Along with the shift to Apple Silicon, performing things like a restore is different with M1 Macs compared to their Intel predecessors. Follow along for a look at how to revive and restore M1 Macs, what the difference is, when to use them, and what to try before taking those steps.
Performing a restore (factory reset) with Intel Macs uses macOS Recovery. While that’s still an option for doing things like reinstalling macOS on M1 Macs, there’s a different process to fully restore an M1 Mac or in limited cases, the need to revive an M1 Mac.
Table of contents
How to revive and restore M1 Macs – MacBook Air, Pro, and Mac mini
What is an M1 Mac revive?
Here’s how Apple describes when you would need to “revive” an M1 Mac and what it does:
In very rare circumstances, such as a power failure during a macOS upgrade, a Mac may become unresponsive and so the firmware must be revived. A revive updates the firmware and updates recoveryOS to the latest version. A revive is designed to not make any changes to the startup volume, the user’s data volume, or any other volumes.
However, keep in mind that if you need to reinstall macOS after performing a revive, that will erase your drive.
What is an M1 Mac restore?
A restore will erase your Mac’s drive but it also restores the firmware, updates recoveryOS to the most recent version, and reinstalls the latest version of macOS. As such, you’ll want to have your data backed up.
Already tried to reinstall macOS?
If you can boot up your M1 Mac to macOS Recovery, you may be able to reinstall macOS without having to revive or do a full restore which both require a second Mac and Apple Configurator 2. This will erase your drive.
With your Mac powered off, press and hold the power button until you see “Loading startup options”
Choose Options and click Continue
If needed, enter your password
Now choose Reinstall macOS and hit Continue and follow the prompts
What you need to revive or restore M1 Macs
If you can’t do that or know you want to fully restore your M1 Mac, here’s what you’ll need:
A second Mac with the latest version of Apple Configurator 2 installed (and internet access)
Apple notes “You may need to configure your web proxy or firewall ports to allow all network traffic from Apple devices to Apple’s network 17.0.0.0/8.” Read more on this here.
A USB-C to USB-C cable (or USB-A to C cable) Apple notes it must support power and data and Thunderbolt 3 cables won’t work for this process
How to revive or restore
If your M1 Mac is unresponsive, you can try a revive first which won’t erase your data. If that doesn’t work or you know you want to erase your M1 Mac, you can perform a restore. Here are the main steps:
Launch Apple Configurator 2 on a secondary Mac and connect it to your Mac that’s having issues
Restart your M1 Mac that’s not responding with a special sequence
Use Apple Configurator 2 on the secondary Mac to revive or restore
On a secondary (working) Mac
Make sure you’re on the latest version of Apple Configurator 2
Plugged into power and connected to the internet
Plug in the USB-C cable
Launch Apple Configurator 2
Preparing a non-working M1 MacBook Air or Pro
Press the power button
As you’re holding the power button down, simultaneously press all of these keys for roughly 10 seconds
Right shift key
Left Option key
Left Control key
After 10 seconds, release all of the keys except the power button until the Mac shows up in Apple Configurator 2 on your secondary Mac
Apple notes that “You won’t see any screen activity” on the Mac you’re trying to revive/restore.
Preparing a non-working M1 Mac mini
Have it plugged into a monitor to see when the process is complete
Unplug your Mac mini power cable for at least 10 seconds
Press and hold the power button
While still pressing the power button, plug the power cable back in
Release the power button
You should see the status indicator light turn red (amber) but you won’t see any screen activity for now
Reviving from the secondary (working) Mac
In Apple Configurator 2, select the M1 Mac you need to revive/restore
From the menu bar up top, pick Actions > Advanced
Or Control-click the device > Advanced
Choose Revive Device
Apple notes that “When you revive the firmware, you must verify that the process was successful because Apple Configurator 2 may not alert you.”
Now you can Quit Apple Configurator 2 and unplug the USB cable
Restoring from the secondary (working) Mac
In Apple Configurator 2, pick the M1 Mac you want to restore
From the menu bar up top, pick Actions > Restore
Or Control-click the M1 Mac > Restore
Choose Restore on the dialog box to confirm the process
The process may take some time and during it the Apple logo will show up and disappear
You Mac will restart when the process is finished
Like with a revive, “When you restore the Mac, you must verify that the process was successful because Apple Configurator 2 may not alert you.”
Apple highlights that when a restore is successful for an M1 Mac, the macOS Setup Assistant will appear
You’re good to quit Apple Configurator 2 on your secondary Mac and unplug the USB cable
For more on reviving and restoring M1 Macs, you can find Apple’s support document here. And here is the support doc on using macOS Recovery with M1 Macs including reinstalling macOS.
