Apple on Tuesday launched a refreshed version of the Mac Mini — its compact desktop computer, building upon the unveiling of the 24-inch iMac M4 a day before. The new Mac Mini is offered in two chipset options: M4 and M4 Pro, with the latter being a new introduction. The M4 variant is claimed to deliver up to 1.7 times faster performance than the Mac Mini M1. Meanwhile, the new M4 Pro-powered desktop computer can complete 3D renders up to 2.9 times quicker in Blender.

Mac Mini With M4 Chip Price in India

The price for the the Mac Mini with M4 chip in India starts at Rs. 59,900 for the base model which comes with a 10-core CPU, a 10-core GPU, 16GB of unified memory, and 256GB of onboard SSD storage. This model can be configured with up to 24GB of RAM and 512GB of storage.

Meanwhile, the Mac Mini with the M4 Pro chip costs Rs. 1,49,900 for the 12-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 24GB of unified memory and 512GB of onboard SSD storage. Apple says users can customise the Mac Mini with up to a 14-core CPU, up to 20-core GPU, up to 64GB of unified memory, and up to 8TB of SSD storage.

There’s also an option for adding 10-bit Gigabit Ethernet on both models that costs Rs. 10,000 more. The new Mac Mini can be pre-ordered today from Apple Stores and Apple authorised retailers, with shipping starting on November 8.

Mac Mini With M4 Chip Specifications

Mac Mini with M4 chip features a 10-core CPU, a 10-core GPU, up to 24GB of unified memory, and up to 512GB of onboard SSD storage. Apple says it offers up to 1.8 times CPU and up to 2.2 times GPU performance improvements over the M1 model. At 5×5 inches, the refreshed Mac Mini also comes in a much smaller form factor compared to the previous generation. It is capable of transcribing with on-device artificial intelligence (AI) speech-to-text up to 2 times faster in MacWhisper, as per the company.

Apple also introduced an even more powerful variant of the Mac Mini which is powered by an all-new M4 Pro chipset under the hood. It comprises of up to a 14-core CPU, up to a 20-core GPU, up to 64GB of unified memory and up to 8TB of SSD storage. When compared to the M2 Pro Mac Mini, this model is claimed to render motion graphics to RAM up to 2 times faster in Motion.

Both Mac Mini models come with support for Apple Intelligence — the company’s suite of AI features. In terms of connectivity, it includes two USB Type-C ports with USB 3 speeds and a 3.5mm headphone jack on the front. On the back, the Mac Mini M4 gets three Thunderbolt 4 ports while the M4 Pro variant has three Thunderbolt 5 ports. Both models feature Gigabit Ethernet and an HDMI port.

Apple says this is its first carbon-neutral Mac Mini made with 50 percent recycled content overall, including 100 percent recycled aluminium in the enclosure, 100 percent recycled gold plating in all Apple-designed printed circuit boards, and 100 percent recycled rare earth elements in all magnets.

Microsoft reached a deal with News Corp.’s HarperCollins that will allow the software company to use nonfiction titles from the book publisher to train its artificial intelligence models, according to a person familiar with the matter. 

Microsoft wants the HarperCollins books for a model that it hasn’t yet announced, according to the person, who asked not to be identified discussing plans that aren’t public. The company isn’t planning to use the content to generate new books without human authors, the person said. Microsoft declined to comment.

In a statement to Bloomberg News, HarperCollins confirmed it reached an agreement with an unidentified AI technology company that would “allow limited use of select nonfiction backlist titles for training AI models to improve model quality and performance.”

HarperCollins authors will have the option to participate or not, the company said.

“Part of our role is to present authors with opportunities for their consideration while simultaneously protecting the underlying value of their works and our shared revenue and royalty streams,” HarperCollins said. “This agreement, with its limited scope and clear guardrails around model output that respects author’s rights, does that.”

Technology companies use an array of data, from social-media sites to news articles, to train AI models, and companies like Microsoft are hunting for additional sources of high-quality text that they can license to make their programs more accurate, better able to answer questions or provide expertise on specific subjects. 

