Gurman: Apple Planning M2 Pro Mac Mini, New Apple TV With A14 Chip, Revamped HomePod With S8 Chip, and More

[MacRumors]

In the latest edition of his Power On newsletter for Bloomberg, Mark Gurman outlined additional M2 Macs on Apple's product roadmap, including new Mac mini models with M2 and M2 Pro chips, new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with M2 Pro and M2 Max chips, and a new Mac Pro tower with M2 Ultra and "M2 Extreme" chips.

Following the M2 series of Macs, Gurman said the first M3 series of Macs will include an updated 13-inch MacBook Air, an all-new 15-inch MacBook Air, a new iMac, and potentially a new 12-inch notebook that is "still in early development."

Gurman said Apple is developing several additional devices that could launch later this year and beyond, including a new Apple TV with an A14 chip and an increased 4GB of RAM, a new HomePod with the same S8 chip coming to the Apple Watch Series 8, an AR/VR headset that may have an M2 chip and 16GB of RAM, iPad Pro models with the M2 chip, a new low-end iPad with an A14 chip and a USB-C port, new AirPods Pro, and more.

Gurman said the new HomePod will be closer to the original in terms of size and feature an updated display on the top of the speaker:

The new Apple TV, code-named J255, is in development with an A14 chip and an additional gigabyte of RAM. That compares with the A12 chip announced as part of the 2021 Apple TV last year and could be useful for additional gaming capabilities rolling out in tvOS 16.

The HomePod, code-named B620, will run the same S8 chip coming to the watches and will be closer to the original HomePod in terms of size and audio performance rather than a new HomePod mini. The new HomePod will have an updated display on top and there's even been some talk of multi-touch functionality.

As for the S8 chip for the Apple Watch Series 8 and new HomePod, Gurman said he was told it will have the same specifications as the S7 and S6 chips in previous models. Gurman said the S8 chip may also be used in the next Apple Watch SE.

Gurman also reiterated that he expects Apple to release a larger iPad with a 14-inch to 15-inch display within the next two years.

Article Link: Gurman: Apple Planning M2 Pro Mac Mini, New Apple TV With A14 Chip, Revamped HomePod With S8 Chip, and More

 

[dantracht]

Count me in for the new Apple TV, holding off on buying one for my media room/cat playroom for just this reason.

A new homepod with an S8 chip? Huh?

 

[markfc]

S8 coming to the series 7?

 

[senttoschool]

If Apple can release M2 Pro/Max in Q4 of this year, that means they plan to update base M, Pro, Max every year. An annual update cadence would be incredible.

The reason M2 was late had nothing to do with the chip design being late. It had to do with waiting for the Macbook Air redesign to launch.

People say M2's performance improvement over the M1 was small (~18% CPU, 35% GPU, 40% Neural Engine). But if you're getting this improvement every year, it will leave Intel and AMD in the dust.

The iPhone pays for Mac chips. Mac chips are simply using whatever CPU, GPU, NE cores were in the last iPhone. This strategy makes it extremely cost effective for Apple to update Mac chips annually.

 

[trifero]

Oh, awesome.

 

[topmounter]

I'm ready for the M2 Mini.

 

[mnsportsgeek]

“a new HomePod with the same S8 chip coming to the Apple Watch Series 7”

Wat.

 

[August West]

I've been holding off replacing my 2012 mini on the hope they stick the m2 chip in the basic mini. My 2012 will stop getting security updates for Catalina this fall so I guess I'll wait and see what happens. Hate to buy a 2 year old design since I hang onto my gear as long as possible.

 

[jamesrick80]

Hopefully Apple has improved the AI upscaler on the Apple TV box to enhance detail on movies like the Nvidia Shield does, then I can replace the oldest 4K HDR model but keep the awesome remote for general gaming etc.

 

[Shanghaichica]

New HomePod and new Apple TV are instant buys for me.

 

[Firefighter2021]

they should release apple tv 4k with M1 chip

 

[211]

I can’t see much need for an update to the tv until Apple goes all-in in making a full home entertainment system. It’s nearly there with the HomePod, but there still isn’t a proper surround sound system. Add a sound bar and subwoofer and the sales for HomePods/HomePod minis would go up significantly

 

[EugW]

I wonder if there will be enough room for M2 Pro in a Mac mini, in terms of pricing. I had thought what Apple might do is keep the M1 at the low end, and then introduce M2 in the mid-range, sort of like what they did with the MacBook Air (although the MacBook Air is a different kettle of fish, since it got an all new form factor).

The reason M2 could work in the mid-range is because it incorporates ProRes acceleration, and supports 24 GB RAM with LPDDR5. My only concern with M2 would be a lack of ports, similar to the M1 model. So, an M2 Pro would be great if it had more ports, albeit at a higher price.

they should release apple tv 4k with M1 chip

Why? Video games? Cuz M1 is completely unnecessary for the video streaming stuff.

