Android Emulator For Macbook M1

 

The new MacBook Air reveals a world where thin and light laptops don't have to be compromised. 我已经在M1 MacBook Air上下载了Android Studio，但无法运行模拟器，这只会给我一个错误。我在Mac上搜索Android Studio要求，并说它需要Mac OS 10。.

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March 14, 2021☕️15 min read🔖#tools

Updated on: August 28, 2021

Note: This article was updated in August 2021. The Macbook Pro M1 I was using crashed and stopped working without any reason on August 25, 2021. In just seven months of use.

It took time to get it repaired. That forced me to buy another laptop. While setting up the new laptop, I thought it is an excellent time to update this post.


lol @apple started shipping used/damaged products to India by boxing them as NEW?
cc: @AppleSupportpic.twitter.com/hmgZwiS5Kl

— Aman Mittal ⚛️☕🖖🥑 (@amanhimself) August 26, 2021

I recently upgraded from Macbook Air 2017 to Macbook Pro with an M1 chip. My four-year-old Macbook Air was giving up. The performance to run heavy tasks like using the iOS simulator when developing and working on React Native apps was declining. I had long given up using the Android emulator and used an actual Android device for testing. December 2020 was the time I decided its time to upgrade.

I had a long internal discussion with myself for almost a month about whether I should upgrade to M1 or stick with Intel-based chips and spend them bucks. Don't get me wrong here, M1 is not cheap either as I did go for a RAM upgrade to max limits, which is currently 16GB in the base model.

After going through some online reviews and research, the kind of performance I was expecting has been worth it so far (it is fast, no doubt). I received it two weeks back when writing this post, and since then, I have installed all the necessary tools and utilities that help me work on Web development and React Native apps.

My local environment currently includes:

  • Homebrew (now supported Apple Silicon machines since 2.6.0)
  • Git
  • Node.js
  • npm
  • Zsh
  • Oh My Zsh
  • iTerm
  • Xcode
  • yarn
  • VSCode
  • Rosetta 2

OS apps:

  • Brave
  • Android Studio
  • Insomnia as REST API client
  • Xcode
  • Slack or Discord (for work and community)
  • There (to track team mate's timezone)
  • LICEcap (for gifs)
  • Zoom (for work)
  • GitHub Desktop App
  • Cleanshot (for screenshots)
  • Google Chrome
    • set to default
      • First things to do:
        • Log in to: Gmail, Twitter, GitHub, Outlook
        • Developer mode on
      • Extensions:
        • Grammarly
        • Toby to organize tabs

System Settings:

  • Disable Ask Siri
  • Disable Spotlight search except Applications, Calculator, Definition, and System Preferences.
  • Trackpad:
    • Fix direction: Scroll & Zoom > Natural off
    • Right click: Point & Click > Secondary Click
    • Disable dictionary lookup: Point & Click > Look up & data detectors off
    • More gestures > Swipe between pages off & App Exposé off
  • Finder settings:
    • Preferences > Advanced > Show filename extensions
    • Enable show path bar: View > Show Path Bar
  • Dock:
    • Turn auto hiding on

Copy dotfiles

iTerm

My favorite terminal app that I have been using for years is iTerm. I am currently using two versions of iTerm on my setup. One with Rosetta 2 enabled and the default one. This way, I can only use the Rosetta 2 emulator when required. There are no performance issues I have found with using iTerm with Rosetta 2 for ARM-based applications.

If you'd like a similar setup, go to the Applications folder in your Macbook and duplicate the iTerm application.

You can rename the duplicated iTerm app. I have renamed it to iTerm_rosetta to differentiate between the two. Right-click the duplicated app and click Get Info. In the General, check the box where it says Open using Rosetta.

Now, if you open the second terminal, it will be using Rosetta 2 emulator by default.

Other iTerm profile settings that I use:

Recently I started using Jetbrains Mono font.

For the overall looks and appearance, I use Dracula Pro Color Presets created by Zen Rocha.

And my last favorite thing is to split the working directory into two more different tabs using Command + D for horizontal panes.

Make sure to have the following setting configured from

General > Working Directory > select Advanced Configuration > click button Edit... > select Reuse previous session's directory under Working Directory for New Split Panes.

