Search

Wednesday, November 18, 2020

Apple Announces Second Annual Apple Music Awards



Apple today announced the winners of the second annual Apple Music Awards, recognizing the best and boldest musicians of 2020 and their enormous impact on global culture. The Apple Music Awards honor achievements in music across five distinct categories, and winners are chosen through a process that reflects both Apple Music’s editorial perspective and what customers around the world are loving most. The winners for global Artist of the Year, Songwriter of the Year, and Breakthrough Artist of the Year were hand-selected by Apple Music’s global editorial team of world-class experts and tastemakers, and the awards for Top Song of the Year and Top Album of the Year are based on streaming data that is reflective of what Apple Music subscribers have been listening to this year.

The Apple Music Awards celebration kicks off Monday, December 14, 2020, with a week of special performances, fan events, interviews, and more, streaming worldwide on Apple Music, Apple Music TV, and the Apple TV app. Fans who are not already subscribed to Apple Music can sign up for a three-month free trial at apple.com/apple-music.

“The Apple Music Awards is our opportunity to recognize and honor the incredible artists who we feel have deeply impacted and inspired the world and our customers, and helped us feel connected through music this year,” said Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice president of Apple Music and Beats. “We have an exciting week of music planned in December and are very much looking forward to celebrating together with these artists and their fans.”


And the winners are…

Artist of the Year: Lil Baby



In 2020, Lil Baby fully arrived as one of hip-hop’s biggest names, with billions of global streams and multiple tracks from “My Turn” topping the Apple Music charts. With his deeply moving and timely release, “The Bigger Picture,” he cemented his place as the indisputable, authentic voice of youth culture. His performance of the track at Apple Music’s Rap Life Live event was in itself a standout moment of 2020. Lil Baby has been an intriguing voice since his debut mixtape in 2017 — but 2020 is the year he became an undeniable global star.

Lil Baby said: "This year has changed me a lot. Now that I’m an artist, I feel like my voice can get heard through my music and I needed to say something. And my fans listened. So thank you to my fans and thank you to Apple Music for giving me a special way to connect to my fans.”


Breakthrough Artist of the Year: Megan Thee Stallion


With two No. 1 singles and a highly anticipated debut album on the way, it is safe to say Houston rapper Megan Thee Stallion is owning 2020. Her collaboration with Cardi B on “WAP” and with BeyoncĂ© on the “Savage” remix have collectively been played on Apple Music more than 300 million times globally. The Apple Music Up Next alum is experiencing the kind of breakthrough year that defines the distinction, and she is just getting started.

Megan Thee Stallion said: “I am so excited to be the Breakthrough Artist of the Year. This is a really big accomplishment for me. Apple Music has been rocking with me for so long, even before making me an Up Next artist, and I am just very appreciative and very grateful. I will forever love ya’ll as much as ya’ll love me.”



Songwriter of the Year: Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift is without a doubt one of music’s preeminent and most decorated songwriters, and “folklore” is no exception. Written and recorded in isolation during the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic, “folklore” instantly topped the Apple Music albums chart and set the record for the most streamed pop album on release day. With its wistful third-person stories about love triangles, ghosts, and trauma, “folklore” is a lyrical masterpiece.

Taylor Swift said: “Winning Songwriter of the Year in any capacity in any year would be so exciting, but I think it’s really special this particular year because songwriting was the one thing that kept me connected to my fans. It means a lot to me because the way that fans respond to the songs I write, and the emotional exchange, is what has really kept me going this year. So I really want to say thank you to the fans for that, and to everyone at Apple Music, thank you for everything that you do.”


Top Song of the Year: “The Box” by Roddy Ricch


Roddy Ricch’s breakout, “The Box,” was the year’s biggest and most popular single, accumulating more than 460 million Apple Music streams worldwide to date, launching countless memes, and topping the charts for more weeks than any other song in 2020.


Top Album of the Year: “Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial” by Roddy Ricch


Following the success of “The Box,” the Compton rapper’s debut album, “Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial,” has run up more than 1.5 billion Apple Music streams worldwide since its release.

