While Apple’s workmanlike mid-October launches fail to thrill, there’s plenty more to come.
I suppose we can hardly complain. Apple’s mid-October launches were not teased with over-designed invitations. They didn’t have groan-worthy pun taglines. They did not involve Apple executives doing ill-advised “skits” and bouncing around on a virtual stage. In other words, they were not hyped up as any kind of event beyond a social media tease the day before, and so the fair-minded observer would not expect them to be thrilling.
And thrilling they certainly were not. What we got instead, via press release rather than press event, was a trio of what may be the most workmanlike product refreshes in history. The new MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and Vision Pro each received a brand-new M5 processor and very little else: a comfy new headband here, a C1X modem there, but nothing fundamental or groundbreaking other than the chips.
Sometimes a straightforward refresh is exactly what a product line needs, and the powerful M5 is certainly worth having even if you don’t share Apple’s obsession with AI. The last thing we’d want is for Apple to hold off on making necessary component bumps because the company is ashamed to unveil a machine that hasn’t been completely redesigned. It does feel like Apple fans have been getting more than their fair share of straightforward refreshes in recent years… but the iPhone Air earns quite a few radicalism points, so let’s cut the company some slack.
Still, my thoughts have quickly moved on from these dull but necessary updates to the other launches that lie in Apple’s nearish future. And even after the launches in September (iPhones, Apple Watches, AirPods Pro) and October there’s plenty still to come for this fall and winter. This is what happens when you spend the rest of the year launching almost nothing.
The 2nd-gen AirTag should be with us before long, based on hints in iOS 26 code, and it appears this will be more reliable at maintaining a Bluetooth connection than its predecessor. The new AirTag may have Precision Finding at a longer range and is expected to gain new battery features of some sort, although it isn’t clear what these will entail. Top of my wish list would be a rechargeable battery, since replacing the watch battery in the 1st-gen AirTag is a pain and potentially dangerous, but it’s more likely that we’ll keep the battery format while increasing its longevity: perhaps lasting as long as two years. Chuck in speakers that are harder for stalkers to tamper with and this sounds like a huge upgrade for one of Apple’s oldest accessories.
And what of the even-older HomePod mini? I’m a big fan of the full-size HomePod, but the mini is even better and a far easier product to recommend.
