Here’s Everything Apple Announced at Its October 18th 2021 Event

Apple’s surprise “Unleashed” event took place on Monday, and the company announced powerful new MacBook Pros in 14 or 16-inches, new M1 Pro and M1 Max processors, the 3rd generation AirPods, and more.

Here’s what you need to know, what’s new, and when you can get your hands on Apple’s latest products.

New 3rd Gen AirPods

The original AirPods from 2016 are back and better than ever with a new redesign. Back in 2019, Apple released the AirPods Pro with an in-ear design, noise-cancellation, and a few other things, but we haven’t received much of an upgrade to the original AirPods — until now.

Apple’s base 3rd Gen AirPods now comes with a new design and smaller stems, the same “force touch sensor” controls as the AirPods Pro, Spatial Audio, and a new Adaptive EQ mode, not to mention sweat and water resistance.

These latest AirPods now offer 6-hours of battery life instead of only five, and the battery case supports wireless charging, and four full recharges, delivering a combined 30-hours of continuous playback. You can order Apple’s new 3rd Gen AirPods starting today for $179, and they’ll be available on October 26th. Grab a set from our link below.

Apple M1 Pro & M1 Max Chips

Last year Apple unveiled its computing processor, the M1, replacing AMD and Intel chips inside its laptops. This year, they’re doubling down on that idea with two extremely powerful and capable processors. Those are the all-new Apple M1 Pro and M1 Max chips.

Up on stage, Apple talked a lot about power, performance, support for more than one display and shared a bunch of graphs showing just how fast MacBooks with the M1 Max will be. For example, Apple says the M1 Pro CPU is up to 70% faster than the original M1 from 2020 while delivering 2x the GPU performance, 32GB memory support, and is capable of 200GB/s of bandwidth. In addition, it comes in multiple configurations up to a 10-core CPU option.

The star of the show, however, is the new Apple M1 Max processor. It promises to be silly fast thanks to 10-cores, 32-cores with the GPU, a unified memory of up to 64GB,

The M1 Max, meanwhile, bumps the unified memory up to 64GB. Both M1 Pro and M1 Max have 10-core CPUs. Then, on the GPU front, the Pro does up to 16-core, while the Max supports up to 32-core.

New MacBook Pros (With Ports & Notches)

Perhaps the biggest announcement of the event is Apple’s all-new completely redesigned MacBook Pro lineup. Apple says these are the “MacBook Pro supercharged for pros.” The new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models don’t just come with more power thanks to an M1 Pro or M1 Max processor inside. They also come with some helpful changes over previous generations.

Yes, the MacBook Pro now comes with useful ports, instead of only USB-C like the 16-inch MBP. These new machines have USB-C, Thunderbolt, a 3.5mm headphone jack, HDMI, an SD card slot, and the MagSafe charging port returned.

Better yet, Apple also took a moment to take a step back, right its wrongs and removed the touch bar LCD screen above the keyboard. Yes, the new MacBook Pro (late-2021) comes with typical function keys and a dedicated TouchID button.

However, one of the most controversial changes is the notch. Like the iPhone, Apple’s new MacBook Pros have impressive 120Hz smooth scrolling ProMotion displays, but there’s a big notch at the top for the upgraded 1080p FaceTime camera.

The new MacBook Pro promises the best performance and battery life yet. It comes in two sizes, a 14-inch, and 16-inch model, better audio with larger tweeters and woofers, tons of power, and they’ll be expensive.

The 14-inch MacBook Pro starts at $1,999, while the bigger 16-inch MacBook Pro starts at $2,499. They’re both available for order today, with pre-orders shipping from October 26th. Grab yours from the link below.

A Few More Things

Apple dropped other news bits throughout the event, but the new MacBook and AirPods quickly overshadowed those. For starters, Apple announced a few neat new colors for the HomePod Mini, with matching base control plates and cords for a seamless, colorful experience.

Apple is also introducing a new voice-only subscription for Apple Music, and it’ll call it the Apple Music Voice Plan. It’s only $4.99 per month and delivers a more affordable Apple Music service to those that want only to use Siri to choose and play music, rather than the interface and app on phones, tablets, and laptops.

Combining with the new voice plan, the company confirmed new custom-themed playlists for Apple Music you can enjoy with the help of Siri. For example, simply ask Siri to “play a dinner party playlist” or “relaxing playlist” for music perfectly tailored for any moment or occasion.

All of Apple’s new hardware will start shipping on October 26th. So, grab a new Macbook and AppleCare+, throw in some 3rd Gen AirPods, and get to work.