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choice is good, I just think that at least on Mac, Stage Manager in it's current form with with yet another GUI element is not an elegant solution at all and means just additional unnecessary clutter.
If they incorporated some of it's niceties into the Dock, or Mission Control / Spaces, i guess most Mac users here wouldn't complain as much. At least i wouldn't, if done properly
I find it does completely the oppisite for me, it removes a lot of clutter. What people also seem to forget is that it is basically version 1.0 with macOS Ventura. It will no doubt be improved upon just like other features of the macOS have been improved upon over the years.
 
For real. forstall was a major loss and a major eff up on Tim Cook’s part. He was too busy bending over for Jonny who could care less about a good product but rather the aesthetic. iOS ui took a turn for the worse so much so that iOS was so flat no one knew how to use 3D touch so they canned it
Do you know, when Apple introduced 3D touch?
 
I hope it's to the living of a solid fraction of the iPad Pro/iPad user base. I rarely use more than one app at a time on the iPad Pro, so it's not such a big deal to me.

And being a geezer, and using a 27-inch display with the Mac, I'm perfectly comfortable with overlapping windows — that's how I've been using multiple windowing systems for the last 35 years, and the _last_ thing I want is every application currently in focus getting a big window screen center, even when all I need it for (and all I keep it open for) is a limited amount of information from a small amount of screen real estate. But clearly I'm a geezer. I refuse even to use browser tabs.
 
I find it does completely the oppisite for me, it removes a lot of clutter. What people also seem to forget is that it is basically version 1.0 with macOS Ventura. It will no doubt be improved upon just like other features of the macOS have been improved upon over the years.
Just like *cough* Dashboard, right? Which was one of the best features, and most frequently used by me, in the history of Mac OSes.
 
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If Windows 3.0 let us use overlapping windows on screen, how much graphic and processing power is required to do this? 30 years of processor speed upgrades and more memory and we “need” an M1 chip to do it?

I’d suggest the coders might need a lesson in efficient coding.
 
I will probably never use this feature on my iPad Pro, given that, as others have already stated, it eats too much real estate.

iPad multitasking is mostly fine in my opinion, although instead of side-by-side split screen Apple should have gone with top-bottom split screen like my (ancient) Samsung Galaxy S7 and subsequent devices could do.

The almost square aspect ratio of the 12.9” iPad Pro would make this far more useful.

As it is, I just don’t split screen often, I just swipe left or right as needed and use Slide Over when I need something on the same screen simultaneously.
 
Stagemanager is nothing more than having the AltTab App (great App btw, you should consider using it) on your iPad. That's it. Another way to Cmd-Tab your way to the next or previous running application.

I don't understand the excitement, because it's nothing. Yet another absolutely worthless feature, being sold as the next sliced bread invention...

You know what would be awesome? A next iOS, iPadOS and macOS version where 100 useless features are removed, leaving a slim and ultra fast OS.

And then sell it like it should be: For every feature you like, there's an App.
Not finding AltTab in the App Store.
 
For anyone considering a Windows tablet, don't let junk like this sway your decision. Try it out for yourself and make the decision based on your experience. If we are comparing anecdotal experience here, my experience with Windows on tablets has been superb BUT the caveat is that since Windows is an open system with hardware vendors the experience definitely can be terrible. The surface pros are the pinnacle of performance, and Windows runs incredibly well on them, conversely there are probably a lot of crappy Chinese tablets that run horribly.
I had a Surface Pro 6, a complete waste of $1200. It was NOT a cheap Chinese tablet. It was terrible, the worst tech purchase of the decade, and I tend to buy almost everything.
 
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1. Is Stage Manager necessary, or does it even have a place on MacOS where multi-windowed multitasking already has several tried and tested ways of being managed? NO. I dont think it provides anything new or useful.

2. Does Stage Manager have a place on iPadOS? Yes, sure - but not in its current BETA form.
You have to remember of course that most iPad screens are smaller than MacOS laptops and desktops. There simply isnt the space for fancy wasted graphics.

