For some users, it's been a long time coming. For others, it just meant that Apple had given up entirely on the desktop ecosystem, choosing to focus on its "mainstream luxury" approach towards selling phones with a BOM of $219 for $1000. Most others, though, will probably look at this update as more of a passing shot than an actually thought-out product development.

For now, Apple is going to update the innards of its Mac Pro line with some pretty interesting (if expectable) hardware: the $2,999 model sees a two-core bump from the quad-core Intel Xeon E5 3.7 GHz processor towards a six-core Intel Xeon E5 3.5 GHz. The same path will be followed by the $3,999 model, bumping towards an eight-core Intel Xeon E5 3 GHz processor from the six-core Intel Xeon E5 3.7 GHz processor that just kept on giving since 2013. Both models have also been updated with dual AMD FirePro D500 and D700 GPUs. The $2,999 model also sees an increase in its available memory, from 12GB of DDR3-1866 memory to 16GB.

Samsung drawing inspiration from Apple on product design is not new. Its latest is a cylindrical desktop PC that bears semblance to the Apple Mac Pro. To be fair to Samsung, the Mac Pro is technically a multi-GPU ready workstation powered by Intel Xeon processors. The new ArtPC Pulse Premium Desktops from Samsung, on the other hand, are just that - Windows desktops. Measuring 5.5 inch x 5.5 inch x 10.7 inch, this desktop packs in some premium PC hardware, flash memory, and an integrated 360° speaker system by Harman Kardon attached to its body.

The ArtPC Pulse comes in two main variants, the base $1,199 model featuring Core i5-6400 processor, 8 GB of dual-channel DDR4 memory, and 256 GB NVMe SSD storage; and a higher $1,599 variant featuring a Core i7-6700 processor, 16 GB of dual-channel DDR4 memory, and a 1 TB HDD in addition to the 256 GB NVMe SSD. Both variants feature AMD Radeon RX 460 graphics with 2 GB of video-memory. Other connectivity includes 802.11ac WLAN, gigabit Ethernet, SDXC card reader, five USB 3.1 ports (including a type-C port), and HDMI 2.0b display output.

Dune Case is a premium small form-factor PC case that should instantly remind you of the latest Apple Mac Pro, but packing whatever hardware (or software) you wish it had, in its 260 mm x 215 mm x 215 mm dimensions. Its designer is raising $130,000 on Kickstarter to get it to the shelves, and has already raised half the amount, with 8 days of fundraising to go. You can back the project from this page. The aluminium-built case comes in rose gold and black.

Unlike the Mac Pro, which features a cylindrical design with key components arranged along three sides of a triangular structure, with cooling machinery taking up its center; the Dune Case takes a different approach. It's spit into three compartments vertically along the bore of the cylinder, with the center holding a mini-ITX motherboard, one side with room for a full-height yet under 185 mm graphics card (connected to the motherboard through a PCIe riser); and the third compartment holding two 2.5-inch drives. A custom rear panel plugs into your motherboard, and an SFX power supply (not included) fuels your build. The main air channel is a 140 mm spinner that spouts warm air from the top.

MSI unveiled its latest desktop under its coveted MSI Gaming logo - the Vortex. This compact gaming desktop features a design that's heavily inspired by the Mac Pro - a cylindrical case with three planes, and key components arranged along those planes, with a common air channel running through the bore of the cylinder. Much like the Mac Pro, the MSI Vortex packs a wallop.

In its base configuration, the MSI Vortex comes with an Intel Core i5 "Skylake" desktop quad-core processor, and two GeForce GTX 960 (desktop) graphics cards in SLI. The top variant gives you a Core i7-6700K quad-core chip, and two GeForce GTX 980 (desktop) cards in SLI, making it capable of 4K Ultra HD gaming. Sharp edges aside, the Vortex comes with RGB LED lighting. Not just design, MSI appears to have taken cues from Apple on even pricing - the base model is expected to be priced around US $2,000.

