MacRumors

Apple plans to soon sell a third-party lock adapter for the Mac Studio that locks onto the bottom of the computer to physically secure the computer without damaging or modifying it.

On the bottom of the ‌Mac Studio‌, there is a hole that some have speculated could be for a Kensington lock. Kensington locks, however, are large and are unlikely to fit under the ‌Mac Studio‌. Instead, in a memo seen by MacRumors, Apple has said a "lock adapter" that customers can use to keep their ‌Mac Studio‌ "physically secure without modifying or damaging" will launch soon.

In the memo, Apple did not provide details on pricing or availability. With the previous trashcan Mac Pro, Apple did something similar and released a $49 lock that goes on the side of the computer to prevent it from moving or accessing the internals. As YouTuber MKBHD has pointed out, already, however, there is no way to easy and straightforward way to access the internals of the ‌Mac Studio‌.

Today we're tracking a few different deals, including all-time low prices on the iPad mini 6, Apple Watch Series 7, and iPad Pro Magic Keyboard. These discounts can all be found on Amazon.

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.

iPad mini

Starting with the 64GB Wi-Fi iPad mini, Amazon has this model for $459.00 in three colors, down from $499.00. This is a match of the previous record low price on the 2021 iPad mini, and all models are shipped and sold by Amazon.

For more storage, you can also get the 256GB Wi-Fi iPad mini for $599.00, down from $649.00. This one is available in two colors at this sale price, and both versions of the iPad mini are in stock and ready to ship today.

Apple Watch Series 7

The 41mm GPS Apple Watch Series 7 in Midnight Aluminum with Midnight Sport Band is down to $339.00 today, down from $399.00. Only Midnight is being discounted to this price on Amazon.

Although it's just one color, this is a match of the previous all-time low price that we saw on this model earlier in 2022. If you want a different color and are willing to spend a bit more, all other aluminum 41mm models are priced at $349.00.

Magic Keyboard

Next you can save on both of the 2021 Magic Keyboards for the 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro, starting at $239.19 for the 11-inch model, down from $299.00. This deal is only available in White.

The Magic Keyboard for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro is priced at $293.00, down from $349.00. Similar to the 11-inch model, this one is only available in White. Both models are in stock and sold directly from Amazon.

Both of these Magic Keyboards are all-time low prices for each respective model, and currently only Amazon is discounting the accessories.

Our full Deals Roundup has more information on the latest Apple-related sales and bargains.

Every product that Apple announced at its "Peek Performance" event is now available for same-day pickup at select Apple Stores in the United States, including the Mac Studio, Studio Display, new iPhone SE, new iPad Air, and green iPhone 13 models.

The two standard configurations of the Mac Studio with an M1 Max chip for $1,999 or an M1 Ultra chip for $3,999 are available for pickup at some Apple Store locations, as is the Studio Display with standard glass and a tilt-adjustable stand, but custom configurations and other built-to-order options have very limited in-store availability.

The new iPhone SE and iPad Air models are more widely available for Apple Store pickup in many storage capacity and color combinations.

To order a product with Apple Store pickup, add the product to your bag on Apple.com or in the Apple Store app, proceed to checkout, select the "I'll pick it up" option, enter your ZIP code, choose an available Apple Store location, select a pickup date, and select a 15-minute check-in window for arriving to the store. Payment is completed online, and a valid government-issued photo ID and the order number are required upon pickup.

Apple began accepting pre-orders for the Mac Studio and Studio Display on March 8, followed by the new iPhone SE, iPad Air, and green iPhone 13 models on March 11, and the first deliveries to customers began today.

While at the Apple Store, don't forget to pick up black-and-silver Magic accessories for the Mac, which went on sale last week.

The Apple Studio Display runs a full version of iOS 15.4, Daring Fireball's John Gruber has highlighted.

In System Information, under "Graphics/Displays," the Studio Display's software can be seen, showing that it runs "Version 15.4 (Build 19E241)." This is the exact same build number as iOS 15.4 and iPadOS 15.4, indicating that the Studio Display runs the full version of iOS.

The Studio Display contains an A13 Bionic chip, the same chip from the iPhone 11 lineup, 2020 ‌iPhone‌ SE, ninth-generation iPad, to support its 12-megapixel Ultra Wide front-facing camera with Center Stage and six-speaker sound system with Spatial Audio. While the presence of the A13 chip indicated that the display likely ran a variant of existing Apple software, in much the same way that the HomePod and HomePod mini run a version of tvOS, the device's exact software was unknown until now.

Yesterday, the first reviews of the Studio Display were released, with a common complaint among reviewers being that the built-in webcam's image quality ranges anywhere from an "old BlackBerry" to downright "awful" in their hands-on testing. In his detailed review of the Studio Display, Gruber said that the camera is "crushingly disappointing" and "astonishingly poor," with the image being "terrible" and Center Stage being "glitchy."

