iPad Air iPad Air 5 base model doesn’t meet requirements for Stage Manager

[rui no onna]

I'm curious as to what this means for developers - do developers now have to own an M1 iPad to test compatibility with Stage Manager?

Apple seems to have designed Stage Manager so that it doesn’t require explicit support from devs unlike split view. Probably part of the reason why resizing windows are restricted to predefined aspect ratios instead of freeform.

There’s an app I use that hasn’t been updated since 2017 and it works fine with Stage Manager.

It’s possible that Stage Manager may allow freeform resizing in the future but would require devs to explicitly support this in their apps. For this, then yeah, M-series iPad would likely be needed.

 

[Andysapple]

There seems to be confusion in here as what the quote actually means.

Apple has stated that Stage manager requires memory swap, and thus do not work on the A series iPads.

iPad Air 64 GB does not support memory swap. However, Stage manager works perfectly fine on Air 64 gb which is strange considering that's the stated reason for not supporting older iPads.

 

[ian87w]

What now Apple?
Apple, you really need to review your PR team. They've been doing quite a poor job lately.

 

[ian87w]

There seems to be confusion in here as what the quote actually means.

Apple has stated that Stage manager requires memory swap, and thus do not work on the A series iPads.

iPad Air 64 GB does not support memory swap. However, Stage manager works perfectly fine on Air 64 gb which is strange considering that's the stated reason for not supporting older iPads.

Lies beget lies.

 

[ian87w]

lol Craig's argument just blown clean out of the water that A-series Pros can't have Stage Manager because A-series chips don't have memory swap, yet a 64GB M1 Air, which doesn't have memory swap, will get Stage Manager...

Wouldn't it be great if some of the journalists who have interviewed him about this were actually tech-savvy enough to ask these kind of difficult questions instead of just nodding like a dog.

Nobody would touch this anymore, other than maybe some random youtubers. Those journalists don't want to get banned from access to the new iPhone this coming September.

 

[teh_hunterer]

I think we might be misinterpreting Apple's page here. I take it to mean that developers cannot program their apps to request virtual memory from a 64GB device - not that the SSD literally doesn't support memory swap. Stage Manager may absolutely be able to use memory swapping to stop apps from reloading, without the apps themselves being able to request additional virtual memory.

Thus at this point it seems completely possible that the base iPad Air 5 could still use virtual memory to make stage manager work.

 

[locksmack]

Some may argue the whole don't buy expecting future things argument but it's been 2 MONTHS since launch!? That is truly disgraceful.

It sure is and I feel your pain on my 8 month old iPad Mini, which doesn’t support memory swap or stage manager despite having apples newest chip in an iPad.

 

[MajorFubar]

It sure is and I feel your pain on my 8 month old iPad Mini, which doesn’t support memory swap or stage manager despite having apples newest chip in an iPad.

F27 misinterpreted the thread. Their iPad can support Stage Manager. All M1 iPads can.

 

[Ludatyk]

Confusing headline. Just to make clear I understand this…

iPad Air 5/64GB does meet the requirements for Stage Manager (does it work in betas?).
It’s just Craig’s spin on it with memory swapping that seems a bit disingenuous?

So… if I just bought a 5th gen Air, I will get Stage Manager - even though „the most demanding apps“ (that I don’t plan to use) may run a bit slower due to missing memory swapping?

What most people is failing to understand in this decision is based on marking Stage Manager the benchmark going forward... if we go down this path where 2018/2020 models all receive Stage Manager we get to this point where development from the iPad will be much slow compared to now.

There's so much criticism about the iPad platform, why can't it do this? Why don't it have this? It's not meant to do "real work." Then how is it Apple supposed to address the criticism when they support systems that does not meet the guidelines they have placed. Craig mentioned this below....

When you put all this together, we can’t deliver the full Stage Manager experience on any lesser system,” Federighi says. “I mean, we would love to make it available everywhere we can. But this is what it requires. This is the experience we’re going to carry into the future. We didn’t want to constrain our design to something lesser, we’re setting the benchmark for the future

 

[rui no onna]

I think we might be misinterpreting Apple's page here. I take it to mean that developers cannot program their apps to request virtual memory from a 64GB device - not that the SSD literally doesn't support memory swap. Stage Manager may absolutely be able to use memory swapping to stop apps from reloading, without the apps themselves being able to request additional virtual memory.

Thus at this point it seems completely possible that the base iPad Air 5 could still use virtual memory to make stage manager work.

iOS has always used Virtual Memory. The difference being there’s no storage-backed swap on iOS. This will change for M1 iPads with 128GB+ storage starting with iPadOS 16.

About the Virtual Memory System

Guidelines for improving the performance of memory-related code.

developer.apple.com

I expect similar to MacOS, iPadOS will handle paging in and out, and this will be something out of the app’s control.

At 3,000 P/E cycles and similar write volumes to M1 Macs (I’m seeing 100GB/day), I estimate around 5 years lifespan for the 64GB model and that’s not taking into consideration write amplification. 128GB doubles that life expectancy and 256GB quadruples it.

