If you feel like Google Chrome is running faster on your Mac, then you’re not mistaken. Google recently shared some new statistics behind the web browser, and is claiming that Chrome is now 20% faster on Macs based on the Speedometer benchmark testing.
According to Google’s data, Chrome on Mac hit over 360 on Speedometer testing. That comes just three months after the browser became the highest scoring browser on Speedometer, ever with a score of 300. For reference, Goggle tested Chrome on the M1 Max MacBook Pro running macOS 12.3.1, with Chrome version 104.0.5102.0. The browser was the ARM64 native optimized version. The below graph shows the differences between older and newer Chrome versions in scoring, where higher scores are better.
To make sure Chrome is always on top of these benchmarks, Google also uses its own internal benchmarking infrastructure. Yet, Speedometer 2.0 is the most representative of real-world browsing. It runs a cycle of various common tests and web applications to simulate user actions such as adding to-do items.
The test also ensures that the results are accurate by timing simulated user interactions and runs commonly used browser frameworks used on the most popular websites in the world. Per Google, Speedometer is also the best test for measuring a browser’s JavaScript performance.
How did Google get that score? Well, it comes down to several tweaks under the hood of Chrome. Fastlookups, fast parsing, faster JS calls, pointer compression, short builtins, and Sparkplug are just a few examples. Google says that all of these tweaks have led to an 83% improvement in Speedometer score. The performance benefits of the M1 CPU, as well as browser engine features like Sparkplug and LTO+PGO are other factors too, per the company.
“We are excited to achieve this milestone in performance and look forward to delivering even more performance improvements with each release,” said Google in announcing the milestone back in March.
Microsoft’s own web browser, Edge, is also based on the same Chromium engine as Google Chrome. In our tests, it scores around 218, though we’ve used a base model M1 Mac Mini, and not the same hardware as Google in their tests.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.