What to expect from Apple’s March 8 event
Updates to the iPhone SE, iPad Air, Apple Silicon, and more
Story byNapier Lopez
Napier Lopez is a writer based in New York City. He’s interested in all things tech, science, and photography related, and likes to yo-yo in(show all)Napier Lopez is a writer based in New York City. He’s interested in all things tech, science, and photography related, and likes to yo-yo in his free time. Follow himon Twitter.
Get the TNW newsletter
Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.
Also tagged with
Related Articles
More TNW
About TNW
A new iPhone SE
Every few years, Apple releases a low-cost iPhone using modern components in an old body, and this year seems no different. According to Mark Gurman atBloomberg, Apple plans on launching the third iPhone SE at $399, featuring the sameiPhone6-esque design as before, but with 5G support, an improved camera, and the A15 Bionic processor.
iPad Air 5
New year, new iPad. The iPad is expected to get the A15 chip, two extra speakers (for a total of four), and 5G connectivity. Camera improvements are likely as well.
A new desktop Mac (probably the Mini)
According to Gurman, Apple is planning to announcea lotof Macs this year, and it’s very likely we’ll see at least one at the March 8 event. The ‘Peek performance’ tagline; also points in this direction Apple doesn’t usually announce its high-performance mobile products until the fall.
Rumors are currently pointing to a ‘Mac Mini Pro,’ featuring the M1 Max and M1 Pro chips; after all, it makes no sense for Apple’s laptops to be more powerful than its desktop offerings for so long. This Mac Mini is expected to offer a slimmer, sleeker design.
The tagline could also be interpreted more literally as Apple’s absolute best, which would indicate the company will announce or tease the full-size Mac Pro, but we haven’t seen concrete rumors to suggest this will be the case.
A new MacBook or two with M2
Apple’s M1 chip was announced in 2020, which means it’s just about due for an update. Rumors have pointed to a new MacBook Pro powered by an entry-level M2 chip that should outperform the previous M1 MacBook Pro, but that won’t quite match up to the M1 Pro and Max.
In order to keep costs relatively low, the new MacBook Pro won’t feature a fancy 120 Hz display or MiniLED panel. The blessing of the lesser screen technology is that it may avoidthe dreaded notch. Maybe.
It’s also extremely likely that Apple will announce a redesigned MacBook Air with the M2 chip sometime this year, but it’s not clear if it will arrive at this event.
iOS 15.4
On the software side of things, we’re expecting a release date for iOS 15.4. It’s a largely mid-cycle upgrade, most notably including support for FaceID while wearing a mask. It also includes over 30 new emoji, a non-binary Siri voice, and support for multi-device interactions withUniversal Control. But expect most software announcements to arrive at WWDC later this year.
