Over the years, Macs have taken on the image of the superior personal computer. Sure, Windows may be close, but no cigar. Apple’s integration between software and hardware is tight, almost seamless, thus ensuring a wonderful user experience. When it comes to getting real work done, the Mac is the computer that mostly gets out of the way and lets you focus on your apps and your tasks.

However, some Mac users — and tech pundits — clearly believe that Apple doesn’t care so much about Macs anymore. In 2007, the company switched its name to Apple Inc. from Apple Computer Inc., thus emphasizing the change in the company’s focus from personal computers to a much wider range of electronic devices.

While major macOS releases have become predictably annual — and the branding change does indicate a positive push by Apple — hardware upgrades are less frequent. For the most part, those upgrades are very minor, consisting of a processor replacement, maybe better graphics, and perhaps a speedier drive. Prices are the same or a little lower, but the perceived changes from one year to the next aren’t significant. So it’s true that any MacBook Pro of 2015 is notably faster than my 2010 MacBook Pro, but the fact that I added an SSD blurs the distinction considerably. All right, I’d love to have a Retina display.

In 2016 so far, there has been only one Mac refresh, faster parts for the MacBook. That’s it. So it’s reasonable to conclude Apple has other priorities. But it’s not a matter of just packing in newer chips in essentially the same box. That’s been done on the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro for several years. At the same time, people are keeping their computers for longer periods of time. macOS Sierra supports Macs built six or seven years ago, so if you want to run the latest operating system, it’s not that you are suddenly behind the curve. Well, maybe for some features, but not for most and not for the apps most of you run.

The problem is that Microsoft is making a huge push with the Surface Pro tablet, and other PC makers, including HP, are intent on grabbing sales from Mac users or would-be Mac users in the absence of new gear from Apple. The Mac Pro, untouched since 2013, is a huge target, since PC makers earn the lion’s share of profits from high-end workstations.

Now the loyal Mac user would probably not be so readily tempted. If their existing Apple gear is working all right, there’s no rush. Or there shouldn’t be. But if it’s time for something new, the lack of recent compelling upgrades from Apple has to raise concerns.

But there may be solace for Mac users come this fall. There have been published reports that Apple is busy working on a new generation MacBook Pro with a slightly thinner, lighter case. A major new feature is an OLED touch-based set of context-sensitive function keys. Seems gimmicky to me, but I’ll grant Apple’s priorities, particularly in the ability to display changing labels to reflect different functions. There may even be a Touch ID-based power switch, and it’s about time.

Add that to the usual parts upgrades, and perhaps this will be a compelling refresh. If Apple knocks $100 off the price, that would be the icing on the cake. Even better, Apple needs to charge less for SSD and RAM upgrades. Without the ability to do easy upgrades — or any upgrades — Apple is holding Mac users hostage. I still think that, despite the minor design consequences, Apple needs to make it possible to easily upgrade RAM and storage, especially on a professional notebook. Maybe not the MacBook Air, but even that model ought to be easy to upgrade.

And what about the MacBook Air, which has existed in its present form for several years with only minor refreshes? The most obvious change would be the addition of a Retina display, but that might reflect the MacBook. Unfortunately, at $1,299, it’s priced out of the range of those seeking a reasonably affordable portable computer.

Now I suppose Apple could knock off a couple of hundred from that price, while retaining modified MacBook Airs at the lower end of the spectrum, or leave the MacBook in its present form as a single device that caters to people who want a light notebook with a great display and few frills.

I wouldn’t presume to guess Apple’s intentions, but I do not believe the MacBook was created as a dead end unto itself. Clearly there’s ongoing investment in the platform, and it may just be a matter of circumstances, development time, arrival of parts from Intel, and so forth, which has delayed the new models. Or maybe they aren’t delayed at all, and are arriving just as Apple expects.

Meantime, the fate of the Mac Pro remains uncertain. The same is true for the Mac mini, which had its last update in 2014.

It would be helpful, though, if Tim Cook says something about great new Mac hardware coming soon during next week’s iPhone event. He’s not likely to say which new models are forthcoming, but it would be reason for Mac users to fill just a tad optimistic.