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The new year is a time to look forwards into the future as well as backwards into the past, and thanks to a series of leaks, rumors and early announcements, we already know (or think we know) what’s coming down the line for smartphones in 2021.
Here we’re going to take a look at some of the biggest and best phones we’re expecting to see over the next 12 months, and the sort of technology they should be carrying along with them. Your next phone upgrade might be listed somewhere here.
Samsung Galaxy S21
Look for three S21 models to match the three S20 models shown above
Samsung
According to those in the know, the Samsung Galaxy S21 will be the first flagship phone out of the gate in 2021 – nothing is official yet, but the most reputable tipsters say January 14 is when the handset will be unveiled. That’s earlier in the year than normal for the Galaxy S series, so Samsung would seem to be keen to get a head start.
It looks as though three phones are on the way: the 6.2-inch S21, the 6.7-inch S21 Plus and the 6.8-inch S21 Ultra. The Ultra is rumored to be the real star of the show, with substantial camera upgrades (perhaps a 10x optical zoom) and support for the S Pen stylus on the cards. That may or may not mean the demise of the Note series of phones in 2021, with some speculating that Samsung will turn all of its attention to the S series and its foldable phones over the coming year.
All three S21 models are apparently coming with the latest Snapdragon 888 chipsets on board (at least in the US), and screens with 120-Hz refresh rates for super-smooth scrolling (watch out for this to become commonplace in 2021). There’s also a slight redesign, with the rear camera array wrapping around the top corner of the phone.
Apple iPhone 13
The iPhone 13 may well look a lot like the iPhone 12 shown above – though the notch might be smaller
Apple
Apple tends to innovate more slowly than some of its competitors – a foldable iPhone isn’t predicted until 2022 – so expect the usual upgrades in terms of processor speed and camera quality in the next batch of iPhones. Indeed, the iOS 15 announcement around June time might be more exciting than the mobile hardware Apple is preparing.
According to the rumor mill, we’ll see 120-Hz refresh rate displays (apparently originally planned for the iPhone 12, but pulled due to battery life concerns) and LiDAR depth sensing on all the iPhone 13 models (it’s only on the Pro phones right now). While the distinctive screen notch won’t disappear in 2021, it might get smaller.
September is the month to watch out for new iPhones: Apple is said to be back to its normal launch schedule after the disruption of 2020, when the iPhone 12 was delayed. Once again, it looks as though four models are on the way, matching the same names and sizes as we saw with the iPhone 12.
Google Pixel 6 (and Pixel 5a)
Google could follow the mid-range Pixel 5 (above) with a mid-range Pixel 6
Google
Google put most of its time and energy into the mid-range smartphone market in 2020, which makes us think that the Pixel 5a will be an important phone for the company: it could well launch earlier in the year than the Pixel 4a, which appeared in August after pandemic-related supply chain problems.
The Pixel 5 was the most premium smartphone Google put out last year, but it was upper-mid-range at best, with Google aiming to offer value for money rather than top-end specs. We haven’t heard too much about the Pixel 6 in terms of leaks and rumors, but the Pixel line is well overdue a camera optics upgrade, even if Google’s image processing software continues to be among the best in the business. As usual, there will be performance boosts too.
One recent patent suggests a selfie camera embedded in the display – no notch required – is coming to the Pixel 6, but considering Google’s recent mid-range focus, that might be a better bet for the Pixel 7. In-screen camera technology remains a little rough around the edges, so it’s not clear if it’ll be widely adopted in 2021.
OnePlus 9
This is the OnePlus 8T, which should get a successor around March time
OnePlus
It’s been a year of expansion for OnePlus, with mid-range and budget models appearing under the OnePlus Nord umbrella. That’s likely to continue into 2021, but the next flagship phones from the company will be the OnePlus 9 and the OnePlus 9 Pro, which are rumored to be arriving as early as March.
While the OnePlus 9 is unlikely to completely rewrite the rules of the smartphone industry, we are anticipating boosts in battery capacity and both wired and wireless charging speeds. In a market where there’s little major innovation to be found, look for a lot of smartphones in 2021 to charge faster than ever – and if phones only need a few minutes charge to replenish their batteries, battery life isn’t such a problem any more of course.
Based on the leaks that have surfaced so far, the OnePlus 9 will also be running the Snapdragon 888, like the Galaxy S21 and several other flagships – and that is reportedly going to be accompanied by 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage. Design-wise, it doesn’t look as though much is going to be changing in terms of OnePlus flagship phones.
