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Apple gave an official statement, but it doesn't make it true. Do you always take big corporations (not just Apple) at face value? So, all official statements Google, Microsoft, Facebook, will give to the public are also dogmatically true?

Or just Apple's?

I do trust Apple.

And it's pretty believable that the older iPads can't support all the features of Stage Manager without suffering performance degrading.

In fact, I find it surprising that even some of the M1 iPads can support all the features.
 
So why did they buy an expensive iPad back in 2020 if it weren't more capable than a cheaper iPad?

If they bought it because they thought future software enhancement would make it a better device, then they were fools and I pretty happy they are now taught a lesson.
Whether they should or should not have believed that the iPads Apple was pushing as laptop replacements would be supported with new productivity features one year later, being thrilled that someone feels like they wasted that much money is cruel and unnecessary.

Personally I think that Apple should have made iOS scale properly to external displays, so they could use regular split-screen without multitasking, in addition to releasing SM for the M1 iPads. The A12s have more than enough power to run one app or regular split-screen on an external display.
 
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No reason why with virtual memory support they couldn’t allow this on other devices. Or limit it to 2-3 apps rather than 8.

Yes, but Apple won't do that. Their statement is about 8 applications getting 16Gb of RAM and supporting external 6K display.
 
They could have probably made the feature work on older iPad Pro's without the external display support, but you could still have it on the device.

The 2018/2020 were pretty powerful chips.
I can't help but think of the early days of Windows, OS/2 and yes even DOS days where 8 megs of RAM would give reasonable graphics. Rather sad we need these gigs of memory for this feature. Also, if it really is needed, that is rather a waste of RAM which might better be used on some serious apps.
 
Apple knows older iPads could support this. They decide to not support it.

See my 2011 iMac which is running Big Sur and even Monterey despite Apple limiting it to El Capitan.

See jailbreaks to engage night mode on iPhone X / XS (which Apple supported during betas then removed).

Apple makes choices to sell devices. Not based on the actual capabilities of devices.

Apple makes decisions for various reasons. Sometimes it's a business reason other it might be strictly technical or resource driven or based on time. Or even a combination.

As a company the best reason is a business reason and beats a technical reason every time.

Supporting applications which can have been given 128Gb of memory on a device with 4Gb of RAM makes it believable they dropped it for technical reasons.
 
At least could have given just external display support to the A12Z, maybe not stage manager.
Exactly this.
For full screen support to still be missing after this update is ridiculous. This chip was capable of running full OS X in the Developer Kit, so I simply don’t believe they can’t give the 2020 Pro full screen output.
Imagine buying a top line MacBook Pro and two years later there a key OS features it doesn’t support. Simply wouldn’t happen.
 
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Whether they should or should not have believed that the iPads Apple was pushing as laptop replacements would be supported with new productivity features one year later, being thrilled that someone feels like they wasted that much money is cruel and unnecessary.

They should have been wise enough not to buy a device on hope it will be better in the feature.

I am thrilled because they have now been taught a lesson and won't make the same mistake twice, hopefully.
 
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The only reason I can see for proper external screen support not being available on the older iPads (and I’m not talking full Stage Manager here just the ability to have proper external screen with no black bars) is that the older iPads cannot run their fancy new 6K display because of the lack of thunderbolt. Rather than allowing us to have proper 2nd screen support at 1080p or 4K they would rather deny us that opportunity for some sense of “continuity” between the product lines.
Stage Manager is Apple's way of supporting internal/external displays though. If they were to make a special version of Split Screen that, say, blanked out the internal display, and then gave you shorter but wider apps on the external display, that could technically work, but it's a separate feature to implement. And support.
I mean you either have to mirror the iPad (which is 4:3 in most cases), or you have to switch to a window model with ways to move a mouse cursor between the screens. That's Stage Manager.
 
Stage Manager is Apple's way of supporting internal/external displays though. If they were to make a special version of Split Screen that, say, blanked out the internal display, and then gave you shorter but wider apps on the external display, that could technically work, but it's a separate feature to implement. And support.
I mean you either have to mirror the iPad (which is 4:3 in most cases), or you have to switch to a window model with ways to move a mouse cursor between the screens. That's Stage Manager.
Then it’s an extremely poor way to run an OS frankly.

