Check Out iPadOS 15's New Multitasking Features

[genovelle]

People when Apple stuffs a bunch of new features into an update:

“Why can’t Apple move to a biyearly update schedule or focus only on stability and speed every other year? This release is so buggy. I miss snow leopard!”

People when Apple doesn’t introduce many new features (which generally results in a more stable release):

“Apple can’t innovate anymore, they’re letting their platform stagnate. I’m switching to Android/Windows.”

Right! It’s so frustrating.

 

[szw-mapple fan]

Yea, that is an improvement but mostly an aesthetic issue. How I select the multitasked apps has always been a minor problem compared to what the multitasked apps can do. My issue is that iPadOS does not really allow multitasking in the sense that background processes can run to completion as needed. The visual aspects of it are sort of irrelevant.

Here are examples of multitasking issues that I am talking about:
- I have an app that can mass-edit the EXIF data on photos. It can do a few dozen in the blink of eye, but doing it to 1,000 or 10,000 photos all at once can take a long time - especially if the photos are on a network drive. But the OS doesn't let the app run in the background for very long. So if I want the app to run for 30 minutes straight, which is how long it might take for it to do what it does, I have to keep it in the foreground and the iPad awake.
- Similar to above, uploading a large amount of data to an FTP is a problem. The FTP app cannot run in the background for very long due to OS limitations, so eventually the OS sleeps the app and the transfer is stalled. I can't start the FTP transfer, send it to background, and mess around on Facebook while the FTP app does it's thing off-screen.

Yeah I can definitely see how your use case would needs a deeper rewrite of how the multitasking works. My main grips with the multitasking was mostly the usability of the windows and launching split screen, so I'm happy with the update. I would love to have vertical splitscreen/tiling though.

 

[applematic]

I really wanted the option for split view to be top/bottom apps when in portrait. 😔

This would be very welcome. The portrait split now is ridiculous

 

[Gigaman]

Looks like how it should have always worked, still good of course. What I really want to know is if you can listen to multiple audio sources finally. (so, like watching a YouTube video while playing music via Apple Music at the same time.)

 

[oneMadRssn]

This is more a limitation of iOS‘s memory management model (ie: no virtual memory) and the fact that iPads up until the M1 pros were really only equipped with enough RAM to run 1-2 apps at a time in the foreground (and barely that). Theoretically an iPad with more RAM can (and usually does) allow background applications to run longer before they’re killed by the OS to allocate the RAM to other apps. I don’t know this can be solved with software - lower end iPads have too little RAM and not enough internal storage to use as a useful page file for true multitasking, and I don’t envision Apple offering completely different memory management schemes for different iPad models.

I don't think the amount of RAM is the big issue here. It's not running an FTP client is a RAM-intensive process, and much older and OSes did this just fine on much less RAM.

I think it is the OS that kills the process. My understanding is the OS specifically does not allow apps to run things in the background for very long unless it is via an expressly permitted API for certain specific uses (e.g., voip). As others have noted, this might be an inherent limitation of iPadOS' memory system at large.

 

[jmh600cbr]

Why isn’t this on iOS?

 

[scupking]

Why cant Apple just add regular multitasking like MacOS... Doesn’t seem like it would be hard to do..

 

[devilsnj30]

Keep in mind there might be items that the New iPad can do that will be coming to the New iPhone to help the iPad be better that Apple isn't tipping their hats to. There might also be better iPad items coming to the iPad pros but Apple didn't want them in initial beta releases because they didn't want anyone to realize M1 was going to be in the new iPad.
They've done it before. Am I hopeful, no. But more will likely happen. Apple has also been a lot better about releasing new features as .1, .2, .3 instead of waiting for a new iteration lately. So more could come.

 

[trifid]

Wow what a disaster of UX.

At the end of the review he says "...you are gonna have to teach your brain how to use it..." That's a red flag for how bad and unintuitive the new UI is.

Apple has lost its way.

 

[thefourthpope]

Bingo! That's one of the major reasons why we'll not see macOS on an iPad. People here who think that would be great haven't thought this through in how that would be cumbersome in daily use. It would be a nice conversation piece to see macOS running on an iPad. But actually using it to do real work would quickly get old.

This also dovetails why in another post I today laid out why I'd never want to post-process my image files in Lightroom Classic on an iPad. For playing around, maybe. For serious work, no.

It would be cumbersome in daily use and frustrating if there were any sort of dual-boot happening, especially if that we’re in any way automated to the presence of keyboard and mouse as some on MR have suggested. To me it’s pining for the future predicted in sci-fi where we dock our phablet into a larger monitor and have all our apps and data available.

Though imaging all of the “the fingers you have used to dial are too fat” Simpsons jokes makes me happy.

Why isn’t this on iOS?

I’d take it on MacOS as well. I use Mosaic and Magnet to make window management a better experience. The whole “long click on the maximize button and hope that the window you want is in the same desktop” approach is just terrible. This UX seems much better.

 

[Sodium Chloride]

The fastest and most intuitive way to switch between apps is already available for iOS 14. Unfortunately, the trick only works if you attach the iPad to the Magic Keyboard. The command is cmd-tab. This will bring a list of currently opened apps. To switch between apps, just click the corresponding icon.

