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Apple Silicon is Apple's new lineup of processors for the Mac platform. It was announced in 2020 with the first Macs appearing at Apple's "One More Thing" event in November 2020. The first was the M1, and it first appeared in the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac Mini.

Apple Silicon

Opinion: Is the base MacBook Air M1/8GB powerful enough for you?

Last year I picked up a very expensive computer — a top of the line 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro upgraded to an i9, 1TB of storage, and 16GB of RAM. But I just couldn’t wait to see how these M1 chips actually perform, so I decided to pick up the base $999 MacBook Air to see how it would hold up side-by-side with my 16-inch behemoth. The results are incredible.

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Pixelmator Pro 2.0 launching next week with redesigned UI, Big Sur and M1 support [now available]

Update, November 18th: You can now download the new Pixelmator Pro update from the App Store, with an updated design for Big Sur and performance optimizations targeting M1 Macs.

The Pixelmator team today announced the next major version of Pixelmator Pro, version 2.0. The update will be available in about a week’s time on Thursday, November 19th.

Pixelmator Pro 2.0 features an overhauled user interface with new layouts for the app’s toolbars and editor sidebars, including a dynamic Effects browser. There’s also drastically expanded customization options for the app’s interface, so you can tweak the chrome just the way you like. This update also brings support for macOS Big Sur and the new M1-powered MacBooks and Mac mini.

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Apple VPs talk M1 Macs, Rosetta 2 translation, and more in new interviews

Following Tuesday’s introduction of the first Apple Silicon Macs, Apple VPs Tim Millet and Bob Borchers have sat down for a pair of interviews to talk more about the M1 chip. Bob Borchers serves as vice president of product marketing for Apple, while Tim Millet is the company’s vice president of platform architecture.

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Sparkle app for Mac gets major update new design, SEO assistant, M1 compatibility, more

Sparkle is a popular Mac app that allows anyone to easily create a website through an intuitive and easy to use app. Following the release of macOS Big Sur, Sparkle has been updated to version 3 with a new design and several more features, including an SEO assistant and compatibility with Apple Silicon Macs.

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Apple executives talk new M1 chip, downplay touchscreen Mac rumors in new interview

Following the announcement of the first M1-powered Macs earlier this week, a trio of Apple executives spoke with The Independent to talk about Apple Silicon. In the interview, marketing chief Greg Joswiak, software VP Craig Federighi, and hardware engineering VP John Ternus went in-depth on the new M1 chip, the future of the Mac, and more.

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Affinity creative suite adds Big Sur and Apple Silicon compatibility, now up to 3x faster

With macOS Big Sur landing today and Apple Silicon Macs arriving to customers by November 17, it’s awesome to see developers releasing updates to offer support for both. And of course that means impressive performance gains with the first M1 Macs. Affinity is out today with new versions of all of its Mac apps to take advantage of Apple’s latest software and hardware.

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djay Pro AI for Mac gets Apple Silicon support, 15x faster at separating/remixing tracks in real-time

This past summer, Algoriddim released its djay Pro AI app for iOS and the same tech and capabilities came to the Mac with its Neural Mix Pro. The software brings powerful performance based on Apple’s Core ML for DJs and musicians to do things like separate, play, and remix tracks in real-time. Now the app has launched as a Universal build that brings support for the Apple Silicon M1 chip arriving in the newest Macs with what looks like huge performance gains.

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MacBook Air with M1 chip beats 16-inch MacBook Pro performance in benchmark test

Apple introduced its first Macs with the Apple Silicon “M1” chip, which brings the ARM architecture to the Mac with improved performance and energy efficiency. While the company said that the M1 chip is more powerful than most PC processors, a new benchmark test revealed that the new MacBook Air with M1 chip can beat all models of the 16-inch MacBook Pro with Intel processors.

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Everything you need to know about Apple’s new M1 chip for the Mac

apple m1

Apple has officially announced its first processor designed specifically for the Mac, dubbed the M1. The M1 chip features an eight-core design alongside a powerful Neural Engine and GPU, offering dramatic efficiency and performance improvements for the Mac.

If you’re buying a new Mac today and are confused by Apple’s M1 chip option in the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini, read along for all of the details on what you need to know.

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Why is there a comical difference in the new MacBook Air specs?

New MacBook Air specs 7-core versus 8-core GPU

A number of people commented on what appears to be a comical difference in the new MacBook Air specs, between the $999 base model and the $1249 version.

Both models have an 8-core CPU with 4 perform­ance cores and 4 efficiency cores, along with a 16-core Neural Engine. But while the higher-spec model has an 8-core GPU – also seen in the new MacBook Pro and Mac mini – the base model only has a 7-core GPU …

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Apple’s M1 chip fastest laptop CPU in the world, says independent analysis

Apple's M1 chip

A detailed analysis by AnandTech says that Apple’s M1 chip can indeed credibly claim to be the fastest laptop CPU in the world. Apple made the claim during yesterday’s Mac event.

While the piece does level a couple of criticisms at Apple’s presentation, it says that a comparison of A-series and Intel chip trajectories tell a very clear story: Apple has long been on-track to overtake the PC chipmaker, and has now done so …

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Here are the huge battery life improvements with the Apple Silicon MacBook Air and Pro

As Apple launched its new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro powered by its M1 custom Apple Silicon, we learned about the big performance gains to expect. Beyond processor and graphics performance, Apple says battery performance is seeing massive improvements giving them the “longest battery life ever in a Mac.” Here’s what Apple is rating battery runtime for the new MacBook Air and Pro.

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Apple Event News Hub and Live Blog — The first Apple Silicon Macs

apple november event live blog

9to5Mac’s Apple event coverage is brought to you by CleanMyMac X. Try CleanMyMac X for free to optimize and clean your Mac.

Apple is holding a special “One more thing” event today, streamed directly from Apple Park. During this event, we expect the full details on Apple’s transition to Apple Silicon in the Mac lineup, the macOS Big Sur release date, and more.

Apple’s live stream will begin at 10 am PT/1 pm ET, and you can follow along in 9to5Mac’s Apple Event News Hub for the latest coverage. Head below and refresh throughout the event for more.

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