A week of Apple releases

On Monday, Apple released all the dot-one system updates with new Apple Intelligence features. Many Mac admins will have to block or restrict these features in their deployments, and there are quite a few posts about this below.

Apple also released new iMacs with the M4 chip, slightly different colors, and improved external display support.

Tuesday brought the new Mac mini, with the M4 or M4 Pro chip and a new, smaller design.

On Wednesday, the MacBook Pro line was updated, also with (you guessed it) M4, M4 Pro, or M4 Max. The 'plain' M4 MacBook Pro 14" can now support up to two external displays, as well as the internal display at the same time.

The MacBook Air models retain the M2 or M3 chips, but the base RAM configuration is raised to 16GB. Mac Studio and Mac Pro remain with M2 family chips.

Every release was accompanied by a 10 to 16-minute video, very much in the style of Apple's longer Keynotes. I enjoyed this new format, even though the continuous repetition of Apple Intelligence features got a bit annoying. Especially since they, quite untypically for a non-WWDC event, talked a lot about features that are yet to be released or not available in non-English languages or in the EU yet.

The Magic Keyboard, Trackpad, and Mouse peripherals also received a USB-C port in a minor update. This leaves the iPhone SE, the first-generation Apple Pencil, and some older generations of iPhone that are still sold with Lightning. The ultimate retirement for that port is near.

While not part of the major announcements, Apple Business Manager and Apple School Manager also received significant updates this week, adding new options and workflows for claiming domains for your organizations that were announced at WWDC earlier this year.

Overall, this was a week of solid and exciting updates. Apple has not just refreshed most of the Mac product line and their systems, but also demonstrated their commitment to the Mac, as well as to the requirements and needs of managed deployments.