The potential is high for a class action lawsuit if masses of 64GB iPads die within 5 years or so. I’m guessing this is part of the reason why they’re not adding swap to the 64GB Air 5. Of course, the SSD controller is part of the M1 chipset (and A9-A15 for that matter) so maybe if they figure out a method to reduce NAND flash wear, they might implement swap on lower storage models.

Here’s a thought, what if Stage Manager isn’t Apple’s end goal? What if all the new M1 exclusive features in iPadOS 16 (VM swap, Stage Manager, Display Scaling) are merely building a foundation, setting up an environment on iPads where Mac apps could run in the future (whenever that may be)? In this way, M-series iPads could get programs like full MS Office, Adobe, FCP, etc. (as long as it’s available on Mac App Store and compatible with M1) without the need to create a touch-optimized UI. Perhaps those future goals are why they’re capping the minimum requirement at M1.

 

[teh_hunterer]

iOS has always used Virtual Memory. The difference being there’s no storage-backed swap on iOS. This will change for M1 iPads with 128GB+ storage starting with iPadOS 16.

About the Virtual Memory System

Guidelines for improving the performance of memory-related code.

developer.apple.com

I expect similar to MacOS, iPadOS will handle paging in and out, and this will be something out of the app’s control.

At 3,000 P/E cycles and similar write volumes to M1 Macs (I’m seeing 100GB/day), I estimate around 5 years lifespan for the 64GB model and that’s not taking into consideration write amplification. 128GB doubles that life expectancy and 256GB quadruples it.

The potential is high for a class action lawsuit if masses of 64GB iPads die within 5 years or so. I’m guessing this is part of the reason why they’re not adding swap to the 64GB Air 5. Of course, the SSD controller is part of the M1 chipset (and A9-A15 for that matter) so maybe if they figure out a method to reduce NAND flash wear, they might implement swap on lower storage models.

Here’s a thought, what if Stage Manager isn’t Apple’s end goal? What if all the new M1 exclusive features in iPadOS 16 (VM swap, Stage Manager, Display Scaling) are merely building a foundation, setting up an environment on iPads where Mac apps could run in the future (whenever that may be)? In this way, M-series iPads could get programs like full MS Office, Adobe, FCP, etc. (as long as it’s available on Mac App Store and compatible with M1) without the need to create a touch-optimized UI. Perhaps those future goals are why they’re capping the minimum requirement at M1.

I think the way they'll handle it on the 64GB Air 5 is apps will need to stay inside their usual RAM allocation as if they're on a non-M1 iPad, or as if they were on iPadOS15, however you'll still be able to have 8 of them running in Stage Manager and it will use storage-backed swap just for the overflow.

Do you see that as feasible for storage wear?

 

[Ludatyk]

Here’s a thought, what if Stage Manager isn’t Apple’s end goal? What if all the new M1 exclusive features in iPadOS 16 (VM swap, Stage Manager, Display Scaling) are merely building a foundation, setting up an environment on iPads where Mac apps could run in the future (whenever that may be)? In this way, M-series iPads could get programs like full MS Office, Adobe, FCP, etc. (as long as it’s available on Mac App Store and compatible with M1) without the need to create a touch-optimized UI. Perhaps those future goals are why they’re capping the minimum requirement at M1.

I agree, I don't believe Stage Manager is Apple's end goal. I think the goal is to set up two separate operating systems, one that's touch-optimized and one without. My thoughts are that the Mac will always be powerful given the hardware that's inside... fans, bigger frame of hardware (iMac, Mac Pro). While the iPad Pro will always be behind due to its slimmer frame.

 

[rui no onna]

I think the way they'll handle it on the 64GB Air 5 is apps will need to stay inside their usual RAM allocation as if they're on a non-M1 iPad, or as if they were on iPadOS15, however you'll still be able to have 8 of them running in Stage Manager and it will use storage-backed swap just for the overflow.

Do you see that as feasible for storage wear?

Honestly, what you’re describing sounds just like how regular swap works already. I expect Stage Manager might use some of the techniques that iOS already uses for memory management on the 64GB Air 5.

Also, I know the extra 2GB on the Air 5 might not sound like much but when you’re right on the edge, 2GB could be the difference between pass and fail. Granted, I’m quite interested to see how the 64GB Air 5 would work in a heavy multitasking scenario.

Mind, I did own a 2018 iPad Pro for a little bit. Here’s what my memory usage looked like.

2018 6GB on iPadOS 14

And here’s my memory usage on the 2021 iPad Pro.

2021 16GB on iPadOS 15

 

[yitwail]

lol Craig's argument just blown clean out of the water that A-series Pros can't have Stage Manager because A-series chips don't have memory swap, yet a 64GB M1 Air, which doesn't have memory swap, will get Stage Manager...

