10 Things that Make Apple's New Mac Pro Unlike Any Other Computer

The anticipated Mac Pro will hit the market sometime in December following a queue of new Apple products including new iPhone 5 models (released in September), a new line of MacBook Pro laptops with 13-inch and 15-inch Retina displays (released last week), and the iPad Air going on sale Friday, November 1. After unveiling the computer at WWDC in San Francisco back in June, much has been said about the 'revolutionary' design and performance of the new Mac Pro. But some wonder whether the 1TB storage cap (an optional upgrade from 256GB in the base model) will limit power users in the long term.

Apple says the new Mac Pro is 'built for creativity on an epic scale,' so let's look at 10 points that make the Mac Pro unique.

1. Design

Let's start with design since it's no doubt the first thing you notice about the new Mac Pro. The overall cylinder shape of the Mac Pro resembles more a subwoofer than a PC tower. Some have called the design 'space age,' while others (including my Apple-hating friends) just sort of laugh at the 'roundness' of it. In either case, Apple has attempted to combine a fresh exterior design with a new approach to cooling the high performing computer. (See more on cooling below.)

2. 4k Support

Apple is really looking forward on this one. While 4k video is barely supported because of its write-speed requirements and sheer storage demands, that doesn't stop Apple from designing this beast to handle up to three (yes three) 4k video monitors. High end videographers might consider the Black Magic 4k camera coupled with the Mac Pro a dream set up.

3. PCIe-based Flash Storage

Like the new MacBook Pros introduced last week, the Mac Pro upgrades the hard drive from Serial ATA (with optional 512GB SSDs) to new PCIe-based flash. The PCIe storage is rated up to 2.4 times faster than the fastest SATA-based solid-state drive, running at 1200MB/s compared to 500MB/s with a SATA drive. The Mac Pro will offer up to 1TB of storage.

4. Thunderbolt 2

Thunderbolt 2, a technology from Intel that's new to the consumer market, incorporates PCI Express with DisplayPort 1.2. The technology (combined with 6 ports capable of up to 6 daisy-chained devices each) will allow you, theoretically ,to connect up to 36 external devices. Now wouldn't that be fun? And, Thunderbolt 2 enables up to 20Gbps of bandwidth to each external device.

5. RAM memory

The Mac Pro will handle up to 64GB of RAM memory. Compare that to the current Mac Pro that caps out at 30GB. Bandwidth is also doubled, with a four-channel DDR3 memory controller running at 1866MHz. 64GB is a whole lot of Random Access Memory.

6. Unified Thermal Core

Instead of using multiple heat sinks and fans for cooling down the Mac Pro, a single piece of extruded aluminum maximizes airflow and thermal capacity. (See pic.) By design, heat is conducted away from the processor and graphics cards and distributed evenly across the core. As a result, extra thermal capacity can be shared among the processors even among those not being used. This is a unique Apple design that has not been mass produced before.

7. A Single Fan

What's also unique about the Mac Pro is a single large fan. The fan pulls new air from the bottom of the unit, taking heated air through the core and out of the top of the unit. In a sense, the Mac Pro works like a portable air filter (and even looks like one), working from the bottom up. The large fan is also quiet for its size. Apple specs the acoustic level of the fan in idle mode at 12dBA.

8. Dual GPUs

The Mac Pro boasts dual AMD FirePro workstation-class GPUs. Each of the graphic processing units are available with dedicated vRAM in 2GB, 3GB, or 6GB configurations with up to 2048 stream processors. Apple rates the GPU performance at up to 7 teraflops compared to the last Mac Pro performing up to 2.7 teraflops. The dual GPUs also provide enough power to connect up to three 4k displays, as mentioned above, while doing graphics-intensive tasks.

