Apple AI Updates: October 29, 2026

1. Apple’s New MacBook Pro With M5 Max Targets On-Device LLMs With Hundreds of Billions of Parameters

Apple introduced a 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro with a tandem OLED PROLED XDR display and M5 Pro or M5 Max chips with up to 128GB of unified memory. Apple says M5 Max can run LLMs with hundreds of billions of parameters entirely on device, and a Neural Accelerator in each GPU core speeds workloads such as running a coding agent against a local LLM in apps like LM Studio. The laptop also brings the Dynamic Island to the Mac as the home for Spotlight, Live Activities, and Siri AI. Pre-orders opened October 28, with availability starting November 6. Source

2. Apple’s iMac With M6 Claims Up to 5x Faster Local LLM Prompt Processing Than M4

Apple announced an iMac with M6, featuring up to a 12-core CPU and an up-to-12-core GPU with Neural Accelerators in each core. Apple cites up to 5x faster on-device AI prompt processing in LM Studio compared with M4, and up to 12x compared with the M1 iMac. The machine ships with macOS 27 and the next generation of Apple Intelligence, including Siri AI built into Spotlight, Visual Intelligence via a keyboard shortcut, and Shortcuts automations created from a text description. Pre-orders opened October 28, with deliveries starting November 6. Source