product
2026-11-09 09:54
In recent days, everyone's eyes have been fixed on the new computer-the touch-screen MacBook that abandons the "ancestral methods".
But if you look away a little bit, you will find that Apple has another thing worth talking about in this release-the Apple Creator Studio that has just been updated.
Coincidentally, the new MacBook Pro equipped with M6 chip has arrived in the hands of Ai Faner. We decided to use this new machine directly to experience the updated Creator Studio.
Let’s take a look at what new experiences Apple’s software suite has evolved on the base of the M6.
AI computing power enters productivity
Before we talk about the software, we still have to explain the hardware foundation of the M6 MacBook Pro in our hands. Ai Faner got a basic configuration model of 16GB + 512GB.
From the appearance, the new M6 MacBook Pro still follows Apple's familiar product strategy - continuing the mold design of the previous generation M5 model. It’s still the 14.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR display that supports up to 120Hz ProMotion adaptive refresh rate, and the interface configuration remains basically the same.
In other words, the focus of this MacBook Pro update is almost entirely on the chip.
As Apple's first Apple Silicon chip using 2nm process technology, M6 has further improved CPU, GPU and AI computing capabilities compared to the previous generation M5. The CPU has increased from 10 cores to 12 cores, and the GPU has also reached 12 cores.
What is even more noteworthy is that Apple has re-adjusted the core division of labor in the CPU, added a Neural Accelerator to the GPU, and upgraded the Neural Engine to a dual 16-core design.
If you look at these changes together, you will find that the upgrade direction of the M6 is already clear-Apple is making the Mac better at handling complex graphics tasks, as well as more and more AI workloads.
So, when this chip meets the newly upgraded Apple Creator Studio, what kind of sparks will be created?
Let’s take a look at Logic Pro first.
My first impression of Logic Pro this time is that the entire software interface has a completely new look. The new version adopts Apple’s latest Liquid Glass design language, and a large number of buttons and interactive elements have been replaced with the visual effect of liquid glass.
In addition to the interface, the instrument library has also been reorganized. The new version of Logic Pro classifies instruments, timbres, and effect resources in a more systematic manner, making daily searches much more intuitive.
In terms of specific functions, a very practical upgrade this time is Stem Splitter (track separation).
In fact, Logic Pro’s original audio track separation capability is already quite easy to use. Faced with a complete song that has been mixed, it can use AI to split vocals, drum kits, bass and other accompaniments into independent tracks.
This update further refines this function——
Compared with the past, where you could only separate an entire drum track, in the new version, Logic Pro can continue to split it down, extracting the kick drum, snare drum, cymbal and other parts to generate their own independent tracks.
Along with this function, we also measured the processing speed of M6.
First, use a complete song that is about 4 and a half minutes long to separate the tracks: Compared with the M3 Pro model I use daily, the M6 MacBook Pro in my hand completes the same task nearly a minute faster.
We then performed a bounce export test on another audio project - the M6 took 17 seconds, while the M3 Pro took 25 seconds.
This visible speed increase is largely due to the increase in the overall computing power of M6. In particular, the dual 16-core neural network engine and the new neural network accelerator in the GPU further improve the efficiency of the chip in processing AI workloads.
Another pretty intuitive gap comes from Pixelmator Pro.
We used the "super-resolution" function to enlarge 5 high-resolution photos at the same time. In the end, the M3 Pro took 2 minutes and 52 seconds, while the M6 only took 48 seconds - which also gave a more concrete reflection of the M6's AI computing power advantage.
In addition to the efficiency improvement due to the blessing of computing power, this time Creator Studio actually also has a lot of new features based on generative AI. Unfortunately, we are not yet able to fully experience these generative AI functions in the Bank of China environment.
Fortunately, we have also found an equipment environment that meets the conditions, and we will give you a taste of it first.
For example, Pixelmator Pro’s new Generative Fill. Just select an area in the photo and describe your needs in natural language, and AI can automatically generate new picture content.
If you look closely at the whole process, you'll find that there's something clever about the way Pixelmator Pro handles it.
It will first generate a rectangular image around the selection that is slightly larger than the circled range, and then blend the generated content with the original image through smart masking. Even if the edges of the generated picture are different from the original environment, this set of masks can automatically control the display range, making the transition between the old and new pictures more natural.
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In addition, the three-piece suite of Pages, Keynote and Numbers has also added a new AI Assistant, which can help users write content, adjust presentation layout, or organize and analyze table data based on the context of the current document.
What’s more interesting is that the three-piece set also has a built-in image generation function. Not only can you generate pictures, but you can also make secondary modifications by adding prompt words based on an existing picture. The software even directly provides a set of quite rich modification presets, such as adding details, switching styles, etc.
Although the above generative AI functions are still some way off for Bank of China users, this update also hides another underlying change that is available to everyone: Pages, Keynote, and Numbers begin to natively support MCP.
Ai Faner also tried it out. We use Codex to directly connect to Pages, allowing it to automatically generate a travel pictorial with relatively complex layout and visual hierarchy.
The final effect is quite good, and almost all content editing and complex typesetting - including font settings, paragraph styles, mixed graphics and text, etc., are all directly called up through the native MCP interface.
Similarly, we also tried to connect Keynote to it, and we can still produce a very mature slide layout effect.
