Tag Archives: MacBook

Apple Showcases Its In-House Apps on New ‘Apps by Apple’ Page

September 5, 2023 Nur Jeevan Leave a comment

Apple has introduced an all-new “Apps by Apple” webpage, residing on its official website. This dedicated space serves as a platform to celebrate and showcase Apple’s proprietary apps, available across the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac, and Apple TV ecosystems.

In true Apple fashion, the company showcases its commitment to delivering a seamless user experience through these apps, accompanied by tantalizing glimpses of forthcoming features in iOS 17 and beyond.

So, what exactly does this ‘Apps by Apple’ page bring to the table?

A Guide to Apple’s App Universe

This newly minted digital domain, found at apple.com/apps, conveniently categorizes Apple’s apps into six distinct clusters:

Communication: Tagged as “Apps to keep you connected,” this category includes essentials like Phone, Messages, FaceTime, Mail, and Contacts. Apple’s aim here is clear – to facilitate effortless connections.
Creativity: “Tools for pros and passionate creatives” is the mantra here. This enclave caters to the artist in you, boasting apps like Photos, Camera, GarageBand, iMovie, and Final Cut Pro for iPad.
Productivity: In the “All you need to make your work of art” realm, Apple’s offerings include Notes, Reminders, Calendar, Freeform, and Pages. The focus? Enhancing your productivity and creativity.
Exploration: Embark on journeys of discovery with apps like Safari, Maps, Weather, Find My, and Wallet. These apps are designed to simplify your explorations of both the digital and physical worlds.
Entertainment and Home: “Brilliant ways to watch, read, listen, and relax” – this segment features Apple TV, Apple Music, Apple Arcade, Apple Music Classical, and Podcasts, promising entertainment and relaxation at your fingertips.
Health and Fitness: Prioritizing “Wellness for your mind and body,” Apple offers apps such as Apple Health, Fitness, Workout, Sleep, and Cycle Tracking. Your well-being takes centre stage here.

Aside from these categories, the ‘Apps by Apple’ page provides insights into the features that underpin Apple’s ecosystem. These include Siri, iCloud, CarPlay, and Continuity, designed to seamlessly integrate various aspects of your digital life. Family Sharing, another highlighted feature, promotes harmonious device sharing among families.

A Response to Regulatory Changes

It’s worth noting that the unveiling of this page comes at a time when the European Union (EU) is considering regulations that may require Apple to allow third-party app stores and sideloading on iPhones within its member states. Sideloading entails installing apps from sources other than Apple’s App Store. Apple’s long-standing argument for restricting sideloading revolves around security concerns, as it enables stricter control over potential threats like malware.

With these regulatory shifts looming, Apple’s ‘Apps by Apple’ initiative can be seen as a strategic move to bolster its in-house app portfolio. By emphasizing the quality, seamlessness, and privacy features of its apps, Apple aims to ensure that users continue to choose its ecosystem, even in the face of alternative options.

Apple reassures users that “Every app by Apple comes with powerful privacy features to help protect your data and give you control over your information.” This commitment aligns with Apple’s broader stance on privacy and data protection.

While these changes may initially impact EU users, the global tech landscape may witness ripple effects as the industry navigates evolving regulations.

In conclusion, Apple’s ‘Apps by Apple’ webpage serves as a testament to the company’s dedication to delivering a user-friendly and secure app experience. As the tech world continues to evolve, Apple remains unwavering in its pursuit of innovation and excellence.

Computers, Lifestyle, News

[WWDC 2023] The New Apple MacBook Air Now Comes in a 15-inch Variant

June 9, 2023 Darwin Sucipto Leave a comment

For the longest time, we did not think that Apple’s MacBook Air line-up needed to be bigger. To be fair the Apple MacBook Air was made to be the most portable Mac there is that offers the Mac experience anywhere and at any time. It is designed to be as thin and as light as a MacBook can be. So, in that case, it only makes sense for the MacBook Air’s display to be no larger than 14-inch to ensure that it fits most bags. If you want a bigger MacBook, get the normal sized MacBook that offers more than 13-inch in display real estate, or get the MacBook Pro. But what if you want a bigger screen and still have a thin-and-light package to work with? Apple has an answer for you, finally.

