iPad iPadOS Stage Manager: If not this, what do you want then?

[Scarboose]

I see a lot of hate/frustration/disappointment with the new Stage Manager feature. Obviously, we all wish it applied to more than just M1 iPads. However, for those of you who want more computer/MacOS like features and don't like this, what do you want instead?

In my opinion, this feature is pushing the iPad in a great direction! Especially combined with external monitor support, this allows me to use the iPad as a tablet on its own and then I can plug in a cable and take full advantage of a large monitor with more space and many apps open at the same time.

 

[Shirasaki]

The stage manager design feels like a weird fit into an operating system that was not designed with front end multitasking in mind. The window movement feels awkward (I know, square pixel and iOS app etc etc). I can no longer overlay window on top of full screen app and use them at the same time. Three dot is hard to use for moving windows with touch.

What I want, is something akin Windows(TM) or Linux managing multiple windows. Easier to move them around. More freedom in terms of window movement. And bring back slide over feature for stage manager and give it more flexibility. Heck, it would be nice to have virtual desktops on iPadOS cause why not.

 

[d5aqoëp]

Stage Manager is pure waste of coding efforts. I have gone back to old way because it’s easier.

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

Should be similar to Samsungs Dex which you can use with their phones or tablets.

 

[spiderman0616]

I am fully planning on trying Stage Manager and possibly using it regularly. I just don't like running betas on any of my devices, because I consider them all "mission critical". I don't have an iPad that can run Stage Manager, but I'm definitely going to take it for a spin on my Mac.

There is a subset of people who just want Apple to slap macOS onto the iPad Pro. Those are the people complaining. Pay them no mind, as this is a horrible idea. Honestly, I feel that what Apple did LAST year with the app shelf and improved multitasking view killed off a LOT of the last iPad multitasking complaints I had. Stage Manager will just be the icing on the cake for people who want an even more tailored-for-iPad experience. In my eyes, this was the next best thing to just putting Spaces on iPad somehow.

 

[The Game 161]

I think too many just want it to be a Mac mode which isn’t going to happen.

Stage manager seems fine for my iPad usage. App windows is what I’ve wanted for years. It could be better but it fills a need

 

[darngooddesign]

...Honestly, I feel that what Apple did LAST year with the app shelf and improved multitasking view killed off a LOT of the last iPad multitasking complaints I had.

I agree. iPadOS15 made it easy to add an app not in the dock to split-screen, which was my only complaint about split-screen in landscape.

 

[Isengardtom]

Personally I think the biggest use case of stage manager is the external display support Where you can work with 1 app on the tablet and 1 (max 2) on the external display

On the tablet itself, it’s a lot les useful (which in my humble opinion is also the case with Samsung Dex), and the old way is actually better because of the full screen split with a slide over if wanted

Even on a mac, multitasking for me means 1 app per available screen to be really useful. iI sometimes do a split on my iMac but I always find it to have limited use cases. On smaller displays, this becomes an even bigger issue.

I think for me I’ll probably use the old way of working with the shelf more than stage manager

 

[ct2k7]

To me, it's not been about how to interact with apps on the iPad, it's that the apps themselves are limited.

The old adage of iPadOS not matching the hardware is still the case.

 

[Username-already-in-use]

The “old way” is more seamless an experience for a tablet, but whenever my 12.9 is docked in my Magic Keyboard it is in Stage Manager all the time - I wouldn’t go back.

 

[nStyle]

Looks like nothing but an improvement to me, and nothing is stopping anyone from using the old way of multitasking if they want: it’s still there. Not much has changed in the way of “if you need a laptop, get a laptop” but at least this is a great option for people who want it.

 

[darngooddesign]

The “old way” is more seamless an experience for a tablet, but whenever my 12.9 is docked in my Magic Keyboard it is in Stage Manager all the time - I wouldn’t go back.

Can you have the iPad open an app in SM from the Home Screen/App Library or by tapping on an icon or widget, or do you have to launch SM first and then go find the app within SM?

 

[Machspeed007]

There is a subset of people who just want Apple to slap macOS onto the iPad Pro. Those are the people complaining.

Well, Apple shouldn't try to make the ipad a "pro" platform with "multitasking" then.
What's the point of Stage Manager? Is it a "pro" feature? Who is it meant for? If it's indeed a feature for pro users, then they should complain if it achieves nothing useful for "pro" use.

 

[darngooddesign]

Well, Apple shouldn't try to make the ipad a "pro" platform with "multitasking" then.

Apple has had split-screen and slide over multitasking since iOS9. SM is just more robust multitasking with several added benefits.

What's the point of Stage Manager? Is it a "pro" feature? Who is it meant for? If it's indeed a feature for pro users, then they should complain if it achieves nothing useful for "pro" use.

It's for anyone who wants proper external display support. Its also meant for people who want to have more than two apps displayed on the screen at a time. It paves the way for better apps because it removes the previous app RAM restriction due to iOS now having swap virtual memory. It's not necessarily a Pro feature, but it does provide features which Pros are likely to appreciate.

Its not useful for pro work if you are convinced that MacOS is 100% required for pro work.

 

[ct2k7]

It paves the way for better apps because it removes the previous app RAM restriction due to iOS now having swap virtual memory.

Stage Manager doesn't do that, it requires that (or so Apple says).

Many users likely don't have issues with interactive with the iPad in a multitasking scenario, but this feature enables that. It doesn't fix the underlying problems people feel they have, however.

 

[darngooddesign]

Stage Manager doesn't do that, it requires that (or so Apple says).

Apple doesn't say that Stage Manager requires swap memory. Their site has a footnote specifying swap requires an M1 and at least 128GB SSD.