9. Price

Why is the Mac Pro unique in price? Consider the basic cost of the Quad-Core Dual GPU 'tower' will be $2,999. Think about the PC tower you can build for $3k! But the Mac Pro is meant for specific audience with high demands in performance. That audience may want to throw in a 27-inch Thunderbolt display ($999), and Blackmagic 4k production camera ($3,995) for a really nice video setup for under $10k. (Of course lenses will be extra.)

You'll also be able to get the Mac Pro with 6-core 3.5GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon E5 processor. That option, at $3,999, includes 16GB 1866MHz DDR3 ECC memory, Dual AMD FirePro D500 with 3GB GDDR5 VRAM each, and 256GB PCIe-based flash storage.

10. Annoyingly Different

Apple has had some really creative designs for computers over years that we may look back at with a smile: the G4 Cube (cool because you could stack them); the original rounded iMac (remember the 'Flower Power' design?); the rounded mouse that came with the iMac (oh why did it take so long for Apple mice to right-click?); and even the upcoming iWatch (heh heh, look out Samsung). And while they have broken ground on product designs, in retrospect they can be annoyingly different. Apple calls the new Mac Pro 'something radically different from anything before it.' While some Apple fans may disagree, the Mac Pro may go down in history books with the previous exploratory designs of the Apple products mentioned above. The previous Mac Pro model (see pic below) was really solid. So why change it?

Meet Google's New Nexus 5 Phone and KitKat

Google showed off its new Android version 4.4 (or KitKat) operating system, running on a new flagship phone, the Nexus 5. Google uses its Nexus line to show off its new operating systems, and the device and OS are reflections of each other. Seen together, they reveal a Google that is boundlessly ambitious and aiming to take on the world with the things only it can do.

Sundar Pichai, who runs Android and Chrome for Google, says that KitKat has three major themes, which can be summarized as growth, design, and smarts. After crossing the billion activations mark, it now wants an operating system that works for the 'next' billion people with Android devices. It wants something that's beautiful and design-forward that's pleasant to look at and intuitive to use. And it wants the experience of the phone to take advantage of what Google can do. All of these are major themes of the Nexus 5 as well.

Let's start with the phone. The Nexus 5, developed with LG, has one driving purpose, which is to serve as a showcase for the operating system. To do that it needs to be something you want to use all the time, every day. Google mostly pulled this off. The phone is nice and light at 4.59 ounces. The specs are also solid. It has a 4.95-inch 1920 x 1080 HD display that has a 445 ppi pixel density, made from Corning Gorilla Glass 3. For taking images rather than viewing them, it has a 1.3 MP front-facing cam and 8MP rear camera. There's a 2.26 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 CPU, 2 GB RAM, dual band Wi-Fi, NFC, and Bluetooth 4. All the stuff you'd expect. There are also nice extra touches as well, like an optical image stabilization feature lets you take sharp photos even with a shaky hand - this worked very well when we tried it out. To reach those next billion users, it's launching in 10 countries, designed to run globally on all manner of networks. There is one model designed for North America, and another for the rest of the world. The Nexus 5 goes on sale today. Without a contract, the 16 GB model costs $349, and the 32 GB model is $399.

In terms of pure aesthetics, The Nexus 5 is very nice looking, but not striking in the way that, say, the HTC One or Gold iPhone 5S are. You can get it in white or black. There are no buttons across the bottom to add clutter. The logo melts into the backside. It's not going to make people notice it, but it's pleasant to look at.

Likewise, KitKat's design has some pleasant features to help you make it prettier, and make it your own. You can rearrange your home screens (not just the apps on them, but the order of the screens themselves)-Google cited maybe having a weekday and weekend setup as a reason you may want to do this. When you're playing music, the entire lockscreen will show album art.

But mostly, this phone is about KitKat, and KitKat is about What Google Knows.

