During the presentation there was a moment that caught my attention: Apple claimed the new Macs with M1 chips will start instantly from sleep. That’s right: if you have a brand new Mac, Apple expects you’ll be able to open the screen and it’ll flick immediately into life. This ‘start instantly from sleep’ feature was announced while company was discussing the crossover between the new chip, macOS Big Sur, and the new notebooks. The way the company explained it was similar to the experience of using an iPhone or iPad: it wakes up immediately. This is one of those updates that — if it turns out to be accurate in real world situations — is a game-changer. It might not sound like much, but I’ve found that whenever you have a feature like this that shaves seconds off your task time, it becomes essential. Think of contactless payments or fingerprint unlocking. Typing in your PIN didn’t seem like that much of a hassle, until you went back to doing it. These days? Well, I’ll be damned if I’m going to press 4 keys to unlock my phone. All we can do is wait to see how this happens. But, if it’s true, and the new Macs will start instantly from sleep, well, I’m going to be first in the queue.
