Intel today announced Thunderbolt 5, the next-generation version of the connectivity standard present on all Macs and iPad Pro models, promising significant improvements in connectivity speed and bandwidth.
Thunderbolt 5 delivers 80 Gbps of bi-directional bandwidth and, with Bandwidth Boost, can provide up to 120 Gbps for video-intensive usage. This enables considerably better display support, allowing for more and higher-resolution displays with higher refresh rates. Thunderbolt 4 has maximum speeds of 40 Gbps, making Thunderbolt 5 a significant improvement of at least double the bandwidth.
The latest specification also features double the PCI Express data throughput and double the bandwidth of Thunderbolt Networking. It also uses a new signaling technology, PAM-3, to increase performance with printed circuit boards, connectors, and passive cables.
Thunderbolt 5 continues to be built in industry standards such as USB4 V2, DisplayPort 2.1, and PCI Express Gen 4, enabling it to be compatible with previous version of Thunderbolt and USB. Computers and accessories that use Intel's Thunderbolt 5 controller are set to become available starting in 2024. It is highly likely that Thunderbolt 5 will come to future Apple devices.
Wednesday October 7, 2026 5:47 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple updated its Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad product pages around August 25 to drop all Intel-based Macs from the compatibility lists for the accessories, and this week it updated some related tech specs pages to reflect these changes.
Given the Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad still work with Intel Macs, it is unclear why the accessories are now considered to be compatible with Apple...
Monday October 19, 2026 9:37 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple today sent out invites for an experience in Los Angeles on Wednesday, October 28, and the "Pro and tell" tagline on the invitation likely means that the rumored MacBook models with touch-enabled OLED displays will stick with MacBook Pro branding instead of the once-rumored "MacBook Ultra" name.
The long-rumored "iPhone Ultra" ended up being named iPhone Duo, so speculation that Apple...
Tuesday October 20, 2026 11:12 am PDT by Juli Clover
With just three days to go until the iPhone Duo is released, Apple is getting ready for the launch. Behind the scenes, the App Store now has screenshots of Apple's built-in apps running on the Duo. We've seen some apps in marketing materials, but images of the ones we haven't seen give us an idea of what it will be like using the iPhone Duo day to day.
Many apps are shown in landscape...
I would just like to give the Thunderbolt standards team credit for clear branding.
Look at the connector-- do you see a 5? If yes, it's Thunderbolt 5 compatible! What was the generation before 5? 4. Not 4.2 gen 3x5. Not 4E or 4A or 4sK. Just 4, then 5.
Apple's first foldable iPhone, with a book-style design featuring a 5.4-inch outer display and a 7.6-inch inner display with a minimal crease down the middle.
