Apple’s M1 MacBook Air is getting a $150 discount, more devices are also on sale We start today's deals with the latest M1-powered MacBook Air, the 13 and 16-inch Samuel Martinez.

• With Big Sur and M1, Mac users can run a greater range of apps than ever before. All of Apple’s Mac software is now Universal and runs natively on M1 systems. Existing Mac apps that have not been updated to Universal will run seamlessly with Apple’s Rosetta 2 technology. And iPhone and iPad apps can now run directly on the Mac.
• GhostTrick said: 'Joe Kreiner, Epic’s vice president of business development, was questioned over why Fortnite isn’t available on xCloud, and confirmed it was a deliberate choice. “We viewed Microsoft’s efforts with xCloud to be competitive with our PC offerings,” says Kreiner in the deposition.

Microsoft released a beta of their web-based xCloud game streaming service recently. It would seem that this version of the service will work with any web browser that supports WebRTC, so let’s see how that works.

I decided to plug an Xbox controller into the USB port of my Pinebook Pro running Manjaro Linux and the open-source Chromium web browser.

If you have an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription, you can try the new beta web-based streaming service at Xbox.com/Play as well. The system requirements say that you need a Windows 10 PC or an Apple iOS 14+ device, but… guess what… Linux works, too.

Of course, you’ll also want a high-speed 10Mbps+ internet connection for the streaming, and an Xbox controller plugged in via USB or paired via Bluetooth. Microsoft mainly built this version because Apple won’t let them make a game streaming app for the Apple App Store, so the web-based method is a workaround for that. The bonus is that this web-based version happens to work with a lot of other platforms too.

This Pinebook Pro has extremely low specs by the way. It’s a six-core, 1.4GHz, Pine64 ARM processor with only 4GB of RAM and 64GB eMMC storage. If that was running Windows 10, everything would be laggy!

See below for how Xbox Game Streaming actually works on this very inexpensive Linux laptop running Manjaro XFCE Linux.

As you’ll see, the simple games work quite well, while more action-oriented games are probably going to need a bit more processing power on the client-side. Outriders worked ok, but there was certainly some latency, and Halo 5 Guardians turned out to be practically unplayable.

News

2021-08-07 Apple Arcade Surpasses 200 Games via @__tosh
2021-06-27 Parallels Desktop 16: Birthday Sale (25% price discount) via @__tosh
2021-04-19 Microsoft xCloud Beta for iPhone and iPad to Launch This Week via @__tosh

Xcloud Mac M1 Mini

2021-04-04 Apple adds more games to Apple Arcade including new titles like Fantasian as well as classics like Cut the Rope, Fruit Ninja, Solitaire, Threes and Monument Valley via @__tosh
2021-01-15 Apple begins blocking M1 Mac users from side loading iPhone and iPad applications via @__tosh
2021-01-14 Dolphin (Nintendo Wii/GameCube emulator): 30-50% speedup as well as improved stability from native M1 support on Apple Silicon Macs compared to Rosetta 2 via discord:plex123,goldmaster11
2021-01-14 Apple might stop sideloading of iOS games (and other apps) on Apple Silicon Macs in a future version of macOS Big Sur via discord:goldmaster11
2020-12-31 MoltenVK 1.1.1 brings Vulkan support to Apple Silicon Macs via @__tosh
2020-12-30 10 Best FPS Games on M1 Apple Silicon Mac via @Andytizer
2020-12-26 Parallels Advanced Gaming Setup Guide for M1 Apple Silicon and Windows 10 ARM via @Andytizer

Xcloud Mac M1 Plus

2020-12-24 The Game 'Inside' is free today in the Epic Games Store via @__tosh
2020-12-22 Apple working on 2021 Apple TV with stronger focus in gaming via @markgurman
2020-12-22 Steam Winter Sale is on until January 5th 2021 via @Andytizer
2020-12-22 JoyMapperSilicon adds support for Nintendo Joy-Con and Nintendo Pro controllers to Apple Silicon Macs via @chenqibin99
2020-12-22 Experience Report: M1 MacBook Air vs Intel MacBook Pro 16' for gaming via @__tosh
2020-12-18 Great News for Game Compatibility: Fallout 2 runs well via Parallels on Windows for ARM via @Andytizer
2020-12-16 StepMania 5.3 is one of the first native games for Apple Silicon Macs with full support for controllers and pads via @TeamRizu
2020-12-14 Apple releases macOS Big Sur 11.1 adding support for CS:GO and full screen support for iPad games via @__tosh
2020-12-09 Xbox Cloud Gaming Coming to iOS in Spring 2021 via @__tosh
2020-12-08 Google Stadia arrives in eight new European countries via @__tosh
2020-12-05 EVE Online: CCP Games developing a native macOS client via @PeterBlanc11
2020-12-02 Baldur's Gate III: Patch 3 released, adds support for Rosetta 2 via @MrMacRight
2020-12-02 Apple names Disco Elysium 'Mac Game of the Year 2020' via @__tosh
2020-12-02 Mac version of Metro: Exodus in the works according to 4A Games via @Andytizer