Even without harsh sunlight, all images from the Studio Display camera, in all lighting conditions, are grainy, lacking in contrast, and make skin tones look cadaveric.

[...]

... How can the image quality from the camera on a $1600 display be so much worse — laughably worse — than the image quality from a $600 iPad Air that uses the exact same camera hardware? Let alone comparing it to the front-facing camera on the $430 iPhone SE, which makes the Studio Display camera look like a toy. And we waited years for Apple to ship this display. Again, it's usable. All sorts of people use way worse cameras for videoconferencing every day. But this image quality is embarrassing from a company that considers itself the leading camera company in the world... I expected to be impressed by the Studio Display camera. Instead, I'm baffled. I don't understand how this shipped.

It gets even worse. The Center Stage feature on the Studio Display should be called Off-Center Stage. Move around a bit or turn your head to the side and you get framed off to the side, even though you're sitting directly in front of the center of the display. It takes up to 5 seconds for Center Stage to catch up and re-center you in the frame, which it does slowly and sheepishly, as though it's embarrassed...

Apple told reviewers that it "discovered an issue where the system is not behaving as expected" and will be "making improvements in a software update." Apple did not specify what "improvements" will be made, and no timeframe was provided for the update. Gruber concluded:

The Off-Center Stage thing is obviously a bug, and I expect that to be fixed. The overall image quality, I'll bet, can and will be improved to some degree via software updates, but I'll be surprised — happily surprised, but surprised — if a software update can turn this camera into something Apple should be proud of. Maybe, though, given that it's the same camera hardware as the front-facing camera on the new iPad Air and last year's iPad Pros. But I'm not holding my breath.

Gruber later posted an update saying he has heard that the "the image quality problems really are a software problem, not hardware — a bug introduced at the last minute — and a future software update might not merely somewhat improve image quality, but raise it to a level commensurate with the ‌iPad‌ models equipped with the same camera."

With the confirmation that the Studio Display runs iOS, Apple's planned update to improve the quality of the webcam will presumably come as part of an iOS update. Other information about how software updates for the Studio Display work is as yet unknown.

German carmaker Porsche has discussed undertaking joint projects with Apple, the company's CEO mentioned today in its annual press conference (via Reuters).

Porsche CEO Oliver Blume said that the company has discussed "exciting common projects" with Apple, but it it is currently too soon to make any firm decisions on future projects. It is unclear exactly what the seemingly off-hand remark refers to, but it could relate to Apple's long-rumored electric vehicle project.

Blume said that Porsche and Apple traditionally cooperate closely and are "on the same wavelength," and managers from Porsche travelled to the United States late last year to discuss joint projects with Apple.

"We already have Apple CarPlay, we will expand on that," Blume added. Porsche has worked closely with Apple in recent years to offer a growing number of feature-rich non-CarPlay experiences that integrate with vehicles' infotainment systems, including a native Apple Music app with time-synced lyrics and a native Apple Podcasts app that works with Porsche's in-car voice assistant.

LG is working to supply Apple with OLED display panels for two iPad models before providing larger panels for the company's first OLED MacBook around 2025, The Elec reports.

LG Display is reportedly aiming to supply Apple with Gen 8.5 OLED panels for Apple's first OLED MacBook. The device is said to be scheduled to launch "around 2025."

LG has been evaluating the deposition process to manufacture Gen 8.5 OLED panels at its Paju facility since December 2021, The Elec claims. The evaluation procedure will purportedly take up to a year to complete. Previous reports have indicated that LG's factory in Paju, South Korea, is instrumental in Apple's plans to offer iPads with OLED displays, as well as to increase its supply of OLED displays for future iPhone models.

The Elec also explained that LG is planning to use its Gen 6 OLED production lines for 11-inch and 12.9-inch ‌iPad‌ models, which will debut at some time earlier than the first OLED MacBook. Since the launch of the OLED MacBooks around 2025 will come after Apple's first two OLED iPads, LG is planning to use larger substrates such as Gen 8.5 since more panels can be cut out per substrate in less time.

Yesterday, renowned Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo tweeted that the launch of Apple's first MacBook with an OLED display is dependent on the launch of 11-inch and 12.9-inch OLED ‌iPad‌ models in 2024, which correlates with today's report from The Elec:

LG is believed to be planning to begin mass production of LTPO OLED panels for iPads between 2023 and 2024, making the rumored 2025 timeframe for the launch of the first OLED MacBook plausible.

It is officially March 18 in Australia and New Zealand, which means that it's Mac Studio and Studio Display launch day. Customers in these countries are always the first to get their hands on new devices, and Apple's new studio devices are being delivered.

