CultCast #343 - Mac refresh, incoming!

The CultCast - A podcast by America's favorite Apple Podcast - Fridays

Categories:

Technology

This week:
  • New evidence just today that Apple has a big Mac refresh right around the corner.
  • MacBook Pro is about to get the new feature we’ve all been wanting.
  • Apple is rebuilding their maps app from the ground up, and it looks magnificent.
  • Erfon visited Apple’s new Seattle flagship store it was STUNNING.
  • We pitch a wood-wrapped iPhone case, waterproof camping lights, and a great new reading app an all-new Under Review!
 
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Thanks to Kevin McLeodfor the music you hear on today’s episode.
 
On the show this week
 
Apple paves the way for new iPads and Macs to arrive in Europe
Apple has this week registered new iPads and Macs with the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC).  The filings hint that a big refresh could be just around the corner.
Five new Macs with the model numbers has been registered with the commission.  
Looking at the model numbers it looks like three of the machines will be MBPs, and then one will be a MBA and A MB.
There are five iPad model numbers, too, meaning we’ll likely be seeing an iPad Pro refresh very soon.
What’s particularly interesting about the filings is that the Apple lists macOS 10.13 and iOS 11 as the software for these devices, which suggests it might be planning to launch them before macOS Mojave and iOS 12 
 
‘Coffee Lake’ chips could give 2018 MacBook Pro a jolt
Apple may soon be planning to upgrade the MacBook Pro line to the latest generation of Intel processors. Benchmarks for a macOS laptop running a “Coffee Lake” chip showed up on Geekbench.
Why’s that exciting?  More cores and a huge 40-50% increase in multitasking performance.
If this isn’t a fake, what’s interesting is the machine tested was likely a 13” MBP, but its processor had 4 cores (8 with hyper threading) instead of just two (what current 13” MBPs have)
This would probably also mean the 15 would have SIX cores.
 
Apple is rebuilding Maps from the ground up
 
Apple Maps getting revamped to suck less
For the last 4 years, Apple has been working on totally rebuilding Apple Maps, in an effort to make it the best maps app in the world. They now have hundreds of map editors working furiously, and thousands of employees.
Talking to TechCrunch, Eddie Cue, now heading up the project, said they realized maps was at the heart of everything; people use their phones for navigation, apps use GPS to location information, so Apple needed to take ownership of it, and they’re doing it in two ways:
 
Our Under Review picks
 
Rustek Inlay iPhone case
 
Libby reading app
 
Luminoodle Camping lights