Apple and the Sydney Opera House today announced a yearlong collaboration to help inspire the next generation of creatives in Australia. The effort will expand access to initiatives that support art, design, and culture in the country.


Through this collaboration, Apple and the Opera House will focus on interactive programming and experiences for young people in Australia. Apple said it will be the founding partner of a new international children's festival being presented later this year. Apple will also support the Opera House's Centre for Creativity and explore new ways to enhance Opera House programming and experiences through technology.

From March 25 to March 27, the Opera House's eastern sails will be illuminated with artwork created in the Procreate app on the iPad by a group of 10 emerging Australian artists. Through free Today at Apple sessions, the public will have the opportunity to create and submit artwork for potential illumination as well.

"For 50 years, Apple has been at the forefront of empowering creativity, providing tools that allow people to imagine, design, and share their unique visions with the world," said Apple's marketing chief Greg Joswiak. "The yearlong collaboration with the Sydney Opera House and Illuminating Creativity is a celebration of this legacy, bringing together the incredible talent of Australian artists and the transformative power of iPad and Procreate."

More details are available on the Apple Newsroom website in Australia.
This article, "Apple Announces New Collaboration With Sydney Opera House" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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The 2026 Formula 1 season kicks off this weekend, with the Australian Grand Prix as the first race of the season. If you are in the United States, the sport has a new broadcast home: all races are streaming with an Apple TV subscription, live and on demand.

You can watch in the Apple TV app across iPhone, Android, Mac, Apple TV 4K set-top box, Windows, PlayStation, Xbox, Fire Stick, Roku and more platforms. You can also watch online at tv.apple.com.

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While the new M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pros won’t be available until March 11, the first M5 Max benchmark has already appeared on Geekbench. Here are the results.

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Benchmarks for the new MacBook Neo surfaced today, and unsurprisingly, CPU performance is almost identical to the iPhone 16 Pro. The ‌MacBook Neo‌ uses the same 6-core A18 Pro chip that was first introduced in the iPhone 16 Pro, but it has one fewer GPU core.


The ‌MacBook Neo‌ earned a single-core score of 3461 and a multi-core score of 8668, along with a Metal score of 31286.

Here's how the Neo's scores compare to ‌iPhone 16‌ Pro and other devices that make apt comparisons:

• iPhone 16 Pro - 3445 single-core, 8624 multi-core, 32575 Metal


• M1 MacBook Air - 2346 single-core, 8342 multi-core, 33148 Metal


• M4 MacBook Air - 3696 single-core, 14730 multi-core, 54630 Metal


• M3 iPad Air - 3048 single-core, 11678 multi-core, 44395 Metal


• iPad 11 - 2587 single-core, 6036 multi-core, 19395 Metal

Since the ‌MacBook Neo‌ has one fewer GPU core than the ‌iPhone 16‌ Pro, it makes sense to see a slightly lower Metal score.

When comparing the ‌MacBook Neo‌'s performance to existing Macs, the A18 Pro's multi-core performance is on par with the M1 chip in the MacBook Air, but single-core performance is much higher than it was with the ‌M1‌. It's closer to the M3 or M4 chip.

High single-core performance is a good fit for the ‌MacBook Neo‌ audience, because single-core speeds are important for activities like web browsing, using document apps, and streaming video. The ‌MacBook Neo‌ isn't really built for video editing, music creation, 3D modeling, and similar tasks where multi-core performance makes more of a difference.

Apple does not compare ‌MacBook Neo‌ performance to other Macs, iPads, or iPhones. The company's low-cost MacBook focuses on competing with similar-priced Windows PCs and Chromebooks. In its marketing materials, Apple says the A18 Pro is up to 50 percent faster for "everyday tasks" than the bestselling PC with the latest shipping Intel Core Ultra 5. It's also up to 3x faster for on-device AI workloads and up to 2x faster for photo editing.

We're only seeing one benchmark result so far, so averages could be slightly different when more Neo machines are benchmarked, but the scores are right in line with what's expected.