The ‌Mac Studio‌ and Studio Display are starting to arrive to customers who pre-ordered when the devices went up for sale following the "Peek Performance" event, and customers will soon begin to share their photos on Twitter, Instagram, and the MacRumors forums.

New Zealand does not have Apple Stores, so Australian customers will be the first who are able to pick up a Studio Display or ‌Mac Studio‌ at a retail location, provided Apple has stock. Availability in Australia will give us an idea of what we can expect from other stores worldwide.

Apple will likely sell stock configurations of the Studio Display and the ‌Mac Studio‌ at its retail stores, with pricing beginning at $1,599 for the Studio Display and $1,999 for the ‌Mac Studio‌. Supplies of both devices were limited on ordering day, so retail stores may also have limited quantities.

If you try to order a ‌Mac Studio‌ or Studio Display online, the order won't ship until April, so a retail store is now the only way to get a launch day device.

Following New Zealand and Australia, sales of the MacBook Pro will begin in Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and then North America. Apple Stores‌ globally are opening up right around 9:00 or 10:00 a.m. local time to allow customers to pick up reserved devices and make walk-in purchases.

Today also marks the delivery of the first iPhone SE and iPad Air models, though those are mostly iterative updates and not quite as exciting as the new studio product lines.

Have a new ‌Mac Studio‌ or Studio Display? Share pictures below and let us know what you think of your new device.

Apple is streamlining its iPhone purchase process with the launch of the ‌iPhone‌ SE, and has introduced a new buying method that allows customers to purchase T-Mobile and AT&T devices without inputting their current carrier information.

As outlined by Bloomberg, customers typically need to provide their wireless phone number and social security number when making an ‌iPhone‌ purchase, a process that allows their carrier to do a credit check and approve the transaction to ensure the person receiving the device will pay their cellular phone bill.

With the ‌iPhone‌ SE, AT&T and T-Mobile customers will not need to provide their carrier information when checking out, and can instead connect when turning on the ‌iPhone‌ SE for the first time. Customers also do not need to select a network plan at the time of purchase, cutting down on carrier involvement when a person buys an ‌iPhone‌ from Apple.

Apple told retail employees that the new method is called "on-device authentication," and it makes the ‌iPhone‌ checkout process quicker. The purchase process is available online right now and will be implemented in stores on March 29.

Apple already has a "Connect on your own later" option for ‌iPhone‌ 13 buyers who don't want to input their information at the time of purchase, but this is apparently separate from the way the ‌iPhone‌ SE on-device authentication works. Apple also offers unlocked devices that can be purchased without a carrier association.

As of right now, on-device authentication is limited to AT&T and T-Mobile customers who purchase an ‌iPhone‌ SE, but Apple is planning to expand it to Verizon and could also implement the feature for flagship ‌iPhone‌ purchases in the future to make the preorder process smoother.

Despite Apple's claims and charts, the new M1 Ultra chip is not able to outperform Nvidia's RTX 3090 in terms of raw GPU performance, according to benchmark testing performed by The Verge.

When the ‌M1 Ultra‌ was introduced, Apple shared a chart that had the new chip winning out over the "highest-end discrete GPU" in "relative performance," without details on what tests were run to achieve those results. Apple showed the ‌M1 Ultra‌ beating the RTX 3090 at a certain power level, but Apple isn't sharing the whole picture with its limited graphic.

The Verge decided to pit the ‌M1 Ultra‌ against the Nvidia RTX 3090 using Geekbench 5 graphics tests, and unsurprisingly, it cannot match Nvidia's chip when that chip is run at full power. The Mac Studio beat out the 16-core Mac Pro, but performance was about half that of the RTX 3090.

But it seems that Apple just simply isn't showing the full performance of the competitor it's chasing here.

It's sort of like arguing that because your electric car can use dramatically less fuel when driving at 80 miles per hour than a Lamborghini, it has a better engine -- without mentioning the fact that a Lambo can still go twice as fast.

The ‌M1 Ultra‌ is otherwise impressive, and it is unclear why Apple focused on this particular benchmark as it is somewhat misleading to customers because it does not take into account the full range of Nvidia's chip.

Apple's ‌M1 Ultra‌ is essentially two M1 Max chips connected together, and as The Verge highlighted in its full Mac Studio review, Apple has managed to successfully get double the ‌M1 Max‌ performance out of the ‌M1 Ultra‌, which is a notable feat that other chip makers cannot match.

Sony in February introduced the LinkBuds, a curious set of earphones that have an open design that's not quite like any other in-ear headphone product on the market. We picked up a set of Sony's strange LinkBuds to see how they measure up to Apple's third-generation AirPods.

Priced at $178, the LinkBuds have a naked donut-shaped earpiece that goes in the ear. Much like the AirPods 3, there are no form or silicone tips included with the LinkBuds.