I would rarely use the feature however the other day I was sat at my desk using Teams on my iPad for a work meeting and I needed to look up something on the web and it felt rude to have to hide the meeting to view the web, especially when I have a permanently setup USB C docking station just behind it which if Apple could be bothered would’ve solved that issue as I could’ve put Teams on one screen and Safari on the other. Now I could’ve done split screen but I prefer my apps full screen at all times, which is why full Stage Manager is no big loss to me.

The solution is there, if they need Stage Manager to be able to use a 2nd screen properly then they should’ve put a reduced version on the older iPads. However I don’t see why you would need Stage Manager, simply hooking up an iPad to a dock should give you a new desktop scaled to fit the external monitor with a dock ready to go, no fancy window manager needed especially as you can now invoke multitasking with the 3 dots menu.

The A12 series of iPads were never used to their full potential because of a gimped OS, and rather than allow them to be use more of their potential Apple would rather hold features back to sell you a new one.
 
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Stage Manager is Apple's way of supporting internal/external displays though. If they were to make a special version of Split Screen that, say, blanked out the internal display, and then gave you shorter but wider apps on the external display, that could technically work, but it's a separate feature to implement. And support.
I mean you either have to mirror the iPad (which is 4:3 in most cases), or you have to switch to a window model with ways to move a mouse cursor between the screens. That's Stage Manager.
Apple could have given A12 iPad owners external display support with the following features.
- One display at a time, like running a laptop in clamshell mode.
- Expand the wallpaper
- Center the existing icon/widget arrangement so the home screens are consistent.
- Full-width split screen and full-width single apps.
- Full-width app switcher.
 
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They should have been wise enough not to buy a device on hope it will be better in the feature.

I am thrilled because they have now been taught a lesson and won't make the same mistake twice, hopefully.
Isn’t that exactly what many more vocal members of the M1 iPad community did? I’m sure their tune would have stayed the same had the majority of current iPad models and past Pros gotten (some form of) Stage Manager. Gotta feel different, special, “elite” to justify their $1,000+ toys.
 
I'm sure some would do that, but the religious fervor generally lies with the fanboys.
I don’t know if it’s true for other companies, but there’s a VERY active and committed “anti-apple” community. :) The Apple fanboys are kinda hanging out in Apple forums because, you know, it’s an Apple forum. The “anti-apple” folks, rather than avoid anything Apple, find themselves drawn to Apple forums. That’s dedication of a special type!
 
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The iPad is a long life computer, which could explain the sales drop. And imo, apple didn’t screw up the iPad line, but ymmv on this.
Apple actually stated that it was due to a component shortage. They know they could have sold more iPads, there were just no more iPads to sell.
 
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Because Apple is Fuqing terrible after 23 years of Mac OS exclusivity I am now a proud owner of a Dell laptop and a custom built Windows desktop.
Some folks outgrow Apple but can’t bring themselves to actually stop using their products or visiting Apple focused forums. Congrats to you on one of those!
 
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Isn’t that exactly what many vocal members of the M1 iPad community did? I’m sure their tune would have stayed the same had the majority of current iPad models and past Pros gotten (some form of) Stage Manager. Gotta feel different, special, “elite” to justify their $1,000+ toys.
Can you imagine the uproar if they had announced the M2 iPad Pro and limited these features just to that model?

For me my 2018 iPP is still a decent consumption device and I only really use apps full screen anyway, on Windows which is a multitasking OS i maximise pretty much everything. I am annoyed at the lack of 2nd screen support for the scenario I gave above, but the flashy Stage Manager I would almost never use.

However I have always thought that my iPP was a supremely powerful device held back by its OS and I really hate to see stuff not used to its full potential. The iPP has been close to being a full laptop replacement for a lot of people for years but stupid OS decisions really hold it back. The Max Tech video above gives some good examples such as needing a Mac to run first aid on a corrupted drive or to format a drive etc.

The problem I am seeing in this thread is people quite rightly criticising Apple for decisions that appear to be a case of trying to sell you new hardware even if you have perfectly capable hardware already, and then the Apple defenders where almighty god Tim cannot do wrong, but if Apple had said the new features were M2 iPad only then they would be complaining like us A series iPad owners.

The people saying don’t buy a device hoping for features were probably also the people complaining that the M1 iPad didn’t justify its M1 chip prior to iPadOS 16. The M1 is pretty much just an A14X anyway, it is an evolution of the A12X which if you read the old Ars article that someone posted on one of these threads is where all the unified memory architecture began.