News Corp. signed an agreement in May with OpenAI to let the company use content from more than a dozen of its publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Barron’s and MarketWatch. OpenAI has also signed licensing deals with publishers including Axel Springer SE, the Atlantic, Vox Media, Dotdash Meredith Inc., Hearst Communications Inc. and Time magazine. Microsoft has worked on AI initiatives with Reuters, Hearst and Axel Springer, which publishes Business Insider and Politico. 

Some publishers have taken issue with AI companies pulling in content without permission. The New York Times is suing OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging copyright infringement. Perplexity AI, another AI startup, has faced similar lawsuits. 

© 2024 Bloomberg LP

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Halo and developer 343 Industries are resetting, with some foundational changes coming to the iconic franchise. All future Halo games will be developed in Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5, with multiple new projects currently in development, 343 Industries announced Sunday. Marking a “new chapter” for the series, the Microsoft-owned new studio is also rebranding to Halo Studios, bringing in widespread changes to its functioning.

Multiple Halo Games in Development

At Halo World Championship, 343 debuted new Halo footage rendered in Unreal Engine 5, showing off three different environments and series protagonist Master Chief. The footage, 343 said, is not from a Halo game in development, but part of a “Foundry” project that will serve as a foundation for future Halo games.

The studio confirmed the multiple Halo games, built in Unreal Engine 5, were in development, but stopped short of providing any timelines for those titles. 343 last worked on Halo Infinite, which launched in 2021.

Halo environments rendered in Unreal Engine 5
Photo Credit: Microsoft/ Halo Studios

Switch to Unreal Engine 5

In addition to the changes coming to Halo, 343 announced that it was reorganising and changing its name to Halo Studios to reflect the new beginning for the franchise. With a switch to Unreal Engine, the developer will focus more on crafting games instead of spending time on refining their own Slipspace Engine.

“Respectfully, some components of Slipspace are almost 25 years old,” Chris Matthews, art director at the studio, said in an Xbox Wire post. “Although 343 were developing it continuously, there are aspects of Unreal that Epic has been developing for some time, which are unavailable to us in Slipspace – and would have taken huge amounts of time and resources to try and replicate,” he added.

343, now Halo Studios, intends to shorten development times for future projects. The developer said it had to allocate a sizable portion of its staff to develop and fine-tune the Slipspace engine on previous projects. “On Halo Infinite, we were developing a tech stack that was supposed to set us up for the future, and games at the same time,” studio head Pierre Hintze said.

The developer is also reorganising and expanding, setting up multiple teams to work on different Halo games simultaneously. While the Project Foundry footage sets the tone for what’s to come, don’t expect a Halo game to launch soon. Hintze said the studio will talk about the games in time.

“We should talk about things when we have things to talk about, at scale,” he said. “Today, it’s the first step – we’re showing Foundry because it feels right to do so – we want to explain our plans to Halo fans, and attract new, passionate developers to our team. The next step will be talking about the games themselves.”

Samsung Galaxy A55 was launched in India in March this year alongside the Galaxy A35 5G. They run on Android 14-based One UI 6.1 out-of-the-box. They are slated to get four generations of Android OS upgrades and five years of security updates. Samsung is expected to introduce its One UI 7 software update based on the latest Android 15 next year. Now, the Galaxy A55 has been spotted on a benchmarking website with the Android 15 update, well before Samsung has rolled out its One UI 7 beta.

Samsung Galaxy A55 Geekbench Listing Details

The Samsung Galaxy A55 with the model number Samsung SM-A556E has surfaced on Geekbench. The listing reveals that the phone is running on Android 15. Like all Samsung models, the phone will come with a One UI skin on top. The handset scores 1,161 and 3,369 points on the single-core and multi-core tests, respectively.

