Air or MacBook Pro counterparts. That seems unlikely, but the US production, set to begin at a new Houston, Texas, facility later this year, should increase mini-production levels.

An entire production facility devoted to just one thin slice of Apple's Mac market doesn't make much sense. However, AI's appetite for hardware goes far beyond the mini. Apple will also be building AI servers that should help support the company's growing Private Cloud Computer and other AI aspirations.

How mini are these operations

Tim Cook's post offers scant details on exactly when the facility will open and become operational, or how many Mac minis it will produce each quarter. It's likely the factory will only build a fraction of all the Mac minis Apple produces for sale. Perhaps, it will build all those sold in the US, while other global manufacturing facilities serve the rest of the world.

However, we do now know a bit more about how Apple builds products through its supply chain and with its manufacturing partners, thanks to a new video report from The Wall Street Journal.

The report focuses largely on Apple's efforts to get its Apple Silicon built in the US. Apple does not produce any chips; it relies on a series of partners to produce the high-powered silicon. However, it's clear from the video that Apple's fingerprints are all over the process.

When asked by The Wall Street Journal, "Who is the most demanding customer you have?" the Global Wafers exec answered quickly, "Apple."

Apple's deep involvement and its size give it the power to push partners like these chip supply chain partners to move more operations to the US.

iPhone next?

Apple's promise to begin building some Mac minis in the US this year does not signal a massive shift to making all Apple products in the US. And when Apple executives were asked by The Wall Street Journal about making the iPhone in the US, they gave a circuitous answer about future innovation, but offered no insight into future iPhone build operations.

Ultimately, the Mac mini's new manufacturing home represents a small but perhaps important return to US manufacturing for Apple, which famously built the original Macintosh in Fremont. California.

There's no indication Apple is planning a broad return to US manufacturing, but the push for US-based operations for chip manufacturing is perhaps a stronger possibility because of the growing need for chips (and memory) in the US.

For now, the majority of silicon and RAM are made outside the US. Once again, the global AI race is creating unprecedented demand, shortages, and the need for, in the US, closer-to-home supply chains.

In a way, this Houston-based operation is also a proof of concept. If it goes well, and Apple can also bring some Apple Silicon manufacturing to the US, we may finally see a wider swath of Apple products arriving without the support of imports and the potential burden of tariffs.

Will that mean cheaper Mac minis and eventually other products? Only time will tell.

• Apple's Mac mini and Mac Studio are suffering from long shipping delays
• This pertains to the models with more than a baseline level of RAM
• It's seemingly the consequence of the AI boom and popularity of local AIs, notably OpenClaw, which is causing, or at least contributing to it

If you were thinking of ordering a Mac mini with lots of RAM from Apple, then you could be in for something of a wait – and that's even more true for the Mac Studio.

Tom's Hardware noticed a post on X from Alex Finn, the CEO of Creator Buddy (an AI tool), who observed that: "Something big is happening. First Mac Minis. Now Mac Studios. Completely sold out. When I bought 2 Mac Studios a month ago, my wait was 14 days. Now the wait is 54 days."

The theory is that people are catching on to the potential of AIs that are run locally – meaning on your own PC, rather than accessed in the cloud – and this is being driven ahead at a fast pace by the popularity of AI agent OpenClaw (among other factors).

So, people are looking for a PC with a beefy enough loadout of RAM to run such local AIs. Apple's Mac mini and Mac Studio, which you can load up with an absolute ton of memory, are good candidates for the job. (The RAM comes at a correspondingly high cost, it should be noted.)

If we look at the Apple store in the US currently, the evidence is plain enough to see. The base Mac mini with the vanilla M4 chip is available for immediate dispatch in its 16GB form, but if you want 24GB or 32GB of RAM, you're looking at a wait of two to three weeks for delivery.

With the Mac mini M4 Pro model, you are also going to be waiting two to three weeks for the PC to arrive, with the only exception being the base model again – in this case, the lower-tier CPU with 24GB of RAM, which can be sent out immediately.

For the Mac Studio, the wait is even longer. With the PC that has the M4 Max higher-tier variant, if you want this model with 64GB of RAM, there's currently a delay of four to five weeks. Go for the 128GB model, and you'll be drumming your fingers for five to six weeks before your Mac Studio shows up. (Disclaimer: finger drumming for extended periods of time is not recommended.)

The M3 Ultra version of the Mac Studio, with a whopping 512GB of RAM, is also showing a five to six week shipping delay from Apple. All of these delivery timeframes are accurate at the time of writing, but may have altered by the time you read this.

Analysis: mini mania

The Mac mini, packed with a whole load of RAM, is a great solution for running an AI locally, with that unified memory (shared by the CPU, NPU, and GPU) being seriously nippy and ideal for such tasks.

And this is seemingly being reflected in sales of these compact computers, and the beefier Mac Studio, too. As Tom's points out, there's a growing number of companies that are using "clusters and clusters of Mac Studios" which are "perfect for long-running agentic tasks and local private LLMs" (Large Language Models, or AIs).

While there clearly are some pretty long lead times for ordering RAM-packed Macs, we can't jump to the conclusion that this is entirely due to a local AI boom. But there's clearly something going on in that respect, and it's not going to help if Apple is facing supply pressures at this point in terms of securing memory inventory. (And even Apple's huge resources will start to creak at some point).

If we see this trend continue, it's not difficult to imagine where all this is headed – these Macs are going to get very expensive (which is true with the RAM crisis as it is, anyway), and maybe even difficult to get hold of at all.

In short, if you were mulling the purchase of a Mac mini (or indeed a Mac Studio) with more than a baseline amount of memory, you might want to think about pulling the trigger sooner rather than later.

• The process for buying a Mac on the Apple Store has changed
• There are no more preconfigured Mac or MacBook options
• The site takes you step-by-step through choosing your specs

For several years now, if you were in the market for one of the best Macs or best MacBooks available, you would go to the official Apple website and start with one of the preconfigured options – but that's now changing in a significant way.

As spotted by MacRumors and others, you now no longer begin the purchase process by choosing a preconfigured Mac or MacBook. Instead, you start from scratch and choose your components one by one, with the display size and color first up.

In other words, buying an Apple computer is now much more like buying one of the best iPhones or best iPads. It gives you a little bit more control over your new Mac or MacBook, but requires a little bit more knowledge about what exactly you want.

There has always been the option to tweak specs and RAM and storage on your Mac after choosing a preconfigured computer, but that initial stage has now been ditched – perhaps for better consistency across Apple's various product lines.

All the options

There's been no official word from Apple about why this change has been implemented, so we don't know for sure what the thinking is here. Another possibility is that people will be more tempted to upgrade to a higher spec if they can see all the options available.

It appears that all the choices that were previously available are still here: you can, for example, still opt to have certain professional apps like Final Cut Pro preinstalled on your Mac (though as yet there's no mention of Apple Creator Studio).

All of this comes while we're eagerly anticipating some new MacBook Pros to appear in the very near future, very possibly with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips inside. Perhaps the new online ordering system will help users assess all the various options available.

Head to the Mac page on the official Apple website to check out the new process for yourself (you don't actually have to buy anything to test it out). Is this a good move for the Apple Store or one that wasn't really needed? Let us know in the comments.

We all know what's happening with PC prices right now – they're heading upwards, with RAM and storage-related hikes only predicted to get worse this year, which makes snapping up one of these deals on the Apple Mac mini M4 could be the smartest move you make this year if you're looking to buy a new desktop computer.

Don't let the tiny size of this Mac fool you. Apple has packed a lot of power into its diminutive chassis, and on the recent 21st anniversary of the launch of the first ever compact Mac, we declared that the "Mac mini is the best PC you can buy" – especially with a chunky discount.

And at just $499 on Amazon US (was $599), this mini PC with 16GB of memory is barely any more expensive than it was over the Black Friday sales period last year (just $20 more, to be precise) – which, given that the RAM crisis had barely started back at the time, is quite remarkable, given that memory-related inflation is now clearly in full swing.

Those in the UK can also pick up the same Mac mini M4 with 16GB RAM and 256GB of SSD storage for just £529 at Very (was £599). It's also on Amazon UK with 8% off, knocking it down to £549, should that former offer go out of stock).

(Not in the US or UK? You can see today's best Mac mini deals in your region below).

Today's best Mac mini (M4) deal

There's a reason this computer is ranked as the top Mac in our roundup of the best overall desktop PCs currently. The Mac mini M4 can handle everything you throw at it in terms of general computing tasks, and it'll cut through everyday workloads with ease. Don't expect to use heavyweight apps or tackle gaming on this device, mind, although that's self-evident, really, given the asking price.

We couldn't have rated the Mac mini M4 more highly in our review, where we praised the PC's even smaller size compared to its predecessor, and observed that it ran macOS Sequoia smoothly, while also handling tasks like video editing without breaking a sweat.

It's interesting to note that the very first Mac mini launched at $499 in the US for the entry-level model, and you can get one packing the M4 chip and 16GB of RAM for the same price right now, over two decades later – in the midst of a memory pricing storm that's causing havoc in the components market. It just goes to show there are still glimmers of hope in the overall gloom of predictions of rising prices and falling PC sales.

• Chrome 151 will drop support for macOS 12 Monterey
• That means certain older Macs will no longer get browser updates
• You can switch to a different browser, or get a new Mac

Over time, shiny new gadgets become outdated and obsolete ones, and Google has announced it will no longer be offering updates for its Chrome browser on older Mac computers from the end of July this year.

More specifically, Google Chrome version 150 will be the last to support macOS 12 Monterey, as per an update (via Notebookcheck) on the Chrome Platform Status site. Chrome 151 is "tentatively scheduled" to launch on Tuesday July 28, 2026.