The issue for a lot of people is for years Apple have been selling these iPads as “computers” and comparing the performance of them to high end laptops, which if the iPad was running macOS would’ve been a valid comparison.
However as it stands my 2018 iPP is far more powerful than my wife’s 2020 intel MacBook Air but is nowhere near as productive due to OS limitations. People like me saw iPadOS 16 with its new features as a way of justifying the iPad’s huge performance somewhat and to bring it closer to the Mac and are quite rightly annoyed that hardware that is perfectly capable is being kicked to the side and still not getting to live up to its full potential.

Now to put this into perspective the 2018 iPP has a chip that was compared to a 7th Generation intel core i7 with Xbox One S level of graphics, now are you really telling me that all that power cannot run Teams on one screen and Safari on another?
As for the 4GB of RAM issue they could’ve added swap too as the A12Z would’ve had it in the DTK as part of macOS even if it did have 16GB of RAM. I’ve looked at benchmarks for the SSD in the 2018 iPP and it would be more than capable of running Swap as PC’s have been doing it with spinning rust at sub 100MB/s speeds for years, Android phones run swap on eMMC which is even slower, and the 2018 iPP has a write speed of around 300MB/s which is more than capable.

I’ve said it before in these threads but this is an iPadOS release by the bean counters to try and flog more iPads and during a global recession its a nasty move at a time where people have less spending power and are trying to maximise the lifespans of their devices, especially when the hardware is as powerful as the iPad Pro.

Also to the person above comparing it to buying an older car and complaining it doesn’t have the latest features, cars can be upgraded. My car didn’t have CarPlay it does now so that argument is garbage.

Apple could potentially solve this issue by unlocking the hardware to install alternative OS’s after they give up on them, I bet the 2018 iPP even with its measly 4GB of RAM could run the Arm version of Windows far better than even some of the latest Arm chips for windows.
If you had a non M1 Mac you could install Windows or Linux on it after MacOS support ended, I had a 2012 MacBook pro that I had upgraded to an SSD and stuck 8GB of RAM in it and it was running the latest build of Windows 10 at the time extremely well long after macOS support ended.
 
With this move apple pissed of 50% if not 80% of the iPad users. I think there may will be someone with enough will power to develop the jailbreak for iOS 16 eventually to enable stage manager. Just like Opencore Legacy Patcher
There are over 400 million iPad users. I doubt that 50% of them care.
 
I don’t know if it’s true for other companies, but there’s a VERY active and committed “anti-apple” community. :) The Apple fanboys are kinda hanging out in Apple forums because, you know, it’s an Apple forum. The “anti-apple” folks, rather than avoid anything Apple, find themselves drawn to Apple forums. That’s dedication of a special type!

Anti-Apple would mean we ain't using anything Apple. Which is not the case, apparently. This is some flawed 6 years old kid logic. On the other side, being satisfied with some company's products doesn't have to mean you have to lick their boots 24/7.

I get that you are shareholder, but that crude pyramid-scheme-online marketing doesn't work this way. In fact, it rather pisses off folks with basic comprehension skills. You are not doing Apple any favor.
 
Keep dreaming. Apple would never allow one device to cannibalise another product category. It's why the iPad is still as useless today as it was when it launched.
I know, right? I mean, just the other day I bought an iPod Classic AND an iPod Touch. Folks thought the iPhone would cannibalize those, but guess they weren’t right about that! /s
 
Can you imagine the uproar if they had announced the M2 iPad Pro and limited these features just to that model?

The problem I am seeing in this thread is people quite rightly criticising Apple for decisions that appear to be a case of trying to sell you new hardware even if you have perfectly capable hardware already, and then the Apple defenders where almighty god Tim cannot do wrong, but if Apple had said the new features were M2 iPad only then they would be complaining like us A series iPad owners.

The people saying don’t buy a device hoping for features were probably also the people complaining that the M1 iPad didn’t justify its M1 chip prior to iPadOS 16. The M1 is pretty much just an A14X anyway, it is an evolution of the A12X which if you read the old Ars article that someone posted on one of these threads is where all the unified memory architecture began.

To be honest, when the window patent popped up prior to WWDC, I was expecting to see it next year or the following year. I also somewhat expected Apple would require a new slightly redesigned M2 iPad Pro and Magic Keyboard for the new windowing features.
 
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