With the arrival of macOS Sierra, you’ll be able to share your clipboard, a Universal Clipboard, with your other devices, including iPhones and iPads. The Optimized Storage feature will allow you to clean out your drive of duplicates and unused data. It will be a boon for those who bought Macs with tiny SSDs. Do you remember when the MacBook Air came with a 64GB drive?

At least those who write about Macs could stretch their brain cells to devise clever ways to tell their readers how to save storage space. Obviously having an external drive helped, but not when you wanted to travel and didn’t want to take extra stuff with you. Apple’s iCloud Drive is another, mostly seamless way for you to manage your extra stuff.

Well, it does appear that you might need an iCloud Drive more than ever with the new macOS. That’s because of a third feature that uses iCloud, where the contents of your Desktop and Documents folders are shared. For me, that’s 250GB, which may be on the low side for those engaged in audio and video work.

So that means many of you are forced to upgrade your iCloud storage. Unfortunately, Apple gives you just 5GB free, but there are several packages with more storage, a lot more storage after a recent change. But when you begin to budget your needs, you’ll also want to see what the competition is offering.

I’ve opted not to share my work folders for now. It would cost me $9.99 a month for 1TB. Instead, I’ve opted for the 99 cents a month package, 50GB, sufficient for my music and photo libraries. I already have two external backup drives for all my stuff, plus an account with CrashPlan for online backups.

Well, ahead of the arrival of macOS Sierra, presumably in late September or some time in October, Apple has updated its iCloud Drive plans. No, you do not get more free storage, and the rates are otherwise unchanged, but there’s a new 2GB tier for $19.99 a month or, as the title states, $239.88 per year.

Now that might seem a tad costly, but it’s not, at least it’s not if you consider one of Apple’s main rivals in the cloud storage business, and that’s Google.

But the offerings for Google Drive are more expansive, and they do offer you 15GB free, which is far more sensible. The next tier is 100GB, for $1.99 a month. The 1TB tier matches Apple’s price at $9.99, but if you require more storage, you need to move up to the next level, 10TB, at $99.99 per month. Higher capacities scale up at the same rate, so it’s $299.99 a month for a maximum of 30TB. If you have that amount of available storage to back up, you can probably afford $299.99 a month to keep it going.

There is a cheaper option, sort of, and that’s Microsoft One Drive. You can get an Office 365 Personal account, with 1TB storage, for $6.99 per month, and that also includes an Office license for Mac, PC or mobile. For $9.99, you can order the Office 365 Home plan that includes five user licenses for Office and 1TB storage for each user. If it’s just cloud storage you want, having Office is the icing on the cake.

On the other hand, the Microsoft One Drive system doesn’t integrate directly with your Apple stuff, though you can manually move files there. You can’t specify a different cloud storage scheme to sync your stuff, since Apple is offering an integrated system. You might also have concerns about the reliability of iCloud given occasional outages and sync problems.

With the arrival of macOS Sierra, your storage needs are destined to grow considerably. That means that reliability will be uppermost, particularly when you are depending on reliable handling of hundreds of gigabytes of your data — perhaps more.

I would like to see Apple increase the free storage level to match Google’s 15GB. As it is, you are forced into the 99 cents a month package unless you are real stingy, or choose not to sync your music and photo libraries. Otherwise, the prices are clearly competitive. Indeed, Apple’s 2TB plan makes more sense than buying 10TB from Google, unless you really need tons of extra space. I suspect Apple is serving the needs of well over 99% of its customers this way.

I will assume that iCloud is getting better, since it has been a while since I read about any outage, and I’ve had no recent problems at all. The real potential pitfall is your ISP’s bandwidth cap. If you have a typical 250GB or 500GB, you can quickly hit the limits if you opt to share your Desktop and Documents folders. It’s best to consult with your broadband provider.

Now some ISPs do it more sensibly. CenturyLink doesn’t count your uploads in its 250GB limit. So you could use an online storage system for terabytes of data and not worry about it — unless you have to restore a lot of data, such as a crashed drive.

As you know, I recently moved to a housing complex with free broadband. It’s limited to 15 megabits down and 3 megabits up. But the effective speed is higher than a normal broadband package with similar speeds. That’s because you get that top speed consistently 24/7, and there’s low latency, which means sites appear to come up faster. But the best part of it is that, according to the ISP, accessmedia3, there is no bandwidth cap. “None at all?” I asked when I contacted their tech support. “There are no limits whatever.” That’s the way it should be with a traditional wire-based broadband service, but too often it’s not.