In other words, if you're on a Mac that can't be upgraded to macOS 13 Ventura, you're not going to get the vital Chrome updates and security patches you need to stay safe from July onwards. You'll need to either upgrade your Mac, or switch to another browser.

If you are affected, Chrome won't suddenly stop working when version 151 arrives (we're currently on Chrome 143). However, you won't get any new features, and more importantly, you won't get important security updates from Google either.

Recent macOS history

macOS 12 Monterey was released in October 2021, with macOS 13 Ventura following the year after. We're now up to macOS 26 Tahoe for the latest Macs, which Apple pushed out to the masses in September of last year.

To check the version your Mac is running, click the Apple icon in macOS (top left), then choose About This Mac. If you're unable to upgrade to anything beyond macOS 12, then you must be using a relatively old Apple laptop or desktop, using an Intel chipset.

You can install macOS 13 Ventura on iMacs and iMac Pros from 2017 and later, Mac minis from 2018 and later, Mac Pros from 2019 and later, MacBooks and MacBook Pros from 2017 and later, and MacBook Airs from 2018 and later.

While Safari hasn't been updated on macOS 12 since July 2024, the latest versions of Firefox and Microsoft Edge do still fully support the older operating system. If you don't want to change from Chrome though, it might be time to invest in a new Mac.

On January 11, 2005, then Apple CEO Steve Jobs took to the stage at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco and unveiled the original Mac mini.

At the event, Jobs revealed that Apple finally had an answer to a question he kept hearing from consumers: “Why doesn’t Apple offer a stripped-down Mac that is more affordable?”

Cue the first-generation Mac mini. The entry-level model came with the following specs for a price of $499 / £339 / AU$799:

• 1.25GHz PowerPC G4 processor
• 256MB of 333MHz DDR SDRAM, expandable to 1GB
• 40GB Ultra ATA hard drive
• Combo (DVD-ROM/CD-RW) optical drive
• ATI Radeon 9200 graphics processor with 32MB video memory
• One FireWire 400 and two USB 2.0 ports
• 10/100 BASE-T Ethernet networking and 56K V.92 modem
• Internal support for AirPort Extreme wireless networking and Bluetooth
• DVI or VGA out (adaptor included), composite/S-video out with optional adaptor and
• Built-in speaker and headphone/line out

All of this was packed into an impressively small body that measured 2 x 6.5 x 6.5 inches / 51 x 170 x 170 mm, and was “the most affordable way to enjoy Mac OS X and iLife," according to Jobs.

One of the reasons Apple was able to keep the price down was because it was, as Jobs announced, “BYODKM” – Bring Your Own Display, Keyboard, and Mouse. It was Apple’s first Mac that didn’t come with a display and peripherals.

Boasting about what a product doesn’t come with is pretty bold, and it was an angle that Apple soon dropped. However, the fact that the Mac mini Jobs showed off in 2005 is remarkably similar to the Mac mini you can buy in 2026 is testament to how Apple nailed its compact computer.

What no one at Apple could have hoped for at the time – and certainly something I never imagined – is that 21 years after the first model launched, the Mac mini is easily the best PC on the market for most people.

Compact killer

While the device that Steve Jobs introduced to the world 21 years ago is unmistakably a Mac mini product, Apple’s diminutive Mac has had several redesigns over the years. In 2010 it got an aluminum unibody design that gave it a sleek and modern look that was so iconic Apple didn’t do much to change it until the Apple Mac mini (M4, 2024), when it kept the unibody design but made the overall size of the PC even smaller, while packing it with powerful components, including the M4 and M4 Pro chips.

The Mac mini also remains the most affordable way to get a Mac, with the latest model launching at $599 / £599 / AU$999, which isn’t a huge increase over the original model.

This is why I recommend the Mac mini to anyone looking for a new desktop PC (unless you want one for gaming – if that’s the case you’ll still want to get a Windows 11 desktop PC with discrete GPU). There really aren’t any Windows 11-based mini PCs that offer the same level of design, build quality and performance for anywhere near the same price.

Looking at our best mini PC buying guide, the closest alternative is the GMKtec NucBox G10 mini PC, which is certainly cheaper than the Mac mini, but doesn’t look quite as nice, and can’t compete power-wise.

There’s also the Geekom A9 Max mini PC, which definitely brings the performance, and the Mac mini-inspired design isn’t too bad (though still not a patch on the original) – but at $999 / £999 it’s almost twice the price of the Mac mini.

Of course, with the Mac mini you’ll be using the macOS operating system, but even if you've not used it before it’s not a huge culture shock these days, and you'll get used to it pretty quickly. And, with Microsoft seemingly breaking Windows 11 with every other update while also cramming in unwanted AI features, swapping operating systems isn’t a bad idea at all.

I’m no Apple fanboy, but I have to give the company credit for launching a product that in its 21st year continues to beat almost all of its competition – and hopefully we’ll see a new model with the M5 chip sometime soon.

The year is almost over, and there’s no doubt that 2025 was a significant one for all of Apple’s best Macs. From splitting up its chip launches to a radical redesign for macOS, we weren’t short of talking points over the last twelve months. Yet for all the successes, there were several notable failures, plus a host of disappointing absences with key products pushed to the back burner. Here, we’ll recap it all, putting Apple’s Mac efforts under the microscope and looking ahead to 2026.

Fresh-faced Mac upgrades

Apple began the year with the launch of a smattering of Macs, with one at the affordable end of the market and the other occupying flagship territory.

Starting with the former, Apple released the M4 MacBook Air in March 2025. This brought a few notable enhancements over the M3 MacBook Air from 2024 and was well-received when we reviewed it. Notable upgrades included the CPU core count rising from eight to 10, the front-facing camera being upgraded with a 12MP lens and Center Stage support, and the maximum memory increasing from 24GB to 32GB. Despite all that, the price actually dropped from $1,099 to $999. While it wasn’t an earth-shattering update to the MacBook Air, it was certainly a positive one in almost every way.

At the other end of the spectrum was the Mac Studio, which also received a fresh coat of paint in March. The most notable change here came in the form of two new chips, but the arrangement was not without its quirks.

In this case, Apple launched the Mac Studio with an M4 Max chip and an M3 Ultra option. That’s right, the high-end chip was actually from the previous generation compared to the chip below it in the hierarchy. That made for an awfully confusing decision for buyers: was the M4 Max better because it used a newer architecture, or was the M3 Ultra more powerful because it was from a higher tier?

In the end, it was the M3 Ultra that won out, and it produced some pretty incredible performance numbers. It also showed itself to be an excellent gaming chip, although it’s hard to justify on this point alone compared to a Windows PC, given its price. But speaking of gaming, Cyberpunk 2077 landed on the Mac in July, signifying that the platform is finally holding its own as a gaming destination - or so Apple hopes, anyway.

The M5 chip gets an unusual launch

Apple’s Mac releases used to be simple: every instance of a new chip, from baseline entries to high-end monsters, came out at the same time. The M5 changed all that, though, with Apple pushing the M5 in October 2025 without any sign of the M5 Pro, M5 Max, and M5 Ultra, which presumably are coming later.

For now, we just have to judge the M5 lineup on its entry-level model. The eponymous M5 has a Neural Accelerator in each core, which means 4x the peak GPU compute of the M4, and that’s really geared towards artificial intelligence (AI) output. Elsewhere, there’s 30% faster GPU performance and a 45% ray tracing improvement compared to the M4, while our review of the M5 MacBook Pro showed that its CPU got 20% faster multithreaded performance compared to the M4.

The only Mac that this chip found its way into in 2025 was the 14-inch MacBook Pro. Aside from the performance uptick, this laptop also got improved battery life: Apple says you’ll get up to 24 hours and our analysis largely confirmed that, with the laptop even outperforming Apple’s numbers in our web browsing test.

That said, we’re still waiting for the elephant in the room: the long-rumored MacBook Pro with a touchscreen OLED display. This has been rumored for years and failed to show its face in 2025, but industry whispers suggest it’ll arrive next year; let’s hope they’re right this time.

M5 Vision Pro: did Apple do enough?

It’s no secret that Apple’s Vision Pro headset has struggled to establish itself since it launched in 2023. No doubt the company was hoping to give it a shot in the arm when it updated the device in October 2025, but many will have been left a little underwhelmed at the changes that were made.

Why are we talking about it here in a piece about Apple’s Mac updates? Well, the Vision Pro was outfitted with the M5 chip that found its way into the MacBook Pro, giving it the same level of power as Apple’s most performant laptop. As well as that, its battery life was boosted, and it got a new headband to help distribute its weight more evenly. That’s got to be good, right?

Those changes might have been welcome, but they failed to address the biggest problems that have been plaguing the Vision Pro since its debut: its weight and price. Sure, the headband is designed to spread the weight more comfortably in use, but it doesn’t address the fact that the Vision Pro is still a heavy headset. The heft wasn’t reduced at all in the new version, making it just as bulky as ever.

As well as that, Apple didn’t touch the Vision Pro’s price, something that has been a major sticking point for years now. At $3,499, the Vision Pro has essentially priced itself out of reach for all but the most profligate or enthusiastic of consumers, meaning it’s struggled to become a must-have device for most people. While a cheaper model has been talked about endlessly for years, there are murmurings that it might have been put on hold. Even if it does eventually launch, it could be too little, too late for Apple’s virtual reality gamble.

The Liquid Glass revolution

As you can see, there were plenty of changes to Mac hardware over the past twelve months. But the software didn’t stand still either, with macOS receiving its most significant design overhaul in years.

In macOS 26, that took the form of Liquid Glass. That’s Apple’s name for its glassy, transparent interface that refracts light and imbues a water-like quality to moving objects. It’s certainly eye-catching.