 

[devman]

This is more a limitation of iOS‘s memory management model (ie: no virtual memory) and the fact that iPads up until the M1 pros were really only equipped with enough RAM to run 1-2 apps at a time in the foreground (and barely that). Theoretically an iPad with more RAM can (and usually does) allow background applications to run longer before they’re killed by the OS to allocate the RAM to other apps. I don’t know this can be solved with software - lower end iPads have too little RAM and not enough internal storage to use as a useful page file for true multitasking, and I don’t envision Apple offering completely different memory management schemes for different iPad models.

iPadProOS 😉

 

[cupcakes2000]

better than before, but still an awful implementation. there's a better way of doing multitasking that's more productive.

How do you propose?

I certainly do not see anything new in iPad OS that justifies the same M1 processor in an iPad that a Mac has, which is disappointing as well.

not sure why the os has to justify the m1? It’s the apps that use the power, not the os.

Well, I guess it’s yet another year of multitasking disabled on my iPad.

Personally, this is not my kind of multitasking.

So rather than this form of multitasking you will take non at all? So you don’t need it in the first place? Yet you’re complaining about it? I can’t wrap my head around what you have written.

Better, but I really want windows that can be sized and arranged on the screen. The iPad Pro has a pretty big hi-res screen, lots of memory, and a very powerful processor. No reason it shouldn’t be capable of the most flexible windowing.

I wonder how many more years it’ll take to catch up to the windowing and multitasking I had on my Toshiba T4400 with its 9.5” SVGA screen that I used almost thirty years ago.

Why cant Apple just add regular multitasking like MacOS... Doesn’t seem like it would be hard to do..

It’s not that it’s not capable of it, or that it’s hard to do, surely you know that. It’s just not what Apple is visioning for the machine… like it or not.

Apple has lost its way.

😂

The fastest and most intuitive way to switch between apps is already available for iOS 14. Unfortunately, the trick only works if you attach the iPad to the Magic Keyboard. The command is cmd-tab. This will bring a list of currently opened apps. To switch between apps, just click the corresponding icon.

This it true though not really what the article is about.

 

[cknlol]

Maybe add two UI modes - one for "docked" situations where a magic keyboard is attached and keep the current iteration for "tablet" mode when there isn't. If one company could pull this off, I'd have my hopes up for Apple, rather than Microsoft.

 

[Mr.Blacky]

... everything in iPadOS that is new was in iOS last year. ...

That's an absolutely false and ridiculously statement. 😆

 

[arvinsim]

I don’t quite understand the pushback on this. The main issue with the iPadOS 14 way was the fact that there was next to zero visual indication of the multitasking functions. I have friends who had zero idea they could multitask on their iPads they used all the time.

The way I see it, this solves that issue?

There is no pushback.

It's just not enough for some people.

 

[The Game 161]

Why isn’t this on iOS?

Good question

For some reason apple doesn’t think phones deserve it.

 

[Admiralbison]

My finger gymnastics 🤸‍♀️ isn’t up to par for this incredible iOS multitasking.

Something wrong with me, always wanting MacOS’s “boring” true multi-tasking capabilities.

 

[Admiralbison]

better than before, but still an awful implementation. there's a better way of doing multitasking that's more productive.

surely there has to be better multi tasking...that doesn’t require Apple having MacOS and focusing their efforts making dynamic stable finger touch/mouse pointer buttons and panes and therefore solving so many features, functions and capabilities that pro users having been calling for years in a few sweeps and not waste effort making an iPhone OS with janky files, cumbersome split screen all pretending to be a desktop OS.

The M1 iPad Pro is essentially an M1 MacBook in tablet form, so it makes a lot of sense Apple “works” hard making iOS do the job than give MacOS touch ability.

 

[cr2]

This guy has many useful videos. It would be nice if we can find them nicely organized.

 

[bradman83]

I certainly do not see anything new in iPad OS that justifies the same M1 processor in an iPad that a Mac has, which is disappointing as well.

There is nothing special about the M1 being in the iPad Pro. The M1 is essentially the X version of the A14 - same underlying microarchitecture (Firestorm and Icestorm), double the performance cores, extra graphics cores, double the memory bus, etc. just like the A12Z vs the A12. It’s the logical successor to the A12Z and Apple isn’t about to make a slightly different chip to brand as the A14X when there was already so much marketing hype and they can use the same production lines.

 

[Stridr69]

The fastest and most intuitive way to switch between apps is already available for iOS 14. Unfortunately, the trick only works if you attach the iPad to the Magic Keyboard. The command is cmd-tab. This will bring a list of currently opened apps. To switch between apps, just click the corresponding icon.

Any Bluetooth keyboard will work. This is what I use.

 

[Mainsail]

If Multitasking is really an important part of your workflow, then you are probably just better off using a Mac. That may change sometime in the future. But, that seems to be the case right now.

 

[Stevesak]

This update looks nice and is appreciated, but it doesn’t solve my greatest frustration about multitasking on iPad. Dont get me wrong, I love my iPad. I’m on it all the time and couldn’t be happier with it, but what I’ve been wishing for for 6 years now since the first 12.9 was released is a simple feature….
In Portrait mode, let us play a video at the top 40% of our screens and use the bottom 60% to do other iPad stuff. This would allow us to watch a movie in an acceptable size (approx 9”) while surfing/drawing/shopping/working/etc below.
Top/Bottom multitasking in portrait mode would fulfill this by default and would make so many of us very happy.

 

[Just sayin...]

Thanks for putting this video together Dan. For me, I learn best when I can see an example of something working - reading can reenforce this, but I’m a visual learner. This was really a useful video for me.