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Starting today, the new Mac mini and Mac Studio, both powered by the latest Apple silicon, are now available. Customers can shop and discover the new Mac mini, Apple’s most versatile Mac, which features the all-new M6 and M5 Pro. The ultracompact do-it-all desktop is a powerhouse for a wide range of users — from everyday consumers and students to aspiring creatives and small business owners. With M6, Mac mini delivers up to 4x faster AI performance, 2x faster graphics and storage, and 40 percent faster CPU performance. Users will feel this performance in everything they do, whether it’s multitasking across productivity apps, running agentic AI workflows, or ripping through creative projects like music production and compiling code. Mac mini with M5 Pro offers even greater pro-level performance for complex projects like video production and game development. The new Mac Studio, Apple’s most powerful Mac, features M5 Max and the all-new M5 Ultra for pros tackling the world’s most demanding workloads. The ultimate pro desktop raises the bar with up to 4.3x faster AI performance, up to 1.8x faster graphics,4 and support for up to 512GB of unified memory, all in a quiet, compact design that sits right on a user’s desk.

Mac mini and Mac Studio are also powerful platforms for on-device AI, featuring next-generation GPUs with Neural Accelerators in every core, along with advanced CPUs, and Neural Engines. Combined with the power of macOS 27 and the latest Apple Intelligence features, including Siri AI, the new Mac mini and Mac Studio are a tremendous upgrade for existing and new-to-Mac users. Both are available now at Apple Store locations, on apple.com, and in the Apple Store app. Mac mini with M6 starts at $899, while Mac mini with M5 Pro is available at $1,699. Mac Studio with M5 Max starts at $2,499, while Mac Studio with M5 Ultra starts at $5,499.

For everyday users, students, developers, creative enthusiasts, and businesses, Mac mini delivers a dramatic boost in performance and remarkable versatility, all in a super small design. Featuring a 12-core CPU with the world’s fastest single-threaded performance, a 12-core GPU with Neural Accelerators built into each core, and the all-new Dual 16-core Neural Engine, it blazes through everything from everyday productivity to advanced agentic AI workflows. Starting with 16GB of unified memory, configurable up to 32GB, and higher memory bandwidth up to 170GB/s, multitasking is faster than ever. With M6, Mac mini brings up to 4x faster AI performance, a supercharge to the leading desktop for always-on agentic computing. Mac mini with M5 Pro delivers even more pro-level performance with an up-to-18-core CPU and an up-to-20-core GPU, along with support for up to 64GB of unified memory with 307GB/s of memory bandwidth, empowering users to take on demanding creative and technical projects. Both models include Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and upgraded 2.5Gb Ethernet, with a 10Gb option available. College students and educators can save on the new Mac mini with year-round education pricing starting at $799 for Mac mini with M6.

Engineered for professionals who tackle the most intense workloads, Mac Studio is the ultimate desktop for pro workflows and on-device AI. Mac Studio with M5 Max features an 18-core CPU, an up-to-40-core GPU with Neural Accelerators built into each core, and up to 128GB of unified memory, enabling musicians, photographers, software engineers, and designers to push the limits of real-time 3D, motion graphics, and AI workflows. Mac Studio with M5 Ultra takes performance to an entirely new level with an up-to-36-core CPU, an up-to-80-core GPU, and a staggering up to 512GB of unified memory with 1.2TB/s of memory bandwidth, empowering filmmakers to color-grade uncompressed 8K footage in real time, VFX artists to render complex scenes, and AI researchers to run enormous LLMs entirely on device. Both models feature Thunderbolt 5 for blazing-fast transfer speeds up to 120Gb/s, so users can take advantage of superfast external storage, a PCIe expansion chassis, and powerful hub solutions. For the most advanced users pushing the limits of compute, Thunderbolt 5 with Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) also enables multiple Mac Studio systems to be clustered, now bringing up to 3x faster performance for distributed AI inference when compared to a single system. Mac Studio supports up to eight displays, or up to four Studio Display XDR at full 5K resolution and 120Hz, providing an expansive canvas for the most demanding projects.

The new Mac mini and Mac Studio come to life with the recently released macOS 27, which includes Siri AI, a profoundly more capable and personal assistant; helpful Apple Intelligence features across everyday apps; and improvements that make the Mac even more responsive and reliable. Siri AI can draw on personal context to help users find what they need in the moment across their messages, emails, and photos; answer questions about virtually any topic; and get things done across apps. Siri AI is integrated into Spotlight and systemwide context menus, and users can ask Siri about what’s on their display with Visual Intelligence using a dedicated keyboard shortcut. Users can also write and edit with Siri almost anywhere they type.