Roddy Ricch said: “My first phone was the iPhone. It’s crazy making music could get me to the point where a platform like Apple could honor me or put me on a pedestal. I just appreciate Apple Music to the farthest extent. Winning this award motivates me to work even harder. This is confirmation that I am on the right track and doing what I gotta do to be the greatest in my own right.”


About the Apple Music Awards

Apple has designed a series of physical awards that represent the extraordinary craftsmanship integral to creating music. Each award features Apple’s custom silicon wafer suspended between a polished sheet of glass and a machined and anodized aluminum body. The result of this multi-month process, before it is sliced into hundreds of individual chips, is stunning and distinctive. In a symbolic gesture, the same chips which power the devices that put the world’s music at your fingertips sit at the very heart of the Apple Music Awards.

Source: Apple News

Follow us on Twitter @PC_holic


Thursday, November 12, 2020

Apple macOS Big Sur is Here

Update brings a fresh, new design, enhancements to Safari, Messages, Maps, and privacy, and is engineered for Apple’s powerful M1 chip

macOS Big Sur, the latest version of the world’s most advanced desktop operating system, is now available to Mac users as a free software update. Big Sur introduces a beautiful redesign and is packed with new enhancements for key apps including Safari, Messages, and Maps, as well as new privacy features. And Big Sur has been engineered, down to its core, to take full advantage of all the power of the M1 chip to make the macOS experience even better for the new 13-inch MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and Mac mini. The combination of Big Sur and M1 truly takes the Mac to a whole new level with incredible capabilities, efficiency, and more apps than ever before, while maintaining everything users love about macOS.

Refreshed Design: Focused and Familiar

Big Sur delivers a spacious new design that makes navigation easier, while putting more controls at users’ fingertips. From the curvature of window corners to the palette of colors and materials, the thoughtful design will benefit everyone from first-time Mac owners to the most demanding pros. Dock icons retain their Mac personality while also appearing more consistent across the Apple ecosystem for a more cohesive look and feel. And a new design for apps makes it easier for users to stay focused on their content and interact with apps. Buttons and controls appear when needed and recede when they are not — reducing visual complexity and bringing the most relevant content to the forefront.

The all-new Control Center gives users quick access to controls for Do Not Disturb, displays, keyboard brightness, and more, right from the menu bar. Users can see more relevant information at a glance in the updated Notification Center, including interactive notifications and redesigned widgets.





Safari: Faster, More Personal, and More Private

The biggest update to Safari since its original launch in 2003 makes the world’s fastest browser even faster while maintaining industry-leading battery life. Safari’s JavaScript engine helps it outperform other browsers on Mac and PC, and loads frequently visited sites an average of 50 percent faster than Chrome. And on new Macs with M1, Safari is now up to 1.5x speedier at running JavaScript and nearly 2x more responsive. Streaming on popular platforms is more vivid and clear with the addition of both YouTube and Netflix in 4K HDR. Redesigned tabs make navigating Safari faster and more efficient by showing more tabs onscreen, revealing page previews when hovering over tabs and displaying favicons by default for easy identification.

Safari offers an even more personal experience while browsing the web, including a new customizable start page where users can add a personal background image, Reading List, iCloud Tabs, and more. With built-in translation, Safari can detect and translate entire web pages from seven languages, and new Safari extensions are easily discoverable for download through the Mac App Store with categories including editorial spotlights and top charts.



Building on the browser’s pioneering user privacy features, Safari comes with an innovative new Privacy Report that gives users an instant snapshot of trackers Safari prevents from profiling them on the web. New tools like data breach password monitoring keep an eye out for saved passwords that may have been compromised — all without revealing a user’s account information, not even to Apple. And to prevent extensions from having access to the websites users visit, the tabs they have open, and, in some cases, even what they type, Safari prompts users to choose when and which websites can work with a Safari extension.

With an incredible boost in performance, amazing efficiency, new customization options, and enhanced privacy features, Safari delivers the best browsing experience on the Mac.