The problem is that many people have also found it very difficult to use. Text can be hard to read when two panels overlap each other, while Apple’s option for clear app icons makes them exceedingly difficult to differentiate at a glance. There’s no denying that Liquid Glass is pretty, but is it actually all that usable? The jury’s still out on that one.

It was perhaps telling that the departure of chief interface designer Alan Dye from Apple -- the man largely seen as most responsible for Liquid Glass -- was met with cheers and hearty approval from some quarters. Liquid Glass is divisive, and it’ll likely continue to be so for some time to come.

If you're hunting for some Cyber Monday Apple deals, I've got a good one for you: the Mac mini (M4) is down to just $479 (was $599) at Best Buy. With Apple discounts coming far and few between, a huge 20% price cut on one of the best Macs ever released isn't one to pass up.

• Shop Best Buy's full Cyber Monday sale

You're getting the incredibly efficient Apple M4 chip here with the Mac mini, and it's packed inside a tiny, 1.5 lb (0.67kg), 2 x 5 x 5-inch (50 x 127 x 127mm) frame. Not only is the price-to-power ratio off the charts with this PC, but so is the portability. It was already a fantastic value at full price, but with this $120 Cyber Monday discount, it's a no-brainer.

Want to see more of the best discounts our expert team could find? Check out our Cyber Monday deals live hub for price cuts on everything from TVs to blenders.

(Not in the US? See today's best deals in your region below)

Today's best Mac mini (M4) Cyber Monday deal

With so much competition, it's not easy to be crowned the best mini PC you can buy. And yet the Mac mini (M4) prevails because it's just so incredibly performant for the price tag.

It earned a rare 5 out of 5 stars in our Mac mini (M4) review from TechRadar's Managing Editor, Core Tech, and resident Mac expert Matt Hanson because of its punchy performance, compact form factor, and unmatched value for money.

So, when you add in the $120 Cyber Monday discount? Forget about it. No Windows machine in the same price bracket even comes close.

There aren't many drawbacks to the Mac mini at all, but there is one glaring issue that only applies to some: this PC is essentially impossible to upgrade. If you care about buying more RAM and storage as the years go on, you're not going to be able to do that here.

But if you'd rather buy a great stock PC and not have to worry about getting under the hood, this is the perfect choice for you.

Want to look over some other options first? Check out our roundup of the best Cyber Monday MacBook deals.

More Cyber Monday Mac deals

Shop more of today's best Cyber Monday sales

• Amazon: 45% off TVs, AirPods, air fryers & vacuums
• Apple: iPads, AirPods & MacBooks from $119
• Best Buy: $1,000 off TVs, laptops & headphones
• Dell: laptop deals from $249.99
• Home Depot: 40% off appliances, furniture, grills & tools
• Lenovo: 45% off laptops & tablets
• Lowe's: up to 30% off appliances, holiday decor & tools
• Samsung: up to $2,000 off appliances, TVs & phones
• Target: 40% off Christmas decor, clothing & furniture
• T-Mobile: up to $1,100 off latest iPhone 17
• Walmart: furniture, cheap TVs & vacs from $69
• Wayfair: 54% off Christmas, furniture & decor

We're just a few days out from the best sales event of the year, and the Black Friday Apple deals are heating up; in fact, the one product I'd been keeping a close eye out for has gone on sale, and even better, it's the cheapest it's ever been.

That's right: my beloved Apple Mac mini (M4) is on sale at Best Buy for $479 (was $599), marking the lowest price Apple's signature tiny computer has ever seen. There's a good reason it occupies a prime slot in our ranking of the best desktop PCs (and the best mini PCs too); this dinky device is an absolute powerhouse with an already very reasonable price tag, making this discount even more appealing.

UK shoppers can enjoy a decent price cut on the M4 Mac mini too, with it reduced to £499 (was £599) at Amazon. It's not quite as significant a deal, but it's still the cheapest it's ever been in the UK according to our price-tracking tools!

Not in the US or UK? Scroll down to see the best M4 Mac mini deals in your region!

Today’s best Mac mini (M4) deal in the US

Today’s best Mac mini (M4) deal in the UK

Now, anyone familiar with my tenure covering computer hardware here at TechRadar will already know that I'm... not exactly the biggest fan of Apple. The feeling is mutual, too; they wouldn't even let me write our M4 Mac mini review when it debuted this time last year.

But even a seasoned hater like me can't think of a single criticism to sling at the latest Mac mini. It thoroughly deserves the 5-star rating awarded by my (very lovely) boss Matt Hanson, delivering a new, even more compact design along with truly stellar performance courtesy of the powerful M4 chip. It's powerful, it's tiny, and it's also fully passively-cooled, which makes it completely silent in operation – no fan whine here.

Shop more of today's best Black Friday sales in the US

• Amazon: 45% off TVs, AirPods, air fryers & vacuums
• Apple: iPads, AirPods & MacBooks from $119
• Best Buy: $1,000 off TVs, laptops & headphones
• Dell: laptop deals from $249.99
• Home Depot: 40% off appliances, furniture, grills & tools
• Lenovo: 45% off laptops & tablets
• Lowe's: up to 30% off appliances, holiday decor & tools
• Samsung: up to $2,000 off appliances, TVs & phones
• Target: 40% off Christmas decor, clothing & furniture
• Walmart: furniture, cheap TVs & vacs from $69
• Wayfair: 54% off Christmas, furniture & decor

Shop more of today's best Black Friday deals in the UK

• Amazon: up to 66% off tech & essentials
• AO: up to £500 off Dyson, Bosch & Hisense
• Argos: up to 50% off appliances, tech & toys
• Boots: save on 1,000s of beauty products
• Currys: deals on Ninja, Shark & Lenovo
• Dell: laptops from £279
• Dyson: up to £550 off vacuums
• EE: Switch 2 bundles from £20/month
• John Lewis: up to 50% off tech & fashion
• Lego: sets & accessories from £2.99
• Samsung: deals on appliances & phones
• Very: up to 40% off tech, toys & fashion

I've used a Mac mini for over a decade now, and it's still, by far, my favorite mini PC of all time. As powerful and compact as it is, what astounds me most is just how unbelievably affordable it is. And, thanks to Black Friday, you can own the Apple Mac mini (M4) at Best Buy for $479 (was $599).

This deal is for the model boasting an M4 chip, 16GB of memory, and a 256GB SSD. That means it's fast, responsive, and packing enough local storage for most users. Our B2B Editor, Steve Clark, crowned it champion amongst the best mini PCs - and now it can be yours for a record-low price.

Today’s best Mac mini deal

In our Apple Mac mini (M4) review, we said it was "smaller, faster, better", the "best Mac ever", and "the best small form factor PC." No wonder we awarded it a full five stars when we reviewed it last year.

The M4 Mac Mini is actually the latest and most powerful version of this PC, with an M5 version expected to drop around mid-2026. Given how fast the M4 chip is, we don't see any reason for waiting around.

The Mac mini is a perfect solution for anyone wanting to use macOS without investing in one of the best MacBooks. This version has removable, modular storage compared to the previous model's soldered-on components and can therefore be easily upgraded to 512GB if you need to at a later date.

This is a great deal, but if you'd like to explore alternatives then head over to our best mini PCs guide. If you'd like something more portable then our MacBook Pro deals page is well worth a look.

Shop more of today's best Black Friday sales

• Amazon: 45% off TVs, AirPods, air fryers & vacuums
• Apple: iPads, AirPods & MacBooks from $119
• Best Buy: $1,000 off TVs, laptops & headphones
• Dell: laptop deals from $249.99
• Home Depot: 40% off appliances, furniture, grills & tools
• Lenovo: 45% off laptops & tablets
• Lowe's: up to 30% off appliances, holiday decor & tools
• Samsung: up to $2,000 off appliances, TVs & phones
• Target: 40% off Christmas decor, clothing & furniture
• Walmart: furniture, cheap TVs & vacs from $69
• Wayfair: 54% off Christmas, furniture & decor

The Apple Mac mini M4 is one of the biggest bargains in computing, offering a huge amount of power for not much cash. But you can't use it on its own – which means you need to kit it out with peripherals and accessories.

That's where I can help. I bought a Mac mini M4 earlier this year, and spent a stupid amount of time researching the options before adding a 27in 4K monitor from MSI. I run it at 2560x1440, which gives me plenty of desktop space but without a visible loss of detail; at full 4K, icons are too small, but at 1080p the desktop is too cramped You'll need a cable to connect them, too, so I've included a cheap but (so far) reliable USB-C-to-USB-C option that can handle the task.

I also added an Apple Magic keyboard and Apple Magic trackpad. These were no-brainers because they're simply excellent and both were available via Amazon Renewed for a good price (and still are below). A mouse more your thing? Apple's Magic Mouse is also an option.

My biggest project was that I upgraded the Mac mini M4 with 4TB of extra storage – but without paying Apple's premium prices. I paired the OWC Express 1M2 SSD enclosure with a fast Samsung NVME SSD for quadruple the storage but no loss of speed.

Finally, I added a Satechi Hub and Stand dock. This adds an essential (for me) SD card slot, among other ports, plus the chance for yet more storage (another 1TB for me). As a bonus, it also makes it easier to reach the mini's awkwardly placed power button.

The essential Mac mini M4 accessories guide

The Apple Mac mini M4 is one of the biggest bargains in computing, offering a huge amount of power for not much cash. But you can't use it on its own – which means you need to kit it out with peripherals and accessories.

That's where I can help. I bought a Mac mini M4 earlier this year, and did a huge amount of research before adding a monitor, extra SSD storage and more.

My first two purchases were the Apple Magic keyboard and Apple Magic trackpad. These were easy choices; you can get cheaper third-party options, but the keyboard and trackpad are both excellent, and both were available via Amazon Renewed for a discount (as they still are below). If you prefer a mouse, Apple's Magic Mouse is also an option.

