How to run the intel version of a universal mac app on an m1 mac

While half the world is busy comprehending the impact of Apple’s unprecedented M1 chip, a few lucky ones who are using or are planning to buy M1 Macs are busy contemplating how much they will be able to get done on the new Mac with the limited know-how on M1-compatible apps!

After all, Mac apps built on Intel’s x86 architecture are not natively supported on the ARM-based M1 chip.

Cupertino-giant has addressed the above problem by introducing Rosetta 2.

What is Rosetta 2?

An updated version of Rosetta, Apple-developed Rosetta 2 translates most of the existing apps. It ensures they run seamlessly, even without updating, on new Macs with Apple Silicon.

According to reports, Rosetta 2 runs current, un-updated macOS apps automatically with minimal to no performance degradation. In some graphically demanding apps, the performance is even better!

Which apps are universal (meaning the app is updated to run on both Apple Silicon and Intel processors), and which apps rely on Rosetta 2?

Here’s how to check it!

4 Easy Ways to Check M1-Compatible Mac Apps

• Check M1 App Compatibility Using Command + I
• Check M1-Compatible Mac Apps Using Mac System Report
• Use Silicon App to Check M1 Compatibility
• Use IsAppleSiliconReady.com for List of M1 Supported Apps

Check M1 App Compatibility Using Command + I

1. Open Finder and click on Applications.
2. Select the app whose computability you wish to check and press Command + I. You can also right-click and choose Get Info.
3. Under General → Kind, you will see the word Universal or Intel.

Check M1-Compatible Mac Apps Using Mac System Report

1. Click on the Apple logo from the top left.
2. Choose About This Mac.
3. Click on System Report.
4. From the left sidebar, select Software → Applications.
5. Under ‘Kind,’ you will see the words Apple Silicon or Intel.
6. Optional: Click on ‘Kind’ to sort the apps accordingly.

Use Silicon App to Check M1 Compatibility

1. Download and install the free and open-source Silicon app.
2. Open the app and install any update if prompted.
3. Click on Start Scanning.
4. On the right side, you will see which apps are Universal (can run natively on Apple Silicon and Intel processors) or Intel (can run using Rosetta 2 or not run on Apple Silicon).

Use Silicon App to Check M1 Compatibility

Use IsAppleSiliconReady.com for List of M1 Supported Apps

Started by developer Abdullah Diaa, Is Apple silicon ready, lists hundreds of popular apps and their compatibility status.

Once you are on this site, click on NATIVE M1 SUPPORT, ROSETTA 2 ONLY, or NOT WORKING to see specific macOS app lists. You can also search for the desired app.

If your app isn’t listed, you can even request them to add it.

M1 Compatible Mac Apps Recognized!

It is a matter of time for developers to make their apps universal.

For the time being, these are some of the best ways to find out. You can also check the tweet by Thomas Schranz with a collaborative spreadsheet of a list of Apple Silicon games.

Apple has updated its apps like Pages, Keynote, Numbers, iMovie, Final Cut Pro, etc., to run on new chips (obviously)!

Chrome, Sketch, Tweetbot, Pixelmator Pro, Affinity Photo, World of Warcraft have a version for M1 or are updated to be ‘Universal.’ In the same footsteps, several popular apps like Photoshop, Microsoft Office, Firefox, etc., are developing M1-compatible versions.

Did we miss something? Let us know in the comment section below.

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Macs powered by Apple silicon, such as the M1 MacBook Pro, can run both iOS apps and Mac apps, but they can also run x86-64 software that’s been built to work on Intel architecture, thanks to something called Rosetta 2.

Rosetta 2 is the translation layer that enables a Mac with Apple silicon to use apps built for an Intel-based Mac. The first time you launch an app that requires it, an alert will appear asking permission for Rosetta to be installed. After that, the translation layer works in the background whenever you use an app built only for Mac computers with an Intel processor, and automatically translates the app for use with Apple silicon the first time the app is run.

When developers update their apps to run natively on Apple silicon, they use something called a Universal binary. Originally, Universal apps referred to executable files that run natively on both PowerPC or Intel Macs. At WWDC 2020 in June, however, Apple announced Universal 2, which allows apps to run on both Intel-based Macs and Apple silicon Macs.

If an app has yet to be updated to Universal 2, an M1-powered Mac will still run it, but it will do so by converting the Intel x86-64 code using Rosetta 2 emulation software. But what if you want to run the Intel version rather than the Apple silicon version? You may want to do this if the Apple silicon version of the app is missing a particular feature, or if you’re using an app with third-party plug-ins or extensions that haven’t been updated to support Apple silicon yet.

In such cases, you can use the following steps to force a Universal app to run the Rosetta version instead.

1. First, if the app you want to run in Rosetta is running, save your work and quit it.
2. Next, open a Finder window, navigate to the Applications folder on your Mac, and locate the app in question.

Right-click (or Ctrl-click) the app’s icon and select Get Info from the contextual dropdown menu.

Click the checkbox next to “Open using Rosetta.”

From hereon in, your Mac will run the Intel version of the app using the Rosetta translation layer. To stop using Rosetta at any time, simply repeat the steps above and uncheck the box next to “Open using Rosetta.”

With the release of the M1 Mac that is running on ARM architecture, software developers will have to upgrade their apps to make use of the improved speed and technology in the Apple Silicon chip. As a stopgap, Apple also shipped a “Rosetta 2” tool with M1 Mac that allows existing Intel-based software to continue running on the platform. If you are still running an Intel-based version of software, you’re probably already using Rosetta without realizing it.

Also read: How to Use Your Mac More Efficiently

What Are “Universal Apps”

The apps that have been updated for Apple’s M1 Silicon chips are currently known as “universal apps.” Developers use a “Universal binary” to update their apps to run natively on Apple silicon chips. This universal binary would allow the app to run on both Intel and M1 Mac. If an app isn’t updated for Universal 2, an M1 MacBook will run it by converting the Intel x86-64 code using Rosetta emulation software.

On the other hand, if you’re using an M1 chip, the Apple-based silicon version will run.

How to Check Whether an App Is Intel / Silicon / Universal-Based

If you’d like to check whether an app is running on Intel-based software, Apple Silicon-based software or Universal software (the app supports both Intel and Silicon processors), you can do so from the System settings, as described below:

1. On the Apple menu from the top-left corner, select “About This Mac.”

2. Select “System Report.”

3. In the System Report, click on Applications under Software in the left menu pane.

4. You’ll see the entire list of apps installed on your system. You can find out which version of the app is installed on your Mac under the “Kind” column for each individual app.

If you’d like to check the version of an individual app from Finder, simply right click on the app’s icon and select “Get Info.”

Here, you’ll see the app version under “General,” listed in front of “Kind.”

Also read: How to Speed Up Your Mac

How to open an Apple Silicon App as an Intel App

At times when you have a Universal version of an application, you may want to run the Intel version instead of the M1 version. This may be due to the M1 version missing a feature you need or the Intel version being compatible with specific third-party plug-ins or extensions that aren’t supported by M1 yet.

In such cases, you can force an app to run the Intel version using Rosetta instead of the Apple M1 version:

1. Find and select the application in your Finder menu. Most applications are found in the Applications folder (accessible through Finder in “Go -> Applications”).

2. Right-click on the app and select “Get Info.” Alternatively, select the app and press Command-I on your keyboard. This will open an Info window with details about the app.

3. In this window, check the box labelled “Open using Rosetta.”

4. Close the Info window. If the app is already running, quit and relaunch.

That’s it! Now whenever you’ll launch the app, your Mac will run the Intel version of the software through the Rosetta emulation software. If you wish to return to the M1 version later, simply repeat the steps and untick the box.

Reports have also been coming in that third-party iOS apps are crashing on the new M1 Macbooks. Has it been happening to you too?

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Benj Edwards is an Associate Editor for How-To Geek. For over 15 years, he has written about technology and tech history for sites such as The Atlantic, Fast Company, PCMag, PCWorld, Macworld, Ars Technica, and Wired. In 2005, he created Vintage Computing and Gaming, a blog devoted to tech history. He also created The Culture of Tech podcast and regularly contributes to the Retronauts retrogaming podcast. Read more.

By default, a Mac with Apple Silicon will always run the ARM version of a universal binary app if available. But sometimes, older plug-ins you rely on may not have been upgraded to support Apple Silicon yet. Luckily, it’s easy to force macOS to run the Intel version of an app through Rosetta instead. Here’s how.

First, open your “Applications” folder. One way to do it quickly is to open “Finder” and choose Go > Applications from the menu bar at the top of the screen. You can also open a Finder window and click “Applications” in the sidebar.

In the “Applications” folder, locate the universal binary app you’d like to run through Rosetta. Right-click (or Ctrl-click) the app’s icon and select “Get Info.”

In the “Get Info” window that appears, look toward the bottom of the “General” section. Enable the “Open using Rosetta” checkbox.

You can now close the Info window.

The next time you open the app, it will open the x86_64 version of the app using Rosetta instead of the arm64 version. If you’d like to go back to running the Apple Silicon version of the app instead, open the app’s “Get Info” window again and uncheck “Open using Rosetta.” Good luck!

This will hopefully become less necessary over time. Apple’s first Apple Silicon Macs, which feature the M1 chip, will provide a platform for developers to port their applications to ARM so that they run natively on future Apple Silicon Macs.

By Ed Hardy • 11:49 am, November 10, 2020

• News
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Thanks to Rosetta 2 in macOS Big Sur, an M1 Mac can run Autodesk Fusion 360 in emulation.
Photo: Cult of Mac

The newly announced Macs running Apple’s M1 processor can run some Intel applications faster than Intel-based Macs can, Apple says. This is the result of technology in macOS Big Sur called Rosetta 2.

That’s good news for anyone considering an upcoming MacBook Air, MacBook Pro or a Mac mini with Apple Silicon who are concerned about the performance of current software.

Rosetta 2 brings Intel apps to M1 Macs

Apple promises the M1 processor in its new laptops and desktop offers dramatic performance improvements. But that power would go to waste if there’s no software for them.

The Mac-maker has a solution. “The three Mac models running the M1 processor include Rosetta 2, which allows them to run software compiled for Intel chips,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s SVP of software engineering, at today’s M1 launch event. “Rosetta seamlessly runs apps built for Intel-based Macs. So even without an app update, you can keep working on that Fusion 360 project, and get to the next level on your favorite game.”

But he didn’t stop there. Federighi went on to make a big promise. “Thanks to Metal and M1, some of the most graphically demanding apps actually perform better under Rosetta than they did running natively on previous Macs with integrated graphics,” said the Apple exec.

