Business

M1 Rosetta emulation is still faster than every other Intel Mac in single core benchmark

Written by

Speaking of M1 benchmarks, follow the headline link to check out the Rosetta benchmarks. The Rosetta translates Intel apps so they can run on the M1. Though the translation takes time, I believe once the translation is done, the app runs at native M1 speeds.

My question (posted here if you happen to know the details): Is the translation saved in the app bundle so it only needs to be performed the first time the app is run? Also, is the translation redone each time the app is updated? Is this redo automated, or triggered when the user runs the app?

Apple’s Joz, Craig Federighi, and John Ternus dish on the M1

Written by

The Independent:

The company’s representatives kept stressing that fact throughout the announcement of the M1 and the three new computers that have it inside: they love the Mac, and they love these Macs. Soon after that event finished, some of Apple’s most senior executives – marketing chief Greg ‘Joz’ Joswiak, software boss Craig Federighi, hardware engineering leader John Ternus – spoke with The Independent to explain exactly why.

And:

Usually, a major advance in computing performance might add 20 or 30 per cent faster processing speed – but the new computers multiply that number by 10, with numbers showing that the computers as much as three times more powerful generally and up to 11 times faster at some tasks.

Apple is getting a lot of pushback on their claims, but see for yourself. Here’s my rollup of the single and multi-core Geekbench scores. The single core benchmark hovers at around 1700 (higher number is more powerful). For comparison, the latest Intel MacBook Pro lands a single core benchmark at about 1100.

Multicore score for the 2020 Intel-i5-based MacBook Air lands at around 2500. The M1 multicore around 7000. Jump over to the Geekbench browser and see for yourself. Look at the VirtualApple scores to see emulation scores, check out the GPU scores, too. Don’t take Apple’s word for it.

Even when he got his hands on the new computers, Joz says he “couldn’t believe it”.

“We overshot,” says Federighi. “You have these projects where, sometimes you have a goal and you’re like, ‘well, we got close, that was fine’.

“This one, part of what has us all just bouncing off the walls here – just smiling – is that as we brought the pieces together, we’re like, ‘this is working better than we even thought it would’.

“We started getting back our battery life numbers, and we’re like, ‘You’re kidding. I thought we had people that knew how to estimate these things’.”

This is a fun read. Nice to really love your job.

Why is Apple paying me $4.99 in store credit for Apple TV+ this month?

Written by

Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac:

Apple TV+ is Apple’s streaming service and priced at $4.99 per month in the US, or $49.99 per year. A lot of current subscribers are on promotional free trials. However, if you are currently paying for TV+ on a monthly or yearly basis, you should have received an email that Apple is refunding that amount as store credit.

I did get one of those emails. It told me I’d be getting a $4.99 credit through January that I can use on whatever I like. What I didn’t quite get from the email is the specifics on what I did to qualify for it.

More from Benjamin:

All free year trials of TV+ have been extended so they last until February 2021, giving people up to an extra 3 months free. So, to make it fair for people that are paying real money for the service, Apple is comping the paid subscriptions too. That means if you sign up for Apple TV+ over Christmas, and pay the $4.99 subscription fee, Apple will return that money to you as store credit. This will last until the February renewals.

Thanks, Benjamin. Makes sense.

Dear Linus…You’re wrong about the Apple M1

Written by

[VIDEO] Jonathan Morrison fires up a reasonably high end Intel Mac and starts up a render. He then casually picks up an iPhone 12 mini and talks about the fact that the mini has Apple Silicon inside, much like the M1.

He then proceeds to thumb his way through doing the exact same render on the iPhone 12 mini. I’d be amazed if the mini (thin, tiny, no fan) could do this render at nearly the same speed.

Watch. Just watch. Video embedded in main Loop post.

Apple’s M1 showing up on Geekbench, outperforms high-end 16-inch MacBook Pro

Written by

First things first, here’s a link to the Geekbench browser, with search set to “MacBookAir10,1”.

This will let you do the search yourself, see the MacBook Air results as they come in. As of this writing:

  • Single-core scores range from 1656 to 1732
  • Multi-core scores range from 6519 to 7545

Bigger numbers mean faster performance.