The ‌MacBook Neo‌ is priced starting at $599, and it is available for preorder now. It is set to launch on March 11.
This article, "First MacBook Neo Benchmarks Are In: Here's How It Compares to the M1 MacBook Air" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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The first Geekbench 6 result for a 16-inch MacBook Pro with the M5 Max chip surfaced today, and Apple has achieved record-breaking performance.


In this unconfirmed result, the M5 Max with an 18-core CPU achieved a score of 29,233 for multi-core CPU performance, which tops the 27,726 score achieved by the Mac Studio's M3 Ultra chip with a 32-core CPU. M5 Max is now the fastest Apple silicon chip ever, and it even topped every other consumer PC processor in the Geekbench database.

In terms of multi-core CPU performance, the M5 Max is up to 5% faster than the M3 Ultra, and up to 14% to 15% faster than the M4 Max chip with a 16-core CPU.

Here is a comparison of the multi-core CPU results:

• 16-inch MacBook Pro with M5 Max (18-core CPU): 29,233 (one result)


• Mac Studio with M3 Ultra (32-core CPU): 27,726 (average of all results)


• Mac Studio with M4 Max (16-core CPU): 26,166 (average of all results)


• 16-inch MacBook Pro with M4 Max (16-core CPU): 25,702 (average of all results)

As for single-core CPU performance, the M5 Max with an 18-core CPU achieved a score of 4,268 in this single Geekbench result, which is line with the regular M5 chip in the base model 14-inch MacBook Pro released back in October. This is the highest single-core score of any consumer PC processor ever, topping the AMD Ryzen 9 series.

As for graphics, the M5 Max with a 40-core GPU achieved impressive Metal scores of 218,772 in one result and 232,718 in another. These scores are anywhere from 5% to 10% lower than the highest-end M3 Ultra's average Metal score of 245,053, and a little more than 20% higher than the highest-end M4 Max's average Metal score of 191,600.

All in all, the M5 Max offers up to 15% faster CPU performance and up to 20% faster GPU performance compared to the M4 Max, in line with Apple's advertised figures.

MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max are available to pre-order now, and they will begin arriving to customers and launch in stores on March 11.
This article, "Apple's M5 Max Chip Achieves a New Record in First Benchmark Result" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple unveiled the all-new MacBook Neo on Wednesday, and one configuration has already sold out for day one deliveries.

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iOS 26 is a big update for many system apps, such as Wallet, Messages, and Music. One popular app—Apple Calendar—is mostly light on changes, but it did gain one unique new advantage: event creation via screenshots.

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Your Friends & Neighbors premiered last spring and quickly became one of Apple TV’s biggest hits, and soon the Jon Hamm series will return for season 2. Here’s the new trailer.

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According to Wired, Apple is blocking US users from downloading or updating several ByteDance-owned apps, even when they have a valid Chinese App Store account. Here are the details.

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A year ago today, Apple unveiled the M4 Max and M3 Ultra Mac Studio desktop computer. In addition to Thunderbolt 5 and SSD storage configurable to 16TB, Apple advertised the Mac Studio as featuring up to 512GB of unified memory. As of this week, the highest RAM upgrade option is no longer available.

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Apple today seeded revised third betas of the upcoming iOS 26.4 and iPadOS 26.4 updates to developers for testing purposes, with the software coming three days after Apple provided the initial beta to developers. Apple has also released a new version of iOS 26.4 and iPadOS 26.4 for public beta testers.


Registered developers and public beta testers can download the betas from the Settings app on the iPhone or iPad by going to the General section and selecting Software Update.

iOS 26.4 and iPadOS 26.4 add multiple new features to the ‌iPhone‌ and the ‌iPad‌. A Playlist Playground feature in Apple Music lets you generate songs for any idea, mood, emotion, or activity using a text-based prompt. There's also a Concerts Near You feature for finding local shows, and a redesigned look for albums and playlists with full-page artwork.

Apple Podcasts is getting native video podcasting capabilities that will make it easier to create, distribute, and monetize video podcast content through the Podcasts app. Video episodes will integrate with existing Apple podcasts features, like personalized recommendations and editorial suggestions.

