Top Stories: AirPods Max Announced, Apple Fitness+ Launch, Future Apple Silicon Chips

The Apple product launches simply carry on coming, with Apple this week introducing AirPods Max, the premium over-ear headphones that had been rumored over the previous few months beneath the “AirPods Studio” identify.

We additionally discovered this week that Apple’s Fitness+ subscription service will probably be launching on Monday, December 14 alongside the discharge of iOS 14.Three and associated working system updates, whereas we heard a bit extra about Apple’s ambitions for future Mac chips based mostly on Apple silicon. Check out the main points on these tales and extra under!

Apple Announces AirPods Max Over-Ear Headphones With Noise Cancellation, Priced at $549

Last week, MacRumors obtained an AppleCare memo that hinted at a possible {hardware} announcement on December 8, and Apple delivered by introducing new wi-fi over-ear headphones referred to as AirPods Max.

Key options of the AirPods Max embody high-fidelity audio powered by an Apple-designed H1 chip in every ear cup, spatial audio, energetic noise cancellation, and adaptive EQ. Design smart, the headphones have magnetically-attachable reminiscence foam ear cushions, chrome steel telescoping arms, and a headscarf with a “breathable knit mesh” that distributes weight to scale back on-head stress, in response to Apple.

Similar to the Apple Watch, AirPods Max characteristic a Digital Crown on one ear cup for exact quantity management and the power to play or pause audio, skip tracks, reply or finish cellphone calls, and activate Siri voice management. There’s additionally a noise management button for switching between energetic noise cancellation and transparency mode, which lets some outdoors sound in so you’ll be able to work together naturally along with your environment.

AirPods Max characteristic as much as 20 hours of battery life with energetic noise cancellation and spatial audio enabled, and so they include a carrying case referred to as the “Smart Case” that places the headphones in an ultra-low energy state that helps to protect battery cost when not in use.

Priced at $549, the AirPods Max are considerably dearer than another common over-ear headphones, together with Sony’s WH-1000XM4, that are at the moment priced as little as $278. AirPods Max might be ordered now, with availability beginning December 15, however the headphones are already backordered till March on Apple.com. There are 5 coloration choices, together with silver, area grey, inexperienced, sky blue, and pink.

AirPods Max Unboxing Videos: ‘More Than Good Enough to Compete With Other High-End Headphones’

Following the introduction of AirPods Max, Apple has offered choose media retailers and YouTube channels with the headphones, and the first hands-on impressions and unboxing movies at the moment are out.

While extra time is required for in-depth evaluations and comparisons, The Verge‘s Nilay Patel mentioned AirPods Max sound “more than good enough to compete with other high-end headphones.” Likewise, CNET‘s David Carnoy believes AirPods Max “raise the noise-canceling bar,” edging out each Sony’s WH-1000XM4 and Bose’s Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 in his testing.

AirPods Max include a magnetic carrying case referred to as the “Smart Case,” which places the headphones in an ultra-low energy state to protect battery cost when not in use, in response to Apple. The case has already turn out to be the butt of a joke on social media, and lots of the first impressions articles shared to this point agreed that the case appears to be like moderately peculiar.

More detailed evaluations of the AirPods Max will probably be out there following their launch on December 15, so keep tuned for extra protection.

Apple Fitness+ to Launch December 14

In addition to introducing AirPods Max, Apple additionally introduced this week that its new Apple Fitness+ exercise service launches Monday, December 14 within the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.

Apple Fitness+ will present customers with entry to a library of exercise movies associated to energy, yoga, dance, operating, strolling, biking, rowing, and extra, with new content material delivered every week from a workforce of trainers employed by Apple. Fitness+ integrates private metrics reminiscent of coronary heart price from the Apple Watch to encourage customers, animating them on the display screen throughout key moments within the exercise.

Fitness+ requires an Apple Watch Series Three or later. The exercise movies might be watched on an iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV.

Priced at $9.99 monthly or $79.99 per yr, Fitness+ will robotically seem as a brand new tab within the Fitness app on iPhone, whereas iPad customers will have the ability to obtain the Fitness app from the App Store. On the Apple TV, the Fitness app will robotically seem as soon as customers improve to tvOS 14.3.

Next-Generation Apple Silicon Chips for Macs Could Include 16- and 32-Core Options

Last month, Apple launched its first Macs with its custom-designed M1 chip, together with a brand new MacE-book Air, 13-inch MacE-book Pro, and Mac mini.

Apple promised that its transition away from Intel processors will take about two years to be accomplished, and a new report this week outlined what we may count on from future Apple Silicon Macs.

According to Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman and Ian King, Apple is engaged on a number of successors to the M1 chip for brand new MacE-book Pro and that iMac fashions subsequent yr, together with designs with as many as 16 energy cores and 4 effectivity cores. And for a future Mac Pro deliberate for launch by 2022, Apple is claimed to be testing a chip design with as many as 32 high-performance cores.

Apple can also be mentioned to be engaged on bold graphics chips that can characteristic between 16 and 128 cores relying on the Mac mannequin. These chips may very well be launched in late 2021 or doubtlessly 2022.

Useful macOS Big Sur Features You Might Not Know

macOS Big Sur has been out for a couple of month now, however macOS releases by no means get fairly as a lot consideration as iOS releases, so there should still be some options that you simply’re not conscious of. In our newest YouTube video, we rounded up some helpful however lesser identified ‌macOS Big Sur‌ suggestions which are value testing on the Mac.

One instance is drag-and-drop menu bar icons. If you open up the Control Center on macOS Big Sur, you’ll be able to click on and drag on any of the choices so as to add it to the menu bar. So if you would like Do Not Disturb to have a one-click menu bar toggle, simply drag it to the menu bar from Control Center. This works for music playback controls, AirDrop, Do Not Disturb, and extra.

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