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That's a pretty funny one. I'm guessing the Hey Siri is embedded in a chip somewhere and it would be more work than its worth changing it.
They're not strapping on hardhats with little lights looking for the code... they're simply choosing not to change it.
 
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Not now. But those who plan their purchases MIGHT be looking at as little as one more year from this Fall... obviously with certain new features not available.

Sonoma could be the LAST version with Intel Mac support... or maybe there would be one more with additional new features not included to continue the wean.

The cheerleaders will come back with "About time" and such, glorifying Silicon and ridiculing Intel. However, in the first round of this, there was a significant PLUS or gain: Macs going from PowerPC to Intel could double as Windows PCs in ONE box. Now this proposition is a MINUS or loss: Macs going from Intel to Silicon are losing that valuable (to some) benefit (ARM Windows is not full Windows). I know some of us think all can be done better on Silicon but the reality is that "all" cannot be done on Silicon.

Remedy: if ARM Windows can work for some, the Parallels-type option may suffice. If some need more/certainty, my solution was to re-adopt "old fashioned bootcamp" by buying a dedicated PC too. About HALF the budget of a loaded Mac can buy a LOT of PC.

Silicon is great and all and I use my Ultra as much as I can. However, it is a loss to no longer have both major platforms inside of a single case, single keyboard, single mouse/trackpad, single screen, etc. To some, that's no loss at all. To others, it may send them back to PC because the latter is "need" and Mac is "want."
Yup. Apple Silicon's lack of compatibility with x86 Windows and the non-repairable design of modern Macs is making me want to switch to a Windows PC for my next computer. I'm buying a computer to use not the other way around.

AMD Ryzens have also gone a long way with regards to performance per watt.
 
It begins...

Now that all Macs are Silicon, those of us with any Intel Macs face numbered days even if there was still an Intel Mac for sale only 1 day ago.

Rosetta 2 is almost certainly on the same clock. See Rosetta 1 deprecation as a guide.

The many apps still needing to "throw that one switch and recompile for silicon" :rolleyes: had better get with it. I presume it is a very heavy switch... as it seemed to be the last time we went through this (and a number of apps- including prominent ones did not seem to be able to lift that switch before Rosetta 1 ended).

Suggestion: anything mission critical means keeping an "old Mac" running an old macOS around. I still have a Snow Leopard Mac for a few key things that never "threw the switch."
PowerPC to Intel was worse I think for native Mac developers. Intel to ARM shouldn’t be too bad considering the wide support for it already for iOS and the fact that the endianness didn’t change this time. Companies are just lazy in nature. How many apps were 32 bits and changed only after macOS dropped it (preventing users from updating)? Even if it was deprecated for years and that 64 bits support for apps was there since Leopard at least (Tiger had some I think).

For Rosetta 2, while I didn’t find actual sources to back it, I’ve read that it was mostly Apple’s work, while Rosetta 1 was licensed from another company. So they had a good incentive to remove it ASAP.
 
Who cares, I don't need those things, I just want my Mini to perform as well as it did before Ventura infested my computer
 
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I wish Apple would create a Platonic solids application where solids would spin around (just like a globe) and the dodecahedron and icosahedron would only work on Apple Silicon.

Why? To make Intel Mac owners go crazy...
 
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[...]

(ARM Windows is not full Windows)

Remedy: if ARM Windows can work for some, the Parallels-type option may suffice. If some need more/certainty, my solution was to re-adopt "old fashioned bootcamp" by buying a dedicated PC too. About HALF the budget of a loaded Mac can buy a LOT of PC.

[...]
Well it is, i've been running WoA on all my Silicon macs, since Win10oA landed, yes through parallels and now also VMWare. And at least through Parallels (as they were first) there is no performance loss as far as I can see, when one configures it the right way.

But now it's really up to Microsoft to release WoA officially for dual boot purposes, that's up to them. Apple isn't standing in the way here. Like at all. I mean, If Linux could figure it out, without any outside or inside support from Apple....

