Questions for MacBook M1 folks

[Centex]

I'm considering making the leap from a lifetime with Windows to a MacBook Air M1 (Apple chip, not Intel chip).

I'm on the low-end of the learning curve and while there's no shortage of forums and resources about this, I'm comfortable with this forum's knowledgeable and friendly folks so I'm posting here to beg for some of the experience-sharing that makes this place great.

At the moment my questions are about running 3rd-party apps designed for iPhone (iOS) or iPad (iPadOS) on an M1 Macbook (macOS, currently 'Monterey').

Apps of specific interest are those used with Victron Solar Controllers and Battery Monitors as well as the LevelMate Pro+ device.

Question 1: Is it possible to run these device's iOS/iPadOS apps on a MacBook M1 with the macOS?

Question 2: is there a way to access and browse the macOS 'app store' to view the detailed app descriptions and requirements from a Windows browser (e.g. current Microsoft Edge)?

Thanks in Advance!

[cpaharley2008]

Iphones and Ipads, both Apple products as is iMac. I have used all 3 without any issues, they seem to bond automatically. I have been using them for close to 10 years, with upgrades of course. Those specific Apps are unknown but the manufacturer should be able to help.

[Centex]

Thanks, Jim. I noticed you recently mentioned getting new MacBook Air.

May I ask a favor .... if you search the app store from your new MacBook Air, do you find any hits for 'Victron Connect' or 'LevelMate Pro' apps to run on that machine under its macOS?

[Brian B-P]

Apparently the Mac App Store shows the iOS apps which will run on macOS, flagged as "Designed for iPhone" or "Designed for iPad", to distinguish them from apps actually built for macOS; just don't look at the iOS app store and expect everything there to work on a Mac. This only works on Macs using Apple's processor, but you already have that covered.

I wouldn't expect the Mac App Store to be viewable outside of the macOS environment, so to check what's there I would borrow a Mac or visit an Apple store and use one of their Macs.

[cpaharley2008]

I checked, they are there, but short of downloading, I was not successful. Interestingly these apps appear under Ipad and iPhone but not MacOs

[Mike Lewis]

I have a MacBook Air with the M1 chip. There is a version of VictronConnect that is native to MacOS, so you won't need to use a Victron iPhone app on the laptop.

As for the iPhone / iPad apps in general, it's hit-and-miss unless the app has been verified to work under MacOS. It will say so in the App Store.

For instance, the Morse Toad code training app won't let you use the laptop's keyboard to select letters; you have to use the trackpad. The SensorPush app will run, but since the temperature sensors have to be enabled on a touch screen, you can't set up the app on a laptop, etc.

[Chris R]

Victron Connect

[Centex]

Thank you everyone, please keep the educational feedback coming if anything else pertinent comes to mind.

I'm still exploring the implications of making the change, the MacBook certainly has its many attractions but as with most everything there's compromises, too. There's certainly no shortage of compromises/downsides associated with sticking with Windows, thus my serious consideration of going Mac.

I've already confirmed that my many storage devices (external SSDs), displays, printers, external CD/DVD, and ethernet peripherals will all 'play nice' with the MacBook using a convenient and reasonably priced multi-port 'docking device' via the Mac's available thunderbolt port.

All this incited by the reality that my fully functional 7-years old Dell laptop (my main computing device for all purposes) will not support Win 11 and Win 10 along with many of my productivity applications (MS Office and Adobe Acrobat Pro) have end-of-life for security updates approaching in the next few years. So, I'm not under a severe time-crunch but it seems there's little reason to delay the transition to Mac if that's where I end up deciding to go.

[UncleTim]

I switched my entire office in 2011. (5 servers, two workstations)

There was a bit of a productivity hit, and some frustration, but well worth it.

The stability alone is worth it.

Expect some unforeseen issues, cause they are there.

No biggie, usually!

[Bobbie54]

I would expect any leveling app to NOT work because the laptops are not made with that dohickey that tells them which way is up.

