You're able to download some iPhone and iPad apps! Just search for an app in the Mac App Store, and you'll see a new tab to find iPhone and iPad apps. IPhone and iPad Apps on Macs with the M1 Chip: This applies only if you have one of the new MacBooks with Apple's own M1 chip.
Head to Apple's macOS 11 web page to see the full list, but here are a few standouts. There are several smaller updates in Big Sur. (You can remove some of these widgets by tapping the edit icon on the bottom right of Safari's start page.) Also present are Siri Suggestions and access to your Reading List, and you can change the background to something more colorful. Instead of just showing your favorite or frequently visited websites, you'll also see a Privacy Report for how many trackers Safari has blocked. The Safari Start Page got a makeover too. Just go up to the menus at the top of the screen and click View > Translate > Translate to English.
If you encounter a web page in another language, now you can use Siri's built-in translator to turn it into one of seven languages. Plus, Safari now shows favicons in the tabs, so it's much easier to find the tab you're hunting for. If you're like me and have dozens of tabs open at any given time, you'll like that you can now hover over a tab to see a preview of what's there.
also has a rolling list to track compatibility testing across most well-known developers, here.Apple says Big Sur brings the "biggest update to Safari since its original launch in 2003." It's speedier than ever (50 percent faster than Chrome, according to Apple), and you can finally watch 4K HDR content on YouTube and Netflix. Also, remember that there’s nothing wrong with staying on Catalina (or whatever OS you’re on) indefinitely – especially if your setup works for you. At the end of the day, however, it depends entirely on your own set up.Īs a general guideline, we would advise holding off on upgrading – and watching for updates from brands – for at least a few weeks (or months if possible). On the upside, you can expect the music-making community to highlight any glaring incompatibility issues fairly quickly. The transition to a new OS is rarely a straight line for brands either. If you’ve ever had the misfortune of updating a studio computer, you’ll know that it can be a painful process where you have to wave goodbye to faithful old plug-ins. That’s great news if you’re running a dual OS setup. However, according to Ars Technica, it appears that Intel-based Macs operating on Big Sur will continue to receive support for Boot Camp. We know that Boot Camp – Apple’s utility that lets you switch between macOS and Windows – will be excluded on ARM Macs simply because Windows is not designed to run on ARM processor architecture.
But will this allow you to use your existing plug-ins and audio software on the new M1 Macs? Apple has said that Rosetta 2’s compatibility will extend to plug-ins, but the details are thin, so the safest bet is to wait and see. Rosetta 2 is a compatibility mechanism (or “converter”) to help ARM Macs run software that hasn’t yet been ported to Apple Silicon.
To aid the transition, Apple has launched the updated Rosetta 2 for macOS Big Sur. This year is a special one for the Cupertino giant as it marks the advent of ARM Macs – its first generation of computers equipped with Apple Silicon instead of Intel chips. Suffice to say that most brands are advising customers to hold off on updates for now. Avid and Ableton also both appear hard at work to get their DAWs running on Big Sur. Otherwise, it’s up in the air.įor instance, while Celemony’s current Melodyne 5.1 is supported on Big Sur while previous editions are not.