Emulation isn’t the only option

The original Rosetta software allowed PowerPC programs to run on Intel-based Macs as Apple managed that transition in 2006. Rosetta 2 is a stop-gap solution during the transition from Intel-based Macs to M1. Apple is urging developers to port their software to the new platform.

The next step is Universal apps. These are ones that include both an Intel and an M1 version, and so can run on any Mac. “Universal apps include a native binary version built for Apple Silicon, as well as a native version for Intel processors,” said Federighi at Tuesday’s event. “The two come together into a single app that you can download from the App Store, or from the web, meaning that one app can run on all of your Macs.”

This process is just beginning, but there are some big names on board. Adobe plans to release a Universal version of Lightroom in December, with Photoshop following in 2021, along with other applications. Omni Group is also on board.

Turning your vision into reality

Erica Kastner · April 21, 2021

I’m working on a project that uses pact via the pact-node package. Unfortunately, this package isn’t compatible with Apple’s M1 (aarm64) chip due to the standalone ruby (Intel/x86-only) that’s packaged with it. Instead of trying to have two node installations for each platform, I decided to try and get docker to build and run my app images using the amd64 platform. And it works!

First, make sure you have the latest docker desktop that supports aarm64 (M1).

Next, create a docker-compose.yml for your app (for now I’m setting up compose so that I have to rebuild docker images on every code change, but you do have the option of mounting your local source directory, though, there are performance penalties to this).

You’ll need to specify that you want to build and run the image/container with the linux/amd64 platform.

The tricky part is that you can’t use docker-compose. First, it won’t use docker buildx which has cross-platform building capabilities. Second, for some weird reason, docker-compose 2.4 supported the platform setting but subsequent versions did not.

You have to use the new docker compose command and not the classic docker-compose :

Possible tie-in with docker buildx

I did this on my local system but not 100% sure if it’s necessary. But it’s a cool feature for managing build environments. Create a docker buildx builder for your local app context:

Now when you run docker buildx build -t my-app . it will build the my-app image using the platform specified in the builder you created.

macOS has a clever tool called Rosetta which “translates” Intel only apps and programs so that they work on Apple Silicon M1 Macs.

However, Rosetta is not installed by default on M1 Macs and you’ll only be prompted to install it the first time you open an Intel only application or program.

Here we show you how to install Rosetta on an M1 Mac and also find out which apps require Rosetta 2.

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What Is Rosetta For Mac?

Rosetta 1 was first invented by Apple back in 2006 when Macs transitioned from PPC chips to Intel chips to enable PPC compatible software to work on Intel chips.

In 2020, Rosetta 2 was released as Macs transitioned yet again from Intel chips to the new Apple Silicon M1 chips.

Once installed, Rosetta automatically works in the background of macOS to make Intel only apps work on M1 chip Macs.

For most apps, Rosetta works so seamlessly that you won’t notice much difference in the performance of an app using Rosetta compared to one that’s been built to work natively with M1 Macs.

Rosetta is perfectly safe for your Mac and is made by Apple so you should have no security concerns.

However, for applications that require a lot of resources such as video editing software or graphic design apps, performance may be slower using Rosetta.

How To Install Rosetta On Mac

To install the latest version of Rosetta 2 on an M1 Mac, simply click on the Install button when the prompt appears.

After Rosetta has been installed, you won’t have to install it again on your M1 Mac.

Install Rosetta on M1 Macs With Terminal

If for any reason you’re not prompted to install Rosetta 2 on your M1 Mac, you can also install it using Terminal on your Mac.

Here’s how to install Rosetta manually on an M1 Mac.

• Open Terminal on your Mac
• Copy and paste the following command into the command line: /usr/sbin/softwareupdate –install-rosetta –agree-to-license
• Press Enter

Rosetta 2 will now install automatically on your M1 Mac.

Which Apps Require Rosetta?

You can check which apps require Rosetta on your Mac by using the Get Info tool in macOS.

Here’s how to check which applications or programs require Rosetta on a Mac.

• In Finder, go to Applications and Ctrl-Click on the Application you want to check.
• Select Get Info from the drop down menu

• You’ll see a list of specifications for the app and next to “Kind” it will either say Application (Universal) which means it works on both Intel and M1 Macs or Application (Intel) which means that it only works on Intel Macs and therefore requires Rosetta to work on an M1 Mac.

• If it says Application (Universal) you need to check the box “Open using Rosetta” if it’s not already checked to make sure it works on M1 Macs.

How To Tell If An App Is Using Rosetta On M1 Macs

Once you’ve installed Rosetta on an M1 Mac once, you won’t be prompted to install it again.

The only way to tell if an app is using Rosetta or running natively is either to use the “Get Info” option described above.

Alternatively, you can go to the Apple logo in the top left of your Mac and selecting About This Mac > System Report and then under the “Kind” column you can see whether the app is Intel (and therefore using Rosetta) or Universal (and therefore running natively).

There’s also a nifty app called DigiDNA/Silicon which sits in your Menu bar and tells you whether the app is running natively on Apple Silicon or using Rosetta.

Can Rosetta 2 Run Windows Apps?

Rosetta cannot run Windows applications. It’s only designed to translate Intel Mac apps to work on Apple Silicon M1 Macs.

The only way to run Windows apps on a Mac is to install Windows on a Mac.

Rosetta 2 enables a Mac with Apple silicon to use apps built for a Mac with an Intel processor.

How to install Rosetta

Rosetta 2 is available only for Mac computers with Apple silicon.

You’re asked to install Rosetta the first time you open an app that needs Rosetta. Click Install, then enter your user name and password to allow installation to proceed.

If you click Not Now, you will be asked again the next time you open an app that needs Rosetta.

If Rosetta is already installed, you are not asked to install it again.

How to use Rosetta

Rosetta is not an app that you open or interact with. Rosetta works automatically in the background whenever you use an app that was built only for Mac computers with an Intel processor. It translates the app for use with Apple silicon.

In most cases, you won’t notice any difference in the performance of an app that needs Rosetta. But you should contact the app developer to inquire about a version that can natively use the full power and performance of Apple silicon.

Which apps need Rosetta?

To identify apps that need Rosetta or can use Rosetta:

1. Select an app in the Finder.
2. From the File menu in the menu bar, choose Get Info.
3. See the information labeled Kind:
   • Application (Intel) means the app supports only Intel processors and needs Rosetta to work on a Mac with Apple silicon.
   • Application (Universal) means the app supports both Apple silicon and Intel processors, and uses Apple silicon by default. Universal apps don’t need Rosetta.

For apps labeled Application (Universal), the Info window includes the setting “Open using Rosetta.” This setting enables a universal app such as a web browser to use plug-ins, extensions, or other add-ons that haven’t been updated to support Apple silicon. If a universal app doesn’t recognize an add-on that you installed for the app, you can quit the app, select this setting, and try again.

Hello everyone in this article we are going to see how to setup Unreal Engine with C++(using VSCode editor) in M1 Mac.

At present there is no native arm version of the unreal engine is available from Epic games.And also the recent version UE 4.26.2 does’nt even launch in M1 chip MBP.But there are two Unreal engine versions which are usable 4.19 and 4.25.4. I prefer 4.25.4 as it works with newer Xcode version and command line tools without any problem. And also it is important to note that M1 Chip Mac running BigSur does’nt support Xcode version below 12. So it is better to go with 4.25.4.And also you can use a Mac for running Unreal Engine if you are making iOS games,remote building iOS projects or even learning game development by making simple games. At present state using Unreal engine in M1 Mac for large projects is not recommended. And also M1 Chip Mac Mini or MacBook Pro with 16GB ram is preferable because machine may get hotter during compilation of shaders for which I recommend a device with active cooling like Mac mini,MacBook Pro over passsive cooled MacBookAir.

• Download the Epci game launcher by heading to this website

Unreal Engine | The most powerful real-time 3D creation platform

Get the world’s most open and advanced creation tool. With every feature and full source code access included, Unreal…

• In Epic game launcher press the + symbol to add the engine and select 4.25.4 from the drop downcast . As I have already installed it in my mac is doesn’t show in the list

• After installation launch the engine.For the first time launch it may take some time and also it may also see like it got stuck at 83% loading or like that if it happens select forcequit option see it it is labeled as not responding my mac os if so the quit it and try launching it agian.If not wait till it loads.
• Create a new project I’m creating a blank template C++ project with following options

• If it generates project files and compiles C++ code then it is good. If not you may get error stating.

• To solve this problem quit the unreal engine and open up the terminal and move to this folder location using cd command

• Open up a file named ApplicationCore.Build.cs using VSCode or any other text editor.In line number 46 comment the existing line and add the below line of C# code.

Once done save it VSCode may give option like overwrite select overwrite then it will save the changes to the file instead of saving as a seperate file.

• Next go to this location in terminal and open and open a C# file named Core.Build.cs

Here go to line number 98 and comment the existing code and replace with following C# code.

Now save and close that file.

• Now we need to generate VSCode workspace file so that we can open our project in VSCode as of now Xcode really sucks with Unreal Engine without proper autocomplete support and some gibberish errors so it is better to use VSCode.

First head to this website and download VScode make sure you download AppleSilicon version and not Universal or Intel Chip version

Download Visual Studio Code – Mac, Linux, Windows

Visual Studio Code is free and available on your favorite platform – Linux, macOS, and Windows. Download Visual Studio…

Open up VSCode and install the following extensions

• “C/C++ Intellisense, debugging and code browsing” — from Microsoft
• “C# for Visual Studio Code (powered by OmniSharp)” — from Microsoft

NOTE: You may get a prompt stating “Get the .NET Core SDK” is so click and install it.If not head to

and download the .NetCore SDK for mac os.

Once .NetCore SDK is intalled run the following command to verify if .NetCore SDK is properly installed.

• Next we need to install Mono runtime for C# it can be done through homebrew

• Next step we are going to create vscode workspace for your C++ project which you have previously created

NOTE: The following steps are need to be done only once for initial setup and it is not needed to be done for each and every project.

• In terminal navigate to your C++ project directory and copy the path for your .uproject file.

• Next head to this location in terminal

• Now run this following command to generate vscode workspace for our project. Make sure you specify your .uproject file path in double quotes.

• Now this command will generate the VSCode workspace. It may give some warning no need to worry about it.Once it is done it will show like this

• Now navigate to your project directory you will see a file .code-workspace open it in VSCode

• Now we need to make VScode as our defualt editor so that there is no need to repeat above steps for each and every project to generate .code workspace file.
• It can be done by heading to preference of Unreal Engine under source code and editor option select VSCode as editor. Now it will ask to restart Unreal editor restart it.

