Source: Pocketnow

Earlier this week, display analyst Ross Young revealed that Apple has been working on a new iPad model with a massive 14.1-inch display. In addition to the 14-inch iPad, some reports have also reports revealed that Apple will be updating the baseline iPad with new internals and a slightly bigger display soon. We now have some new information about the upcoming iPad models that suggest that they may not be the Pro-grade devices we’re expecting them to be.

Starting off with the 14-inch iPad model, Young earlier predicted that the 14-inch iPad model would be a part of the Pro lineup given its display size. He reported that it would come with a mini LED display and support for up to a 120Hz refresh rate. He has, however, since revised his prediction, saying that the 14-inch iPad will be a part of the standard iPad lineup and not the Pro — though there is still confusion about the name it will carry. It will not feature a mini LED display, nor it will come with support for the ProMotion (120Hz refresh rate) display.

Young, in a tweet to his Super Followers, said that the 14-inch iPad will not feature mini LEDs after all. Instead, the upcoming iPad will feature the regular LED edge lightning seen on iPad Air and iPad mini. This, however, feels a bit confusing — wouldn’t the power users be looking for the biggest screen and all the high-end features?

The target market for a 14-inch iPad would (mostly) be the creators who would want to take advantage of the huge canvas. Those buyers would also be looking at the M1 12.9-inch iPad Pro. But, the lack of mini LED and ProMotion could drive people away as both of these features are available on the 12.9-inch Pro model. Also, while announcing the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, Apple said that it added mini LED to the iPad as it wanted creators to have the largest canvas and a color-accurate display. So why would the company want the bigger display of the 14-inch iPad to not have Liquid Retina XDR?

It seems that the exclusion of mini LEDs on the large iPad might be a forced decision and could be due to supply chain issues. All the products with mini LED displays are facing shipment delays. Adding another (huge) iPad would only complex the situation.

Source: Pocketnow video

On the other hand, the upcoming entry-level iPad is also said to gain some features, but still not enough to make it a Pro-grade device. According to the report from 9to5Mac, the upcoming 10th generation iPad will feature the A14 Bionic chip — the same chip used in the iPhone 12 series — which will also bring support for 5G networks. In addition, it will also gain USB-C connectivity for the first time.

The report also claims that the device will ship with a slightly bigger 10.5-inch display as opposed to the 10.2-inch on the current one. There’s no word on the body redesign, but I would be really surprised to see if there is no design change, given that the iPad is said to ship with a new screen and port. Talking about the port, the USB-C port on the iPad will open up the device to a whole new world.

Users will be able to enjoy faster transfer speeds, and the port will even allow users to connect a wider variety of peripherals with the device. The addition of 5G, as well as the A14 Bionic, will improve the performance of the device by quite a margin. While upgrades like USB-C and the faster A14 Bionic chip feel like a step forward, the entry-level iPad still won’t be the device many users would be looking to buy — especially after the iPadOS 16 update.

Apple announced the iPadOS 16 update with a bunch of major features, including the all-new way to multitask called Stage Manager. However, as per Apple, the main requirement to support the Stage Manager feature is the Apple M1 chip. The company says that only the M-series chip can deliver the performance required by the Stage Manager, and so the feature is not supported on iPads with its A-series chips.

The inclusion of the A14 Bionic chipset on the 10th Gen iPad would mean that the feature will not be supported on the entry-level iPad. This could turn away a lot of users. Apple is creating a new way to use the iPad with iPadOS 16, and if you’re a customer looking to buy a new iPad and you come to know that your iPad won’t support the latest (and fancy) new feature, won’t it drive the buyers away? Would you be interested in buying an iPad that doesn’t support the Stage Manager feature? Or a 14-inch iPad that lacks the mini LED and ProMotion display? Let us know in the comments section below!

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Source: Apple

Apple hosted its WWDC event last week. The company introduced a number of new features to the iPad with the introduction of iPadOS 16. The new iPadOS 16 software update brings improvements to messages, collaboration tools, an all-new Weather app, a customizable toolbar, and much more. But, one of the key highlights of the new iPad operating system, that Apple executive Craig Federighi also took time demoing, is the new Stage Manager feature. It, however, appears that the Stage Manager feature will not be available on most iPads as it is limited to only the models with the M1 chip. Here’s the reason why Apple has left out the Stage Manager feature on iPads without an M-series chip.

What is Stage Manager?

Source: Apple

Stage Manager is an all-new way of managing windows and full-screen apps on iPadOS. Apple says that Stage Manager is an entirely new multitasking experience that makes organizing apps, switching between tasks, and managing windows a fluid experience. Using Stage Manager, you can resize apps into overlapping windows, drag and drop windows from the side, open apps from the Dock to create groups of apps, and even use eight apps at the same time using an external monitor.

Unfortunately, it appears that Stage Manager will only be available on iPad models that are powered by the Apple M-series processors. This means that only the latest iPad Pro and the iPad Air 5th Gen will get the new Stage Manager feature. On the other hand, iPad Air 4th Gen and all the other iPads released with A-series chips will not receive the new feature. Apple has explained why only the recently released iPad models support the new Stage Manager feature.

Why is Stage Manager limited to iPads with an M1 chip?

Source: Apple

In a statement to Rene Ritchie earlier this week, Apple SVP of software engineering, Craig Federighi, explained that Stage Manager requires large internal memory, incredibly fast storage, and flexible external display I/O to work. All of these — the required specifications — are available only on iPads with the M1 chip, according to Apple.

Following this, in an interview with TechCrunch, Federighi reiterated that the M1 chip ensures that all apps being used in Stage Manager are “instantaneously responsive.”

It’s only the M1 iPads that combined the high DRAM capacity with very high capacity, high-performance NAND that allows our virtual memory swap to be super fast. Now that we’re letting you have up to four apps on a panel plus another four – up to eight apps to be instantaneously responsive and have plenty of memory, we just don’t have that ability on the other systems

— Craig Federighi

“We really designed Stage Manager to take full advantage [of the M1 chip],” said Federighi. “If you look at the way the apps tilt and shadow and how they animate in and out. To do that at super-high frame rates, across very large displays and multiple displays, requires the peak of graphics performance that no one else can deliver.”

Source: Apple

“When you put all this together, we can’t deliver the full Stage Manager experience on any lesser system,” he added. “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.”

It seems that Apple could have brought a slightly toned-down version of Stage Manager to the iPad with A-series chips, but Federighi says that the company is setting the benchmark for future products and has decided to go the other way.

Even though Stage Manager is limited to iPads with an M1 chip, it doesn’t mean they will miss out on other iPadOS 16 features. Features such as Collaboration in apps like Safari, Pages, and Keynote, the ability to schedule and undo send emails, Shared Photo Library, improvements to the Messages app, and other features will be available on all the iPadOS 16 compatible models.

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Stage Manager could prove to be the multi-tasking and windowing experience we were all looking forward to, but it appears that it will only be available to only a niche set of iPad users and most of the consumers will not be able to enjoy the new feature. What are your thoughts on the iPadOS 16 update? Is your iPad compatible with the Stage Manager feature? If yes, have you used the feature on your iPad? Let us know in the comments section below!

Source: TechCrunch | Other References: MacRumors, Apple Insider