Take Control of Your M-Series Mac

by Glenn Fleishman

Make a smooth transition to Apple siliconVersion 1.5.1, updated December 23, 2022

This book teaches you everything you need to know about hardware and related software changes in Apple’s new M1- and M2-series Apple silicon Macs to make a transition from an Intel Mac, set up security with new options, create effective backups, and work with new options in recovery mode. Glenn Fleishman takes you through the details of how an M-series Mac handles startup, battery management, and running iOS, iPadOS, and Windows apps. Covers the 2020–22 Apple M1- and M2-series the Mac mini, MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, 24-inch iMac, 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models (featuring the M1 Pro or M1 Max chip), and the Mac Studio (with the M1 Max or M1 Ultra chip).

Apple’s new Macs based on the M1- and M2-series Apple silicon system-on-a-chip offer remarkable advances in performance, battery life, and memory utilization. With those improvements comes a host of changes in hardware, from how a Mac starts up to making backups of your computer to understanding fundamental aspects of system security. Take Control of Your M-Series Mac teaches you everything you need to know about these topics and much more.

You’ll learn not just how to make a bootable clone of your Mac on an external drive, but whether it’s necessary with Monterey or Big Sur and an M1- or M2-series Mac. Find out how to make a clean transition from an Intel Mac, while taking advantage of installing and running iOS and iPadOS apps natively within macOS. You’ll also learn the early method of running Windows on an M1 or M2 Mac, with notions of what’s to come.

If you’ve already bought an M1- or M2-series Mac and want to get more out of it, or you’re considering a purchase and trying to understand what you need to know, Take Control of Your M-Series Mac will fit your needs. This book is intended for people who are already familiar with Macs. It is not a beginner's guide, nor is it a complete user manual. Its focus is on what's different about M-series Macs compared to Intel-based Macs.

Future This book will be updated as Apple releases updated features for existing M1 and M2 Macs and new Macs based on its M-series processors.

Here’s what you will learn from this

Get to know the M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max, M1 Ultra, and M2 processors, and what’s so different about themUnderstand the limits of emulationControl how apps for Intel Macs and universal Intel/M-series apps launch on an M-series MacLearn the complexities of backing up an M-series MacDecide whether you need a bootable duplicate of your startup volumeMaximize battery life and longevityWork with recoveryOS, a substantially different process with an M-series MacWalk through a new process of reviving or restoring low-level firmware on a non-responsive MacManage system security when you need to work with kernel extensionsInstall and run iOS and iPadOS appsLearn the current limits of using Windows in macOS on an M1- and M2-series system

144 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 22, 2021

About the author

I started writing as a child and never stopped. I’ve always been interested in what makes things tick and how to explain that. That led to a career as a technology journalist and how-to article and book author. I’ve written dozens of books over my career in some combination of the two.

In the 2010s, I started publish a series of book that combined printing and type history and technology in a variety of ways. These titles include Not To Put Too Fine a Point on It, a collection of essays and reporting; London Kerning, a look at two magnificent London printing collections and the city’s typographical history; Six Centuries of Type & Printing; and How Comics Were Made, a heavily visual history of the production and reproduction of newspaper comics from the 1890s to the present.

I live in Seattle, Washington, with my family, and drink very little coffee.