Personally, there are elements I like... I like groups of apps on the same stage... although this is like split screen with 2 that stuck together before...
Its also fine on a 12.9" iPad, but I wonder how that translates to the smaller models...
However, the dock and stages simply shouldn't be ever present - YES i know you can turn them off but .... I think that the stages should appear with a swipe over from the left, and the dock a swipe up from the bottom...
But theres still something just a little odd about the whole thing - maybe its just because its a new thing - but now iPadOS has 3 distinct states - either looking through the app launcher, or having one or two apps open full screen, or the stage manager environment.
I don't think Stage Manager is useful for those who don't run many apps at a time, never connect to a second monitor, and keep a clean desktop, tending to close most of their apps.

For me, Stage Manager is rather pointless. My desktop is spotless on a Mac without a single file on the desktop. All you see are drive icons. I never keep Finder windows open, and I close every app I'm not using except for Mail.

If you're the type who connects to multiple monitors, opens up Mission Control and see a zillion apps, and keeps a dozen Finder windows or documents open, then Stage Manager could be useful... maybe. Since I don't have habits that remotely needs Stage Manager, I don't think I can conclusively say if the impossibly cluttered desktop would benefit from it.

I don't use it on my iPad at all since I don't ever need more than two apps at a time. If I run a second app, it's usually Messages, which I prefer to open as a Slide Over window. On my Mac, I've used it, but don't find it to be at all useful. I don't think I'm the target audience.
 
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Comments like these are part of the problem.

Articles like these are often the best and only way for Apple to understand that there are real issues with their software.

Apple develops products in a self congratulatory echo chamber.

Clearly neither of you understands the point of public betas. This beta period, _especially_ this late where we are nearing release candidate stage, is EXACTLY the time for pointed criticism. Waiting for the software to release as poor as this is doesn’t serve anyone’s interests.

The beta period is not meant to be, here take a look at this idea, but don’t give us any feedback yet because it’s not complete. I don’t know where people get these outlandish ideas. Give it a rest. Honest developers want any and all feedback so that the final product is the best it can be.
I think this article was poorly written at the beginning of it because it expressed the opinion of one person, completely from a negative point of view, while trying to imply those opinions were near universal. I, personally, don't care about SM and don't plan on ever using it, but that's one person's opinion, likely not the opinion of the majority. I would have preferred to see the article written as if it were from one person while not trying to cast their opinion as everyone else's.

You're absolutely right that people should give Apple their opinions during the beta period, good or not. That's what the betas are for. Apple will often completely change an implementation based on constructive criticism. They've done it in the past and will do it in the future. If you don't like a particular aspect, the best feedback is how it fails to solve a particular problem and how a different way might work better. Apple will collect all that information, find a consensus, if there is any, and make changes as they see fit. Some of their decisions will be awesome and some will suck beyond belief. But definitely offer your input, good or ill, preferably both.
 
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Choice is good. I’m sure the way you manage windows is not the same as everyone else, and that’s a good thing.
Sure looks like a good excuse to justify throwing stuff at problem without actually solving it. It’s a bit like … we don’t know how to solve it so we give you lots of options for you to find a solution by yourself.

In my experience this makes the system unnecessarily complex and clumsy ..: is traditionally the Microsoft approach. Not the Apple I got used to.

But hey … things change.
 
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Do you have to use those dots or can you just drag an application window to the other display?
Dragging is not permitted since there is no actual desktop on iPadOS. Stage Manager simulates a desktop, but really isn't one. That's why each monitor has a self-contained set of apps that do not in any way interact with the apps on the other monitor. There are only three ways to move an app between monitors: 1) use the three dots, 2) open the app from the dock on the other monitor, and 3) use the keyboard combination to move the active app to the other monitor.

I think that's the trouble most people have with Apple's conception of Stage Manager. People are used to thinking in the desktop metaphor. iPadOS does not have a desktop and has never had a desktop, and likely never will. Files can't be put on a desktop. Apps cannot be dragged between monitors.
 
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Stage Manager sucks so bad. So much padding. Moving apps is difficult because you have to find the right spot for it to latch onto. Very limited. Limited window sizes, that I have massive black bars for my media player (no it does not have PiP). It needs Mission Control for windowed apps, with the rest of the background apps featured as a row of apps above like Mission Control for Mac. You still can't have multiple audio playing simultaneously despite windowed mode.

Make the core experience similar between iPad and Mac.
Many of these are limitations of the OS design and cannot be easily fixed without re-writing iPadOS from scratch. Multiple audio, for instance, can't happen because iPadOS allows only one app to really be active at once. All other apps are put to sleep in order to save power. They'd have to fundamentally change that entire concept. I'd love to have multiple audio sources, but I can recognize the difficulty in doing so from a programmer's point of view.