Apple is testing end-to-end encryption for RCS, which will eventually bring full encryption to text conversations between Android and ‌iPhone‌ users. Apple is testing ‌RCS‌ with iPhone-to-iPhone conversations and iPhone-to-Android conversations.

Stolen Device Protection is enabled by default, there's a new ambient music widget, new average bedtime metrics in the sleep app, and plenty more. All of the features in iOS 26.4 can be found in our iOS 26.4 beta features guide.

Update: Apple also released a new third beta of watchOS 26.4.
This article, "Apple Seeds Revised Third Betas of iOS 26.4 and iPadOS 26.4 to Developers, New Public Betas" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple has released a second version of iOS 26.4 beta 3 for developers. The update comes three days after the first version. It’s unclear what the new build address, but it’s available as an over-the-air update now.

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In his newsletter over the weekend, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said Apple was likely to announce at least some but possibly not all of the following products between March 2 and March 4: the iPhone 17e, MacBook Pros, MacBook Airs, updated entry-level iPad and iPad Air models, and a lower-cost MacBook with an iPhone chip.


As it turns out, Apple announced nearly all of those products, with the sole exception being an updated entry-level iPad. In fact, we got two more products on top, in the form of an updated Studio Display and a higher-end Studio Display XDR.

Apple is not expected to unveil any additional products this week, so the wait for an iPad 12 continues for now. The device is expected to have two key upgrades over the iPad 11, including a faster A18 chip and Apple Intelligence support. In fact, one rumor claimed that the iPad 12 might even be powered by Apple's latest A19 chip.

No other major changes have been rumored so far for the iPad 12, so we expect the device to have the same overall design as the current model.

Apple Intelligence is already available on all other current-generation iPad models, including the iPad mini, iPad Air, and iPad Pro.

Apple released the iPad 11 with an A16 chip in March 2025, with U.S. pricing starting at $349.
This article, "Missing From Apple's Announcements: iPad 12 With Apple Intelligence" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple quietly updated Mac Studio configuration options this week, removing the 512GB memory upgrade. As of yesterday, there is no option to purchase a ‌Mac Studio‌ with 512GB RAM, with the machine now maxing out at 256GB.


The ‌Mac Studio‌ starts with 36GB RAM, but there were upgrades ranging from 48GB to 512GB, with the higher tier upgrades limited to the M3 Ultra chip. Now there are options ranging from 48GB to 256GB, with wait times into May for the 256GB upgrade.

Apple has also raised the price for the 256GB RAM upgrade option. 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. 512GB was $4,000 when it was available.

Apple has likely removed the option to purchase 512GB of memory because of global DRAM shortages that have dried up supply and caused prices to soar, and it's also probably why shipping times for a configuration with 256GB RAM range into May.

Demand for the ‌Mac Studio‌ has increased due to consumers seeking machines suitable for running local AI agents, which could also be a wait time factor.

Memory scarcity is already having an effect on DRAM pricing, and it could affect PC and smartphone sales in the months to come. Apple is able to absorb higher memory costs in the short term, and it is well-positioned to minimize the effect on consumers because it is better able to secure available DRAM supply than smaller companies.

We are expecting M5 Max and M5 Ultra versions of the ‌Mac Studio‌ in 2026, but it is not yet clear when Apple might release an update.

(Thanks, Ólafur!)
This article, "Mac Studio 512GB RAM Option Disappears Amid Global DRAM Shortage" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Kino, the pro video capture app for iOS, just received an update that makes it the ultimate filmmaking app for iPhone 17 Pro.

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While the MacBook Neo does not launch until next week, Apple's colorful new wallpapers designed for the laptop are included in the macOS 26.3.1 update for it.