OWC, a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company, announced today the immediate availability of the OWC 4.0TB Aura SSD Upgrade for the 2013-current Apple Mac Pro. The Aura SSD for Mac Pro is the first internal SSD upgrade for the 2013-current Mac Pro and debuted at CES 2015 offering up to 2.0TB of capacity. The all-new 4.0TB model shipping just in time for CES 2016 doubles the capacity available offering up to 16x the capacity of the standard factory drive and 4X the capacity of the maximum factory SSD/flash option.

The 4.0TB OWC Aura SSD for 2013-current Mac Pro (black cylinder models) includes the award-winning OWC Envoy Pro SSD enclosure, making it easy to repurpose the original factory-installed Mac Pro SSD as an elegant aluminum-body external drive for incredible portable performance. OWC also provides free how-to installation videos and a special tool needed for straightforward end user/do-it-yourself installation.

Buffalo Americas, a leading provider of external storage, network attached storage (NAS) and networking solutions, today announced availability of its new DriveStation Ultra, a high-capacity direct attached storage solution ideal for businesses and professionals that demand fast data transfer speeds for large files, such as high resolution 4K video.

Professionals working in video production, gaming development, CAD design and more require both fast data transfer of extremely large files and the capacity to store them in a convenient form factor that is readily accessible. The DriveStation Ultra was designed to meet the performance and capacity needs of these industries with its 10-drive design, delivering up to 80 TB in a desktop form factor. Equipped with Thunderbolt 2, Mac users can experience write speeds up to 1243 MB/s using RAID 0.

Other World Computing announced today the Accelsior S, a new PCIe card with direct mount support for a 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s SSD. The latest addition to OWC's award-winning Accelsior line enables PC, Mac Pro tower and Thunderbolt interface expansion chassis users to quickly and easily add additional storage. Utilizing the robust PCIe architecture, the Accelsior S card offers both storage expansion and 6Gb/s speeds up to 550MB/s - more than double the performance of SATA 3Gb/s.

When equipped with the Accelsior S PCIe card and an SSD, Mac Pro tower and PC users can launch, capture, render and process I/O-intensive apps without long wait times. The Accelsior S PCIe card is also extremely easy to install - no drivers or software are required.

The fastest, most versatile I/O in any desktop of any size, Up To 25x Faster than firewire800, Thunderbolt 2 technology in ST4-TB is phenomenally fast. The two Thunderbolt 2 ports on ST4-TB features dual 20-Gbps channels for data transfer and that's up to four times faster than USB 3. But beyond speed, Thunderbolt gives you unprecedented expansion capabilities. You can daisy-chain as many as six Thunderbolt devices to a single port. And since Thunderbolt is based on Display Port technology, Mini Display Port devices like Apple LED Cinema Display can plugs right in, too.

For field editing applications, the ST4-TB can be made portable as it comes with a grip handle, which you can choose to install for making creative contents mobile convenient and less bulky. With two optional storage modes, user can choose between RAID 0 and independent mode. In RAID 0 mode, the enclosed four drives will be striped and combined into one large volume for storage to enhance the data transfer speed performance. Under the Independent mode, the enclosed drives are seen as four separate volumes instead of one single volume.

Transcend Information, Inc., a worldwide leader in storage and multimedia products, is proud to announce its launch of 16 GB and 32 GB DDR3 Registered DIMM (RDIMM) modules aimed at maximizing memory in Apple Mac Pro 2013 systems. With four user-upgradeable memory slots available, Transcend's latest high-performance DDR3 RDIMMs can boost Mac Pro 2013 Intel Xeon E5 3.5 GHz 6-Core, 3.0 GHz 8-Core, and 2.7 GHz 12-Core models to 64 GB, 96 GB, and even 128 GB total memory capacity.

