2026-03-06 11:46:14
Apple and the Sydney Opera House today announced a yearlong collaboration to help inspire the next generation of creatives in Australia. The effort will expand access to initiatives that support art, design, and culture in the country.
Through this collaboration, Apple and the Opera House will focus on interactive programming and experiences for young people in Australia. Apple said it will be the founding partner of a new international children's festival being presented later this year. Apple will also support the Opera House's Centre for Creativity and explore new ways to enhance Opera House programming and experiences through technology.
From March 25 to March 27, the Opera House's eastern sails will be illuminated with artwork created in the Procreate app on the iPad by a group of 10 emerging Australian artists. Through free Today at Apple sessions, the public will have the opportunity to create and submit artwork for potential illumination as well.
"For 50 years, Apple has been at the forefront of empowering creativity, providing tools that allow people to imagine, design, and share their unique visions with the world," said Apple's marketing chief Greg Joswiak. "The yearlong collaboration with the Sydney Opera House and Illuminating Creativity is a celebration of this legacy, bringing together the incredible talent of Australian artists and the transformative power of iPad and Procreate."
More details are available on the Apple Newsroom website in Australia.
2026-03-06 08:07:41
Benchmarks for the new MacBook Neo surfaced today, and unsurprisingly, CPU performance is almost identical to the iPhone 16 Pro. The MacBook Neo uses the same 6-core A18 Pro chip that was first introduced in the iPhone 16 Pro, but it has one fewer GPU core.
The MacBook Neo earned a single-core score of 3461 and a multi-core score of 8668, along with a Metal score of 31286.
Here's how the Neo's scores compare to iPhone 16 Pro and other devices that make apt comparisons:
2026-03-06 07:50:14
The first Geekbench 6 result for a 16-inch MacBook Pro with the M5 Max chip surfaced today, and Apple has achieved record-breaking performance.
In this unconfirmed result, the M5 Max with an 18-core CPU achieved a score of 29,233 for multi-core CPU performance, which tops the 27,726 score achieved by the Mac Studio's M3 Ultra chip with a 32-core CPU. M5 Max is now the fastest Apple silicon chip ever, and it even topped every other consumer PC processor in the Geekbench database.
In terms of multi-core CPU performance, the M5 Max is up to 5% faster than the M3 Ultra, and up to 14% to 15% faster than the M4 Max chip with a 16-core CPU.
Here is a comparison of the multi-core CPU results:
2026-03-06 04:01:00
Apple today seeded revised third betas of the upcoming iOS 26.4 and iPadOS 26.4 updates to developers for testing purposes, with the software coming three days after Apple provided the initial beta to developers. Apple has also released a new version of iOS 26.4 and iPadOS 26.4 for public beta testers.
Registered developers and public beta testers can download the betas from the Settings app on the iPhone or iPad by going to the General section and selecting Software Update.
iOS 26.4 and iPadOS 26.4 add multiple new features to the iPhone and the iPad. A Playlist Playground feature in Apple Music lets you generate songs for any idea, mood, emotion, or activity using a text-based prompt. There's also a Concerts Near You feature for finding local shows, and a redesigned look for albums and playlists with full-page artwork.
Apple Podcasts is getting native video podcasting capabilities that will make it easier to create, distribute, and monetize video podcast content through the Podcasts app. Video episodes will integrate with existing Apple podcasts features, like personalized recommendations and editorial suggestions.
Apple is testing end-to-end encryption for RCS, which will eventually bring full encryption to text conversations between Android and iPhone users. Apple is testing RCS with iPhone-to-iPhone conversations and iPhone-to-Android conversations.
Stolen Device Protection is enabled by default, there's a new ambient music widget, new average bedtime metrics in the sleep app, and plenty more. All of the features in iOS 26.4 can be found in our iOS 26.4 beta features guide.
Update: Apple also released a new third beta of watchOS 26.4.
2026-03-06 03:57:43
In his newsletter over the weekend, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said Apple was likely to announce at least some but possibly not all of the following products between March 2 and March 4: the iPhone 17e, MacBook Pros, MacBook Airs, updated entry-level iPad and iPad Air models, and a lower-cost MacBook with an iPhone chip.
As it turns out, Apple announced nearly all of those products, with the sole exception being an updated entry-level iPad. In fact, we got two more products on top, in the form of an updated Studio Display and a higher-end Studio Display XDR.
Apple is not expected to unveil any additional products this week, so the wait for an iPad 12 continues for now. The device is expected to have two key upgrades over the iPad 11, including a faster A18 chip and Apple Intelligence support. In fact, one rumor claimed that the iPad 12 might even be powered by Apple's latest A19 chip.
No other major changes have been rumored so far for the iPad 12, so we expect the device to have the same overall design as the current model.
Apple Intelligence is already available on all other current-generation iPad models, including the iPad mini, iPad Air, and iPad Pro.
Apple released the iPad 11 with an A16 chip in March 2025, with U.S. pricing starting at $349.
2026-03-06 03:49:29
Apple quietly updated Mac Studio configuration options this week, removing the 512GB memory upgrade. As of yesterday, there is no option to purchase a Mac Studio with 512GB RAM, with the machine now maxing out at 256GB.
The Mac Studio starts with 36GB RAM, but there were upgrades ranging from 48GB to 512GB, with the higher tier upgrades limited to the M3 Ultra chip. Now there are options ranging from 48GB to 256GB, with wait times into May for the 256GB upgrade.
Apple has also raised the price for the 256GB RAM upgrade option. It used to cost $1,600 to go from 96GB to 256GB on the high-end M3 Ultra machine, but now it costs $2,000. 512GB was $4,000 when it was available.
Apple has likely removed the option to purchase 512GB of memory because of global DRAM shortages that have dried up supply and caused prices to soar, and it's also probably why shipping times for a configuration with 256GB RAM range into May.
Demand for the Mac Studio has increased due to consumers seeking machines suitable for running local AI agents, which could also be a wait time factor.
Memory scarcity is already having an effect on DRAM pricing, and it could affect PC and smartphone sales in the months to come. Apple is able to absorb higher memory costs in the short term, and it is well-positioned to minimize the effect on consumers because it is better able to secure available DRAM supply than smaller companies.
We are expecting M5 Max and M5 Ultra versions of the Mac Studio in 2026, but it is not yet clear when Apple might release an update.
(Thanks, Ólafur!)
