Earlier this week, Apple announced the first trio of Mac computers built using Apple’s own silicon. The new MacBook Air, 13″ MacBook Pro and Mac mini devices all use Apple’s new M1 chip. During the event, Apple announced that Adobe, among many other developers, is working on releasing new versions of its software that are compatible with the M1 chip.
As it turns out, these new M1-compatible versions will be critical for Adobe Lightroom users on the new Apple silicon Macs. On a dedicated page about Lightroom Classic compatibility with the upcoming macOS 11 operating system, Adobe warns that ‘Adobe apps run under Rosetta 2 emulation on Apple devices with Apple Silicon M1 processors is not officially supported.’ The company continues, ‘Native support is planned.’
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Early adopters of the M1-powered Apple computers will have to do without official support for now. It is worth noting that at this point, Adobe hasn’t discovered any issues with running Lightroom Classic 10 under Rosetta 2 emulation, but as it is not officially supported, the user does assume non-zero risk. The MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and Mac mini computers powered by the M1 chip are all available for order now ahead of a November 17 release.
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In Apple’s presentation, embedded below, Senior Vice President, Craig Federighi, said Adobe is bringing Lightroom CC to its M1 computers in December and following it up with Photoshop in early 2021 (around the 18:10 timestamp).
While Photoshop and Lightroom are the primary apps for photographers in the Adobe ecosystem, the company has many other heavily-used apps, such as Premiere, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, and much more. As of writing, Adobe has not offered a timeline for other Adobe apps built for the M1 chip.
In case you missed Apple’s event on Tuesday, you can watch a replay of the stream below:
The Apple M1 chip promises massive performance gains over prior Intel chips. In the case of the M1-powered MacBook Air, Apple promises up to 3.5 times faster CPU performance and up to 5 times faster graphics. The MacBook Air also ditches a fan, offering a ‘silent design.’ The 13″ MacBook Pro maintains an active cooling system, offers up to 2.8 times faster CPU performance and up to 5 times faster GPU performance. With the M1 chip, the new Mac mini also sees massive gains. Its CPU is up to 3 times faster and the GPU is 6 times faster. The new computers start at $999 USD, $1,300 and $699 respectively. For the full details on the new machines, check out coverage from earlier this week.
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| Adobe has been hard at work developing native versions of its applications, including Photoshop shown here during the Apple presentation on November 10. In the presentation, seen further above, Adobe states that it has observed massive performance gains on Apple silicon. |
The move to Apple silicon is a major one for Apple. The promised performance gains are hugely impressive on paper, and the foundation being built appears to be a strong one. Of course, software must be designed to take full advantage of the new silicon. Adobe certainly has the talent and resources to do so.