For a bigger project, I also upgraded the Mac mini M4 with 4TB of extra storage – and without paying Apple's premium prices. The OWC Express 1M2 SSD enclosure and fast Samsung NVME SSD gave me four times as much storage with no loss of speed.

I also bought a 27in 4K monitor from MSI. This works really well at 2560x1440, which doesn't use the monitor's full resolution but which gives me plenty of desktop space without a visible loss of detail. The exact model I bought isn't available now, but the MD272UPSW below has similar specs for a similar price. You'll need a cable to connect them, too, so I've included a USB-C-to-USB-C option below.

Finally, I added a Satechi Hub and Stand dock. This not only provides several helpful extra ports, but also gives you the option for yet more storage, and even makes the Mac mini's awkwardly placed power button more accessible.

The essential Mac mini M4 accessories guide

As far as mini PCs go, my absolute favorite is the Apple Mac mini (M4). It's powerful, compact, and robust, and right now only $30 more than its lowest price ever. That means you can pick up the incredible Apple Mac mini (M4) at Best Buy for $499 (was $599).

This model of the Mac mini has the super powerful M4 chip, 16GB of memory, and a 256GB SSD. The fact that you can get it for under $500 is frankly a little ludicrous. I've no idea why it doesn't get more airtime, but let me assure you, you're not going to regret investing in this tiny desktop machine that will last you for many years to come.

Today’s best Mac mini deal

If you want to find out why we called it the "best Mac ever” then you've got to take a read of our in-depth Apple Mac mini (M4) review. We don't give out five-star ratings very easily, but the product deserved it thanks to its stellar performance on pretty much every front.

From our testing, this is the best small form factor PC and one of the best ways of getting macOS at home. With a perfect blend of power and affordability, it's no surprise that it's one of the best computers around.

This version of the Mac mini has removable, modular storage compared to previous models' soldered-on components. That means you can easily upgrade to 512GB if you need to at a later date.

If you're looking for a portable computer but need a display, then our MacBook Pro deals page is well worth a look. Alternatively, head over to our best mini PCs guide to see what other options you have.

• Apple just teased 'Something powerful is coming"
• The teaser shows a MacBook Pro unfolding, likely a new M5-powered model
• While the M5 chip is almost certain, a new color option might arrive for Apple's Pro laptops

Update October 15: Apple has just announced the new M5 MacBook Pro.

Original story follows:

While Apple CEO Tim Cook didn’t offer the teaser this time around – as he did for the Sky Blue MacBook Air and iPhone 16e – the Cupertino-based company’s SVP of Marketing Greg Joswiak just basically confirmed that at least one new Mac is on the horizon.

A post on X (formerly Twitter) captioned “Mmmmm… something powerful is coming” shows a video with what appears to be a MacBook Pro folded open to make a V, with “Coming Soon” flashed across in varying shades of blue. Now count the number of m’s he used and remember what roman numeral V is, and we’re pretty sure that this is a direct tease for an M5-powered MacBook Pro.

As far as when “Coming Soon” exactly means, given past teasers that Apple’s posted on social media, we’d expect this to come in hot later this week, potentially as soon as tomorrow morning, on Wednesday, October 15, 2025.

In recent years, as well, Apple has used October to launch new Macs and in 2024 debuted new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros, a redesigned Mac mini, a suped-up Mac Studio, and a new iMac, all with the M4 chip. Seemingly, we’re at least getting one new Mac, which appears to be a powerful variant of the MacBook Pro with M5.

It doesn’t come as much of a surprise, given Apple’s history of October launches and, more recently, rumors of the M5 Macs making their debut soon. The rumor mill thus far has been expecting Apple to keep the working, chunkier, and port-filled 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros, but to swap in the more powerful chip under the hood.

The M5 MacBook Pro will likely come as the base model as well as Pro and Max variants – that is, if Apple follows its existing naming convention.

However, while the M4 MacBook Pro comes in Space Black and Silver, I have a hunch that this latest teaser might be hinting at a new color option. Similar to how Apple finally gave the Pro iPhones a pop of color with Cosmic Orange and a new shade of blue alongside Silver, Apple might be finally getting ready to unveil a colorful version of its Pro laptop.

From the teaser, it appears that the MacBook Pro in question might have a hint of blue, so while not as pastel or flowy as the Sky Blue MacBook Air, the MacBook Pro might usher in a deeper navy.

Of course, we’ll need to wait for Apple to make it official, but with a teaser from none other than Apple’s own SVP of Marketing, I have a feeling we’ll be seeing a new Mac launch imminently. And TechRadar will be the place to be as we’ll break it all down as it arrives.

• New MacBooks and Macs are rumored to be incoming
• These models are due across 2025 and 2026
• Almost every Apple computer model could get a refresh

We saw rumors around the new M5 MacBook Pro earlier this week, and now a fresh leak may have revealed Apple's entire Mac launch roadmap for the rest of this year and across next year – through details in the macOS Tahoe 26 software development timeline.

Sources speaking to AppleInsider, who are apparently familiar with macOS Tahoe 26 development and testing, have suggested that the M5 MacBook Pro is indeed going to be unveiled in the not-too-distant future.

Then, we're going to get the 13-inch and 15-inch M5 MacBook Air refresh early in 2026, these sources say. Those models would replace the current M4 MacBook Air model, which we had lots of nice things to say about in our M4 MacBook Air review.

As per this leak, the new MacBook Air is making its debut at the same time as macOS Tahoe 26.2. The M4 version of the laptop was launched in March 2025, also with a macOS update – macOS Sequoia 15.3. So the parallels are there.

Desktop computers

After that, we're apparently getting the high-end MacBook Pro variants, running M5 Pro and M5 Max chips. It sounds as though these models will show up soon after the M5 MacBook Air, completing the M5 MacBook Pro lineup.

Apple has more Mac plans for 2026, it would seem: a new Mac mini and a new Mac Studio are then tipped to show up in the middle of 2026. They might be joined by a new iMac, but the sources behind the leak seem less confident about this model.

These desktop computers would all replace the current versions, of course: the most recent desktop Mac launch we've had was in March 2025, when the M3 Ultra Mac Studio made its debut, so updates will definitely be due by next year.

It looks as though it's going to be a busy time for Apple across the end of 2025 and 2026, and there'll be lots more from the company besides these Macs too: new iPad Pros and potentially the iPhone 17e are expected over the coming months.

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• It's 2025 and Apple still hasn't fixed this ancient Mac bug

Let's cut to the chase. For a limited time only, you can snap up the incredible Apple Mac mini (M4) at Amazon for $499 (was $599). At only $30 more than its record-low price, this is still a seriously juicy discount on one of the most powerful mini PCs around.

The Apple Mac mini is one of those devices that gets nowhere near as much airtime as it deserves to. Considering it delivers on almost every front, including performance and price, it really deserves more credit. This deal is for the 256GB model, although the 512GB alternative is also discounted if you need more storage.

Today’s best Mac mini deal

Our Apple Mac mini (M4) review says it all. We've called it the "best Mac ever” and "the best small form factor PC". So, there's no denying that this is a five-star performer through and through.

We'd highly recommend the Mac mini to anyone wanting macOS at home. Given the price, it's more affordable than the best MacBooks. It manages to combine power and affordability, happily gaining a place in our look at the best computers.

If we were being picky, then we'd say that the front USB-C ports could be faster and the power button placement is a little "awkward”. Minor criticism, though.

This version of the Mac mini has removable, modular storage compared to previous models' soldered-on components. That means you can easily upgrade to 512GB if you need to at a later date.

Other options are available for this product type. We've done all the hard work of collating a list of the best mini PCs, which should minimize the research you need to do. You might also fancy looking at the latest MacBook Pro deals going on right now.

• A Mac Pro has again been rumored for launch later this year
• It'll come with an M4 Ultra based on clues drawn from Apple's internal code
• M4 UItra could run with a 32-core CPU and an 80-core GPU in theory

The next iteration of the Mac Pro might see Apple powering the computer with an M4 Ultra chip, we've heard again.

It's been a couple of years since the last incarnation of the Mac Pro, which used the M2 Ultra, so it would be a considerable leap in performance to upgrade to a theoretical M4 Ultra – but Macworld reports that this is what's in the cards.

This is based on Apple's internal code that Macworld caught a glimpse of somehow, which contained the identifier 't8152' – and we're told this suggests the use of the M4 Ultra, codenamed 'Hidra' (a name that's previously been aired on the rumor mill via Bloomberg).

There's not much else to this rumor, and Macworld doesn't have any details on the spec, although it theorizes that the M4 Ultra could run with a 32-core CPU and an 80-core GPU.

As ever with this kind of leak, it could be genuine and yet never come to fruition. It might just show us that Apple has been testing a Mac Pro configuration along these lines – but it's possible that this machine may never see the light of day, ending up canned at some point in prototyping.

Analysis: M4 or wait for M5?

This leak tells us a couple of things. Firstly, that Apple staff can't spell 'Hydra' (well, okay, alternatively let's say Apple engineers can't think up decent codenames). And, being serious, that it does appear increasingly likely that a new Mac Pro design is going to pitch up later this year.

Indeed, the Mac Pro coming out later in 2025, complete with M4 Ultra, was suggested over a year ago now, so this latest nugget of speculation backs up the previous buzz on the grapevine.

On top of the weight of rumors starting to add up, there's also the fact that for Apple, the Mac Pro is in something of an odd predicament right now. This is due to the M4 Pro flexing some considerable performance muscles, and outgunning the Mac Pro's M2 Ultra. The upshot is you can buy a Mac mini (with M4 Pro) and get better performance – at least in terms of raw CPU power – than the Mac Pro, which isn't a good look for the seriously pricey computer.

