Apple's official public release of macOS Monterey arrives on Monday, October 25, and users should be aware that there are several features in macOS 12 that are only available to machines powered by Apple silicon chips.

On Macs powered by M1, ‌M1‌ Pro, and ‌M1‌ Max chips, Apple has enhanced the Maps app to include a new globe view that allows you to spin the world around and zoom into different regions on Earth.

Object Capture allows users to create a photo-realistic, AR-optimized 3D object by stitching together a series of photographs.

All Apple Silicon Macs support Object Capture, but it is only supported on Intel Macs that have at least 16GB of RAM and 4GB of VRAM.

The Text-to-speech feature in macOS allows users to select portions of text or highlight whole documents to be read out to them.

This is a unique period in the Mac's history, as Apple is currently in the midst of a two-year transition from Intel processors to its custom Apple silicon chips in Macs, with the changeover slated to be completed by WWDC 2022.

Just last week at its "Unleashed" event, Apple unveiled new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models powered by even higher performance ‌M1‌ Pro and ‌M1‌ Max chips.

Intel chips continue to be available in desktop machines that include the ‌Mac mini‌, ‌iMac‌, and Mac Pro, but upgrades for all of those devices are in the works and expected next year, so expect the next version of macOS to exclude Intel-based Mac users to an even greater extent than Monterey.