First M1 battery tests lasted so long, Apple thought indicator was buggy

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited July 2021
Apple marketing vice president says that staff suspected a bug in macOS when the battery indicator results came in from the first M1 Apple Silicon Mac.




The Apple executive says that, to the amusement of engineers, staffers didn't believe the first battery life results from the M1 processor.

"When we saw that first system and then you sat there and played with it for a few hours and the battery didn't move, we thought 'Oh man, that's a bug, the battery indicator is broken,'" Bob Borchers, VP of worldwide product marketing for Apple,told Tom's Guide.

"And then Tim [Milet]'s laughing in the background, 'Nope, that's the way it's supposed to be,'" he continued, "and it was pretty phenomenal."

Milet is Apple's vice president of platform architecture, and in the same interview explained why dramatic performance improvement was essential.

"If somebody else could build a chip that was actually going to deliver better performance inside that enclosure, what's the point? Why would we switch?," he said. "And so for my chip architects, that was the target."

Even before embarking on its Apple Silicon plans, however, Milet says that the emulation software Rosetta 2 had to come first.

"We started a small project years before we started transitioning to Silicon to try to make sure that we could actually deliver the second generation of Rosetta in a way that allowed us to do this seamlessly," he continued. "And we believe that was a huge part of the transition story everything worked out of the box as expected."

Neither Milet nor Borchers would discuss details of the future of Apple Silicon. However, Milet acknowledged that gamers, for one, want yet more power.

"Of course, you can imagine the pride of some of the GPU folks and imagining, 'Hey, wouldn't it be great if it hits a broader set of those really intense gamers,'" he said."It's a natural place for us to be looking, to be working closely with our Metal team and our Developer team. We love the challenge."

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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 16
    mobirdmobird Posts: 752member
    "We started a small project years before we started transitioning to Silicon..."

    And all this time I thought that the chips/processors that Apple was using from Intel and TSMC were derived from Silicon...

    I like how Apple appropriates the word Silicon all to it's self.
    elijahg
  • Reply 2 of 16
    KTRKTR Posts: 279member
    The more reason for Apple to run tv commercials, for both the battery and the processor
    Beatsrob53byronlwatto_cobra
  • Reply 3 of 16
    auxioauxio Posts: 2,717member
    mobird said:
    "We started a small project years before we started transitioning to Silicon..."

    And all this time I thought that the chips/processors that Apple was using from Intel and TSMC were derived from Silicon...

    I like how Apple appropriates the word Silicon all to it's self.
    Gasp... material appropriation I say!!

    Or maybe, if one took the time to think a bit more instead of just reacting, they just started using "silicon" internally as the short form for "Apple silicon" (the full name) and it slipped in an interview.  Nah, let's not ruin the whole "Apple is arrogant" campaign.
    aderutterchiaBeatstmaykurai_kagesandorbyronlfastasleepmacguiwatto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 16
    mknelsonmknelson Posts: 1,120member
    mobird said:
    "We started a small project years before we started transitioning to Silicon..."

    And all this time I thought that the chips/processors that Apple was using from Intel and TSMC were derived from Silicon...

    I like how Apple appropriates the word Silicon all to it's self.
    Silicon with a capital S is part of the trade name Apple Silicon. Silicon with a lower case s is the element.

    Like Auxio said - it's just a diminutive form in that sentence.

    Apple Silicon is based on silicon.
    caladaniankurai_kagebyronlfastasleepwatto_cobrabshank
  • Reply 5 of 16
    BeatsBeats Posts: 3,073member
    mobird said:
    "We started a small project years before we started transitioning to Silicon..."

    And all this time I thought that the chips/processors that Apple was using from Intel and TSMC were derived from Silicon...

    I like how Apple appropriates the word Silicon all to it's self.

    It’s like Watch. As another member said. Apple deserves it.

    KTR said:
    The more reason for Apple to run tv commercials, for both the battery and the processor

    Agree.

    ”Super speed, get production done super fast… and since it’s not Intel-based, it runs cooler and battery goes on and on…”
    byronlwatto_cobra
  • Reply 6 of 16
    XedXed Posts: 2,519member
    mobird said:
    "We started a small project years before we started transitioning to Silicon..."

    And all this time I thought that the chips/processors that Apple was using from Intel and TSMC were derived from Silicon...

    I like how Apple appropriates the word Silicon all to it's self.
    And Apple has purloined apples and Intel appropriates information of value based on your reasoning?

    Do we really have to have a discussion about proper nouns and marketing names?
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 7 of 16
    dewmedewme Posts: 5,335member
    mobird said:
    "We started a small project years before we started transitioning to Silicon..."

    And all this time I thought that the chips/processors that Apple was using from Intel and TSMC were derived from Silicon...