Next, I did a search for the “MacBook Pro (16-inch Late 2019)”. The fastest single-core score I could find was 1243, with most scores much lower than that. Fastest multi-core was 7191, again with most scores well below that.

Draw your own conclusions here, but I am excited about the possibilities here. I’m going to spend some time looking for GPU scores. Guessing the M1 will not perform as well as machines with discrete GPUs, but I may well be surprised.

Oprah interviews President Obama on Apple TV+

Written by

Apple:

The 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama, will be Oprah Winfrey’s guest on a new episode of “The Oprah Conversation,” premiering globally on Apple TV+ on Tuesday, November 17 at 9 AM ET / 6 AM PT. The episode will be available to watch for free through Tuesday, December 1.

Will watch.

Microsoft 365 and Office 2019 support for Apple Silicon

Written by

Microsoft:

The latest release of apps including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, and OneDrive can be installed on devices that are based on the Apple Silicon architecture. For the best experience, install the November 2020 release (build 16.43), or later. This release of Office includes the latest optimizations for macOS Big Sur, which is the first operating system to support Apple Silicon.

And:

As demonstrated at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in June 2020, we’ve already started the process of moving Mac apps to universal binaries. In the future we will natively support both Apple Silicon and Intel chipsets within the same executable.

In a nutshell, the apps noted above will run in Rosetta 2 emulation or, as they get rebuilt for M1, as native apps. But the features won’t change. They’ll just speed up as they go native. At least, that’s the idea.

How unified memory blows the SoCs off the M1 Macs

Written by

Howard Oakley:

One of the major new hardware features of Apple Silicon Macs, including those launched on 10 November, is that they use “unified memory”. This article looks briefly at what this means, its consequences, and where the M1 and its successors are taking hardware design.

And:

GPUs are now being used for a lot more than just driving the display, and their computing potential for specific types of numeric and other processing is in demand. So long as CPUs and GPUs continue to use their own local memory, simply moving data between their memory has become an unwanted overhead.

And:

In this new model, CPU cores and GPUs access the same memory. When data being processed by the CPU needs to be manipulated by the GPU, it stays where it is. That unified memory is as fast to access as dedicated GPU memory, and completely flexible. When you want to connect a high-resolution display, that’s not limited by the memory tied to the GPU, but by total memory available. Imagine the graphics capability of 64 or even 128 GB of unified memory.

And:

Apple’s first M1 Macs are its first convergence of these features: sophisticated SoCs which tightly integrate CPU cores and GPUs, fast access to unified memory, and tightly-integrated storage on an SSD. Together they offer unrivalled versatility, what Apple sees as relatively low-end systems which can turn their hand and speed to some of the most demanding tasks while remaining cool, consuming little power, and being relatively inexpensive to manufacture in volume.

A great read, helps explain some of the speed increases in the M1 chip, and why 16GB of M1 RAM is not the same as 16GB of Intel Mac RAM.

Google Photos will end its free unlimited storage on June 1st, 2021

Written by

Dieter Bohn, The Verge:

After five years of offering unlimited free photo backups at “high quality,” Google Photos will start charging for storage once more than 15 gigs on the account have been used. The change will happen on June 1st, 2021, and it comes with other Google Drive policy changes like counting Google Workspace documents and spreadsheets against the same cap. Google is also introducing a new policy of deleting data from inactive accounts that haven’t been logged in to for at least two years.

And:

Google already counts “original quality” photo uploads against a storage cap in Google Photos. However, taking away unlimited backup for “high quality” photos and video (which are automatically compressed for more efficient storage) also takes away one of the service’s biggest selling points. It was the photo service where you just didn’t have to worry about how much storage you had.

This is certainly a major change to Google’s longstanding policy, but it does give you plenty of time to move your photos to other options if you don’t want to pony up for a monthly payment.

Apple only offers 5GB free before you start paying. Though Apple’s policy has never gone from offering free storage to charging you for same.

