Apple may generate most of its revenue from smartphones and services like its App Store and Apple Music streaming service, but this week, the company focused on Macs.
On Tuesday, Apple unveiled a new lineup of MacBook Pro laptops that come with more processing power than ever. But arguably the laptop’s biggest improvement is a new butterfly keyboard that is supposed to be free of the defects that caused keys to stick or stop working in previous models.
However, brace yourself for the price, at least for the top-end MacBook Pro that comes with Intel Core i9 processor and 32GB of memory. It costs an eye-popping $6,500.
This is Fortune’s latest roundup of the biggest Apple news. Here’s last week’s roundup.
Apple’s week also included a lot of talk about how Apple will be affected by the U.S.-China trade war. And with the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) approaching, a number of rumors about software improvements in 2019 have already emerged.
Read on for more on that and other big headlines from Apple’s past week:
- Apple this week updated its MacBook Pro lineup, creating what the company called its “fastest Mac notebook ever.” The MacBook Pros have the same designs as previous models, but they have all-new internal components, including a new Intel Core i9 processor and up to 32GB of RAM. Apple said its more-powerful MacBook Pro boosts performance by 40% compared to the previous generation. Prices on the 13- and 15-inch versions start at $1,799 and $2,399, respectively. But if you max out the specs on the 15-inch version, get ready to spend $6,500.
- Apple’s new MacBook Pros have an improved butterfly keyboard, the company said this week. Apple’s butterfly keyboard, which gets its name from the “winged” design under the keys that flap when you tap a key, has had problems for years. Apple apologized last year and this week offered free replacement for faulty butterfly keyboards in any Mac.
- The company’s magazine-subscription service Apple News+ got a boost this week with a new feature that lets users follow their favorite publications and automatically download new magazine issues to their iPhones. Those issues will also be available offline for viewing on an airplane or anywhere else without wireless service. Apple News+ costs $10 monthly and includes access to hundreds of magazines and newspapers.
- Just weeks ahead of Apple’s WWDC developer event, a graphic designer has published concept art for the new software features Apple may be planning for iOS 13. The artist, Alvaro Pabesio, took cues from a report earlier this month about Apple’s iOS 13 updates and created art showing how they may work. In the past, designers have developed similar concept art based on rumors that ended up being similar to the real thing.
- Want to know how bad the U.S.-China trade war could get for Apple? Goldman Sachs analysts told investors this week that if the trade war escalates and China bans iPhone sales, Apple’s global profits could drop as much as 29%. So far, however, China hasn’t signaled a plan to ban iPhones.
- Apple signed an agreement with U.K. consumer watchdog group U.K. Competition and Markets Authority to inform users when an iOS update will hurt iPhone performance. The watchdog group criticized Apple last year for issuing an iPhone software update that could slow down the smartphone’s performance in times when battery performance was low.
One more thing…Looking to find a way to attract and keep young talent in your business? A new study from Apple service provider Jamf found that two-thirds of college students want to be able to choose the computers they’ll use in their jobs. And 71% of them would choose a Mac.
