MacRumors

Apple's New M1 Macs began arriving to customers earlier this week, and since the ‌M1‌ Apple Silicon is an entirely new chip architecture that's a major departure from the Intel chips that Apple has used for years, there's a lot to learn about the new machines.

We've rounded up some useful Apple ‌M1‌ tidbits below, which apply to the new Mac mini, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro and will be useful for new Mac owners.

Running x86 Apps Homebrew Apps

The developers behind the Notion app for Macs shared a blog post on getting homebrew or other terminal apps that don't have Arm support to run on an ‌Apple Silicon‌ Mac. The steps are as follows:

1. Create a duplicate of the Terminal app in the Utilities folder.
2. Right click on the app and choose Get Info.
3. Rename the other version of the app into something recognizable.
4. Check off the "open using Rosetta" option.

That's all there is to it. Once Open using Rosetta is selected, homebrew apps can be run in the Terminal on ‌Apple Silicon‌ Macs.

Running iOS Apps Using .ipa Files

MacRumors reader Amy tells us that she's able to run iOS apps that are not available on the Mac App Store on ‌Apple Silicon‌ apps using .ipa files.

Legitimate .ipa files that are downloaded from iTunes or something like an iMazing backup can be double-clicked and installed on an ‌Apple Silicon‌ Mac and they run as if they're on an iOS device. Amy says that she's used this method to install Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, Spotify, and more, even though those apps are not available through the ‌Mac App Store‌.

Universal and Native Apple Silicon Apps

Looking for apps that are able to run natively on ‌Apple Silicon‌ Macs without the need for Rosetta 2? Our forums has an extensive list of all of the apps that have been updated for the Apple ‌M1‌ chip, and it's worth checking out if you're looking for software that's going to have the best performance.

Apps updated with support include Affinity Photo and Designer, Aviary, HandBrake, coconutBattery, iStat Menus, OmniFocus, Pixelmator Pro, and tons more.

Gaming on Apple Silicon

Wondering how games run on an ‌Apple Silicon‌ Mac? A reddit user took the time to benchmark and test a long list of popular games to see how they run on an ‌M1‌ ‌Mac mini‌ with 8GB RAM. Test games include League of Legends, Cities: Skylines, Starcraft 2, World of Warcraft, Diablo 3, and more.

How to Get to macOS Recovery

On Intel Macs, you hold Command R when turning on the Mac to get to macOS Recovery for reinstalling macOS, accessing Disk Utility, or restoring from a Time Machine backup.

On an ‌Apple Silicon‌ Mac, you can still get to macOS Recovery, but the key presses are different. Turn on the Mac, press and hold the power button until the startup options window comes up, and then click on the gear icon that's labeled "Options."

More Tips

Know of a useful ‌M1‌ Mac tip that we've left out? Let us know in the comments and we'll add it to the list.

Google today updated its Gmail app designed for the iPhone and the iPad, introducing a new widget that can be added to the Today center alongside other widgets or to the Home Screen on an ‌iPhone‌.

After updating, the Gmail widget can be added to the ‌Home Screen‌ by pressing and holding to enter jiggle mode and then tapping the "+" button. From there, scroll down and tap on Gmail to add the widget, using a finger to drag it to the appropriate spot.

The Gmail widget can be used to search within the Gmail app, compose a new email message, or view unread email messages. It provides shortcuts for these tasks only and does not list sensitive email information nor can it be customized with other functionality.

Apple in iOS 14.3 is streamlining the Home Screen customization process by simplifying the way that app shortcuts work. With the launch of iOS 14, users quickly discovered that Shortcuts could be used to replace traditional app icons to create an entirely customized ‌Home Screen‌ look.

Unfortunately, while these Home Screens created with Shortcuts looked fantastic, the experience was less than ideal because launching an app through shortcuts required the Shortcuts app to open briefly, slowing the app opening process. In iOS 14.3 beta 2, that's no longer the case because shortcuts no longer have to route through the Shortcuts app.

As Reddit users discovered after installing yesterday's beta, launching an app through Shortcuts on the ‌Home Screen‌ in iOS 14.3 pops up a banner at the top of the display, but the full Shortcuts app no longer opens, so there's less of a delay when using a custom icon to launch apps.

The simplification of the shortcut opening process from the ‌Home Screen‌ will be a welcome change for those who have opted to customize their Home Screens with a whole set of custom icons, as the experience is much more similar to opening a standard app without Shortcuts.

