iPadOS 16 Stage Manager needs enhanced virtual memory that only M1 supports
The biggest feature of iPadOS 16 will only run on the M1 iPads -- and it is using advanced memory management to do it.
Introduced at WWDC 2022, iPadOS 16 brought floating windows to iPad for the first time in the form of the Stage Manager feature. The supercharged multitasking interface groups multiple apps and their windows together and allows the user to seamlessly switch between them.
However, the Stage Manager feature is exclusive to iPad models with an M1 chip.
So while many iPad devices can run iPadOS 16, a lot of them won't get the floating windows experience. The only iPads that will benefit from the new multitasking interface of Stage Manager are those with a chip that was shipped in the first Apple Silicon Macs.
Apple has provided an explanation as to why such a restriction exists.
According to Apple, Stage Manager requires the fast memory swap feature in the new iPadOS. This allows apps to convert the hardware's free flash storage into makeshift RAM, for up to 16GB.
This resource-intensive environment necessitates the power of the M1 processor, according to Apple in a statement to Digital Trends.
Therefore, the 2021 iPad Pro and the 2022 iPad Air are the only devices with the power to leverage the advanced multitasking interface in iPadOS 16.
For over ten years, Apple has limited some features in OS updates to newer hardware. As an example, 4K ProRes recording is limited to iPhone 13 models with 256GB or more of onboard storage.
Read on AppleInsider
Introduced at WWDC 2022, iPadOS 16 brought floating windows to iPad for the first time in the form of the Stage Manager feature. The supercharged multitasking interface groups multiple apps and their windows together and allows the user to seamlessly switch between them.
However, the Stage Manager feature is exclusive to iPad models with an M1 chip.
So while many iPad devices can run iPadOS 16, a lot of them won't get the floating windows experience. The only iPads that will benefit from the new multitasking interface of Stage Manager are those with a chip that was shipped in the first Apple Silicon Macs.
Apple has provided an explanation as to why such a restriction exists.
According to Apple, Stage Manager requires the fast memory swap feature in the new iPadOS. This allows apps to convert the hardware's free flash storage into makeshift RAM, for up to 16GB.
This resource-intensive environment necessitates the power of the M1 processor, according to Apple in a statement to Digital Trends.
Therefore, the 2021 iPad Pro and the 2022 iPad Air are the only devices with the power to leverage the advanced multitasking interface in iPadOS 16.
For over ten years, Apple has limited some features in OS updates to newer hardware. As an example, 4K ProRes recording is limited to iPhone 13 models with 256GB or more of onboard storage.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
I agree with the reasoning technically. Still a part of me says apple, you should have tried harder at least for these older expensive iPad pro in the wild.
It’s called progress. Progress still can suck for various reasons.
Well at least I don’t own a non M1 iPad Pro from 2020 and want these advanced features.
*8 GB isn't enough actually. There's still a performance hit when swap is touched.
That being said, as soon as you start swapping, the speed of the CPU computations will be in fits and starts as it stalls while waiting for new data and/or instructions to process, and the CPU speed means nothing while stalled. There is no magic required, any processor with paging hardware and interrupts can readily support virtual memory.
It makes sense to keep it portrait-first because you can’t comfortably be productive for an extended time in landscape mode when it isn’t docked and held with one hand & typing/drawing on with the other hand.
iOS 16 will bring an improvement for Face ID, giving iPhone users the ability to unlock their phones in landscape mode.
Bringing new products to market is always a bit messy, both in situ and in retrospect. Things that seem obvious at an armchair quarterback level aren’t obvious at the time the product is being developed with tons of decisions piling up and release targets looming. Apple’s move to develop their own silicon gives them a lot more flexibility. But it also means that they have a lot more choices and have to make a lot more decisions on their own. They are not constrained by decisions that have been made for them by outside suppliers.
In my experience, the single most difficult part of any product development, at any level, is making decisions. Transitioning from “anything is possible” in the realm of opportunity and uncertainty to making hard decisions about exactly what you’re going to do, how you’re going to do it, and knowing you have to live with it, is a very difficult thing for so many people. Fortunately there are leaders who know how to handle this and don’t fret too much about the consequences. Fragmenting the iPad Pro product line a little bit by having some features that are only available on certain (new) hardware platforms and exclusionary to fairly recent previous versions is a direct consequence of this type of decision making process.
And yes, Face ID works in landscape already on iPP Face ID models, and have been so for 3.5 years since the first Face ID models came out. I've never seen my son use has 2018 iPP11 in portrait, so, Face ID has had to work in landscape for a very very long time now.
Ultimately, the "default" orientation is really about which side the Face ID+front cam cluster goes, and which direction the logo is at. The TB/USBC port is where it should be, with perhaps having another one next to it or the other side. Just would be nice to have 2. Then, the Smart Connector needs to support TB protocol. I don't care how they do it: 18 pins, fiber, 9 pins mutexed whatever, but it really should transport TB3 protocol so that when it is mag-docked, it can drive an external monitor and peripherals, and the external monitor (or whatever it is mag-docked to) can power it.
The logo orientation only matters as branding exercise. Whatever orientation that people use the iPad in the most, the logo should be in that orientation so that people looking at the back of the iPad can immediately recognize it as the Apple logo.
Elsewise, I definitely do agree with you that the iPad should be ambidextrous, and software should be designed as such. I'd even go as far as saying the large 12.9 iPad, and larger, should be 5:4 aspect ratio so that it is easier to use in portrait. As a tablet display gets larger and larger, 4:3 aspect ratio may get too tall in portrait.
Sure, I could just get an Air or Pro, but why? I don't want to carry around that big of a device. The mini size is great for most on the go things and when I want to do bigger screen work I hook it up to the bigger screen.
Maybe they won't ever do it, but I think they should.