For terminal prompt, I use Spaceship ZSH.

Homebrew

On December 1, 2020, the Homebrew team announced on their website about the version release 2.6.0. The most significant changes among others they listed were the support for macOS Big Sur, using brew commands instead of brew cask and beginning to support macOS M1 and Apple Silicon or ARM-based chips.

Using the terminal, you can install the Homebrew by executing the default command:

brew installs:

  • node/npm
  • scrcpy (control Android devices connect via USB on mac)
  • adoptopenjdk8 (required for React Native)
  • Karabiner-Elements (remapping function keys)
  • watchman (required for React Native)

What is Karabiner-Elements?

When I bought Macbook Air M1, it had function keys (that got me excited), but I don't understand why Apple decided to replace function keys that would allow me to control Keyboard Brightness?! And moreover, replace it with 'Do Not Disturb'.

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Why? That got me confused 🤷

I found this tool called karabiner Elements that can be installed as a brew formula:

Here are the key mappings I am using now:

Git

I did install Git using brew command:

To authenticate GitHub to be used from the terminal environment, I'd recommend you to check out the official document on creating and accessing personal tokens.

Xcode

After installing Git, for me, the next step is to install Xcode app from Apple's App Store.

Then, install 'command line tools'. It is required by many of the formulae in Homebrew.

After installing it, make sure to open it for the first time, from the menu bar, open Xcode > Preferences > Locations and make sure that Command Line Tools point towards the current Xcode app.

ZSH and Oh My Zsh

ZSH is the default shell in macOS Big Sur. However, I like to use Oh My Zsh to manage the ZSH configuration, plugins, and a theme to prettify the terminal.

To install, run the command below:

After installation, make sure that the file .zshrc is exporting the below path at the top:

The first I like to do after setting up the bare minimum ZSH configuration is to install a plugin called zsh-syntax-highlighting. It provides syntax highlighting for the ZSH shell. Execute the series below commands in the terminal window:

This is my final ZSH configuration in the file ~/.zshrc file:

After installing the syntax highlight plugin, it starts to recognize the commands:

VSCode

VSCode and VS Code Insiders are currently supported on ARM chips (as of March 13, 2021). Download the installer for Insiders edition from here and for VSCode here.

I am still using the same VSCode configuration from my previous setup:

Themes

I usually like to switch between a dark and a light theme.

  • For the dark theme where I spent most of my time, I am was previously using morgan.codes-theme, but now I am using fairyFloss.
    • Other themes I switch between:
      • Quiet Light
  • For file icons, I love Material-Icon-Theme.
  • For terminal prompt, I use Spaceship ZSH.
  • Font: Jetbrains Mono font.

Extensions

I use VSCode editor for both writing code and writing blog posts. Thus, the list of extensions below is the combination of extensions that fulfills both of my purposes.

Global NPM Packages I use

  • gatsby-cli To build and test out my personal blog built with Gatsby.
  • npm-check to check for outdated, incorrect, and unused dependencies.
  • git-watch-log to watch a git repo and recent changes.

For React Native Development

  • install node
  • install Watchman to watch changes in the filesystem using the command: brew install watchman.
  • install following gems:
  • install Java Development Kit using the command: brew install --cask adoptopenjdk/openjdk/adoptopenjdk8.
  • Currently, I am using Arctic Fox Canary that supports Apple's based machines for Android Studio.
  • Then install Android SDK (I do not prefer AVD and use an actual device for testing)
  • scrcpy to display and control Android devices connect via USB on Mac.

⚛️ For more instructions on how to set up a development environment for React Native, please follow the official documentation here.

Rosetta 2

Update: I am not using the Rosetta environment to install anything on the secondary machine since August 2021. That is the reason I've mentioned it at the end of the post.

Rosetta 2 is the lifeline that allows you to run apps designed for Intel-based chips that use x86 architecture on ARM-based chips (in this case M1). This solution is provided by Apple in the form of an emulator and doesn't come pre-installed. You have to install it manually. Fire up the Terminal application that comes pre-installed on the Big Sur and let your first command to execute be:

Macbook

If you decide not to put the flag --agree-to-license, you will be prompted by Apple's interactive install, and you will have to agree to their terms and license conditions to use it.

