Hi,
in this post i want to share my findings with a new Macbook Air with the new M1 Chip. I have bought it about 21 hours ago so my usage is limited.
First impressions
First of all I love that it is totally silent. Coming from a 2015 Macbook Air finally having a Device that is no warmer than my hands no matter what I do is pretty awesome. The speakers honestly blew me away. Didn't expect that even the Macbook air was sounding that much better now. I don't know however when that changed. It is not like listening to proper speakers in your home but good enough for casually listening to music or a Podcast.
Keyboard
The Keyboard is nice to type on as well. It has nice travel and is not the most silent on the market. If you like it or not depends on personal preference.
Using it
After signing in I found that the performance is awesome however I did find some problems which are rather annoying and honestly I am thinking of returning the Macbook even with all the positives I just mentioned.
The problems
Volume at startup
When you turn on the Macbook there seems to be no way to change the volume of the chime. That thing is loud. Not a problem when you are living alone but using it while traveling if that is a good idea again, I wouldn't want my Macbook to scream through the train or plane. That screaming continues all through the login-screen. However you can, using VO plus the minus and equals keys change at least that. But you have to do that every single time you restart your Mac. So you better never do that at night.
Siri Voices
Another problem that I've encountered is that the Siri-voices are not adjustable in VoiceOver preferences. You can set them to 1 or to 100 percent speech rate. That will not change a single thing. Using other Voices is possible but as I said that is really annoying.
New recovery mode
Using the new recovery options actually seems to work fine. However that ends when you attempt to format your drive. Entering that Option to do anything with your drive will crash VoiceOver which you only will get back once you closed that dialogue. A complete reinstallation of your Mac which purges everything on the drive is for that reason not independently possible.
Workaround to format your Mac
A Workaround is to use "find my" on another device to delete the Mac. That way you can re-install the Mac OS but you shouldn't have to do such limbo to get that basic functionality.
Time zone during login is wrong
Another small thing is that the time in the login-window that is displayed is not the time that corresponds to my time zone.
Final thoughts
So that basically is it. There is light and darkness and I am honestly wondering if no one really tried that stuff with VoiceOver over at apples. I am sure all of those problems can be fixed
One last note: I love to use Overcast on my macbook. That is really awesome and accessible. Basically you have the iPad App on your Mac which seems to work the same with VoiceOver. But I hope that the problems I found out about the last couple of hours will get fixed very soon!
Comments
what volume
what volume whent startup chime is to loute?
sorry for my language, its not my prymerry language.
Volume
When you boot up your Mac, it will play a sound. That one is pretty loud. And also when logging in the same volume is used. Hope that helps.
Disable chime
In case you didn't already know, it is possible to disable the boot chime in System Preferences.
I too was pleasantly surprised by the experience with Overcast. The Actions menu really came in to its own here. However, that was until I discovered that there are some screens in the app where it appears that you cannot back out of them; and if you close and re-open the app it will open to these same screens.
The two that I've found so far are the Effects and Podcasts Notes screens which can be accessed from the Now Playing area of the app.
In both cases I couldn't find a button or keyboard shortcut that would dismiss these screens and return me to the main screen of the app. And, as I said, closing and re-opening didn't resolve things.
Have you found a solution to this? Or am I simply having a screwy Friday🙉
Chime and Overcast
I know that there is a way to turn off the chime. But the volume issue in the login screen would still be an issue.
Regarding Overcast: Well I shouldn't have tried to go into the effects window. It appears that there is no way to get out of that. Perhaps removing the app and reinstalling it might work but that is the worst solution.
Thanks for the tip regarding the chime and if I'll find a way to get out of the effects dialogue in Overcast I'll let you know.
wow
wow, crazy, mayby only A bug.
I hope will fix sooner.
Sounds Pretty Neat
I just read through your post, and the new Macs sound pretty good. The battery on my current MacBook Air is pretty much not holding a charge at all now, so I have to keep the thing plugged in all the time when I use it. Also there seems to be something screwy with my SSD, or external drive or something. I'm a bit confused on this. I tried to play some tunes from my library a couple nights ago, and the music kept buffering or something. It doesn't usually do this. But other than the afore-mentioned issues, my MBA is still chugging along. It's a mid-2013 MBA though, so I'm wondering if it needs replacing soon. A sister of mine and her tutor actually spoke with a support technician from Apple on Monday, regarding her mid-2013 MacBook Air. One thing he told her and her tutor is that both our Macs probably do need to be replaced soon. He said that Big Sur is probably the last major update we can install. She's had hers since 2015, and I got mine at the end of 2013. Thoughts anybody?
Big Sur bugs
Hi
It sounds like the things you are unhappy with is related to the software, Mac OS Big Sur rather than related to the Macbook Air with M1.
Everything can be fixed in software, rather report those bugs to Apple so they can fix it, if I were you I'd keep the machine, from what I've seen so far, the new M1 machines are awesome.
