▲ Apple M2 MacBook Air

It is said that the M2 chip is packaged in flip-chip, that is, the wafer is processed by TSMC, and then handed over to the core packaging and testing manufacturers (Amkor and STATSCipPAC Korea). The two Korean outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) companies eventually package it into complete chips.

However, neither of these two factories received the 5nm wafer of Apple’s M2 chip for packaging and testing in the first two months of this year, so they are basically in a state of shutdown. According to reports, the production of M2 series processors resumed in March, but the output was only half of the same period last year.

In February of this year, Apple had already warned of a “challenging” situation in the PC market during its earnings conference call for the first quarter of 2023. At that time, the company expected that Apple Silicon (including M2) would face short-term difficulties. Its Mac business recorded revenue of $7.7 billion in the first quarter, a year-on-year decrease of 30%, and predicted that Q2 revenue was expected to continue to decline.

Of course, the 2022 iPad Pro is also equipped with the M2 chip, but at present, it is mainly used in the new MacBook Pro, Mac mini models and the latest MacBook Air.

The post Apple M2 processor production halted for two months due to weak MacBook sales appeared first on TechGoing.

For now, this is a boon for business users who may need a mix of Windows and macOS computers on a daily basis. However, Macs cannot support 32-bit Arm apps from the Windows App Store, so please choose x64 or x86 emulation apps if possible.

Previously, Microsoft had only licensed the Arm version of Windows to OEMs, so support was not available for M1 and M2 users.

Parallels Desktop for Mac is also optimized for Apple silicon-based Macs, including MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac mini and Mac Studio.

Parallels says that businesses can now purchase Windows 11 licenses “through the normal Windows procurement process” and individual users can purchase Windows 11 Professional licenses directly from Microsoft for $199. It’s worth noting that the Home Standard Edition of Parallels Desktop currently costs you an additional $100 to license.

It’s worth mentioning that Apple used to have its own Boot Camp solution, but Boot Camp is no longer available on Apple silicon based Macs, so virtual machines are now the only option for Mac users using Windows 11.

With the original announcement.

"Windows 11 works best on computers designed for Windows. When such options are not available, there are two different ways to use Windows with a Mac.

Windows 11 and Windows 365 Cloud PC
Windows 365 is a software-as-a-service solution for organizations of all sizes, available monthly on a per-user basis. A variety of pricing options and cloud computer configurations are available based on performance requirements.

Windows 365 supports nested virtualization for testing, running emulators, ensuring full application compatibility, and more.

Windows 11 and Parallels Desktop
Parallels Desktop version 18 is a licensing solution for running arm versions of Windows 11 Professional and Windows 11 Enterprise on platforms on Apple M1 and M2 computers.

The Arm version of Windows 11 has limitations that may affect the ability to use various types of hardware, games, and applications, including those that rely on DirectX 12 or OpenGL 3.3 or higher. For more information, see the FAQ in this document.

Experiences that rely on other virtualization layers (nested virtualization) are not supported, including

Windows subsystems for Android that enable Windows 11 devices to run Amazon Appstore

Windows subsystem for Linux, used to enable GNU/Linux environments on Windows 11

Windows Sandbox, a lightweight desktop environment for securely running applications in isolation

Virtualization-Based Security (VBS), which enables customers to create secure areas of memory and isolate them from the normal operating system

DirectX 12, a set of multimedia technologies often used in Windows games and other applications, is not supported.

Mac computers with M1 and M2 chips do not support the 32-bit Arm applications available in the Windows App Store. support for 32-bit ARM applications is being phased out for all ARM versions of Windows. The preferred customer experience is to run 64-bit Arm applications, but customers can also use applications in x64 or x86 emulation on Mac M1 and M2 computers."

The post Apple M1 and M2 series Mac users finally get official Windows 11 support appeared first on TechGoing.

Meter, a company that installs and manages Wi-Fi for businesses, has detailed this issue on M1 / M2 Mac devices in a new blog post. In the post, the company says that Apple has received feedback from users and that some Wi-Fi providers have reported it to Apple.

Meter writes in the blog post that “while there are many issues that appear to consumers, they are essentially caused by a drop in throughput and speed, with devices randomly disconnecting and failing to rejoin the network.

For example, UCLA IT Services has been tracking these issues through its service status dashboard, and the university’s IT team has said that the upcoming release of macOS 13.1, likely sometime this week, is expected to include fixes for these issues. The University of California appears to have worked closely with Apple’s engineers to test and eventually resolve the issue.

"Apple has upgraded the latest macOS beta to a Release Candidate that resolves a point-to-point issue affecting Wi-Fi connectivity on Apple MacBook M1 / M2 devices and Apple mobile devices. All testing of the beta and release candidate has been positive, and IT Services, Apple and other campus entities have been unable to reproduce the issue. We will be deploying macOS 13.1 as soon as we are notified of its official release."

As a temporary solution to improve WiFi connectivity, Apple recommends that users turn off the AWDL interface (which disables AirDrop / AirPlay). Users can turn it off by using a terminal application and running a script or through the user interface. Some users have reported improved WiFi performance when disabled.

It is not clear how widespread these issues are. Most reports appear to come from users connected to Wi-Fi networks managed by corporate or education teams. Typically, these types of Wi-Fi networks have different security and administrative controls that sometimes cause unique issues that do not affect other users.

The post Apple has tested patches to resolve Wi-Fi connectivity issues on some M1 / M2 Mac devices appeared first on TechGoing.