The three new Apple devices that went on sale this week—the new iPad Pro, Apple Vision Pro, and MacBook Pro—all include the new M5 processor. Jason Snell of Six Colors conducted tests and prepared some charts to show how it compares to previous generations. The charts show that the improvements are predictable, and I suppose you could say boring, but any improvement is an advancement. The nice thing about these steady improvements to Apple’s M-series processors is that you are not expected to buy each new model, but whenever you are ready to upgrade, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to see how much the hardware has improved over whatever you are using right now. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- Jason Snell of Six Colors reviews the new iPad Pro with an M5 processor.
- Since I’m a big fan of my Apple Vision Pro (with an M2 processor), I’ve enjoyed reading the review of the second generation, which features an M5 processor. It sounds like it is only a minor step forward, but that is fine for me. I’m just happy to see Apple confirming its commitment to this product. Kyle Barr of Gizmodo wrote an interesting and comprehensive review of the new Vision Pro.
- I also enjoyed the review of the new Vision Pro by Chance Miller of 9to5Mac.
- In a big post on Six Colors, Jason Snell reviews the new Vision Pro and Dan Moren reviews the new Dual Knit Band (which also works with the original Vision Pro).
- Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac has been using the new Apple Watch Ultra 3 for a month, and he says that his favorite feature is the Modular Ultra watch face. That may sound silly, but I understand. When I switched from an Ultra 2 to the Series 10 last year, that was the #1 feature that I missed. And the omission is silly because the screen on the Series 10 (and Series 11) is more than big enough to use that watch face (which I demonstrated in that post). Nevertheless, Apple has decided to keep it exclusive to the Ultra. I hope that Apple changes this in the future.
- Oliver Haslam of AppleInsider took an iPhone Air on vacation and was surprised to discover that its two biggest compromises—battery life and the number of cameras—were not really a problem.
- Earlier this week, I reviewed the UGREEN 3-in-1 Foldable MagFlow Wireless Charger, which is currently on sale for $99.99 on Amazon. I consider it an excellent 3-in-1 charger, especially if you want something for travel. Adrian Kingley-Hughes of ZDNet posted a review shortly after I did, and he likes it too, saying that it “checks all the boxes” and “has earned a permanent place in my travel kit.” Same here.
- I’m still finding features that I love in iOS 26 all the time, but iOS 26.1 is right around the corner. Joe Rossignol of MacRumors has been trying out the beta version, and says there are some notable new features coming, including (1) the ability to switch from the regular “clear” version of the Liquid Glass interface to a “tinted” version, (2) the ability to turn off the feature where you can swipe left on the lock screen to open the Camera app (which is something I’d love to turn off on my iPad becuse I trigger that feature from time to time even though I never ever do so with the intent to take a picture using my iPad), (3) an option to turn off alarms with a swipe instead of tapping a button (so that you don’t turn it off by accident), (4) AirPods Live Translation for Japanese, Korean, Italian, and Chinese, and more.
- A key component of the iPhone is the glass screen made by Corning. Corning CEO Wendell Weeks recently shared the interesting story of how Steve Jobs convinced him to take on the project when Weeks didn’t think that Corning could do it, as reported by Dave Smith of Fortune.
- Wireless chargers are nice for devices like AirPods and iPhones because you can just set your device down and it charges. Mophie sells the Mophie Max Dual Charging Stand ($149.95 on Amazon), which provides wireless charging for both a pair of AirPods and a pair of AirPods Max. Wait, how is that possible for the AirPods Max, which doesn’t support MagSafe? As explained in this review by Marianne Schultz of MacRumors, it comes with a tiny dongle that you plug into the USB-C port of the AirPods Max. Put the AirPods Max in the stand, and the dongle makes contact with the wireless charger. That’s an innovative solution. But what if you own the original AirPods Max, which charged via Lightning instead of USB-C? Unfortunately, Schultz predicts that Mophie won’t offer a similar dongle because Lightning is a proprietary standard. That’s a perfect example of what is great about USB-C: it is an open standard, so anyone can support it without having to license anything from Apple.
- Joe Rosensteel of Six Colors wonders why Apple hasn’t yet done anything with the Photomator app that it purchased, and I’ve been wondering the same thing.
- Juli Clover of MacRumors reports that IKEA is now selling a bed … for your iPhone.
- And finally, Apple started a new ad campaign this week that celebrates what creative people can do with Apple products. It reminds me of the Think Different campaign that Apple used in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and as noted by William Gallagher of AppleInsider, it was developed by the same advertising professionals who created the Think Different campaign. The first video, titled Great Ideas Start on a Mac, is narrated by the late Jane Goodall. I like what they did with this one, and I look forward to seeing more in this series.