Apple's upcoming Time Flies event on Sept. 15 could play host to far more than just the Apple Watch Series 6 — and we’re not just talking about the new iPad Air likely to join Apple’s new smartwatch in the spotlight next Tuesday. Another anticipated piece of hardware — the first MacBookPro to feature Apple Silicon — could be due for an appearance as well.
That’s the word from an Apple Insider report on a series of leaks about Apple’s upcoming product plans. The leak in question sprang from a Reddit poster named AppleSeeder who took to an "Ask Me Anything" thread with some very interesting claims.
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You can be forgiven if the skepticism light started flashing all around you right now. The leaker is posting from a 7-month-old Reddit account while claiming they provided credentials to the r/Apple moderators before announcing that they had been behind several of the larger Apple leaks throughout the year. They then proceeded to announce that a new 14-inch MacBook Pro would be in store for the upcoming Sept. 15 Apple event.
According to AppleSeeder, the 14-inch MacBook Pro would include an internal GPU comparable to the Radeon Pro 5500M and would remain in line with what buyers currently get with Apple’s 16-inch MacBook Pro. Though gaming is rarely an experience that's touted for Mac users, this model would work nicely with games optimized specifically for Apple Silicon and would make an attractive option for users looking to concentrate on more gaming than other functions.
We've heard in the past by way of leaker Komiya on Twitter that the first ARM MacBook will cost around $849 and will last around 15 to 20 hours on a charge. The model was meant to supposedly launch by the end of the year, run on an A14X processor, and features a 12-inch Retina display. That doesn’t sound like a MacBook Pro to us.
AppleSeeder also passed on additional info on what Apple’s reportedly planning with its new augmented project we've been referring to as Apple Glass. The name itself is reportedly a placeholder that could end up on the final version, but no launch is planned until around March 2021 at the very earliest. With Apple Glass, information would be projected onto the lenses themselves and behave as an "overlay" on top of the real world. Apple apparently doesn't plan on working facial recognition into the project.
AppleSeeder also claims that the "Apple TV 6" — a new set-top box — would not be making an appearance in 2020 with more of a focus on gaming than entertainment. Apple is allegedly looking to make a bigger push into the gaming ecosystem with new Apple Arcade titles and more Apple TV Plus content.
The iPhone 12 isn’t likely to debut at the Sept. 15 event — other sources point to an October reveal to be closer to the launch of Apple’s new phones, which will ship later than usual thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. Still, AppleSeeder has some tips for us, claiming the iPhone 12 unveiling will happen next week. (Yet another reason to be skeptical about these claims.) AppleSeeder expects preorder dates for October with a mid-October release for the iPhone 12. Apple’s phone launch will reportedly focus on AR, given the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max's expected LiDAR sensor.
We won’t have to wait long to see how many of these reported leaks pan out. Apple’s Sept. 15 event is less than a week away, and we’ll have plenty of coverage once the online-only product launch gets underway at 1 p.m. EDT/10 a.m. PDT.