For those interested in adding custom icons to their ‌Home Screen‌ through the Shortcuts app, make sure to check out our how to.

Apple has seeded two betas of iOS 14.3 at this time, and it's likely that the update will see an official release in December. Those who want to try out the Shortcut feature now can do so through Apple's public beta option.

In an internal document obtained by MacRumors, Apple has acknowledged an issue with some iPhone 12 displays exhibiting flickering, a green or gray glow, or other unintended lighting variations under some conditions.

In the document, shared with Apple Authorized Service Providers this week, Apple says that it is aware of customer reports related to this issue and is investigating. Apple has advised technicians to avoid servicing affected iPhones, at least for now, and instead inform customers that they should keep their iPhone up to date with the latest iOS version. This guidance suggests that Apple may be confident that it can fix the issue in a future software update.

A similar green tinted display issue affected some iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max models, and Apple was able to fix it in iOS 13.6.1.

There have been complaints about this new issue in the MacRumors forums and Apple Support Communities since shortly after iPhone 12 models launched. The issue can affect the iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max.

Based on customer reports, the issue appears to occur when the display brightness is set to around 90% or lower. Many users are experiencing the issue on iOS 14.1, iOS 14.2, and seemingly even the first two iOS 14.3 betas. The flickering or glowing is not always persistent, disappearing after a short time for some customers.

If and when the issue is addressed, or we learn more, we'll update this article accordingly.

Earlier this year, several states launched an investigation into Apple's iPhone "throttling" practices, aiming to determine whether Apple's slowing of older iPhones through power management "violated deceptive trade practice laws."

The investigation has now concluded, and Apple has opted to pay $113 million to settle the matter, reports The Washington Post. Apple has also agreed to be more transparent about similar changes to iOS devices in the future, providing more detail about battery health and power management.

In a statement, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich said that he's committed to preventing tech companies from manipulating consumers.

"Big Tech must stop manipulating consumers and tell them the whole truth about their practices and products. I'm committed to holding these goliath technology companies to account if they conceal the truth from their users."

The investigation involved 34 states and the District of Columbia, and it concerned the 2017 controversy that Apple was embroiled in after quietly adding a power management feature to iPhones in iOS 10.2.1.

Apple's feature was meant to eliminate unexpected shutdowns that older iPhones were experiencing due to exhausted batteries, but it did so through throttling the maximum performance of devices with chemically aged batteries.

Apple did not disclose the throttling when releasing the updates, and customers were outraged when it was discovered that ‌iPhone‌ performance was being downgraded. While Apple said that it implemented the feature to make sure iPhones lasted as long as possible even as the battery began to fail, customers and regulators saw it as evidence of planned obsolescence.

After the throttling was discovered, Apple apologized and launched a battery replacement program that saw the company offering batteries for older devices for $29. Replacing a failing battery successfully fixes the problem that leads to shutdowns.

Apple offered lower-cost batteries for a year, and also added new battery management features to iOS that encourage customers to replace their battery when needed and allow throttling to be shut off. Apple has also already shelled out $500 million to settle a class action lawsuit over the issue.

Apple todays seeded the first beta of an upcoming macOS Big Sur 11.1 update to public beta testers, with the beta coming a day after the developer release and two weeks after the launch of macOS Big Sur 11.0.1, the release version of the software.

Beta testers who signed up for Apple's beta testing program can download the macOS Big Sur beta through the Software Update mechanism in System Preferences after installing the proper profile.

Mac users who want to be a part of Apple's beta testing program can sign up to participate on the beta website, which gives users access to iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS betas.

There's no word yet on what's included in macOS Big Sur 11.1, but it likely includes performance improvements, security updates, and fixes for bugs that weren't able to be addressed in the release version of macOS Big Sur. No significant new feature changes were discovered in the first developer beta.

Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming watchOS 7.2 beta to developers for testing purposes, one week after the release of the first beta and two weeks after the launch of watchOS 7.1.

To install the ‌watchOS 7.2‌ beta, developers need to download the proper configuration profile from the Apple Developer Center. Once the profile is in place, the watchOS 7.2 beta can be downloaded through the dedicated ‌Apple Watch‌ app on the iPhone by going to General > Software Update. To update to the new software, the ‌Apple Watch‌ needs to have 50 percent battery life, it must be placed on the charger, and it must be in range of the ‌‌‌‌‌iPhone‌‌‌‌‌.

watchOS 7.2 introduces a new Cardio Fitness feature for the Apple Watch, and Apple says that the cardio fitness metric are a "strong indicator of overall health." The feature measures VO2 max, or the maximum amount of oxygen that your body is able to consume during exercise. Measurements are done over time, and the Apple Watch and ‌iPhone‌ are able to send notifications to let you know about fluctuations in your VO2 max.