The hole in the LinkBuds is an open ring driver that's designed to let users listen to music while also keeping an ear open to their ambient surroundings, similar to headphone products like audio-equipped sunglasses and bone conduction headphones. Sound quality is not at the AirPods level, but it's above average.

An Adaptive Volume Control feature optimizes music to the sound in the ambient environment, and playback is controlled by double tapping right on your ear. The double tap gesture can be used to play/pause music, adjust volume, or skip tracks, with settings available in the Sony app. There's also an option in the app for EQ adjustments.

A secondary bulb with a small fin holds the LinkBuds in place, and Sony has described them as ultra small and lightweight. In our testing, comfort is not too far off from the AirPods. They can be worn for a decent length of time before they irritate the ears, and are light enough not to be uncomfortable over a couple hours of use.

The battery in the LinkBuds lasts for 5.5 hours, and they come with a charging case that provides a total of 23 hours of listening time. The charging case is tiny and pocketable.

For those in the Apple device ecosystem, LinkBuds can't really measure up to the AirPods because they lack features like automatic device switching and quick pairing. People who don't care about those features and who are looking for earbuds that are ideal for biking, running, and other similar purposes might want to check out the LinkBuds, though.

What do you think of the LinkBuds? Let us know in the comments.

A few companies are celebrating today's Saint Patrick's Day holiday by offering shoppers solid discounts across a variety of products. We've collected some of the best discounts and offers below, including sales from ZAGG and Mophie, Belkin, Casely, Pad & Quill, Satechi, JBL, and Hyper.

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

ZAGG

ZAGG and Mophie are hosting one of the bigger tech-related Saint Patrick's Day sales this year, with 25 percent off sitewide for one day only. This sale excludes items that have already been discounted.

We've collected a few of Mophie's best charging accessories that you can save on during the Saint Patrick's Day sale, including the new 3-in-1 Travel Charger with MagSafe. Besides Mophie's accessories, ZAGG's website includes screen protectors, iPad keyboards, tech sanitizers, and much more.

• Snap+ Juice Pack Mini Wallet - $37.46, down from $49.95
• Snap+ Powerstation Stand - $52.46, down from $69.95
• Powerstation Wireless XL - $52.46, down from $69.95
• 3-in-1 Wireless Stand for MagSafe Charger - $67.46, down from $89.95
• 3-in-1 Travel Charger with MagSafe - $112.46, down from $149.95

Belkin

Belkin is taking 15 percent off select charging accessories today with the code POWER15. This includes the company's Boost Charge line of products, as well as Bluetooth speakers, wall chargers, cables, and more.

You can browse the full Saint Patrick's Day sale by heading to this landing page on Belkin's website. This code is expected to expire once the holiday ends, so shop soon if you're interested.

Casely

Casely is offering 25 percent off green cases and accessories for the Saint Patrick's Day holiday. You'll just need to use the code LUCKYME to see the discounts, and this will expire in three days.

Casely has cases that support iPhones as old as the iPhone 6. If you have the latest devices, you can opt for a MagSafe-compatible case in select accessories. There are also cases for the AirPods and AirPods Pro on sale this week.

Pad & Quill

At Pad & Quill you can save on Apple Watch bands, iPhone leather folios, AirTag accessories, and more. All of these products can be found in the company's new Warehouse Sale, and it also includes a pair of 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro cases.

Satechi

Satechi's discount is focusing on just one product: the 165W USB-C GaN Charger, priced at $96.00 with code CES20, down from $119.99.

This accessory includes four USB-C power delivery ports, and when purchasing you can select from four different territories for different power supply options.

Other Sales

• Adorama - Get 40% off photography equipment and more
• eBay - Get up to 50% off on home appliances, smart home tech, and more
• Hyper - Save on USB-C hubs and more
• JBL - Get up to 50% off portable speakers, headphones, and more

Be sure to visit our full Deals Roundup to shop for even more Apple-related products and accessories.

The European Union is set to introduce new legislation as soon as this month that would significantly affect how the App Store operates in Europe, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The Digital Markets Act has been in development for some time and the finalized version that could be completed as soon as this month will allow for sideloading and alternate app store options. Apple will be required to allow customers in Europe to download apps outside of the app stores, and it will also allow developers to use alternate purchase methods.

Failure to comply with the law could cost Apple tens of billions of dollars, and Apple's efforts to fight the act have been unsuccessful. Back in November, Apple software engineering chief Craig Federighi said that the sideloading mandated by the Digital Markets Act would open the "floodgates" to malware. The legislation would, said Federighi, "take away [the] choice of a more secure platform."

In a statement provided to The Wall Street Journal, Apple shared a similar sentiment.

Governments and international agencies world-wide have explicitly advised against sideloading requirements, which would cripple the privacy and security protections that users have come to expect."