Not that the Mac Pro is competing with Apple's compact Mac mini, of course – it's a heavyweight pro-targeted PC that offers a lot of advantages in terms of hefty memory loadouts and PCIe expansion options. It is a very different beast indeed, but still, Apple needs to keep the Mac Pro on a reasonable footing in relative performance terms - again meaning that the rumored refresh with an M4 Ultra seems more likely.

A two-year gap also seems a fair enough timeframe for a refresh, and it feels somewhat unlikely to me that Apple would want to wait until the M5 series before pushing out a new Mac Pro given the above reasons.

That said, there are those who've argued that the M4 Ultra isn't going to happen – due to issues around jamming two M4 Max chips together, which is what the Ultra chips do – and that Apple will indeed wait it out for the M5 series to make another Ultra model.

So, everything's rather up in the air for now – but if an M4 Ultra is going to happen, it will surely be in a new Mac Pro, and we're likely to see more leaks soon enough. If the whispers go quiet over the next couple of months, that'll tell its own story.

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Imagine a sunflower. Now imagine a computer that looks like one. Now imagine a sunflower-style computer running an interface that mimics the look and feel of glass. That's what I'm staring at – online at least – and I can't look away from this iMac G4 running Liquid Glass.

It's quite the mashup. The iconic iMac G4 launched 23 years ago with OS X and Liquid Glass is part of the macOS Tahoe 26 Public Beta, which launched just days ago. The project, spotted by 9to5Mac, is the brainchild of Colby Sheets, who first took the 2002 all-in-one, gutted it, and installed an M1 Mac Mini in 2021.

He posted about that on X and in this most recent follow-up, displayed a few images of what macOS 26 would look like on the iMac G4's floating, 15-inch active matrix LCD screen.

In a word, it looks lovely, but it's not just that the macOS 26 interface tries to ride the fine line between frosted glass mimicry and readable interface elements. I'm not sure I'd be as entranced if it weren't on the all-but-forgotten first floating-screen, all-in-one iMac.

I have a certain affinity for this system because it takes me back to a pivotal moment in tech history.

It was a recession, not a great time for computing or even the Internet, which was experiencing the aftermath of the rapid deflation of the dot-com bubble. Our industry needed something.

The last design and development spark had come, unsurprisingly, from Apple, which under returning CEO Steve Jobs' guidance introduced the first candy-colored all-in-one iMac that was both a design and commercial hit.

Things had been relatively quiet since then, with only the original iPod, more of a consumer electronics device, to inspire the Apple minions and gadget enthusiasts at large. On the computing side, it was the doldrums. Many of the Windows whitebox PC companies had either been acquired or were disappearing (Gateway, eMachines, Zeos), and what the rest of the industry was producing were mostly uninspiring tower PCs.

Blooming technology

The iMac arrived as a cover story in Time Magazine on January 14, 2002. It was weeks before the unofficial unveiling of the product at Macworld, so we all pored over the story and marveled at the images of this utterly unique system.

With just a 10.4-inch in diameter, circular, domed white base, chrome arm, and floating thin panel display, the iMac G4 looked nothing like the last iMac or any of the All-in-One PCs then filling Best Buy, Circuit City, and Micro Center shelves.

The design was quite intentional. Jobs recounted to Time the conversation he had in his backyard flower garden with then Apple Designer Jony Ive about how the new iMac should differ from the previous and arguably still quite popular model.

"Why have a flat display if you’re going to glom all this stuff on its back? Why stand a computer on its side when it really wants to be horizontal and on the ground? Let each element be what it is, be true to itself.” Instead of looking like the old iMac, the thing should look more like the flowers in the garden. Jobs said, “It should look like a sunflower.”

And so it does. The iMac G4 (for the CPU inside) is arguably the most plant-like of all iMacs before or since. New iMacs still have a floating display, but the base is flat and devoid of components, which now all fit neatly inside the screen panel body. Any other design, and Colby Sheets probably could not have squeezed Mac Mini components inside the classic iMac.

Up close and still out of reach

A few months after the Time Magazine article and the Macworld launch, an iMac G4 finally arrived at PC Magazine, where I worked in 2002. In person, it was even more impressive. Our first look lauded the new system's design, though we weren't thrilled with the "insubstantial" keyboard and one-button mouse. Still, the bundled software that included iMovie, iTunes, iDVD (the system could burn CDs and DVDs), and iPhoto stood out among PC offerings.

My romanticism of that design is a direct result of its brevity. Apple shifted away from the sunflower look within two years, replacing it with the iMac G5, which set the design language for all future iMacs.

I, though, have reason to think of the iMac G4 every so often. On many of my weekly walks with my wife, we make our way through our small town, walking by all the business storefronts. Inside one, quite close to a window, is an iMac G4. I've never seen it turned on, but each time, I fantasize about marching into the business and asking the proprietor to sell it to me.

Maybe someday. And then I guess I'll gut it and run macOS 26.

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Windows 11’s position as the default operating system for PC gamers could at last be coming under threat, with an increasing list of games being natively ported to rival platforms such as Linux and macOS.

A prime example of this is the recent launch of Cyberpunk 2077 on Macs. After a rocky launch on PCs and consoles in 2020, it has blossomed into one of my favorite games of all time, and I’m thrilled that people with compatible Macs, as well as new Nintendo Switch 2 owners, can now experience this brilliant game.

Cyberpunk 2077’s arrival on Macs is particularly exciting for me. Despite one of my earliest memories of PC gaming being playing Lemmings on a Macintosh (in black and white!), it’s fair to say that gaming on Macs hasn’t really taken off, with only a fraction of PC games being ported to macOS.

This has led to PC gamers only having one choice: buy a Windows machine. For people who don’t like Microsoft and its way of doing things, this was less than ideal.

With the rise of gaming-centric Linux distros like SteamOS and high profile games finally making their way to Macs, could this be the start of an exciting new chapter for PC gamers looking for Windows alternatives? Might we even one day see some of the best MacBooks also appear in our best gaming laptops buying guide?

Another exciting aspect about Cyberpunk 2077 arriving on Macs, is that this is a game that remains a graphical showcase with advanced effects, such as path tracing for ultra-realistic lighting and reflections, which unless you’re playing on the latest consoles, usually means you need a pretty high-end (read: expensive) gaming rig with a modern graphics card.

Modern Macs don’t have that; instead, Apple’s M-class chips that power the devices combine the central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU), with shared (Apple calls it ‘unified’) memory. This design, based on Arm architecture and sometimes known as a system-on-chip (SoC), greatly differs from traditional gaming PCs and gaming laptops, which have separate CPU and GPUs, with GPUs having their own dedicated memory.

The conventional wisdom has been that for a game that’s as graphically-demanding as Cyberpunk 2077 when playing at high PC presets, you need a system with a dedicated GPU (often this means a graphics card like the Nvidia RTX 5080).

With Cyberpunk 2077 now available for Macs with integrated graphics, while promising to offer PC-level graphical fidelity (read: superior to console graphics), this is an exciting moment for PC gamers – could it prove that you don’t need a discrete GPU for playing modern AAA games, as well making macOS a viable alternative to Windows 11 for gaming?

Go big or go home

While Cyberpunk 2077 is now available to buy through Apple’s App Store on the Mac, you can also buy it from storefronts such as Steam and GOG – and if you’ve already purchased it for PC, you should be able to install it on your Mac without having to buy it again – I was able to download it onto my Macs via GOG Galaxy without having to rebuy – and it also allowed me to continue my playthrough from where I’d left off on PC thanks to cloud saves and cross progression, which makes switching to Mac pretty painless for PC gamers.

I’m lucky enough to have access to a range of modern Macs and MacBooks, so as soon as Cyberpunk 2077 became available, I wanted to test it out on the most powerful Mac I could get my hands on – and that just so happened to be the Apple Mac Studio (M3 Ultra), kitted out with a 32-core CPU, 80-core GPU and 256GB of unified memory.

It’s one of the most powerful Macs Apple has ever made – and also one of the most expensive, with a $8,099 / £8,299 / AU$13,149 asking price that would make even the most dedicated PC gamer wince.

While the Mac Studio, even with these specs, is not a gaming device, I was looking forward to seeing what it was capable of with Cyberpunk 2077.

To be honest, that was probably a mistake.

Taking inspiration from the Steam Deck?

Unlike PCs, which are made up of various components from different manufacturers, and which are usually built by other companies (or users themselves), Apple has a tight grip over the hardware of its Macs, and that has allowed it, along with the developers of Cyberpunk 2077 to offer a bespoke graphics preset called ‘For this Mac’ which should give you the best graphics and performance for the Mac or MacBook you’re running the game on.

It's a cool feature on paper, as it should mean that Mac users who aren’t as comfortable with tweaking every graphical setting in a game to eke out as much performance as possible as seasoned PC gamers are, should be able to play Cyberpunk 2077 and get the best experience without even having to open the settings menu (as the ‘For this Mac’ preset is selected by default).

This reminds me of a similar feature of Valve’s Steam Deck gaming handheld PC, where ‘Steam Deck verified’ games use a default graphics preset for Steam Deck hardware, again to offer the best possible experience without users having to delve into the settings menu of each game.

Both of these features promise to make playing PC games a lot more like playing games on a console, where tweaking is kept to a minimum so you can just jump straight into a game and start playing. It’s also a feature that PCs can’t really offer due to the sheer quantity of hardware configurations there are.

When running Cyberpunk 2077 on the Mac Studio using the ‘For this Mac’ preset, I thought it was playing it a bit too safe, as it set the resolution of 2560 x 1440 (despite being plugged into a 4K gaming monitor), ray tracing turned off, and Apple’s own MetalFX technology, which like tech from AMD, Nvidia and Intel, renders the game at a lower resolution, then upscales it for impressive-looking games that don’t stress out your hardware too much.