The best of the rest
Xiaomi has already announced its first phone of 2021, the Mi 11
Xiaomi
The phones we’ve mentioned above are just a small sample of the handsets that will be released in 2021, but they do represent most of the big-name flagship phones that are going to appear. The likes of Nokia and Motorola will continue to produce value for money handsets, Sony will continue to plot its own course, and Chinese manufacturers like Xiaomi will have a lot of new tech to show off as well (though not necessarily available to buy in your region).
Don’t expect to see anything too dramatic in terms of smartphone evolution in 2021. Foldable phones should get more reliable in 2021, with the likes of Samsung and Motorola likely to launch updated handsets, but technology like port-less smartphones and in-screen cameras may have to wait until 2022 or later to go mainstream. If you want a phone that’s truly different, it’s always worth keeping an eye on LG.
The smartphones of the next year will of course be faster in terms of performance, and look for big jumps in terms of screen quality (both pixel density and refresh rates) and charging speeds as well. A lot of the advances may well come from the software side, as image processing and other artificial intelligence operations look set for another boost.
Adobe is terminating its Flash software today, and with it will go Zynga’s original FarmVille game from 2009.
That brings to an end an era of social gaming that will be remembered in history with mixed emotions. Some people hated the spammy nature of FarmVille and its boring gameplay, while others appreciated what it tried to do in making games more social and appealing to untapped demographic groups such as older women.
After today, Flash will no longer be supported by browsers and Facebook, as it has been surpassed by web technologies such as HTML5. And that means Flash-based FarmVille will no longer run. Rather than adapt the original game to run on HTML5, Zynga chose to shut down the social game. Those who are still playing can migrate to FarmVille: Tropic Escape or play games on the browser such as FarmVille2: Tropic Escape, FarmVille 2: Country Escape and FarmVille 2.
Zynga stopped accepting payments in the game in November, and it offered a bonus package to those who migrate to FarmVille: Tropic Escape.
Mark Pincus, cofounder and former CEO of Zynga, memorialized the 11-year-old game in a series of tweets.
Tomorrow, Zynga shuts down FarmVille on Facebook after 11 years. I wanted to share the story of how we created it and why it has played such an important role in the evolution of gaming. 1/x
— mark pincus (@markpinc) December 31, 2020
“FarmVille demonstrated that a game could be a living, always-on service that could deliver daily surprise and delight, similar to a favorite TV series,” Pincus wrote. “Games could also connect groups of people and bring them closer together. FarmVille sparked a new category of ‘invest-and-express’ games, where players could invest time and express themselves to friends and family. Busy adults, especially women, saw that games could have a valuable place in their lives and offer you more than empty calories.”
How FarmVille came to be
Above: FarmVille
Image Credit: Zynga
Before FarmVille, Zynga’s most successful game was Zynga Poker. In May 2009, Zynga acquired MyMiniLife, and pivoted its four engineers — Amitt Mahajan, Joel Poloney, Luke Rajlich, and Sizhao Zao Yang — to make a social farm game. Other titles like Farm Town, MyFarm, and Happy Farm saw success on social platforms, so Zynga was late to the social farm party. And it would long be criticized for cloning other games and making them more successful than the originals.
The MyMiniLife team moved fast, under the direction of Mark Skaggs and David Gray. The team sat in an alcove by Pincus’ office. He met with them daily. Within six weeks, they launched the original game on June 19, at 8 p.m. The Facebook game was a spammy title, filling your newsfeed with your farm’s accomplishments. It notified you when your crops were ready, and you harvested them simply by clicking on them with a mouse. But it was easy to play for people who didn’t have much time. With simple clicks of a mouse, you could plow, plant, and harvest. The catch was you had to come back or your crops would wither. So players got stuck in an addictive loop.
“In the last few weeks I’ve had players reach out to me from around the world to share their stories and thank me for the game,” Skaggs said in a message to GamesBeat. “It’s humbling and heartwarming to see how much the game touched people and became part of their lives. When I started making games in 1993, I had no idea that I would ever be part something so big, or played around the world, like FarmVille was. We made it at a special point in time, 2009, right after the recession and at the start of summer, right as Facebook was really getting big, as Zynga was capable of supporting it, as the Amazon cloud was mature enough, as women and casual gamers around the world were ready for something new.”
It was an immediate viral hit and reached a million daily active users in its first week.
“The moment of us realizing what we had soon after launching was a highlight of my life and career,” Mahajan said in a message to GamesBeat. “We truly caught lightning in a bottle.”
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, had asked Pincus to send all the content he could, as Facebook had just opened up the newsfeed to app developers.
“FarmVille became the first major game to leverage the news feed as an extension of the core game,” Pincus said.
At one point, in 2013, FarmVille had 17 players in the Vatican. Zynga beat all of the other farm games — at least until Supercell’s Hay Day came along in 2012 — because its game was far simpler to play and much easier to share with friends. It was a lesson in accessibility.