Now go to file->Generate Visual Studio code project which will create make files needed to build the project.Now you can open your C++ project in VSCode.

• In addition you can download VSCode UE4 Intellisense fix extension as shown in below website.

The new generation of Apple Macs and Macbooks come with a major change in the CPU. They have an Apple processor, the M1 Apple silicon chip, a RISC / ARM64 architecture.

Old intel based applications will continue to run under the Rosetta2 emulator. Applications compiled for ARM64 will run natively.

We are collecting here the steps needed to build a MacOS universal binary for your MacOS desktop application software. We are following ourselves these steps to build the v1.4.2 of our Software Product Analytics library, “SoftMeter”.

We will keep updating this post while we receive any clarification requests.

1. What needs to be done

The library must be compiled as a “fat” (universal) binary. A universal binary looks no different than a regular app, but is a binary that contains two executables, one for the usual (until today) x86_64 for intel type of processors, and one for the Apple’s M1 ARM64 processor. MacOS will choose which version to execute.

2. What you need to have

• The newly released XCode 12.2 or newer version.
• You need the MacOS SDK v11. This comes with XCode 12.2. You cannot use previous versions (e.g. v10.15) of the MacOS SDK because they do not contain the new architecture ARM64. They only contain the x86_64 architecture.
• You do not need an Apple silicon Mac to build universal applications. You can build it on your pre-2020 Mac.
• If your application uses 3rd party compiled binaries (e.g. OpenSLL), you must obtain universal binaries for those libraries. Our SoftMeter product analytics library does not rely on any 3rd party libraries, so it can be compiled immediately.

3. Adjust your compilation (build) settings

You only need to clear any custom setting you have put under the architecture settings. Xcode comes with the default,
“Standard architectures (Apple silicon, Intel)” which is coded as
ARCHS=arm64 x86_64.
Also make that the “build only active architecture” is NO.

4. Verify that the compiled binary contains both architectures

In MacOS terminal run the command

For example if you run this command against our SoftMeter dylib,

you will get the result:

Note: you must use the command for the binary file inside your app bundle (not the .app bundle itself). I.e. the file under
This works in the same way also for the screensaver bundles (.saver).

5. Digitally sign your binary

Digitally signing your binary does not change. The “fat” binary is still a single file.

The following command will check if the file is correctly signed and also show you if it contains both architectures of x86_64 and ARM64.

6. Notarize your binary with Apple

Notarizing with Apple your binary does not change. The “fat” binary is still a single file.

Get this FREE tool to check if the apps on your Mac/iPhone are M1 compatible, and run any iOS apps on an M1 Mac by exporting .ipa files with a simple click.

Or, check instantly if your favorite apps are M1 ready

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Everything You Need to Know About IPA Files

Things You May Want to Know About Apple M1

What is Apple M1?

The Apple M1 (also called Apple Silicon M1) is a custom silicon system chip for Mac. It uses ARM architecture, which usually powers mobile or portable devices, like Apple’s iPhones and iPads.

The M1 marks the first time Apple has designed its own custom chips for a computer.

There are 3 machines that use the M1:

MacBook Pro 13-inch

Which were released on November 17th 2020

What can iMobie M1 App Checker do for you?

– Check if the apps on your Mac/iPhone are M1 compatible

– Check the compatibility of the hot apps on the market

– Run almost any iOS apps on M1 Mac by exporting .ipa files

What does “Yes, full native Apple Silicon” mean?

When a Mac app is detected “Universal”, it means native support for both Apple Silicon Macs and Intel-based Macs. When a Mac app is detected “Apple Silicon”, it means native support only for Apple Silicon Macs. We tag these two kind of Mac apps with “Yes, full native Apple Silicon” .

What does “Yes, works via Rosetta 2” mean?

Apple offers its own translation technology Rosetta 2, which allows you to run existing intel-based Mac apps that have not yet been updated on ARM-based Mac systems. Most of intel-based (Intel 64) Mac apps can run on M1 via Rosetta 2, but it may cause some crashes and the experience is not as well as running on intel-based Mac. We tag these Mac apps with “Yes, works via Rosetta 2”

What does “No, not yet” mean?

An intel 32-based and PowerPC based Mac app can not run on M1, whether with or without Rosetta 2. We tag these apps “No, not yet”.

Can iPhone/iPad apps run on an M1 Mac?

iPhone/iPad apps now can run on Apple’s latest M1 Mac. Just search for the app in the M1 Mac App Store and select the iPhone/iPad app next to the Mac app.

Can any iPhone/iPad app be downloaded from M1’s App Store?

No. Although Apple will put iPhone/iPad apps on the Mac App Store by default, developers can take corresponding measures according to their own app conditions: adapt the App to macOS, do not adapt it, or remove it. If not adapted to macOS, the user experience on Mac is not good enough. iPhone/iPad apps that are removed from Mac App Store includes Goolge apps (YouTube, Google Map, etc.), Facebook apps (Facebook, Instagram, etc.), and more.

What should I do if I want to run an iPhone/iPad app which doesn’t show in M1 App Store?

iMobie M1 App Checker can help you export .ipa files from your iPhone/iPad, and you can double-click to open and run it on an M1 Mac. But it should be noted that this is just a small feature for users to try something new, not a substitute for the developer’s native app compatibility. iMobie never intends to violate any Apple restrictions.

What is an .ipa file?

AnВ .ipaВ (iOSВ App StoreВ Package) file is anВ iOSВ application archive file which stores an iOSВ app. Each .ipa file includes a binary and can only be installed on anВ ARM architecture devices like iPhone, iPad, and M1 Chip. Files with the .ipa extension can be uncompressed by changing the extension toВ .zipВ and unzipping.

Should I upgrade to Apple M1?

If you are a Windows PC user with little or no experience with a Mac, you should check in advance whether there is a Mac version of the software you use, especially when many customized programs in professional fields only have a Windows version. You must not change the system if so.

And if you are an common user and only need to deal with some copywriting, surfing, entertainment, etc., then M1 Mac is definitely worth a try. The biggest advantage of macOS is that it saves worries, and the operation logic is closer to our familiar smart phones. Also, unlike Windows computer, there will never be any annoying pop-up ads or unexpected maleware on a M1 Mac.

If your work environment or workflow requires Windows to collaborate with your colleagues, it’s best not to choose a Mac, and don’t even think about installing Windows OS on a Mac. Because the current M1 Mac does not support to install Windows OS, and even if you made it via virtual machine later, don’t forget that the M1 chip is of ARM architecture, and compatibility will be very poor.

For long-time Mac users who rely on your computer for a living, I would also recommend you to wait for a while. Although current reviews have shown that the M1 chip scores much better than older Intel-based models, the change to an ARM processor requires a lot of software to be re-adapted or converted, which can lead to compatibility and performance loss issues. This is not a good thing for professional users who has high stability requirements.

17 December 2020

Microsoft Office 365 and 2019 for Mac (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook) now work directly on the new M1 chip. There are a few ‘gotchas’ but support for Apple Silicon is almost complete.

Apple is moving away from Intel chips to their own ‘Apple Silicon’ hardware, starting with the M1 chip. As we’ve explained, Microsoft 365/2019 for Mac can run on M1 chips however the existing Office for Mac software ran more slowly.

Now Microsoft has updated Office for Mac so it runs faster on M1 Macs as well as the large base on Intel Mac’s. Apple calls these ‘two in one’ releases ‘Universal’ software.

Good News

It’s good news for M1 Macbook users, it means their Microsoft 365 or Office 2019 software should run faster … perhaps even noticeably faster than before. Office Universal apps should use less power (i.e better battery life) on M1 devices, compared to Intel based Macs.

Microsoft says the Universal apps “will run faster and take full advantage of the performance improvements on new Macs.”.

Single download

A single download/install works for both Intel based Macs and Apple M1 machines. Users don’t have to choose anything because the same install or update process continues.

The Office installer figures out what type of Mac hardware (Intel or Apple Silicon) is available and sets up the matching software. It all should happen automatically.

How to get M1 enabled Office

Run Microsoft AutoUpdate from any Office app (Help | Check for Updates) .

Office for Mac version 16.44 or later is the Universal software package.

If you want to check, go to any Office app in the Applications folder. Right-click and choose ‘Get Info’. Under ‘Kind’ look for the magic word ‘Universal’.

The version number is also listed.

Big issue – Teams is missing

What’s missing from this update is Microsoft Teams. The current Teams app hasn’t been updated to Universal.

For the moment, Teams users on M1 Macs will need Rosetta 2 to run the app. Presumably, a Teams Universal app is on the way.

Little issues

Microsoft itself notes there many be cases where you’re asked by the macOS how to handle a software component. If in doubt, choose the Rosetta 2 option.

According to Microsoft, a macOS prompt may appear with:

• Excel’s Get and Transform functionality (aka Power Query)
• A third-party plug-in that has not been updated to include native support for Apple Silicon

The mention of Get & Transform/PowerQuery is interesting because the current data link support in Excel for Mac is very poor compared to Excel for Windows. Perhaps we’ll be seeing some major improvements in Get & Transform in Excel for Mac.

For years, people have speculated about the ability to run iOS apps on the Mac. This speculation was caused by the increasing similarity in the user experiences across the Mac, the iPhone and the iPad, and by Apple’s continuing tech demos showing their work on this capability.

Well, that day has finally arrived. Parallels® just released a new version of the Parallels® Access iOS client that can also be run on an M1 Mac.

I will admit that I was never really that interested in running an iOS app on my Mac, but I now see that I was wrong. This is pretty neat! In addition to Parallels Access, I installed a few other iOS apps on my Mac, among them, HBO Max. In general, a dedicated, special built app will almost always be better than using a webpage with similar functionality. And that is true for Parallels Access and true for HBO Max.

How to install an iOS app on an M1 Mac

The process of finding iOS apps that you want to download and install on an M1 Mac is a bit obtuse right now. (Figure 1). You use the App Store, but to find the iOS apps, you must first go to your account by clicking on your name in the main App Store window, and then use the selector buttons “Mac Apps” or “iPhone & iPad Apps” and choose “iPhone & iPad Apps”. Then you can search for the iOS app you want, for example “Parallels Access”. Hopefully, this will be easier and less circuitous in the future.

If you can’t find an iOS app that you know exists, this may be because the developer has marked the app as not downloadable on a Mac. This is often because the developer has not yet tested the iOS app on the Mac.

Running the Parallels Access iOS client on a Mac

Running the Parallels Access iOS client on a Mac looks just like using it on an iPad (Figure 2).