 

[Firefighter2021]

I wonder if there will be enough room for M2 Pro in a Mac mini, in terms of pricing. I had thought what Apple might do is keep the M1 at the low end, and then introduce M2 in the mid-range, sort of like what they did with the MacBook Air (although the MacBook Air is a different kettle of fish, since it got an all new form factor).

The reason M2 could work in the mid-range is because it incorporates ProRes acceleration, and supports 24 GB RAM with LPDDR5. My only concern with M2 would be a lack of ports, similar to the M1 model.


Why? Video games? Cuz M1 is completely unnecessary for the video streaming stuff.

ye they need to release a new mac mini with m1 ultra or m1 max

 

[EugW]

M1 can be used if they wanna release apple tv 8k

Apple won't release Apple TV 8K anytime soon. It's pointless.

 

[fwmireault]

and a new Mac Pro tower with M2 Ultra and "M2 Extreme" chips.

Its weird tant Apple had the luxury to plan their chip naming scheme and chose such confusing and overlapping names like Pro, Max, Ultra, Extreme. From a customer perspective, these name are not particularly great to know which one is appropriate to their needs. Arguably, people in the market for an M2 Ultra or M2 Extreme chip will probably already know what they need, but still, I think Apple could have chosen something more simple and coherent

But other than this minor detail, I’m very curious to se the capabilities of this M2 Extreme chip, even if I’m far from needing one

 

[Firefighter2021]

I wonder if there will be enough room for M2 Pro in a Mac mini, in terms of pricing. I had thought what Apple might do is keep the M1 at the low end, and then introduce M2 in the mid-range, sort of like what they did with the MacBook Air (although the MacBook Air is a different kettle of fish, since it got an all new form factor).

The reason M2 could work in the mid-range is because it incorporates ProRes acceleration, and supports 24 GB RAM with LPDDR5. My only concern with M2 would be a lack of ports, similar to the M1 model. So, an M2 Pro would be great if it had more ports, albeit at a higher price.


Why? Video games? Cuz M1 is completely unnecessary for the video streaming stuff.

I wonder what chip will be used if apple decided to release apple tv 8k

 

[Mavrick33332]

I like how the MacBook Air M2 is not out and were already talking about M3....

 

[contacos]

S8 coming to the series 7?

More like S8 coming to the Series 6.

—-

Built in Android TV has pretty much replaced the need of turning on my Apple TV

 

[Konigi]

Following the M2 series of Macs, Gurman said Apple will then transition to Macs with the M3 chip

And I bet that afterwards, they will follow with M4 chips. Just a wild guess!

 

[diddl14]

Waiting for AppleTV sized MacMicro.

 

[UltimateSyn]

Happy to hear that a HomePod with superior audio performance (vs. the mini) is on the horizon.

 

[Jack Neill]

I've been holding off replacing my 2012 mini on the hope they stick the m2 chip in the basic mini. My 2012 will stop getting security updates for Catalina this fall so I guess I'll wait and see what happens. Hate to buy a 2 year old design since I hang onto my gear as long as possible.

You should give Big Sur a try on that mini if you have an SSD in it. You will be surprised how much better it runs than Catalina.

 

[EugW]

I wonder what chip will be used if apple decided to release apple tv 8k

I suspect would just be something like A16 or A17. No need for M anything. But that would be several years from now.

 

[jwolf6589]

In the latest edition of his Power On newsletter for Bloomberg, Mark Gurman outlined additional M2 Macs on Apple's product roadmap, including new Mac mini models with M2 and M2 Pro chips, new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with M2 Pro and M2 Max chips, and a new Mac Pro tower with M2 Ultra and "M2 Extreme" chips.

Following the M2 series of Macs, Gurman said Apple will then transition to Macs with the M3 chip, including an updated 13-inch MacBook Air, an all-new 15-inch MacBook Air, a new iMac, and potentially a new 12-inch notebook that is "still in early development."

Gurman said Apple is developing several additional devices that could launch later this year and beyond, including a new Apple TV with an A14 chip and an increased 4GB of RAM, a new HomePod with the same S8 chip coming to the Apple Watch Series 8, an AR/VR headset that may have an M2 chip and 16GB of RAM, iPad Pro models with the M2 chip, a new low-end iPad with an A14 chip and a USB-C port, new AirPods Pro, and more.

Gurman said the new HomePod will be closer to the original in terms of size and feature an updated display on the top of the speaker:As for the S8 chip for the Apple Watch Series 8 and new HomePod, Gurman said he was told it will have the same specifications as the S7 and S6 chips in previous models. Gurman said the S8 chip may also be used in the next Apple Watch SE.

Gurman also reiterated that he expects Apple to release a larger iPad with a 14-inch to 15-inch display within the next two years.

Article Link: Gurman: Apple Planning M2 Pro Mac Mini, New Apple TV With A14 Chip, Revamped HomePod, and More

No idea what is wrong with the A12 Bionic chip. It’s not like TVOS needs anything more powerful. But if it won’t cost that much more apple can add a faster chip.