With MetalFX set to ‘Dynamic Resolution Scaling’, at the target framerate set at 60fps, the amount of upscaling will fluctuate to keep the game feeling smooth, and in my tests it did a good job of sticking to 60fps.

However, the game didn’t look nearly as good as it does on my gaming PC. Now, admittedly I usually play Cyberpunk 2077 on a PC with an Nvidia RTX 5090 graphics card installed, which is an incredibly powerful GPU, so I might be a bit spoiled when it comes to comparing the game’s performance on PC and Mac, though over the years I’ve also played the game on much weaker hardware.

Part of the issue is the shorter draw distance, and anti-aliasing seems to introduce a more pixelated look on some objects. Also, in the neon-lit world of Night City (where the game takes place), ray tracing lighting effects make a huge impact, especially when the lighting reflects off puddles and other reflective surfaces (using even more advanced path tracing tech). Without ray tracing, the overall look of the game takes a big hit.

So, having established that the Mac Studio can play Cyberpunk 2077 out of the box at 60fps, my next mission was to tweak the settings to see if I could improve the visual quality of the game, while keeping framerates playable.

Keeping most of the settings the same, I upped the resolution to 4K (3840 x 2160), turned on ray tracing (to its highest settings) and path tracing. This time, the average frame rate dropped to 20.74fps – far too low to produce anything close to a playable frame rate.

Turning on AMD FSR 3.1 Frame Generation, a feature that uses AI to generate frames that get inserted in-between normal rendered frames with the aim of increasing the frames per second without impacting the hardware too much, and changing the MetalFX scaling to ‘Quality’ to see if that helped improve the look of the game did result in an improvement in graphics, but the slight bump in framerate to 25.69fps was still too low.

Switching MetalFX to ‘Balanced’ upped the framerate again to an actually playable, though far from ideal, 30.82fps.

Turning MetalFX’s setting to ‘Performance’, which lowers the rendered resolution for improved performance, and relies more on upscaling (at the cost of visual fidelity), boosted the frame rate further to 38.61fps.

Dropping the resolution back down to 1440p (and turning off ray tracing) saw a huge uptick in frame rates to 89.67fps. You’re not just relying on MetalFX to upscale the game, however, as you can switch to AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) tech, which is used in a wide range of PC games already, and unlike Nvidia’s rival DLSS tech, which is limited to Nvidia’s most recent GPUs, AMD FSR isn’t exclusive to AMD hardware. The tech is a lot more established than MetalFX for upscaling games, and switching to FSR saw frame rates more than double to 196.98fps.

This result is far more in line with what I was expecting from the hardware, and it meant I had headroom to increase some of the settings to improve the graphical fidelity of the game. Increasing the resolution back up to 4K brought an expected hit to frame rates, but it still hit on average 135.51fps, which is still excellent (and as the 4K monitor I’m playing on has a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz, it means I still have some headroom to increase settings, as anything above 120fps will be a bonus).

With that in mind, I turned ray tracing back on, but limited it to reflections and medium settings for ray-traced lighting. The game looked much better, though the framerate dropped to 69.59fps, a major fall that shows how demanding ray tracing is on the GPU.

As the Mac Studio is not a gaming device, I wanted to keep the frame rate at an achievable 60fps, rather than sacrificing too many graphical bells and whistles to boost the frame rate into triple digits.

So, changing AMD FSR to ‘Performance’ I turned on more ray tracing features, including sun shadows, and upped ray-traced lighting to ‘Ultra’. This dropped the framerate to 60.83fps on average, which meant I’d hit the sweet spot between performance and graphical fidelity.

M3 Ultra is no RTX 5090 killer

Now, getting an $8,000 PC to hit 60fps may seem disappointing, especially for PC gamers who are used to splashing out lots of money and getting incredible results. Playing Cyberpunk 2077 on my PC with the RTX 5090 means I’m used to having all the graphical settings at their very highest settings, along with the demanding path tracing feature also enabled, and seeing frame rates in the high 100s.

This shows that despite its power, the Mac Studio is not a gaming machine, but the addition of Cyberpunk 2077 and its solid performance means that it is a workstation PC that can also play games – and with good (if not spectacular) results.

What about MacBooks?

I also tried out Cyberpunk 2077 on a 15-inch MacBook Air (M4), a much more mainstream and affordable Mac. While it offers only a fraction of the performance of the Mac Studio, it’s far more popular – and it’s this kind of Mac that most people will be playing on.

Because of the entry-level specs of the MacBook Air, which features an M4 chip with 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU, plus 16GB of unified memory, I left Cyberpunk 2077 on the default ‘For this Mac’ preset, which uses the ‘medium’ texture quality and a resolution of 1710 x 1068, which is a step down from the native Retina resolution of the MacBook Air’s screen, which is 2880 x 1864.

MetalFX is set to Dynamic Resolution Scaling with a target of 30fps, and ray tracing is (unsurprisingly) turned off. With these settings, the game hit a rock-steady 30fps – and it actually impressed me far more than the Mac Studio performance. Let me explain.

Set your expectations

The reason I wasn’t that impressed with the Mac Studio’s performance with Cyberpunk 2077 is that my expectations were too high, whereas with the MacBook Air, my expectations were much lower (and more realistic), and that meant they were surpassed.

While 30fps might not sound like much (it’s certainly the lowest frame rate I’d consider playable), the fact that you’re running such a graphically-ambitious game on a device that not only doesn’t have a discrete GPU, but also a laptop that doesn’t even feature fans, is seriously impressive.

This is a very thin and light laptop and runs completely silently – a big contrast to most gaming laptops that are usually big and bulky, and pretty noisy when the built-in fans kick in to keep the hardware cool.

The solid out-of-the-box performance also means it’s a great example of how bringing Cyberpunk 2077 to the MacBook Air, a laptop that’s less expensive than a lot of gaming laptops, allows people who wouldn’t usually buy a gaming PC to play one of the best PC games ever made.

The smaller screen of the 15-inch MacBook Air compared to the larger 4K monitor I tested on also helped, as rough edges and other graphical blemishes that can be visable when you start lowering graphics settings and resolutions are far less noticeable (and more forgivable) on a smaller screen.

Using what I learned from playing the game on the Mac Studio, I turned on Frame Generation and switched the upscaling to FSR, and got a frankly excellent 69.83fps. This gave me scope to increase the texture quality to ‘High’, and it appears with minimal impact as I then got 65.32fps on average. But would turning on ray tracing prove too much?

Yes. Turning ray traced lighting to ‘Medium’ saw the frame rate drop to 39.12fps. Not disastrous, but it definitely makes the game feel less smooth. Changing AMD FSR 3.1 to Dynamic Resolution Scaling with a target of 60fps saw the framerate climb to 51fps, but the fluctuating image quality used to try and maintain that target meant it wasn’t worth the sacrifice for ray tracing. Turning it off, I was back to well over 60fps, and the game looked good and played well despite running on a non-gaming laptop. However, while the fanless design of the MacBook Air means the laptop remains silent, it does get quite toasty, with the space between the top of the keyboard and the hinge of the screen getting noticeably warm.

I do worry that during long play sessions (which many people, myself included, often indulge in with games like this) the MacBook Air could overheat which could result in reduced performance and even crashes where the game becomes unresponsive. However, during my time playing on the MacBook Air or the Mac Studio, I didn’t get any game-ending crashes.

After playing on both ends of the Mac spectrum, with the ultra high-end Mac Studio and affordable MacBook Air, I have to say I was most impressed with the MacBook Air, especially after a bit of tweaking that allowed me to play the game at above 60fps. For people who have never set foot into Night City, the Mac versions are a great choice, though PC gamers might not be that impressed.

There were also three surprising things that really stood out to me while playing Cyberpunk 2077 on the Mac, some of which I’d love to see in the PC version.

1. Spatial audio could be a killer app

Cyberpunk 2077 on Mac supports spatial audio via Apple’s AirPods earbuds, and I was very impressed with the results. Apple has a lot of experience in this field, with its AirPods devices offing impressive virtual surround effects for films, TV shows and music mixed for Dolby Atmos.

I used the AirPods Max while playing Cyberpunk 2077 and was extremely impressed with the results. The audio quality was fantastic, and the noise from the hustle and bustle of Night City really did feel like it was coming from all around me, making the game world feel even more immersive.

It was far better than most virtual surround sound systems I’ve tested with gaming headsets, though it still doesn’t quite compare to a real, physical surround sound setup.

The reason why it’s so successful is because Apple incorporates head tracking into the AirPods’ spatial audio, so the way you move your head influences the volume of the sounds you’re hearing in each ear. I’m massively oversimplifying it, but it’s an element I’ve not experienced with PC gaming headsets, and I was impressed with how well it worked with this game.

It’s limited to Apple’s own headphones, which (especially in the case of the AirPods Max) are quite expensive, but I could definitely see spatial audio support becoming a real selling point for gaming on Macs in the future.

2. 'For this Mac' presets are a great idea

When I first heard about the ‘For this Mac’ presets, I thought it was a good idea, allowing non-technically minded people get a solid gaming experience that’s tailored to the hardware you’re using.

In practise, it does mean you can fire up the game and get playing without any tweaking, which takes away some of the complexity that PC gaming has developed a (not entirely unfair) reputation for.

It’s definitely something I’d like to see more of with Mac gaming – especially considering it’s not really possible to do on a Windows PC – and it could encourage more people to try out gaming.

However, I found the settings were a bit on the cautious side, which is understandable but does mean that some Mac gamers could miss out on performance and effects if they stick to the preset.