In this figure you can see that I have seven remote computers set up in Parallels Access: three MacBook Pros, two 27˝ iMac computers, one 21˝ iMac running macOS Catalina, and a really old ThinkPad running Windows 7. I can access any of them from the Parallels Access client on my iPad or on my M1 MacBook Pro. (Of course, I can also access these remote computers from any computer with a modern browser, but that is not the focus of this post.) Most importantly, the experiences on the M1 Mac and the iPad are nearly identical. The Mac has no touch screen, and the iPad has no mouse, but aside from these differences, Parallels Access is the same on both platforms.

Video 1 shows some of the Parallels Access functionality from the iOS client running on the M1 MacBook Pro. You can see the Remote Assistance feature added to Parallels Access last summer is available in Parallels Access when you run it on the M1 Mac.

I am also happy to report that the amusing “bug” that is present in almost every remote access application is present in Parallels Access on the M1 Mac: the ability to recursively access the very computer you are running the application from. You can see the result of this in Figure 3.

If you have an M1 Mac, let us know in the comments what iOS apps you have installed on it.

Parallels Access terminology check

Parallels Access is composed of two pieces of software: The Parallels Access client, which is installed on your phone or tablet, and the Parallels Access agent, which is installed on your Mac and PC. These two pieces of software work together to deliver remote access to your Mac and PC. You may have heard that:

The latest version of Parallels Access is a universal binary, meaning it contains the necessary code to run at full speed on either Mac with Intel processor or Mac with the Apple M1 chip.

This is true, but at the time that this was written, the only part of Parallels Access that ran on the Mac was the agent, so saying that the agent is now a universal binary is unnecessary. Well, the world has changed. Since Parallels Access can now run on the Mac—actually only on a Mac with an M1 chip—I would re-word that earlier statement to become:

The latest version of the Parallels Access agent is a universal binary, meaning it contains the necessary code to run at full speed on either Mac with Intel processor or Mac with the Apple M1 chip.

You won’t be able to get your hands on an Apple Silicon Mac for a few months yet, but you no doubt want to check which of your apps are already Universal, and include code to enable them to run native on both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs. Until you are running macOS 11 Big Sur, inspecting them in the Finder’s Get Info dialog tells you nothing about this. This article explains how you can check on Catalina and earlier.

Simplest is using my free utility ArchiChect, which shows in the first row of checkboxes which processor architectures an app supports. This information is also duplicated in the codesign check reported in detail in the scrolling text view below, where it says
Format=app bundle with Mach-O universal (x86_64 arm64)

Terminal also provides two useful commands for checking the platforms supported by executable code: file and lipo . You can’t use these on the app folder itself, but need to pass the file containing executable code instead. For example,
file
should return something like
LockRattler: Mach-O universal binary with 2 architectures: [x86_64:Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64] [arm64:Mach-O 64-bit executable arm64]
LockRattler (for architecture x86_64): Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64
LockRattler (for architecture arm64): Mach-O 64-bit executable arm64

Using lipo :
lipo -archs
should return the briefer
x86_64 arm64

If you want to go lower still and inspect the executable code itself, you’ll see the differences immediately.

Executable x86_64 files start with the ‘magic’ bytes CF FA ED FE 07, which when their byte order is rearranged spells FEEDFACF, the ‘magic’ for a Mach-O executable for x86_64. Shortly after that, you’ll see the text PAGEZERO, following which is the single-architecture executable.

Universal files with x86_64 and arm64 support start with the ‘magic’ bytes CA FE BA BE, in that order, which is also the ‘magic’ for a Java class file. Following that is empty padding until you encounter the x86_64 executable, which is introduced using the same ‘magic’ bytes of CF FA ED FE 07, then the text PAGEZERO, and the rest of the executable.

About half way through a Universal file supporting x86_64 and arm64 architectures, you’ll notice the embedded certificates and material which normally come at the end of the executable. Following that is another run of empty padding before you encounter the arm64 executable. That’s introduced using the ‘magic’ bytes of CF FA ED FE 0C which indicates the different architecture, following which is the text PAGEZERO and another complete executable including the embedded certificate information, and finally more empty padding.

There are a few executables which are ‘Universal’ in the sense that they support multiple platforms none of which is arm64. One example is /usr/lib/libobjc.dylib, which lipo reveals supports three architectures – x86_64 x86_64h and i386 – but on an Intel Mac none of those is arm64! If in doubt about an executable, check its supported architectures using lipo rather than relying on ‘magic’ yourself.

Thanks to @rosyna for pointing out that executable code which appears to be ‘Universal’ may simply support multiple Intel architectures, and not Apple Silicon. I have amended my initial version to try to make this clearer.

Rosetta 2 enables a Mac with Apple silicon to use apps built for a Mac with an Intel processor.

Installing Rosetta

If you have a Mac with Apple silicon, you’ll be asked to install Rosetta the first time you open an app built for an Intel-based Mac. Click Install, then enter your username and password to allow the installation process to proceed.

After you’ve installed Rosetta, it will become available to any other apps that need it, so you won’t be asked to install it again. If you choose not to install Rosetta now, you’ll be asked again the next time you open an app that requires Rosetta.

Using Rosetta

Rosetta is not an app that you need to open. Rosetta works automatically in the background whenever you use an app built only for Mac computers with an Intel processor. It translates the app for use with Apple silicon.

In most cases, you won’t notice any difference in the performance of an app that needs Rosetta. But you should contact the app developer to inquire about a version that can natively use the full power and performance of Apple silicon.

Which of your apps need Rosetta?

You can use Get Info to identify apps that need Rosetta or can use Rosetta:

1. Select the app in the Finder.
2. From the File menu in the menu bar, choose Get Info.
3. See the information labelled Kind:
   • Application (Intel) means the app supports only Intel processors and needs Rosetta to work on any Mac with Apple silicon.
   • Application (Universal) means the app supports both Apple silicon and Intel processors, and uses Apple silicon by default.

For universal apps only, the Info window includes the setting “Open using Rosetta”. This setting enables universal apps, such as web browsers or email apps, to use plug-ins, extensions and other add-ons that haven’t been updated to support Apple silicon. If a universal app doesn’t recognise an add-on that you’ve installed for the app, you can close the app, select this setting and try again.

• Forums
• Macs
• Apple Silicon (Arm) Macs

BarbaricCo

macrumors member

• Nov 18, 2020

Needs Big Sur 11.1 beta

“I can’t tell you how cool that is; there is so much emulation going on under the covers. Imagine – a 32-bit Windows Intel binary, running in a 32-to-64 bridge in Wine / CrossOver on top of macOS, on an ARM CPU that is emulating x86 – and it works! This is just so cool.”

Okay, I’m on the bandwagon – Apple Silicon is officially cool | CodeWeavers Blog

Moderator Note:

Also see the discussion in the news thread:

CrossOver Allows x86 Windows Apps to Run on Apple M1 Macs

throAU

macrumors 604

• Nov 18, 2020

Wow, I’m amazed that works.

I think that’s pretty much the nail in the coffin of this early 2020 machine for me. It’s going to the GF

Zackmd1

macrumors 6502a

• Nov 18, 2020

Needs Big Sur 11.1 beta

“I can’t tell you how cool that is; there is so much emulation going on under the covers. Imagine – a 32-bit Windows Intel binary, running in a 32-to-64 bridge in Wine / CrossOver on top of macOS, on an ARM CPU that is emulating x86 – and it works! This is just so cool.”

Okay, I’m on the bandwagon – Apple Silicon is officially cool | CodeWeavers Blog

BarbaricCo

macrumors member

• Nov 18, 2020

Joe Dohn

macrumors regular

• Nov 18, 2020

Zackmd1

macrumors 6502a

• Nov 18, 2020

macrumors P6

• Nov 18, 2020

Needs Big Sur 11.1 beta

“I can’t tell you how cool that is; there is so much emulation going on under the covers. Imagine – a 32-bit Windows Intel binary, running in a 32-to-64 bridge in Wine / CrossOver on top of macOS, on an ARM CPU that is emulating x86 – and it works! This is just so cool.”

Okay, I’m on the bandwagon – Apple Silicon is officially cool | CodeWeavers Blog

AnthonyHarris

Cancelled

• Nov 18, 2020

Wow, I’m amazed that works.

I think that’s pretty much the nail in the coffin of this early 2020 machine for me. It’s going to the GF

That early 2020 machine needs nailing inside a coffin full of soil from its homeland so it never haunts us again with its plagued design.

Even the folk on MR who have recently been singing it’s praises are ditching it.

If they have a loved one that won’t be completely offended by being given the useless pos, then I suggest they try. Hard to imagine anyone will be making any money back on them.

• Forums
• Macs
• Apple Silicon (Arm) Macs

Dockland

macrumors 6502a

• Mar 10, 2021

Jorbanead

macrumors 65816

• Mar 10, 2021

Dockland

macrumors 6502a

• Mar 10, 2021

xraydoc

macrumors demi-god

• Mar 10, 2021

Dockland

macrumors 6502a

• Mar 10, 2021

I understand. How come that I didn’t get the notification about installing Rosetta 2 (as I got when first firing up my Mac mini)?
Is the notification removed in Big Sur 11.2.3?

E: I have “/System/Library/CoreServices/Rosetta 2 Updater.app” installed. Is this the Rosetta 2 app?

dmccloud

macrumors 68000

• Mar 10, 2021

I understand. How come that I didn’t get the notification about installing Rosetta 2 (as I got when first firing up my Mac mini)?
Is the notification removed in Big Sur 11.2.3?

E: I have “/System/Library/CoreServices/Rosetta 2 Updater.app” installed. Is this the Rosetta 2 app?

chrfr

macrumors G4

• Mar 10, 2021

chrfr

macrumors G4

• Mar 10, 2021

dmccloud

macrumors 68000

• Mar 10, 2021

jdb8167

macrumors 68040

• Mar 10, 2021

Dockland

macrumors 6502a

• Mar 10, 2021

Yes, as I stated in my post. I did get the notification first time I started up my brand new Mac mini, but after yesterdays reinstall of OS (wiped disc) I can’t recall getting the notification. Perhaps I just missed it some how or it’s installed by default, and activated in Big Sur 11.2.3

I checked my Dropbox-app and it’s a Intel version, so at least I know it’s activated.

I’ll mark this thread/topic as solved (if it’s possible?)

Apple Silicon laptops debuted with outstanding performance numbers – being among the highest-performing laptop microprocessors as measured by GeekBench and many others. The M1 processors‘ power efficiencies are very much commendable – potentially providing 10 hours of continuous video-conferencing time on a single charge. Although the user’s psychological power would probably peter out prior to the portable 😅.

