From the editor’s desk: the holidays and the Mac M1s are finally here

Source: Daniel Bader / iMore

Welcome back to another Editor’s Desk week with yours truly, folks. Can you believe that Turkey Day is just a few days away? It’s been a wild year, that’s for sure, but we’re fast approaching the end of 2020, so you know what that means: Black Friday and the holiday madness are just around the corner! We’ll cover all of Apple’s best Black Friday deals once Thanksgiving is over, so be sure to stay tuned here if you want to save some money.

Anyway, last week saw the launch of Apple’s new silicone Macs: MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini with M1. Android Central managing editor Daniel Bader got his hands on the M1 MacBook Air, and gave it a raving review, along with just about everyone else. Even the new 13-inch MacBook Pro M1 outperforms the 16-inch MacBook Pro in benchmarks, and the M1 MacBook Air SSD is also 2x faster than its predecessor and can create applications in Xcode faster than an iMac Pro. Basically these M1 Macs are the bee’s knees. I’m still waiting for an iMac, but my late 2013 15-inch MacBook Pro that I’m still using on my desk is starting to show its age. I’m not sure how much longer I can wait, but I hope Apple will release an iMac M1 sooner rather than later (fingers crossed!)

Returning to the world of the iPhone 12, new details have emerged about Apple’s MagSafe Duo charger: it does not support 15W charging. I have some thoughts here. First of all, the price of this travel focused charger is a bit high, and the fact that it doesn’t even support 15W like the regular MagSafe charger? Let’s go now. The report also says that the maximum supported output for the MagSafe Duo charger is 14 W, so only 1 W less than the 15 W that the regular $ 39 MagSafe charger has. And to top it off, the MagSafe Duo needs a charger. of 27 W to reach the maximum output of 14 W, which Apple does not even produce. The next closest thing is the 30W charger, which costs $ 50. Since the MagSafe Duo charger, like the iPhone 12 and the previous MagSafe charger, doesn’t come with a power adapter, you’re looking to spend around $ 179 minimum to use this travel charger (and we’re not even traveling like we used to) . ).

To me, the price and production of the MagSafe Duo just don’t make sense. The high price only gives you the convenience of a travel charger that can charge your iPhone 12 and Apple Watch at the same time, but is it worth that much? Considering we don’t even travel as much as before, no. It seems a lot of people are also appalled at the MagSafe Duo charger’s nonsense. I certainly won’t be buying one anytime soon, there are better alternatives for less.

And even though we’ve just had three Apple events in the last three months, I’m still looking forward to one more. One of Apple’s popular leakers, L0vetodream, seems to hint at one more potential surprise from Apple in December. Could we see the long-awaited AirPods Studio or AirTags? At this point, I doubt it, but who knows. L0vetodream’s tweet specifically says it would be “good for winter” so maybe we’ll see some new Apple Watch band colors. No matter what Apple has in store for us, I’m sure it would be fun, that is, if there is anything.

If you need distractions, you should check out Hades on Nintendo Switch. It’s an insanely fun roguelike hack-n-slash from the developers behind Bastion and Transistor. I have the game and it is definitely one of the best new indie games coming out this year. And now that Big Sur is out, it’s fun to take a trip down memory lane and see how macOS has changed over the years, from OS X to macOS.

And as the year draws to a close, be sure to check out iMore’s Best of 2020, where we have our favorite picks of the year across Apple devices, apps, games, tech accessories and more. And for Nintendo Switch fans, don’t miss our awards for the best Nintendo Switch games of 2020.

Until next week, friends.

-Christine Romero-Chan