Welcome to the new format in the MacBook Air line-up, a 15.3-inch Liquid Retina MacBook Air. It is still a MacBook Air, a thin-and-light Apple laptop that is meant to be as portable as a MacBook can be. The only added heft comes from the larger display. A larger display also means that the MacBook Air can be a proper entertainment powerhouse now when it comes to movies and even games to a certain extent. You can even use it as your main editing tool if you want to use it for content creation.

The 15-inch MacBook Air now makes plenty of sense thanks the Apple’s silicon innovation in their latest M2 integrated processor. Thanks to the power requirements of the M2 processor too, the MacBook Air is now the thinnest 15-inch laptop in the world.

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Other than a more powerful M2 chip, it does not seem like the 15-inch MacBook Air has sacrificed anything else just for the squashed down bodywork. Apple claims that the MacBook Air still can offer immersive Spatial Audio. There is a Full HD 1080p FaceTime HD camera that you can use for FaceTime calls and other video conferencing tool complete with Center Stage technology. All of these and you still get up to 18 hours in battery life.

For Spatial Audio, Apple has fitted the 15-inch MacBook Air with six speakers. The speaker system on the MacBook Air offers Dolby Atmos support allowing you to properly enjoy any movies on Netflix, Prime Video, and even Apple TV+ with immersive Dolby audio. But the speakers are not just for movies and music. It also made to ensure that you get a clear communication with your teammates or friends over FaceTime and other video conferencing tools. Of course, you need mics for that too, and the MacBook Air comes with three-mic array with beamforming technology to clear capture your voice for both voice and video calls.

The 15.3-inch Liquid Retina Display offers more than just resolution too. WIth up to 500 nits in brightness and support for up to 1-billion colours, it is one of the most accurate and vivid displays you can find on a 15-inch laptop. They claim that the 15-inch disply on the MacBook Air offers twice the resolution and 25 percent brighter than comparable PC laptops in its class.

Of course, one of the biggest highlights of the MacBook Air is the M2 processor living inside the ultra-thin 15-inch notebook. The Apple M2 chip you get here comes with eight CPU cores (four performance cores and four efficiency cores) and 10 GPU cores. Within the chip construction is also a dedicated 16-core Neural Engine. You get to spec the MacBook Air with up to 24GB of unified memory too for better multitasking than ever. The result of all that is an ultra-thin 15-inch laptop that you can rely on to edit videos like a professional without being tethered to a power source for an entire day.

Then there is Ventura, the latest macOS there is. There is a new Continuity Camera feature that allows you to start your FaceTime calls from any of your Apple device and pass it on to your other Apple devices without even going through an entire procedure for it. Thanks to Continuity Camera also, you get Center Stage, Desk View and Studio Light features on all your supported Apple devices. There is Stage Manager that helps you automatically organise your apps and windows to ensure that you can focus on the right things at any given time. Freeform app allows you to express and organise you’re at your own freedom and liking. Apple also teased their upcoming macOS, the Sonoma, with even more features promised for macOS devices.

Price and Availability

THe 15-inch MacBook Air is now available in select regions from Apple Stores or their web sore. Malaysia is definitely getting the MacBook Air, but there are no specific dates that has been quoted from Apple. It will set youback MYR 6,199 onward when it is available. For more information on Apple’s 15-inch MacBook Air, you can head to their website.

Computers, News

Introducing the Apple M2 Pro and M2 Max in the New Macbook Pro

January 19, 2023 Darwin Sucipto Leave a comment

The Cupertino giant has made an announcement last night. They announced their latest silicon product, the M2 Pro and M2 Max. You can also find them on the MacBook Pro in 14-inch and 16-inch guises. These are the most powerful silicon products that Appel has ever made.

Apple M2 Pro and M2 Max

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Apple’s M2 chip is technically a bigger, badder M1 chip. It is, in physical form, a tad larger than the M1 but with more horsepower than ever before. In its MacBook Air guise, it proved to be a potent chip for anything that is optimised and tuned to run on it.