But with great power comes… great lack of support?

“ … my development environment requires a few of the GNU developer tools … these tools crash with an Abort Trap: 6 error …”
“ … Every CMake project needs significant hacks. “
“ … Is there a Fortran compiler available? I tried building gfortran , but ran into some difficulty … What’s the current recommendation for building Fortran dependencies for Apple Silicon?“
“ … The GCC project is coded in custom assembly for each chip … the parts that emit assembly … ”

Sadly open source support for the speedy silicon is still stuttering. Large portions of these software are dependent on compilers that have yet to fully support the architecture. Examples include the GNU Compiler Collection ( gcc ) and Fortran — that latter one being an established yet hidden worker bee behind many numerical computing collections.

It looks like large portions of open source software would still need to run under Rosetta 2, the Mac’s emulation (and translation) system to run Intel-based applications, in the foreseeable future. At least until the open source communities at large internalizes importance to support the architecture.

A compiled native application would always know what the CPU architecture it is running on. It was built for the architecture in the first place. Its source code uses conditional compilation to detect its target architecture and thus branches accordingly at build time.

However a script doesn’t have the same benefit. Being interpreted and cross-architecture, the program would need to determine what is the underlying architecture as at run-time.

Why is this important? Script interpreters built-in to macOS (such as shell scripts and OSA interpreters) are Universal Binaries. In an Apple Silicon mac, they can run in both Arm and Intel modes. By default macOS preserves the architecture of process subtrees. An Intel process (under Rosetta 2) would launch sub-processes in Intel mode when possible. Likewise an Arm process would prefer the arm64 slice of universal binaries that it launches.

This process architecture preservation is useful most of the time. But it could present a problem when running a complex build system having portions need to run in Intel mode yet some other portions would run in Arm mode. There would be times when a build script would need to find out what is the current mode and act accordingly, such as setting a different folder path appropriate for the respective architecture target.

Wouldn’t it be great if a script could detect whether it is running under native Intel, Rosetta 2, or native Arm?

What about forcing Rosetta mode for a few lagging sub-projects that have not support the new architecture?

Read on to find out how.

Detecting the Processor Architecture and Emulation Status

The trusty uname POSIX utility would show the CPU architecture. When running on an Apple Silicon mac, the command uname -m would print arm64 whereas on Intel it would say x86_64 . Although it does not differentiate between Genuine Intel and Rosetta 2.

Fortunately Rosetta 2 provides a peephole that identifies itself from processes running under it. This is the sysctl.proc_translated flag that can be accessed through the sysctl -n command.

Using these these two commands, I’ve put together a Z Shell script that shows which processor (real or emulated) that the script is running on.

Enforcing Intel Emulation

Arm-based Macs can run both Apple Silicon and Intel binaries. In a Universal 2 binary containing both Arm and Intel slices, the computer can run it both natively and under Rosetta 2.

Forcing command-line apps to run to under Intel mode could be useful to build projects that are not compatible to cross-compilation and hasn’t supported Apple Silicon natively. It’ll let cross-platform build scripts to see that it is running on an Intel Mac and let it run as it has always been since 2007.

You can use the arch command to start processes to run in another instruction set different from its parent process, when support is present (that is, the universal binary has the appropriate architecture slice and the system can execute that alternative slice).

For example, the following command would run the shell under Rosetta 2 in an Apple Silicon mac. Therefore all other applications started by this shell session would run as an Intel application and system calls such as uname would report an Intel processor.

In contrast the following would force run the shell in Arm native mode. This could be useful when a script running in Intel mode would need to switch back to running natively.

Of course in an Intel-based mac, the second command would fail with an arch: Unknown architecture: arm64 error. Apple do not provide arm64 emulation for Intel processors as of this writing.

macOS Version Change

Another big change with macOS “Big Sur” is the version number. It has gone up to 11 as well as a new product name, “macOS”. This could break some scripts that expects the operating system name to be “Mac OS X” and version number start with 10, as it has been since 2001.

To alleviate this, Apple provides a special environment variable SYSTEM_VERSION_COMPAT . When it has the value 1 , the operating system would report a name of “Mac OS X and 10.16 as its version.

Next Steps

If you’re trying to build an open source application under Big Sur using an Apple Silicon processor, try forcing it to run under Rosetta 2. That should isolate whether the problem comes from the operating system or the processor architecture.

If you’re working on open source projects, maybe it’s a good time to update it to support Apple Silicon. These shell script commands could help you in adopting your build system in detecting the true processor architecture that it runs on and make the appropriate decision.

Learn which Adobe apps run natively on Apple computers that use the Apple silicon M1 chip.

Apps that run natively on M1 computers

The following apps run natively on Apple M1 computers.

Photoshop

Acrobat DC

Acrobat Pro

Lightroom

Lightroom Classic

Premiere Pro

Illustrator

Adobe XD

InDesign

Adobe Audition

Dreamweaver

Premiere Rush

Adobe Media Encoder

InCopy

After Effects

We continue to test and optimize other apps for Apple computers that use the M1 chip.

When will Other Adobe apps run natively on Apple M1 computers?

We are working to ensure that our other apps run natively on these computers, but don’t have release dates for all our apps yet. We will update this document when more details are available.

Apps that run using Rosetta 2

You can install the following apps on Apple M1 computers using Rosetta 2 technology. The apps may initially take longer to open while Rosetta 2 translates them for use in your M1 computer.

Comments

JPLeBreton commented Dec 4, 2021

I have built an .app bundle of my Python application on my late-2010 Intel-based MacBook Air, using PyInstaller 4.7, Python 3.9.9, SDL2 2.0.16, etc. Here is a link to download the non-notarized build:
This build runs on other Intel-based Macs. However, a couple of users on M1 Macs are reporting an error relating to the SDL2_mixer libraries – see below for the full log.

• Output of pyinstaller –version : 4.7
• Version of Python: 3.9.9
• Platform: macOS 10.13.6 High Sierra -> M1 running 12.0.1 Monterey
• How you installed Python: brew
• Did you also try this on another platform? Does it work there?
  Not applicable, Mac-specific issue – though PyInstaller can build and run a Windows EXE for the same application from that OS with no issues.

The output log running the app from terminal on a user’s M1 Mac:

I see that PyInstaller can in theory build “universal2” fat binary that includes both the Intel and ARM versions of everything needed. But I’m not clear on whether that is the issue here. If it is, then I am curious if it’s even possible to build universal apps from an Intel-based Mac – I have no plans to buy an M1, so if the answer is no then I will need to tell my M1 users I can’t support them.

The text was updated successfully, but these errors were encountered:

…requires more than just good programming.

Apple is switching the processor architecture of it’s Macs. Again (I transitioned PerfectTablePlan from PowerPC to Intel some hears ago). This time to their own M1 ARM chips. Reports so far have been very positive about speed and battery life of the new processors. Obviously most current Mac software has been written for Intel Macs, so they are using the Rosetta2 emulation layer to run apps compiled for Intel Macs on the ARM chips. I’m not sure how much of a performance hit this causes, but clearly it would be better to run native ARM binaries on an ARM machine. Also Apple, being Apple, want to move everyone to ARM as quickly as possible. Tough luck if you just spent big bucks on a shiny new Intel Mac.

One of my customers emailed me that the latest version of my Hyper Plan visual planner, built with Qt 5.13.1, didn’t run on an new M1 Mac. I don’t currently have an M1 Mac to test it on. But my Easy Data Transform software , built with Qt 5.15.2, apparently works fine on an M1 Mac. So I recompiled Hyper Plan using Qt 5.15.2, and was told it now works. I have found a couple of minor differences in behaviour between Qt 5.13.1 and 5.15.2, but they are too obscure to go into here. Some Qt apps may still have issues on ARM.

Currently Qt is only available as Intel binaries. Efforts are in progress to be able to build Qt as M1 (ARM) binaries. When that is complete it should be possible to ship Qt applications as a ‘fat binary’ with both Intel and ARM executables, as I did with the PowerPC to Intel transition. I’m not sure if this is going to be supported on Qt 5 and 6 or just Qt 6.

Qt 6.2 supports building M1 ARM and Intel binaries. There is no official support for M1 Arm binaries for Qt 5.

You’ll be able to work seamlessly between your iPhone, iPad and Mac with new universal apps for MacOS.

Alison DeNisco Rayome

Alison DeNisco Rayome is a managing editor at CNET, now covering smart home topics after writing about services and software. Alison was previously an editor at TechRepublic.

At a virtual event on Tuesday , Apple unveiled new Macs that run on its new M1 chip for Macs , which will bring major improvements to app performance on its new operating system, MacOS Big Sur .

With MacOS Big Sur running on Macs with the new Apple silicon-based M1 chip, launching apps is nearly instantaneous, Craig Federighi, senior vice president of software engineering at Apple, said during the event. With Safari, the OS will run JavaScript one and a half times faster, and the entire system will be almost twice as responsive — so apps that require strong performance to render 3D animations or edit raw video footage will run more smoothly.

“We’ve optimized all of our apps for M1,” Federighi said.

The M1 chip will also bring increased security, including hardware verified secure boot, automatic high performance encryption for all of your files and MacOS run-time protections. All together, this gives you “the most advanced security of any personal computer,” Federighi said.

MacOS Big Sur also brings universal apps, which can run on an Intel- or M1-based Mac. Adobe is releasing universal versions of its apps , starting with Lightroom next month and Photoshop early next year.

For the first time ever, you’ll be able to run iPhone and iPad apps directly on your Mac, Federighi said.

MacOS Big Sur rolled out to all users on Thursday. For more, find out if your Mac is compatible with Big Sur , how to download MacOS Big Sur , and all of the best Big Sur features we’ve found .

There’s no doubt about it. The M1 Macs are an impressive evolutionary change in the 30-year history of the Macintosh computer. While the M1 has some limitations (particularly in memory capacity and ports), overall price/performance has been exceptional.

But, if you’ve upgraded recently from an Intel Mac (particularly if you used the Migration Tool), you might have found that some favorite applications seem more sluggish than you remember. Even if you’re running an Apple Silicon Mac with a fresh install, you may find yourself groaning about the performance of some applications.

Fortunately, there may be a fix. M1 Macs have a central processing unit (what we usually call “the processor”) that’s fundamentally different from that of Intel-based Macs. Programs written for Intel processors were compiled to produce Intel instruction set code, which then ran natively on the Intel processors.

Apple had done this processor architecture jump before when it moved from PowerPC-based machines to Intel-based machines. At that time, it embedded Rosetta’s technology into OS X that emulated PowerPC instructions on the Intel machines.