European officials have been unswayed by Apple's privacy and security-related arguments, and in July, European Union digital competition chief Margrethe Vestager said that Apple should not use privacy excuses to limit competition. "Customers will not give up neither security nor privacy if they use another app store or if they sideload," she said.

The full scope of the sideloading provision in the bill is not yet known as final language could give Apple some room to limit the scope of sideloading. After the bill is finalized, it will be approved by the parliament and member states, and it would take effect early next year.

Apple's new Mac Studio desktop computer will begin arriving to customers this Friday. Ahead of the launch, TechCrunch's Matthew Panzarino spoke with a trio of senior Apple employees about the company's process of designing the Mac Studio.

Just like the Mac Pro tower released in late 2019, the Mac Studio was born as a result of Apple's Pro Workflows Team that was created shortly after the company apologized to pro users and ensured that it remains committed to the Mac.

"We look very much at Mac Studio for what it is, a completely new Mac product line," said Tom Boger, vice president of Mac and iPad product marketing at Apple. "Our philosophy was not at all to take a Mac mini and scale it up, it was 'we know we're working on this M1 chip and we want to bring it to those users who want performance and conductivity and a modular system. And let's allow it to live right on people's desks so it's within easy reach."

Xander Soren, director of product marketing for the Pro Apps team at Apple, told Panzarino that creative and pro users expressed a clear desire for a so-called "modular" system that sat between the iMac and the Mac Pro in Apple's desktop lineup.

"I think the way we look at it is we're happy to provide multiple ways for our users to work," added Boger. "So you could decide to have a MacBook Pro with an M1 Max chip in it and you could decide to have a setup in your studio where you bring the MacBook Pro back and forth. And if that's the way that you choose to work, great. But we also have users that prefer to have that desktop that always lives on their desk."

Apple said that it listened to customer feedback to decide which ports to offer on the Mac Studio, and it also designed the computer to ensure that all of those ports were easily accessible on both the front and back of the machine.

"We've got IO right on the front, and even if you need to get to the back, you just spin it around," said Boger. "It's relatively light; it's very small; it fits under most displays at 3.7 inches high. We're really giving users something they've never had before. They've always had to trade off. If I wanted a smaller form factor computer, I had to trade off performance. And what we wanted to do was give people something where you don't have to do that."

Shelly Goldberg, senior director of Mac and iPad product design at Apple, said the Mac Studio was a fun challenge in terms of fitting the powerful performance of the M1 Ultra chip into a more compact form factor with optimal thermal management.

"…The team did hundreds of thermal simulations for the airflow to try to figure out what's the best pattern of airflow through the system to try to optimize for performance and acoustics and ultimately, we came up with the the design that we have which has the inlet on the bottom coming in through over 2,000 machined holes that are all machined at [a specific] angle that rotates as you go around the perimeter," said Goldberg.

As for the Studio Display, Boger said Apple aimed for a "great, very accessible, very mainstream display for all of our Mac users."

"It's a great display if you want to hook up to the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac mini, Mac Studio, Mac Pro, whatever," said Boger. "And we know that there's still users out there that are using Intel-based Macs and so putting A13 in there processes the audio for Spatial Audio and makes the magic of Center Stage happen."

Notably, many reviewers found the Studio Display's webcam quality to be unsatisfactory, leading Apple to issue a statement indicating that it will be making unspecified improvements in a future software update. No timeframe was provided for the update.

We've rounded up reviews of both the Mac Studio and Studio Display for a closer look at both products ahead of their Friday launch.

LG's 27-inch UltraFine 5K external display has not been discontinued and will be back in stock next month, LG has told The Wall Street Journal.

Following speculation that the LG UltraFine 5K display may have been discontinued when it went out of stock at most major retailers, LG told The Wall Street Journal that the UltraFine 5K is still in production and has not been discontinued. The display is simply out of stock at the current time due to component shortages and high demand. LG expects the UltraFine 5K to come back in stock on its website as soon as next month, with availability at other retailers presumably set to improve around the same time.

Apple worked with LG to develop the UltraFine 5K display, which contains almost the exact same panel as a 27-inch 5K iMac, featuring Thunderbolt connectivity, close integration with macOS, and the ideal 5120 by 2880 resolution for Retina scaling on a Mac, making it the go-to option for many Mac users in recent years.

Following the announcement of the Studio Display, Apple delisted the 27-inch UltraFine 5K display from the Apple Store. Apple presumably chose to stop selling the UltraFine 5K due to its similarity to the Studio Display. The UltraFine 5K features almost the same 27-inch 5K panel with P3 wide color, built-in speakers, a built-in camera, a single Thunderbolt port that is capable of charging a MacBook, and three USB-C ports, but for a price of $1,299, $300 cheaper than the Studio Display.