In a message to GamesBeat, former Zynga engineer Yang said that the MyMiniLife intellectual property was in its game engine, which could tap the cloud. That made it easy to scale upward in computing resources as the game’s user base skyrocketed. The MyMiniLife engine then became a staple of Zynga’s new games.
The game grew to more than 83 million players by 2010. That enabled Zynga to keep the game going for (seemingly) forever, and Zynga’s mission became to produce “forever franchises.” It had an advantage over others because it could promote its new games in the newsfeeds of FarmVille players, at least until Facebook decided to curtail that practice.
“A special team of individuals came together to make it,” Skaggs said. “I’m smiling as I think about it all. I’m thankful for all the players and that the game was part of an amazing bit of gaming history.”
It helped propel Zynga to the top of the heap in Facebook games, and it eventually enabled Zynga to go public at a $9 billion valuation in 2011.
“FarmVille became a training ground for a generation of entrepreneurs and product managers,” Pincus said.
In a way, the end of FarmVille is a lesson for gamers. Advocates of blockchain — the secure and transparent decentralized ledger — say it can be used to establish ownership of digital items. If game companies create blockchain-based games, players can actually own the items they purchase. If a game shuts down, then the player can take those digital items and use them in another game if it’s possible, thanks to the blockchain verification. Only now are some of these games being created where users can actually own what they buy.
One of these games was recently created by a team led by Eric Schiermeyer, cofounder of Zynga.
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As 2020 comes to a long-awaited end, a series of filings indicate that venture capitalists are ending the year with fresh money. According to SEC paperwork, Learn Capital and USV have filed paperwork that shows the firms have raised new, multimillion-dollar funds.
If you’ve been paying attention to news this past year, it’s clear that much of venture capital isn’t just surviving 2020 – it’s flourishing through it. Zoom investing, it seems, is working just fine for cash-rich firms looking to double down on bets in categories from edtech to climate.
First up, New York-based USV submitted a pair of filings on late Thursday. The first filing shows that the firm has closed $151 million for USV Climate 2021, which one can assume is focused on climate-tech investments. As my colleague Jonathan Shieber has pointed out, climate tech.
The other, more nebulous filing, is the firm’s $22.4 million investment vehicle titled USV Bundled. It’s unclear what this is focused on, but a recent blog post suggests that the firm will continue to double down on its education investments.
Speaking of edtech, Learn Capital, an education-focused venture capital fund, filed paperwork indicating that it has closed $132 million in capital. It plans to raise a total of $250 million for this fund, which will be the firm’s fourth investment vehicle to date. The edtech category has obviously been booming with interest, which also fueled Owl Ventures to close $585 million in new capital in September.
Finally, I’ll give an honorable mention to Lattice CEO Jack Altman’s New Years Eve filing, which shows that the executive plans to raise $20 million for a new fund. It’s unclear if this filing indicates Apollo’s next step, a venture fund started by the Altman brothers. The trio, beyond Jack, includes Max and Sam, the former president of Y Combinator who currently serves as the CEO of OpenAI.
I reached out for comment to all three entities, but (unsurprisingly) haven’t heard back. It’s New Year’s Eve after all. So for now, back to the Champagne. See you all in the New Year.
Earlier this week, T-Mobile started alerting its customers about a data breach that exposed details associated with their user account. While details about the scope of this security breach have so far been thin, the carrier has finally decided to shed some light on the incident after shutting down the malicious operations behind it. The company says that information related to customers’ T-Mobile account was exposed, which includes phone number, the number of lines on an account, and call-related information.
Approximately 200,000 customers affected by the incident
Specifically, T-Mobile says that the Customer proprietary network information (CPNI) was accessed as part of the security breach. But aside from phone number, the number of connections and call logs, no other customer data was exposed, claims the company. “The data accessed did not include names on the account, physical or email addresses, financial data, credit card information, social security numbers, tax ID, passwords, or PINs,” T-Mobile said in an official statement.
T-Mobile’s official notice does not reveal the number of customers that were affected. However, in a statement given to BleepingCustomer, T-Mobile mentioned that less than 0.2% of its subscribers were affected. If you take into account the roughly 100 million-strong customer base of the carrier, almost 200,000 users may have been had their information accessed by malicious actors.
Phone number, the number of connections on an account and call logs were accessed
“We are currently notifying a small number of customers (less than 0.2%) that some information related to their account may have been illegally accessed. The data accessed did NOT include any names associated with the account, financial data, credit card information, social security numbers, passwords, PINs or physical or email addresses.” the company was BleepingComputer.