Personally if I was in the market for a new Mac now, I wouldn't buy a Intel Mac again, I'd go with the M1.
If you have the money
If you have the money I'd go for it. coming from a 2015 Macbook Air the jump in performance is amazing.
Maybe check out what others are saying as well.
Already did
I already did wrote to apple about the bugs.
Having a dead silent machine which stays cool is something I kind of don't want to have changed again. Seems like I'll keep it and hope for the best.
M1-based Mac hardware
I've read several reviews of the M1-based devices now, and all of the reviewers have been impressed by their performance and power efficiency. My late 2013-model MacBook Pro is noticeably slow these days. Big Sur is probably its last major upgrade. So I'll probably enter the market at some point in the next year or so for an M1-based MacBook Pro. I could either buy one of the current models (with 16GB of RAM), or buy whatever is released next year.
The main limitations at the moment are: a maximum of 16GB of RAM, and only two USB-C/Thunderbolt ports. The RAM might not be a major issue in my use case, unless I decide to run virtualized operating systems on it (e.g., Linux for ARM64). My other laptop has 32GB of RAM, and dual-boots Linux and Windows 10, so I don't really need to run other operating systems on the Mac, except perhaps for portability reasons while traveling. Note that virtualization software for M1 hasn't yet been released; Linux virtualization has been demonstrated publicly, and Microsoft hasn't released Windows for ARM to the general public, so that isn't an option currently. The ports are more of an inconvenience: with a braille display and USB headphones (or another audio device), there's no port left to charge the machine. However, there are Thunderbolt3 docks (see appleinsider.com for recent reviews), which could solve that problem.
My conclusion seems to be that one of the new machines would probably be fine, and what's coming next year could well be better.
Using the boot manager
Hi, you talk about the recovery mode on the new machines, is this from the initial screen? In other words, can you just hold the power button for an amount of time, then turn on vo with cmd-f5... Talking boot manager! I think this is a first.
Yes but
Yes the boot menu is accessible. However you'd hold down the command key and press the on/off button three times quickly to activate VoiceOver.
Hope that helps
Running iOS and iPadOS apps on M1 Macs with VoiceOver
Hello,
I wonder how iOS and iPadOS apps run on the new Macs with M1 chip, I asked this in another post but got no reply. Can you confirm the accessibility on Mac is really comparable to that of running these apps on an iPhone or iPad? It would be great to have Facebook Messenger or Voice Dream Reader accessible on Mac, for instance.
Thanks in advance.
Well
I only tried Overcast so far. Facebook Messenger seems not to be available for the Mac. As are many Apps like Kindle, Netflix etc.
Overcast however runs pretty great with two acceptions. Opening the effects Window will trap you there and the same goes for the show notes (I believe it were the Show notes). Other than that I so far have no first hand knowledge so far.
But if iOS Apps are the most important factor I think I'd go for the cheapest iPad or just use the iPhone for that just to be safe.
So iOS app developers can opt out of the Mac App Store
Thanks Denis. I thought there is no action needed from the developers part to make iOS and iPadOS apps be available on Mac App Store.
I've just found an article explaining that developers can opt out from listing heir apps on Mac App Store. That's a shame since many apps, Facebook Messenger including, are more accessible on iOS or iPadOs than on macOS.
Macs with m1
So if I am understanding correctly it is only possible to run IOS apps like Overcast on the new mac with the m1 chip? With the upgrade to Big sur this is still not possible? The only way to access Overcast is through the web interface?
Volume issues not related to new Mac.
I have a MacBook Pro 2019 and VO booms out the volume control on the login screen on it as well. I'm trying the chime option for now with Big Sur but was happy to discover you can turn it off in sounds if desired. I'd love to play with these new Macs and see how they stack up, but mine is doing vary well and I do need Window's for some things. The Siri voice issue sounds annoying and that must be related to yourr Mac as I use American Siri Female with no issues. I would say keep your Mac as you do have many positives and the bugs will hopefully get sorted out for all of us.
no, no ios apps on intel macs
Hi. No, of course you can't run iOS apps on Intel macs. The reason you can run iOS apps on the new m1 macs is because they now use the same chip architecture and thus they share processor and hardware type. If iOS apps were to run on the mac they would need to go through a conversion process from ARM to Intel which is just not worth the effort.
Hth.
Conversion actually is worth the effort
Actually, converting iOS apps from ARM to an Intel-compatible binary is worth the effort, because there's a whole project by Apple dedicated to that. It's called Catalyst (formerly Marzipan) and it's been around for a few years now. Developers of iOS apps (namely iPad apps) have the ability to bring their apps to Intel Macs by utilizing Catalyst. In fact, many built-in macOS apps, including Voice Memos, the Home app, Find My, Maps, and others, are now Catalyst versions of their iOS counterparts.