The dialer, for example, takes advantage of Google's database when making calls. Rather than looking up a number in search, and then dialing, you can simply say the name of a restaurant and Google will present you with options to call it, based on the ones in your area. If a business calls you, it shows the company's name - both of these features work even if the business is not in your address book. The camera's HDR function is fantastic in weirdly lit situations to get the most out of color and range. Google Hangouts offer a unified place for both SMS and chat, and make location sharing as easy as tapping the screen. Just hit a location icon in Hangouts to tell your friend where you are. Because onboard storage is finite, Google added API tools developers can hook into so users can pick and choose photos and files to send not just from the Gallery, but also cloud providers like Box or Google Drive. It means you can offload your photos and still easily access them from within apps.

Google Now has also gotten some fancy new tools. It lives on the home screen of the Nexus 5; just swipe all the way to the left and there it is, waiting for you with mind boggling anticipation. It takes advantage of location to show you the things other people are searching about in any particular area. In the example it showed, visitors to Yellowstone will automatically be shown a card for the times the geysers are erupting; in Austin they see when they can view bats in flight. This is a fantastic way to use location to show you things you want to know before you have to ask for them. If you regularly visit particular websites, it will show you important updates from those sites. (But not, it promises, every single story that the New York Times publishes in a day.) If you search for news about Walking Dead a lot, relevant news updates will just appear in Google Now. This is just going to get bigger.

And then there is Search. From the home screen, just say 'Okay Google' to launch search-it doesn't work from a locked device like the Moto X, but this should still be a nice feature for using the phone in the car. But the most intriguing thing Google showed today was KitKat's ability to search within apps and display that information in regular search results. Search for a restaurant, for example, and Google will return the normal results-but also will show you an option for OpenTable. Click it and the app launches, right to the restaurant's page, so you can make a reservation. It's launching this with 10 partner apps, but promises that any developer will be able to take advantage of the API, let Google crawl its data, and work right from search. To begin with, Google will only show you data from installed apps, but expects to expand this to show any relevant application, with an option to install the app from Play if you don't have it. Apps are just a way to display information - to connect it and present it. This lets Google start knocking down the barriers from you accessing that information anywhere, while still allowing others to present it to you. It's very promising, and something we've wished for.

Google also lets you give and take with Search now. You can refine it. In today's demonstration, it showed an example of a voice query for 'Boston Red Sox pitchers.' Search misidentified 'pitchers' as 'pictures,' and returned results for that instead. But by tapping the word 'pictures,' it presented other similar-sounding options, including the right one. One tap later, and the right results are there. More intriguing was a command to 'text Jennifer.' Search responded by asking 'which Jennifer?' and then 'mobile or work?' After identifying the right person and number, it says 'what's the message' and then gave an opportunity to review it before sending. It was just super-smart.

But maybe the smartest thing of all is how Google is looking at the rest of the world. One of the problems Google faces with Android is that most people in emerging markets-where it's hoping to snag those next billion users-run low-end handsets that have 512 MB of memory or less. Because of this, said Pichai, most of the new handsets sold in emerging markets run version 2.3 of the Android operating system (or Gingerbread). KitKat was designed specifically to work on those lower-end devices without much elbow room for memory. The OS reduces memory consumption, Google's default apps have been tuned to use less memory, and the system can flush out processes that get very large. Additionally, the API exposes that a device is running on a phone without much memory, so developers can customize their apps to use fewer resources in those situations.

All told, both KitKat and the Nexus 5 are iterative, as almost all the new phones we see today are. But Google's attempt to knock down the walls between search and applications, to rethink the way information flows not just in one direction but back and forth in the context of where you are and what you want, feels an awfully lot like the early stage of a new revolution.

Photos: Ariel Zambelich/WIRED

Mat Honan is a senior writer for Wired's Gadget Lab and the co-founder of the Knight-Batten award-winning Longshot magazine.

Read more by Mat Honan

Follow @mat on Twitter.

