Parallels has today released a new version, enabling Apple fans to run Windows 10 on their M1 Macbooks. Parallels Desktop 16.5 is now out, featuring full native support for Macs with Apple M1.
For years, people have speculated about the ability to run iOS apps on the Mac. This speculation was caused by the increasing similarity in the user experiences across the Mac, the iPhone and the iPad, and by Apple’s continuing tech demos showing their work on this capability.
Well, that day has finally arrived. Parallels® just released a new version of the Parallels® Access iOS client that can also be run on an M1 Mac.
I will admit that I was never really that interested in running an iOS app on my Mac, but I now see that I was wrong. This is pretty neat! In addition to Parallels Access, I installed a few other iOS apps on my Mac, among them, HBO Max. In general, a dedicated, special built app will almost always be better than using a webpage with similar functionality. And that is true for Parallels Access and true for HBO Max.
How to install an iOS app on an M1 Mac
The process of finding iOS apps that you want to download and install on an M1 Mac is a bit obtuse right now. (Figure 1). You use the App Store, but to find the iOS apps, you must first go to your account by clicking on your name in the main App Store window, and then use the selector buttons “Mac Apps” or “iPhone & iPad Apps” and choose “iPhone & iPad Apps”. Then you can search for the iOS app you want, for example “Parallels Access”. Hopefully, this will be easier and less circuitous in the future.
- From my understandin Parallels cannot support Windows 10 x64 on a M1 based Mac. Instead it will support Windows ARM. And Parallels is hoping that Windows Arm will get a x64 emulator. So it will end up in running a emulaor on a virtualized machine.
- Windows ARM with x64 apps inside a Parallels VM on Apple M1 before 3Q2021. KingOfPain macrumors newbie. Jan 8, 2004 18 1. Dec 30, 2020 #4.
- On Wednesday, Parallels launched a version of its Parallels Desktop for Mac virtualization software that works on the M1-based MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and Mac mini that Apple launched last year.
If you can’t find an iOS app that you know exists, this may be because the developer has marked the app as not downloadable on a Mac. This is often because the developer has not yet tested the iOS app on the Mac.
Running the Parallels Access iOS client on a Mac
Running the Parallels Access iOS client on a Mac looks just like using it on an iPad (Figure 2).
In this figure you can see that I have seven remote computers set up in Parallels Access: three MacBook Pros, two 27˝ iMac computers, one 21˝ iMac running macOS Catalina, and a really old ThinkPad running Windows 7. I can access any of them from the Parallels Access client on my iPad or on my M1 MacBook Pro. (Of course, I can also access these remote computers from any computer with a modern browser, but that is not the focus of this post.) Most importantly, the experiences on the M1 Mac and the iPad are nearly identical. The Mac has no touch screen, and the iPad has no mouse, but aside from these differences, Parallels Access is the same on both platforms.
Video 1 shows some of the Parallels Access functionality from the iOS client running on the M1 MacBook Pro. You can see the Remote Assistance feature added to Parallels Access last summer is available in Parallels Access when you run it on the M1 Mac.
I am also happy to report that the amusing “bug” that is present in almost every remote access application is present in Parallels Access on the M1 Mac: the ability to recursively access the very computer you are running the application from. You can see the result of this in Figure 3.
If you have an M1 Mac, let us know in the comments what iOS apps you have installed on it.
Parallels Access terminology check
Parallels Access is composed of two pieces of software: The Parallels Access client, which is installed on your phone or tablet, and the Parallels Access agent, which is installed on your Mac and PC. These two pieces of software work together to deliver remote access to your Mac and PC. You may have heard that:
The latest version of Parallels Access is a universal binary, meaning it contains the necessary code to run at full speed on either Mac with Intel processor or Mac with the Apple M1 chip.
This is true, but at the time that this was written, the only part of Parallels Access that ran on the Mac was the agent, so saying that the agent is now a universal binary is unnecessary. Well, the world has changed. Since Parallels Access can now run on the Mac—actually only on a Mac with an M1 chip—I would re-word that earlier statement to become:
The latest version of the Parallels Access agent is a universal binary, meaning it contains the necessary code to run at full speed on either Mac with Intel processor or Mac with the Apple M1 chip.
Third-party app developers are really stepping up to revise their apps for the new Mac computers with the Apple M1 chip. Every day I receive update notices or see news stories about these updates.
Parallels For Mac M1 Chip
Some of the Mac apps I use every day have released updates. These include the Microsoft Office for Mac suite, ScreenFlow, VLC and many others. (If I tried to give you a full list of the apps that have been updated, it would be out of date by the time you read this. Lol.) Not sure if a particular Mac app has been updated for the new Mac computers with the Apple M1 chip? Check the sidebar below.
Truthfully, Parallels is no exception. The latest versions of Parallels® Access and Parallels® Toolbox, are universal binaries, meaning they contain the necessary code to run at full speed on either Mac with Intel processor or Mac with the Apple M1 chip. You probably already know that in December Parallels released a Technical Preview of Parallels® Desktop for the new Mac with Apple M1 chip. Already, tens of thousands of Parallels beta testers have started using this Technical Preview.
Parallels And Apple M1
At the risk of revealing my age, I was a Mac user when Apple switched from Motorola processors to PowerPC, and when they switched again from PowerPC to Intel. The switch to Apple Silicon appears (at first blush) to be moving faster, and with developers getting their apps updated much more quickly.
If you have a Mac with the Apple M1 chip, please let us know in the comments about your experience in this transition.
How to tell if a Mac app has been updated for Mac with the Apple M1 chip
There are two easy ways to check if an app has been updated for Mac with the Apple M1 chip:
#1: Look at the app’s Get Info dialog
If you just want to check on a single app, this way is the best choice.
To open the app’s Get Info dialog, select the app, and then use Cmd-I, or choose the “Get Info” menu item on the right-click menu.
The “Kind” field will tell you whether the app is Universal or Intel.
See Figure 1.
#2: Look at the Mac System Report
If you want to check the status of all your apps, this way is a better choice.
To do so:
1. Choose the “About this Mac” option on the Apple menu.
2. Click on the “System Report” button.
3. Click on “Applications” in the “Software” entry in the left pane of the System Report window.
4. The “Kind” column will show you whether an app is Universal or Intel. Click on an individual app for more details.
See Figure 2.