Software is retaining users for hardware
It’s been over a year since Apple Creator Studio was officially released. I paid out of my own pocket to become a subscriber last year, so I would like to talk about the most realistic experience of using this software from a personal perspective.
When I decided to subscribe, I actually had a more selfish reason: As an entry-level music lover, Logic Pro has always been the professional software I wanted to try. Just in time for Apple to launch the Creator Studio subscription service, I didn’t have to spend a lot of money to buy it out right away. I signed up for membership without much hesitation.
During the period of actual use, I found that in addition to the functions for professional workers, this software has two advantages that are easily overlooked.
One is a highly unified visual and interactive experience between software.
If you are a long-term MacBook user, this feeling will be even more obvious. You don't need to adapt to an unfamiliar interaction logic every time you open a new software; and from the layout of the interface to the restraint of visual details, it has a very pure "fruity" aesthetic, and it has a refined feel that is integrated with the system.
The other is a lower threshold to get started.
Whether it is Pixelmator Pro or Final Cut Pro, Apple is trying to make professional tools as intuitive and easy to understand as possible - at least for me, the entrance to various functions is clear, and many operations can be used intuitively. Of course, they are not without learning costs, but for an entry-level user who wants to try creating, the difficulty of getting started with the software itself will at least not be a reason to persuade people to quit.
It sounds like just some experience details, but putting these professional tools into a usage system that ordinary people can try intuitively is an important value in itself.
And when this "easy to use" experience meets the subscription system, the real commercial value of Apple Creator Studio becomes apparent.
In the past, the buyout system that cost thousands of dollars for a single piece of professional software was actually a very high wall. It means that users must first confirm their long-term needs before deciding whether to spend money. For students, young people, or just ordinary people who are interested in music, video and image creation, paying thousands of dollars at a time is a matter of determination.
But after switching to today’s subscription system, it’s 38 yuan per month—if you have a student discount, it’s even only 18 yuan per month.
For new users who want to try something new, the price sensitivity will be instantly reduced a lot, and the acceptance of paying money to try it will naturally be much higher.
Of course, a subscription doesn't mean it's necessarily cheaper for long-term use. But for users who have not yet formed clear needs, what Apple has reduced is precisely the cost of the "first try."
To put it bluntly, this is also a kind of user education.
What Apple really wants to cultivate may not be independent software consumers, but the next generation of users of professional creative tools.
When a user who is just a music lover starts to learn arranging with Logic Pro; when an ordinary user gradually builds his photo editing habit on Pixelmator - he invests not only the monthly subscription fee, but also time, skills, project files, and a set of gradually developed workflows.
The more time it takes, the higher the future migration costs will be.
At this time, software is no longer just an application on Mac, but the reason why users continue to choose Mac for their next computer - it can even be said that Apple is using this software system to keep people in the ecosystem and feed back future hardware sales.
If you have paid attention to Apple's recent developments, you will find that Apple acquired three companies: MotionVFX, Color.io and Samplab, which respectively deal with video special effects and dynamic graphics, color management and color grading, and music and audio processing.
This is not a recent move. The earlier acquisition of the Pixelmator team is the most typical example - Apple has been continuously acquiring various outstanding independent software teams, and then integrating them into its own Studio system to continue to complete this tool chain.
Apple is obviously not satisfied with just packing several software into a subscription package. What it really wants to do is to turn "professional creation" into a complete part of the ecosystem.
If you zoom in, Creator Studio and the previously launched MacBook Neo actually have similar business logic.
MacBook Neo uses lower hardware prices to lower the threshold for users to buy their first Mac; Creator Studio uses lower subscription costs to lower the threshold for users to come into contact with professional creative software for the first time.
One lowers the threshold for entering the ecology, and the other increases the reasons for staying in the ecology.
But the problem is that in the past, Apple, which could attract countless people to spend money through hardware upgrades alone, why does it now spend so much effort and rely on the software ecosystem to match the hardware?
The answer is actually on our desktop - because Mac hardware has reached a very "end" state.
The "end" here does not mean that Apple is technically exhausted. More accurately, it means that the innovation path of traditional PC hardware is maturing and gradually reaching a bottleneck.
When product forms have not fundamentally changed for many years and daily experiences are highly convergent, pure hardware iteration will only become a "digital game" that becomes increasingly difficult to get excited about.
Just like the M6 version of MacBook Pro we are using. To me, it's not a bad computer. On the contrary, the updated M6 chip brings a steady improvement in performance, which is enough to support a considerable number of professional creative needs.
For someone who is preparing to advance from an ordinary user to a professional creator, this machine is still attractive enough. At least, if I were asked to choose a computer now that can accompany me to further explore creative possibilities, even if I know that Mac hardware innovation has entered a bottleneck period, I will still put it at the top of my priority list.
It is more like a gentle upward curve, but not a curve that will surprise people.
Looking at this year’s entire MacBook product line, this is actually the case. When conventional performance iterations could no longer tell exciting new stories, Apple even began to return to the "lighting Apple logo" and even moved out touch screens that "violated the ancestral laws" to serve as new product selling points.
When the hardware itself becomes increasingly difficult to create generational differences, software must take on another task: constantly creating new reasons to use the hardware.
This may be the true meaning of Apple Creator Studio.
Fang Junming
A total of 17 articles have been published
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