While there are some great MacBook Pro deals out there right now - and plenty of other Prime Day music deals, too - for many of us, the big question is when Apple will begin its transition to silicon processors.
The answer, according to unconfirmed reports, is November. The word from Bloomberg is that, while we won’t hear anything silicon-related at tomorrow’s anticipated iPhone 12 launch, the new Macs will get their own event next month. It’s expected that one or more laptops will be confirmed, though sizes and specs remain a mystery.
A previous leak suggested that the new silicon MacBooks will be cheaper than their Intel counterparts, with a $799 standard-issue MacBook being mooted.
The silicon switch was announced back in June, with Apple stating that its new chips will deliver better performance with lower power usage. All of its own apps - including Logic Pro X - will run on silicon hardware right away, but it remains to be seen how long it will take for third-party DAW and plugin developers to catch up.
Apple says that converting Intel apps to Universal ones that run on both platforms is a “smooth and seamless” process, but it remains to be seen if this is the case.
That said, there is a new version of Rosetta - the app that was originally introduced when Apple switched from PowerPC to Intel processors - so that non-Universal apps will run on Apple silicon Macs.
What’s more, Apple says that Apple silicon macs will be able to run iOS and iPadOS apps natively, with no porting required, which means that you should be able to use your favourite mobile music-making apps on your desktop.
