For around a year now, Apple has been switching to its own M-family processors across the Mac range - starting with the M1-equipped Mac mini, MacBook Air and entry-level MacBook Pro in November 2020, and culminating most recently in the high-end MacBook Pros with M1 Pro and M1 Max chips announced last night. In the process the company has abandoned Intel's processors after 15 years of collaboration.

Shipments of the new chipset - tentatively known as the M2, after Apple's current M1 processor - could begin as early as July for use in MacBooks that are scheduled to go on sale in the second half of this year.

Production of some MacBooks and iPads has been postponed due to the global component shortage, Nikkei Asia has learned, in a sign that even Apple, with its massive procurement power, is not immune from the unprecedented supply crunch.

Apple is planning to release a new thinner and lighter MacBook Air that will launch in the second half by early next year, according to Bloomberg.

Apple will launch two new MacBook Pro models this year with 14- and 16-inch screens, a new design and the return of MagSafe charging ports, according to TFI' analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

The new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro with Apple Silicon are nearly identical to Intel-powered Macs.

The laptops will be first and the desktops are coming later, report claims.

Desktop Macs with Apple Silicon will come at a later date.

Intel appears to have made its speediest 10th-generation Ice Lake mobile processors exclusive to Apple's MacBook lineup.

Apple won a patent for making the acoustics coming from a MacBook sound far away. It's an idea that could make watching movies, TV shows or videos on a laptop feel significantly more immersive.

Apple's answer to OLED could arrive as early as next year

Key iPhone assemblers Foxconn, Pegatron Corp, Wistron Corp, major MacBook maker Quanta Computer Inc, iPad maker Compal Electronics Inc, and AirPods makers Inventec Corp, Luxshare-ICT and Goertek have been asked to evaluate options outside of China, Nikkei reported.

Apple this morning released a new supplemental update to macOS High Sierra 10.13.6, which is designed to address a bug that caused the new eighth-generation quad-core and 6-core Intel processors in the 2018 MacBook Pro models to throttle inappropriately.

BOE Technology's plants already make display screens for Apple's iPads and MacBook computers. Now it is seeking to supply Apple with advanced OLED smartphone screens.

Last week, Apple announced new versions of its 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro models with Touch Bar. Perhaps most notable is the new power that is now available with the 15-inch, including the Intel Core i9 processor. A new video, however, raises concerns about whether or not the MacBook Pro can handle the heat of the i9 processor.

Last month, Apple initiated a Keyboard Service Program for MacBook and MacBook Pro, after determining that a "small percentage" of the keyboards in 2015-2017 MacBook and 2016-2017 MacBook Pro models may experience keys that feel "sticky," repeat, or do not respond in a consistent manner.

Tim Cook and his MacBook team are facing a class-action lawsuit over the keyboard of the latest MacBook and MacBook Pro machines. The "butterfly" keyboards offer a much lower profile (allowing for a thinner bottom case on the MacOS-powered laptops), with a lighter feel to the keyboard at the expense of less travel in the keyboard action.

Apple is designing a new chip for future Mac laptops that would take on more of the functionality currently handled by Intel processors, according to people familiar with the matter.

Apple is exploring ways to replace Intel processors in its Mac PCs with a version of the chip technology it uses in the iPhone and iPad, according to people familiar with the company's research.

"The contract is expected to rise to US$11 billion by the end of this year as Apple is planning to release a smaller iPad, probably with a 7.85-inch screen, and to sell more of its MacBook Air PCs using Samsung's faster SSD storage," said a Samsung official.

Such technology could be useful in power-sucking data centers and handheld devices with limited batter life, such as smartphone sand tablets, obviously. It could also be used for processors that don't rely on electricity from the grid, according to Intel, scavenging power from light and motion in the environment around them.