14 DAY TRIAL // Apple launched its first M1-powered devices last year, and since then, developers out there have been working around the clock on updating their software to run natively on Apple Silicon.
You wouldn’t necessarily expect Google to need so much time to align with this trend, but the search giant has only recently updated Google Drive for the desktop with full support for M1 Macs.
The new feature is part of version 52.0, according to Google itself, which also brings support for some cameras to back up to Drive for desktop, as well as improved sync performance when connecting to a network after working offline.
The M1 push
Apple launched its custom ARM chip in November last year, and since then, the company has occasionally praised the performance of Apple Silicon.
First and foremost, Apple says, this new chip comes with a noticeable improvement in terms of performance, especially as compared to Macs powered by Intel.
“M1 is the first personal computer chip built using cutting-edge 5-nanometre process technology and is packed with an astounding 16 billion transistors, the most Apple has ever put into a chip. It features the world’s fastest CPU core in low-power silicon, the world’s best CPU performance per watt, the world’s fastest integrated graphics in a personal computer, and breakthrough machine learning performance with the Apple Neural Engine,” Apple said.
“As a result, M1 delivers up to 3.5x faster CPU performance, up to 6x faster GPU performance and up to 15x faster machine learning, all while enabling battery life up to 2x longer than previous-generation Macs. With its profound increase in performance and efficiency, M1 delivers the biggest leap ever for the Mac.”
You can download the latest version of Google Drive for Macs running on Apple Silicon power using the link in this article.