Top Stories: iPad Keyboard With Trackpad in 2020, Arm-Based Mac in 2021?, MacRumors Turns 20

[MacRumors]

Apple appears to have a bunch of new products ready to launch in the near future, led by the long-rumored iPad Pro, which is now looking like it may come alongside a new Smart Keyboard that even includes a trackpad.

Powerbeats4 earphones also appear to be imminent, while Target has a ton of new placeholder listings in its inventory system that may point toward updates for a lot of other Apple products.

MacRumors as it appeared in May 2000​

Read on for all of the details on those stories and more, and celebrate the 20th birthday of MacRumors!

New AirPods, Apple TV, iPod Touch, and Apple Watch Band Placeholders Listed in Target Inventory System

Just days before March, a common month for new Apple product releases, new AirPods, Apple TV, iPod touch, and Apple Watch band placeholders have appeared in U.S. retailer Target's inventory system. The listings could represent upcoming Apple products or be entirely speculative.

A report last week claimed that Apple is aiming to host a special event on Tuesday, March 31, with rumors suggesting that the company may introduce a new lower-cost "iPhone 9" and refreshed iPad Pro models sporting a triple-lens rear camera system with 3D sensing. We've also heard rumors about new AirPods and Apple TV models.

Apple's plans may change due to the uncertainty of the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, but CEO Tim Cook this week said he feels that "China is getting the coronavirus under control."

Apple's Rumored Powerbeats4 Receive FCC Approval

Another product release on Apple's horizon appears to be Powerbeats4 wireless earphones, which received FCC approval this week ahead of their launch.

While an Apple event in March is certainly a possibility, the Powerbeats4 will likely be announced within the coming days or weeks via press release.

"Powerbeats4" should be an upgraded version of Powerbeats3 with an Apple-designed H1 chip for hands-free "Hey Siri" voice commands and "Announce Messages with Siri." Apple already released Powerbeats Pro with "Hey Siri" support for $249 last year.

Apple Said to Release iPad Pro Smart Keyboard With Trackpad in 2020

Apple is planning to release an iPad Pro keyboard with a built-in trackpad later this year, according to a report from The Information this week.

Last month, a separate report claimed that Apple is working on an iPad keyboard with backlit keys and scissor switches, so those features could also be part of this new Smart Keyboard with a trackpad.

Mac With Apple-Designed Arm Processor Expected in First Half of 2021

Apple's first Mac with a processor designed in house is set to be released during the first half of 2021, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

There are no other details provided, but multiple rumors in the past have suggested that Apple is working on custom Arm-based processors that would allow it to transition away from its current supplier Intel.

AirTags Said to Be 'Completely Waterproof' and Use Magnetic Charging Like Apple Watch

Apple's rumored Tile-like "AirTags" item trackers will be "completely waterproof" and use similar magnetic wireless charging to that seen on the Apple Watch, according to Japanese blog Mac Otakara.

MacRumors uncovered evidence of Apple working on item tracking tags in iOS 13 code last year, including an unreleased "Items" tab in the Find My app and a potential "AirTag" name for the tags, which would attach to everyday belongings like keys and backpacks for tracking purposes.

The tags will support Ultra Wideband and launch in the first half of 2020, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Ultra Wideband support would allow for more precise location accuracy than Wi-Fi or Bluetooth LE.

MacRumors is 20 Years Old This Week

Monday marked the 20th anniversary of MacRumors!

While longtime readers may be familiar with the site's origins, there are plenty of others who are unaware that it began as a hobby while our founder Arnold Kim was a medical student, and it remained a side project for over eight years until he decided to give up medicine to focus on MacRumors as a full-time career.

Kim reflected on the site's beginnings in a 2008 article in The New York Times.

MacRumors Newsletter

Each week, we publish an email newsletter like this highlighting the top Apple stories, making it a great way to get a bite-sized recap of the week hitting all of the major topics we've covered and tying together related stories for a big-picture view.

So if you want to have top stories like the above recap delivered to your email inbox each week, subscribe to our newsletter!

Article Link: Top Stories: iPad Keyboard With Trackpad in 2020, Arm-Based Mac in 2021?, MacRumors Turns 20

 

[opeter]

Already 20 years? Oh, my...
Congratulations.

 

[EyeTack]

An ARM Mac ... so in five or so years Apple can squeeze and drop even more legacy software people use and rely on. (Looking at you, Catalina.)

 

[Pearple]

If Apple leaves Intel, then Im out.

 

[jouster]

Happy birthday, Macrumors!

 

[2013.1]

If Apple leaves Intel, then Im out.