Cardio Fitness can be accessed through a new trend that’s been added to the Activity app, and it can be set up in the Health app on ‌iPhone‌. Cardio fitness levels are available for users age 20 and above, and are estimated by age.

Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming tvOS 14.3 update to developers for testing purposes, with the beta coming one week after Apple released the first beta.

Designed for the fourth and fifth-generation Apple TV models, the tvOS 14.3 developer beta can be downloaded onto the ‌‌‌‌‌‌‌Apple TV‌‌‌‌‌‌‌ via a profile that's installed using Xcode.

Other than new releases, tvOS updates are often minor in scale, focusing on under-the-hood bug fixes and improvements rather than major outward-facing changes. There's no word yet on what's included in tvOS 14.3 update, but we'll update this article should anything new be found. Nothing new was discovered in the first beta.

Though we don't often know what's new in tvOS during the beta testing process, we let MacRumors readers know when new updates are available so those who are developers can download it upon release.

Apple's tvOS 14 update brought expanded Picture in Picture support, new HomeKit integration with HomeKit Secure Video cameras, support for multiple Apple Arcade profiles, and more, with details available in our tvOS 14 roundup.

As more customers get their hands on the first Apple Silicon Macs, we continue to see some interesting performance and battery life tests surface based on real-world usage situations, with the latest including Zoom video calling.

MacRumors forum member "acidfast7_redux," who resides in the UK, spent most of their work day today on Zoom video calls using their new MacBook Air with the M1 chip and 8GB of memory. After a 2.5 hour video call, they say their battery life dropped by 17%, and after a second 36 minute video call, their battery life dropped by 7%, meaning that Zoom ultimately consumed roughly 10-13% of battery life per hour.

finishing the day at the office now:

09.11 to 17.25 (8h14m)
battery went from 100% down to 28%

time breakdown for the office part of the day was:

4h33m Zoom meetings (just closed Zoom for the first time since opening it this morning at 10.00)
3h01m web browsing / MS Office / emails
45m sleep (just closed lid and left the office)

These numbers are impressive given that Zoom has yet to introduce native support for Apple Silicon Macs, so the app is currently running through Apple's translation layer Rosetta 2 on Macs with the M1 chip. Zoom is known to be quite the battery hog on Intel-based Macs, so Apple Silicon's power efficiency gains will be much welcomed.

Over the last week, benchmarks and reviews have proven that the M1 chip lives up to Apple's hype, ranging from the new MacBook Air outperforming the high-end 16-inch MacBook Pro in multi-core Geekbench 5 results to the new Mac mini and 13-inch MacBook Pro compiling WebKit code as fast as a 2019 Mac Pro.

Apple revealed its plans to begin using its own chips in Macs at WWDC 2020 in June, promising industry-leading performance per watt. Apple expects the transition away from Intel processors to take about two years to be completed.

Apple's newly released HomePod mini features a USB-C power cord that plugs into a separate power adapter, and there was speculation that the cord could perhaps be removed, but that's not the case.

In a home teardown, MacRumors forum member ouimetnick found that the power cord is not meant to come out and it is not replaceable if it is removed.

The standard HomePod also comes with a cord that's not meant to be removed, but it can technically be pulled out with enough force and then reattached. That does not appear to be the case with the ‌HomePod mini‌, and attempting to remove the cable can lead to damage to the speaker.

The quick home teardown also walks through disassembling the ‌HomePod mini‌ and shows off the built in S5 chip that powers the device. Most people won't need to open up the ‌HomePod mini‌, but it's a useful look inside in lieu of iFixit's traditional teardown.

Apple's battery health management feature cannot be disabled on Apple Silicon Macs, as there is no toggle switch for this in System Preferences on these machines.

Introduced in macOS Catalina version 10.15.5, the battery health management system is designed to improve the lifespan of a Mac notebook's battery by reducing the rate at which it chemically ages. The feature achieves this by monitoring the battery's temperature history and its charging patterns, and temporarily reducing the battery's maximum charging capacity as necessary, according to Apple.