It does offer a good springboard, however, for tweaking if a gamer does want to push the hardware and eke out better performance.

3. Cross platform saves mean Macs can be a great gaming backup

One thing I really liked was that the Mac version of Cyberpunk 2077 is available on the Steam and GOG game stores (as well as through the App store), and as I had already bought the PC version from GOG, the Mac version was sitting there for me to install without having to repurchase it.

It also offers cross platform progression, so when loading up the Mac version I was able to carry on from my last cloud-based save, essentially letting me continue from where I left off on my gaming PC.

This means my MacBook Air is now a viable gaming alternative if I’m travelling away from my gaming PC and desperately want to play Cyberpunk 2077 (it happens) – and it could make a MacBook a more enticing prospect for PC gamers looking for a non-gaming laptop.

It could work the other way as well, with Mac gamers who fall in love with the game potentially investing in a gaming PC, though if you buy the App store version you’ll need to buy it again on PC, as the App store isn’t available in Windows 11. You won’t have to buy a copy for every Mac you use, however.

Overall, Cyberpunk 2077 doesn’t mean gamers can throw out their graphics cards and dump Windows 11 for good, as gaming PCs are still the best place to play a game like this, but it’s an exciting glimpse of what the future holds for gaming on Macs.

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We’ve been hearing for months that Apple is planning to bring AAA game Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition to macOS, and yesterday we finally got a release date: it’s due to arrive tomorrow, July 17. It’s the news Mac gamers have been waiting a tortuously long time to hear.

As someone who games on both a PC and a Mac – and who absolutely loves Cyberpunk 2077 and has been playing it for years – I’m super excited to try out one of the best single-player games on my Mac. Because this isn’t just one of my favorite games on one of my favorite computers. No, it looks like Apple and CD Projekt Red are going above and beyond to make this an experience custom-built for Mac gamers. And that means there’s a lot to look forward to.

Game-changing performance

As an Apple gamer, I’m used to performance that lags behind my PC. Don’t get me wrong, Apple silicon has been an absolute gamechanger for Mac gaming, and I can still get decent frame rates in most games on my MacBook Pro. But despite Apple’s lofty claims, it’s always seemed like wishful thinking to imagine that the integrated GPU you find in Apple’s Mac chips can compete with any of the best graphics cards.

That’s why the key detail that leapt out at me from Apple’s announcement was the claim that Cyberpunk 2077 will be able to run on a Mac at 120 frames per second (fps) when using ultra settings. Considering how incredibly demanding Cyberpunk 2077 is, that’s bona fide gaming PC performance and would be a massive step up for Mac players.

If that’s what you can potentially eke out of a game like Cyberpunk 2077, then other, less-demanding games could perform even better. Sure, MacBook Pro displays are limited to 120fps, but you might be able to max out all settings and still hit that refresh rate in other titles. It’s an enticing thought.

Of course, everything depends on which chips will be able to achieve this kind of output. Apple hasn’t given any specifics here, but when we went hands-on with Cyberpunk 2077 on a Mac, it reached 120fps at ultra settings using an M4 Max chip. It’s unlikely that lower-rated chips will hit those numbers too – I’m not holding out too much hope for my M1 Pro MacBook Pro – but we’ll have to see how they perform when we get some testing time with the game.

Interestingly, software is seemingly just as important here as hardware. Yes, a high-end chip will undoubtedly help you reach those sky-high numbers, but some of the most interesting tidbits from Apple’s Cyberpunk 2077 announcement were related to software.

For instance, Apple said that MetalFX Upscaling would be available on launch, with MetalFX Frame Interpolation and MetalFX Denoising coming later this year. Starting with MetalFX Upscaling, this renders the game at a lower level than your display’s native resolution, then uses artificial intelligence (AI) to scale it up. Nvidia and AMD already have similar techs, and they do a fantastic job (in some cases, the upscaled version actually looks better than the original), so this could be a major boost for macOS.

MetalFX Denoising, meanwhile, will allow “real time path tracing on the game’s highest quality graphics settings,” Apple says, and that’s something that could provide an incredible boost to visual fidelity.

The AI revolution

What’s fascinating to me is that these are all AI technologies. They come at a time when Apple’s headline AI (specifically, Apple Intelligence) is widely perceived to be seriously lagging behind rivals like ChatGPT and Copilot.

Yet while most people envisage chatbots when they think of AI, artificial intelligence is actually far broader, as these gaming techs show. Apple has long been a strong AI performer – its image processing and Siri suggestions being two examples you’ve likely encountered on an iPhone.

Of course, we don’t yet know how well all of these MetalFX techs will perform, with MetalFX Frame Interpolation and Denoising not expected until later this year. But they could counter the argument that Apple is falling behind in AI (a contention that was never the full picture anyway).

Of these AI features, MetalFX Frame Interpolation is the one that has piqued my interest the most. Apple says this generates a new frame for every two input frames, resulting in much smoother gameplay than you would normally be able to achieve.

This is sure to reignite the impassioned “fake frames” debate that has been playing out ever since Nvidia and AMD introduced their own frame-generation features. Yet provided Apple can avoid stutters and jerkiness, I think this is unlikely to bother Mac gamers – for most Apple fans, being able to enjoy smooth framerates on Mac hardware is likely to outweigh any high-level concerns about whether the frames are “real” or “fake.” The true test will be at more modest hardware levels rather than the M4 Max and M3 Ultra we’ve seen Cyberpunk played on so far.

A serious gaming test

And then there are all the other interesting additions that are unique to the Apple edition. This version comes with “dynamically calibrated HDR optimized for Apple XDR displays,” Apple says, alongside Spatial Audio with head tracking (providing you’re listening with a pair of the best AirPods), plus “For this Mac” graphical presets that are “individually optimized for every Apple Silicon Mac model.”

That all makes me think that Apple is trying to do this the right way. It’s making use of its other products and adding its own techs that are tailor-made for its devices, rather than just plugging in upscaling and frame generation tools from Nvidia or AMD and hoping for the best.

The last few years have shown that Apple is taking Mac gaming seriously. Cyberpunk 2077 will be the sternest test of that commitment – but if Apple does it right, it could also be its biggest success story so far.

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There’s been no shortage of Apple deals this Prime Day – Amazon’s delivering a new all-time-low price for AirPods Pro 2, which are still a steal at $149, and countless discounts on their gadgets like the AirTag, iPad mini, and even the Mac mini. But while the latter is the most affordable Mac, the iMac is the real complete package in terms of a Mac desktop, and it’s $150 off at Amazon right now.

• Shop more Amazon Prime Day Deals here

That’s right, you can get what TechRadar called the best all-in-one computer, and as the one who reviewed it, I still stand by my recommendation, for just $1,149 (was $1,299). You also get to choose your color – Blue, Green, Pink, or Silver – with the entry-level SKU, which includes the M4 Chip, 16GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage.

Need more storage, more prots, or the excellent Nano-Texuture Glass? Fear not, as Amazon’s also discounted the higher-end models. Let’s dive into the entry-level model, which is essentially the perfect home computer.

Prime Day deal: Apple iMac 24-inch M4

So, first, if you do need the extra ports, more storage, or RAM, or want the Nano-Texture Glass that I wish came standard, here are the current discounts on Amazon:

• Apple 24-inch iMac with M4, 16GB of RAM, 256GB of Storage, and 4 ports: $1,379 (was $1,499) at Amazon
• Apple 24-inch iMac with M4, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of Storage, and 4 ports: $1,559 (was $1,699) at Amazon
• Apple 24-inch iMac with M4, 24GB of RAM, 512GB of Storage, and 4 ports: $1,734 (was $1,899) at Amazon
• Apple 24-inch iMac with M4 and Nano-Texture Glass, 16GB of RAM, 256GB of Storage, and 4 ports: $1,499 (was $1,699) at Amazon

With any of these, you’re getting what TechRadar called a leveling-up of “the best, and most colorful, all-in-one computer.” The iMac was upgraded with fresh shades, the M4 chip, and the optional Nano-Texture display finish, which blocks all reflections, in October 2024. In our review, it earned four and a half out of five stars and our recommendation badge.

Unlike the Mac mini or competing desktop PCs that require you to bring a monitor, keyboard, and mouse or trackpad, everything comes in the box with the iMac. You get the main unit itself, which is just one plug away from getting power, a Magic Keyboard, and a Magic Mouse. Yes, the latter is the one with a port on the bottom that renders it useless while you’re recharging, but hey, it’s USB-C now.

After that, you’re off to the races exploring macOS, and yes, every configuration that’s on sale will get the upgrade to macOS Tahoe 26 when it launches later in 2025. You also benefit from the speed of the M4 chip, which ensures nearly any possible task runs smoothly and even allows for gaming on the iMac’s 24-inch 4.5K Retina display. There’s even a FaceTime camera built into the top with smarter features like CenterStage to keep you in the shot.

All in all, $150 off makes the best all-in-one computer an even better buy, and it’s a return to the lowest price we’ve tracked on Amazon. Just pick a fun color, please.

Amazon's Prime Day sale - quick links

• Amazon Devices: 50% off TVs, Ring & Fire Sticks
• Apple: AirPods + iPads from $99
• Back to school: deals from $5.99
• Beauty: 80% off toothbrushes & skincare
• Headphones: $120 off Bose, Apple & Sony
• Health: electric toothbrushes from $24.99
• Kitchen: 54% off Ninja, Nespresso & Keurig
• Laptops: record-low prices from $175
• Tablets: iPads and Samsung from $54.99
• Toys: 40% off Lego, scooters & Toniebox
• TVs: cheap TVs from $59.99
• Vacuums: Shark, Bissell & Dyson from $49.99

• Apple could be working on a system to update Macs while they're still boxed
• This is based on clues in the latest developer beta of macOS 26
• Such a system is already used with iPhones, though it's not clear how Apple would get this to work with Macs

Apple's Macs could leave the shelf with a fully up-to-date installation of macOS on board in the future, preventing any need for a day-one update from the buyer, if clues in the latest developer beta are any indication.