Conclusion

That’s the setup I now use for my JavaScript, Node.js, React and React Native. I think it's a good machine. Hopefully, M1 is just the beginning of a new era of powerful computers for daily work use 🤞

Android Emulator For Macbook M1 Free

🤔 The only thing left for me is to find a way to transfer all laptop swag/stickers from my Macbook Air 2017 to Pro. I miss having them on this one.

isapplesiliconready.com is another helpful link I found to check what is compatible to work on Apple Silicon chips natively or using Rosetta or not optimized at all.

© Provided by T3 MacBook Air M1 2020 review

Welcome to T3's Apple MacBook Air (M1, 2020) review. This is the start of something huge for Apple: computers made using its own chips. Ever since the iPad debuted the first Apple-made chip back in 2010, we had to wonder whether this would be the long-term plan.

The M1 chip makes that a reality, and it turns out to be a huge leap forward for computing – this is easily one of the best laptops available in 2020, and is the best lightweight laptop for most people. This chip is as powerful as a 'pro' laptop, yet runs cool enough that the MacBook Air doesn't need any fans and is totally silent, while also delivering up to 50% more battery life than its predecessor… and somehow doesn't cost any more.

We're so used to laptops having compromises that we have to work around or understand, but this one mostly doesn't. There are some potential issues we'll come to, but if you just want a computer than can do every standard computer task without breaking a sweat (but could do much more if you ever need it to in the future), the MacBook Air is pretty much unmatched.

  • MacBook Air M1 vs MacBook Pro M1: the difference explained
  • Best MacBook Air deals (including Intel models)

Apple MacBook Air (M1, 2020) review: Price and release date

The MacBook Air (M1 2020) was released on November 17th 2020, and starts from £999/$999/AU$1,599 for its base model, which gets you an eight-core Apple M1 processor, a seven-core Apple GPU, 8GB of integrated RAM and 256GB of storage.

This is a pretty typical price for these kinds of specs, in line with Windows competition… except for the processor, of course.

There's a higher-tier model, which costs £1,249/$1,249/AU$1,949, and the main difference is that this version comes with 512GB of storage instead of 256GB, though also get an eight-core GPU. You again get 8GB of RAM here, though either model can be upgraded to 16GB of RAM for a (larger than is really reasonable) fee.

256GB isn't a huge amount – it's actually 251GB after formatting, and then over 30GB is taken up the operating system and included apps, so you get more like 220GB to play with.

However, that's probably enough for casual users. If most of your laptop use is web browsing, creating documents, watching videos and looking at your photos, this will be fine.

The problem is that you can't expand it at any time in the future, so if you can afford the more expensive version with more storage, we think it's a wise investment – when it comes to power, this could last you years, so you don't want to find that you might get into a hobby later where the lack of storage is an issue. You can actually go all the way up to 2TB of storage by paying more, too.

It's a similar story with the RAM. 8GB is fine for casual use – you won't notice any issues. We've been doing some more intensive stuff with our review model (which has 8GB) and it's kept up with us well enough.

But again it isn't upgradeable in the future, so if there's any chance you might want to push your Air further in the future, it may be a wise bit of future-proofing.

Apple MacBook Air (M1, 2020) review: Design & build

Apple hasn't changed the design of the MacBook Air externally at all for this new version. It has the iconic tapered design that makes it lower volume than the MacBook Pro, even though they're about the same depth at the thickest point.

It has the tough aluminium build and impeccable fit and finish we expect from Apple's laptops. There are almost no joins, and it's totally sturdy.

It's available in the same three colours that it has been recently: gold, space grey and silver.

The keyboard is the new Magic Keyboard Apple uses on all its machines, and it feels great – comfortable, with good feedback and a nice amount of travel. The trackpad is large, easy to use and responds perfectly. There's a fingerprint sensor that doubles as a power key, which works well and is convenient.

On the left-hand side, you have two USB-C ports that actually pull triple duty: they're also Thunderbolt 4 ports and power ports. For connectivity, this makes them stunningly fast for hooking up external drives, and they can output video to external screens up to 6K resolution.