"The new Mac Pro 2013 is advertised to support up to 64 GB of memory, and we understand that pro users running applications that place high demands on RAM have a need to meet and most likely exceed this threshold," said Angus Wu, Director of Research and Development at Transcend. "For this reason, we have developed and fully tested higher density modules to give users the option of raising their Mac Pro system memory to the advertised 64 GB right up to 128 GB."

HighPoint Technologies, a pioneering force in the storage industry for the past 18 years, delivers a diverse selection of Thunderbolt Storage products and solutions for Mac Pro platforms. From quick, convenient dual-bay storage docks with hot-swap connectivity, to professional class hardware-RAID storage towers, PCIe expansion enclosures and Rackmount chassis solutions. Easy to use, fast and versatile, HighPoint Thunderbolt Solutions are ideal storage companions for any 2013 Mac Pro workstation.

AMD announced dual AMD FirePro professional graphics solutions (GPUs) deliver unprecedented levels of performance for the new Mac Pro. The AMD FirePro D300, D500 and D700 professional GPUs offer exceptional compute power and reliability for creativity and productivity in a wide range of applications. With industry-adopted OpenCL (Open Computing Language) support, Mac Pro users have the ability to seamlessly edit full-resolution 4K video and simultaneously render effects in the background, and still have enough performance to power up to three high-resolution 4K displays.

These new AMD FirePro GPUs are built on the strength of AMD's award-winning Graphics Core Next GPU design -- an architecture conceived from the ground up to intelligently manage rendering and compute workloads. The combination of AMD FirePro GPUs and OpenCL -- strongly supported by both Apple and AMD -- is designed to deliver massive compute and graphics performance in one compact solution.

Crucial, a leading global brand of memory and storage upgrades, today released a new lineup of high-performance memory solutions specifically designed for the new Mac Pro systems. This new memory is engineered to meet the component densities, speeds, and Serial Presence Detect (SPD) programming specifications of the new Mac Pro workstations, and is now available in densities up to 16 GB through select global channel partners and at www.crucial.com.

The new modules designed for Mac Pro workstations operate at 1866 MHz, which is the fastest mainstream DDR3 ECC UDIMM and RDIMM speed currently available, allowing users to leverage all the capabilities of the new Mac Pro systems. For further performance gains, modules are available in densities up to 16 GB. These high-speed, high-density memory modules provide users with increased system responsiveness, faster application load times, and an increased ability to multitask with ease when using data-intensive programs such as Apple FinalCut Pro or Adobe Photoshop software.

Other World Computing (OWC), the world's leading destination for cutting-edge Mac and PC upgrades and accessories, today announced lower pricing for the OWC Mercury Accelsior_E2, a Mac and PC-bootable, high-performance PCIe SSD card that features up to 960GB of SSD capacity, up to 820MB/s of sustained data performance and external storage expansion with two 6Gb/s eSATA interface ports. Built to exceed the demanding needs of video editing and creative professionals, the Mercury Accelsior_E2 offers the best combination of speed, capacity, connectivity for simultaneous internal and external storage performance and value. OWC will be showcasing the Accelsior at CES 2014, Booth #30472, in Las Vegas January 7-10, 2014.

Apple today announced the all-new Mac Pro will be available to order starting Thursday, December 19. Redesigned from the inside out, the all-new Mac Pro features the latest Intel Xeon processors, dual workstation-class GPUs, PCIe-based flash storage and ultra-fast ECC memory.

Designed around an innovative unified thermal core, the all-new Mac Pro packs unprecedented performance into an aluminum enclosure that is just 9.9-inches tall and one-eighth the volume of the previous generation. Mac Pro features 4-core, 6-core, 8-core or 12-core Intel Xeon processors running at Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.9 GHz and two workstation-class AMD FirePro GPUs that deliver up to eight times the graphics performance of the previous generation Mac Pro.