It’s worth noting that the upcoming flagship Samsung Galaxy S25 series of smartphones will likely be the first ones from the company to get the stable version of the Android 15-based One UI 7. The Samsung Galaxy A55 will likely be one of the first mid-range phones to get the update. 

Samsung Galaxy A55 Features, Price in India

The Samsung Galaxy A55 comes with a 6.6-inch full-HD+ Super AMOLED display with up to 120Hz refresh rate, 1,000 nits of peak brightness, and Gorilla Glass Victus+ protection. It is powered by a 4nm in-house Exynos 1480 SoC paired with up to 12GB of RAM and up to 256GB of onboard storage.

Samsung’s Galaxy A55 is backed by a 5,000mAh battery with support for 25W wired fast charging. For optics, it has a triple rear camera unit including a 50-megapixel primary sensor with OIS, a 12-megapixel sensor with an ultra-wide-angle lens, and a 5-megapixel macro shooter. It carries a 32-megapixel front camera sensor.

The price of the 8GB + 128GB option of the Samsung Galaxy A55 starts in India at Rs. 39,999, while the 8GB + 256GB and 12GB + 256GB variants are marked in the country at Rs. 42,999 and Rs. 45,999, respectively. It is offered in Awesome Iceblue and Awesome Navy colourways.

Apple has refreshed its MacBook Pro lineup with its latest M4 chips, the 3nm processor that first made its debut on this year’s iPad Pro earlier this year and eventually made its way to the iMac 24-inch (2024) and Mac mini (2024) models that were unveiled earlier this week. The new MacBook Pro models are powered by M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max chips, and are available in 14-inch and 16-inch display models along with support for ray tracing as well as Apple Intelligence, which began rolling out to users in the US on Monday.

MacBook Pro (2024) Price in India, Availability

MacBook Pro (2024) price in India starts at Rs. 1,69,999 for the base model which is equipped with an M4 chip and a 14-inch screen. It is also available with the same display and an M4 Pro chip that is priced at Rs. 1,99,900.

The new MacBook Pro model is claimed to offer up to 24 hours of battery life
Photo Credit: Apple

Meanwhile, the MacBook Pro (2024) is also available with a 16-inch display and an M4 Pro chip, and this variant will set you back by Rs. 2,49,900, while the M4 Max variant costs Rs. 3,49,900. The new MacBook Pro is available in Space Black and Silver colourways and will go on sale in India and global markets on November 8, via the company’s online store and authorised resellers.

MacBook Pro (2024) Specifications, Features

The newly launched MacBook Pro (2024) is powered by the company’s latest M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max chips. These 3nm processors are equipped with up to 14 CPU cores, up to 32 GPU cores, and up to 16 Neural Engine cores. Apple has equipped it with up to 48GB of RAM and up to 1TB of SSD storage, but it can be configured with up to 128GB of RAM and up to 8TB of storage.

Apple’s latest MacBook Pro is available with an M4 chip comprising a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU
Photo Credit: Apple

The laptop is equipped with 14.2-inch (3,024×1,964 pixels) and 16.2-inch (3,456×2,234 pixels) Liquid Retina XDR displays with a peak brightness of 1,600 nits (HDR) and a 120Hz refresh rate. The MacBook Pro (2024) is also available in an optional nano-texture display finish. It has a backlit keyboard with support for Touch ID, and a Force Touch trackpad. 

Connectivity options on the MacBook Pro (2024) include Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3,  Sensors on board the laptop include three Thunderbolt 5/ USB 4 ports, an HDMI port, a MagSafe 3 port, an SDXC card slot, and a 3.5mm audio jack. There’s a 12-megapixel camera with Centre Stage on the front, located inside the display notch.

Apple has equipped the 14-inch MacBook Pro (M4) with a 70Wh lithium polymer battery, while the M4 Pro and M4 Max pack a larger 72.4Wh battery — these can be charged at 70W. The 16-inch model has a 100Wh battery, which supports 140W wired charging. The company says the new MacBook Pro offers up to 24 hours of battery life, on a single charge, for video playback.

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