Messages: An Even More Engaging, Expressive Experience

Messages on the Mac offers new tools to help users manage their favorite group conversations and fun, engaging ways to express themselves. Users can pin conversations to the top of their Messages list for fast access, and search has been completely redesigned to help users quickly find links, photos, and matching terms. Messages for Mac also works seamlessly across iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, so conversations stay in sync.

Fun effects enable Mac users to add personality to their messages with balloons, confetti, and more. Users can even create and customize Memoji right on the Mac, and express themselves with automatically generated Memoji stickers that match their mood and personality. And with a new photo picker and #images, users can easily share images, GIFs, and videos.

New group messaging features streamline interactions with family, friends, and colleagues. Inline replies give users the ability to respond directly to a message in a thread. Users can also send a message to an individual in a group conversation by simply typing their name, and choose to receive notifications only when their name is mentioned. And users can assign a photo or emoji to a conversation to further personalize their group messages.






Maps: Discover the Next Adventure

Maps has been entirely redesigned and brings exciting new features for exploring the world on the Mac. Users can discover places to visit and things to do with Guides from brands they trust, as well as create custom guides of favorite restaurants, parks, and vacation ideas to share with friends and family. Look Around provides an immersive 360-degree view of a destination, and new detailed indoor maps help with navigating major airports and shopping centers. And for the first time, cycling and electric vehicle trips can be routed on a Mac and sent directly to iPhone to have when on the go.


Privacy: Greater Transparency and User Control

Privacy is at the core of the Mac experience, and Big Sur expands on its industry-leading privacy to bring new levels of transparency and give users more control over their data. Coming later this year, the Mac App Store will include a new section on each product page showing a developer-reported summary of the privacy practices of an app. Inspired by the convenience and readability of food nutrition labels, the information offered includes the types of data the apps might collect — such as contact information, or location — and whether they are shared with third parties for tracking.

Developers: Bringing More Apps Than Ever to the Mac

With Big Sur, Apple’s community of more than 28 million developers have access to the tools they need to create amazing experiences for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS. Developing apps is now even easier, as macOS provides a range of incredible technologies to simplify the transition to Apple silicon. Xcode 12 makes it easy for developers to update their existing Mac apps to Universal 2 application binaries, adding native support for both M1- and Intel-based Macs within a single app. Universal apps are quite simply the fastest, most powerful Mac apps available, with access to the full power of the M1 chip. And with the Neural Engine now coming to the Mac, developers have new opportunities for amazing machine learning apps.

Rosetta 2 is the new technology in Big Sur that enables existing Intel apps not yet upgraded to Universal to run seamlessly on Macs with Apple silicon. With the power of Metal and M1, developers will see some of their most graphically demanding apps perform even better under Rosetta 2 than they did running natively on previous Macs with integrated graphics. Developers can also choose to make their iPhone and iPad apps available to Mac users without doing any extra work, so users get access to a greater range of apps than ever before. And the foundations of Big Sur are optimized to unlock the power of M1, including developer technologies from Metal for graphics to Core ML for machine learning.


When Mac Catalyst debuted with macOS Catalina last year, developers were able to easily bring their iPad apps to the Mac. Now, Mac Catalyst apps automatically inherit the new design of Big Sur, and developers get access to powerful new APIs for greater control over the look and behavior of their apps. SwiftUI also gets a major upgrade, enabling developers to write entire apps and widgets with shared code across all Apple platforms and easily add custom Mac features.

Availability

macOS Big Sur is available today as a free software update. For more information, including compatible Mac models, visit apple.com/macos/big-sur

Follow me on Twitter @PC_holic




Google Doodle To Celebrate Father's Day 2020 with Digital Card-maker Doodle.



Google is celebrating Father's Day 2020 or Hari Ayah (November 12, 2020) with a special doodle that lets users design a digital card for their fathers. The doodle represents crafts having pencils, paper cut-outs, flowers as well as cards and envelopes.













