Apple Silicon

The first M1 Macs have been a huge big success on a number of levels and the tech industry is keen to see the performance that Apple Silicon will unlock as the whole Mac lineup gets the custom chips. Now a former Apple engineer has shared interesting details on what key ARM advancements Apple made starting around 10 years ago that led to the magic of M1 Mac performance that we have today. And notably, Apple’s work really pushed the rest of the industry as it forged the leading edge with ARM.

Apple first unveiled its plans to transition away from Intel processors at WWDC in June, detailing that the first Mac powered by Apple Silicon would be released before the end of the year. As it turns out, Apple released three Macs powered by its new M1 chip: a MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini.

Despite Apple having a strong 2020 in nearly all regards, the M1 Mac is what we are officially crowning as the 9to5Mac Product of the Year.

An Intel investor with a billion dollar stake in the chipmaker says that it needs to make drastic changes to address its changed fortunes – including attempting to win back Apple as a client.

Intel stock had fallen 21% over the course of 2020 before the 10-figure investment by hedge fund Third Point, which is pushing for fundamental change in the company …

Update: Zoom for Apple Silicon is now available. Look for the M1 Mac mention on the Zoom download page right here.

Zoom has published the release notes for an update it says is scheduled to be released to users tomorrow, December 21. The highlight for Mac users is that the update will bring support for Apple Silicon Macs, including native performance on the M1 MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini.

When I purchased the early 2020 MacBook Air, at the time, I said it was the ideal laptop for K-12. In a fashion that only Apple can do, they’ve topped their computer just a few months after its release. After switching to the M1 Apple Silicon MacBook Air a few weeks ago, it’s undoubtedly the best laptop ever built for education.

Sponsor: If you’re a business of school looking to find a trusted repair partner for your Apple devices, check out 9to5Mac’s Apple Repair Services.

Parallels has released a Technical Preview Program for running Parallels Desktop 16 on M1-powered Macs. The company says that it created a “new virtualization engine that uses the Apple M1 Mac chip hardware-assisted virtualization” to allow users to run ARM-based operating systems, including Windows, in a virtual machine.

Microsoft has made a variety of major announcements for Office 365 users on the Mac. With updates rolling out today, Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote for the Mac are all now optimized for Apple Silicon. The apps have also been redesigned with macOS Big Sur in mind, and more.

Qualcomm and Apple were once engaged in a bitter legal battle over cellular modems and licensing, but now Qualcomm president Cristiano Amon has praise for Apple’s newest M1 chip. In an interview with The Verge, Amon said that the success of the M1 “validates” Qualcomm’s beliefs in the future of computing.

Rumors about Apple working on its own cellular modem are not exactly new, but they became more frequent after the company acquired Intel’s modem business in 2019. However, according to a new Bloomberg report, Apple has finally started to develop its first cellular modem chip.

The M1 chip in the entry-level MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini lines already rivals high-end Intel CPUs. But a new report from Bloomberg indicates that Apple is confident it can fully leave Intel in the dust, as it works on next-generation Apple Silicon chips with higher power budgets.

Bloomberg says Apple is working on successors to the M1 with up to 20 CPU cores, made up of 16 high performance and 4-efficiency cores. In 2021, the company is expected to roll out ARM versions of the higher-end MacBook Pro, “both entry-level and high-end iMac desktops”. An ARM Mac Pro is scheduled to follow in 2022.

Last week we saw the first successful virtualization of ARM Windows 10 on an M1 Mac. The good news is that it even appeared to be “pretty snappy.” Now we’ve got a look at a helpful walkthrough and peek at real-world performance in a new video, including the M1 Mac mini blowing away Microsoft’s Surface Pro X.

Last week we heard from Apple’s VP of software engineering Craig Federighi that the ARM version of Windows 10 could run natively on Apple Silicon M1 Macs but was “really up to Microsoft.” Now a developer has found a workaround enabling the first virtualization of ARM Windows running successfully on an M1 Mac and claims the performance is “pretty snappy.”

While almost all aspects of M1 Mac performance are greatly improved compared to the Intel Mac predecessors, one notable downside has been reduced support for external displays. In what looks like some exciting news, it appears Apple may be underselling the M1 Mac external display functionality.

While the transition to Apple Silicon has been impressively smooth overall for the first M1 Macs, a big lingering question is what Windows support will look like as Boot Camp is not supported on the new generation of Macs. Now in a new in-depth interview, Apple’s VP of software engineering Craig Federighi has said that the ARM version of Windows could run natively on Apple Silicon Macs, but it will be up to Microsoft.

TweetDeck for Mac has been updated today with support to run natively on the first M1 Macs. This means TweetDeck now runs natively without translation on the new Mac mini, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air.

Yesterday we saw a useful detailed list of all the games that are compatible with Apple Silicon (and is being continually updated). Now we’ve got another valuable database for all of the M1 compatible apps available so far.

The Apple Silicon M1 Macs offer some seriously impressive performance across a variety of workflows. While gaming still isn’t necessarily a strong suit for macOS, the custom M1 SoC definitely brings improvements to offer a solid-enough experience for some titles, and through the lens of Apple’s entry-notebooks even an surprisingly good one. Here’s a look at all M1 Mac compatible games and associated details.

One of the biggest differentiators between the new M1 Macs and their Intel predecessors is that any M1 Mac can run iPhone and iPad applications. Through the Mac App Store, you can now download M1 versions of popular iOS and iPadOS applications, though developers do have the ability to opt out.

Here’s what the experience of running iPhone and iPad apps on the Mac is like in the real world.