Just like the M1 Pro and M1 Max, the M2 Pro and M2 Max are even bigger and in turn, even faster than the M2 chip. The M2 Pro adds four more cores to the eight-core set-up of the original M2. It now also has a 19-core GPU and up to 32GB of unified RAM. The M2 Max comes with the same 12-core CPU but carries double the GPU core count at 38 cores. The unified fast memory is also expanded to 96GB for even better and faster productivity. Additionally, both chips features Apple’s new 16-core neural engine and media engine.

Of course, like the M2 chip, the M2 Pro and M2 Max are built on 5nm process technology. That allows Apple to fit more transistors within the chips than before, about 40 billion transistors on the M2 Pro, 20% more than before. The M2 Pro packs twice the memory bandwidth of the regular M2 at 200GB/s. There are more GPU cores on the M2 Pro than the M1 Pro too. All this adds up to a 20% better multithread performance over the older chip and 30% graphics performance bump.

On the M2 Max, there are 10 billion more transistors over the older M1 Max. That is about three folds of the regular M2. Its memory bandwidth is even faster at 400GB/s. At 96GB as well, there is nearly no wait time for large files to open, especially useful if you are working with plenty of video folders and such. Its 38-core GPU with larger L2 cache also allows the M2 Max to process graphic-intensive projects much better and more efficiently.

The New MacBook Pro, Featuring the New M2 Pro and M2 Max

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When we say new, there is technically nothing too new about the new MacBook Pro for 2023. It comes in 14-inch and 16-inch flavours. They look the same as before too. They sort of come in the same Retina display guise with no change in resolution. The weird forehead notch is still there. The display is not even a touch-sensitive one.

Yes, the big difference between the 2022 MacBook Pro and 2023 one is more than skin deep. You have the massive jump in power from the M2 Pro or M2 Max you find within. According to Apple, the massive jump in power also comes with even more efficiency than before too, resulting in a long-lasting battery life; up to 22 hours to be exact.

Obviously, with a massive power bump, comes greater performances and capabilities. Image processing in Photoshop is claimed to be up to 40% faster than before. Thanks to better optimisation in the SoC as well, Adobe’s Photoshop can process images 80% faster than the most powerful Intel-based MacBook Pro (keep in mind, Intel-based MacBook Pros are a thing of the past). With the M2 Max, colour grading with DaVinci resolve is now 30% faster than before allowing for a much faster video workflow.

They also mentioned that they have upgraded the HDMI port on both the Macbook Pro to an ‘advanced’ HDMI port. The HDMI port now can support 8K displays for the first time. Why they could not say that it is an HDMI 2.1 port is beyond us; but hey, you can connect your MacBook Pro 8K displays now. There is also WiFi 6E support now for even better wireless connectivity. You also want to keep in mind that the latest router technology tops out at WiFi 6 too, so there is some future-proofing with the MacBook Pro. You will also find the usual Thunderbolt 4 port that can double as display outputs as well, an SDXC card slot, and the ever popular MagSafe 3 charging port. Of course, the latest MacBook Pro with M2 Pro and M2 Max comes with MacOS Ventura.

Price and Availability

The Apple MacBook Pro is now available for pre-order in the United States (U.S.) and 26 other countries and regions. The first Apple MacBook Pros will ship out 24^th of January 2023 onward. The MacBook Pro with M2 Pro and M2 Max will be available also in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, New Zealand, and Singapore from the 3^rd of February 2023 onward. There are no mentions on when the new MacBook Pro with M2 chips will reach Malaysia just yet. But Apple’s local website has already listed them. The MacBook Pro, as mentioned, comes in 14-inch and 16-inch flavours. The M2 Pro equipped 14-inch MacBook Pro starts at MYR 8,799, while the M2 Max variant comes in at MYR 13,199. The 16-inch variant will set you back MYR 10,799 onward for the M2 Pro while the M2 Max variant will set you back MYR 14,799 onward. For more information on the new Apple MacBook Pro with M2 Pro and M2 Max chips, you can head over to their website.

Computers, Mobile, News

[WWDC 2022] Apple Launches the M2 for the New MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro

June 9, 2022 Darwin Sucipto Leave a comment

Let us talk about Apple’s first foray into the silicon market – the Apple M1 chip. It was a somewhat successful endeavor. The M1 powered MacBooks proved to be rather popular among fans and even to new users. It is also the first successful implementation of a System on a Chip (SoC) solution for a major computing device with a desktop interface that is the MacOS in this case.

