Apple decided to build their own CPU chip called ARM and ditch the Intel chip.

What that means is the new MacBook Pro laptops coming out soon with the new ARM chip will run all the same apps that you have on your iPad and iPhone. COOL But the bad part is that you can’t run Bootcamp to install Windows on your Laptop. And they aren’t sure you’ll be able to run the Parallels program that installs the Windows program on the Apple desktop.

This new chip will give you longer battery life, and also they can now make the laptops much thinner.

So, what else is new? Well, since you’ve been running the new Catalina on your Macs, they have recently announced Big Sur, which will be the new operating system for Macs coming out soon.

There is a new Control Center like the one on your iPad. The Launch Pad that displays all your Apps has an icon on the dock that, when pressed, will display a list of all your apps.

On the top right of your laptop is a special icon for Notifications and Widgets. And next to that is another new icon that you can use to instantly setup your Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Airdrop, display brightness, sound, airplay and keyboard brightness. No need to open up System Preferences anymore to do all that.

When opening up Safari, choose different background displays (like wall paper) with the icon on the lower right. There you can customizer the interface. Also, you can choose what you want to show up on the display, like Siri suggestions, frequently visited sites, reading lists and of course favorites.

The main screen when you start up Big Sur is a really cool aerial shot of the Big Sur coastline with the Bigsby Bridge and the fog rolling in.

The iPhone will have a new operating system called iOS 14.

There is a new app called Translate that gives you the ability to translate a message into 11 different languages. The Maps App will now give you cycling directions.

You can use your iPhone to start your car without the car lock key, and you can send access to a friend so they can start it, too.

On the iPad, you can use Apple Pencil to write out a sentence, and it will automatically translate it into text.

Well, for all you lazy users who hate second-clicking your mouse, now all you have to do is to just keep holding your mouse down, scroll on down the list and find what your looking for, and then release it. No more double-click. Speaking of second-click, you can now hold down the Option Key and click on the Apple icon on the top left, then choose Restart. Get this: instead of asking you if you want to restart your computer, it will automatically restart it.

Some good news: Netflix is going to start streaming live TV programs. Not good news for the cable companies.

Let’s say you’re looking for fertilizer for your petunia flower, and you just opened up Safari and logged onto Home Depot, but you want to check out the prices at Lowe’s, too. Well, instead of opening up another browser like Firefox or Chrome, you can just click on File up in the upper lefthand corner and choose Open New Window. Whammo!!! A new window appears in which you can log onto Lowe’s, and now you have two windows side-by-side with two different browsers showing the price difference between fertilizers.

Send your computer-related questions to MauiMist@aol.com.