Apple today redefined pro computing with the launch of the all-new Mac Pro. Designed around an innovative unified thermal core, the Mac Pro features the latest Intel Xeon processors with up to 12 cores, dual workstation-class GPUs, six Thunderbolt 2 ports, PCIe-based flash storage and ultra-fast ECC memory. Packing amazing performance in a stunning new design, the all-new Mac Pro starts at $2,999 (US) and will be available in December.

"The new Mac Pro is our vision for the future of the pro desktop, everything about it has been reimagined and there has never been anything like it," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "The new Mac Pro packs up to 12-core Xeon CPUs, dual FirePro GPUs, ultra-fast ECC memory, new PCIe flash storage, Thunderbolt 2 expandability and more into a radical new design that is one-eighth the size of the previous generation Mac Pro."

Today at the 40th SIGGRAPH 2013 International Conference and Exhibition, AMD (NYSE: AMD) powered visual computing experiences for content creation with outstanding industry leaders Adobe, Autodesk, Christie, Dell, and Optis. AMD FirePro professional graphics demonstrations featured unique animation, display, simulation and other creative hardware and software collaborations for attendees from around the world. With strong adoption of OpenCL, AMD FirePro graphics have gained positive momentum in the months leading up to SIGGRAPH 2013. Recent highlights and wins for AMD FirePro graphics include:

• Acknowledgement as the dual graphics solution for the forthcoming Apple Mac Pro;
• Optimization and certification of Maxon Cinema 4D application;
• Certification for The Foundry's MARI application;
• Optimization of Adobe Premiere Pro CC, backed by OpenCL standards.

During the Worldwide Developer Convention (WWDC) this Monday, Apple presented its radically redesigned Mac Pro which represents a complete and long overdue departure from the shapes, sizes and general design language of its workstations. Personally I can not decide which is the most striking visual aspect of the new Mac Pro, the truly tiny size of this multi-GPU powerhouse, or its curiously cylindrical shape. Alas, my true curiosity lies with the cooling solutions employed by the designers to address the inevitable heat issues associated with densely packing such potent hardware. The monolithic appearance of the Mac Pro is interrupted only by a cutout in the cover that allows access to the back panel, where the entire I/O interface is located. Apart from the usual suspects (USB, RJ45, etc), the user is presented with no less than six Thunderbolt 2 ports, which some might find problematic considering they constitute the entire expansion potential of the new Mac Pro.

Other World Computing (OWC), a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company, today introduced the OWC Mercury Helios+E2 Thunderbolt SSD Solution. The bootable 'all-in-one' storage performance and expansion solution offers owners of Thunderbolt technology enabled Macs and PCs sustained read/write data throughput up to 617MB/s from up to 960GB of OWC Mercury SSD capacity; two Thunderbolt interfaces for connecting multiple Thunderbolt devices; and two eSATA 6Gb/s expansion ports for connecting up to an additional 32TB or more of external storage/backup capacity.

HighPoint Technologies is now shipping the Industry's first USB 3.0 Storage HBA available for Mac OS X 10.8.x Mountain Lion - the RocketU 1144CM. This third generation, PCIe 2.0 x4 RAID HBA delivers HighPoint's industry-leading 5Gb/s per-port performance and supports up to 4 external USB SSD's, hard drives or Enclosures.

HighPoint's ground breaking RocketU 1144CM is the industry's first USB 3.0 Storage HBA designed specifically for Mac Pro workstation platforms and Mac OS x Mountain Lion. Device drivers are readily available for OS X 10.6.x and later, including the latest revisions of the 10.8.x operating system.

SAPPHIRE Technology, the leading manufacturer and global supplier of graphics solutions based on AMD technology, has just announced an exciting new graphics accelerator compatible with the Apple Mac Pro series of desktop computers.