Of course, the success of the M1 chip also has something to do with the fact that Apple has somehow engineered the MacOS around the integrated silicon. But it also has something to do with the Apple M1’s specific build to optimise and be optimized with apps designed for MacOS.

Of course, while we expected Apple to come up with more powerful versions of their silicon last year, we were a little wrong to expect the second-generation of Apple’s silicon to be announced then. Instead, Apple launched variants of the M1 chip. You get larger footprints of the M1 that also comes with a lot more grunt from the SoC. Everything changes for 2022 though with Apple’s M2.

Welcome to the Apple M2 silicon, supposedly an evolution of the M1 chip. Obviously, it will be more powerful than the regular M1 chip. As with the M1 chip as well, the M2 will start out its life in the MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro.

Why Should You Care?

Apple WWDC22 M2 chip CPU perf vs power 01 220606 — Source: Apple

PC users might snicker at the thought of an SoC running their Windows system. It is not too far-fetched of an idea though. Windows 11 seems to be more SoC friendly, and Qualcomm is working on a solution for that as we write this piece.

But the M1 is prove that an SoC can power a desktop class computing solution. The M2 just solidifies that position for Apple as the only manufacturer that dare to go beyond conventions. While Apple did point out that the M2 can game better with Metal accelerator, it still will not game like Windows PC can.

Instead, the M2 is tailor built to ensure that the MacOS is fully optimized and runs as fast as it can. The M2 chip is designed specifically to ensure that the MacOS and its apps are getting enough processing power in all the right places to ensure smooth, snappy experience. It just does everything that the M1 does, but better.

Bigger, Badder, Better

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Footprint wise, the M2 is slightly larger than the M1 chip. It is built with he second-generation 5nm technology, technically the current most advanced transistor technology. The new construction allows Apple to push the envelope a little bit with the M2.

It is supposed to be about 18% faster than the M1 in terms of CPU performance. In terms of GPU performance, it is supposed to 35% better than the older chip. The M2 is also supposed to pack a dedicated Neural Engine that is about 40% faster than before. While the M1 tops out at 16GB of memory bandwidth, the basic M2 can support up to 24GB in unified memory. You can find all 24GB powering the updated 13-inch MacBook Pro.

The larger footprint can be contributed to the fact that Apple has squeezed 25% more transistors than the M1. More transistors also means that the chip can deliver up to 100GB/s in memory bandwidth with the speedy unified memory. At the same time, with a larger cache, the M2 does not require any more power than the M1 demanded. At the same maximum power consumption. The M2 still beats out the M1 in all processor aspects.

Faster Workflow = Better Productivity

The result of all that can be seen in all the Apple silicon optimized apps. Thanks to the wider bandwidth, the M2 supports up to 8K H.264 and HEVC video encoding. It is supposed to also be able to stream more 4K and 8K videos on more displays, if you can find enough dongles or displays to plug the MacBook Air or the 13-inch MacBook Pro.

At the same time, while not spoken at length, the M2 features better security all around. Apple’s Secure Enclave ensures that your data is locally stored and protected instead of it being uploaded to iCloud. Of course, to fully take advantage of the chip’s power, you need Apple’s latest MacOS Ventura.

The MacBook Air – Now a Proper Baby MacBook?

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For the first time ever, the MacBook Air got a redesign. Instead of the wedge-shaped aluminium slate, it now looks like a thinner version of the regular MacBook. It is not a bad thing.

It now features a more updated “MacBook” look in a 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display with the weird notch in the top middle section of the display. That notch houses an 1080p Full HD FaceTime camera and other sensors.

The US 1,199 (starting from) device now looks a little more up to par to a regular MacBook too, at least on paper. It now features dour speakers and MagSafe charging has made its way back into the thinnest and lightest version of the MacBook family. There are still no fans in the notebook for any significant cooling performance, but the M2 is an SoC that does not really need a dedicate cooling fan. The MacBook Air also comes in four different colour finishes now instead of the usual two that was offered before.

Computers, Lifestyle, News

The New MacBook Pro is Here, and the Apple Silicon M1 Pro and M1 Max are Here!

