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Apple Silicon

Apple Officially Ends Intel Mac Era: What This Means for OpenCore and Hackintosh Communities

By Robert DeLuca in Apple Silicon on

Apple’s Full Transition to Apple Silicon: A Defining Schism for Intel Mac Enthusiasts

Apple’s announcement at WWDC 2025 confirming that macOS 26 Tahoe will be the final version supporting Intel-based Macs marks a decisive milestone in the company’s hardware evolution. The declaration, made during the WWDC Platforms State of the Union, signals not just the conclusion of macOS support for legacy Intel hardware, but also a fundamental change in the viability of OpenCore Legacy Patcher (OCLP) and Hackintosh practices, both long established in the macOS enthusiast community.

End of the Road: OpenCore and Hackintosh

According to AppleInsider and 9to5Mac, the technical and community ramifications of this transition are significant. OpenCore, which has enabled macOS updates on unsupported Intel Macs, will no longer be able to patch future versions. Apple will remove all Intel-specific code—including the x86_64 kernel and related binaries—from upcoming macOS releases, starting

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Valve Releases Beta of Steam Client Optimized for Apple Silicon

By Robert DeLuca in Apple Silicon on

Valve’s Move to Native Apple Silicon: A Milestone for Mac Gamers

Valve has launched a major update to its Steam gaming client, delivering long-awaited native support for Apple Silicon Macs—five years after Apple’s transition to its proprietary M-series chips began. According to Valve’s official release notes and multiple technology reports (AppleInsider, 9to5Mac), this update is available now as a beta and represents a fundamental shift in how Steam runs on modern Macs.

Why This Matters for the Apple Ecosystem

Apple introduced its custom ARM-based Apple Silicon architecture in 2020, spurring a gradual migration away from Intel-based software. Most major third-party apps have since adopted native Apple Silicon support, but Steam’s client remained reliant on Rosetta 2 translation. This allowed the app to run but incurred notable performance and efficiency penalties, especially for the Chromium-based UI and resource-intensive features.

Valve’s beta update transitions both the

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Apple Ushers in a Post-Intel Era: Rosetta 2 Support Set to End After macOS 27

By Robert DeLuca in Apple Silicon on

Rosetta 2’s Role Comes to a Close as Apple Finalizes the Intel-to-Silicon Transition

Following announcements at WWDC and an updated developer document, Apple has outlined a definitive end for Rosetta 2, its translation layer enabling Apple silicon Macs to run legacy Intel-based macOS applications. According to Apple’s documentation, Rosetta 2 will remain fully available through macOS 27, after which its functionality will be significantly curtailed starting with macOS 28.

Significance for Enthusiasts and Developers

For the Apple community, this marks a major milestone. Rosetta 2 was introduced alongside the first Apple silicon Macs (M1) in 2020, serving as a critical bridge between Intel’s x86 software ecosystem and Apple’s ARM-based architecture. The translation layer allowed Apple’s rapid chip transition without leaving long-tail desktop and pro applications behind. As reported by MacRumors and AppleInsider, Rosetta 2 provides translation mostly at install time, reducing runtime overhead compared to

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WWDC25 Day 2: Deep Dive into Apple's Developer Tools and Platform Redesigns

By Robert DeLuca in WWDC25 on

Day 2 at WWDC25: Amplifying Apple's Unified Vision for Developers

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference 2025 continues to set the tone for its future ecosystem, with Day 2 spotlighting its commitment to developer empowerment and cross-platform harmony. According to Apple's official schedule (developer.apple.com), the day’s agenda pivots toward hands-on lab sessions and in-depth technical rundowns following the high-profile keynote and design unveilings of Day 1.

Platforms State of the Union: A Unified Software Era

The Platforms State of the Union, recapped on Apple's portal, delved into the implications of Apple’s year-aligned OS strategy—iOS 26, macOS Tahoe, iPadOS 26, and more—first announced during the keynote (MacRumors). This fresh approach, anchored by the cross-platform 'Liquid Glass' design language and bolstered by the capabilities of Apple Silicon, reflects an overhaul comparable in scale to the iOS 7 redesign.

Developers are now seeing the transitional impact, as a

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iPhone 18 Pro’s Rumored A20 Chip: 2nm Technology and a New Packaging Era

By Robert DeLuca in iPhone 18 Pro on

Apple’s chip development roadmap has long dictated the performance trajectory of its flagship product lines, and if current industry reports hold, the iPhone 18 Pro line—and potentially Apple’s first folding iPhone—could mark a new era in mobile silicon.

The 2nm Transition: What’s Changing?

Multiple analyst reports, including recent commentary from Jeff Pu (GF Securities) and Ming-Chi Kuo (TF International Securities), point to Apple equipping the iPhone 18 Pro, Pro Max, and projected iPhone Fold with a newly designed A20 processor. The most discussed upgrade is the use of TSMC’s 2nm fabrication technology, representing a generational leap from the 3nm nodes used in current A-series chips.

Advancements in Fabrication

TSMC’s 2nm process is expected to enable higher transistor densities, leading to improvements in performance and efficiency. According to industry sources, the 2nm node could allow for:

  • Increased processing performance with comparable or reduced power
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