Wednesday, November 11, 2020

Apple Event November 10, 2020: macOS Big Sur - Doing It All, in All New Ways



All new Macs come with Big Sur, the latest version of the world’s most advanced desktop operating system. Big Sur introduces a beautiful redesign that is entirely new yet instantly familiar, and powerful updates to apps including Safari, Messages, and Maps. Big Sur is engineered, down to its core, to take full advantage of all the capability and power of M1, delivering a massive boost in performance, astonishing battery life, and even stronger security protections. With M1, things users do every day feel noticeably faster and smoother. Just like iPhone and iPad, the Mac now instantly wakes from sleep. Browsing with Safari — which is already the world’s fastest browser — is now up to 1.5x speedier at running JavaScript and nearly 2x more responsive.

With Big Sur and M1, Mac users can run a greater range of apps than ever before. All of Apple’s Mac software is now Universal and runs natively for M1 systems. Existing Mac apps that have not been updated to Universal will run seamlessly with Apple’s Rosetta 2 technology. And iPhone and iPad apps can now run directly on the Mac. Additionally, the foundations of Big Sur are optimized to unlock the power of M1, including developer technologies from Metal for graphics to Core ML for machine learning.



Key Features and Enhancements

Updated menu bar

The menu bar is now taller and more translucent, allowing your desktop picture to extend from edge to edge. Words lighten or darken based on the color of your desktop picture. And pull-down menus are larger, with more space between the lines to make everything easier to read.

Floating Dock

The redesigned Dock is lifted from the bottom of your display and is more translucent, allowing your desktop wallpaper to shine through. And app icons are all-new and even easier to recognize.

New icons for apps

App icons have been redesigned to feel both familiar and fresh. Icons have a uniform shape but retain the stylistic touches and details that give Mac its character.

Lighter window appearance

Windows have a lighter, more spacious appearance that makes them cleaner and easier to work with. Additional translucency and rounded edges designed to match the radii of Mac create a cohesive look and feel throughout macOS.

Redesigned sheets

Sheets in apps have been completely redesigned, removing borders and bezels to put the focus on your content. They automatically dim the background and scale into the center of the app.

New and updated sounds

System sounds are all-new and even more pleasing to the ear. The new system alerts were created using snippets of the originals, so they sound familiar.

Full-height sidebars

A new look for app sidebars makes it easier to find what you want and gives you more space to get things done. Easily track your Mail inbox, access Finder folders, and organize Photos, Notes, Stocks, and more.

New symbols throughout macOS


New symbols in toolbars, sidebars, and controls bring clarity and consistency across apps, helping you immediately recognize where to click. When apps share common tasks — like viewing the inbox in Mail or Calendar — they share the same symbol. There are also localized versions of symbols with numbers, letters, and dates to match your system language.

Control Center

Designed just for Mac, the new Control Center consolidates your favorite menu bar items into a single place to give you instant access to the controls you use most. Just click the Control Center icon in the menu bar and adjust Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, AirDrop, and other settings — without opening System Preferences.

Updated Notification Center

A redesigned Notification Center puts all your notifications and widgets into a single, dedicated column. Notifications are automatically sorted by most recent, and redesigned Today widgets deliver information at a glance.


Safari:Customizable start page

Customize the new start page to make it your own. You can set a background image and select new sections to display on the start page — including Favorites, Siri Suggestions, Reading List, iCloud Tabs, and even a Privacy Report.


Safari: Improved performance

Safari was already the fastest desktop browser — and now it’s even faster. Safari loads frequently visited sites 50 percent faster on average than Chrome.

Privacy information on the App Store

A new section on each app’s page on the App Store helps you understand the privacy practices of the app before you download it.9 It’s similar to the way nutrition labels help you understand what’s in food before you buy it.


AirPods: Automatic device switching

AirPods automatically switch between your iPhone, iPad, and Mac paired to the same iCloud account - making it even easier to use your AirPods with your Apple devices.10 When you turn to your Mac, a pop-up banner helps you seamlessly switch the audio over. Automatic device switching works for all Apple and Beats headphones featuring the Apple H1 headphone chip.

Optimized Battery Charging

Optimized Battery Charging is designed to reduce the wear on your battery and improve its lifespan by ensuring that your Mac notebook is fully charged when unplugged. Optimized Battery Charging learns your daily charging routine and activates only when your Mac predicts that it will be connected to a charger for an extended period of time.