That’s what a lot of people said in 2005 the other way around.

 

[The Game 161]

bring on the trackpad keyboard cover...

 

[Frign]

Congratulations! We've come a long way...

 

[RogerWilco]

Thanks for all you do MR — happy anniversary!

For those wringing their hands over Apple and intel, my take is there should be no worry. IMO Apple is getting ready for another big shift on the Mac side, to cloud computing. The ARM Macs are going to be client devices that access VMs running in the cloud, and only available by subscription. Users can run any software, Windows, Mac OS, Linux, etc., since the VMs can support them all. Obviously a high-bandwidth connection is needed, enter 5G.

 

[9876544]

Time to switch back to Thinkpad. Let it be Windows or Linux.

Apple will be doing just overpriced toys for hipsters.

I wonder how did we get from iPhone intro, Macbook Air Intro, iPad Intro, unibody Macbooks, Magsafe to casters for $400, stand for $999, that crazy expensive Apple Book, terrible keyboards.

Yeah, but we have emojis with different colors now.

Apple died with Jobs, they just had stuff for couple of years in pipeline. Well, there is nothing left...

 

[theluggage]

That’s what a lot of people said in 2005 the other way around.

...and, probably, also in 1994 when they switched from 68000 to PPC, not to mention the early 00s when they dumped classic MacOS 9 for the totally different NextStep/Unix-based OS X (the latter was probably a bigger deal than a CPU switch as it meant everything had to be significantly re-written - not just the relatively small proportion of code that was CPU dependent).

The two snags with the ARM are:

1. In the past, they were moving to significantly all-round faster chips, which partly mitigated the slow-down when using the 68k Emulator/Rosetta to run legacy software. The incentive to change to ARM is power consumption, better-tailored systems-on-a-chip with better low-end GPUs, and - if the change reaches the 'pro' end - more cores and extra acceleration gizmos per chip. There's unlikely to be a big jump in raw, single-threaded CPU performance - so even if there are no legal barriers to x86/x86-64 emulation its going to slow things down.
2. Good-bye running Windows under Bootcamp/Parallels/VMWare - although you'll probably still be able to virtualise Linux-for-ARM (which has been a thing since the 1990s and already runs a lot of the important Linux software). Maybe you'll be able to run the new version of Windows for ARM, but that's probably not why you want to run Windows. Anyway, making the Mac the best Windows computer might not be Apple's priority...

Apart from that, the Mac application "code base" in 2020 should be in a lot better health (in terms of being 64-bit clean, little-endian, mostly written in CPU-independent high-level languages and using official OS services instead of CPU-specific code) than it was in 2005 or 1994 and large swathes really should be just 'tick the ARM box and re-build').
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Apple will be doing just overpriced toys for hipsters.

I wasn't aware that the $400 wheels or the $999 display stand had ARM processors... but, otherwise, Apple is quite capable of doing that using Intel CPUs. They could, for example, lock MacOS down to App-store-only tomorrow if they felt inclined. Switching to ARM would be a good smokescreen for that, but it's not a justification.

 

[Falhófnir]

Actually quite looking forward to seeing what this year's pipeline has to offer! 😮 Certainly sounds like there could be more 'innovation' than iteration this year...

 

[9876544]

...and, probably, also in 1994 when they switched from 68000 to PPC, not to mention the early 00s when they dumped classic MacOS 9 for the totally different NextStep/Unix-based OS X (the latter was probably a bigger deal than a CPU switch as it meant everything had to be significantly re-written - not just the relatively small proportion of code that was CPU dependent).

The two snags with the ARM are:

1. In the past, they were moving to significantly all-round faster chips, which partly mitigated the slow-down when using the 68k Emulator/Rosetta to run legacy software. The incentive to change to ARM is power consumption, better-tailored systems-on-a-chip with better low-end GPUs, and - if the change reaches the 'pro' end - more cores and extra acceleration gizmos per chip. There's unlikely to be a big jump in raw, single-threaded CPU performance - so even if there are no legal barriers to x86/x86-64 emulation its going to slow things down.
2. Good-bye running Windows under Bootcamp/Parallels/VMWare - although you'll probably still be able to virtualise Linux-for-ARM (which has been a thing since the 1990s and already runs a lot of the important Linux software). Maybe you'll be able to run the new version of Windows for ARM, but that's probably not why you want to run Windows. Anyway, making the Mac the best Windows computer might not be Apple's priority...