The Studio Display adds a slim aluminum design, an extra 100 nits of brightness, and Center Stage functionality, but does not come with a height-adjustable stand as standard. Apple continues to sell the UltraFine 5K's smaller sibling, 23.7-inch UltraFine 4K display, for $699.

Reviews of the Studio Display were released earlier today with a largely negative response, but Apple is rumored to be planning to launch a more high-end 27-inch "Studio Display Pro" with mini-LED technology later this year.

The Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), which includes Apple, Samsung, Google, Amazon, and others, today announced the launch of the "Matter" smart home standard has been delayed until the fall of 2022 (via The Verge).

Matter seeks to unify and simplify the smart home ecosystem with a new interoperable standard. Announced in 2019 as "Project CHiP," Matter is a unified IP-based connectivity that aims to offer a standard universal protocol for developers to build Internet of Things devices. The Alliance previously sought to release the standard in late 2020. This was then delayed to the second half of 2021, before again being delayed until summer 2022. Now, it has been delayed until the fall of 2022.

The delay is needed to finalize the software development kit (SDK) that device manufacturers will use to incorporate their products into the Matter ecosystem. The CSA is working to improve the SDK so that it works smoothly across the large number of platforms that are adopting Matter, ensuring that there is long-term confidence in the standard.

The updated timeline suggests that Matter-certified devices could still go on sale this year, with 130 devices in 15 categories from 50 companies set to be part of the first roll-out. Companies that are not yet enrolled into the initial phase may need to wait until the end of 2022 or early 2023 to begin testing.

A multitude of smart home accessory makers have signed up to adopt Matter, including Amazon, ASSA ABLOY, Comcast, Espressif Systems, Eve Systems, Grundfos Holding A/S, Huawei, Infineon Technologies, LEEDARSON, Legrand, Nanoleaf, and others.

The first reviews have surfaced for Apple's new Studio Display, and one common point among reviewers was that the built-in webcam's image quality ranges anywhere from an "old BlackBerry" to downright "awful" in their hands-on testing.

The Studio Display features a 12-megapixel Ultra Wide front camera that can be used for the likes of FaceTime and Zoom calls. While the camera is a welcomed addition compared to the webcam-less Pro Display XDR, reviewers have criticized the image quality.

The Wall Street Journal's Joanna Stern:

You can understand why I anticipated that the Studio Display's webcam would be the GOAT (Greatest of All Time). With a 12-megapixel camera and the A13 Bionic chip, it should be on par with the front-facing camera of an iPhone 11 Pro.

Yet Apple's camera consistently produced grainy and washed-out images. There was so much missing detail in some of the shots that it reminded me of the camera on my old BlackBerry. On the plus side: No one could see my frizzy hair.

The Verge's Nilay Patel:

The bad part is that I have no idea what's going on with this webcam. Apple has a long history of producing amazing images with 12 megapixel sensors and A-series chips, and for some reason this thing just looks awful.

Actually, it looks awful in good light, and downright miserable in low light. I've tried it connected to the Mac Studio and on my MacBook Pro running macOS 12.3, and on both machines it produces a grainy, noisy image with virtually no detail. I tried it in FaceTime, in Zoom, in Photo Booth, in QuickTime – you name it, it's the same sad image quality. Turning off the Center Stage feature that follows you around the room doesn't help. Turning portrait mode on and off doesn't help.

In response to inquiries about the webcam's quality, an Apple spokesperson told both Stern and Patel that Apple "discovered an issue where the system is not behaving as expected" and will be "making improvements in a software update." Apple did not specify what the "improvements" will be made, and no timeframe was provided for the update.

We've rounded up reviews of both the Studio Display and the Mac Studio for those interested in a hands-on look at both new products.

First impressions of the Apple Studio Display have now been shared by select media outlets and YouTubers, providing a closer look at Apple's latest standalone display. Reviewers praised some aspects such as the display's built-in speaker and microphone setup, while others felt that "the Studio Display in its current state is a confounding miss."

Priced starting at $1,599, the Studio Display is Apple's first new external display since the 2019 Pro Display XDR. It features a 27-inch 5K Retina display with up to 600 nits brightness, P3 Wide color, True Tone, one Thunderbolt port, three USB-C ports, a built-in A13 Bionic chip, a three-microphone array, a 12-megapixel f/2.4 Ultra Wide camera with Center Stage, and a six-speaker sound system with support for Spatial Audio.

An angle-adjustable stand is included in the price of the display, but for an extra $400, there is a tilt and height-adjustable stand, and a VESA mount adapter option that lets the display be used in portrait or landscape orientation. There is also a $300 upgrade for nano-texture glass that minimizes glare in workspaces with bright lighting.