Home status

A new visual status at the top of the Home app gives you a summary of accessories that require your attention, have important status changes to share, or can be quickly controlled.

Music: Listen Now

The new Listen Now tab is designed for playing and discovering your favorite music, artists, interviews, and mixes all in one place. Listen Now starts with a summary of your Top Picks across your music interests. As you play, Apple Music12 learns what you love and provides new suggestions.

Photos: Expanded video editing capabilities

Adjustments, filters, and cropping are now supported for video editing so you can rotate, increase exposure, or even apply filters to your videos.

You can install macOS Big Sur on any of these Mac models based on this list

Source: Apple

Follow us on Twitter @PC_holic






Apple Event November 10, 2020: Mac mini - Staggering Performance and an Ultracompact Design



Apple introduced a new MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini powered by the revolutionary M1, the first in a family of chips designed by Apple specifically for the Mac. By far the most powerful chip Apple has ever made, M1 transforms the Mac experience. With its industry-leading performance per watt, together with macOS Big Sur, M1 delivers up to 3.5x faster CPU, up to 6x faster GPU, up to 15x faster machine learning (ML) capabilities, and battery life up to 2x longer than before. And with M1 and Big Sur, users get access to the biggest collection of apps ever for Mac. With amazing performance and remarkable new features, the new lineup of M1-powered Macs are an incredible value, and all are available to order today.

Staggering Performance and an Ultracompact Design

Mac mini is Apple’s most versatile computer, and now with M1, it packs a staggering amount of performance and incredible new features in such a compact design. M1 brings an 8-core CPU with up to 3x faster performance than the previous generation, dramatically accelerating demanding workloads, from compiling a million lines of code to building enormous multitrack music projects. An 8-core GPU delivers up to a massive 6x increase in graphics performance, allowing Mac mini to tackle performance-intensive tasks like complex 3D rendering with ease. ML workloads also take a quantum leap forward with up to 15x faster performance over the previous generation. And when compared to the best-selling Windows desktop in its price range, the Mac mini is just one-tenth the size, yet delivers up to 5x faster performance.



When compared to the previous generation, the M1-powered Mac mini can:

  • Compile code in Xcode up to 3x faster. 
  • Play a graphics-intensive game like “Shadow of the Tomb Raider” with up to 4x higher frame rates. 
  • Render a complex timeline in Final Cut Pro up to 6x faster. 
  • Take music production to new levels by using up to 3x as many real-time plug-ins in Logic Pro.
  • Magically increase the resolution of a photo in Pixelmator Pro up to 15x faster. 
  • Utilize ML frameworks like TensorFlow or Create ML, now accelerated by the M1 chip.



Mac mini also features an advanced thermal design to sustain its breakthrough performance while staying cool and quiet, support for up to two displays including Apple’s Pro Display XDR in full 6K resolution, and Wi-Fi 6 for faster wireless performance and the Secure Enclave in M1 for best-in-class security. 

With M1 and Big Sur, Mac mini represents a massive shift in what an ultrasmall desktop can do. Far more versatile and far more capable than ever, Mac mini is now available for just $699, $100 less than the previous-generation quad-core model.

Source: Apple Newsroom

Follow me on Twitter @PC_holic





Apple Event November 10, 2020: 13-inch MacBook Pro - Even More Powerful and Even More Pro



Apple introduced a new MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini powered by the revolutionary M1, the first in a family of chips designed by Apple specifically for the Mac. By far the most powerful chip Apple has ever made, M1 transforms the Mac experience. With its industry-leading performance per watt, together with macOS Big Sur, M1 delivers up to 3.5x faster CPU, up to 6x faster GPU, up to 15x faster machine learning (ML) capabilities, and battery life up to 2x longer than before. And with M1 and Big Sur, users get access to the biggest collection of apps ever for Mac. With amazing performance and remarkable new features, the new lineup of M1-powered Macs are an incredible value, and all are available to order today.