Apple repeated this technological feat this time, with Rosetta 2 on MacOS. Rosetta 2 translates programs whose binary code is intended to run on Intel x86 processors so that they can run on Apple Silicon M1 processors.

Generally speaking, this translation/interpretation mechanism works quite well. But because there’s extra processing on the part of the CPU to do all the translation/interpretation, it uses up processor cycles, slowing down execution as compared to applications that natively run on Apple Silicon.

And that’s where our fix comes in. You may be running non-native, emulated Intel-based legacy builds of an application when you could be running much faster native versions of that application.

Here’s how to find out

MacOS includes a mechanism for finding out the native/emulated status for all your installed applications. Go to the Apple menu and select About This Mac. Then click the System Report button. A new window will open with a huge amount of useful data about your system.

On the left, there are three main categories: Hardware, Network, and Software. If you don’t see anything under those headings, click the little triangle twisty to open up a subordinate list. Under Software, look for Applications, and click on that. Give the machine a minute or two to build the relevant table.

In the right-hand pane, you’ll see a list of applications and then some details about the top application. Much more of the window is devoted to the application’s details, but you can drag the splitter bar down to showcase more of the application list. This is where we’ll be working.

Here, you’ll see five columns. We’re concerned with the first column (Application Name) and the fifth column (Kind). Let’s look at that Kind column for a minute. Notice it has listings including Universal, Intel, Apple Silicon, Other, and a few that are listed as 32-bit (Unsupported).

Any application listed as 32-bit (Unsupported) will simply not run. You should probably update or uninstall these.

What we’re looking for, though, are the applications listed as Intel. Unlike the applications listed as Apple Silicon or Universal (meaning they support both types of binaries), applications listed as Intel are only running the x86 instruction set in emulated mode.

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These are the slower applications.

If the application you’re finding sluggish shows as Intel, then that’s your problem. I found that while some applications switch to Universal when updated, many don’t.

Chrome, for example, was disturbingly slow after I migrated to my M1 MacBook Air. I tried updating it, but it stayed as an Intel binary. I had to uninstall it, then install a fresh binary to get the speed increase.

That’s probably what you’ll need to do. Pay particular attention to backing up settings and managing licenses, then uninstall the Intel application. Most often, if you download now, you’ll directly get an M1 native application. But you might want to poke around whatever site you’re looking at for your distribution to be sure that you’re either getting a Universal or Apple Silicon-based binary.

And that’s it. When I updated those Intel-based applications that were annoying me (particularly Chrome), I went from ugh to wow. It was worth the few extra minutes of system maintenance for such an improved user experience.

Of course, not all applications have Apple Silicon binaries. You’ll either have to live with it or lobby the developers to do a port for those.

What about you? Are you running an M1 Mac? Have you found a big boost when you move to a native binary? Have you been able to improve performance using this tip? Let us know in the comments below.

Alap Naik Desai Neowin · Apr 25, 2022 17:16 EDT with 3 comments

Microsoft Teams has finally received a version that interacts directly with the ARM-based chipset present in the latest Mac PCs. The beta version of Teams, optimized for Apple Silicon, is available directly from Microsoft.

Apple released Mac PCs with its own proprietary chipset about a year and a half ago. The M1 SoC, designed by Apple engineers, has received a lot of praise. While the previous generation of Apple PCs had Intel processors, these new ARM-based chipsets operate with a completely different set of instructions.

It took Microsoft quite some time to develop a version of Microsoft Teams optimized for the Apple Silicon. Incidentally, the latest version, still in beta, is not publicly available to Teams users yet. Mac users will have to download it via Microsoft’s website.

When a macOS user will download and install the latest version of Teams from Microsoft the app will be transformed into a “Universal” app. This basically means that Microsoft Teams for Apple PCs has been tweaked to work with both Intel processors and Apple Silicon.

Until recently, Microsoft Teams for macOS would run as an “Intel application on Apple Silicon Macs”. This meant the app had to go through Apple’s Rosetta 2 translation technology. Simply put, all apps designed to work with Intel’s x86 architecture, needed an emulator to function on the new ARM-based processors.

Currently, there are three categories of apps that are available for Apple computers running on the ARM-based chipset:

• iPhone and iPad apps on the Mac: These are available through the Mac App Store
• Apps that run through Rosetta 2 translation: This technology allows users to run apps made for Intel Macs on Apple Silicon.
• Universal apps: These apps are designed to work on Apple Silicon as well as Intel processors. Such apps are downloadable from the Mac App Store or from the web.

It is important to note that neither Apple nor Microsoft have confirmed the existence of a “Universal” Teams app for macOS. Moreover, being a beta version, Mac PC users could experience bugs or performance issues. However, now that a Universal App of Microsoft Teams exists, it won’t be long before the same is officially available in the stable channel.

When Apple announced the macOS transition to arm64 last year with their new Apple Silicon M1 chip, we immediately started prototyping native support in Qt — initially on developer transition kits (DTK), and later on production hardware once that became available. The Rosetta translation layer already took care of running existing Qt applications on Apple Silicon, but we wanted native arm64 builds, to squeeze out all the power from this new chipset.

Luckily for us, Qt already had good cross compilation support, as well as arm64 support thanks to our iOS port, so bringing Qt up on Apple Silicon didn’t initially take too much effort. The devil was in the details though.

One major hurdle was convincing the build system to not only treat arm64 as a supported configuration on macOS, but to allow building Qt for both x86_64 and arm64 in one go, producing so called universal builds.

Another was ensuing that all our third party dependencies such as Chromium, PCRE, and OpenSSL were available and updated with arm64 -support.

And, last but not least, we needed to add arm64 macOS into our CI so we could run all the tests, which due to lack of virtualization options required some rethinking and additional work.

I’m happy to say that these issues have been resolved, and Qt on Apple Silicon support is scheduled for the upcoming Qt 6.2 release. This includes both cross compiling to arm64 , as well as developing Qt applications on Apple Silicon.

Trying it out

You can try out Qt on Apple Silicon already now by installing the 6.2 preview from the Qt installer. The Qt SDK is fully universal, and should run on both Intel and Apple Silicon hardware.

You can also check out the 6.2 branch of the Qt repositories and build Qt from source. By default, Qt will be built for your local architecture, i.e. x86_64 if you’re on an Intel Mac, and arm64 if you’re on an Apple Silicon Mac. To produce a universal build, add the following argument to configure:

Once you have a Qt build for Apple Silicon your can use CMake like normal to configure and build your application. CMake also defaults to building for your local architecture, so to produce a universal build of your application, add the same argument when configuring:

Note that if you have third party dependencies these must be built as universal binaries as well.

For more details about building Qt applications for Apple Silicon see the documentation.

Building and debugging in Qt Creator

As Qt Creator is still built as a non-universal binary, it will default to producing x86_64 binaries, regardless of which architecture your machine is.

To build for arm64 , add -DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES=arm64 explicitly to the “Initial CMake parameters” of the project build settings, or QMAKE_APPLE_DEVICE_ARCHS=arm64 to the qmake “Additional arguments” field.

Note: to attach a debugger you will need an x86_64 build of your application.

These issues will be fixed before the final 6.2 release. Please let us know if you find other issues.

What about Qt 5?

Our initial focus was on getting Qt for Apple Silicon into shape for Qt 6, but once 6.2 is out we’ll take a look at the Qt 5.15 commercial LTS, and how we can improve the situation there as well.

Some patches already went into Qt 5, so Qt 5.15.4 and above should build and run by passing -device-option QMAKE_APPLE_DEVICE_ARCHS=arm64 to configure. Note that this configuration is not tested in CI, and is hence unsupported at this point.

Applications built for x86_64 will run through the Rosetta translation layer, which should in most cases work fine. We are aware of a few bugs there, but please do not hesitate to file more if you find any issues 😊

I have a new M1 MacBook Air that I would like to use for Virtual Machine development.

Can Oracle VirtualBox VMs run on this new Apple Silicon architecture?

The documentation on the VirtualBox website states:

In order to run VirtualBox on your machine, you need:

• Reasonably powerful x86 hardware. Any recent Intel or AMD processor should do.

But it’s unclear if that documentation is current, or if there are any future plans to support the Apple Silicon ARM architecture. I have not been able to find a VirtualBox blog post or news update that states that M1 chips will or won’t be supported.

3 Answers 3

One issue you have is that VirtualBox does not run on non Intel architectures.

VirtualBox is a powerful x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization product

To run a virtual machine on Apple Silicon currently Parallels, UTM and Docker support Linux ARM VMs. Parallels and UTM also support other OSs that run on ARM including Windows but not macOS. (This paragraph will change over time).

VMware has now (Sept 2021) announced a preview version for ARM

The other thing to note is that if the VM you want to run is an Intel one then you need an emulator like Qemu. You probably can’t just load an Intel VM to run natively as ARM so have to rebuild the VM from an ARM based install.

Docker can run Intel VMs on Apple Silicon from their blog as can UTM, both use QEMU as a part of implementing this.

As UTM includes QEMU UTM can run Intel Windows or Intel macOS or PPC classic macos (and possibly PPC OSX )

A locked and stickied post from a Site Moderator on the VirtualBox user support forum indicates that VirtualBox will never support Apple Silicon:

Nope, there will be no port, for the same reason that VirtualBox isn’t available on an iPhone. VirtualBox is not a CPU emulator, it requires x86 CPU.

I suspect VirtualBox will be only one of many “obscure” applications that won’t make it into the Apple/ARM ecosphere.

the mod elaborates in an additional post:

I don’t understand why people insist on not getting this simple fact: VirtualBox can’t be ported to an ARM, because it’s an x86 hypervisor, not a simulator. In VirtualBox your x86 guest code runs at near full speed directly on the host processor. A CPU simulator is an entirely different animal that runs hundreds of times slower: that’s good enough for debugging but totally useless for real work.

Face facts: if you go down the Apple ARM road you leave x86 behind. Period. That doesn’t mean that Parallels and VMWare won’t try to sell you stuff, but they won’t be running an x86 hypervisor on an ARM, nor will it be any other practical solution for running x86 apps on a Mac.

Apple’s ARM-based M1 chip heralds enormous leaps in efficiency and speed of Apple devices. It also may create challenges for developers working on a universal binary for their apps, as well as for admins when integrating these new powerhouses into their existing fleets. Jamf is here to help.

