Apple could gain share from Microsoft Windows in PC shipments after announcing its new and more powerful M2 processors.

One of the few things that Intel Macs can do that Apple Silicon Macs can't is run operating systems written for Intel processors inside of virtual machines. Most notably, this has meant that there is currently no legal way to run Windows on an Apple Silicon Mac.

For the past few months, I’ve been living a double life. Most of you probably know me as “the iPad guy”. And rightfully so: the iPad – more specifically, the iPad Pro – is my favorite computer Apple’s ever made; my coverage of iPad, iPad apps, and, later, iPadOS has far exceeded everything else on MacStories for the last 10 years. I’ve long considered myself primarily an iPad user and someone who strongly believes in the platform because there’s nothing else like it. I don’t think I need to tell that story again.

Scientists may have found the answer to smaller and faster chips that could usher in the future of processors, and that answer might be using silicon-28 nanowires. Although the technology was initially dismissed as not very effective, further research and tweaks showed that the material may be able to conduct heat up to 150% more efficiently.

Intel launched a new range of processors at its Vision event on Tuesday, May 10. The new 55W HX-series CPUs are part of Intel’s 12th-gen family, and they’re built to deliver the highest performance possible in a mobile form factor, at least according to Intel. The flagship Core i9-12950HX lends some credibility to the claim of being the first 16-core laptop CPU ever. Like other 12th-gen Alder Lake processors, it splits the cores across performance and efficient cores, and the chip can boost up to 5GHz. Like other HX-series processors, it comes with a 55-watt power limit, as well.

Asus did it. It’s made a dual-screen laptop that — and there was a time when I never thought I’d be saying these words — is actually pretty good. Asus has been doing this dual-screen form factor for a while, and parts of the $1,999.99-and -up ZenBook Pro Duo 14 OLED are nothing we haven’t seen before. Like previous models in the Duo line, there’s a big 14.5-inch screen on the top and a smaller 12.7-inch screen on the back of the keyboard deck (the ScreenPad Plus). Below that screen is the keyboard (reaching all the way to the front of said deck), with a teensy touchpad crammed to its right.

Twitter user iGPU Extremist recently shared photographs of Dell's upcoming Precision 7670 laptop. Unfortunately, it would seem that Dell has developed a proprietary form factor for DDR5 memory, which the company has baptized as the Compression Attached Memory Module (CAMM). So the upgrade path is still there, but only through Dell.

Apple may soon release a new set of Mac computers powered by the next generation of its homegrown chip. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, the tech giant has started the widespread testing of at least nine Mac models with four different M2 chips, which suggests that Apple is gearing up to launch them. While it's not supposed to be public knowledge, Apple has been testing the machines using third-party apps from the App Store, and those applications' developer logs give us an idea of what to expect from the company's upcoming batch of computers.

As more Apple's Mac Studio desktops end up in the hands of curious end-users, more details about their performance and features emerge. This time around someone has run PassMark Software's CPU benchmarks on a Mac Studio equipped with Apple's 20-core M1 Ultra processor. The chip demonstrated very good single-thread performance, its general CPU performance was ahead of most desktop CPUs, yet it could not compete against high-end workstation-grade processors.

The rumors have now been proven true — the upcoming AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D processor will not support overclocking. AMD has revealed in an interview that traditional overclocking will not be available on the upcoming CPU. However, that doesn’t mean it won’t support any kind of adjustments.

Immediately after Apple's "Peek performance" event on Tuesday in which it unveiled the Mac Studio and 27-inch Studio Display, Apple quietly discontinued the Intel-powered 27-inch iMac. This left some observers wondering whether we'll see a new larger iMac sooner or later, or if the existing 24-inch iMac is as big and as powerful as it gets for the foreseeable future.

Apple’s newly-announced Mac Studio with its new M1 Ultra chip looks to be a juggernaut, but pretty much no photographer will need that kind of power. The base model Mac Studio is a better choice and might be the best deal for a new computer on the market.

Apple announced the new M1 Ultra chip during the Apple Spring Event 2022, building on top of the M1 Pro and M1 Max introduced in the MacBook Pro late last year. The chip essentially combines multiple M1 dies to create a more powerful processor, and Apple says it’s built for “extreme levels of performance.” Apple says that the M1 Max has a secret interconnect and that the M1 Ultra utilizes this interconnect to link two processors together.

Nvidia has announced a new line of Studio laptops in its CES 2022 press conference. According to Jeff Fisher, Nvidia Senior Vice President of GeForce, they are seven times faster than Apple’s latest MacBook Pro in specific 3D design workflows.

Apple’s decision to ditch Intel paid off this year. The pivot allowed Apple to completely rethink the Mac, which had started to grow stale with an aging design and iterative annual upgrades. Following the divorce from Intel, Apple has launched far more exciting computers which, paired with an ongoing pandemic that has forced people to work and learn from home, have sent Apple’s Mac business soaring.

2021 might have been the calm before the storm. Except for the introduction of a few new Apple Silicon Macs, 2021 has been a quiet year for Apple. The new iPhones offered improved cameras and battery life but were otherwise nearly identical to 2020's models. And apart from a slight bump in screen size, the new Apple Watch is barely distinguishable from its predecessors.

LG has announced what it’s calling its “first gaming laptop,” the UltraGear 17G90Q. The company is no stranger to making laptops, but the focus of its previous models has generally been on office productivity rather than offering a top-of-the-line gaming experience. The LG Gram 17 we reviewed earlier this year, for example, was a great lightweight work machine, but its lack of a beefy dedicated GPU meant it definitely wasn’t a gaming machine.

In addition to the new MacBook Pro 14, which we have already reviewed, Apple also launched a completely revamped version of the larger MacBook Pro 16. It is also available with the new M1 Pro and M1 Max chips in combination with the 16-inch Mini-LED screen. Our review unit is the model with the M1 Pro SoC with 16 GPU cores; the review of the MacBook Pro 16 with the M1 Max and 32 GPU cores will follow in a couple of days.

With its switch to its own M1 series of processors, Apple is closing in on the market share of its larger PC rivals in the notebook space, according to the latest research data. Apple’s MacBook Air and MacBook Pro now command 24% of the household laptop market, which places it slightly behind Dell’s 27% and approximately 10 points ahead of Acer and Lenovo.

For my main CPU and gaming tests, I ran the Alder Lake bench with DDR5. DDR5 is an advantage of the platform, after all, so it should sit alongside the processor to show what Alder Lake and Z690 are capable of. Similarly, I ran my tests on the latest build of Windows 11, making sure to download the patches for the recent bugs caused by AMD chips.