New iPhone, iPad and ‘monster’ Mac chip unveiled at ‘Peek Performance’ event

Apple has hosted its first event of the year, unveiling a whole host of new products.

The company unveiled a brand new iPhone SE, an updated iPad Air, as well as a new Mac Studio and Display that features its latest “monster” M1 Ultra chip.

There was no announcements surrounding the Mac Pro, which Apple said was “for another day”.

All the latest products featured significant improvements in terms of specs, with both the iPhone SE and iPad Air featuring 5G capabilities.

The ‘Peek Performance’ event was live streamed on Apple’s website, which you can view at the top of our live coverage below.

Table of Contents

Key points

Russia blocked from streaming
M1 Ultra is ‘monster’ chip
Apple Mac Studio is ‘breakthrough in personal computing’
Everything announced at Apple event

Apple event live stream

17:51 , Anthony Cuthbertson

Hello and welcome…

12:04 , Andrew Griffin

… to The Independent’s live coverage of today’s Apple event.

Apple Store goes down ahead of event

12:07 , Andrew Griffin

As is traditional, Apple has taken its online store down ahead of the event.

It doesn’t give any indication what products are coming, but it does indicate that products of some kind are on their way. The store goes down to allow it to be updated, so there must be something new.

(It isn’t always a sure thing that those will be real physical products. At its event in March 2019, Apple didn’t announce any new products – instead revealing a host of updates to services.)

Russia unable to stream event

12:10 , Andrew Griffin

Apple has taken a number of steps to respond to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including cutting of sales of its products in the country. (Some have argued they were a bit belated, and also that selling products in Russia at all as an international company is difficult anyway given the fluctuations in the ruble.)

One of them is that they are seemingly freezing Russian people out from watching this event. Viewers in the country are unable to access the YouTube live stream, and journalists from the country have reportedly been left off the invitations.

What time is the event and how to watch it?

16:38 , Andrew Griffin

Here’s everything you need to know about following along tonight.

Apple boss Tim Cook tweets

17:29 , Anthony Cuthbertson

Tim Cook is yet to post his customary pre-event tweet, though he was up early tweeting about International Women’s Day.

“This #InternationalWomensDay we celebrate the women who are charting the course for a more equitable future, and recognize the rising generation of change-makers who follow in their path,” the Apple boss tweeted.

T-Minus 15 minutes

17:45 , Anthony Cuthbertson

Not long to go now.

We’ll have the live stream at the top of this feed as soon as it’s live.

Apple event live stream is here

18:01 , Anthony Cuthbertson

Apple’s live stream is up and running (pinned to the top of this blog) with some funky holding music and graphics. Neon Apple symbols, soundtracked by Feels like I’m Flying by Yeek.

Apple event is underway

18:02 , Anthony Cuthbertson

Apple boss Tim Cook is here, and we’re starting with Apple TV.

New Apple Original Films on their way

18:06 , Anthony Cuthbertson

A video montage takes a look back at past successes for Apple TV+, and a look forward at upcoming shows and films.

The big news here is the announcement of Friday Night Baseball on Apple TV+. They have the exclusive rights to two games every Friday.

iPhone 13 gets a makeover

18:08 , Anthony Cuthbertson

Onto the iPhone, and the introduction of “two gorgeous new finishes” for the iPhone 13, both of them green.

They’ll both be available from 13 March.

Apple A15 Bionic Chip coming to iPhone SE

18:11 , Anthony Cuthbertson

Apple’s A15 Bionic chip is coming to the new iPhone SE – the same chip featured in the iPhone 13.

“The A13 makes everything better”, offering a “monumental improvement for people upgrading”.

It’s apparently capable of 15 trillion operations per second.

More iPhone SE updates

18:13 , Anthony Cuthbertson

It comes with a 4.7-inch display and has the “toughest glass in a smartphone” on both the front and back.