Status of M1 native Parallels Desktop for Mac

Written by

Parallels blog:

It is important to note that currently available versions of Parallels® Desktop for Mac cannot run virtual machines on Mac with Apple M1 chip. Good news: A new version of Parallels Desktop for Mac that can run on Mac with Apple M1 chip is already in active development.

If you care about running Windows emulation on your Mac, this is worth reading. Worth noting, also, that Parallels is actively seeking M1 Mac owners to try out their Parallels M1 technical preview.

Video from yesterday’s event: Behind the Mac — Greatness

Written by

[VIDEO] Apple:

This film celebrates the brilliant minds making greatness behind the Mac — Kendrick Lamar, Gloria Steinem, Billie Eilish, RuPaul, Tarana Burke, Spike Lee, Stephen Colbert, Takashi Murakami, and Saul Perlmutter, whose participation honors SMASH.org http://smash.org/, which is developing the next generation of scientists by providing equal access to STEM for students of color.

That VoiceOver (video embedded in main Loop post) sounds an awful lot like Billie Eilish. She’s acknowledged above, but she’s in the video itself. Anyone know for sure?

Apple launches extended holiday return policy, returns accepted until January 8 in U.S.

Written by

Juli Clover, MacRumors:

Items purchased from the Apple Online Store that are received between November 10 and December 25, 2020 can be returned to Apple until January 8, 2021, offering holiday shoppers more than two weeks to make returns.

These dates are applicable for the U.S. store, but Apple also extends return periods in other countries as well.

That’s an amazingly generous return window. You can buy a new M1 Mac today and have almost two months to return it.

AnandTech on Apple’s M1 chip

Written by

Andrei Frumusanu, AnandTech:

The new processor is called the Apple M1, the company’s first SoC designed with Macs in mind. With four large performance cores, four efficiency cores, and an 8-GPU core GPU, it features 16 billion transistors on a 5nm process node. Apple’s is starting a new SoC naming scheme for this new family of processors, but at least on paper it looks a lot like an A14X.

And:

Today, we’re going to be dissecting the new Apple M1 news, as well as doing a microarchitectural deep dive based on the already-released Apple A14 SoC.

There’s a lot to digest here, tons of detail, some of it picking apart the specifics that Apple shared yesterday, some of it extrapolating from what is known about the A14.

If you care about the hardware side of things, I think you’ll find this an interesting, dense read.

The biggest difference between the new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro is a fan

Written by

Sean Hollister, The Verge:

Apple’s new $999 and $1,299 laptops seem nearly identical if you look beyond the differently curved frames. They’ve got the same M1 processor, the same memory and storage options, the same ports, and very similar screens.

I’m not joking when I say: the biggest difference is a fan.

I actually prefer no fan, but there’s certainly value in a fan that lets a Mac run faster, longer:

A CPU’s thermal design power (TDP) in watts is a better predictor of performance than its gigahertz clock speed because some of the weakest laptop and phone chips can “boost” up to multiple gigahertz these days… until they heat up. In a small, fanless chassis, they have to throttle down quickly, but they can go for longer in a larger or better-cooled one.

Here’s a bullet list of the main differences between the M1 MacBook Air and M1 MacBook Pro:

  • At $999, the MacBook Air comes with seven GPU cores instead of eight, because Apple is salvaging some weaker chips (a common process known as binning) by disabling one core.

  • But at $1,249, the MacBook Air has the same eight CPU cores and eight GPU cores as the $1,299 13-inch MacBook Pro. The 13-inch MacBook Pro has a slightly larger battery (58.2Wh vs. 49.9Wh) and quotes two additional hours of battery life compared to the MacBook Air.

  • The 13-inch MacBook Pro’s screen is slightly brighter at maximum (500 nits vs 400 nits).

  • The 13-inch MacBook Pro comes with the Touch Bar instead of physical function keys, though both have a Touch ID fingerprint sensor.

Good info. I went fanless.

New MacBook Air and MacBook Pro still have 720p camera, but Apple promises better quality from M1

Written by

Juli Clover, MacRumors:

During today’s event where Apple unveiled the new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models, there was a mention of a new image signal processor for the camera, which brings some improvements to camera quality.

