Macworld UK December 2020

After the credits rolled on Apple’s short but sweet ‘One more thing’ event, we knew two things for sure: Apple isn’t hiding any more events in 2020 and the new Macs are very different than the old ones. We look into all the news in more detail later, but here’s a summary for you. As expected, Apple rolled out the first Macs with Apple silicon processors, and Craig Federighi and crew spent a lot of time playing up the difference between them and similar Windows machines. According to the somewhat vague charts and claims, the new M1 chip delivers ‘a giant leap in performance per watt’ with ‘the world’s fastest’ CPU core and the highest performance CPU Apple has ever created. Apple says the M1 chip delivers a 3x improvement…

Apple has unveiled its first Macs with Apple silicon, and they’re powered by an all new Mac-specific chip: the M1. It’s based on the same fundamental design of the A14 (found in the iPhone 12), but scaled up to laptop-grade performance levels with more cores, more memory and higher thermal limits. The result, Apple says, is a shocking increase in performance and power efficiency. Here’s what you need to know about the M1 system on a chip. EIGHT CORE CPU AND GPU Where the A14 has a six-core CPU – four high-efficiency cores and two high-performance cores – the M1 expands that by adding another pair of high-performance cores for a total of eight. We’ve already seen how fast these cores are in A14 performance benchmarks, and with the higher…

Apple’s first MacBook Pro using its own processor was announced at the company’s One More Thing online event. The 13in MacBook Pro was one of three models to receive the new Apple M1 chip – the second time the 13in MacBook Pro has been upgraded this year. No Apple Silicon-based 16in MacBook Pro was announced, as the new Macs were focused on the lower-end of Apple’s line – including the MacBook Air and Mac mini, but not the iMac or Mac Pro. Apple highlighted the 13in MacBook Pro’s performance and extremely long battery life – plus some new microphones that should improve how you sound on your next Zoom call. While the company is boasting about the new model’s performance, it’s an entry-level model – and Apple is continuing to…

Apple announced a new MacBook Air – the second of the year – at its One More Thing event. But this isn’t a cosmetic update: there are significant upgrades under the hood. Most notably the Intel processor has been replaced. This is one of the first Mac to get access to the company’s new ARM-based Apple Silicon processors – specifically the M1 chip. AVAILABILITY The new MacBook Air is available to pre-order now from Apple’s website. It will start shipping mid-November. PRICE Two models are currently available: 256GB: £999 512GB: £1,249 HARDWARE The most obvious change is the processor, but there are significant upgrades throughout the specs list. Let’s look at these one at a time. Apple Silicon M1 processor Apple calls the Air’s processor “stunningly capable”, and with apparently…

Apple already had a Mac mini powered by an Apple processor – after WWDC in June it seeded some Mac mini’s with A12 processors to developers so they could use them to work on the apps they were transitioning to Apple’s silicon. But now Apple has released a new Mac mini powered by Apple’s M1 chip – the first Apple silicon processor made for Macs. HARDWARE There are two new Mac mini models. Both offer the same 8-core CPU combined with an 8-core GPU, Apple’s 16-core Neural Engine and 6GB RAM – upgradable to 16GB. The cheapest Mac mini model is now £100 less than it was, starting at £699. It’s a good price, but not quite as good as many years ago when the Mac mini cost just £499.…

It’s tough to keep track of time in the middle of a global pandemic, but apparently three months has passed since Apple’s last quarterly earnings report. So here we are again, with Apple executives reporting record revenues almost sheepishly while going to great lengths to praise their co-workers and customers for their resilience during trying times. As usual, in Apple’s conference call with financial analysts, there are a few interesting things that stick out of the talk of OpEx and OI&E and other financial industry buzzwords. Here are some of them. GOOD TIMES FOR THE MAC The Mac has been around for 36 years, and yet Apple has never had a quarter like the most recent one. The Mac generated $9 billion in revenue, up a staggering 29 per cent…