Not the first T-Mobile security mishap in 2020
However, this is not the first time that T-Mobile has been at the receiving end of a cybersecurity attack in 2020. Back in November, the company admitted that “name and billing address, phone number, account number, rate plan and features, such as whether you added an international calling feature” were accessed during a security breach. However, banking details, social security numbers, or passwords were not exposed in the breach.
Nadeem Sarwar
I’ve been writing about consumer technology for over three years now, having worked with names such as NDTV and Beebom in the past. Aside from covering the latest news, I’ve reviewed my fair share of devices ranging from smartphones and laptops to smart home devices. I also have interviewed tech execs and appeared as a host in YouTube videos talking about the latest and greatest gadgets out there.
As the year winds down it’s a great time to reflect on the top stories of the past 12 months. This is the fourth and final installment where we look at the stories that shaped this year.
It’s time to close out the 2020 issue of our top stories. We’re looking at the months of October through to December and for the first time ever, this is the time Apple unveiled its phones.
After many reports and leaks, the iPhone 12 Pro, 12 Pro Max, 12 mini and iPhone 12 were all unveiled on October 13. It was only the 6.1-inch iPhone 12 Pro and 12 that went on sale the week following the event, however. The iPhone 12 Pro Max and 12 mini were released a month later, capping off a release schedule that was hindered by the ongoing pandemic that defined 2020.
Qualcomm announced its next flagship chipset – the Snapdragon 888 and a few days before the year ended Xiaomi became the first to formally announce a Snapdragon 888-powered smartphone in the Mi 11. The Mi 11 has a big 6.81-inch AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate and the highest yet 480Hz touch sampling rate, up to 12GB of RAM, a 108MP main camera and a 4,600mAh battery with 55W wired and 50W wireless charging. It will go on sale on January 1.
Samsung’s next big event will see the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21+ and Galaxy S21 Ultra become official on January 14 and Q4 was filled with S21-related stories. Thanks to the abundance of information about Samsung’s upcoming flagships we know just about everything there is to know.
The Galaxy S21 Ultra will stand head and shoulders above its peers with a bigger 6.8-inch display with an adaptive 120Hz QHD+ screen, a larger 5,000mAh battery and a 2nd-gen 108MP sensor to go with the two telephoto cameras – 10MP 3x and 10MP 10x periscope. It will also support the Note line’s famous S Pen.
The Galaxy S21 and S21+ will still have HRR displays but no variable adjustment so they will run at a constant 120Hz (or 60Hz). The camera system will be mostly identical to the S20 (12MP main, 64MP 3x tele and 12MP ultrawide), but the ultrawide unit will get autofocus. Slightly bigger batteries and a Snapdragon 888 or Exynos 2100 are also among the known updates.
Also coming in early 2021 are the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro. The Snapdragon 888-powered pair will feature a new design with larger rear camera island. Early renders suggest the OnePus 9 Pro will have two prominent camera lenses and two smaller ones, but sadly no periscope zoom.
Finally, Apple unveiled its ARM-based M1 chip in Q4 and released the M1-equipped MacBook Pro 13, MacBook Air and Mac mini. The M1 chip proved very promising from the start, striking a great balance between performance and battery life. Thanks to the M1 chip the three machines Apple released were able to seriously outpace their Intel-powered predecessors, which makes us very interested in Apple’s computer lineup for 2021.
Well, that’s it for 2020. It was a rocky year, filled with hurdles for the mobile industry. But the mobile world showed that even in the toughest of times, it can innovate and it can deliver. We enjoyed an abundance of phones and an increase in quality that was hard to imagine at the beginning of 2020. Let’s see what 2021 holds. Stay tuned!
The iPhone 12 Pro mostly uses the same cam, except for a brighter lens. The Max has a larger sensor and a longer tele lens.
The iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini are here – A14 Bionic, OLED screens, 5G and better cameras.
There is no charger in the retail box but Xiaomi will give one for free if you ask nicely.
The most expensive phone will be 512 GB iPhone 12 Pro Max which will cost $1,399.
The renders are based on reliable insider knowledge and give us a great idea of what to expect from the three phones.
The GPU of the A14 chipset is where the Apple devices fall short.
Warp Charge 65 is more than twice as powerful as the previous chargers. OxygenOS 11 brings AOD, Video Portrait mode, Dark mode and more.
The X60 5G modem is integrated into the 5nm chipset. The CPU, GPU and rest of the hardware have been optimized for lower power usage.
A 5nm chip with 16 billion transistors, this chip has twice the CPU and GPU performance of the 10W chips that Apple used in older Macs.
A vote in the EU Parliament resulted in support of consumers’ Right to Repair.
The S21 lineup is expected to go official on January 14.