It also features “even better battery life” and 5G connectivity.

iPhone SE 3 unveiled

18:14 , Anthony Cuthbertson

Apple reveals new, cheap iPhone

New iPhone SE specs

18:16 , Anthony Cuthbertson

Here’s a full rundown of all the specs of the new iPhone SE:

New iPhone SE price

18:17 , Anthony Cuthbertson

Apple’s cheapest iPhone is going to start at $429.

New iPad Air unveiled

18:20 , Anthony Cuthbertson

Apple has hopped from the iPhone SE to the iPad Air, which comes with a 12MP Ultra Wide front-facing camera aimed at improving video calls, as well as 5G connectivity.

The new iPad is also going to be powered by the M1 chip, the same one found in the iPad Pro.

This makes it “2-times faster than the best-selling Windows laptop in its price range”.

New iPad Air price and availability

18:24 , Anthony Cuthbertson

iPad Air price starting at $599, coming in 64GB and 256GB configurations and six colours.

Pre-orders start on Friday.

New iPad Air specs

18:26 , Anthony Cuthbertson

Here’s a rundown of the latest Apple iPad Air specs:

Apple introduces ‘monster of a chip’ for Mac

18:27 , Anthony Cuthbertson

Apple’s John Ternus is now here to tell us all about the Apple Mac.

There’s an all new chip for the Mac, the M1 Ultra, which John describes as a “monster of a chip”.

M1 Ultra chip has more transistors than any other commercial chip

18:31 , Anthony Cuthbertson

The M1 Ultra chip features 114 billion transistors, which is apparently more than any other commercial computer chip.

Here’s how it looks compared to its predecessors:

M1 Ultra ‘monster’ chip

18:32 , Anthony Cuthbertson

You can read more about the M1 Ultra chip here:

Apple reveals ‘monster’ chip to power its computers

M1 Ultra chip specs

18:33 , Anthony Cuthbertson

Here’s a rundown of the specs for the M1 Ultra chip:

Apple unveils Mac Studio and Studio Display

18:39 , Anthony Cuthbertson

Apple says this is a “breakthrough in personal computing”.

Here’s what it looks like:

Apple Mac Studio ports and performance

18:44 , Anthony Cuthbertson

It comes with four Thunderbolt 4 ports, an HDMI port, two USB ports on the back and two USBC ports on the front – oh, and a headphone jack.

With the M1 Ultra, it’s up to 60% faster than the Mac Pro in terms of CPU performance.

There is up to 128GB of unified memory for “enormous graphics tasks”, and 8TB of SSD capacity.

Apple Mac Studio specs

18:48 , Anthony Cuthbertson

Here’s a rundown of the “game-changing” specs of the “unprecedented” Mac Studio.

New Mac Studio and Display is Apple’s ‘most powerful computer’

18:53 , Anthony Cuthbertson

You can read more about the new Apple Mac Studio and Display here:

Apple has revealed its most powerful computer ever

Apple Studio Display specs

18:54 , Anthony Cuthbertson

And here’s a rundown of the specs for the Apple Studio Display:

Mac Studio and Display price and availability

18:57 , Anthony Cuthbertson

The Mac Studio starts at $1,999, and $3,999 with the M1 Ultra chip. The price of the Mac Studio Display is $1,599.

Both will be available for pre-order this Friday.

Mac Pro ‘for another day’

18:57 , Anthony Cuthbertson

That looks like it’s all for today in terms of new products, with Apple saying that updates for the Mac Pro are “for another day”.

First Apple event of the year comes to a close

18:59 , Anthony Cuthbertson

Yep, that’s it. Tim Cook is back, but only to say goodbye.

Bye Tim.

Apple event: Everything announced

20:05 , Anthony Cuthbertson

Thanks for joining us for today’s event. You can read more about all the announcements through the links below.

Mac Studio and Display: Apple reveals its most powerful computer in new form

Apple reveals M1 Ultra, a ‘monster’ chip that is its most powerful processor yet

Apple unveils updated iPad Air

iPhone SE gets huge boost with new chip and 5G support