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Likely a good chance that all the new major features for AI will not be supported on any Intel machine.

Last cutoff for the machines dropped were based on the security chip supported, the next will probably be based on the NPU.
 
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Likely a good chance that all the new major features for AI will not be supported on any Intel machine.

Last cutoff for the machines dropped were based on the security chip supported, the next will probably be based on the NPU.
I will be very pleased if the AI stuff isn't added to Intel macs :)
 
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In 2005 when Apple announced Leopard, they also announced the switch to Intel, so it's likely a similar announcement would come at this year's WWDC- macOS 15 and that it'll be the last to support Intel.

Check here at about the 24 min mark...
 
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Reading a number of posts, I see confusion between Apple providing support for Intel Macs and Intel Macs being able to receive new features and functionality (New versions of Mac OS).

Apple has always provided support (mainly security updates) to older versions of Mac OS. When Apple says it will support Intel Macs then this is all it is signing up to. It does not necessarily mean that Apple will make future versions of Mac OS available to Intel Macs.

Apple has recently been aggressively dropping support for Intel Macs in its OS X compatibility list. Last year if you wanted to official run Sonoma, you need a 2019 Intel Mac, something with Apple Silicon, or something with an Apple T2 chip.

Already there is a list of certain Mac OS functionality that requires a Apple Silicon Mac.

  • The "Presenter Overlay" mode for video calls.
  • Game Mode, which promises to limit background tasks and reduce Bluetooth latency.
  • High-performance mode in the Screen Sharing app.
  • Getting rid of the "Hey" in "Hey Siri."
  • Running games built with the Game Porting Toolkit.
  • Running iOS/iPadOS apps.
  • Spatial Audio in FaceTime when using AirPods.
  • The 3D globe and more detailed renderings of cities in Apple Maps.
  • On-device voice dictation, with no Internet connection required and no time limit.
  • Portrait Mode in FaceTime.
  • Live Captions transcription in FaceTime or any other app.
  • "Reference mode" with the 12.9-inch M1 iPad Pro, which lets you use your iPad "as a secondary reference display" in Sidecar mode.
  • Inserting emoji using voice dictation.
Personally I would only put Mac OS 15 70% likely to support Intel Machines and if it does then the compatibility list will be again aggressively restricted to Intel Macs less than 3 years old.

Mac OS 16, IMO will be Apple Silicon Only
 
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On-device voice dictation, with no Internet connection required and no time limit.
I have that on Mojave. Now wants Apple to sell that as an Apple-Silicon exclusive feature?
:rolleyes:

P.S. in your post, you have twice used "aggressively".
It exactly matches my feelings about Apple's policy against users of Intel.
 
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interesting discussion, some actual facts, but overall... just speculation, guesses. when apple does make a silicon-only OS, everyone on intel will continue to live, work.
I have that on Mojave. Now wants Apple to sell that as an Apple-Silicon exclusive feature?
:rolleyes:

P.S. in your post, you have twice used "aggressively".
It exactly matches my feelings about Apple's policy against users of Intel.
if some new features require a silicon processor, that's just how it is... it's not 'aggression' against 'users of intel'. and it's the way it should be: advances in hardware allow advances in software. simple, really.
 
interesting discussion, some actual facts, but overall... just speculation, guesses. when apple does make a silicon-only OS, everyone on intel will continue to live, work.

if some new features require a silicon processor, that's just how it is... it's not 'aggression' against 'users of intel'. and it's the way it should be: advances in hardware allow advances in software. simple, really.
Look again on the list of exclusive features you did provide...
Don't tell me, that the majority of them is not doable on Intel hardware.
 
Look again on the list of exclusive features you did provide...
Don't tell me, that the majority of them is not doable on Intel hardware.

There's a few reasons why it's not as simple as you think it is. First and foremost, the Intel CPUs that were used in the Mac lineup are older generations that lack many of the features current (13th and 14th generation) Intel CPUs have. Second, someone has to draw the line with respect to how far back devices are supported. Even Microsoft did this with the TPM requirement for Windows 11, which cut off a lot of otherwise perfectly usable machines from upgrading to that OS.
 
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Even Microsoft did this with the TPM requirement for Windows 11, which cut off a lot of otherwise perfectly usable machines from upgrading to that OS.
Microsoft did not do that for technical reasons.
You can just bypass the test during installation and everything works perfectly.
I suppose they did it on the pressure from their PC manufacturers customers, who wanted a boost of their sales on new hardware.
 
Nitpicking:
Last cutoff for the machines dropped were based on the security chip supported
The 2019 iMac is currently supported and does not have T2. So security chip was not the criterion.
Live Captions transcription in FaceTime or any other app.
Zoom is the counter example.