The 12 and 12 Pro should tip off sales on October 23.
You’ll only get a USB-C to Lightning cable in the box from now on.
A OnePlus 9 5G prototype unit is officially out in the wild and ponying up details like a Snapdragon 888 chipset.
The front panel will be curved but nothing extreme.
There might be a very good reason behind this decision.
At least two new Mate phones are expected on October 22, and we still know surprisingly little.
Pre-orders for the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro start today, these 3D models can help you pick out your favorite color.
A barebones retail package will leave the S Pen – and even the 45W charger – as a separate purchase.
The compact flagship iPhone 12 is here on video.
The hero color of the Pro series will be a slate blue, replacing the green of the 11 Pro. Renders of the HomePod mini also leaked.
The smallest Galaxy S21 will offer the widest variety of color options.
New 3C certifications also revealed the next S-series phone will stick to 25W charging.
Once again the Korean company is following Apple’s lead.
The next Samsung Galaxy S device is rumored arrive in January and is expected to come with S Pen support.
The Mi 11 will be officially unveiled on December 28.
Apple first unveiled its plans to transition away from Intel processors at WWDC in June, detailing that the first Mac powered by Apple Silicon would be released before the end of the year. As it turns out, Apple released three Macs powered by its new M1 chip: a MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini.
Despite Apple having a strong 2020 in nearly all regards, the M1 Mac is what we are officially crowning as the 9to5Mac Product of the Year.
We debated about whether to focus purely on the M1 MacBook Air or to branch out and include the M1 Mac mini and MacBook Pro in the “Product of the Year” category. Ultimately, because all three of these machines are so similar, we decided to focus on the entire family of M1 Macs. This is a monumental shift in the state of the Mac, and even bigger changes are still to come in 2021.
Read on for a round table discussion with the 9to5Mac team on what we love most about the first M1 Macs.
Seth Weintraub, 9to5Mac Founder and Publisher:
M1 MacBook Air
Of all of Apple’s incredible products released this year against the backdrop of the pandemic, the M1 Macs and specifically the M1 MacBook Air changed the game the most. Those working from home now found themselves with beyond desktop-level snappiness in the interoffice envelope-sized fan-less MacBook Air. If that weren’t enough, real battery life went from less than a workday to multiple workdays. Compatibility-wise, Apple knocked it out of the park with almost all but a few edge case apps working out of the box and an almost transparent Rosetta 2 emulator cleaning up the apps still built for Intel.
For me personally, it means I no longer need a pro machine when I’m out and about (which I will someday take advantage of!). And specifically, when I go on ski trips, I no longer need to bring an iMac to get serious work done. I can just leave a big $200 display in both my office and our ski condo and it feels just as snappy. I imagine a lot fewer people will opt for desktop computers in the coming years when all of this power is available in a portable…with no fans!
Chance Miller, 9to5Mac Lead Editor:
M1 MacBook Air
Right off the bat, this is the most excited I’ve been about the Mac lineup in years. Additionally, I wasn’t a Mac user during the transition from PowerPC to Intel, so the transition from Intel to Apple Silicon is especially interesting to me.
During the era of the butterfly keyboard, stagnant performance improvements, and a rough transition to USB-C and Thunderbolt 3, it was hard not to feel discouraged about the state of the Mac. Over the last 12 months, all of that has changed and I can now confidently say that I’m hopeful and excited bout the future of the Mac.
I’m using the base model M1 MacBook Air, and it’s the best Mac I’ve used in years. It’s fast, reliable, has stellar battery life, and comes in at under $1000. I upgraded to the M1 MacBook Air from a beefed-up 16-inch MacBook Pro, and the only thing I miss is the larger display.
As such, I fully expect to upgrade to the Apple Silicon-powered 16-inch MacBook Pro, whenever it’s released in 2021. For now, however, the M1 MacBook Air is the best Mac for most people, and the first Mac I feel entirely comfortable recommending to the average consumer in years.
Jeff Benjamin, 9to5 YouTube Lead:
M1 Mac mini, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro
The M1 Macs are worthy of being crowned product of the year, not only because they have impressive power and are incredibly efficient, those qualities were a given to anyone who’s been paying attention to Apple’s year-over-year silicon advancements. What surprised me, however, is how well Apple was able to make the software work so seamlessly on day one.
The experience hasn’t been without a few hiccups, but by and large, the M1 Macs are a feat when it comes to software compatibility. Right out of the gate, all of the so-called “pro” Mac apps were updated with native universal binaries, and even apps that weren’t designed for Apple silicon ran smoothly thanks to macOS’s impressive Rosetta 2 translation.
