Apple bringing some macOS Monterey features ‘exclusively’ to M1 Macs as it works to slowly transition away from Intel

The website lists the features as those exclusive to Macs running on M1 chips.

MacOS Monterey: Tech giant Apple earlier this week announced the upcoming major software update – the macOS Monterey – for its Mac, and the update is bringing a bunch of new features to Apple’s flagship computers. However, now, some of the most interesting features might not be reaching the Intel Macs. As per the macOS Monterey update website, some features have been listed specifically for Macs that have been built using Cupertino’s in-house M1 chip.

Related posts

EXCLUSIVE – Crypto giant Binance controlled ‘independent’ US affiliate’s bank accounts

June 5, 2023

Why investing just to save tax may be bad for you

June 5, 2023

Also read | Apple announces macOS Monterey next-generation Mac update with Universal Control, AirPlay support, Safari redesign and more

The website lists the following features as those exclusive to Macs running on M1 chips:

1. macOS Monterey is coming with a special Portrait Mode on Facetime that would blur the background of an individual while using Apple’s video calling feature.
2. A new Live Text feature is being included in the new update, to make the text interactive in all photos. With this, functions like copy and paste, lookup, and translate would be available to users in Photos, Screenshot, Quick Look, and Safari.
3. The new interactive 3D globe on Apple Maps is also being brought in only for Macs on M1.
4. Another Maps feature, which would allow users to see detailed maps of cities like San Francisco, London, New York and Los Angeles, is also not going to be added to the Intel Macs.
5. Apple is ramping up its neural text-to-speech voices and is adding support for Swedish, Danish, Finnish and Norwegian languages.
6. Apart from this, on-device dictation in offline mode, and unlimited on-device dictation are also being brought in.

Notably, the first line-up of M1-based Macs were first released only in November last year and are fairly new, meaning that most of the Mac users are still using the Intel-based models. These features could be seen as Cupertino’s reward to these users for choosing to switch to the new technology so quickly. They could also, however, be seen as an incentive to bring more customers on-board the new M1 chip-based Macs. While most users might not want these features and choose not to switch, this could snowball into Cupertino bringing in subsequent updates with more M1 model-exclusive features that would make users forego the Intel models for the new ones containing Apple’s in-house processors.

Apple has played smart with its transition from the third-party processors to M1, pitting its own old Intel models with its new M1-based ones. Last year, when announcing the new processors, it had said that it would not pull support for updates on Intel models, which it technically still hasn’t pulled, but it did not mention anything about not bringing in exclusive features that would eventually make users prefer the M1 models instead of the Intel ones. Cupertino is known for having loyal customers who wish to have all the new features that the company brings in, wanting to get the best value in return for price, and it seems that Apple is playing on this very trait of its customers to phase out the old models, and ensure that its loyal customer base moves with it to the new processors as well.