GoKawiil
Tech News
Amazon and other retailers have posted the first-ever discount on Apple's newly announced M5 Max Mac Studio, even before units begin shipping this month. The same roundup includes lingering post-Labor Day pricing on AirPods Pro 3 at $50 off, a return of the $20-per-unit AirTag 2 deal, $100 off the base 2026 Studio Display, and $150 off the 15-inch M5 MacBook Air.
Asahi Linux developers have officially declared support for Apple's M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max Macs, bringing them close to parity with earlier M1/M2 support—except for the Mac Studio M3 Ultra, which remains unsupported. Key limitations remain, including weak GPU acceleration, no sleep mode, and non-functional HDMI ports on M3 MacBooks due to missing DCP support.
Apple reportedly pushed up the release of its new Mac mini and Mac Studio models this week, months earlier than its usual autumn schedule, after enterprise demand for AI-capable desktop Macs exceeded expectations. The Information reports Apple emphasized the ability to cluster multiple Mac Studios together to run large AI models, a feature targeted at business and developer customers rather than consumers.
Apple's earlier-than-usual update to the Mac mini and Mac Studio was driven by unexpected demand from businesses using the machines to run AI models, according to The Information. The company touted the ability to cluster multiple Mac Studios for larger AI workloads, but reportedly lacks a dedicated enterprise engineering team or developer relations staff, and has declined requests from businesses to access its Private Cloud Compute infrastructure directly.
Apple revealed refreshed Mac mini and Mac Studio models about two weeks before its September 9 event instead of unveiling them on stage. According to The Information, the company moved up the announcement because demand for these machines for AI workloads exceeded expectations, leaving some configurations backordered for months.
A user ran Alibaba's new Qwen3.8 27B model locally on a Mac Studio M3 Ultra for 10 days, using it for daily tasks like summarizing RSS feeds and renaming scanned PDFs, then formally benchmarked it against its predecessor. The Q4_K_M version generated at about 14 tokens per second versus 28.6 tokens/s for Qwen3.6 27B, but produced answers using roughly a third as many tokens, making total response time nearly equal. A 1-bit quantized version ran much faster at 27 tokens/s and stayed factually accurate but struggled to commit to definitive answers.
Apple this week rolled out updated Mac mini and Mac Studio models and sent out official invitations for its September event, where the iPhone 18 Pro lineup is expected to debut. Reports also point to additional fall product announcements still to come, alongside a small round of layoffs affecting roughly 200 employees.
Following Apple's announcement of refreshed Mac Studio and Mac mini lineups with M6 and M5 Pro/Max/Ultra chips, retailers Amazon and Best Buy began accepting pre-orders the same day. Pricing starts at $899 for the base Mac mini and $2,499 for the Mac Studio, alongside an updated Magic Keyboard and a cheaper $9 Polishing Cloth.
Apple broke a decade-long pattern this week by quietly releasing updated Mac mini and Mac Studio models in late August, even though they won't ship until September 22. This timing suggests Apple needed to clear these updates off its plate before the September 9 'Surprise and shine' event, which is rumored to feature five to nine or more new products.
Apple's Mac Studio, available with M5 Max or the fused-together M5 Ultra chip, offers up to 80 GPU cores, 512GB of RAM and a 16TB SSD, along with more ports than the Mac mini, including four Thunderbolt 5 connections. The Mac mini starts at $899 and covers most everyday needs, while the Mac Studio starts at $2,499 and targets professionals with intensive workloads.
Apple kept the M5 Max Mac Studio's starting price at $2,499, but choosing the 40-core GPU option—listed as a $300 upgrade—automatically bumps memory from 32GB to 48GB, adding another $300. That makes the real cost of the GPU upgrade $600, not the $300 shown next to it. John Gruber flagged the discrepancy while tallying configuration prices for the new lineup.
The August 25, 2026 episode of 9to5Mac Daily podcast summarized the day's top Apple news, including the unveiling of a refreshed Mac mini and Mac Studio lineup. The episode is distributed through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play, and an RSS feed for players like Overcast.