Apple hosted Peek performance special event. During the presentation there were couple of important announces.

Presentation

Peek performance special event

New iPhone SE

Apple updates iPhone SE with A15 Bionic chip keeping existing form factor that mimics iPhone 8. No larger model of iPhone SE was introduced.

New iPhone SE has 4 gigabytes of RAM, gets 5G support, but lacks mmWave frequencies (and speed). iPhone SE also did not adopt MagSafe.

iPhone SE is now slightly more expensive that previous generation.

Apple Newsroom: Apple announces the new iPhone SE: a powerful smartphone in an iconic design

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New iPad Air

iPad Air also got its moment of glory. New iPad Air gets the same M1 chip as iPad Pro (and Apple Silicon Macs). Which makes iPad Pro great candidate to be updated soon.

iPad Air also supports 5G, but also lacks mmWave support. USB-C port is now twice as fast. Front camera now support Center State. Pricing is unchanged compared to previous generation.

Apple Newsroom: Apple introduces the most powerful and versatile iPad Air ever

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M1 Ultra

Biggest announcement of the event was, of course, M1 Ultra chip. Basically, it consists of two M1 Max chips connected together with UltraFusion technology.

According to Apple this chip beats modern Intel processes and discrete video graphic cards. Single core chip performance is the same as regular M1 chip, however, multicore benchmarks show significant boost in performance.

M1 chip graphics is capable of driving up to 5 external displays (four 6K displays and one 4K all running at 60 FPS).

It is unclear, if there will be more chips in M1 generation, but M1 Ultra is the currently the top of the line.

Apple Newsroom: Apple unveils M1 Ultra, the world’s most powerful chip for a personal computer

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Mac Studio and Studio Display

Obviously, M1 Ultra is too big, too powerful and too hot (while still a lot cooler than Intel chips) to be installed on laptop, so Apple had to announce new desktops.

New Mac to join the family is Mac Studio – powerful desktop looking like something in between Mac mini and G4 Cube. Internally half of the volume is the cooling system, which according to Apple will no be audible in regular tasks.

Second announcement is Studio Display – 27″ 5K display. It has web camera that supports Center Stage, sophisticated sound system and microphone array. All of this is powered by A13 chip. However, Studio Display does not use miniLED backlight. Also Studio Display does not support ProMotion.

Also, Studio Display has limited capabilities when connected to PC.

Apple Newsroom: Apple unveils all-new Mac Studio and Studio Display

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Other announcements include new iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro colors, Apple TV+ new content, updates to Mac Pro configurations.

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Recommendations

Developer:

Check apps for compatibility with new iPad Air and new iPhone SE. Consider using Mac Studio for development, if local build performance is important.

QA engineer:

Check apps for compatibility on new iPad Air and new iPhone SE.

PM/DM:

Consider using Mac Studio for ML-intensive tasks.

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