Enabling voiceover on an m1 mac for the first time at setup
Hi,
I got an m1 mac mini, and a headless fit dummy hdmi plug because I don't have a monitor, and I didn't think I'd need one. How do I enable voiceover on an m1 mac mini for the first time at setup? Command f5 doesn't seem to work.
Should be 3 presses of Touch ID Button
If I remember correctly, it should be 3 presses of the Touch ID/Power button.
Hmm, doesn't seem to work…
Hmm, doesn't seem to work. Of course this is initial setup of a brand new mac mini. I'm very puzzled.
Actually in regard to the…
Actually in regard to the recovery screen, I had no crashing of vo. the thign si loud but perhaps that will be fixed in monterae. give it a chance, you wil love this thing. don't return it, you will probably regret that choice. As for the siri voices, I can adjust mine, perhaps a full reinstall of the oS is needed, I did that as my back up was corrupted. the recovvery options will tlak all the wya thorugh including eracing the drive. About that, don't erase the root of the drive. only erase the apfs container with mac os on it.
Hold down CMD key, then press the touch ID button three times
If you use an Apple Magic Keyboard with Touch ID, the following should work:
1. Hold down the CMD key
2. Now, press the Touch ID button three times
In addition to that, I'm not sure if it's possible to set up your Mac mini without a connected monitor. I think I anywhere read that you need some kind of connected display to set up the Mac mini. Once the system is installed, you can naturally use the machine without a connected monitor.
got it, thanks
Luckily, my TV had an HDMI port, so we just used that for initial setup, then once the system was installed, we used the headless fit. In fact, I'm sending this from my new computer. And to keep this thread relevant to the original topic, this thing is really fast. I installed some of my favorite iPhone apps on it, so we're good. Thanks for your help. :)
wow, I forgot I could…
wow, I forgot I could install iPad apps on this thing. I have an air, and really really love it! think I tried backpack and one more app on mine.
Have you asked Apple Accessibility for help?
Seems that if you haven't asked, you may be missing something. If you call and they can't help, then I'd probably do the same as you and send it back. On the other hand, it may be that some folks on applevis.com have worked around the issues you've encountered and can tel you what you need to know.
Good luck!
Long-press in backpack?
Hi,
a short question as you mentioned you have already used Backpack Studio on the Mac: How did you deal with the long-press in Backpack Studio? I tried to press VO+Shift+M but that didn't work. I also tried VO+CMD+Space to bring up the actions menu and selected "Show menu" there but this didn't work too.
you don't need to long press…
you don't need to long press. You just press the buttons. in fact I don't really need to logn press on backpack for iOs as well. I love my m1 mac, it is like night and day compared to my old macbook air from 2014. and, I thought that was fast.
How do you set the individual pad options then?
Hi,
When you don't use the long-press, how do you set the pad options like ducking on/off?
Accessing BackPack Studio Context Menus (M1 Macs)
1. Interact with the pad's Volume Slider you wish to bring up said edit menu via VO+Shift+Down. (Nine if using the 'Numpad Commander), though 'DO NOT' adjust anything.
2. While inside said slider, simulate a 'Double-Tap and Hold' by doing a 'VO+Shift+Command+SpaceBar' to hold down the mouse.
3. Stop the 'Hold' simulation by either using the above keystroke (or Control+Five) via the Numpad Commander).
4. Choose your desired BackPack menu item, then finally do a standard 'VO+Click' to confirm your choice.
Hope that helps someone.
Wow, that works fine
Hey,
Many thanks for that helpful answer. That works perfectly fine for me.
let's get a definite answer once and for all
for the m1 mac mini, does operate it without a monitor affect its performance? if you never used it with a monitor, and you feel it works perfectly, i appreciate you opinion; but i'd really like to know the experiences of those who have used it with a monitor for an extended period of time and without, and what do you have to say about the performance.
You're Very Welcome!
Glad that list of steps helped ya out there.
Feel free to spread the word to anyone else wanting to use Backpack Studio on Silicon Macs.
Have a grand rest of your day!
I only had to use it with…
I only had to use it with the monitor for initial setup, so that probably doesn't count as a long period of time. But I'm using it with the headless fit dummy hdmi display plug, which had been recommended on here. I haven't tried it without that headless fit plug. But to do the initial setup, the headless fit wouldn't work, I had to actually hook it up to a tried and true display, a tv which had hdmi output. The headless fit dummy display plug emulates a display, even though nothing is hooked to it, it shows up like a display would under the system preferences.
So far, with the headless fit, it seems to be working just as well as it did during the initial setup with the HDMI TV.
I hope this helps.
So Far So Good...
I got one of these for Christmas and briefly checked it out a couple days ago. VoiceOver walked me through the setup and offered me the option of finishing later. I chose this option because I was rather distracted with other things, and because I think I'm going to slowly transition to the new Mac. These new ones seem to be really nice.