Apple backtracks and adds Stage Manager to older iPads

Stage Manager is one of the centrepieces of the next version of iPadOS. Although the offical release of iPadOS hasn’t happened yet – the release version will actually be iPadOS 16.1 (we missed 16 it seems) – Apple has already made a huge concession. Stage Manager, which Apple said relied on a M1 processor, will now run on some older iPad Pro models.

What is Stage Manager?

Stage Manager is a new way to approach multitasking on an iPad. It makes it easier to quickly toggle between recent applications and allows you to resize Windows so you can see multiple applications at one time. Unlike the Split View function that came in iPadOS 15, which only let you place two applications on screen side by side, Stage Manager lets you resize and position windows with greater flexibility.

Is Stage Manager any good?

I’ve been using Stage Manager on my 12.9-inch iPad Pro for a while on various beta versions of iPadOS and I like it. I did try it on an 11-inch iPad Por as well and found that it used a little too much screen real estate for my liking. But, if the smaller iPad Por was connected to an external display I might be tempted to turn it on.

Being able to quickly, with a single tap toggle between apps is one of those tiny time savers that adds up. And being able to see three apps at once (like a to-do list, Notability and Word or Google Docs) is very helpful.

As you’d expect, there are a lot of different opinions on whether Stage Manager is a worthwhile feature. I like it but it really depends on how you use you iPad Pro.

Why didn’t Apple enable Stage Manager on older iPads?

The answer to that question depends on how cynical you are.

You could conclude that not enabling a key new feature on older iPads (and we’re not talking about ancient devices – we’re talking about iPads that are less than two years old) was a way to force/encourage customers to upgrade their iPads.

Alternately, you could if you were being particularly generous, think that Apple wanted the Stage Manager experience to be perfect and older devices, not running an M1 processor, wouldn’t be capable of showing off Stage Manager or would suffer significantly degraded performance.

Which iPads will be able to use Stage Manager?

Stage Manager will run on an iPad Pro (sorry, no love for regular iPad, iPad Air or iPad mini owners it seems) running either an A12Z processor (released in 2020), an A12X processor (released in 2018) or an M1 processor.

External display support will be delayed

Older iPad Pros (those running the A12Z and A12X processors) will get Stage Manager but they won’t get the expanded external display support that will be included with the M1-powered devices.

This makes some sense as the M1 system-on-a-chip has a more powerful graphics processor that its predecessors.

Apple has actually removed external display support from the iPadOS 16.1 beta that’s currently available but promises to bring it back before the final release.

When can you get iPadOS 16.1?

Apple doesn’t always tell the world when a new release will drop. After all, you can’t be accused of late delivery if you don’t promise a delivery date! But we can expect iPadOS 16.1 to be released at some time in October.

There’s widespread speculation that Apple will be hosting another event, most likely to unveil their latest MacBook Pro models and possibly the long-awaited Mac Pro. These are likely to ship with a significantly boosted M2 processor. My feeling is that iPadOS 16.1 will ship before that so as to not steal the limelight at that event.

If you’re particular keen and prepared to run the beta version gauntlet, you can sign up for Apple’s Beta Software Program.

[Main source: Engadget]