Design

Reviewers generally admired the slim, all-aluminum design of the Studio Display. Gizmodo's Phillip Tracy highlighted the Studio Display's passive cooling design elements and criticized the display's rubbber feet:

On the top are vent holes for passive cooling; the rear panel got warm during my testing but never reached concerning temps.

Like those on the Mac Studio, the Studio Display's rubber pads failed to keep the monitor planted to my wooden desk. It slid around as I inserted or disconnected cables from the rear I/O.

Display Quality

CNBC's Kif Leswing felt that the display quality was adequate but unimpressive:

The picture quality on the Studio Display is good, but it won't blow you away. I like that text is nice and sharp thanks to the extra pixels, so people who read on their computer for hours per day might want to consider it. And while it might seem expensive, it's a lot less than the Pro Display XDR Apple also sells, which costs $4,999 before you add in the $1,000 stand.

The Verge's Nilay Patel criticized the Studio Display's lack of HDR and ProMotion:

The real issue is that $1,599 is a lot of money, and here it's buying you panel tech that is woefully behind the curve. Compared to Apple's other displays across the Mac, iPhone, and iPad lineup, the Studio Display is actually most notable for the things it doesn't have.

[...]

The Studio Display is also notable for being an SDR display, with no HDR modes to speak of. Apple's high-end iPhones, iPads, and Mac laptops all support HDR, but the Studio Display tops out at 600 nits, and Apple doesn’t offer a HDR mode in the software at all. Again, this comes back to the ancient backlight tech: true HDR requires local dimming, and the Studio Display doesn’t have it.

The Studio Display also only offers a 60Hz refresh rate, which is both bog-standard and also woefully behind Apple’s other top-tier products like the iPhone 13 Pro, iPad Pro, and MacBook Pro...

Tracy was similarly disappointed at the lack of true blacks due to the Studio Display's LCD panel:

Keep in mind that this is a standard IPS panel so you won't get the perfect black levels found on an OLED screen nor do you get HDR support for greater contrast. I placed the HP Spectre x360 16's OLED display side-by-side with the Studio Display and my eyes were drawn to the laptop. Blacks on the monitor looked dark gray in comparison, and the colors didn’t have the same wet paint-like saturation to them as those on the Spectre. I also wouldn't use the Studio Display as a gaming monitor considering the measly 60Hz refresh rate. That's standard for a screen of this resolution, but part of me was hoping Apple could find a way to add ProMotion.

The specifications of the display were consistently flagged as disappointments by reviewers given the Studio Display's price point.

Microphones and Speakers

Patel praised the Studio Display's built-in microphone and speaker setup:

Let's start with the good stuff: the mic and speakers sound great. Really, really great. You can adjust the three-mic array to do voice isolation or not in Control Center, and you'll sound as good or better on calls as any conference mics I've ever heard... The speakers are loud and deep, and while I am not entirely convinced that spatial audio in music is anything but a gimmick and even less convinced that anything like "spatial" audio can be produced by a stereo speaker system located in front of you, Apple is certainly processing its heart out here — if you play an Atmos clip you'll hear some dramatic swooshing about, which is always fun. These are the best built-in speakers I've ever heard.

TechRadar's Matt Hanson praised the microphones, but found the Studio Display's support for Spatial Audio less impressive:

The spatial audio support was less impressive. We tried a few tracks in Dolby Atmos and didn't really feel like the sound was coming from around us. Virtualized surround sound is always a challenge to get right, and can never compare to physical speaker setups, and that's true with the Studio Display, unfortunately.

Tracy likewise lauded the speaker setup, saying that "the sound quality is better than anything I've ever heard out of a monitor." TechCrunch's Brian Heater said that while the microphone setup is marketed as "studio quality," for users "planning to do much more than just webconferencing, I'd recommend plugging an external mic into one of the aforementioned ports."

Camera

A major area of concern among reviewers was the built-in 12-megapixel camera. Patel said that "the Studio Display's headline webcam feature works so badly that it's virtually unusable."

Apple has a long history of producing amazing images with 12-megapixel sensors and A-series chips, and for some reason this thing just looks awful.

Actually, it looks awful in good light, and downright miserable in low light... it produces a grainy, noisy image with virtually no detail. I tried it in FaceTime, in Zoom, in Photo Booth, in QuickTime – you name it, it's the same sad image quality. Turning off the Center Stage feature that follows you around the room doesn’t help. Turning portrait mode on and off doesn’t help.

Our rule has always been to review products based on what we have in front of us and never against the promise of a future software update, and based on what I have in front of me, I simply wouldn’t want to use this camera. The cameras on the new MacBook Pro and M1 iMac are far superior to what we're seeing here, and an iPhone front camera is even better still. I'm hopeful Apple will improve things via software in the future, but I would not spend $1,599 on this display until that actually happens.