Of all products released in 2020 — and it is an impressive lineup if you go back and peruse the entirety of the year’s timeline — the M1 Macs stand alone. Think about it: Apple released three new Macs with an all-new architecture in the middle of a pandemic. That’s amazing to me.
Zac Hall, Space Explored Lead Editor and 9to5Mac Editor Emeritus:
M1 MacBook Air
I bought my first Mac in 2009 when I started college. It was a 2009 13-inch MacBook Pro, and it felt like the future. Three years later, I upgraded to the 13-inch MacBook Air with solid state drive, and it felt like another leap forward.
We’ve seen hardware redesigns, OS evolutions, Retina displays, and even a bizarre butterfly keyboard debacle since then. Still, nothing has been as dramatic and platform-shifting as the debut of the M1 processor. The $999 MacBook Air not only outperforms machines that cost 3x that amount, but it does so with remarkable battery life and a fanless design without compromising on cooling and performance.
The current design even gets a pass since it only debuted in 2018, and the M1 chip is such a leap forward in the overall experience. My biggest wish for a second revision in the future is built-in cellular, you know, like iPads. The MacBook Air is so portable and adaptable that built-in LTE or 5G would be a no-brainer upgrade for me.
Michael Potuck, 9to5Mac Editor:
M1 MacBook Pro
I picked up the base 13-inch M1 MacBook Pro at launch with the plan of replacing my 2016 15-inch MacBook Pro. I was a little hesitant to go for 8GB RAM with the new machine since I had 16GB with my 15-inch. However, I was really curious to see how well the base M1 MacBook Pro could perform.
Over the last two months, I’m stoked to say it runs circles around my 15-inch MacBook Pro. I don’t have really intense daily workflows but I usually run 7 or 8 apps at a time with lots of Safari tabs open and some light photo editing.
The best way I can describe how an Apple Silicon Mac feels is it’s the closest I’ve had a MacBook (or any notebook/desktop) come to moving about as fast as I think. Apps open almost instantly, it’s just so responsive and smooth.
And even Intel apps run impressively well with Rosetta 2 translation making Apple Silicon a no-compromise scenario. I’m super impressed with the first-gen M1 Macs and am very excited to watch the whole Mac family make the transition.
Bradley Chambers, 9to5Mac Contributor and Administrator:
M1 MacBook Air
I’ve been a Mac user since 2005 when I purchased the PowerBook G4. That was the only PowerPC computer I owned as the Intel transition happen a few years later. In my lifetime, I can count on just a handful of technology transitions that have felt like true breakthroughs: Wi-Fi, solid-state drives, and Apple Silicon.
In just a few weeks with the M1 laptop, I can say that I never knew battery life on a laptop could achieve these results while remaining so powerful. For those people that wanted Apple to release a Netbook for ultra-portability, they’ve finally done it. Apple Silicon is as important to Apple’s future as any consumer product they’ve released in their history.
Parker Ortolani, 9to5Mac Contributor:
M1 MacBook Air
No other Apple product improved more this year than the MacBook Air. I’ve been a fan of the Air since Steve first pulled one out of a manila envelope more than a decade ago. But the 2020 M1 MacBook Air is the first version to make no compromises when it comes to performance. It’s the thinnest Mac you can buy and yet it’s now also one of the most powerful. I switched to the new M1 MacBook Air from a 2019 16” MacBook Pro. It seemed like it’d be a radical shift, but I was used to the form factor as I had previously used a 2018 MacBook Air.
They may look the same but they feel worlds apart in day to day use. I feel as though I’ve made no compromises switching to the smaller, lighter, and far more affordable machine. It’s blazing fast and rarely ever has hiccups. I can push it to its limits and not be afraid of getting the dreaded infinitely spinning rainbow beach ball. It’s the first Mac that succeeds in answering the question Steve once pondered while introducing the 2010 MacBook Air, “What would happen if a Mac and an iPad hooked up?”
Stephen Hall, Growth Marketing
Yesterday, I returned my new MacBook Air with Apple’s M1 chip. That might not sound like a resounding endorsement in an article proclaiming it as Apple’s best product of 2020, but it really is. In truth, I came away from it so astounded by its performance that I’m eager to pick up whatever the next version of this silicon will be on Apple’s higher-end Pro laptops — hardware that will presumably bring other features I need (mostly just more USB-C ports, if I’m honest).
I took a look at how the entry-level computer does under load with its measly 8GB RAM around launch time, and the results were astounding to say the least. And after more than a month using the computer, I stand by most of what I said in that article. Even with just 8GB of RAM, I just can’t express enough how pleasant juggling multiple tasks has been on this $999 machine, and performing those tasks feels just as fast in normal use as Apple’s top-of-the-line offerings.
