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Issue #108: Apple should release iPadOS 16

Hi!

Are you frustrated by the lack of a proper iPadOS 16 release? It’s still unknown when Apple will, in fact, release iPadOS 16 (or 16.1, to be precise) to the public. Meanwhile our iPhones are getting iOS 16, with all the new fancy bells and whistles.

Well, I have thoughts. Have at it.

Apple should release iPadOS 16

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Work is progressing on iPadOS 16.1, and that’s good, obviously, but I think it was a bad decision to skip iPadOS 16.0. Don’t get me wrong, the state of 16.0 when Apple announced the decision was far from launch-ready.

Which isn’t exactly true, is it? The big pro feature of iPadOS 16, Stage Manager, was where the problem was. This is why our iPads aren’t running iPadOS 16 today, while our iPhones are on iOS 16. It’s Stage Manager’s fault.

Other than my iPad Pros, I’m running the iPadOS 16 beta on my iPad mini 6, too. It’s one of the devices that won’t support Stage Manager, a feature only available to M1 (and newer) chips. It works just fine, great even. Furthermore, it’s a small update compared to iPadOS 15, the major changes being the likes of RemindersNotesMail, and the brand new Weather app. These are changes one could argue should just roll out as app updates, but that’s not Apple’s way. Nevertheless, I enjoy them.

You should be able to enjoy them, too. The issue with iPadOS 16 isn’t the overall stability of the operating system, that’s well within what’s reasonable for a new release. No, it’s Stage Manager.

Apple should release iPadOS 16.0, without Stage Manager.

That’s it, that’s what I want. It’s what most of us want, I’d wager, now that we’ve got enhanced apps in our iPhones. Take your time with Stage Manager, please. I mean, really take your time because as it is now, it’s broken. It’s a shame that all non-M1 iPad users are having to wait for Apple to fix Stage Manager before they get the iPadOS update they’ve been looking forward to.

I mean, I get it – there’s a lot of pride here. Stage Manager is The Big One in iPadOS 16, so naturally it needs to be there when the update rolls out. It’s about the pro users, remember? Well, the professional thing to do would be to keep polishing Stage Manager until it’s launch-ready, but not hold everything else back.

I’ll wait. Thank you.

— Thord D. Hedengren ⚡

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