Silverman: Got itch to switch from an Intel Mac to an Apple Silicon one? You’re not alone.
Chips #Chips
Last year about this time I updated a column I’ve written periodically about when to replace an aging computer. Those columns are always popular, though the basics I discuss typically don’t change much.
Most folks need to get a new computer when its operating system can’t be updated; it can no longer run modern versions of critical apps; it’s broken and a repair would be exorbitant. Those are generic guidelines that apply to most systems, regardless of the type.
But in 2022, there’s a new wrinkle – if you’ve got a Mac.
Specifically, I’m talking about owners of Apple’s Macs that have a central processor made by Intel Corp. Apple introduced its own line of processors in 2020 and replaced nearly all of its desktop and notebook computers with models that use processors of its own design.
The company calls the chips collectively by the moniker Apple Silicon. There are now two generations of them, designated as M1 and M2, and underneath those families are further iterations: Pro, Max, Ultra. (The processors are also now in the entire iPad Pro lineup.)
Today, there is only one Mac model still sold with an Intel processor: the Mac Pro, a hulking, powerful, pricey desktop that is expected to be replaced with an Apple Silicon version next year. The last new Intel Mac to be launched was the 27-inch iMac Pro in 2020. I own one of these, and it is a fantastic machine.
I bought it knowing full well that Apple was planning to transition its lineup to its own processors. CEO Tim Cook said Apple would support its Intel Macs “for years to come,” and though he didn’t say how many, the company typically provides OS updates for hardware for about seven years. That was good enough for me at the time.
But there are now a few trends that are giving me pause – and may for other owners of Intel Macs.
(I should add that I also own a 2021, 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M1 Pro chip, but the Intel iMac is my primary machine – for now.)
There are more and more features in the macOS operating system that only work on Apple Silicon. This is not necessarily a new behavior; both Apple and Microsoft frequently limit some demanding features to new computers, saying to enable them on older ones would be a poor user experience.
But this is a little different. It’s not that the older Macs could do these things if a software switch was flipped – instead, the architecture of Apple Silicon is the enabling factor.
In addition, there also are now apps that now only work on these newest Macs. There aren’t many yet, but the writing is clearly on the wall – developers who are interested in being able to take advantage of Apple Silicon’s muscle, as well as its energy efficiency, are starting to focus on the newer hardware.
Here are some of the features in the latest version of macOS, Ventura, and its predecessor, Monterey, that only work of Apple Silicon Macs:
– Real-time captions in FaceTime, in which speech is turned into text during videoconferencing sessions. This is an important accessibility feature, but it’s also available in Zoom’s teleconferencing app for all users.
– Portrait mode in FaceTime, introduced in Monterey.
– Reference Mode in Sidecar, which is Apple’s feature that allows an iPad or iPhone to serve as a secondary display to a Mac. When used with an iPad Pro that also has an M1 chip, it lets you bring over the color settings from the Mac to the iPad, which is useful to photo/video editors and artists.
– Detailed city-view experiences in Apple Maps, as well as a Google Earth-style full-globe mode, from Monterey.
– On-device dictation, which handles live voice-to-text without the need to send to cloud servers. First available in Monterey, it’s billed as a privacy-protection feature.
– Available initially in Monterey, you can run many iOS mobile apps on an Apple Silicon Mac. This dramatically increases the number of available apps for your machine, although it’s up to the developer whether to allow it. Also: Apps may only run at the size of an iPhone or iPad screen, which on a large Mac display can be annoying.
None of these features, with the possible exception of FaceTime captions for the hearing-impaired, are items that would compel most folks to ditch their Intel Mac for one with an M1 or M2 chip. But Apple’s clearly moving to a critical mass of such features.
Among the Apple Silicon-only third-party apps out there:
– Diffusion Bee, which I mentioned in my recent story on text2image artificial intelligence (see houstonchronicle.com/text2image), only works on M1 or M2 Macs. Free and built on the open-source Stable Diffusion project, Diffusion Bee allows you to feed it a text prompt or an image to generate new images. (It’s a lot of fun!)
– Rewind, which currently is in an invitation-only beta, records everything you do on your M1 or M2 Mac and then makes those recordings searchable. It uses AI with the Neural Engine architecture in Apple Silicon to search the recordings, which are highly compressed and never leave your computer, so finding things both online and off is easier. I have applied for early access; once I have it, expect a review here.
– “Resident Evil Village,” the latest installment in the popular “Resident Evil” game series, is now available for Macs, but only those with M1 or M2 processors. As soon as I saw what Apple has done with its new chips, I figured it wouldn’t take long for game developers – who have long neglected Mac gaming – to come around.
As with new macOS features, these apps alone aren’t likely to inspire upgrades – though if Rewind works as advertised, that could be an incredibly useful product. But again, you can see that developers are getting excited about what these new chips can do, and are less interested in Apple’s legacy hardware.
For the most part, though, I think Intel Mac owners like me can hang tight for at least another year before considering an early upgrade. But by this time next year, the landscape will be very different.
dsilverman@outlook.com
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