[Centex]

Originally Posted by Bobbie54

I would expect any leveling app to NOT work because the laptops are not made with that dohickey that tells them which way is up.

Just FYI, in the case of LevelMate the level sensor ('dohickey') is in a separate hardware module that's permanently mounted in the trailer; the smartphone / tablet / display device only serves as the remote information and calibration interface via Bluetooth link to the level sensor module.

But the LevelMate app for iPhone/iPad is very touchscreen oriented, so if that's not somehow 'translated' to work with keyboard / cursor input, it likely won't play nice on the non-touchscreen MacBook.

I don't understand if that touchscreen>non-touchscreen 'translation' is somehow accommodated by the OS in different types of Apple devices or must be accommodated in the code of the apps themselves. So far I've got the impression it may be a bit of both, so is app-specific to some degree.

(I'm now learning that some apps for Apple devices are designated as "universal" while some are not, and that may be well be the key to what I'm calling, for lack of a better term, the 'translation' issue)

[camp4528]

I know you are very thorough in your analyses, but I wonder if you considered an iPad (eg the new iPad Air which has an M1) instead of the laptop. The Microsoft and/or Google office apps are available and you can use a keyboard and stand with the iPad for intensive work. And it has a touchscreen which will be natural as an experienced phone user.

[oldwave]

Originally Posted by Centex

I'm considering making the leap from a lifetime with Windows to a MacBook Air M1 (Apple chip, not Intel chip).

I'm on the low-end of the learning curve and while there's no shortage of forums and resources about this, I'm comfortable with this forum's knowledgeable and friendly folks so I'm posting here to beg for some of the experience-sharing that makes this place great.

At the moment my questions are about running 3rd-party apps designed for iPhone (iOS) or iPad (iPadOS) on an M1 Macbook (macOS, currently 'Monterey').

Apps of specific interest are those used with Victron Solar Controllers and Battery Monitors as well as the LevelMate Pro+ device.

Question 1: Is it possible to run these device's iOS/iPadOS apps on a MacBook M1 with the macOS?

Question 2: is there a way to access and browse the macOS 'app store' to view the detailed app descriptions and requirements from a Windows browser (e.g. current Microsoft Edge)?

Thanks in Advance!

I have been running both OS's for many years, however I don't have an M1 chip. My son does . I'll ask him to see if those apps are available in the App Store.

update
Victron connect shows up in the App Store on an M1 Mac
Levelmate pro does not show

By the way, Having used very desktop OS out there, including many shades of Linux, my preference has always preferred Apple OSX. Mainly for consistency between releases and stability. I spent 20 plus years an IT professional. The downsides ? Expensive storage and memory which has to be done at the purchase, though windows is moving that way. However if the use is modest I.E. no heavy 4k video editing etc, configure the machine moderately and use external storge for long term archiving etc. The M1 architecture is very well designed and tuned for the OSX environment as it doesn't have to be universal. As far as level mate pro, it works fine on my fairly current iPhone . My next years purchase will be an updated M1 equipped Mac. I do pretty extensive video and audio projects, so it will be beefed up a bit.

[Centex]

Originally Posted by camp4528

I know you are very thorough in your analyses, but I wonder if you considered an iPad (eg the new iPad Air which has an M1) instead of the laptop. ....

I spent an enjoyable and educational several hours with my college freshman nephew exploring his (not M1) iPad and a 'folio-type' keypad he has for that. The nephew enjoys having the iPad in his computing arsenal, it's a nifty device with lots of capabilities no question (but he uses a laptop running Linux as his 'serious computer' and has relegated the iPad 'folio keypad' to the closet).

Bottom line, for a variety of at least semi-informed reasons I'm focusing on true laptop options for my 'serious computing' wants and needs.

Yes, I'm a long-time iPhone user (original small SE and now iPhone 12 Mini); I love having a very 'pocketable' phone, I'm happy with iOS, but honestly use very few apps - for me the phone is primarily just a communications device (voice / text / email; I do not partake of any 'social media'; I do not use any 'streaming music' services).