Review: Apple iPad Air

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - OCTOBER 22: A reporter holds the new iPad Air during an Apple announcement at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on October 22, 2013 in San Francisco, California. The tech giant announced its new iPad Air, a new iPad mini with Retina display, OS X Mavericks and highlighted its Mac Pro. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

When the first iPad arrived, many people didn't know what it was for, even if they knew they wanted one. Now, Apple has a different challenge: to persuade customers that they really need the new, updated model. So, should you buy the iPad Air?

This is the first substantial change to the hardware's design since March 2011 when the iPad 2 arrived. Subsequent models (there have been two) have followed the same pleasing shape - sloping edges on the back, wide black or white bezel on the front. The third and fourth-generation iPads have been heavier than the iPad 2 because they featured a gorgeous, high-resolution Retina display and needed a bigger, heavier battery to push all those extra pixels around.

So the first thing you notice about the iPad Air is the gadget's new design. It's been updated to match the iPad mini, released a year ago. This means boxier corners and a back cover coloured to match the front bezel. It's an altogether snazzier look, with a chrome Apple logo in the middle of the lighter coloured iPad, previously called white, now silver, while a black logo sits in the middle of the darker one, called Space Grey.

The biggest design change is on the front of the iPad Air, with its much narrower bezel. Most tablets have wide frames round the screen, for good reason. On a touchscreen it's important to ensure that the user's thumb doesn't accidentally rest on the screen as it's being held - an accidental thumb press is registered by the touchscreen and gets in the way. Unless you're Apple.

One of the most underrated features on the iPad mini was thumb rejection - software clever enough to know to ignore an errant thumb and focus on the other touches. It's a brilliant solution which allows for thinner side bezels and therefore narrower tablets. The feature is included in all iPads, large and small, with recent software.

And now it's been used to slim down the iPad Air. This has made the new slimmer bezels possible, though it does mean that last year's covers and cases won't fit the new model, but that's the only downside. The new tablet's size is one of its triumphs. It makes it feel more comfortable in the hand.

That's also because the iPad Air is much slimmer from front to back than the last iPad, or even the iPad 2. This is the thinnest full-size iPad yet. And even that's not the real reason the design is improved. It's now much lighter. It weighs 478g instead of last-season's 662g.

This is the real killer improvement.

A tablet needs to be portable, to be light enough for you to want to take it everywhere. Just as the MacBook Air was the most lightweight, thin-profiled laptop on the market when it launched, so the new iPad justifies borrowing the Air moniker for this super-light piece of kit.

Of course, that's not the only upgrade on the new iPad. It now has the same processor as the iPhone 5s. This seemed ludicrously over-powered for a phone (though who's complaining?) and is certainly more than fast enough here.

It means that the things you're used to doing on an iPad happen more quickly now. The whole thing just feels faster. And it means that as more complex and demanding apps are devised (and you can bet they are in development now), the iPad Air and its smaller sibling the iPad mini with Retina display will be able to handle them with ease.

Apple's key advantage is that it makes the hardware and software, so they can work together flawlessly. So the new iOS 7 operating system dovetails with the iPad in every way, down to the matching of iPad case colours to the system palette.

It's a finely detailed OS - look no further than Messages which enables iDevice users to share unlimited messages. When you've pressed send, the text plonks itself into a speech balloon. When your interlocutor is replying, the screen shows they're crafting their words with the distinctive bubbles of a thought balloon. Or FaceTime Audio, which enables voice calls between iPhone, iPod and iPad using a data connection. Effectively it means you can have free phone calls if you're not busting your data limit. Not only is this a beautifully executed feature, it's a real bonus if you find yourself in a network blackspot but there's wi-fi around.

Like the iPhone 5s, the iPad Air has a motion co-processor which reports on movement. Fitness apps will take advantage of this soon, but for now it means that the iPad knows if you're driving or walking. If you're using the iPad to give you directions, it knows to re-route you to walking instructions when you get out of the car.

What's missing? Rumour had it that the iPad might have the delectably enjoyable Touch ID fingerprint sensor of the iPhone 5s, which would have been nice.