Apart from that, the Mac application "code base" in 2020 should be in a lot better health (in terms of being 64-bit clean, little-endian, mostly written in CPU-independent high-level languages and using official OS services instead of CPU-specific code) than it was in 2005 or 1994 and large swathes really should be just 'tick the ARM box and re-build').
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I wasn't aware that the $400 wheels or the $999 display stand had ARM processors... but, otherwise, Apple is quite capable of doing that using Intel CPUs. They could, for example, lock MacOS down to App-store-only tomorrow if they felt inclined. Switching to ARM would be a good smokescreen for that, but it's not a justification.

I was not aware that any computer needs wheels for $400 or stand for $999.

Regarding locking down the Appstore, this is where it is heading. Who cares really... My Macbook Pro from 2014 will be out of support anyway soon.

My iPhone 6s will follow.

Game over...

 

[watchmainspring]

happy birthday

 

[Jynto]

20 years, and still it amazes me to think the ARM Mac rumour has been circulating for almost half of that! The earliest reference I could find to it was in 2011, then in reference to an "ARM (A5) Powered MacBook Air", so 8 and a half years so far, nearly 9.

The rumour will be a decade old by the time the first ARM Mac ships in 2021.

 

[longofest]

Hot damn I feel old. 20 years. Happy birthday to MacRumors!

It's been nearly 10 years since I was last an editor - I was the last of the volunteer editors I believe - since then the editors have all been more standardized industry practice type gigs I believe.

 

[smirking]

Happy 20th! It would be really fun if MacRumors could fire up some pages from the original website.

On a somewhat unrelated topic... whatever happened to the SpyMac website? I think I started coming here after SpyMac vanished suddenly one day.

 

[DeepIn2U]

I have a major concern with the H1/2 chips within Apple products as they support Siri.

what if Apple completely rebuilds their assistant AI and calls it something else and has more power and features? Will the existing H1/2 chips can be re-purposed to supper this in the future?

 

[MasterMaCanada59]

If Apple leaves Intel, then Im out.

I'm sorry Apple but me too !

 

[Populus]

Happy Birthday MacRumors, and congratulations for managing to be one of the first webpages of Apple Rumors and news. I discovered you, I think it was ten years ago. Two years after, in 2012 I registered into the forum. A lot of things have happened on this past decade. My dog died, a girl broke up with me... But some things never change, and I hope MacRumors will keep loyal to its roots.

I still remember the night when I registered, IIRC it was in summer, and the sky was plenty of stars (I was in the countryside). Those days I was testing the Lion beta, one of the worst performing operating systems, but plenty of good ideas. The last big change to macOS UI before Yosemite.

Time flies. That’s the bad news. I bet that in a blink we’ll be celebrating MacRumors 25th anniversary, and if you make a party on the US, it would be great to travel to meet you all. Dan, Juli, ARN itself, even Weasel or Sandbox (although for me it is complicated to travel).

Take care!

 

[SeattleMoose]

I am not liked by MacRumors moderators....but your site is a good one. Happy Birthday!!!🥳

 

[Emanuel Rodriguez]

That’s what a lot of people said in 2005 the other way around.

People don't understand what a processor architecture is, if they think it's going to make a huge difference in terms of how they work. Apple will provide a compatibility layer for existing programs to keep working, so most people will likely not notice a difference at all. There will be some corner cases, but I'd expect there to be few, if the PowerPC-Intel transition is any indication. As with that transition, eventually all Intel software will be recompiled for ARM (a simple thing, in most cases, especially given how much open-source software already compiles for ARM, and would likely only need a few tweaks to do so for Mac on ARM), at which point the transition will be complete, and Apple will phase out the compatibility layer.

Nothing to panic about at all.

One corner case definitely is Boot Camp. Very few people need or use Boot Camp, but I would have to believe that Microsoft will see the dollar signs, and make Windows for ARM available for purchase. Perhaps not, but it does seem likely to me.

 

[JosephAW]

That’s what a lot of people said in 2005 the other way around.

You'll notice that Steve Jobs gives the life time line for the Intel Macs. OS X is set for the next 20 years starting in 2006. Transition IV will start in 2026 and be complete in 2027.
MacOS is living a double life by now. I wonder if they are maintaining the PowerPC copy is macOS as well, just in case.

 

[cmaier]

I have a major concern with the H1/2 chips within Apple products as they support Siri.

what if Apple completely rebuilds their assistant AI and calls it something else and has more power and features? Will the existing H1/2 chips can be re-purposed to supper this in the future?

Certainly. The H1/2 does very little with respect to Siri. It mostly just determines if the trigger word has been spoken (“hey Siri”) and obviously that’s a function of the software it runs. The actual Siri processing does not happen on that chip.

 

[Rednow]

Why can’t we move to ARM, would it be so bad?