If you load the first beta of iPadOS 16 onto your device without an M1 chip, you may be a little disillusioned after installation: the innovations of the major release are limited. Although Apple tinkered a bit with selected apps such as the files and home application and donated the weather app to the system, the big highlight of iPadOS 16 requires an iPad Pro or iPad Air with M1: “Stage Manager” upgrades multitasking clearly on the tablet. The dock remains, apps can be placed on the side, stacked if necessary and overlapped on the home screen. After it became known that this was a feature exclusive to M1, Cupertino found it difficult to explain. The arguments put forward by Craig Federighi are under scrutiny.
Federighi: “Stage Manager” needs swap space
Apple’s decision to only provide the “Stage Manager” for iPads with an M1 chip (Macs do not have this restriction) has caused a great deal of resentment among users: owners of the iPad Pro (2020) or the current generation of the iPad mini are particularly affected there is often little understanding for this step by the company. Software boss Federighi has already explained several times why this subdivision is necessary, most recently to Forbes: There are high hurdles for such functions on the iPad, since the tablet has to react to inputs with as little delay as possible in order not to negatively affect the user experience. According to Federighi, tests with the “Stage Manager” on older iPads were not satisfactory. In another interview, he claimed that smooth functioning could only be achieved with swap memory via a fast I/O connection.
iPad Air (2022): “Stage Manager” even without “Virtual Memory Swap”
In fact, iPadOS 16 allows swap memory for the first time: If the main memory for apps is low, the system swaps areas that are not required to the SSD. However, the “Virtual Memory Swap” is not available on all models with an M1 chip: If you take a closer look at Apple’s feature list for iPadOS 16, you will find an interesting note in the corresponding footnote: “Virtual Memory Swap” requires either one iPad Pro of the current series or the iPad Air M1 with 256 GB memory. However, the entry-level model with only 64 GB of storage does not support the function. For the “Stage Manager”, however, this does not matter: users can access the function even if they only own the iPad Air (2022) with 64 GB of memory. Federighi’s reasoning therefore seems incomprehensible to many of those affected: they would have wished for at least a slimmed-down version of the feature.
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