They're pretty overkill for the average user, though, and only having two ports can potentially be limiting. Not everyone will have a problem with it, since so much is done online these days, but it means you'll need to buy an adapter for uploading photos from a camera's SD card, say, or even to connect a standard USB plug on a printer or thumb drive. These adapters aren't too expensive, but it's just a little extra hassle.

On the other side, you've got a 3.5mm headphone jack, and that's it. Two more ports here (even if they were USB-C again) would be useful, since it'd mean you could plug the power in on both sides, and also just makes it possible to plug in more accessories.

The other design change is here is that there's no fan any more inside. Fanless laptops have been few and far between, but they're really nice – no hot air slowly cooking your lap, and no noise, even when you do something that turns out to be surprisingly intensive, like open Slack or watch a YouTube video.

The MacBook Air gets warm, but not excessively hot – it's noticeably cooler than almost any laptop we've tried, including the previous MacBook Air in particular.

Apple MacBook Air (M1, 2020) review: Performance

The new MacBook Air is screamingly fast for a mid-price, lightweight machine. Actually, it's screamingly fast for almost any laptop.

Its Geekbench 5 scores of 1732 in single-core and 7556 in multi-core give you an idea of what to expect: that is as fast for single-core performance as laptops get, and for multi-core performance it's stronger than the 16-inch MacBook Pro that costs more than twice as much.

It's not just benchmarks either – in practical tests such as video encoding or compressing files, we saw performance pretty much in line with hefty pro machines. The longer a task goes on, the more that an eight-core MacBook Pro starts to gain an advantage thanks to being actively cooled… but a machine like that costs triple the price of this!

That's all paired with storage that's incredibly fast too – we measured write speeds of 2292MB/s and read speeds of 2789MB/s using BlackMagic's Disk Speed Test, which is around twice what the previous MacBook Air achieved.

In combination, very fast storage and a very past processor means you don't really have to wait for anything to happen. Open the lid and the screen is already waiting for you put your finger on the scanner by the time you've lifted it – which instantly unlocks it.

Apps open immediately, working with files is lag-free, website loading is as fast as your internet can handle… there just no compromise for having a thin and light laptop.

Remarkably, this all applies to the graphics too. The M1's GPU appears to be close to what a mid-level discrete graphic chip is capable of, and is a massive leap forward from what came before in this kind of machine.

It's capable of playing all kinds of games smoothly enough, even when they haven't been optimised for the M1 chip yet – you can play newer games on decent settings, and we've been playing some favourites from Steam such as XCOM 2 and Planet Coaster.

Those aren't high-end games, but they're more than capable of pushing this type of laptop beyond its limits even at middling settings normally, and we had no problem playing them at great frame rates. And this is the machine with a seven-core GPU – the higher-tier MacBook Air would have a little extra oomph from an extra GPU core.

It's no gaming machine, don't get us wrong, but that something this size and weight plays games this well at all is kind of mind-blowing.

Apple MacBook Air (M1, 2020) review: Software

The MacBook Air M1 runs macOS 11 (Big Sur), which has been optimised for the new chip, helping it to come on as instantly as an iPhone, and to help apps make the most of the multi-core processor.

For the most part, it looks and works exactly like any other Mac with macOS 11, but there are some key differences because of the different chip.

Because the M1 chip is built very differently to Intel chips, ideally all apps would have a custom version made for the M1 machines. All of Apple's apps do, and other developers are rolling these out at a good rate – even Adobe has early versions of Photoshop and Lightroom available, and Adobe has been infamously slow at this kind of thing in the past.

However, even for apps that haven't taken this jump yet, there is a solution called 'Rosetta 2' built into the operating system: any Mac app that hasn't had an M1 version made should still work, with the OS silently translating things in the background. This has a bit of a performance hit, but here's the thing: the M1 chip is so fast that it still runs these converted apps faster than an equivalent Intel chip.

It all means that even though this new breed of laptop has some compatibility issues in theory, in practice it's fine, and you wouldn't even notice when there is an issue.

That's not true 100% of the time, though. People who use more obscure software combinations may find real problems that stop some software running. The main issue tends to be with plugins (in music software, say) – the main bit of software may work, but a plugin may not.