Wouldn't it be great if some of the journalists who have interviewed him about this were actually tech-savvy enough to ask these kind of difficult questions instead of just nodding like a dog.

Like the tech-savvy author of the article I quoted, that also mentioned Federighi's comments about M1 IO & Graphics? Swap isn't the only reason Stage Manager is only supported for M1 iPads.

 

[Cognizant.]

There's two possible explanations for this debacle. Either Apple has the worst software engineers on planet earth working for them (because there's no reason they can't scale this feature to work with several devices), or they are purposely restricting all but their most expensive iPad for this new feature. I think it's safe to say that it's explanation number 2.

Even today, multitasking on an Android phone is so far ahead of anything you can do on an iPhone that it's really sad at this point. We're now just getting some ... barely adequate multitasking for the iPad ... and for reasons beyond comprehension ... they've decided to create a multitasking feature that requires bleeding edge chips and tons of RAM to run ... when a plethora of multitasking functionality can be done on garbage PCs and Android tablets. This is all being done on purpose.

Their entire reason for keeping it limited to the M1 iPad is because they want it to look as pretty as possible, which is ridiculous.

 

[*~Kim~*]

Will we see a 128GB Air next year or might the 64 just be left, in the hope that they might sell more 256GB models? The 128GB Pro is probably the better seller at the minute I’d have thought.

Guess the extent of the price jump on the base Pro and/or whether the Pros go to 256 base will factor into that.

 

[mebehere]

Will we see a 128GB Air next year or might the 64 just be left, in the hope that they might sell more 256GB models? The 128GB Pro is probably the better seller at the minute I’d have thought.

Guess the extent of the price jump on the base Pro and/or whether the Pros go to 256 base will factor into that.

My mom has no idea what storage means. I’d say lots of non-enthusiasts are the same way. Price will make the decision for lots of these folks I would imagine.

 

[rui no onna]

My mom has no idea what storage means. I’d say lots of non-enthusiasts are the same way. Price will make the decision for lots of these folks I would imagine.

Yes, until they start getting your device is out of storage messages. 🤣🤣🤣

That's happened to folks I know who only got the 32GB base model. System has grown quite a bit with newer iOS versions. Before, System+Other would only take up 10GB. Now, it's using around 20GB.

 

[mebehere]

Yes, until they start getting your device is out of storage messages. 🤣🤣🤣

That's happened to folks I know who only got the 32GB base model. System has grown quite a bit with newer iOS versions. Before, System+Other would only take up 10GB. Now, it's using around 20GB.

Before I got my refurb 11” 2020 pro, I was running up against the 32 GB storage on my iPad 8, and I knew it. Never got a low storage message, though.

My mom would never reach 32 GB. She just surfs the web and uses FB sometimes. But all cases are different.

 

[d5aqoëp]

Tbh this 4 apps on 1 screen nonsense says everything about iPadOS in general and how purposely handicapped it is.

 

[0906742]

Is there yet any confirmation does iPad Air 5 base model (64GB) get Stage Manager and if it does what are the limitations exactly compared to 256GB model? I just noticed this after getting 64GB model but I'm not sure if that is something I'm gonna miss anyway.

 

[AppliedMicro]

"Features are subject to change."

That said, I have the 64GB base model, Stage Manager does work in the current Betas and it would be very unusual for Apple to exclude only one particular (storage) configuration from new features.

 

[0906742]

"Features are subject to change."

That said, I have the 64GB base model, Stage Manager does work in the current Betas and it would be very unusual for Apple to exclude only one particular (storage) configuration from new features.

That was good to hear. I was already having second thoughts with my Air 5 64GB I just got last week whether I should have gotten 11” Pro base instead. Otherwise my new Air 5 64GB is a great machine for my needs but I was surprised to learn just yesterday that base model might not get Stage Mananger.

Do you see any limitations with the Stage Manager in your 64GB Air 5? You can actually run several apps multitasking?

 

[Digitalguy]

That was good to hear. I was already having second thoughts with my Air 5 64GB I just got last week whether I should have gotten 11” Pro base instead. Otherwise my new Air 5 64GB is a great machine for my needs but I was surprised to learn just yesterday that base model might not get Stage Mananger.

Do you see any limitations with the Stage Manager in your 64GB Air 5? You can actually run several apps multitasking?

the only limitation is no disk swap, Stage Manage will only run on RAM, so apps may reload a bit more

 

[0906742]

the only limitation is no disk swap, Stage Manage will only run on RAM, so apps may reload a bit more

OK, so there is nothing preventing using all the same features in Stage Manager in 64GB version Air 5 as in the ones with larger 256GB versions which have Disk Swap support, besides reloading more often? Is there any chance this might change once the iPadOS 16 is officially released? I mean it was not just teaser feature in Beta versions so that developers could test it?

I'm really happy with my Air 5 64GB but if there are going to be some features left off already this fall, I may want to rethink getting an iPad Pro 11" but that also gives me some second thoughts as that is already pretty old model and likely to get upgraded this fall...