Other reviewers generally agreed with the disappointing results from the built-in webcam, with Heater commenting:

...the image is a surprising step down from recent M1 Macs. The white balance is off and there's more image noise. My first instinct was to try to peel away a protective film I might have left on by accident, but to no avail. That's just how the image is now — a pretty huge disappointment for a monitor that starts at $1,599.

The Wall Street Journal's Joanna Stern agreed:

With a 12-megapixel camera and the A13 Bionic chip, it should be on par with the front-facing camera of an iPhone 11 Pro.

Yet Apple’s camera consistently produced grainy and washed-out images. There was so much missing detail in some of the shots that it reminded me of the camera on my old BlackBerry.

Tracy similarly found the camera to be "fine" but "noisy." Apple told multiple publications that improvements to the Studio Display's camera would be coming in a software update, but it is unclear exactly what aspect of the reviewers' complaints this update pertains to or when it will be released.

Stands and Nano-Texture Option

Patel noted that the "$300 nanotexture option smudges easily and is hard to clean," while Tracy criticized the Studio Display's stand options:

The Studio Display inexplicably lacks height adjustment. For that, you need to pay an extra $400 for a completely different stand. Perhaps Apple thinks some folks won't need it; whatever the case, a height-adjustable stand should be table stakes at the base price. To make matters worse, the stand options aren't interchangeable, meaning what you buy is what you get. What you can do with the standard stand is tilt the screen from -5 degrees to 25 degrees, which was more effective in providing an optimal viewing angle than I had anticipated. That said, if, like me, you need to stretch your legs and stand at various times throughout the workday, then prepare to spend extra or go with a VESA mount.

Hanson said that "it's these kinds of 'hidden' extra costs that try a lot of peoples' patience when it comes to Apple."

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Apple's all-new Mac Studio desktop computer launches this Friday. Ahead of time, the first reviews and unboxing videos for the Mac Studio have surfaced, providing us with a closer look at the machine and its companion Studio Display.

Performance

While the Mac Studio resembles a larger Mac mini, it is far more powerful. The computer can be configured with the same M1 Max chip available for the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro, or the new M1 Ultra chip, which features a 20-core CPU, up to a 64-core GPU, and a 32-core Neural Engine. With the M1 Ultra chip, the Mac Studio has faster performance than a 28-core Mac Pro tower released in December 2019.

Specifically, the Mac Studio has earned a multi-core score of around 23,500 to 24,000 in many Geekbench 5 results, compared to an average multi-core score of 19,956 for the Mac Pro with a 28-core Intel Xeon W processor. This is especially impressive given that the Mac Studio with the M1 Ultra chip starts at $3,999, while a Mac Pro tower configured with a 28-core processor is over three times more expensive at $12,999.

The Verge's Monica Chin:

My first stop was Becca Farsace, our video director who edited the entire video review of the Mac Studio and Studio Display (which you should go watch if you haven't already) on our Studio unit. I watched her work in Premiere and Media Encoder for hours, and even to my amateur eyes, it was clear that the Studio was flying. It was miles better than our two-year-old Mac Pro (which Becca uses for most of her work) at basically everything.

Becca was able to play 4K, 10-bit 4:2:2 footage from a Sony FX3 at full resolution in Adobe Premiere Pro at 4x speed with no proxies. It was lightning fast. On any other machine, she'd have had to be in half-resolution at most. There was also no lag between hitting the spacebar and stopping playback when playing footage at 2x or 4x speed, something she finds to be a big annoyance on the Mac Pro.

Connectivity

On the back of the Mac Studio, connectivity options include four Thunderbolt 4 ports, two USB-A ports, one HDMI port, one 10-Gigabit Ethernet port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack with support for high-impedance headphones. On the front, there is an SD card slot, along with two USB-C ports for M1 Max configurations or two Thunderbolt 4 ports for M1 Ultra configurations. The computer supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0.

Six Colors' Jason Snell:

But that may be the point: this is a computer designed to be used, not to be looked at as a piece of art. When you choose to stick ports on the front of a computer—hey everybody, Apple put ports on the front!!—you are choosing function over form. That's the story of the Mac Studio.

Apple hasn't skimped on the Mac Studio when it comes to what a certain portion of its customer base wants—connectivity. I used the SD card on the front of the Mac Studio twice on the very first day I had it connected. I also plugged a keyboard into that front USB port. (My test unit was an M1 Max model, so those front ports were USB-C; on models with the M1 Ultra chip, they’re full-fledged Thunderbolt 4.)

And then there's the full array of ports on the back: Four Thunderbolt 4, two USB-A, HDMI, a headphone jack, and 10Gb Ethernet. While I didn't fill up all of those ports, I did transfer an array of cables and adapters from the back of my iMac Pro to the Mac Studio and didn't have to dig out a single adapter or find a USB hub to accommodate them.

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