And:

Apple did not, however, add new camera hardware to the two machines, and the technical specifications pages continue to list the same 720p camera used in prior-generation models.

And:

Apple says the M1 chip improves MacBook camera quality with better noise reduction, greater dynamic range, improved auto white balance, and ML-enhanced face detection

Apple leaning into machine learning to overcome hardware limitations. All you need to do is look at the newer generation iPhones to see this in practice. I’ve got a new MacBook Air on the way, looking forward to seeing this in a controlled environment, Intel MacBook Pro side-by-side with M1 MacBook Air.

Two takes worth reading on the iPhone 12 Pro Max camera

Written by

First things first, there’s Austin Mann’s comprehensive review. Read the detailed comments, check out the images and videos. There’s a lot to process.

Don’t miss the wish list and low light shooting tips at the end of Austin’s post. And, most importantly, don’t miss the decision tree at the very end, which lays out the questions you should ask yourself before you plunk down your hard earned cash for the upgrade.

Next up, there’s Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max review: The best smartphone camera you can get, by The Verge’s Nilay Patel.

While it’s expensive, it’s not that much more expensive than the smaller iPhone 12 Pro: it’s just $100 more at every storage level, starting at $1,099 with 128GB of storage and going up to $1,399 for 512GB of storage. For that money, you get a larger display, a bigger battery, and a very different camera system. I’ll just cut to the chase and say it’s absolutely worth it over the standard 12 Pro if you can deal with the size — but it’s a lot of size. And the camera is worth exploring in depth, because there’s a lot going on.

And that says it all. Bigger sensor, better camera, more battery, bigger display, at $100 and some not insignificant pocket size/weight.

As you make your way through these reviews, think about the types of photos you take. On my end, I take a lot of photos of moving things, like cats, birds, and people. If that’s you, make sure you read the reviews with that in mind, keep your eye peeled for those sorts of examples.

If you hew more toward nature photography, I would definitely dive deep into Austin Mann’s immersive review. And if you are exploring the difference between different high-end smartphone cameras, spend some time on the slide-over shots in Nilay’s review.

PetaPixel interview: Apple reveals iPhone camera design philosophy

Written by

PetaPixel:

Since the Pro Max marks the first time in a while that Apple changed the size of its camera sensor, PetaPixel spoke to two Apple executives who outlined the company’s vision and design philosophy behind camera development.

In an interview with Apple’s Product Line Manager, iPhone Francesca Sweet and Vice President, Camera Software Engineering Jon McCormack, both made clear that the company thinks of camera development holistically: it’s not just the sensor and lenses, but also everything from Apple’s A14 Bionic chip, to the image signal processing, to the software behind its computational photography.

This is an interesting read, especially the discussion of the new, bigger sensor in the iPhone 12 Pro Max.

Apple MagSafe Duo Charger Review: Useful, but expensive and underwhelming

Written by

Matthew Panzarino, TechCrunch:

For context, you have to understand that this thing is $129 but feels like it should be $70. When you realize that it is a charger that doesn’t come with a power adapter, I would not be shocked if you mentally downgraded it to $40.

And (look at the pic of the hinge in the review):

The hinge and casing are coated in soft-touch rubber that is sort of press-molded on. While the hinge works fine, it is wobbly and immediately creases. The rubber is thick enough that it doesn’t give the impression that it will rip immediately or anything — but it’s not exactly confidence-inducing. This is an inexpensive hinge solution that you would expect to see from a price-conscious third-party accessory, not from Apple.

One of those takes where it’s all laid out in the headline.

iOS apps running on Apple Silicon Macs

Written by

Filipe Espósito, 9to5Mac:

Since Apple Silicon Macs will have the same processors as iPhone and iPad, Apple will let users download and install iOS apps on these Macs even if the developer doesn’t offer a specific version of the app for macOS.

Key point is the idea that you might have a choice between an Intel-built app running in some form of emulation on an Apple Silicon Mac or an iOS app running natively.