October 19, 2021 Darwin Sucipto Leave a comment

In the day and age where laptops are becoming a staple in the world of content creation and professional work requirements, there are two camps. On one camp is the one that supports the PC, on the other, the side that glorifies the MacBook Pro. There are a lot of obvious bonuses with the PC market before this. Get that, before this.

Apple introduced their Apple Silicon product, the M1 chip last year in 2020 and it broke the internet. Well, not really, but it did become a headline. It is Apple’s first step in stepping away from chip manufacturers like Intel, and obviously, AMD as well. The M1 chip in the MacBook line-up, especially the MacBook Pro was a popular choice though. Content creators that rely on their MacBook Pro with M1 chips swore by the performance of the chip on their tools. They managed to make the M1 chip equipped MacBook Pro even cheaper than what they could offer with and Intel badge.

The no brainer decision buys you into a platform that is still being tested though. It was an experimental platform at best with many developers still trying to adapt their apps to run natively on the M1 chip. You sometimes forget that the M1 chip architecture is so completely different compared to other processor’s construction that apps have to work with different command lines and codes to run natively on the M1 Chip.

A year on, and there are enough apps that runs on the M1 architecture. There are more apps being added in. There are also the new kids on the block, perfect timing.

Apple M1 Max/Pro

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Before we move on, this is a deeper coverage on the MacBook Pro devices. We will be separately talk about the new M1 chips in detail in the coming days.

The new chiplets are supposed to be bigger than the original M1 chip from last year though. That also means that the new chips pack more CPU and GPU cores. The M1 Max packs 10 CPU cores and 32 GPU cores. The M1 Pro packs the same 10 cores on its CPU end but only makes do with 16 cores in its GPU module.

The integrated architecture allows the M1 Max’s GPU and CPU to have direct access and enjoy 64GB of integrated RAM. The M1 Pro will only come with up to 32GB of integrated memory. All of these leads to a huge performance leap from the original M1 from 2020.

The Apple MacBook Pro

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The Apple MacBook Pro is now available in two sizes, the 16-inch and 14-inch models. Both comes with either the M1 Pro or the M1 Max options of course. Both laptops feature a Full HD 1080p FaceTime HD camera. You also see the MagSafe 3 charging port making a comeback for magnetically attached chargers on a MacBook Pro. To be fair, it was one of the best features on a MacBook.

The MacBook Pro also packs an advanced six-speaker system with dual subwoofers for an audio experience on a laptop like no other. When people say Apple does not listen to its customers, the Apple MacBook Pro for the 2021 market proves them wrong. The annoying Touch Bar is now gone and replaced with tactile keys from a full-height magic keyboard that we are more used to.

Of course, there needs to be a lot of ports on what Apple calls a “pro notebook”. You have three Thunderbolt 4 pots on the Apple MacBook Pro. Two of them are USB Type-C ports. You also have one HDMI port on the MacBook Pro. That allows you to connect to up to four displays at a time for a five-monitor set up, as long as you have the space. You still have an SDXC card reader on the MacBook Pro too. If you have the money and space, the MacBook Pro is your best workflow powerhouse in this case.

Apple MacBook Pro 16 inch Screen 10182021 — Source: Apple

You get Retina XDR Mini LED panels on both the 16-inch and 14-inch MacBook Pro. Of course, the MacBook Pro in 16-inch clad will feature more pixels than the 14-inch, Apple style. Both displays can project up to 10-billion colours (10-bit) on the panels though.

The added power of the new variants of the M1 chip allows the MacOS on the MacBook Pro to easily work with 4K ProRes videos or even 8K ProRes videos in Final Cut Pro with no hiccups. They say it is more powerful than the Mac Pro even with Afterburner. For the first time ever as well, users can colour grade in HDR on 8K ProRes 444 video formats, even on battery.

The Apple MacBook Pro is supposed to feature improved battery too. At 21 hours of video playback, the Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch trumps any pro-level notebook PC that you can find the market, on paper at least. The 14-inch is quoted to have up to 17 hours of video playback time too. If that is not enough, you can charge the MacBook Pro via MagSafe 3 and fast charge it up to 50% in just 30 minutes.