In 1966, Beatle George Harrison opened the legendary album, “Revolver,” with these telltale lyrics:

Let me tell you how it will be
There’s one for you, nineteen for me
Cos I’m the taxman, yeah, I’m the taxman

It made a lot of sense for its time, since rich people in the UK had a tax rate that could exceed 95%. That move forced some entertainers to move elsewhere, often Spain, to become expats and thus qualify for much lower tax brackets.

But you can certainly understand why companies hoping to do business around the world would take advantage of the best tax rates. So, in 1980, Apple set up shop in Cork, Ireland by opening a factory with 60 employees. Some of you might have even bought Macs built in Cork. I know I did.

Well that move came at a time where economic conditions there weren’t so good, which meant that a growing company, with well-paid and highly skilled workers, was sorely needed. Apple also agreed with the tax people in Ireland to grant them an extraordinary low tax rate. After all these years, that move finally caught the ire of the European Commission.

In ordering Apple to pay up to $14.5 billion in unpaid taxes, the EC ruled that the company had received illegal state aid. With a tax rate of 0.005%, as of 2014, I suppose you can see their point.

Both Apple and the authorities in Dublin are appealing the ruling, and it appears the U.S. authorities might agree, since, whatever additional tax Apple is forced to pay, it can be deducted from their tax returns in this country. Thus, the IRS stands to lose billions of dollars in collections. You can see why they’re upset.

This action is part of a crackdown against alleged sweetheart deals that has already resulted in a decision against Starbucks Corp., in which they were ordered to pay $33 million. Both Amazon and McDonald’s are under investigation, and if the decision against Apple survives the appeal process, it’ll be a huge precedent that will allow the European authorities to go after other American companies that are allegedly paying lower taxes than they should.

But it’s not something that’ll be resolved right away. Apple has deep pockets and can fund appeals for years. However, one thing is certain; Brexit, the UK vote to leave the European Union, doesn’t apply, since Apple’s deal is with the Republic of Ireland, an independent country, and not Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK.

As you might expect, the adverse ruling brought a quick response in the form of a blog from Apple CEO Tim Cook, where he explains what he regards as the ins and outs of the deal and why Apple shouldn’t pay an extra dime. The argument against Apple is that the company should pay taxes in every country in which product is sold rather than the one country in which they got a sweetheart tax deal.

It’s a curious alignment of interests. The tax authorities in Dublin want to leave well enough alone, possibly looking towards the fact that there are currently 6,000 Apple employees in Ireland. According to Cook, however, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Apple’s products and services, including the App Store and all those developers, supposedly helped “create and sustain more than 1.5 million jobs across Europe.”

Yet another issue is whether Apple and other companies who have outsourced possibly trillions of dollars should be allowed to repatriate that money at a reduced tax rate. That way, they might be enticed to move the money to the U.S., and the IRS coffers are filled at a lower tax rate.

Obviously, there are lots of political tensions here. Apple has already been brought before Congress on the premise that they are already skirting their tax obligations. Cook, who knows a thing or two about talking to politicians, maintained during Congressional hearings that the company pays the taxes they are supposed to pay, and it is his fiduciary responsibility to Apple’s board and stockholders is to take advantage of the lowest tax rates allowed by law.

It’s hard to argue with that, and it’s hard to argue against Apple for doing something that any other multinational corporation would be delighted to do. Imagine how Apple’s board and stockholders would react if Cook said he had the firm pay higher taxes just to be politically correct.

I would not presume to suggest how the European Commission will fare when this ruling is appealed. The track record is really high, however, so the chances that Apple will emerge victorious may not be so favorable, although it’ll probably be delayed for years.

Regardless, if Apple had to write that $14.5 billion check tomorrow, it would hardly make much of an impact on the bottom line. What’s more, it’s clear that Cook’s statement is very self-serving. But that’s to be expected, and it won’t change the outcome one way or the other.

