2026-03-10 19:45:08
Apple's Mac lineup will soon span a wider price range than ever, from the new $599 MacBook Neo to a rumored top-of-the-line MacBook "Ultra" expected later this year. However, new research suggests the broader laptop market could be heading for a painful price adjustment.
According to TrendForce, surging memory and CPU costs could push mainstream laptop retail prices up by nearly 40% in 2026. The firm modeled a laptop with a $900 MSRP and found that DRAM and SSD (normally around 15% of a device's bill of materials) have ballooned to over 30% following several quarters of sharp price increases. That alone could force retail prices up by more than 30% if brands want to hold their margins.
Intel has raised prices on entry-level and older-generation laptop CPUs by more than 15%, notes the report, with further hikes planned for mainstream and higher-end platforms in the second quarter. When combined, memory and CPU could end up accounting for 58% of laptop component costs, up from roughly 45%.
Apple designs its own silicon, which gives it considerable insulation from Intel-driven CPU volatility. The MacBook Neo's A18 Pro chip, for instance, is produced by TSMC under Apple's direct supply agreements. But Apple is not immune to memory market pressures – DRAM and NAND flash costs affect Macs across the line, from the Neo's fixed 8GB of RAM to the high-capacity configurations in the MacBook Pro.
Just last week, Apple removed the 512GB memory upgrade option when purchasing a Mac Studio, with the machine now maxing out at 256GB. The latter option also got a price rise – it used to cost $1,600 to go from 96GB to 256GB on the high-end M3 Ultra machine, but now it costs $2,000.
TrendForce notes that "tier-one brands" with deep supplier relationships are most well-positioned to deal with the price squeeze. That bodes well for Apple, but killing off the Mac Studio upgrade option shows it's not completely invulnerable to broader market pressures.
2026-03-10 18:21:18
Apple boosted iPhone production in India by around 53 percent last year and now makes a quarter of its flagship devices there to avoid tariffs on China, reports Bloomberg ($).
Apple assembled about 55 million iPhones in the country across 2025, up from 36 million a year earlier, according to the publication's sources. The shift is part of Apple's broader effort to mitigate risk from U.S.-China trade tensions and reduce dependence on a single country for production.
Apple makes about 220 million to 230 million iPhones globally. A Canalys report last year claimed India has overtaken China as the leading manufacturer of smartphones shipped to the United States.
The California-based company has leaned heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's production-linked incentives aimed at turning India into the world's factory. The subsidies have helped offset some of the structural cost disadvantages that manufacturers face in India, including the lack of a China-like robust supply chain and logistics challenges, according to Bloomberg.
Although the cost gap has narrowed, assembling electronics and manufacturing components in India still remains more expensive than in countries such as China and Vietnam. Consequently, companies including Apple and Samsung are continuing to push for additional government support.
The companies are currently in discussions with the Indian government about a new round of incentives aimed at boosting export growth. The report notes that India's existing production-linked subsidies for smartphones are set to expire on March 31, and with the U.S. Supreme Court recently striking down some tariffs affecting China, officials in New Delhi are under pressure to act quickly to ensure the country remains cost-competitive.
Apple now assembles all models in the latest iPhone 17 lineup in India, including the higher-end Pro and Pro Max variants. Manufacturing partners in the country – including Foxconn, Tata Electronics, and Pegatron – also produce older devices such as the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 for both domestic sales and export markets.
2026-03-10 06:48:15
Apple is continuing to test the iOS 26.4 beta, and the latest update is now available for developers and public beta testers. As testing goes on, there are fewer new features in each beta, but today’s release adds new emoji characters and a few other changes.
2026-03-10 06:02:35
ChatGPT is now able to identify songs that are playing using Apple-owned music service Shazam. With a new Shazam integration, ChatGPT users can type in a question like "Shazam, what is this song?" to bring up a "Tap to Shazam" interface to get the title of a song.
Shazam's full music recognition technology is available in ChatGPT, so users won't need to exit out of the app to identify a song and listen to an inline preview. Using Shazam in ChatGPT works the same way as Shazam on an Apple device.
Shazam can be added to ChatGPT by opening up the ChatGPT settings, navigating to apps, and searching for Shazam. After installation, Shazam can be invoked by starting a request with "Shazam."
Using Shazam in ChatGPT does not require the Shazam app to be installed, and the song recognition functionality can be used on any platform. With the Shazam app installed, songs identified using ChatGPT are added to the Shazam app library for later access.
Shazam is rolling out in ChatGPT as of today.
2026-03-10 05:46:38
If you want a MacBook Neo from Apple for Wednesday, March 11 delivery, but have yet to place an order, you might be out of luck.
MacBook Neo pre-orders began March 4, and the initial delivery date was March 11. But now, Apple's online store in the U.S. shows that MacBook Neo orders placed today are estimated to be delivered between March 17 and March 31.
Here are the estimated delivery dates for each configuration as of 5:45 p.m. Eastern Time:
2026-03-10 05:18:20
The first reviews of the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with Apple's M5 Pro and M5 Max chips were published today by selected publications and YouTube channels, ahead of the laptops launching on Wednesday.
In addition to the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, the new MacBook Pro models offer up to twice as fast SSD speeds compared to the previous generation, and storage now starts at 1TB. Battery life has increased slightly on all of the new models, and the N1 chip extends to the MacBook Pro now for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 support.
Geekbench 6 benchmark results already surfaced for the M5 Pro and M5 Max last week. In line with Apple's advertised figures, the chips offer up to approximately 15% faster CPU performance and up to approximately 20% faster GPU performance compared to the previous-generation M4 Pro and M4 Max chips.
| Mac Model | Multi-Core CPU Score |
|---|---|
| MacBook Pro (M5 Pro and M5 Max) | 28,500 to 29,500 |
| Mac Studio (M3 Ultra) | 27,726 |
| MacBook Pro (M4 Max) | 25,702 |
| MacBook Pro (M4 Pro) | 22,490 |
| Mac Studio (M2 Ultra) | 21,410 |
| MacBook Pro (M3 Max) | 20,960 |
| Mac Studio (M1 Ultra) | 18,434 |
| MacBook Air (M5) | 17,073 |
| MacBook Pro (M3 Pro) | 15,260 |
| MacBook Pro (M2 Max) | 14,740 |
| MacBook Air (M4) | 14,731 |
| MacBook Pro (M2 Pro) | 14,451 |
| MacBook Pro (M1 Max) | 12,345 |
| MacBook Pro (M1 Pro) | 12,345 |
| MacBook Air (M3) | 12,020 |
| MacBook Air (M2) | 9,709 |
| MacBook Neo (A18 Pro) | 8,668 |
| MacBook Air (M1) | 8,342 |
