Tim Cook teases another surprise Apple release this week

Macworld

Depending on who you ask, spring has arrived in the northern hemisphere. While we’re not expecting a full event, Apple has been rumored to release several key products in the spring timeframe, and as if on cue, Apple CEO Tim Cook kicked off the week with an animated post on X that read, “There’s something in the AIR,” the same tagline used by Steve Jobs to unveil the original MacBook Air at Macworld San Francisco in January 2008.




Clicking the image above will open Tim Cook’s post on X.Tim Cook/X

Cook’s post comes a day after Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that the release of the M4 MacBook Air is “imminent” and an announcement is coming “early as this coming week.” The new MacBook Air is expected to update its chip from an M3 to an M4, and perhaps upgrade the built-in camera to the same 12MP Center Stage camera that debuted with the M4 MacBook Pro, but no other major updates are expected. The M4 chip made its Mac debut in the MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and iMac last November.

A new M4 MacBook Air is basically a sure thing, but the “Air” tease could be referring to a new iPad Air release as well. Gurman states that there are “signs” that its launch is coming, but it “probably won’t come in the next few days.” Apple could also update the standard iPad at the same time. Several reports have stated that retail inventory for the iPad Air and 10th-gen iPad have dwindled in recent weeks.

The current iPad Air features an M2 chip and was released in May 2024, so an update would come less than a year later. That update added an M2 chip as well as a new 13-inch model. In January, Gurman reported that the new iPad Air could skip the M3 chip and feature an M4. Apple has had production issues with the M3 and reportedly wants to shift all production to the M4.

An update to the standard iPad would come nearly two and a half years after the current 10th-gen iPad, which received a major update in October 2022 with a new design that eliminated the home button, upgraded the rear camera, and moved the selfie cam to the landscape edge. The new model will likely feature an A17 Pro chip with 8GB of RAM, the same chipset in the iPad mini that allows it to run Apple Intelligence.