Surely MS should be able to pull it off too, no? And allow us to dual boot WoA together with macOS, like i'm running Asahi Linux on all my mac dual boot. I'd hope to have Windows join them one day and let me triple boot them all!

(though to be honest, I technically already triple boot a Macbook, as that runs Monterey, Asahi and now Sonoma all on the same M1.)
 
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Oh also, as a side note, for the ppl who confuse apple stopping with supporting Intel macs for their operating systems with the possibility of Rosetta 2 going away soon too, rest easy:

That isn't likely to happen, not in the last place because there's still a **** ton of Intel mac software out there, which lickely will not all be ported, but also because Apple really has no reason too.

If anything, Rosetta 2 support on Silicon macs is here to stay for the long run, just because it makes switching from intel macs that much easier which means more ppl switching and around we go.

Also, Apple quietly updated Rosetta 2 too with Sonoma, it can now emulate/virtualise D3DX12, more commonly knows as DirectX 12.

So yeah, if Apple is gonna encourage devs to do game porting from Windows for Direct X 12 based games, Rosetta 2 ain't gonna move any time soon!
 
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Well it is, i've been running WoA on all my Silicon macs, since Win10oA landed, yes through parallels and now also VMWare. And at least through Parallels (as they were first) there is no performance loss as far as I can see, when one configures it the right way.

But now it's really up to Microsoft to release WoA officially for dual boot purposes, that's up to them. Apple isn't standing in the way here. Like at all. I mean, If Linux could figure it out, without any outside or inside support from Apple....

Surely MS should be able to pull it off too, no? And allow us to dual boot WoA together with macOS, like i'm running Asahi Linux on all my mac dual boot. I'd hope to have Windows join them one day and let me triple boot them all!

(though to be honest, I technically already triple boot a Macbook, as that runs Monterey, Asahi and now Sonoma all on the same M1.)
there are also driver issues. not all devices have drivers for Windows ARM
 


Apple this week previewed macOS Sonoma, the latest version of its Mac operating system. Launching later this year, the software update includes several new features, but not all of them are available on Intel-based Macs, according to Apple.

macos-sonoma-feature-green-brown.jpg

On the macOS Sonoma features page, fine print indicates that the following features require a Mac with an Apple silicon chip:
  • Presenter Overlay, a feature that displays the user on top of the content they are sharing in any video conferencing app.
  • Game Mode, which prioritizes CPU and GPU performance while gaming by limiting the performance of background tasks.
  • A new high-performance mode in the Screen Sharing app.
  • The ability to pair Made for iPhone hearing devices directly with a Mac.
  • The ability to invoke Siri by saying "Siri" instead of "Hey Siri."
Apple does not indicate why the features are not available on Intel Macs, but it likely relates to performance considerations, and only Apple silicon Macs have a Neural Engine for machine learning tasks. The last Intel Macs were released in 2020, and Apple has since moved to its own custom-designed processors. The transition to Apple silicon is now complete following this week's introduction of a new Mac Pro with the M2 Ultra chip.

macOS Sonoma will likely be released to the public in October and is compatible with Macs released in December 2017 and later.

Article Link: These macOS Sonoma Features Are Not Available on Intel Macs


a bit confused about the screen sharing feature-what happens if the device I am remoting into is Intel? Does that mean I cannot use it (IE both devices must be Silicon to use)? There are other tools I am just curious.
 
Game Mode is also something that is unlikely to use the Neural Engine... for it to not be available on Intel Macs is weird. All the OS is doing is prioritizing CPU and GPU threads and upping the Bluetooth sample rate.

They made a GUI for the 'nice' command? Why is that a big deal? One click and every process for the game is now more important than the latest notification or email grab, handy yes, but hardly revolutionary.
 
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Again, IMO, there's only one real choice here: old fashioned bootcamp (get a PC (too)).