Apple’s recent One More Thing event marked a monumental moment for Apple: the introduction of a custom, ARM-based system-on-a-chip, M1. It features Apple’s unified memory architecture (UMA) that unifies its high‑bandwidth, low‑latency memory into a single pool within a custom package. This allows different technologies to access the same data without copying it between multiple pools of memory, dramatically improving performance and power efficiency. The last time Apple made a significant processor change was in 2006, moving from PowerPC to Intel. This new chip allows users to enjoy a myriad of features, making the switch too good to resist:

• Three times the performance per watt to past Apple devices
• Two times the CPU speed
• Best battery life ever on Mac
• Two times the graphics speed than the very latest PC laptop chip

The switch to M1 sets up a common architecture, extending continuity between macOS, iOS and iPadOS applications — seamlessly integrating them across Apple’s hardware ecosystem. However, as with any significant hardware transition, applications designed to run on one processor are unable to successfully run on another without either (1) breaking compatibility, (2) modifying source code, or (3) a translation process that keeps old applications running on the new architecture.

Enter Rosetta 2. Like the OG Rosetta (OG = original gangsta, for those not familiar with 90s hip hop) that allowed PowerPC software to run on Intel Macs. Rosetta 2 is a translation process that allows applications built for Intel-based Macs to run on the Apple silicon-based processor. Rosetta 2, available in macOS 11 Big Sur, boasts technological improvements that includes automatic translation of non-native apps upon installation and no longer interpreting code in real-time. What this really means is that it’s quite a bit more efficient at translating older software than the OG.

But like the saying goes, all good things come to an end. Rosetta 2 is temporary, giving developers a bridge as they adapt to the new M1 architecture and create a universal binary with two different compatibilities: one binary for Intel and one binary for M1’s ARM architecture. Apple’s documentation page reminds us that it’s “not a substitute for creating a native version of your app.” Also worth noting, Rosetta 2 is not installed in Big Sur by default and must be installed as an additional app.

But don’t fret. Jamf is here to help. Of all the Apple Enterprise Management providers in the market today, Jamf is the only one that was around to help organizations through the last Mac processor change.

For a first step, if you need Rosetta 2 on your Apple Silicon devices, Jamf Pro will help you get that deployed.

Jamf Pro and Jamf Protect are built with Universal binaries that natively support Macs with either Intel or Apple silicon processors. The universal binary ensures users achieve forward and backward compatibility on any application that supports their current OS version without relying on Rosetta 2 to aide as a translation layer. As a result, Jamf Products are current, more efficient and support the newest Macs immediately. Equally important, the Jamf Nation will see no change in behavior or functionality with any administrative or security tools running on either processor.

During this transitional period during which users will be using either M1-based Macs or Intel-based Macs, there are clear challenges ahead. App developers will have to focus on creating a universal binary and security developers have an even larger task at hand to adopt Apple’s framework in place of their age old usage of KEXTs.

Jamf can help surmount those challenges. Jamf Protect (mentioned in 5 Ways Jamf Secures macOS Big Sur) remains kextless — preventing Mac-specific attacks without the need to install a kernel extension. And, regardless of Rosetta 2, Jamf Protect’s universal binary coupled with an already kextless interface makes Jamf Protect well suited to maintaining Apple-first endpoint security on all Macs, requiring no manual intervention or disruptions as M1-based Macs are added to the fleet.

At Jamf, we remain committed to making our customers successful with Apple and Jamf products. And with all these new capabilities, Jamf stands ready to help you manage, connect and protect.

Discover how Jamf Protect can help secure your Apple M1 devices.

If you plan on getting an M1 MacBook Air, MacBook Pro or Mac mini, you do not have to worry about app compatibility, thank so Rosetta 2 translation technology. Rosetta will enable legacy x86 apps and games to function just fine, without any change needed from the developer.

What is Rosetta 2?

Here is how Apple defines Rosetta 2 translation environment on its developer page for Apple Silicon:

Rosetta is a translation process that allows users to run apps that contain x86_64 instructions on Apple silicon. Rosetta is meant to ease the transition to Apple silicon, giving you time to create a universal binary for your app. It is not a substitute for creating a native version of your app.

Related

It’s called Rosetta 2 because Apple had originally created Rosetta when it was transitioning Mac from PowerPC to Intel chips in 2005.

After watching the ‘One more thing’ event and by going through Apple’s website, we understand that Rosetta 2 will help run x86 apps without the need for any changes. Usually, developers would benefit the most if they convert their apps to Universal apps, which will run natively on the new M1 chip-based Macs. However, it will take time for some developers to do so, and Rosetta 2 will step in to run those apps and games, better than how they ran natively on Intel processors in the same Macs before, in many situations:

With the introduction of Rosetta 2, M1 and macOS Big Sur seamlessly run apps that haven’t yet transitioned to Universal versions. So without updating, you can keep working on Fusion360 projects or reach the next level in your favorite game. And thanks to Metal and M1, some of the most graphically demanding apps perform better under Rosetta 2 than they did running natively on previous Mac systems with integrated graphics.

Apple claims to have the fastest integrated graphics on the market which means that games should run faster with Rosetta 2 on M1, than they did on their Intel predecessors. However, the app launch times might not be as fast, because macOS Big Sur will put them through a translation process from x86 to Apple Silicon compatible arm64 instruction set.

To the user, Rosetta is mostly transparent. If an executable contains only Intel instructions, macOS automatically launches Rosetta and begins the translation process. When translation finishes, the system launches the translated executable in place of the original. However, the translation process takes time, so users might perceive that translated apps launch or run more slowly at times.

For apps that utilize legacy x86 plugins, users will also be able to manually enable or disable Rosetta for Universal apps, by opening the app’s Get Info window.

Apple will not always support Rosetta 2 translation and it is possible that they might remove this feature from macOS after one or two major releases. Until then, developers should have migrated their apps to Universal versions.

by Todd Bishop on December 15, 2020 at 12:51 pm December 15, 2020 at 12:57 pm

Microsoft is releasing new versions of its Office productivity apps that run natively on Macs with Apple’s internally developed M1 processors, rolling out via a software update starting today.

The updates, announced Tuesday morning, continue a longstanding tradition of cooperation between the Microsoft Office and Apple Mac teams. The practice dates back to the mid-1980s, when Microsoft released Word and Excel for Mac, and it has endured even as the companies have competed aggressively on other fronts.

Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote will run faster on M1 Macs as a result of the update, taking advantage of improved processor performance, says Bill Doll, Microsoft 365 senior product marketing manager, in a post announcing the updates. The apps are universal, allowing them to run on Intel-based Macs, as well. They’ve also been redesigned to adopt the look and feel of macOS Big Sur.

Microsoft says it’s working on a similar M1 universal app update for its Teams collaboration software, which can run in Rosetta emulation mode on Macs with the new chips in the meantime.

Apple released the first Macs with Arm-based M1 chips in November. The big unanswered question now is whether Microsoft will change its Windows licensing terms to let the Arm-based version of Windows 10 run natively on M1 Macs. The traditional version of Windows can currently run on Intel-based Macs via Apple’s Boot Camp virtualization software.

Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, told Ars Technica in November that the decision was up to Microsoft.

“We have the core technologies for them to do that, to run their ARM version of Windows, which in turn of course supports x86 user mode applications,” he told the site. “But that’s a decision Microsoft has to make, to bring to license that technology for users to run on these Macs. But the Macs are certainly very capable of it.”

Run Photoshop faster in native mode on Apple computers using the Apple Silicon M1 chip.

Important:

Photoshop’s 3D features will be removed in future updates. Users working with 3D are encouraged to explore Adobe’s new Substance 3D collection, which represents the next generation of 3D tools from Adobe.

Additional details on the discontinuation of Photoshop’s 3D features can be found here: Photoshop 3D | Common questions around discontinued 3D features.

As of March 2021, Photoshop now runs natively on Apple computers using the Apple Silicon M1 chip with 1.5X the speed of similarly configured previous generation systems.

Photoshop has minor feature differences when running under the native mode and the Rosetta emulation mode. Adobe is hard at work to reduce these feature differences in future updates.

Features not available in the native mode

Refer to the below list to determine whether to open Photoshop in Native mode or open using Rosetta.

To learn how to run Photoshop in Rosetta, see About Rosetta.

• Import, Export, and playback of embedded video layers
• Preset Syncing
• Opening or placing U3D formatted files
• Starting Bridge from Photoshop menus

Goodbye, Shake Reduction and Quick Share!

With the April release of Photoshop 23.3, Camera Shake Reduction (Filter > Sharpen > Shake Reduction) will be removed since this technology is not compatible with the newer development platforms, and Quick Share will be removed due to low usage, desire to simplify the options bar UI, and redundant functionality to other export functions.

M1 native known issues

Open Photoshop using Rosetta. To learn more about Rosetta, see About Rosetta

To use extensions that rely on CEP, install and run them in Rosetta mode only. Once you launch under Rosetta, you may need to go to Window / Extensions (legacy) to open your CEP panels again.

Note: You will not see the “Open in Rosetta” option if you are right-clicking on an “alias“.

If you are a developer and would like to update your plugin to work with Photoshop in native mode, see UXP for Adobe Photoshop.

Issues when exporting SVG files

If Photoshop continues to freeze while starting up after updating to macOS 11.2.1, create a new administrator user account. For more help, see Set up users, guests, and groups on your Mac.

Export As command produces an error “Can’t export to this location, select another location to continue.”

Remove the ‘#’ character from the folder name in the save destination path, or use the Save As command to export, or use the Rosetta emulation mode to Export.

Rosetta compatibility issues

The Photoshop engineering team is investigating the following compatibility issues while running in Rosetta:

• When exporting using Export As or Generator, you cannot export some formats (SVG, GIF)
• Differring selection results when using Select Subject
• You see magenta artifacts when using filters like Flame, Picture Frame or Tree
• Crash when using Select Subject, Object Selection tool, Remove Background Quick Action, or Magic Wand

Are legacy versions compatible?

No. Unsupported versions of Photoshop were not designed or tested to work on Apple devices with Apple Silicon M1 processors.

The likes of Steinberg, Native Instruments and Universal Audio have released statements

While the launch of Apple’s new M1-powered silicon Macs is generating a lot of headlines, for existing macOS music makers there’s a bigger question: should they upgrade to Big Sur, Apple’s latest operating system?

While the Mac world is very much in flux at the moment, with Apple currently transitioning away from Intel processors, the good news is that, on this particular question, there’s a pretty clear cut answer: updating to Big Sur at this stage is not a good idea.

Leaving aside the fact that any new OS will inevitably have bugs and quirks – some of which may not already be apparent – the big issue is that of compatibility. Until you have cast-iron confirmation that your DAW, plugins and audio hardware works and is supported in Big Sur, upgrading is not a good idea, particularly if you’re in the middle of a big project and don’t want to risk any disruption.