Exclusive to SAPPHIRE, the HD 7950 Mac Edition is based on AMD's latest Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture. This highly acclaimed architecture delivers a significant graphics performance boost for Mac Pro users in a wide range of applications including gaming, audio or video editing and content creation. For example, gaming frame rates are increased by over 200%, general benchmark performance increased by around 30% and graphics intensive benchmarks increased by as much as 300% compared with the NV 8800GT commonly used in these machines (SAPPHIRE internal data).

Sapphire unveiled the Radeon HD 7950 Mac Edition graphics card for Apple Mac Pro workstations. Featuring lateral-flow cooling assembly akin to AMD's reference design, and a glossy, curvy white cooler shroud, the card features a custom design, pitch-black PCB with the firmware required to get the card running on a Mac Pro.

The card features older Radeon HD 7950 ASIC, which lacks PowerTune with Boost; and features clock speeds of 800 MHz core, 5.00 GHz memory. It packs 3 GB of memory across a 384-bit GDDR5 interface. It draws power from two 6-pin PCIe connectors. Display outputs include a dual-link DVI, an HDMI, and two mini-DisplayPorts. The card is expected to be priced in the range of €400 and €500, a hefty premium over the roughly €250 common HD 7950 cards charge today.

HighPoint Technologies launches the Industry's fastest USB 3.0 RAID HBAs available for Mac OS X 10.8x Mountain Lion - the RocketU 1144CM. This third generation, PCIe 2.0 RAID HBA delivers 5 Gb/s per-port performance and supports up to 4 external USB SSD's, hard drives or Enclosures. HighPoint's innovative 4-Port HBA architecture delivers revolutionary USB 3.0 performance. Unlike conventional USB 3.0 HBA's, each port has a dedicated USB 3.0 SuperSpeed controller, and delivers the fastest SATA performance possible over USB connectivity.

The four independent 5 Gb/s USB 3.0 Type-A connectors can be used simultaneously, and deliver an unprecedented transfer bandwidth of 20 Gb/s; ideal for multi-drive configurations of high-performance SATA 6 Gb/s SSDs and hard drives. The RocketU 1144CM is powered by HighPoint's industry proven hardware assisted RAID technology, and was designed specifically for Mac Pro workstations and high-performance applications. RocketU 1144CM HBAs are fully compatible with OSX 10.6x and later, including the most up to date builds of Mountain Lion 10.8x.

Apple's high-performance desktop Mac Pro will get its long overdue specifications overhaul this spring. The Mac Pro is being pulled off shelves in Europe due to lack of compliance with local regulations; but a French retailer believes the pull out is temporary, and that a new, rehashed Mac Pro will be reintroduced in Spring (March-April). The new Mac Pro pole-vaults Sandy Bridge-EP Xeon processor line to Intel's next-generation Xeon "Ivy Bridge-EP" dual-socket processors, SSDs being standard equipment, and the latest generation NVIDIA GeForce or AMD Radeon graphics cards. It's also quite likely that Apple to refresh its display lineup to support higher resolutions.

NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) today reported record revenue of $1.20 billion for the third quarter of fiscal 2013 ended Oct. 28, 2012, up 15.3 percent from the previous quarter and up 12.9 percent from a year earlier.

The company also announced that it is initiating the payment of a quarterly cash dividend, and extending its existing $2.7 billion share-repurchase program, initiated in August 2004, through December 2014.

"Investments in our new growth strategies paid off this quarter in record revenues and margins," said Jen-Hsun Huang, president and chief executive officer of NVIDIA. "Kepler GPUs are winning across the special-purpose PC markets we serve, from gaming to design to supercomputing. And Tegra is powering some of the most innovative tablets, phones and cars in the market."

Mac professionals will benefit from dramatically improved graphics performance and productivity with today's announcement of the NVIDIA Quadro K5000 for Mac Pro systems.

Based on NVIDIA Kepler architecture -- the world's fastest, most efficient GPU design -- the Quadro K5000 for Mac is the most powerful professional-class GPU ever for the Macintosh, delivering unprecedented visualization and computation capabilities for designers and digital content creators.