The 13-inch MacBook Pro is Apple’s most popular pro notebook. Students use it to power through college, and pros use it to channel their creativity. With the M1 chip and Big Sur, the 13-inch MacBook Pro becomes even more powerful and even more pro. The 8-core CPU, when paired with the MacBook Pro’s active cooling system, is up to 2.8x faster than the previous generation, delivering game-changing performance when compiling code, transcoding video, editing high-resolution photos, and more. The 8-core GPU is up to 5x faster, allowing users to enjoy super smooth graphics performance whether they are designing a graphics-intensive game or a new product. And with M1, the 13-inch MacBook Pro is up to 3x faster than the best-selling Windows laptop in its class.3 ML is up to 11x faster, and for on-device ML tasks that use the Neural Engine, the new 13-inch MacBook Pro is now the world’s fastest compact pro notebook.4 With up to 17 hours of wireless web browsing and up to a staggering 20 hours of video playback, MacBook Pro delivers up to twice the battery life of the previous generation and the longest battery life ever on a Mac.



When compared to the previous generation, the M1-powered 13-inch MacBook Pro can:

  • Build code in Xcode up to 2.8x faster.
  • Render a complex 3D title in Final Cut Pro up to 5.9x faster. 
  • Fluidly design intricate game scenes in Unity Editor up to 3.5x faster. 
  • Perform ML tasks in Create ML up to 11x faster.
  • Separate out beats, instrumentals, and vocal tracks from a recording in real time in djay Pro AI, thanks to the amazing performance of the Neural Engine. 
  • Play back full-quality, 8K ProRes video in DaVinci Resolve without dropping a single frame. 
  • Compile four times as much code on a single charge, thanks to the game-changing performance per watt of the M1 chip.


Other new features in the new 13-inch MacBook Pro include studio-quality mics for super clear recordings and calls, and Apple’s latest camera ISP in the M1 chip enables sharper images and more detail in shadows and highlights on video calls. The new MacBook Pro also delivers best-in-class security with the Secure Enclave in M1 and Touch ID. And it features two Thunderbolt ports with USB 4 support to connect to more peripherals than ever, including Apple’s Pro Display XDR in full 6K resolution.


With its amazing performance and unbelievable battery life, combined with its gorgeous Retina display, Magic Keyboard, and 3-pound compact design, the new 13-inch MacBook Pro is the ultimate expression of what the M1 chip can do. And it is available for the same starting price of just $1,299, and $1,199 for education.






Tuesday, November 10, 2020

Apple Event November 10, 2020: Introducing The Next Generation of Mac - New MacBook Air



A new MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini powered by M1, Apple’s breakthrough chip for the Mac

On a momentous day for the Mac, Apple today introduced a new MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini powered by the revolutionary M1, the first in a family of chips designed by Apple specifically for the Mac. By far the most powerful chip Apple has ever made, M1 transforms the Mac experience. With its industry-leading performance per watt, together with macOS Big Sur, M1 delivers up to 3.5x faster CPU, up to 6x faster GPU, up to 15x faster machine learning (ML) capabilities, and battery life up to 2x longer than before. And with M1 and Big Sur, users get access to the biggest collection of apps ever for Mac. With amazing performance and remarkable new features, the new lineup of M1-powered Macs are an incredible value, and all are available to order today.

“The introduction of three new Macs featuring Apple’s breakthrough M1 chip represents a bold change that was years in the making, and marks a truly historic day for the Mac and for Apple,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “M1 is by far the most powerful chip we’ve ever created, and combined with Big Sur, delivers mind-blowing performance, extraordinary battery life, and access to more software and apps than ever before. We can’t wait for our customers to experience this new generation of Mac, and we have no doubt it will help them continue to change the world.”




MacBook Air: A Thin and Light Powerhouse

MacBook Air is Apple’s most popular Mac and the world’s best-selling 13-inch notebook. With the M1 chip, MacBook Air speeds through everything from editing family photos to exporting videos for the web. The powerful 8-core CPU performs up to 3.5x faster than the previous generation. With up to an 8-core GPU, graphics are up to 5x faster, the biggest leap ever for MacBook Air, so immersive, graphics-intensive games run at significantly higher frame rates. ML workloads are up to 9x faster, so apps that use ML-based features like face recognition or object detection can do so in a fraction of the time. The M1 chip’s storage controller and latest flash technology deliver up to 2x faster SSD performance, so previewing massive images or importing large files is faster than ever. And in MacBook Air, M1 is faster than the chips in 98 percent of PC laptops sold in the past year.