MacBook Neo is available in Blush, Citrus, Indigo, and Silver finishes, and there is a Mac wallpaper available for each, with download links below:

• Blush


• Citrus


• Indigo


• Silver

Apple's Mac User Guide explains how to change a Mac's wallpaper.
This article, "Download Apple's New MacBook Neo Wallpapers" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple is releasing its first foldable iPhone this fall, commonly referred to as ‘iPhone Fold.’ Here’s why I think its name might be ‘iPhone Duo.’

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Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from 9to5Mac. 9to5Mac Daily is available on iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts app, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

Sponsored by BenQ: Check out BenQ’s smarter displays made for how Mac users actually work. Sign up for the giveaway here. 

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Earlier this week, OpenAI released GPT-5.3 Instant, promising to make ChatGPT less cringe and more natural when using its most popular model. Now OpenAI is back with GPT-5.4 Thinking and Pro, which is an overall upgrade to its most capable frontier model.

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Apple's first-generation AirTag 4-Pack has dropped to $64.00 this week on Amazon, down from the original price of $99.00. Free shipping options have a delivery estimate around March 10, while Prime members should be able to get it delivered a few days sooner.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Overall, this is a solid second-best price on the AirTag 4-pack that's within $1 of the Amazon all-time low price. Deals on the 1-Pack have been fluctuating for a few days and are currently gone, but an all-time low price could return soon.



These first generation models will eventually stop being sold by third-party retailers like Amazon, so if you've been waiting for a deal now is the time to buy. Apple just debuted the all-new AirTag, featuring longer range for tracking items and a louder speaker.

If you're on the hunt for more discounts, be sure to visit our Apple Deals roundup where we recap the best Apple-related bargains of the past week.

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This article, "AirTag 1 Gets Major Discount With 4-Pack at $64" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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The Super Bowl was almost a month ago, but the official numbers for Bad Bunny’s Apple Music halftime show were just released this week. And they confirm that the halftime performance was a record-breaker.

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Until a last-minute leak revealed the MacBook Neo name, it was widely assumed that Apple's lower-cost MacBook would simply be named "MacBook." After all, Apple offered a plain "MacBook" from 2006 to 2012, and again from 2015 to 2019. In the end, Apple did go with MacBook Neo branding, and it has explained why in a new interview.


In short, Apple said MacBook Neo sounds fresh.

"We wanted something that felt fun and friendly, and fresh, and felt like it really suited the spirit of this product," said Colleen Novielli, a Mac product marketing director, in conversation with TechRadar's Lance Ulanoff.

Indeed, Apple has emphasized the MacBook Neo's newness.

"MacBook Neo is new, exciting, original, and HERE," said Apple's marketing chief Greg Joswiak, in a social media post on Wednesday. "With a beautiful aluminum design, 13-inch Liquid Retina display, 16 hours of battery life, and the power of Apple silicon, you'll fly through everyday tasks. It'll be love at first Mac."

Many of the MacBook Neo lifestyle images that Apple shared show young people. The more affordable laptop will undoubtedly be popular with students.


The colorful MacBook Neo starts at just $599 in the U.S., and at an even lower $499 for college students. Available in Blush, Citrus, Indigo, and Silver, the MacBook Neo is powered by a version of the A18 Pro chip from the iPhone, and it is equipped with a 13-inch display, up to 512GB of storage, and a non-configurable 8GB of RAM.

With the MacBook Neo, which launches on Wednesday, March 11, Apple could reshape the lower-end laptop market in a big way.
This article, "Apple Explains 'MacBook Neo' Name" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Following yesterday’s MacBook Neo unveiling, Apple’s SVP of Hardware Engineering, John Ternus, spoke to ABC News about the new product, AI, and speculation about him becoming Apple’s next CEO.

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Today’s 9to5Mac Lunch Break is headlined by the best deals on the new 2026 MacBook pre-orders: MacBook Neo, M4 MacBook Air, and M5 Pro MacBook Pro. But from there we move over to the now live Best Buy Apple Shopping Event alongside a rare price drop on brand new condition unlocked iPhone Air units, today’s official Apple Watch band sale from $14, and M4 MacBook Air models at $300 off (Amazon all-time low prices). Head below for a closer look at the details.

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