For now, I’m so impressed that I’d rather wait a year or two to get the same Apple Silicon benefits in a machine (M2X?) that’s more in tune with my needs. Oh, and I’m also looking forward to rumored external design modernization coming to the next generation laptops, too. If that’s not you, you should certainly feel confident making the 2020 MacBook Air with Apple Silicon your multi-year laptop commitment. It’s truly an incredible value.
Trevor Daugherty, 9to5Toys Lead Editor:
M1 MacBook Pro and Mac mini
In general, I find myself slow on the uptake when it comes to first-generation tech. When it came to the new MacBooks, I felt that pull to stay put even more given how much I loved my 16-inch MacBook Pro. But the hype eventually wore me down and I couldn’t resist. I now have a 13-inch MacBook Pro and Mac mini, both featuring the new M1 silicon. It’s that good. While my daily use may be more limited than some, every app that I use regularly has functioned without issue. First-party software has been flawless and the speed of apps like Pixelmator has been a joy. I can’t remember the last time I was genuinely excited about a new piece of technology.
Blair Altland, 9to5Toys Editor:
M1 Mac mini
The M1 Mac lineup are easily some of the most exciting machines to launch from Apple in years, and the latest Mac mini has proved that for me already. It’s as snappy, powerful, and efficient as all the hype lets on, making its application as a home media server all the more notable in my use case. Rather than taking it for a spin as a daily driver, I’ve had it handling Plex alongside a series of other tasks with impressive results. So if there has ever been a Mac mini geared towards using as a home server, the M1 model is certainly it and far exceeded my initial exceptions.
What do you think?
Now that we’ve voiced our opinion on the “Product of the Year,” we want to do know what you think. What was your favorite new Apple release this year? Let us know down in the comments!
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Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang forecasts the biggest emerging use cases
Kirsten Korosec 15 hours
Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang doesn’t need a crystal ball to see where artificial intelligence will be used in the future. He just looks at his customer list.
The four-year-old startup, which recently hit a valuation of more than $3.5 billion, got its start supplying autonomous vehicle companies with the labeled data needed to train machine learning models to develop and eventually commercialize robotaxis, self-driving trucks and automated bots used in warehouses and on-demand delivery.
The wider adoption of AI across industries has been a bit of a slow burn over the past several years as company founders and executives begin to understand what the technology could do for their businesses.
In 2020, that changed as e-commerce, enterprise automation, government, insurance, real estate and robotics companies turned to Scale’s visual data labeling platform to develop and apply artificial intelligence to their respective businesses. Now, the company is preparing for the customer list to grow and become more varied.
How 2020 shaped up for AI
Scale AI’s customer list has included an array of autonomous vehicle companies including Alphabet, Voyage, nuTonomy, Embark, Nuro and Zoox. While it began to diversify with additions like Airbnb, DoorDash and Pinterest, there were still sectors that had yet to jump on board. That changed in 2020, Wang said.
Scale began to see incredible use cases of AI within the government as well as enterprise automation, according to Wang. Scale AI began working more closely with government agencies this year and added enterprise automation customers like States Title, a residential real estate company.
Wang also saw an increase in uses around conversational AI, in both consumer and enterprise applications as well as growth in e-commerce as companies sought out ways to use AI to provide personalized recommendations for its customers that were on par with Amazon.
Robotics continued to expand as well in 2020, although it spread to use cases beyond robotaxis, autonomous delivery and self-driving trucks, Wang said.
“A lot of the innovations that have happened within the self-driving industry, we’re starting to see trickle out throughout a lot of other robotics problems,” Wang said. “And so it’s been super exciting to see the breadth of AI continue to broaden and serve our ability to support all these use cases.”
The wider adoption of AI across industries has been a bit of a slow burn over the past several years as company founders and executives begin to understand what the technology could do for their businesses, Wang said, adding that advancements in natural language processing of text, improved offerings from cloud companies like AWS, Azure and Google Cloud and greater access to datasets helped sustain this trend.
“We’re finally getting to the point where we can help with computational AI, which has been this thing that’s been pitched for forever,” he said.
That slow burn heated up with the COVID-19 pandemic, said Wang, noting that interest has been particularly strong within government and enterprise automation as these entities looked for ways to operate more efficiently.
“There was this big reckoning,” Wang said of 2020 and the effect that COVID-19 had on traditional business enterprises.
If the future is mostly remote with consumers buying online instead of in-person, companies started to ask, “How do we start building for that?,” according to Wang.
The push for operational efficiency coupled with the capabilities of the technology is only going to accelerate the use of AI for automating processes like mortgage applications or customer loans at banks, Wang said, who noted that outside of the tech world there are industries that still rely on a lot of paper and manual processes.