As a side note, if you want to avoid an accidental Big Sur upgrade, you should make sure that the automatic update option in your Mac’s Software Update tool is turned off.

Should you buy an M1 silicon Mac?

If you’re thinking of buying an M1 Mac, there’s another consideration: not only does your software need to be compatible with Big Sur, but it also needs to be updated to ‘Universal’ status to run natively. There is a potential workaround in the form of Rosetta, an Apple technology that enables Intel-only apps to run on M1 machines, but it remains to be seen what kind of implications this has on performance.

What’s more, we don’t yet know how well these new Macs perform as music-making machines. While Apple is promising great performance and longer battery life, its claims have yet to be tested.

Just to confuse things further, you could also be compromised if you buy a new Intel Mac, as this will likely have Big Sur pre-installed. So, even if your music software is compatible with your Mac hardware, it might not run on your OS.

As things stand, very few companies beyond Apple (Logic Pro and GarageBand) are fully up to speed. Here’s a round-up of what some of the major players are saying. We’ll update this list with any key information as and when it comes through.

macOS Big Sur and M1 Macs: music software compatibility

“Not only did Apple introduce a new operating system but also a new hardware platform with the Apple Silicon system on a chip (SoC) solution. While many of our products are compatible with macOS Big Sur on Intel-based systems, please note that we cannot recommend using Apple Silicon-based systems for the time being until we have completed our tests or released updates to make our software and hardware compatible.”

Although some NI products are Big Sur ready, most are not, with the company saying: “We are currently conducting systematic tests with the release version of macOS 11 (Big Sur) in order to offer full compatibility of our soft- and hardware products as soon as possible.”

“UA software, including UAD, Apollo, and LUNA, is not currently compatible with Big Sur, says Universal Audio. “UA software compatibility with Big Sur is being thoroughly tested, and full qualification is coming in future software updates. We recommend that you wait until UAD software compatibility with Big Sur is announced before updating to this new operating system.

On the subject of Apple’s new silicon Macs, meanwhile, UA says: “UA software, including UAD, Apollo, and LUNA, is not currently compatible with Apple M1 computer systems. UA software compatibility with M1 Macs is being developed and full qualification is coming in future software updates.”

Some good news from Spectrasonics, as it says: “All four Spectrasonics virtual instruments (Omnisphere 2, Trilian, Keyscape and Stylus RMX) are now compatible and officially supported for use in Mac OS11 Big Sur! If you have Spectrasonics instrument(s) you can now install and update to the latest version available to use your instruments on Mac OS11 Big Sur.”

On the subject of the silicon Macs, the company says that the software listed above “seems to be working OK within Rosetta 2 DAWs,” but that native versions won’t be available until early in 2021.

“We’re currently aware of some critical issues using Slate Digital/All Access Pass products in macOS Big Sur. We ask for your patience while our development team works out the issues and to wait to update your system until we announce official support for macOS Big Sur.”

It looks like Reason versions 11.3.4 and later are compatible with Big Sur, but earlier versions currently aren’t.

The company has also released a brief statement regarding M1 chip compatibility: “No Reason Studios product is currently compatible with the Apple M1 chip. We are working on being compatible with Apple M1 in the future.”

There are no guarantees from Arturia, with the company saying: “Until thorough testing with the final release version of Big Sur is conducted, we cannot guarantee full compatibility with all of our products.”

“We are happy to announce that all of our products are compatible with the recent macOS Big Sur 11.0.1 update.

“Notice that if you own a machine with a new Apple M1 Chip already though, we are not ready for that yet. We are currently working hard on qualifying this, too.

“Please stay subscribed to our newsletter or check our online FAQ’s regularly to obtain information on the current operating system requirements.”

I’m the Group Content Manager for MusicRadar, specialising in all things tech. I previously spent eight years working on our sister magazine, Computer Music. I’ve been playing the piano, gigging in bands and failing to finish tracks at home for more than 30 years, 20 of which I’ve also spent writing about music technology.

When Apple announced the switch away from Intel chips this summer, many people have been wondering about Boot Camp’s future. And while Apple has only said that Boot Camp will not work with the new M1-powered Mac computers, companies that build virtualization software may provide a solution down the road. Parallels Desktop, a popular virtualization app for Mac systems with Intel chips, announced today that a new version of the app that can run on these new Mac computers equipped with the Apple M1 chip is in “active development.”

Parallels is excited to see the performance, power efficiency and virtualization features that are brought to the Mac with Apple M1 chip. The transition to Macs with the Apple M1 chip should be smooth for most macOS apps thanks to Rosetta technology. Fortunately, our Parallels Access, Parallels Toolbox and Parallels Client software worked smoothly even before Parallels rebuilt them as universal binaries.

However, virtual machines are an exception.

It’s important to note that current versions of Parallels Desktop cannot run virtual machines on Macs with the M1 chip. Good news: A new version of Parallels Desktop for Mac that can run on Macs with the M1 chip is already in active development.

That wasn’t entirely unexpected.

When Apple announced the move to its own silicon for Mac computers during the WWDC 2020 keynote this summer, it demonstrated a prototype version of Parallels Desktop running a Linux virtual machine smoothly on Apple Silicon development hardware. According to the company, the M1-enabled version of Parallels Desktop “has made tremendous progress” since WWDC.

If you thought Parallels emulation for M1 chip Macs would be a day one slam dunk, nope: looks like virtual machine emulation isn’t yet ready for the M1, but is in “active development.” And Parallels is looking to Windows itself to emulate x64 apps on ARM.

“We switched Parallels Desktop to universal binary and optimized its virtualization code,” reads the post. The M1 version apparently “looks very promising.” Microsoft recently announced it was adding support for Intel-based x64 applications to Windows on ARM. Similar to Apple’s Rosetta technology, this feature will enable Windows customers with ARM-based notebooks to run existing Intel apps that have not been optimized for the ARM instruction set.

I think Apple will definitelly bring Boot Camp to Windows on ARM over time.

Unlike virtualization solutions like Parallels that let you run macOS alongside another operating system such as Windows side by side, Boot Camp lets you boot directly into Windows at startup. In other words, Boot Camp is the best solution for running resource-intensive Windows apps like games and creative software on your Mac while virtualization gives you the convenience of running a Windows app here and there without having to restart the machine.

The Intel-based version of Chrome runs a bit sluggish compared to the new version specifically built for M1 Macs.

Kevin Raposo

I finally just got my hands on Apple’s latest MacBook Pro with the M1 Max chip. So far, so good. But one thing I noticed when running Google Chrome was that it wasn’t as fast as I thought it should be. I was pretty much getting the same experience I had on my older 2015 MacBook. Something felt off.

It turns out, I was running the wrong version of Chrome. Apparently, Google has its own version specifically designed for Macs with the M1 chip.

I literally never knew this existed, even though it’s been covered pretty extensively.

Since I had Chrome installed on my Intel-based Mac, the previous version of Chrome was ported over to this new MacBook.

This is the wrong version and I needed to get the faster and better version installed on my machine.

Turns out, it’s super easy and the results you see after installing are immediately noticeable. Here’s how to do it yourself.

How to install Google Chrome on new Macs with the M1 chip

If you have a new MacBook with the M1 chip, do yourself a favor and follow these steps below:

Click on this link from your desktop

Tap on the Download Chrome button on the top right-hand corner

A pop-up box will be displayed asking you to choose which version of Chrome want to be installed on your MacBook

Click on Mac with Apple Chip

UPDATE: Google now offers a universal version of Google Chrome. Meaning it can run natively on both Intel-based Macs and Macs with Apple Silicon (M1 and future versions). So downloading the universal version should do the trick.

That’s it. Once installed, you should be running the latest version of Chrome optimized for your M1 Mac. After installing it on my machine, I could tell right away that things were moving a whole lot quicker.

One thing I’m noticed, however, is that basic things like Twitter videos were not loading on my timeline or other things like certain notifications weren’t showing up. I’m not the only one with this issue, but as it turns out, I simply needed to clear out my browser cache. So far, this seems to have fixed those issues.

So yea, there you go. Don’t make the same mistake I made. If you got your hands on a new Mac with the latest M1 chip, do yourself a favor and update to the correct version of Chrome.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Apple recently introduced three new Mac models that eschew the Intel processors we’ve relied upon for over a decade. The three new models are all powered by Apple’s new M1, alleged to be the most powerful chip Apple has ever produced and the first designed specifically for the Mac.

I have yet to touch an M1-powered Mac, so if you watched the 50-minute event or browsed Apple’s website recently, you probably know as much as I do.

I want one, but there are a couple of things I need to find out more about before I commit:

Boot Camp?

First and foremost, Apple’s Boot Camp, which enables Intel-powered Mac to run Windows (and other operating systems), relies upon your Mac having an Intel processor. So, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to boot into Windows on M1-powered Macs.

On the other hand, Parallels is in active development of its Parallels Desktop virtualization software that runs natively on M1 Macs (visit parallels.com for details).

The point is that if you rely on Boot Camp, Parallels Desktop, or other emulation/virtualization software to run Windows, Linux, or any other operating system on your Mac, take time to evaluate the state of emulation and virtualization software on M1-based Macs before you acquire an M1-powered Mac.

Rosetta 2?

Another thing to consider is that all Mac apps will have to be updated to run natively on M1-powered Macs. While Apple’s Rosetta 2 technology will allow most Mac apps to run on M1 Macs without updating, history suggests that some apps will run better than others under Rosetta 2 and that some apps may not work correctly.

While all of Apple’s applications have been updated to run natively on M1, if you rely on third-party apps to get things done, I urge you to confirm that those apps run properly on an M1 processor. The good news is that RoaringApps (roaringapps.com), which hosts a crowd-sourced list of apps that have been updated for M1, is a great place to start.

The bad news is that there were fewer than two dozen apps on the list when I looked (not surprising considering I wrote this column before M1-based Macs became available).

Bottom line: If you’re considering a new M1-equipped Mac this week (or month), give some thought to emulation and Rosetta 2 before you decide.

I’m Not Trying To Be Negative

I’m not trying to dissuade you from M1-equipped Macs… I just wanted to call your attention to things that may not work as expected, especially in the beginning.

That being said, I am looking forward to switching to an M1-equipped Mac so I can render Final Cut Pro timelines up to 6x faster; watch up to 20 hours of video playback without recharging; edit 4K video without dropping frames; and run iOS and iPadOS apps on my Mac for the first time.

That’s all for now; I’ll tell you more once I get my hands on one.