As for app resizing, you'll notice the auto-snapping and app resizing does not happen on the Mac version of SM. The reason it happens on the iPad side is for two reasons. One is that there is no mouse on an iPad. Even if you're using a mouse, that point is a round representation of a finger, not a single-point cursor. Precision on an iPad is finger-level and therefore apps must move around in order to allow enough space to be exposed on every app in order to easily "touch" that app to make it come forward. Without actual mouse precision, not moving apps around is even more frustrating when you can't seem to click on that background app because only a tiny sliver is showing.

Two is that apps also do not support unlimited resizing. That is a limitation of the apps, not the OS. The aspect ratios are those that are supported by Split View. iPad apps would look rather ugly, like Android apps, if stretched to aspect ratios they do not support. So Apple snaps these apps into aspect ratios these apps can support. iPhone apps cannot be changed from their iPhone aspect ratio without things looking truly ugly. macOS apps are written to flow their content, regardless of aspect ratio while iPad apps have UI's designed to fit specific aspect ratios, hence the difference in how Stage Manager treats them on Mac versus iPad.

iPadOS is not macOS. It is a tablet, not a laptop, and never will be a laptop.
 
Give us macOS on iPad, then let us customers decide what we like.

Apple’s philosophy could just be horribly wrong on this one…
This is something that hopefully will never happen.
Why do we want MacOS on the iPad? If you want MacOS get a MacBook... the iPad isn't for the same audience.

MacOS is not a touch first interface. The machines it runs on are not touch devices.

Why would Apple build 2 separate devices and put MacOS on both - the iPad becomes a MacBook without an attached keyboard... what's the point in that machine.

I still don't understand, genuinely, the argument here.

Again, if you want MacOS or a MacOS environment you have the choice to buy a Mac. iPad limitations and use cases are very clear and there are many many millions of users that the iPad is perfectly suited for and many of those happy iPad owners would baulk at being presented with MacOS - and for them the simplicity of iPadOS was the main reason they bought the iPad in the first place.

In 2022 There is definitely still a clear case for both machines and definitely a clear case to keep iPadOS for iPad, and MacOS for Mac.


Now... convergence is inevitable in the future. I can foresee the time when the iPhone you carry round in your pocket is so powerful its your one computing device.... if you want a desktop then when you arrive at your desk you dock the phone (or at that time just a proximity sensor will make the connection) and then your desktop screen with mouse and keyboard will spring into life and display a macOS like desktop... Same goes for an iPad style device if you want to carry round a bigger screen with you. Even at this point MacOS and iOS would still be distinctly different paradigms but the convergence would be smooth and natural feeling.
 
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"Viticci says that design decisions built into Stage Manager are "fundamentally misguided," arguing that the feature is unstable, hard to use, and has user interface glitches across the experience."

Or you can just not use it and instead use a Mac like everyone else.

I dislike this guy and the rest of the "prominent Apple community." I'm specifically referring to the dorks at Relay FM.
 
It’s not nearly as bad as this guy makes it seem. Multiple windows on a small screen is hard to do, even on, say, a 14” laptop, let alone an 11” tablet. But it’s not that bad.
But that's how this guy is. If he can't do everything on his iPad normal people can do on a Mac, he bangs his wooden spoon on his high chair.
 
Give us macOS on iPad, then let us customers decide what we like.

Spending a whole lot of time and money developing yet another OS for the iPad makes no sense. Users would expect the iPad still to be a tablet, just with MacOS.

It's not just a case of slapping the MacOS on an iPad; there are many other considerations to make that work. The UI would need to be redesigned for for touch. Deciding how to handle vertical and horizontal screen orientations. Dealing with differences in SoC design and performance. How to handle the virtual keyboard. Mouse buttons.

Then their are issues of cooling. A Mac can get a lot hotter since you don't have to hold it. So either you make an iPad thicker to allow for cooling or you throttle the processor to prevent the device from getting hot when held.

Usere will no doubt be unhappy if the Mini or Air can't run it because Apple decides the performance is not what they want.

It's a big bag of hurt that Apple does not need to open.

A much better approach is to ultimately design a new OS that merges the two form factors.

Apple’s philosophy could just be horribly wrong on this one…

I doubt it.
 
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