Can your Apple device still do everything?
There is frustration amongst Apple users that not all devices can use all the key features Apple offers
XIt has long been the case that older devices have been unable to take advantage of all the new features Apple offers when it upgrades its operating systems. Indeed, this is true of tech firms more broadly, and it can often be for good reason, namely that a hardware upgrade helps facilitate that new software feature. We’ve seen this with the iPhone’s camera many times.
This issue came to the fore once again in the wake of Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June. While there was much excitement about the forthcoming features unveiled at WWDC, it quickly emerged that lots of people would not be able to use them.
The key example of this is Stage Manager, which greatly improves multitasking on the iPad, allowing for multiple overlapping windows. It also provides full support for external displays with a resolution of up to 6K. Pulling back the curtain on Stage Manager was a major part of the WWDC, but it will only be available to users with iPads powered by the M1 chip or later. And that means that, at the time of writing, it will only work on the most recent iPad Pro and iPad Air.
Not surprisingly, this did not go down well with some Apple users. Upon learning his 2018 iPad would not have access to Stage Manager, Ben Lovejoy, European Editor at 9to5Mac wrote:
“The official reason for this is that the M1 has faster access to storage and that M1 iPads – like M1/M2 Macs – use RAM and SSD storage interchangeably when needed. But given that macOS runs just fine on an A12Z chip, I’m sure that my A12X Bionic-powered iPad could cope with Stage Manager. I strongly suspect this is just Apple wanting to sell more iPads.”
While the technical explanation offered by Apple is reasonable, and the company would dispute this is part of a crude attempt to increase sales, it is likely that Lovejoy’s sentiment is shared by many frustrated consumers.
The M1 chips do allow for more powerful graphics processing, faster storage and a greater amount of RAM, among other things. The feature is built around that chip’s capabilities. Going into more depth, Apple SVP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi told TechCrunch:
“As you add multiple apps into play, and large amounts of screen real estate, you have to make sure that any one of those apps can respond instantaneously to touch in a way that you don’t have that expectation with a desktop app. Indirect manipulation gives you some slack there, so it’s a different set of constraints.” He added that Stage Manager requires “extremely fast IO virtual memory” and that “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.”
Previous iPads cannot drive 4K, 5K or 6K displays either.
Latest device club
But it is not just iPad users who are missing out on some features due to the shift to the M1. There are features in the next version of macOS, aka macOS Ventura, that will only be available to Macs with these Apple-designed chips. These include Live Captions in FaceTime (when you can get automatically generated captions in FaceTime calls), Reference
Mode with Sidecar (when you can connect an iPad to an M-series Mac and use it as a reference display, which means the iPad can use colour palettes), and the ability to insert emoji using your voice.
Again, there is a reasonable technical explanation. Live Captions is heavily dependent on the Neural Engine in the M1 or M2 chip. However, that doesn’t make it any less annoying for those who can’t make use of certain features, particularly as Apple still sells the Intel-powered Mac Pro.
There is some irony that the most expensive and powerful machine in the Mac line-up will seemingly not be able to make use of all the features available in macOS Ventura.
It is, though, debatable how many Apple fans care passionately enough about the features named above that it would prompt us to upgrade a machine at the cost of thousands of pounds. However, there will be some who will accept that the upgrade cycle is getting shorter and they’re in a position to be able to buy devices more often to stay up to date.
The release of the M-series chips was undoubtedly groundbreaking, enabling Apple to offer us more power, efficiency, and so much more. The rate of progress is genuinely impressive, and Apple is releasing new M-series chips at a faster rate than many expected. Consequently, there are a large number of Intel Macs still out in the wild whose users feel left behind. Furthermore, could M3-series chips offer capabilities that the M1 chips do not, meaning that even those who have made the leap to Apple silicon early are left behind, in the same way those with older A-series chips do not get all the latest iPhone features.
iOS 15.4, for instance, allowed those with an iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 to use the ‘Face ID with a Mask’ facility without needing an Apple Watch. Those with an iPhone 11 or earlier do not have this option. Apple is understood to have limited the number of models the feature is available on as it is resource-intensive.
The iPhone 12 and 13 range have the newer A14 Bionic and A15 Bionic chips in them, compared to the A12 Bionic in the iPhone 11.
Eco-credentials
While there is nothing wrong with Apple wishing to transition to its own silicon as quickly as possible, it does, to some extent, seem to fly in the face of the company’s recent support for the Right to Repair, as well as its sincerely held environmental concerns.
As discussed in MF379, the right to repair is the right of consumers to fix their own devices using standard or easily accessible tools. Apple has been criticised by both consumer groups and lawmakers for not allowing this in the past, but the company has now undergone something of a change of heart. The company released tools
for fixing the iPhone 12 and 13 in April 2022 in the US, and the offering will eventually make it to Europe. The idea is to make devices last longer, which is better for users and better for the environment.
However, if consumers are unable to take full advantage of the latest operating systems, the Right to Repair scheme risks becoming redundant to some extent. Instead of using the scheme, many will be tempted to buy new instead of fixing an old device. This will continue to be an issue even as more devices qualify for the Self Service Repair Store as consumers will still be tempted to buy new to be sure of accessing the latest OS features.
It is worth noting that not everything is negative. Apple uses increasingly durable materials on its devices to help make them longer lasting. An obvious example of this is the use of Gorilla Glass. The material is used in the iPhone for its added protective qualities. On the software side, Apple does offer key security updates for older devices and operating systems too, to help protect users who maintain older devices. Indeed, macOS Monterey works on Macs that were released as far back as 2015.
Apple acknowledges the importance of device longevity. In its 2022 Environmental Progress Report, the company said: “We believe long-lasting products are best for the environment. We also believe products that minimise the need for repair or replacement encourage our customers to come back to Apple. We design our products with this goal in mind.”
Apple’s desire to do better for the environment is genuine, and it has made real progress both within the company itself and across its supply chain. However, that statement seems to accept the reality that users wishing to upgrade their devices more regularly do so to the detriment of the environment. The company should then surely do more to make as many key features as possible available on as many devices as possible. Yet, that is not the case with something as fundamental as Stage Manager.
No mainstream tech company offers devices that last forever. The world moves too fast for that, and there is an ever-changing smörgåsbord of innovation to get into the hands of consumers. Apple is often at the forefront of that, to the benefit of those who use its devices. Indeed, Apple’s M-series is an example of this.
Apple is within its rights to encourage the move to M-series devices. It is hardly a surprise that the company wants customers to purchase the latest version of its devices. However, there is definitely a gap that leaves even those who have a relatively recently released device unable to access the full gamut of features.
Completing the transition to Apple M-series chips on Mac and iPad will likely go some way to resolving this. Until then, expect users to be frustrated as they discover that the latest features are unavailable on their devices.