With the industry-leading power efficiency of M1, MacBook Air also delivers this performance in a fanless design, which means no matter what users are doing, it remains completely silent. And the new MacBook Air features extraordinary battery life, with up to 15 hours of wireless web browsing and up to 18 hours of video playback — the longest battery life ever on a MacBook Air.



When compared to the previous generation, the M1-powered MacBook Air can:

  • Export a project for the web with iMovie up to 3x faster. 
  • Integrate 3D effects into video in Final Cut Pro up to 5x faster. 
  • For the first time, play back and edit multiple streams of full-quality, 4K ProRes video in Final Cut Pro without dropping a frame.
  • Export photos from Lightroom up to twice as fast.
  • Use ML-based features like Smart Conform in Final Cut Pro to intelligently frame a clip up to 4.3x faster.
  • Watch more movies and TV shows with up to 18 hours of battery life, the longest ever on MacBook Air.
  • Extend FaceTime and other video calls for up to twice as long on a single charge.





Other new features in MacBook Air include Apple’s latest image signal processor (ISP) in the M1 chip, which improves camera image quality with better noise reduction, greater dynamic range, and improved auto white balance and ML-enhanced face detection so users look their best during video calls. Support for P3 wide color results in an even more vibrant, true-to-life Retina display. The Secure Enclave in M1, combined with Big Sur, delivers best-in-class security with features like Touch ID, which makes it easy to unlock MacBook Air and make secure online purchases using Apple Pay with the touch of a finger. And Wi-Fi 6 delivers faster wireless performance, while two Thunderbolt ports with USB 4 support allow for connectivity to a wide range of peripherals.

With its sleek wedge-shaped design, stunning Retina display, Magic Keyboard, and astonishing level of performance thanks to M1, the new MacBook Air once again redefines what a thin and light notebook can do. And it is still just $999, and $899 for education.




Source: Apple NewsRoom

Follow us on Twitter @PC_holic




Apple Event November 10, 2020: Apple Unleashes M1 Chip



With industry-leading performance, powerful features, and incredible efficiency, M1 is Apple’s first chip designed specifically for the Mac.

Apple today announced M1, the most powerful chip it has ever created and the first chip designed specifically for the Mac. M1 is optimized for Mac systems in which small size and power efficiency are critically important. As a system on a chip (SoC), M1 combines numerous powerful technologies into a single chip, and features a unified memory architecture for dramatically improved performance and efficiency. M1 is the first personal computer chip built using cutting-edge 5-nanometer process technology and is packed with an astounding 16 billion transistors, the most Apple has ever put into a chip. It features the world’s fastest CPU core in low-power silicon, the world’s best CPU performance per watt, the world’s fastest integrated graphics in a personal computer, and breakthrough machine learning performance with the Apple Neural Engine. As a result, M1 delivers up to 3.5x faster CPU performance, up to 6x faster GPU performance, and up to 15x faster machine learning, all while enabling battery life up to 2x longer than previous-generation Macs. With its profound increase in performance and efficiency, M1 delivers the biggest leap ever for the Mac.1

“There has never been a chip like M1, our breakthrough SoC for the Mac. It builds on more than a decade of designing industry-leading chips for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, and ushers in a whole new era for the Mac,” said Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Technologies. “When it comes to low-power silicon, M1 has the world’s fastest CPU core, the world’s fastest integrated graphics in a personal computer, and the amazing machine learning performance of the Apple Neural Engine. With its unique combination of remarkable performance, powerful features, and incredible efficiency, M1 is by far the best chip we’ve ever created.”