Windows ARM has potential to cover some bases. Virtual Windows "as a service" options exist for light users willing to pay per use and/or subscribe. But the practical option that really doesn't cost much money is a dedicated Windows PC. I bought my first one in about 15-16 years and am pleasantly surprised. Those of us long accustomed to Apple pricing (for "another record quarter of revenue & profit") may have forgotten that the ability to shop around for RAM and SSD means competitor driven (LOW) prices... and the PC industry is also insanely competitive such that there's probably nobody there with Apple's big fat margin.

So take a budget for about HALF of a "loaded Mac" and go shopping. That budget will buy a LOT of PC.

The big question now for the practical computer buyer who wants both is what combo: Mac desktop + Windows laptop or vice versa, 2 laptops, 2 desktops. And if so, big tip from me is to choose a monitor with multiple inputs so that both can easily share the same screen, keyboard and mouse... which is quite doable.

For those where money is tighter, remember that the old Intel Mac that you might leave behind for Silicon can easily become a pretty up-to-date PC running at least Windows 10. So one could embrace Silicon as a next computer and convert the old Mac to being the Windows PC to cover that base too. When it conks, buy a new PC then.
I have access to lots of Windows computers but I don’t want to use them and especially not for just this one app. I think they will eventually update, if only to also support Windows on ARM which is hopefully close enough to update the Mac client as well.

Problem for me is what I really want out of a PC is a gaming PC. The one I built years ago has a bad motherboard and I can’t justify the cost of the components I want to rebuild it with, and I won’t settle for less since of course I also want a good all around computer.

Doesn’t help that Windows 11 is kind of a **** show right now. Honestly I’m kind of tired of it all and just game on switch and use my Macs and now I’m just saving up for a Vision Pro in a few years. Everything is in a weird transition in end user computing right now.

And as much as I complain about buying the very last Intel MacBook Air, as you say it is my Windows laptop when I absolutely must have Windows. But it mostly just collects dust.
 
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Oh come on Apple, why in the world won’t I be able to say just Siri, what in my Intel CPU is restricting me from doing that?
In my experience with Apple's non-SIRI command/dictation layer (yes, Apple had quite usable voice command way back in the early nineties), you had to set your own vocal triggers. It was finicky, especially with broadcasts going nearby. I finally started using non-english triggers.

Nowadays, I find that lots of things sound enough like "Hey Siri," confusing the digital signal processor, even with two words to work with. My horses routinely trigger Siri on my phone and watch, wickering to each other, like "Hrrr Sreeee!". Happens all the time.

It's totally feasible that shortening it to just "Siri" would need a neural engine to properly discriminate the signal from an excited horse, or someone nearby yelling "Seriously?" Seriously, Sir Reesley.
 
Just a friendly reminder, Apple only fully supports its current OS FULLY.

Year 2 & 3 not being fully supported, and at the whim of Apple is ridiculous.

Now that Apple has transitioned fully, I’d hope (doubtful though) that they would change this policy, and to boot, support hardware for even longer now that it is all Apple Silicon.

Obviously, they hired a whole new department to do the AR/VR stuff; why can’t they hire additional staff to fully support year two and three OS’s with all security issues.

No new features is obvious, but not fully supporting security patches is ridiculous in this day and age of e-waste.
 
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Game Mode is also something that is unlikely to use the Neural Engine... for it to not be available on Intel Macs is weird. All the OS is doing is prioritizing CPU and GPU threads and upping the Bluetooth sample rate.
Is that all it's doing? Do you have a link for that?

My guess would be that it restricts use of the performance cores.
 
no problem. I dont game on a Mac. so game mode is useless. as are the other apple silicon features. I have the developer beta installed on a 2019 iMac 27 inch i9.
 
Far more important to me is a feature available on my Intel mini that is not available on Apple Silicon: Windows emulation. Not giving that up just yet so I can say “Siri” instead of “Hey, Siri.”
Apple Silicon can run Windows (ARM)
 
I need win either in bootcamp or parallels… does apple silicon mac allow at least to virtualise full festure win (not that strange hybrid arm win)?
 
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