Greetings!
Our next meeting is a social event
- can you believe it?
We will meet at the 13th Beach Golf Course Restaurant at 3.00 pm on December 8. It's amazing! Everyone is welcome (including partners) - BMUG will cover the cost of afternoon tea. Participants who wish to will be able to buy other drinks.
It is important, however, that if you would like to come, you let us know by December 3, please.
RSVP
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And we have a website change!
We are promoting the work of members who research and write reviews of products for us. We also gather notes from our meetings and publish them for those who don't want to have to take notes themselves, or who cannot attend our meetings.
You will see this is now a prominent menu item at https://www.bellarinemac.org.au/resources
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International Day of People with Disability (IDPwD) is held on the 3rd of December each year. It is a United Nations observed day celebrated internationally. It aims to increase public awareness, understanding and acceptance of people with disability and celebrate their achievements and contributions. Many of us are starting to fit into this category! If the tech has run away from you and you cannot access what you need, the text is too small, or things are over-crowded and confusing, welcome aboard!
The Australian Government has been supporting IDPwD since 1996 and provides funds to promote and raise awareness of the day around Australia. Ever so many people experience disability with digital communications but don't ask for help and don't get it. Perhaps you can reach out to someone you know who struggles with the technology?
If you are interested in learning more about what difficulties people may have, how to manage them, and how you might help someone with disability, please visit https://www.and.org.au/pages/idpwd.html
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Apple’s M1 Macs: Think “Same but Different”
by Peter Cross
Yet again, Apple has announced something of a revolution in computing. Of course, It is not a silent revolution - Apple announcements are never characterised by understatement - but it is a largely invisible one.
Noted Apple pundit, John Gruber, summed it up best. When describing the newly released range of Macintosh computers, he says,
None of these Macs look different from their Intel-based predecessors. I’ve been using an M1 13-inch MacBook Pro for the last week, and it is all but identical on the exterior to its Intel-based counterpart. Same exact size and shape … Same keyboard (it’s good), same trackpad, same aluminum color options (Silver and Space Gray). Same exact display … the most exciting new Macs from a technical perspective since 1994 don’t look new at all.
Apple has released two new laptops, an Air and a Pro, together with a new Mac mini. Previously these all ran on Intel chips but Intel has failed to keep pace with its competitors and has seemingly delayed the release of new Mac hardware on more than one occasion. So Apple created something different, the M1, a chip specifically designed for the Mac. So should we be cautious in purchasing new Macs running on something so novel? Probably not. These Macs use the same architecture which Apple has been developing and improving for several years, the ARM-based chips currently powering its iPhones and iPads, both regular and Pro.
Again, however, there is a difference. A Mac has different hardware and different requirements to those of an iPhone or iPad and the way the M1 is designed to accommod ate these differences illustrates its strengths. Everything is integrated. Graphics processing and the use of RAM, for example, are handled in new, more efficient ways and the new operating system, Big Sur, says Gruber, “is Apple’s first version of MacOS ever designed hand-in-hand to run on hardware designed from the ground up by Apple”. Again this demonstrates Apple’s inherent advantage in that it is able to integrate both hardware and software in a way that other computer platforms are not. And the M1 takes this to another level again.
For more, see the rest of the article in our product reviews.
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Peter Poteralski has also been reading about the new Mac. His response to Peter Cross is: "You’ve certainly done your research and presented a very comprehensive review.
I am attaching a review from today’s Australian Financial Review. Certainly the performance gains are spectacular. The only downside seems to be the time frame in which all software can move through transitioning via Rosetta 2 (I can still remember the previous Rosetta transition from Motorola chips) to native Mac Silicon."
The article is below. Note that it is a scanned PDF because it has disappeared in other forms so it may be difficult to read. If you click on it and open it you can probably make the text larger.
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And here are a few items on the MacOS Big Sur & included Safari recent updates which may be of interest to members.
MacOS Big Sur features
Although built for Apple Silicon and the M1 processor MacOS Big Sur will run on earlier Macs - refer compatibility URL below.
However, while there were some update issues when first released, these now appear to have been resolved.
- MacOS Big Sur operating system brings optimised apps for the new system architecture, universal apps, and better responsiveness across the board. Also use your iPhone and iPad apps on the Mac when running an M1 Processor.
https://appleinsider.com/inside/macos-big-sur
- macOS Big Sur with redesign, Safari updates and more
https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/11/12/apple-releases-macos-big-sur-with-redesign-safari-updates-and-more
- Which Macs are compatible with macOS Big Sur?
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211238
Some Safari update features reviews
How to use Safari's improved extensions in macOS Big Sur
https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/11/20/how-to-use-safaris-improved-extensions-in-macos-big-sur
Safari's extensions have not changed a great deal, but macOS Big Sur has made finding new ones easier — and enables developers to bring even more.
How to use Safari's new Privacy Report in macOS Big Sur https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/11/20/how-to-use-safaris-new-privacy-report-in-macos-big-sur
How to use Guides, Indoor Maps, and Look Around in Maps with macOS Big Sur
https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/11/24/how-to-use-guides-indoor-maps-and-look-around-in-maps-with-macos-big-sur
How to use the new Safari Tabs in macOS 11 Big Sur
https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/11/19/how-to-use-the-new-safari-tabs-in-macos-11-big-sur
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