Price and Availability

If you asked us a year ago about the MacBook Pro vs the PC laptops, we would have asked you to get the PC laptop. Right now, we are not so sure, we are tempted to get our hands on the M1 Max or M1 Pro versions of the MacBook Pro. If you are excited about it, you will be happy to know that the Apple MacBook Pro 16-inc and 14-inch will hit the shelves on the 26^th of October 2021 onward. That is only the United States and selected countries though, so that is some bad news for some of us. The 14-inch MacBook Pro starts at US$ 1,999 (MYR 8,799*) while the 16-inch variant starts at US$ 2,499 (MYR 19,799*). There are no word on when the MacBook Pro will officially make its way to Malaysia, but we are guessing that it is pretty soon. More information on the MacBook Pro can be found on their website.

*Official Malaysia Pricing

Computers, Lifestyle, News

The Mac is On Track for M1X

October 5, 2021 Darwin Sucipto Leave a comment

Apple’s M1 System on A Chip (SoC) that powers their Mac products have been sensational. The Apple M1 chip that was launched late last year was all the rage for 2020 and most of 2021. The Apple M1 chip even found its way to the Apple iPad Pro for 2021. While it was a little undersold with the Apple iPad Pro series, it shows the world how versatile Apple’s M1 chip can be. At the same time, support for the integrated chip has increased over the year. It is now to a point that almost every conceivable app that is available on Apple’s MacOS are M1 optimised.

Apple’s M1 chip is nearly a year old though and that also means that it is time for a change. The new chip will not be called the M2 though. Instead, we will know it as the M1X SoC for the Mac ecosystem.

While rumoured and teased for most of 2021, there is not much that is known about Apple’s upcoming flagship MacBook Pro and its M1X processor. For those that have been waiting to get their hands on Apple’s silicon powering a MacBook though, their prayers might be answered with the new Apple MacBook line-up that is scheduled to appear in this month itself.

Rumours and reports all point to two variants of the Apple M1X chip. Mark Gurman of Bloomberg pointed out that the M1X will feature a 10-core processor within the chip. There is a choice of either 16-cores or 32-cores in the graphics department. There are also reports of higher-end SoCs that are developed for future MacBook series.

There are more rumoured changes to the MacBook Pro that is set to launch this month. Apple is reportedly bringing back full-sized HDMI and SD card slot into the new MacBook Pro line-up which is good news for content creators. The MacBook Pro is also expected to lose the Touch Bar that was introduced in 2016.

There might be other things that will be launched later in the year. We also must remember that Apple’s iPhone 13 launch did not see the launch of the third generation Apple AirPods. There is still plenty of unknown though. For now, we can only guess. Apple’s next launch event is expected to happen this month or early November 2021 at the latest.

Computers, Lifestyle, News

Spotify Beta App Released with M1 Native Support

July 2, 2021 Darwin Sucipto Leave a comment

Apple’s M1 chip for their Mac platform has been around for nearly eight months now. At the same time, while there is a growth for apps that natively supports the M1 chip, it has been a little slow in adoption from major app developers. At least there is some good news today though.

There are a few reasons why app developers want to develop apps that natively supports the M1 chip. Due to the unique architecture of Apple’s silicon, apps need to behave a little differently to take advantage of the chip’s power. In some sense, apps for the Mac have to be developed to work very much like mobile apps, but more feature rich than one.

This means that regular apps you usually see for your PC and regular Intel or AMD powered Mac, while runs on an M1 variant Mac, will run a little slower with more noticeable lags. This is also something you will see on regular PC apps running on other ARM based chips like the Qualcomm Compute platform. To ensure that the apps behave as they are designed to, they have to reengineer their apps a little bit to optimise its running processes for the ARM architecture-based chips.

Today is one of those days that another major app developer jumps on board of the M1 train. Spotify has just released a new Beta app with native support for Apple’s M1 silicon. For Spotify users currently on M1 Macs, that should mean a major improvement in the apps experience on their Macs.

To be fair, the Beta release should not come as a huge surprise. Users have been asking Spotify to release an M1 supported Spotify app since the M1 chips launched into the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, Mac Mini, and iMac. The native support should mean that the app runs a lot smoother and faster, on top of being a little bit more stable on M1 chips.