Regarding your list (and not nitpicking):
Already there is a list of certain Mac OS functionality that requires an Apple Silicon Mac.
There is very little there that seems of any great importance (to me). What has surprised me is the some of the newer functionality that is both Apple silicon and Intel. Most notably, those around text and content recognition in photos.
 
Let's assume that Apple is, at this point, culling Intel Macs by release year and doing so, one year's worth per macOS release, that'd make it so that macOS 15 supports 2019 and newer Macs, while macOS 16 supports 2020 and newer Macs, before macOS 17 just says Apple Silicon only. To support some of the 2020 Intel Macs (featuring such underperformers as "MacBook Pro (13-inch. 2020. Two Thunderbolt 3 Ports)" and "MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2020)") and not some of the more powerful, and sold-for-longer Intel Macs such as "MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019)" and "Mac Pro (2019)" would be somewhat absurd. So, let's just assume that, instead, Apple either makes the requirement to be 9th Generation Intel Core, Xeon, or Apple Silicon this year and next year before cutting it off entirely, which would still get the job done in two releases.

Put it this way, macOS 16 is much more likely to be the last Intel release. Similarly, as Apple did with deprecating 32-bit Intel app support, they'll probably announce at WWDC that the given forthcoming release will be the last one to release with Intel support as a final nudge to developers to make their apps Universal already (a move that hasn't happened with the Intel to Apple Silicon transition anywhere near as fast as it did with the PowerPC to Intel transition).
 
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In 2005 when Apple announced Leopard, they also announced the switch to Intel, so it's likely a similar announcement would come at this year's WWDC- macOS 15 and that it'll be the last to support Intel.

Check here at about the 24 min mark...
Wrong. It was Tiger (10.4) that was the first Intel-branch MacOS X, not Leopard (10.5). Watch the video.


However, you did say "when Apple announced Leopard", so you may be right in that context. I just know I started hating Apple from that day forward... and only started liking them again when they made the switch to M1! Finally, Apple back to making their own (non-PC) hardware AND software, like always before! Yay!
 

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well, then you won't update an app (that requires a silicon processor). then, one day, when you're ready, you'll move to a new mac.

millions of people work on older OSes, older versions of office, ad infinitum. and life goes on (and all is well).
Yes but less and less apps will work if you don’t update them. Just made that experience with my MBP running Mojave. That made me buying a new Mac.
 
Yes but less and less apps will work if you don’t update them. Just made that experience with my MBP running Mojave.
That made me buying a new Mac.
;)Apple's Business-Navi:
- "You have reached your destination !"


Personally, I kept on Mojave until the number of non-running apps got really annoying.
Now my MBP2014 happily runs Windows 11 as my main OS. No more incompatible apps...
 
Wrong. It was Tiger (10.4) that was the first Intel-branch MacOS X, not Leopard (10.5). Watch the video.


However, you did say "when Apple announced Leopard", so you may be right in that context. I just know I started hating Apple from that day forward... and only started liking them again when they made the switch to M1! Finally, Apple back to making their own (non-PC) hardware AND software, like always before! Yay!
You didn’t watch the video, did you? I even queued it up to the right spot.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
;)Apple's Business-Navi:
- "You have reached your destination !"


Personally, I kept on Mojave until the number of non-running apps got really annoying.
Now my MBP2014 happily runs Windows 11 as my main OS. No more incompatible apps...
Nice to give it a second life.
But cant the 2014 run much newe macos than Mojave?
 
Yes but less and less apps will work if you don’t update them. Just made that experience with my MBP running Mojave. That made me buying a new Mac.
apps that work will continue to work.

still, how many people are running pre-intel macs? personally, i appreciate that the tech keeps moving forward. & people will move with it, or catch up when they want to (or have to).
 
apps that work will continue to work.

still, how many people are running pre-intel macs? personally, i appreciate that the tech keeps moving forward. & people will move with it, or catch up when they want to (or have to).
Unfortunately not. E.g. WhatsApp
 
Nice to give it a second life.
But cant the 2014 run much newer macOS than Mojave?
Yes it can. Mojave was the last version that ran off-line dictation.
My very last reason to stay –despite all odds– with macOS.
 
It lives further in the browser.
There are other apps much more important than whatsapp which don’t run in a browser. BTW more and more web pages stopped working with safari.
Fotos app doesn’t support newer image formats like RAW. Imessage doesn’t support new emojis it only displayed boxes.
iphone 14 was not supported by iTunes anymore I could transfer music but the covers were messed up.
Thats only from someone with very light usage.
 
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