The feature can still be disabled on Intel-based Macs, but Apple warns this may reduce the battery's lifespan. On macOS Big Sur, navigate to System Preferences > Battery > Battery > Battery Health… and uncheck "Manage battery longevity." On macOS Catalina, the checkbox is located in System Preferences > Energy Saver > Battery Health…

As further confirmation, Apple has shared a new support document about battery health management on Apple Silicon Macs, and unlike the version of the document for Intel-based Macs, there is no section on turning off the feature.

A number of industry players, including Spotify, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, and Basecamp CTO David Heinemeier Hansson, have today criticized Apple's move to launch a new App Store Small Business Program that will halve App Store fees for small business owners and independent developers (via The Verge).

After Apple announced the new program, Spotify released a statement saying that it proved the ‌App Store‌ policies are "arbitrary and capricious."

Apple's anti-competitive behavior threatens all developers on iOS, and this latest move further demonstrates that their App Store policies are arbitrary and capricious. While we find their fees to be excessive and discriminatory, Apple's tying of its own payment system to the App Store and the communications restrictions it uses to punish developers who choose not to use it, put apps like Spotify at a significant disadvantage to their own competing service. Ensuring that the market remains competitive is a critical task. We hope that regulators will ignore Apple's "window dressing" and act with urgency to protect consumer choice, ensure fair competition, and create a level playing field for all.

Spotify has repeatedly sparred with Apple in recent years, accusing the company of anti-competitive behavior. The accusations peaked with Spotify's formal complaint to the European regulators that Apple used the ‌App Store‌ to deliberately disadvantage other app developers, which lead to an EU Commission antitrust investigation.

‌Epic Games‌ CEO Tim Sweeney also released a statement, arguing that Apple is "gerrymandering the community with a patchwork of special deals" by setting up the Small Business Program.

This would be something to celebrate were it not a calculated move by Apple to divide app creators and preserve their monopoly on stores and payments, again breaking the promise of treating all developers equally. By giving special 15 percent terms to select robber barons like Amazon, and now also to small indies, Apple is hoping to remove enough critics that they can get away with their blockade on competition and 30 percent tax on most in-app purchases. But consumers will still pay inflated prices marked up by the Apple tax.

Apple and Epic have been embroiled in a legal battle since August, when Apple removed Fortnite from the ‌‌App Store‌‌ after ‌‌Epic Games‌‌ introduced a direct payment option in the app, defying the ‌‌App Store‌‌ rules. ‌‌Epic Games‌‌ promptly filed a lawsuit against Apple, accusing the company of anti-competitive actions.

Basecamp CTO David Heinemeier Hansson, who is also responsible for the "Hey" email app which Apple threatened to remove from the App Store in June for breaching its rules, shared a large number of tweets criticising Apple's decision to launch the program, saying that "Machiavelli would be so proud of Apple. Trying to split the ‌App Store‌ opposition with conditional charity concessions, they – a $2T conglomerate – get to paint any developer making more than $1m as greedy, always wanting more. As clever as its sick."

Hansson also said that the "only good thing" about "this cynical, Machiavellian ploy to split developers" is that "it shows they're sweating. Even if just a little."

In September, Spotify, ‌Epic Games‌, and Basecamp joined forces to form the "Coalition for App Fairness," which aims to highlight developer issues with Apple. The organization set out a number of demands, including the assertions that "no developer should be required to use an app store exclusively," "every developer should always have access to app stores," and "no developer should be required to pay unfair, unreasonable or discriminatory fees or revenue shares."

While Spotify, ‌Epic Games‌, and Hey have each taken issue with Apple's ‌App Store‌ policies in the past, research by app analytics firm Sensor Tower does highlight an interesting observation about Apple's Small Business Program. The research, cited by The New York Times, states that the ‌App Store‌ fee change "will affect roughly 98 percent of the companies that pay Apple a commission... But those developers accounted for less than 5 percent of ‌App Store‌ revenues last year..." This means that Apple is retaining its 30 percent commission on the two percent of companies that generate 95 percent of its ‌App Store‌ revenue.

Apple says that it expects the ‌‌App Store‌‌ Small Business Program to generate more digital commerce, support new jobs, and provide more funds for small businesses to invest back into their apps as they work to create software for Apple's users.

A teardown of the new Mac mini has surfaced on the forum eGPU.io (via Reddit), providing us with a real-world look at Apple's new M1 chip, which is soldered onto a much smaller logic board than the one found in the 2018 model of the computer.