The five-megapixel rear camera is unchanged, though as noted elsewhere, do you really want a big, flat slab of glass and aluminium as your main snapper? An uprated camera may not be a pressing priority.

This iPad is the biggest upgrade since the arrival of the Retina display on the third-generation iPad in spring 2012 - though it remains the same price, from £399 for the 16GB wi-fi only version.

Its spiffy new styling may be enough to persuade you to upgrade. The faster processor is cool and will become more useful as more apps arrive.

But above all, this is the super-light iPad, the most portable iPad, the most powerful iPad. Tablets are expected from rivals like Google in the next months, but for now Apple is in the lead again.

Land Rover Announces New Range Rover Models

Land Rover has announced two new additions to its Range Rover family - the new long wheelbase Range Rover that will debut at LA and Guangzhou motor shows and its Range Rover Autobiography Black edition that will debut at the Dubai motor show. This is their first Range Rover long wheelbase in 20 years and the new model increases legroom by 140mm for rear seat passengers to provide enhanced comfort and space (it's also boosted the recline to 17 degrees with the exclusive seating package). The additional legroom is possible via a lengthened bodyshell in front of the rear wheels.

The Range Rover Autobiography Black adds even more refinement to the world's finest luxury SUV, with a carefully crafted interior with subtle but distinctive exterior detailing and is appointed and finished with the highest quality leathers and materials. According to Phil Popham, Group Marketing Director, Jaguar Land Rover, the new edition is the car brand's 'most luxurious specification yet. It epitomises sophisticated design with immaculate attention to detail.' It features a unique front grille and side vents along with distinguishable badging in black enamel and chrome. Signature rear lamps and auxiliary vents to the front feature a chrome accent finish to the tailgate. There are also two new wheel designs for the model, which are 7-spoke 21″ and a 22″ wheels with a high gloss polished finish, the latter of which will be available from Spring 2014. Inside there's sumptuous leather seating that's complemented with a massage function and bolsters with 18-way seat adjustability for the driver and front passenger. Also included is LED mood lighting, a leather-wrapped parcel shelf, tread plates that are illuminated with 'Autobiography Black' script, a rear centre console that includes electrically deployable tables covered in black leather with integrated USB charging sockets and cup holders, and chiller compartment that provides additional space for glasses and bottles. The First customer deliveries are expected in March of next year.

iPad Air reviews roundup

Apple Inc has not reinvented the wheel with the iPad Air but the thinner device, priced higher than many of its competitors, is a major improvement on a successful product, the reviewers wrote on Tuesday.

Writing for the Wall Street Journal, Walt Mossberg called the iPad Air the best tablet he has ever reviewed.

'That isn't just because of its slimmer, lighter design, but because Apple boasts 475,000 apps optimized for tablet use - far more than any other tablet platform,' Mossberg wrote.

The new full-sized iPad goes on sale from Friday and will be priced starting $499.

Damon Darlin of the New York Times said the Air is lighter than its predecessors, adding that the gadget is a delight to use.

Reviewer David Pogue, who recently left the New York Times to start a new consumer-tech website at Yahoo, said the iPad Air is 'a fantastic leap into the future if you're upgrading from an original iPad, or if you've never owned a tablet before.'

However, all three reviewers highlighted that the iPad Air is pricier than many of its competitors.

'Do you need to plunk down $500 or more for an Air if you already have an earlier version of the iPad?,' Darlin asked, calling the improvements on the new device 'incremental, not revolutionary.'

Amazon.com Inc's 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HDX costs $379, Microsoft's Surface 2 starts from $449, while Samsung's Galaxy Tab 3 10.1-inch tablet has a suggested retail price of $400.

Pogue said that given the price, an iPad probably does not need replacing every year or even every other year.

Mossberg concluded: 'Bottom line: If you can afford it, the new iPad Air is the tablet I recommend, hands down.'

© Thomson Reuters 2013