    I like how Apple appropriates the word Silicon all to it's self.
    Huh? You do know that this is a quote from an insider referring to something they were working on inside Apple. They can call it whatever the want, like Broccoli, Avocado, or Vesuvius, with absolutely no expectation for any further elaboration. Its meaning is obvious in the context where it was used. 

    Would you complain about a Microsoft employee appropriating “Word” or “Windows” or “Code” when referring to an internal project?
    edited July 2021 retrogustochiawatto_cobra
  • Reply 8 of 16
    rob53rob53 Posts: 3,241member
    The only time my M1 MBA's battery ran out quicker than two days was when I was doing testing and watching multiple movies. Even then it still had 50%. I could include an iStat battery display but recently I've been testing external storage through an OWC dock and it constantly charges my MBA so it wouldn't mean anything. I've gone over a week with the MBA turned on with minimal usage and it's at >50%. Even when I forgot I left it on and didn't use it for two weeks it still had >30% battery. Never had this happen on old MacBooks.
    patchythepiratecaladanianchiakurai_kageFidonet127danoxbadmonkwatto_cobra
  • Reply 9 of 16
    NaiyasNaiyas Posts: 107member
    It’s a little bit like when the UK computer scientists that were working on the RISC architecture started to test how much power their new CPUs (now known as ARM) used they found it was running on residual power (i.e. the CPU wasn’t plugged in to power and it still operated for a short time). So it’s not that surprising that users used to non-RISC battery usage were confused by RISC battery usage.
    danoxwatto_cobra
  • Reply 10 of 16
    felix01felix01 Posts: 294member
    rob53 said:
    The only time my M1 MBA's battery ran out quicker than two days was when I was doing testing and watching multiple movies. 
    I guess you haven't had to use Zoom, an hour conference will take the battery down 12 - 15%.
  • Reply 11 of 16
    rob53rob53 Posts: 3,241member
    felix01 said:
    rob53 said:
    The only time my M1 MBA's battery ran out quicker than two days was when I was doing testing and watching multiple movies. 
    I guess you haven't had to use Zoom, an hour conference will take the battery down 12 - 15%.
    That still gives you 7-8 hrs of constant, heavy use, something previous Mac laptops could only get by being plugged in.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 12 of 16
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member
    designr said:
    mobird said:
    "We started a small project years before we started transitioning to Silicon..."

    And all this time I thought that the chips/processors that Apple was using from Intel and TSMC were derived from Silicon...

    I like how Apple appropriates the word Silicon all to it's self.
    It's actually clever branding. Not just silicon either. They've been doing this for a while now:

    Watch
    TV
    Music
    Card
    Arcade
    Fitness+

    Not stylized in the same way, but the exact same concept:

    Apple Podcasts
    Apple Books
    Apple News+

    I predicted they'd do this with iPhone: Phone. I've been wrong (so far). I think they are just afraid to give up the iPhone brand mojo. I suspect Steve Jobs would have just done it. Boom. Next topic.
    They actually do use News and News+ in the app.

    I think there's too much cachet in the iPhone name for it to be done there.  But I think that probably annoys the branding guys at Apple,  they'd rather put the core brand front and centre.  Likewise I imagine there are some people in Apple who'd rather lose the Mac and just be making Apple computers for something nice and consistent.  The switch to M1 would probably have been the best time to do that, so they probably never will.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 13 of 16
    nicholfdnicholfd Posts: 824member
    felix01 said:
    rob53 said:
    The only time my M1 MBA's battery ran out quicker than two days was when I was doing testing and watching multiple movies. 
    I guess you haven't had to use Zoom, an hour conference will take the battery down 12 - 15%.
    That's just shitty software.  Zoom is a HORRIBLE Mac app.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 14 of 16
    danoxdanox Posts: 2,804member
    felix01 said:
    rob53 said:
    The only time my M1 MBA's battery ran out quicker than two days was when I was doing testing and watching multiple movies. 
    I guess you haven't had to use Zoom, an hour conference will take the battery down 12 - 15%.
    Zoom is just another software maker that will cry to high heaven when Apple makes a better version that will work better than their never to be supported Mac version. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 15 of 16
    KTRKTR Posts: 279member
    Beats said:
    mobird said:
    "We started a small project years before we started transitioning to Silicon..."

    And all this time I thought that the chips/processors that Apple was using from Intel and TSMC were derived from Silicon...

    I like how Apple appropriates the word Silicon all to it's self.

    It’s like Watch. As another member said. Apple deserves it.

    KTR said:
    The more reason for Apple to run tv commercials, for both the battery and the processor

    Agree.

    ”Super speed, get production done super fast… and since it’s not Intel-based, it runs cooler and battery goes on and on…”
    They can run tv ads without dissing intell.  Adobe said they are seeing performance gain of 80%.  In my opinion, that is Hugh.  And Apple had a 9 month head start
    watto_cobra
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