It didn’t come as much of a surprise. On Monday, Apple sent out those expected announcements to a number of media outlets, inviting them to “See you at the 7th” at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco. The keynote begins on Wednesday, September 7th at 10:00 AM Pacific, the usual time for an Apple event. Since the advertised capacity of the auditorium is 7,000, one expects a huge crowd.

It wasn’t so long ago when an Apple media event would be held in a far small venue.

Now most of the speculation about the bill of materials is essentially a repetition of what we’ve read before. The iPhone 7 is expected to be the headliner. While there’s still some speculation that Apple might eschew the “7” branding, that doesn’t seem to be in the cards. Why else make a big deal about the number seven? It’s not just about the date.

Ongoing speculation, though, doesn’t appear to point to a major upgrade. The case design is said to be quite similar to the iPhone 6s. But there are expected to be a number of changes, the most controversial of which points to the loss of the 3.5mm headphone jack. Instead, the Lightning port will handle that task, but that’s nothing new since that port can already manage such connections. There are a few headphones out there, usually the more expensive models, that use the Lightning port.

Apple is notorious for ditching legacy ports, and the headphone jack is the oldest, dating back to the 1950s and based on a technology first devised in the late 19th century. As with the loss of floppy drives on the iMac and, later, other Macs, there will be an outcry. If you have invested in quality headphones, you might have reason to worry, but published reports indicate that Apple will supply an adaptor.

So if this rumor, which has existed for months, is true, that will reduce the pain of this change. A reason for removing the headphone jack, other than the outdated technology, is to allow for a slightly thinner form factor and waterproofing. At least you expect Apple to meet the requirements for a waterproof or water-resistant iPhone, if one is coming. By comparison, the Samsung Galaxy S7 Active, advertised as water-resistant, reportedly failed routine dunking tests conducted by Consumer Reports magazine.

Other than allowing for some new headphone designs, however, ditching the headphone jack is mostly a non-issue. What does Apple bring to the table with the next generation iPhone?

You can expect a beefier processor and motion coprocessor, bearing the A10 and M10 designations. The 4.7-inch iPhone 7 will reportedly include 2GB RAM, the same as its predecessor. The iPhone 7 Plus gets 3GB. Now flagship Android smartphones generally have more RAM, but it hasn’t been demonstrated that they perform any better than an iPhone. The same is true for their beefier processor specs.

There’s also speculation about improved camera components, with a dual-lens setup for the iPhone 7 Plus. We’ll have to see. The iPhone phablet may also earn a Smart Connector port for a tiny external keyboard, but that would seem a curious choice. The 9.7-inch iPad Pro’s Smart Keyboard is already on the small side. I can’t see where it would make a whole lot of sense for a tinier input device, but it may create possibilities for other types of peripherals. I suppose there’s an outside chance that Apple will include Apple Pencil support.

Expect a final demonstration and a release date for iOS 10, which is currently available to developers and public beta testers.

I won’t say, “is that all there is?” because we just don’t know. The features above don’t come across as such a big deal, and you can expect Apple will have more, sufficient to allow them to tout the iPhone 7 as a major upgrade even if it doesn’t look altogether different.

Indeed, the expectation of a modest upgrade — again not proven — has fueled speculation about future changes in display technology. So it’s possible Apple will use an OLED display for its 10th anniversary iPhone in 2017, which doesn’t really help if you’re thinking about buying the upcoming 2016 model. Apple is also said to be flirting with microLED, an advanced display scheme that doesn’t require backlighting. It would no doubt create the possibility of a design that uses less battery power, thus making a fairly large improvement if it arrives on a future iPhone.

This possibility is not pie in the sky. In 2014, Apple bought LuxVue, a company that developed microLED technology, and, the following year, submitted a related patent application. The rumor sites suggest it’ll first appear in the Apple Watch before being used for larger displays. We’ll see.

The real question is whether other products will be introduced, or held off for future events. A second generation Apple Watch might appear. But you probably won’t learn anything new about Macs, except, perhaps, for a progress report on when macOS Sierra might arrive. The betting is for some time in October, perhaps in time for a new generation MacBook Pro. The rumors mention a slightly slimmer and lighter form factor with an OLED touchscreen replacing the function keys.

As we get closer to the event, the speculation might become more focused, and it’s always possible Apple will quietly drop hints to selected members of the press, some of whom are, without doubt, already using those new iPhones.