The M5 is nice but I’m more interested in what’s coming next

I guess we can hardly complain. Apple’s mid-October launches weren’t teased with overly designed invitations. They didn’t have pun-worthy slogans. They didn’t involve Apple executives doing ill-advised “sketches” and bouncing around on a virtual stage. In other words, they weren’t publicized as any event beyond a tease on social media the day before, and so the impartial observer wouldn’t expect them to be exciting.

And they certainly weren’t. What we got instead, via a press release rather than a press event, was a trio of what might be the most effective product refresh in history. The new MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and Vision Pro each got an all-new M5 processor and very little else: a comfortable new headband here, a C1X modem there, but nothing fundamental or revolutionary other than the chips.

Sometimes a simple refresh is just what a product line needs, and the powerful M5 is certainly worth it, even if you don’t share Apple’s obsession with AI. The last thing we want is for Apple to shy away from making necessary component changes because the company is ashamed to unveil a machine that hasn’t been completely redesigned. It feels like Apple fans have received more than their fair share of simple updates in recent years… but the iPhone Air earns quite a few radicalism points, so let’s give the company a little breathing room.

Still, my thoughts quickly shifted from these annoying but necessary updates to the other launches happening in the near future for Apple. And even after the September (iPhones, Apple Watches, AirPods Pro) and October launches, there’s still a lot more to come this fall and winter. This is what happens when you spend the rest of the year launching almost nothing.

The 2nd generation AirTag should be with us before long, iOS 26 code hints, and it looks like it will be more reliable at maintaining a Bluetooth connection than its predecessor. The new AirTag could have precision searching at a longer range and is expected to benefit from new battery features, although it’s unclear what that will entail. At the top of my wishlist would be a rechargeable battery, since replacing the watch battery in the first-generation AirTag is painful and potentially dangerous, but it’s more likely that we keep the battery size while increasing its longevity: perhaps up to two years. Insert speakers that are harder for stalkers to manipulate and it feels like a huge upgrade for one of Apple’s oldest accessories.

And what about the even older HomePod mini? I’m a big fan of the full-size HomePod, but the mini is even better and a much easier product to recommend. (Yes, the sound is lower, but you can get a stereo pair for less than a single big HomePod.) The problem is that it came out five years ago and hasn’t had an update since, other than new colors.

This long wait should be over soon, but what will the HomePod mini 2 have to offer? Since the first model’s biggest weakness is Siri’s infuriating imprecision, let’s hope it includes a chip capable of supporting Apple Intelligence, putting the HomePod mini in a position to benefit when Apple finally fixes its voice recognition technology. Improved wireless should also be on the cards, and potentially support for lossless high resolution. I would also vote for more colors, as HomePods are more suited to a decorative role than most other Apple devices. Orange is great, but I would love to see one in sage.

Finally, there’s a good chance we’ll see the next Apple TV model this fall. This is expected to feature an A17 Pro chip, a major upgrade over the current model’s A15 that will unlock the ability to play a much wider range of AAA games and add support for Apple Intelligence. Sure, it’s just one chip like the M5 devices, but it skips a generation for a more significant upgrade.

It’s interesting to compare these three launches, all from “lesser” product lines that Apple has rather neglected, with the flagship launches from earlier this month. The MacBook and iPad are at the forefront of Apple’s identity as a company, and the Vision Pro is its vision of the future. But the AirTag, HomePod mini, and Apple TV all seem poised for much deeper and more interesting changes. Perhaps this is precisely because they are updated less often, although the iPhone 17 and obviously the iPhone Air demonstrated last month that a product updated every year can still benefit from interesting new features.

It remains to be seen how Apple will present these new products: they will (probably) be (relatively) major developments, but products less capable of grabbing headlines.

It really feels like the company could have combined the big names of the M5 gang with the big changes from these other three products and turned the whole thing into a real event: start with the M5 (focusing on the MacBook Pro and iPad Pro, because I’m not sure anyone cares about the Vision Pro), then talk about the home products on the undercard. I would take the time to watch an event like that. But maybe everyone was busy. Or maybe they couldn’t find any good puns.

Foundry

Welcome to our weekly Apple Breakfast column, which includes all the Apple news you missed last week in one handy summary. We call it Apple Breakfast because we think it pairs really well with a Monday morning cup of coffee or tea, but it’s cool if you also want to read it during lunch or dinner hours.

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You can watch every episode of the Macworld Podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Soundcloud, the Podcasts app, or our own site.

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The rumor mill

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