News

Apple’s March 4 Event Rumored To Put New Macs In Play

Lower-cost MacBook and M5 Pro upgrades expected as Apple lines up a multi-city hardware reveal.

Published

6 months ago

February 19, 2026

apple's march 4 event rumored to put new macs in play

Apple will stage its first product event of 2026 on March 4 at 9AM ET, hosting parallel gatherings in New York, London and Shanghai under the “Apple Experience” banner. The focus is hardware, with new Macs expected to lead the announcements.

The headline prospect is a cheaper MacBook, positioned beneath the MacBook Air. Bloomberg previously reported that Apple has been developing a model powered by the A18 Pro chip — an iPhone-class processor — rather than an M-series chip. The trade-off could extend to memory: industry chatter points to 8GB of RAM, even as Apple has shifted most of its Mac line to 16GB as standard.

Pricing is tipped between $699 and $799. If that holds, it would mark Apple’s lowest entry point into modern Mac laptops in years and widen its reach among students and cost-conscious buyers.

At the other end of the range, refreshed MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips are widely expected too. Apple has already introduced a base M5 configuration, but the higher-tier variants typically arrive later with more CPU and GPU cores. Reports suggest tweaks to the chip design aimed at better thermals and improved manufacturing yields, potentially allowing the Max version to scale further.

Current M4 Max configurations are facing shipping delays, a pattern that often precedes a refresh cycle.

Tablets are also in line for updates. A 12th-generation base iPad is rumored to move from the A16 to the A18 chip, aligning it more closely with Apple’s on-device AI push. The iPad Air could shift from M3 to M4 — a jump that would narrow the performance gap with the Pro models.

Also Read: Samsung Reveals AI Camera Overhaul Ahead Of S26 Launch

On the iPhone side, Apple is expected to refresh its entry model with the iPhone 17e, roughly a year after the 16e debuted. Reports point to an A19 chip and possible MagSafe support, while keeping the $599 price.

Other hardware, including a new Studio Display or Mac Studio, remains possible, though less certain. A broader Siri overhaul is unlikely to surface here, with software updates typically reserved for Apple’s developer conference later in the year.

The March 4 event looks set to reset Apple’s core devices in one sweep — from entry laptops to high-end silicon — as competition tightens and AI features edge closer to the center of its pitch.

News

Samsung And Spotify Offer Free Premium Deal In MENA

Nearly seven in ten streams in the region come from 18-to-34-year-olds — the audience Samsung is hoping to entice into its ecosystem.

Published

7 days ago

August 7, 2026

Nour Nasir

Samsung

Samsung has announced a partnership with Spotify spanning the Middle East, North Africa, and Türkiye, bundling Spotify Premium with select devices across its ecosystem. The headline offer — up to four months of Premium for free — is a first for the region.

Customers in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Türkiye who buy any OLED or 98-inch television, or any Galaxy S or Z series mobile device, get four months of Spotify Premium. The offer, tiered by market and device, is available at retail and on Samsung.com, and redeemed through the Samsung Promotion and Samsung Members apps.

For Samsung, the strategy is less about free music than about lock-in. The Korean tech giant’s pitch is continuity: a track starts on a Galaxy smartphone through Galaxy Buds on the commute, moves to a Samsung TV and soundbar in the living room, and stays controllable from a Galaxy Watch. The more seamlessly music travels between those devices, the harder it becomes to swap any one of them for a rival’s.

“Technology should bring people closer to the things they love, and few things connect people the way music does,” said Omar Saheb, Regional VP of Marketing and Online Business at Samsung Electronics MENA. The partnership, he added, gives customers “a genuine reason to choose Samsung for the experience, not only the product”.

Also Read: Shokz OpenFit Pro Review: Open-Ear Audio Finally Grows Up

For subscribers, Premium brings the usual package: ad-free listening, offline downloads, richer audio quality on Galaxy Buds and Samsung sound devices, and Jam, which lets friends build a shared queue.

“At Spotify, we are always working to make every listening moment feel more personal, meaningful, and worth it,” said Rami Jamal, Head of Partnerships at Spotify for South Asia, Middle East, and Africa.

The demographics go a long way to explaining the strategy. Across MENA, Türkiye, and Pakistan, nearly seven in ten Spotify streams come from listeners aged 18 to 34, according to the company — precisely the audience Samsung wants inside its hardware ecosystem before buying habits harden.