We may not like it, but sometimes software implementation decisions are a trade-off between features and performance. And this week there are people who do.
When Apple announced Stage Manager for iPadOS 16 last week, it noted that the feature was only available on M1-based iPads. This makes some people wonder why the feature doesn’t run on recent iPad Pros that don’t have the M1 chip. That’s a fair question, but Apple’s answer is basically what you imagine:
Stage Manager is a fully integrated experience that offers a completely new windows experience …
It is an experience of experiences. When you have recursive experimentation, you know you need first-rate hardware.
… which is incredibly fast and responsive and allows[s] users to run 8 applications simultaneously on the iPad and an external display with a resolution of up to 6K. Offering this experience …
Was this answer written by experience?
… With the immediacy that users expect from the iPad touch experience …
Is everything okay there, Apple?
… requires a large internal memory, incredibly fast storage and a flexible external display I / O, all of which are delivered by iPads with the M1 chip.
I think you mean “the M1 chip experience.”
Too long, I fell asleep while reading: It hurts non-M1 iPads and Apple doesn’t like it when things go wrong.
Craig Federighi added more color to this limitation while re-marking the use of the word “experience” from “MODE OVERDRIVE EXPERIENCE” to “Usual experience mode”.
“We also see Stage Manager as a total experience that involves external screen conductivity. And the M1’s IO supports connectivity that our previous iPads don’t, it can drive 4K, 5K, 6K screens, it can drive them to resolutions “We can’t do that on other iPads.”
In fact, showing Stage Manager on an attached screen is what really made Macalope think he was interested in this feature. Experience. Whatever. Turns out this will be a bit of a problem for him, at least initially, as his current iPad is a 2018 iPad Pro, not an M1-based model. What can a mythical beast do? You want to run Stage Manager when the public beta is available, but the iPad Pro is likely to be updated this fall. Are you buying an iPad Air now or waiting?
IDG
It is unfortunate to be in this position, but these compensations often occur in technology. Stage Manager is essentially a professional function and therefore only works with high-end hardware.
If you want to get angry about something (and who doesn’t ?!), here’s something much more ridiculous than Apple is currently doing. If you go to your old Apple.com web store the same day, you’ll see the Apple Watch Series 3 on sale. You can buy one! Apple is still selling this nearly five-year-old watch in June 2022. But it’s cheap! Only $ 199! What’s wrong with that?
The bad thing is that watchOS 9, which will be released this fall, will not be running in Series 7. Buy a Series 3 watch today and enjoy your three months running the latest operating system.
Now, clearly, Apple has released some software features that do not run on hardware that is more than a couple of years old. Macalope remembers not being able to enjoy the animation of the spinning block when I switched to OS X for a few years. But it is hard to remember an instance of the company selling a device that would not receive the operating system update three months later. It seems like something Apple shouldn’t do. In fact, Macalope was surprised to see the Series 3 still selling after last year’s event where the Series 7 was presented. He was even more surprised to see it selling after the WWDC Keynote. from last week.
The excellent does not like to play the “Don’t buy this device!” game. Everyone’s situation is different. But you should probably only buy an Apple Watch Series 3 under very limited circumstances. Like you need an Apple Watch to crush a TV show or an art installation or a rage attack or something.