First System on a Chip for the Mac

Macs and PCs have traditionally used multiple chips for the CPU, I/O, security, and more. Now with M1, these technologies are combined into a single SoC, delivering a whole new level of integration for greater performance and power efficiency. M1 also features a unified memory architecture that brings together high-bandwidth, low-latency memory into a single pool within a custom package. This allows all of the technologies in the SoC to access the same data without copying it between multiple pools of memory, further improving performance and efficiency.


The World’s Best CPU Performance per Watt


M1 features an 8-core CPU consisting of four high-performance cores and four high-efficiency cores. Each of the high-performance cores provides industry-leading performance for single-threaded tasks, while running as efficiently as possible. They are the world’s fastest CPU cores in low-power silicon, allowing photographers to edit high-resolution photos with lightning speed and developers to build apps nearly 3x faster than before. And all four can be used together for a huge boost in multithreaded performance.



The four high-efficiency cores deliver outstanding performance at a tenth of the power. By themselves, these four cores deliver similar performance as the current-generation, dual-core MacBook Air at much lower power. They are the most efficient way to run lightweight, everyday tasks like checking email or browsing the web, and preserve battery life like never before. And all eight cores can work together to provide incredible compute power for the most demanding tasks and deliver the world’s best CPU performance per watt.



The World’s Fastest Integrated Graphics

M1 includes Apple’s most advanced GPU. It benefits from years of analysis of Mac applications, including everyday apps and challenging pro workloads. With industry-leading performance and incredible efficiency, the GPU in M1 is in a class by itself. Featuring up to eight powerful cores capable of running nearly 25,000 threads simultaneously, the GPU can handle extremely demanding tasks with ease, from smooth playback of multiple 4K video streams to rendering complex 3D scenes. With 2.6 teraflops of throughput, M1 has the world’s fastest integrated graphics in a personal computer.



Blazing-Fast, On-Device Machine Learning

The M1 chip brings the Apple Neural Engine to the Mac, greatly accelerating machine learning (ML) tasks. Featuring Apple’s most advanced 16-core architecture capable of 11 trillion operations per second, the Neural Engine in M1 enables up to 15x faster machine learning performance. In fact, the entire M1 chip is designed to excel at machine learning, with ML accelerators in the CPU and a powerful GPU, so tasks like video analysis, voice recognition, and image processing will have a level of performance never seen before on the Mac.



More Innovative Technologies Packed into M1

The M1 chip is packed with a number of powerful custom technologies, including:

  • Apple’s latest image signal processor (ISP) for higher quality video with better noise reduction, greater dynamic range, and improved auto white balance.
  • The latest Secure Enclave for best-in-class security.
  • A high-performance storage controller with AES encryption hardware for faster and more secure SSD performance.
  • Low-power, highly efficient media encode and decode engines for great performance and extended battery life.
  • An Apple-designed Thunderbolt controller with support for USB 4, transfer speeds up to 40Gbps, and compatibility with more peripherals than ever.



macOS Big Sur Optimized for M1

macOS Big Sur is engineered, down to its core, to take full advantage of all the capability and power of M1, delivering a massive boost in performance, astonishing battery life, and even stronger security protections. With M1, things users do every day feel noticeably faster and smoother. Just like iPhone and iPad, the Mac now instantly wakes from sleep. Browsing with Safari — which is already the world’s fastest browser — is now up to 1.5x speedier at running JavaScript and nearly 2x more responsive.2

With Big Sur and M1, Mac users can run a greater range of apps than ever before. All of Apple’s Mac software is now Universal and runs natively on M1 systems. Existing Mac apps that have not been updated to Universal will run seamlessly with Apple’s Rosetta 2 technology. And iPhone and iPad apps can now run directly on the Mac. Additionally, the foundations of Big Sur are optimized to unlock the power of M1, including developer technologies from Metal for graphics to Core ML for machine learning.



Start of a Two-Year Transition for the Mac

M1 powers the new MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini. They join the rest of the Mac product line to form the strongest Mac lineup ever. This is the beginning of a transition to a new family of chips designed specifically for the Mac. The transition to Apple silicon will take about two years to complete, and these three systems are an amazing first step.

Source: Apple Newsroom

Follow us on Twitter @PC_holic