Additionally, Apple Intelligence makes apps smarter and more useful. In Safari, it powers new tools that automatically organize a user’s tabs into topics; notify them of website changes, like product restocks or price drops; and enable the creation of custom extensions based on a description. Users can also easily create an automation in Shortcuts by simply describing it, or tap into advanced photo editing in the Photos app. Features users already rely on get even better with improvements to performance and search. Refinements to Liquid Glass deliver an even more focused and approachable experience. A new slider in Settings gives users the option to personalize Liquid Glass, adjusting it anywhere from ultraclear to fully tinted to match their preference, and app icons have been updated to be sharper and more defined.
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More details in Apple’s press release here.

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Source link: https://macdailynews.com/2026/09/22/apples-new-mac-mini-and-mac-studio-are-available-today/

In this step-by-step tutorial, we show you how to set up and use Visual Intelligence in macOS Golden Gate so you can ask Siri about anything on your computer screen, do reverse image search, and take quick actions.

Visual Intelligence on iPhone running iOS 18.2 or later lets you point the camera at an object and get more information about it.

With macOS 27 Golden Gate, Apple has added Visual Intelligence to Mac. It lets you select the entire screen, a specific app window, or a portion of the screen to ask Siri AI about it. You can have Siri explain what it sees on the screen, in an image or in a PDF, and find related information, translate text, summarize text, and more.

If Siri recognizes action-based content, like a URL, it will show easy options to take an action like visit that page. Similarly, if the screen has a date and time, you should see options to add it as a calendar event or reminder, or if it’s a number or address, you may see an option to add it to your contacts, and so on.

Visual Intelligence on Mac also lets you do a reverse image search. So, if you’re on a screen showing a nice dress, you can search for more related pictures of that dress.

Before you begin: Make sure you have set up the new Siri AI on your Mac.

Remember a simple keyboard shortcut for Visual Intelligence

If you use a Mac, there is a high chance you’re familiar with screenshot keyboard shortcuts, namely:

• Command + Shift + 3 (for full-screen capture)
• Command + Shift + 4 (selection capture), and
• Command + Shift + 5 (to open the screenshot tool)

1) Apple has kept the learning curve minimal for Visual Intelligence, and you can trigger it on Mac using the Command + Shift + 6 keyboard combination.

2) This shows the same crosshair icon you get when pressing Command + Shift + 4; just that the selector tool is a bit thicker with Liquid Glass effect on the edges. Drag to select the image, PDF page, or portion of the screen you’re curious about, then let go.

Tip: You can change the shape and size using the eight little dots on the four edges of the selector. Or, you can hold the Option key during selection to increase the selection size proportionally on all sides or the Shift key to change only one side. However, like the Command + Shift + 4 tool, holding the Space Bar doesn’t move the Visual Intelligence selector area.

3) Once you let go of the selection, you’ll now see “Ask Siri,” “Image Search,” and other relevant options (if any, more on it below).

4) Type what you want in the Ask Siri box, and press the return / enter key.

Siri AI will reply shortly with relevant information.

Image Search uses Google to search and shows related media in a small window.

Depending on what you selected, you may also see other quick action buttons like Add to Calendar, Add to Contacts, Translate, visit URL, etc. Just click one to take action.

Use Visual Intelligence in the screenshot tool

I recommend Command + Shift + 6 as it’s memorable and better for quick everyday use. However, if you want to ask Siri about a whole app window or full screen, you can use this method as well.

1) Press the Command + Shift + 5 keys to open the usual macOS screenshot tool.

2) Click one of the three usual screen capture selectors on the left (Capture Entire Screen, Capture Selected Window, or Capture Selected Portion).

3) Then, click the Siri icon, as shown in the screenshot below, followed by Ask Siri.

Note: You can also reverse this: click the Siri icon first and then one of the three usual screen capture selectors.

4) You’ll now see the usual Ask Siri and Image Search options already discussed under the above heading.

Results are not always accurate

Like other AI tools, Siri AI can also make mistakes. For instance, in the screenshot below, I asked it for related Cybercab wallpapers, but it showed me old Tesla car photos instead.

Similarly, if you ask it a question about a food item on the screen or something related, take its answer with a pinch of salt. It cannot always recognize the right dish or give you the correct nutritional values.

Also, check out:

• How to enable the hidden Siri UI in macOS 27
• Tips to customize the new iOS 27 Siri app on iPhone or Mac

Source link: https://www.idownloadblog.com/2026/09/23/visual-intelligence-mac/