Microsoft has updated its Edge browser with native support for Apple Silicon, promising optimized performance for Macs with the M1 chip.
The update was announced through the official Edge developers Twitter account, which invited users to download the new version from the Microsoft Edge Canary Channel, a subsection of the Microsoft Edge Insiders website.
You asked, and we delivered! 💪 Native support for Mac ARM64 devices is now available in our Canary channel. Download it today from our Microsoft Edge Insiders website! https://t.co/qJMMGV0HjU
— Microsoft Edge Dev (@MSEdgeDev) December 16, 2020
Microsoft didn't specify what kind of performance improvements users can expect from the M1-optimized version of its browser, but if it's anything like Firefox's supercharged Apple silicon update, loyal Edge users should have something to celebrate.
Earlier this week, Apple shared a list of popular apps optimized for M1 Macs that are available in the Mac App Store, such as Pixelmator Pro, Adobe Lightroom, Affinity Designer, Darkroom, Fantastical, OmniFocus, BBEdit, Instapaper, and Twitter. Apple boasted that apps optimized for the M1 chip deliver "game-changing speed and capabilities."
Last month, Apple released its first Macs with the M1 chip, including a new 13-inch MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and Mac mini.
Thursday October 31, 2024 9:42 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Apple is set to release iOS 18.2 in December, bringing the second round of Apple Intelligence features to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models. This update brings several major advancements to Apple's AI integration, including completely new image generation tools and a range of Visual Intelligence-based enhancements. There are a handful of new non-AI related feature controls incoming as well.
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We're officially in the month of Black Friday, which will take place on Friday, November 29 in 2024. As always, this will be the best time of the year to shop for great deals, including popular Apple products like AirPods, iPad, Apple Watch, and more.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment,...
Thursday October 31, 2024 7:06 pm PDT by Joe Rossignol
The first Geekbench 6 benchmark results for the M4 Pro chip surfaced today. Impressively, the results that are available so far show that the highest-end M4 Pro chip is faster than the highest-end M2 Ultra chip in terms of peak multi-core CPU performance.
Here is a comparison of the results:
Mac mini with M4 Pro (14-core CPU): 22,094 multi-core score (average of 11 results)
Mac Studio...
Friday November 1, 2024 4:04 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
The iPhone SE 4 that's set to come out early next year is expected to debut Apple's first in-house 5G modem, according to Jeff Pu, an analyst who covers companies within Apple's supply chain.
In a research note this week with Hong Kong-based investment firm Haitong International Securities, Pu said Apple is expected to roll out its custom-made 5G modem starting with the next-generation...
Monday November 4, 2024 10:54 am PST by Juli Clover
With the second beta of iOS 18.2 that's available for developers today, Apple has further fleshed out the ChatGPT integration that's available with Siri. In the Settings app, there's now a section that shows the ChatGPT daily limit, and offers an option to upgrade to the paid ChatGPT Plus plan.
The beta includes an Advanced Capabilities section with a "Daily Limit" reading that shows up as...
Friday November 1, 2024 8:04 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple's new M4 Pro and M4 Max chips are impressively fast in terms of CPU performance, topping the M2 Ultra, but what about graphics performance?
The first Geekbench 6 results for GPU performance are now available for the M4 Pro and M4 Max, and the Metal scores reveal some impressive year-over-year gains. Based on the Metal scores that are available so far, the M4 Pro and M4 Max are up to...
Friday November 1, 2024 9:40 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
After a busy October in which Apple announced new Macs and Apple Intelligence launched, the calendar has now turned to November. Below, we outline what to expect from Apple this month as the slower-but-still-busy holiday season approaches.
After seeding the first betas of iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS Sequoia 15.2 with additional Apple Intelligence features last month, Apple will likely...
Faster Uses far less memory with all the same tabs and extensions enabled (around 1/3 the total Chrome uses) They stripped out all of Google's tracking services, using strictly the rendering engine To that previous point, there's far more Privacy settings that are very easy to find, like Brave, to give more granular control Has PlayReady DRM in addition to WideVine, so you can use it for more media sites Tracking Prevention (like Safari) by default And for those in an older Enterprise Corpo world... IE mode
One of the biggest problems with Windows 10 for ARM was the lack of updates to existing software making it a difficult transition to make (along with poor chip support - the processors that were chosen were not good ones).
One of the biggest worries with moving to the ARM chips was going to be software support. And the turn around from developers has been absolutely fantastic. It's already becoming a non-issue only a month into to the transition.
Subjective opinion incoming: I really like Microsoft Edge (and have been using this Canary release most of the day). Edge features many of the benefits of Google Chrome (website compatibility, etc) without having to use a Google product. This M1 version is very quick indeed and feels snappy. According to Activity Monitor, memory usage is on par with Safari in terms of general browsing (sits around 10% of CPU usage). I haven't tested video playback within each browser, mind, and I'm on a Mac Mini, so I can't speak to any effects on battery life.
One of the biggest problems with Windows 10 for ARM was the lack of updates to existing software making it a difficult transition to make (along with poor chip support - the processors that were chosen were not good ones).
One of the biggest worries with moving to the ARM chips was going to be software support. And the turn around from developers has been absolutely fantastic. It's already becoming a non-issue only a month into to the transition.
At this point I'm more worried about Intel support in a few years. Can't be long before there are ARM-only apps.
