Here we are again with another article on Stage Manager. One of the main features of iPad 16 has been annoying many iPad users, as it requires the M1 chip, leaving users of older iPad models stuck with the original iPad multitasking system without floating windows. But it seems that Apple has its own ways of enabling Stage Manager on older iPads.
After all the controversy over Stage Manager, 9to5Mac decided to investigate by looking at the iPad 16 code. What we found is that, in fact, Apple has an internal mode to enable Stage Manager on older iPads.
The codes refer to an internal setting that activates “Chamois” (the stage manager’s code name) for “Legacy Devices”. In other words, it makes the feature work with any iPad other than M1 with iPadOS 16. This is in line with a statement from Apple’s chief software engineer Craig Federighi, who said Apple tested with Stage Manager on more iPad models before you decide. the function requires the M1 chip.
We started some of our prototypes with these systems and it became clear that we could not offer with them the experience we were designing. We would certainly like to bring any new experience to all the devices we can, but we also do not want to slow down the definition of a new experience and not create the best basis for the future in this experience. And we could really only do that by building on the M1.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that Stage Manager works seamlessly on older iPads, but having this option hidden in the first beta for iPadOS 16 developers suggests that the company’s engineers may still be testing the feature in some other iPad models.
The controversy of the stage director
Having exclusive features for the new hardware is nothing new. However, when it comes to Stage Manager, users seem skeptical about the limitations pointed out by Apple.
For example, Craig Federighi said in an interview that having a virtual memory exchange (which is only available on the M1 chip) was crucial to creating Stage Manager, as the feature supports up to eight open applications at a time. However, it was later discovered that the 64GB iPad Air 5, which supports Stage Manager, has no memory swap.
Apple executives also noted that the requirements for Stage Manager should be very high, as the feature has smooth animations and nice shadows, but that also seems controversial, as the feature is available for Mac Intel as old as in 2017 with macOS Ventura.
At this time it is unclear whether Apple will reconsider the requirements for Stage Manager on iPadOS 16. Last year, when macOS Monterey was announced, Live Text was an exclusive feature for the Mac M1. However, after several complaints, Apple has also made the feature available for Mac Intel.
I wonder if we will ever be able to see for ourselves how Stage Manager works on non-M1 iPads to draw our own conclusions thanks to some jailbreak tool.
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