Earlier, Apple’s head of software engineering, Craig Federighi, explained why this feature is limited to the M1 iPad. This week, we saw yet another article related to Stage Manager. It can be seen from the text that an “internal mode” mentioned in the iPadOS 16 code allows non-M1 iPads to get this multitasking/stacked window experience.
9to5Mac discovered that the code references an internal setting called “Legacy Devices” that enables the “Chamois” feature (codename for Stage Manager) for older devices.
Unfortunately, according to Craig Federighi – Apple tested many models of iPads before launching Stage Manager, and in the end only the M1 iPad was guaranteed to deliver the best experience. For interested developers, you can still try to open this hidden option in the first Dev test version of iPadOS 16 (may encounter unexpected problems such as stuttering).
In addition, Craig Federighi said in an earlier interview that virtual RAM swapping is critical to the build of the Stage Manager experience — because it supports up to eight application windows open at the same time (4 on the main screen + 4 on the external monitor). indivual). Later, it was found that the 64GB entry-level iPad Air 5 on the support list itself lacks the memory swap function, which is very contradictory.
The executive also pointed out that Stage Manager is also hardware-intensive because of its smooth animations and nice shadows. But this claim is equally controversial, as it is also supported on 2017 Intel Macs with macOS Ventura upgrades.
It’s unclear whether Apple will redraw the line for iPadOS 16 / Stage Manager. However, the macOS Monterey / Live Text function, which was limited to M1 Mac last year, was finally put on Intel Mac under the criticism of the majority of users.