Apple's October event focused on music and the Mac, with the company revealing updated products in each category. We finally got word of the next-generation AirPods, which have a new design and support for spatial audio plus MagSage wireless charging. The company also unveiled new colors for its HomePod mini smart speaker and two new MacBook Pros that are truly for the power users among us. The laptops run on the company's new M1 Pro and M1 Max chipsets and sport revamped designs with webcam notches, extra ports and Liquid Retina XDR displays. Here's how to pre-order everything Apple announced today.
AirPods
Apple kicked off the show by talking about music and revealing new AirPods. The third-generation AirPods have a new design, wireless charging capabilities and spatial audio support. They're available for pre-order today from Apple's website and cost $179. They'll be available in stores on October 26.
Buy AirPods (3rd gen) at Apple – $179
The third-generation AirPods have a new contoured design that looks similar to the AirPods Pro, but they don't have the interchangeable ear tips of Apple's more advanced earbuds. Inside the buds is a new low distortion driver that produces powerful bass along with crisp highs. These buds have a few features previously only available on AirPods Pro and AirPods Max, including spatial audio and Adaptive EQ, the latter of which automatically adjusts frequencies in real time based on what you're listening to.
The new AirPods have a sweat and water-resistant design and Apple improved the battery life, too. These should last up to six hours on a single charge, and you'll get an hour of listening time after only five minutes of charging. The case is now MagSafe and wireless-charging capable and it holds four additional full charges, so you can get around 30 hours of listening with the whole system.
Apple's keeping the second-generation AirPods in the lineup, which will be good for anyone who doesn't want to shell out $179 for these new ones. The second-generation AirPods are now priced at $129, and the AirPods Pro remain priced at $250 (although you can often find them for less) and they now come with a MagSafe charging case.
MacBook Pro
Apple's latest 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros come equipped with either the company's new M1 Pro or M1 Max processors, and feature a brand new design with a webcam notch and more ports. Both models are available for pre-order today from Apple's website — the 14-inch MacBook Pro starts at $1,999 while the 16-inch MacBook Pro starts at $2,499. They'll be widely available on October 26.
Buy 14-inch MacBook Pro at Apple starting at $1,999Buy 16-inch MacBook Pro at Apple starting at $2,499
The new MacBook Pros have aluminum enclosures and an advanced thermal system that's built to handle the power that comes with Apple's latest, high-end chipsets. The laptop has a lot of significant design changes, including a new keyboard that's supposed to be more similar to the company's Magic Keyboard for iMac. Also, the TouchBar is gone — it's been replaced with physical Function keys, something that TouchBar skeptics will likely be pleased with.
These MacBook Pros are thicker than previous models because they actually have a healthy variety of ports. Both have a total of three Thunderbolt 4 ports along with an HDMI port, an SD card slot, a headphone jack and a MagSafe connector for charging (although you are able to power up via the Thunderbolt ports as well). This will be a welcomed change for power users who have been living the dongle life for years with previous MacBook Pro models.
The new laptops have Liquid Retina XDR displays that reach almost to the end of the machines' lids, interrupted by a notch that holds the 1080p webcam. The 14-inch model has a 14.2-inch 3,024 x 1,964 resolution screen while the 16-inch model has a 16.2-inch 3,456 x 2,234 resolution panel — and both support ProMotion with refresh rates up to 120Hz. Apple's promising up to 17 hours of video playback on the 14-inch model and up to 21 hours of video playback on the larger notebook. And unsurprisingly, additional specs match the already high-end nature of the Pros — you can customize the laptops to have up to 32GB of RAM and up to a whopping 8TB of storage.
HomePod mini
Apple announced new colors of the HomePod mini: yellow, orange and blue. Those join the existing space gray and white color options and will be available to order from Apple's website in November for $99.
Follow all of the news from Apple’s Mac event right here.