It is still in Beta though, which also means that you can expect some hiccups from time to time. In that case, you might want to report all sorts of bugs you will encounter in your experience so that Spotify can rectify as much as possible before the app goes full prime time. According to their own Spotify community post, they would also like to hear from users if their app works nicely.

You can download the Spotify Beta version for M1 based Mac devices on their website. Their community page post also features some instructions on how to get the Beta app up and running. You can easily go back to the regular version too, if you are not too keen with the Beta app by simply downloading the app from their website regularly.

Computers, News

The New MacBook Air Comes with Scissor Keyboard and 10th Gen Intel Processors

March 19, 2020 Nur Jeevan Leave a comment

Thin. Light. Long lasting. Those are the words that come to mind when one thinks about the MacBook Air. The laptop was one of the first that arguably changed the face and form factor of modern laptops. Come the new decade, Apple is announcing a long awaited refresh to the popular MacBook Air.

The 2020 edition of the MacBook Air will be equipped with the latest quad-core processors from Intel. However, the 10th Generation Intel Core i7 which sports this configuration will only be available on the highest end MacBook Air. Two other options will be made available, one equipped with a dual core Intel Core i3 and another with the quad core Intel Core i5. Apple claims that the new MacBook Air has double the CPU performance and 80% more graphics performance with the new Intel IRIS Plus Graphics.

One of the pain points of the previous MacBook air was the keyboard which came with Apple’s butterfly switches. That being the case, Apple has turned back to the tried and true scissor switches. Their new Magic Keyboard comes with 1mm of travel for a more comfortable typing experience. The company has made the arrow keys easier to find with their “inverted T” design.

The MacBook Air comes with a 13.3-inch Retina display with over 4 million pixels. The Retina dispaly is an IPS Display with a QHD+ resolution of 2560×1600 pixels. This gives it a pixel density of 227 pixels per inch (ppi). It has a 16:10 aspect ratio and supports True Tone technology for better colour accuracy.

Storage and memory wise, the new MacBook air is equipped with at least 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM which can be upped to 16GB. At the minimum, it comes with 256GB of onboard PCIe SSD memory. This too is upgradable to a maximum of 2TB SSD. Speaking of the storage, Apple’s T2 Security Chip is also on the new MacBook Air. It will scan the software loaded during boot to ensure that nothing has been tampered and also provides on the fly data encryption. However, to simplify the user experience, TouchID has also been incorporated so users can stay secure while keeping things convenient.

The MacBook Air 2020 is also the first of its series to support up to 6K output for external displays. It also has a 3 mic array for clear voice performance over FaceTime and is equipped with the large, Force Touch trackpad. I will also come with Thunderbolt 3 ports for data, charging and video output.

Pricing & Availability

The new laptop is available for order on Apple’s website starting today. It will be available in Space Gray, Gold and Silver. Prices start from USD$999 or, if you are buying under their education programme, it will be USD$899.

In Malaysia, the Core i3 and Core i5 versions have been listed on the Apple online store. However, they are not available for order just yet. The i3 version of the MacBook Air is listed at MYR4,399 while the i5 version is listed at MYR5,599.

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Tag Archives: MacBook

Apple Showcases Its In-House Apps on New ‘Apps by Apple’ Page

A Guide to Apple’s App Universe

A Response to Regulatory Changes

[WWDC 2023] The New Apple MacBook Air Now Comes in a 15-inch Variant

Price and Availability

Introducing the Apple M2 Pro and M2 Max in the New Macbook Pro

Apple M2 Pro and M2 Max

The New MacBook Pro, Featuring the New M2 Pro and M2 Max

Price and Availability

[WWDC 2022] Apple Launches the M2 for the New MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro

Why Should You Care?

Bigger, Badder, Better

Faster Workflow = Better Productivity

The MacBook Air – Now a Proper Baby MacBook?

The New MacBook Pro is Here, and the Apple Silicon M1 Pro and M1 Max are Here!

Apple M1 Max/Pro

The Apple MacBook Pro

Price and Availability

The Mac is On Track for M1X

Spotify Beta App Released with M1 Native Support

The New MacBook Air Comes with Scissor Keyboard and 10th Gen Intel Processors

Pricing & Availability

Tech Your Way