The M1 is the silver chip labeled with APL1102, housing the 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine, I/O controllers, and more all in one. The unified system memory is also visible on the right side of the chip, and takes up far less space than the standalone RAM modules used in the previous Mac mini, contributing to the smaller logic board.

As expected, the switch to unified system memory also means that there is no user-upgradeable RAM, as there was with the previous Mac mini, so choose wisely between 8GB or 16GB of memory when configuring the Mac mini on Apple's online store. The SSD also remains soldered to the logic board, so there is no user-upgradeable storage either.

A video teardown of the new Mac mini has also surfaced, revealing that the overall disassembly process is similar to the 2018 model:

There's also a video teardown of the new MacBook Air, providing a peek inside the notebook, although many components are covered with shielding. We'll have to wait on iFixit for its more in-depth teardowns of the new Macs for a closer look.

In a new interview with Om Malik, Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi, marketing chief Greg Joswiak, and chipmaking chief Johny Srouji discussed the motivations behind Apple Silicon, how Apple is able to differentiate itself from its competitors, and why chip specifications are becoming irrelevant.

Joswiak explained that ‌Apple Silicon‌ represents the completion of Steve Jobs' vision to make "the whole widget" for the Mac:

Steve used to say that we make the whole widget. We've been making the whole widget for all of our products, from the iPhone, to the iPads, to the watch. This was the final element to making the whole widget on the Mac.

When asked about how Apple views the technical specifications of its custom silicon, Srouji remarked, "It's not about the gigahertz and megahertz, but about what the customers are getting out of it." He went on to explain that specifications cannot represent how custom silicon can be "perfectly fit for the product and how the software will use it."

Federighi concurred, offering an example of how specifications cannot always indicate real-world performance:

The specs that are typically bandied about in the industry have stopped being a good predictor of actual task-level performance for a long time. Architecturally, how many streams of 4k or 8k video can you process simultaneously while performing certain effects? That is the question video professionals want an answer to. No spec on the chip is going to answer that question for them.

Srouji pointed out how Apple is in a unique position to engineer hardware and software symbiotically for a better overall result:

I believe the Apple model is unique and the best model. We're developing a custom silicon that is perfectly fit for the product and how the software will use it. When we design our chips, which are like three or four years ahead of time, Craig and I are sitting in the same room defining what we want to deliver, and then we work hand in hand. You cannot do this as an Intel or AMD or anyone else.

Federighi then elaborated on how close hardware and software integration can remedy some of the inherent physical limitations of hardware and resolve specific problems:

It is difficult to put more transistors on a piece of silicon. It starts to be more important to integrate more of those components closely together and to build purpose-built silicon to solve the specific problems for a system. Being in a position for us to define together the right chip to build the computer we want to build and then build that exact chip at scale is a profound thing.

As Srouji sees it, just as the clock speed of the chip inside an iPhone is unimportant, the same will be true for the Macs of the future. Instead, it will all be about "how many tasks you can finish on a single battery life," for example.

Federighi assured that for customers who do not yet have an Apple Silicon-powered Mac appropriate for their purposes, "their day will come. But for now, the systems we're building are, in every way I can consider, superior to the ones they've replaced."

See the full interview for more information.

Popular image editor app Pixelmator Pro has released version 2.0 ahead of schedule, bringing an all-new design for macOS Big Sur and native support for Macs powered by Apple's new M1 chip.

The new design features a simplified Effects Browser that makes it easier to find and apply effects, and new compact layouts for the sidebars and presets.

There's also a new Workspaces feature that lets users customize the look of Pixelmator, with presets optimized for photo editing, design, illustration, and painting.

With native support for Apple's new M1-powered Macs, Pixelmator Pro 2.0 takes advantage of the chip's 16-core Neural Engine for accelerated machine learning. This allows for features like Super Resolution, which intelligently increases the resolution of images while preserving details, to work up to 15x faster.

The editing engine is powered by Metal, which makes it easy for the app to take full advantage of the unified memory architecture in Apple's system-on-a-chip. There's also a new app icon that aligns with Apple's docked apps, and a new unified toolbar with switches and menus that look native to the macOS 11 Big Sur aesthetic.

Pixelmator 2.0 is a Universal app, so it runs natively on both ‌M1‌ and Intel-based Macs. The image editing app is a free upgrade for existing Pixelmator Pro users, otherwise it costs $39.99 and can be downloaded directly from the Mac App Store.