[Centex]

Originally Posted by oldwave

.... However if the use is modest I.E. no heavy 4k video editing etc, configure the machine moderately and use external storge for long term archiving etc. ....

Thanks for your post / comments.

You've nailed my 'profile' and I'm already well-equipped with a fleet of external Samsung SSD's for backups and document archives which I've confirmed are compatible with the M1 MacBook (some will require reformatting from NTSF to ExFat, no worries).

My static graphics / drafting / drawing needs are very modest on today's spectrum.

I've got large monitors which will also play nice with the MacBook.

So, my focus to date is on the current MacBook Air, the base 8GB RAM, with the upgrade to a 512GB internal SSD.

I don't think I've need for the 16GB RAM upgrade, any comments on what would justify that? I'd upgraded my Dell laptop from 8 to 16GB when developing and running very large Excel-based financial spreadsheets with multiple pivot-tables (in support of a motorcycle racing organization) but I no longer have that need and hope to never get into that again!

[oldwave]

Originally Posted by Centex

Thanks for your post / comments.

You've nailed my 'profile' and I'm already well-equipped with a fleet of external Samsung SSD's for backups and document archives which I've confirmed are compatible with the M1 MacBook (some will require reformatting from NTSF to ExFat, no worries).

My static graphics / drafting / drawing needs are very modest on today's spectrum.

I've got large monitors which will also play nice with the MacBook.

So, my focus to date is on the current MacBook Air, the base 8GB RAM, with the upgrade to a 512GB internal SSD.

I don't think I've need for the 16GB RAM upgrade, any comments on what would justify that? I'd upgraded my Dell laptop from 8 to 16GB when developing and running very large Excel-based financial spreadsheets with multiple pivot-tables (in support of a motorcycle racing organization) but I no longer have that need and hope to never get into that again!

The new M1 Macs run very well on 8 gigs of ram. I expect this machine would do the trick just fine, in fact I was going to go with the M1 mini for my current needs with upgraded RAM until the latest announcement of the M1 studio with the M1 Max chip. Good luck.

[cpaharley2008]

I'm using a fairly new 2020 Mac Air with 8 gig and Apple m1 chip. It operates very fast....

[UncleTim]

Originally Posted by Centex

I don't think I've need for the 16GB RAM upgrade, any comments on what would justify that?

IMHO
Browers
Video editing
Photo editing - Raws
Motion
Compressor
Some spreadsheets
Any Affinity program
Almost any photo DAM software
Keep any 10 applications open and use them
Parallels or other windows emulation software
Virtual machines
Any CAD software

These are the things that mainly eat my memory pool. I got 16 mb, which is mostly enough. I would do more just to skip the aggravation.

[splitting_lanes]

I agree with the list uncle Tim made. Browsers really eat up ram when you have a lot of tabs open.

One additional thing to consider, you may be doing some emulation with the M1 chip to run x86 code.

I’d suggest going with 16gb ram. It’s not something you can add to a Mac like you can to pc’s.

But you know your usage better than us

[Centex]

EDIT - with apology, I should have done better legwork before posting this question, a reasonable indicator of the answer to my curiosity is found here
__________

Perhaps an odd way to look at things but bear with me ...

My 2014 Dell laptop becomes 'functionally obsolete' after 11 years (when Win10 security support ends and it won't run Win 11). Yeah, the machine will still function running Win 10 after that but lacking security update support, for my purposes it's "non-functional", so take that as a given for this exercise.

I know Apple products face analogous 'functional obsolescence' as defined above based on OS version support and ending security updates, but I've no feel at all for the timeframes when talking macOS.

• If one buys a MacBook Air M1 today, delivered with macOS Monterey, for how many years should one reasonably expect that machine to be supported with compatible OS / security updates from Apple?

Just curious ....