We stress that this won't affect 99% of people – it's only really a pro issue with some specific setups. But because the M1 chip is new, it's a possible factor.

However, the flip side of all this is that the MacBook Air M1 can actually run iPhone and iPad apps as well as Mac apps. So if you have a favourite iOS app that doesn't have a good Mac equivalent, you can just download the iPhone version from the App Store instead.

In theory, great – in practice, it's mixed. The apps we've tried worked well enough as long as they're not too complicated about gestures and things (remember, no touchscreen on Macs, so the mouse pointer just becomes your finger).

However, half the ones you'd really want here have actually been excluded from running on the Mac by the developer. Instagram? Not there. Netflix? Nope. Prime Video? Forget it.

It's a nice option to have, but as much as we've wanted to make good use of it, we've struggled during our time with Air.

Another change is that this machine can't dual-boot into Windows, which is an option on Intel Macs. So for those who really just need some Windows software from time to time, that's not an option here.

Android Studio Apple M1 Emulator

And finally, there's no external GPU support on the M1 Macs currently – again, this is only a problem for a few people with specific pro needs.

Apple MacBook Air (M1, 2020) review: Screen & speakers

The MacBook Air's screen is a sharp 2560x1600 16:10 screen, which is the same as the previous Intel MacBook Air model. The typical brightness of 400 nits is also the same as before, and is bright enough for this kind of model. A bit brighter would be preferable because it can dim a bit too much when viewing off-angle – which happens with laptops unavoidably sometimes – but it's never a major problem.

The one change in the screen is that it now supports the wider P3 colour gamut. This means it can offer more realistic colours in some situations – the best way to take advantage is viewing your iPhone photos on it, because those are taken with the same wide colour range.

The MacBook Air has surprisingly good speakers speakers built-in too – they're really well balanced and full, and elevate the sound out from the body nicely, with pretty noticeable stereo separation.

Apple has also updated the microphone array here, which is welcome for video calls and similar stuff – the three-mic array is definitely better for clear audio.

We'll mention the webcam here too. Apple has kept it as a 720p HD model, but with improved processing from the M1 chip. And it's significantly better than the embarrassing webcam on the previous model, but struggles with ultimately basic stuff like white balance as well as being lower resolution than we want a premium laptop to be. It's fine, it's just not good.

Apple MacBook Air (M1, 2020) review: Battery

Believe the hype. If you want a laptop where you just don't have to worry about battery life very much, this is it. Use it for a couple of hours and drop it 10% or so, close it on standby, pick it up tomorrow at the same battery level and use it some more… maybe charge it once a week.

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It's just one less thing you have to think about, particularly if most of your use is regular casual browsing and light app use.

The most intensive on-going battery drain we managed on it was playing games, unsurprisingly, which taxes everything to the fullest. That reduced the battery by around 24% per hour, which still gives it fours of battery life – way beyond what thicker gaming laptops (or anything else) manage while playing. In fact, that's more than double what we'd expect an Intel equivalent laptop to achieve.

Android Emulator For Apple M1 Chip

Outside of games, the most we pushed the battery was downloading huge files at speeds averaging 7.5MB/s, with the screen left on at full brightness too. This has the wireless tech going, the processor running to assign all that new data, and the screen is always a big energy drain.

And that still only drained 10% per hour. That was the worst-case scenario we found for standard use beyond gaming. Otherwise, Apple's claims of 15 hours of use seem totally in line with our experience.

Apple MacBook Air (M1, 2020) review: Verdict

The MacBook Air (M1, 2020) is the ideal laptop for most people, because it does the thing all great computers should: it just gets out of your way.

It's so fast that it'll never slow you down. It'll pretty much always have charge. It doesn't get loud or overly hot. It's comfortable and light.

There are reasons people might not want to choose it – the limited range of ports, or macOS not being suitable for your apps, or worries that specialist software won't work with the new chip – but for the average computer buyer, this machine is just wonderful, and is good value.

And though it isn't part of the machine's specs, it's always worth noting that Apple is one of very few companies you can buy from where you can go directly into a company's store for repairs, which is always welcome peace of mind.