9 to 5 Mac reports that the macOS Tahoe 26 beta 3 contains the groundwork (initial references and code) for such a system, which is already in place for the iPhone.

It's called Presto and it allows boxed iPhones to be updated to the very latest version of iOS by retailers - without removing the hardware from its sealed package - if the devices need an update beyond the version of the operating system they shipped with.

This saves the customer the trouble of applying an update right out of the gate, which is incredibly convenient.

The Presto hardware itself is a rack with six bays that can have six iPhones placed within. It uses wireless technologies to switch the phones on, update them, then turn them off. (MagSafe and NFC to turn the devices on, by all accounts, and Wi-Fi to pipe the actual update through.)

Analysis: Boxing clever

If Macs are going to get the benefit of having fully up-to-date software when they're taken home by the buyer, it begs the question: how is Apple going to pull this off with laptops and PCs? The system might have to work very differently for a bigger piece of hardware, and Macs don't have NFC either - so it's not clear how the sealed PC could be triggered to power on in its box (and off again afterwards).

9to5Mac suggests that maybe Apple could add NFC back to its macOS devices, or that perhaps a different mix of wireless tech could be used with Macs. Whatever the case, it's not clear how Apple would pull this off as it does with iPhones, but it may require a substantially different spin on the concept.

Furthermore, just because a potential feature is spotted in the background of beta software doesn't mean it'll ever come to fruition. That said, the presence of the code here does indicate that this is at least something Apple is seriously considering - watch this space, I guess.

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• A huge leak has revealed Apple’s Mac plans for the next 18 months
• It contains data on close to 20 upcoming Mac desktops and MacBooks
• There are a few intriguing surprises nestled inside the leak

Apple is known for keeping its upcoming products a closely-guarded secret, but that doesn’t stop information leaking out from its fortress-like walls. That’s just happened again, and this time a mother lode of Mac data has seemingly emerged from inside the company’s labs.

This leak comes from AppleInsider, and the news outlet says it sourced it from “our own data and information shared with us.” It includes records on close to 20 of the best Macs that Apple is set to release over the next year or so, giving us a rare sneak peek at the company’s future plans.

AppleInsider’s sources shared product codenames and other related information, which AppleInsider has used to piece together what might be on the menu. In some cases, this takes the form of simple common sense: Apple is planning to upgrade all of its MacBooks to the M5 chip series, for example.

There are a few interesting tidbits, though, such as AppleInsider’s contention that an M5 iMac might be in the works, alongside a new Mac Pro with either an M3 Ultra or M5 Ultra chip. Both the iMac and the Mac Pro have gone years without a significant upgrade.

We can also glean an intriguing detail about Apple’s M6 MacBook Pro, which is likely to launch in late 2026. Rumors have claimed that this could come with an extensive hardware overhaul (including an OLED display), but the device’s alleged identifier numbers – K114 and K116 – imply that the laptop might retain its current size options.

If the 14 and 16 in K114 and K116 correspond to screen measurements, that suggests that the M6 MacBook Pro could be keeping its current 14-inch and 16-inch options.

Nearly 20 new Macs in the works

Almost all of the report’s device codenames could be matched with existing devices based on past releases.

For instance, the Mac mini with M4 Pro chip used the J773s model number, so the new J873s codename in AppleInsider’s data likely corresponds to an M5 Pro variant. Yet there was one mysterious device that could not be identified, and AppleInsider speculates that it could be the much-rumored MacBook powered by Apple’s A18 chip. Time will tell on that one.

Besides the expected models we’ve discussed above, AppleInsider’s report omitted model identifiers for a few Macs you’d expect to see. While the outlet discussed the Mac mini with M5 Pro chip, for example, it says it was not informed about the entry-level M5 Mac mini – although it added that this device is surely a given if the M5 Pro model is also in development.

There’s a lot of data to sift through in AppleInsider’s report, so we’ve put it into a table below for simple viewing. We’ve included predicted release dates alongside the Mac models, although these are only estimates and could change over time. The table only includes devices with identifier numbers provided by AppleInsider, so variants like the M5 Mac mini are not present.

As this is all merely rumored information, we’ll have to wait to see how accurate it proves to be. Much of it lines up with previous reports, though, so it might not be entirely wide of the mark – which makes it a handy resource if you're thinking of upgrading your Mac in the near future.

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Amazon has already offered some excellent discounts this week, including significant savings on the Mac mini. The discounts also quickly arrived after Amazon confirmed that Prime Day will be a four-day event kicking off on July 8, 2025.

• Amazon's early Prime Day sale is filled with cheap tech gadgets - shop my 23 favorite deals from $8.49

Now, though, Amazon has done it again by offering another deal on an excellent computer. If you have deja vu, it’s similar to the discounts on LG’s C4 OLED that my colleague Mackenzie Frazier has highlighted.

The entry-level Mac mini with the M4 chip, 16GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage is now $130 off at just $469 – that’s a $110 discount off the $599 MSRP. Additionally, if you need more storage, the Mac mini with 512GB of storage is also $110 off, now priced at $689. Both represent brand-new record-low prices for the best value in Apple’s Mac lineup.

Simply put, if you don’t need a portable computer, the Mac mini is one of the best systems around and is both smaller than the last generation but also more powerful thanks to Apple’s M4 chip inside. You can easily hide it on your desk or let the sleek, silver aluminum cube be front and center.

Regardless of placement, you’ll get plenty of performance for any tasks, including 4K video editing, productivity applications like massive spreadsheets, presentation decks, or word processing, browsing the web, the ability to multitask as you wish, and even some chops for gaming.

Sure, we would have loved to see Apple offer more than 256GB of storage for the entry-level size, but at $469, it’s even more reasonable and comes with a strong 16GB of RAM. Plus, with hardware connectivity that includes USB-C ports, you can always connect an external drive or opt for the 512GB Mac mini, which is also discounted.

In TechRadar’s Mac mini M4 review the compact computer received a full five stars, and we commended its great performance, compact design, and excellent value. This fresh discount from Amazon not only makes the value here shine more, but also represents a new record-low price.

Simply put, this is currently one of the best, if not the best, deals on a Mac right now and is undoubtedly a surprisingly delightful deal considering Amazon has already cut the price just days ago. You’ll also score free, fast shopping on the Mac mini if you’re a Prime member, and you’ll be able to score more deals on Prime Day.

And if you’re not in the market for a Mac mini, check out the best early Prime Day deals on Amazon as TechRadar searches for them here.

We’ve known that Cyberpunk 2077 is eventually coming to the Mac, and developers CD Projekt Red (CDPR) have been hard at work – and still are – at getting the title fit to run on any Apple Silicon-powered device. That means the massive AAA title, which has been frequently used to benchmark systems, will be able to run on the M1 chip or newer.

It was reconfirmed at WWDC 2025 – Apple’s week-long developer conference – that it would be arriving later this year, and back with the launch of the new Mac Studio, TechRadar saw a demo of it running on that super-powered computer.

Now, though, I had the chance to get another demo of Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition – a newer version of the in-development title – on a 16-inch MacBook Pro with the M4 Max chip and 128GB of RAM.

It was on ‘Ultra’ settings with a buttery smooth and excellently rendered 120 frames per second. And yes, this performance is derived from Apple’s M4 Max chip – no discrete GPU required. Further, this was fully taking advantage of Apple's Metal 4, coming later this year, including MetalFX Frame Interpolation.

It looked fantastic and was responsive, but that had me thinking about the plans to launch this on any Apple Silicon Mac.

I was curious about performance on less powerful chips within Apple’s lineup, as the requirement for the title is expected to be Apple Silicon, meaning it should run base M1, M2, M3, or M4 chips as well as the more powerful creations.

I asked Pawel Sasko, Associate Game Director of CD Projekt Red, about what performance might look like on other Macs with different levels of performance from various chips, like even a MacBook Air.

He first explained that Cyberpunk 2077 is running on CDPR’s proprietary Red Engine Four, which is designed to be scalable. “It's trying to use everything that given platform provides,” Sasko explained and called out that the title is available on a variety of devices already, including the Nintendo Switch 2 ahead of its release on the Mac.

"Red engine is basically trying to check what hardware you have and squeeze out the max you can have,” he continued. Meaning that Cyberpunk 2077 will work to run and deliver the best performance based on the chip you have inside. Sasko couldn’t give a specific number yet based on the chip or a potential Mac SKU, but that’s because the game is still not finalized – CDPR is still working on it and polishing it.

Sasko even shared that they’ll work on optimizing performance until the very end, and recently CDPR figured out how to optimize cloth, also known as what a character is wearing, to make it look better.

Suffice to say, he shared that “We're trying to squeeze everything that given hardware gives us,” meaning it will run the best it possibly can on the Mac – which likely means that a more powerful chip, like an M4, M4 Pro, or M4 Max, will deliver the best results.

And the good news is that we’re likely only a few months away from one of the biggest AAA titles arriving on the Mac – the CDPR team wouldn’t give an exact time frame, but Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition will arrive in 2025.

I also got to see this demo of the title shortly after Apple unveiled macOS 26 Tahoe, which will introduce the Games app. Although CDPR hasn’t announced if it will be integrating with the new hub, it will work with the new ‘Game Overlay.’

This is a sidebar that can be brought to the top right-hand side of the screen, making it easy to enable game mode, adjust brightness or volume, and even switch controllers, as well as connect with friends. You can also opt to push your MacBook further with different energy modes.

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