Many users likely don't have issues with interactive with the iPad in a multitasking scenario, but this feature enables that. It doesn't fix the underlying problems people feel they have, however.

AFAIK Swap Memory is only in the Stage Manager environment, but it requires a certain amount of free space which is why the 64GB Air only has Stage Manager but the 128GB+ Pros and 256GB Air have Stage Manager with Swap Memory.

I'm happy with split screen now that my last complaint was addressed by iPadOS15, but I look forward to SM when I upgrade my old iPad Pro this fall.

 

[ct2k7]

Apple doesn't say that Stage Manager requires swap memory. Their site has a footnote specifying swap requires an M1 and at least 128GB SSD.

AFAIK Swap Memory is only in the Stage Manager environment, but it requires a certain amount of free space which is why the 64GB Air only has Stage Manager but the 128GB+ Pros and 256GB Air have Stage Manager with Swap Memory.

I'm happy with split screen now that my last complaint was addressed by iPadOS15, but I look forward to SM when I upgrade my old iPad Pro this fall.

Federighi said that SM requires memory swap, however, we know that the iPad Air may not get it. Moreover, Steve Troughton-Smith says "Stage Manager works on iPad Air (M1) at all storage sizes, so swap is not a critical dependency".

Apple doesn't seem to indicate that VMS is only used in SM - and this wouldn't make sense if it were the case; SM is providing a new way to interact with multitasking features and I don't believe it's a container or wrapper for applications.

Personally, I haven't used SM on my iPad Pro yet (I'm now upgrading to iPad OS 16 Beta), but I have tried it on my Mac and can't say it helped. Maybe it will on the iPad, but it doesn't outright sound appealing.

 

[rui no onna]

Apple doesn't say that Stage Manager requires swap memory. Their site has a footnote specifying swap requires an M1 and at least 128GB SSD.

AFAIK Swap Memory is only in the Stage Manager environment, but it requires a certain amount of free space which is why the 64GB Air only has Stage Manager but the 128GB+ Pros and 256GB Air have Stage Manager with Swap Memory.

Apple introduced Virtual Memory Swap as a feature independent of Stage Manager during the keynote. Even on the iPadOS 16 features page, VMS is listed separately and it doesn’t seem like it would only work in Stage Manager.

Indeed, Apple’s iPadOS 16 footnote indicates slightly different hardware requirements for the two features.

 

[spiderman0616]

Well, Apple shouldn't try to make the ipad a "pro" platform with "multitasking" then.
What's the point of Stage Manager? Is it a "pro" feature? Who is it meant for? If it's indeed a feature for pro users, then they should complain if it achieves nothing useful for "pro" use.

It's meant to make multitasking on the iPad better. What they did last year to the multitasking view was really well implemented and made things a lot easier. Stage Manager is the next step in that goal. I'm not sure what makes you think people won't complain if it's no good. You'll hear nothing but complaining around here whether it's a good feature or not.

There is a difference between making the iPad into a Mac and making the iPad a better iPad. Apple is not interested in the former, and I hope it stays that way.

 

[Dr Kevorkian94]

I like Stage Manager however Apple still enforces rules on how you can manage windows. They give you what you want with a catch. I should be able to resize and move windows in any fashion I want. Additionally SM apps on the left are there when the system wants them to be and gone when it thinks you don't want it there (usually with a larger app on screen next to it). Both the dock and the apps to the left in SM should go away unless I push my mouse to them. With this and the removing the restrictions on window size/placement it would be perfect. it would be a nice addition if the old way of split view could be added as an option to the 3dots we have for windows in SM as well.

 

[Ludatyk]

Personally, I haven't used SM on my iPad Pro yet (I'm now upgrading to iPad OS 16 Beta), but I have tried it on my Mac and can't say it helped. Maybe it will on the iPad, but it doesn't outright sound appealing.

Well, coming from the Mac… I think SM helps, but not to the degree of using it on the iPad. You have to take into account the iPad never had the ability to resize windows and this is new territory for iPad users.

Devs have to code their app to take advantage of resizing windows because YT is horrible right now.

 

[spiderman0616]

Well, coming from the Mac… I think SM helps, but not to the degree of using it on the iPad. You have to take into account the iPad never had the ability to resize windows and this is new territory for iPad users.

Devs have to code their app to take advantage of resizing windows because YT is horrible right now.

I'm actually more excited for it on Mac, because I want to see if it's better than what I typically do, which is 3 groups of apps each in its own Space. I have hot keys programmed on my mouse so that I can quick flip between them or get to Mission Control without even using the keyboard.

 

[yellowbunny]

Literally all I want is to be able to have separate apps on a full screen external monitor than the iPad screen. So Safari open on my iPad while Keynote is on the external for example. No flashy animations, nice and simple.

 

[Mark Stone]

Stage Manager is pure waste of coding efforts. I have gone back to old way because it’s easier.

I may agree with this. My M1 iPad Air multitasks beautifully - you can move from screen to screen, app to app, using three fingers on the Magic Keyboard’s trackpad. I write articles for my architectural website while running (“grinding”) afk on a Roblox game lol, with a notes app, calculator and an email app running. - I say I “may” agree, because I haven’t used Stage Manager yet, so who knows? It may not be as redundant as it seems; I may love it; I dunno.

 

[Gherkin]

Literally all I want is to be able to have separate apps on a full screen external monitor than the iPad screen. So Safari open on my iPad while Keynote is on the external for example. No flashy animations, nice and simple.

I’m a little confused. Do you NEED to use Stage Manager to connect to an external display and have a full screen app on an external monitor?

or will my 2018 iPad Pro (not SM compatible) still be able to connect to an external display and have a full screen app (not screen mirroring) on the external monitor?