M1

An analysis by a senior IBM exec suggests that Apple’s move to M1 chips will save the company around $2.5B this year, with far larger savings to come as Apple transitions its entire Mac lineup to its own silicon.

The analysis is admittedly based on a series of estimates, and likely inaccurate, but the overall picture it paints seems plausible …

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.

A wave of Apple M1 benchmarks has landed today with reviews of the new Macs as well as the computers now arriving to early customers. We’ve now got some great examples of what the impressive new M1 Mac capabilities mean for real-world performance.

As the first orders arrive to customers, early reviews of the M1 Mac mini, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air have officially been published. As expected, the reviews praise the M1 chip’s performance and battery life, and they note that Apple Silicon will only get better from here.

Adobe has announced the availability of Photoshop native M1 Mac support in a day-one beta. It lacks a lot of the features in the release version, but the company says there are more on the way.

We are excited to announce the first Beta release of Photoshop running natively on Apple Silicon hardware!

This early version of Photoshop for Apple Silicon offers many of the core Photoshop features that you’ve come to rely on for your day to day editing needs, and we’ll be adding more features in the weeks to come …

Blizzard has announced that World of Warcraft now runs natively on M1 Macs, without the need for Rosetta 2 emulation. This makes it the first major game to offer support for Apple Silicon Macs.

Blizzard says that its testing has been successful, hence releasing the update on day one, but the company acknowledges that issues are always possible …

If you missed pre-orders for the new M1 Macs, you may be able to get your hands on one without the wait by opting for in-store pickup.

In the UK, for example, both standard-configuration M1 MacBook Air models are showing Nov 25 to Dec 2 for delivery, but they are available for in-store pickup tomorrow …

Apple announced its new lineup of Macs with M1 chip last Tuesday with pre-orders available right after the special event. While the new Macs will be available in retail stores starting tomorrow, the first orders are now arriving to customers ahead of the official launch, according to reports on Twitter.

Ever since Apple unveiled its new M1 SoC, it has been continuously impressing us as we learn more about it. That trend continues today as the M1 has been tested using the GFXBench 5.0 benchmarking tool. The results, while nothing awe-inspiring, are definitely impressive.

New Geekbench scores show that the 2020 Mac mini with M1 chip is faster than every Intel Mac in single core tests, even though the benchmarking app is running under the Rosetta 2 emulator. The M1-powered MacBook Pro and MacBook Air take second and third places.

There are some important riders to note, however …

As Apple launched its new macOS operating system to the public yesterday, serious server outages occurred that saw widespread Big Sur download/install failures, iMessage and Apple Pay go down but more than that, even performance issues for users running macOS Catalina and earlier. We learned why that happened at a high-level yesterday, now security researcher Jeffry Paul has shared a deep-dive of his understanding along with his privacy and security concerns for Macs, especially Apple Silicon ones.

Update: Apple has shared a response to Paul’s concerns in an updated support document that includes what macOS does to protect your privacy and security, and three new steps it will take in the future for greater privacy and flexibility.

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.

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.

Just two days after the “One more thing” event, the first Apple M1-powered MacBook Air orders are starting to ship to customers. The first deliveries are currently scheduled to arrive as early as next week, Apple says.

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.

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.

As Apple begins the two-year journey to dumping Intel processors via the M1 processor, a new report suggests that some future Intel CPUs might be made by Apple chipmaker TSMC.

More precisely, it raises the possibility that Intel might ask, but the Taiwanese chipmaker might say no …

Some big Hollywood names have welcomed Apple’s launch of the first M1 Macs, one stating that it’s the best news from Apple in a decade, another that the Mac mini could be huge for editors.

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences member Michael Cioni said the announcement showed that Apple still cares about creative pros …

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.