Although by default all iOS apps are available on the Mac App Store for Apple Silicon, the company is allowing developers to opt their iOS apps out of the new unified store.

And there’s the rub. According to this post, not all iOS apps will be available on the new Macs.

If you were expecting to watch YouTube on your new Mac with a native app, you’re out of luck. Google has chosen not to offer most of its apps on the Apple Silicon platform, and this also includes Google Maps, Google Drive, and Gmail apps. On the other hand, the Netflix app for iOS is still on track to be available on new Macs, as well as the HBO Max app.

This is life on a new platform. But over time, older Mac apps will either fade away, or rebuild for the new hardware. Over time, you’ll have all native apps, one way or the other.

Same as it ever was.

Amazing fluid simulation

Written by

The performance of this simulation is crazy good, runs on Macs and iOS devices (it uses WebGL).

Follow the headline link, click/tap and drag to start moving liquid around. Play with the settings. Fun.

Hands on video of Apple MagSafe Duo charger

Written by

[VIDEO] Looks pretty cool. I like the foldability and the popup Apple Watch feature that makes it work with the Solo Loop band. Video embedded in main Loop post.

Apple’s iPhone 12 Studio, a lot of fun to play with

Written by

Open the headline link on your iPhone or iPad (not your Mac) and start playing. This is a great way to get a sense of all the different colors and materials, cases and finishes.

Pick an iPhone, case, wallet, customize the colors, switch ’em up. Fun.

Sort of like Apple Watch Studio, but Apple Watch Studio works on the Mac. Wonder what’s different.

Apple freezes new business for Pegatron on China labor abuse

Written by

Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. suspended new business with iPhone assembler Pegatron Corp. after discovering labor violations at a student workers’ program, taking strong action to clean up a Chinese-based production chain long accused of worker abuse.

And:

[Apple] said it discovered several weeks ago that the Taiwanese manufacturer misclassified student workers and allowed some to work nights and overtime in violation of Apple’s Supplier Code of Conduct.

And:

“The individuals at Pegatron responsible for the violations went to extraordinary lengths to evade our oversight mechanisms.”

Silk Road founder is in prison. His billion dollar bitcoin stash, dormant since 2013, just got nabbed by the feds

Written by

Alex Horn, The Guardian:

A billion dollars worth of bitcoins linked to the shuttered darknet market Silk Road has changed hands for the first time in seven years, prompting renewed speculation about the fate of the illicit fortune.

Almost 70,000 bitcoins stored in the account which, like all bitcoin wallets, is visible to the public, had lain untouched since April 2013. The website was shut down by an FBI raid six months after they were deposited, and they have not moved since.

Late on Tuesday night, however, the full amount less a $12 (£9) transaction fee was transferred to a new bitcoin address, records show.

This is an amazing story. If you’ve never heard of Silk Road (the online marketplace), here’s a link to the Wikipedia page. It’s a riveting read.

Silk Road’s founder, Ross Ulbricht, was sentenced to life in prison. Did he somehow move this trove? Did someone figure out a way to hack into the bitcoin wallet and move the funds? This is a pretty great story.

If this intrigues you, you should check out the book American Kingpin. It tells the story of the creation and, ultimately, the shutdown of Silk Road and it is a real page turner.

UPDATE: From this Wired story, posted later in the day [H/T Cabel Sasser]:

Today the Justice Department finally revealed where a billion-dollar tranche of the Silk Road’s treasure ended up: stolen by a mysterious hacker, and now seized by the US Treasury.

The DOJ today filed a civil forfeiture complaint over 69,370 bitcoins—and other variants of the cryptocurrency—seized on November 3 from an unnamed person who court documents refer to only as Individual X. According to the IRS’s criminal investigation unit, Individual X successfully hacked the Silk Road sometime between May of 2012 and April of 2013, stealing that abundance of drug money from the dark web site’s bitcoin addresses before Ulbricht’s downfall in October of 2013. The IRS says it has finally tracked down the hacker who stole the Silk Road’s nearly 70,000 bitcoins—now worth more than $1 billion—and allowed law enforcement to take control of those funds.

Amazing!