The latest news with an iPad focus.
Updated on September 28th with new Stage Manager details.
The upcoming version of iPadOS, 16.1 (Apple is skipping 16.0, as previously reported), gets widespread support as usual. Apple is very generous with backwards compatibility for their devices, and iPads are no exception. While there is still no announced release date for iPadOS 16.1, we already know which iPad models will support the update.
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Tomorrow’s Apple event day, this one titled “Far Out”, with space graphics to match. It’s an iPhone event, by all accounts, so don’t expect anything iPad related. I don’t even think they’ll give us a launch date for the delayed iPadOS release. They’re skipping iPadOS 16.0, as you might recall, jumping straight to 16.1, which is what’s in the betas right now.
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Wow, I did not see this one coming. While reports on iPadOS 16 being delayed into fall has been floating around, the fact that Apple not only confirms this, but also completely skips version 16.0 is just astounding. Apple gave the following statement to TechCrunch:
This is an especially big year for iPadOS. As its own platform with features specifically designed for iPad, we have the flexibility to deliver iPadOS on its own schedule. This Fall, iPadOS will ship after iOS, as version 16.1 in a free software update.
This is significant in many ways. The statement was shortly followed by a new iPadOS 16 developer beta, the seventh thus far.
The Pixelmator apps have been a staple for iPad, iOS, and macOS users for years. From the original app, called just Pixelmator, to Pixelmator Photo for iPadOS and iOS, and Pixelmator Pro for macOS, it’s such a great suite of apps. I named Pixelmator Photo one of my favorite iPad apps of 2021, which you might recall.
One of the reason the Pixelmator apps are beloved, outside of being truly great software, is that they differ from Adobe’s offerings by being one-time purchases. Well, that’s going to change in the near future, at least for Pixelmator Photo. It’s going the subscription route, something I’m not the biggest fan of.
Continue reading →It’s time to update your Apple devices again, which obviously includes your iPad. The iPadOS 15.6.1 security release patches a kernel vulnerability, which is serious, especially since Apple reports that the vulnerability has been exploited. There’s another issue too, with the browser engine, Webkit. This too has been exploited in the wild.
In other words, hit that update button post-haste. This includes your other Apple devices, too.
Post updated August 25, 2022. The members area has launched!
I hope you’ve had a good summer. I’ve spent mine resting, mostly, but also setting up the move from Substack, as per your (and my) wishes from the #100 survey. I’ve chosen Memberful as the service for this. It was easy to integrate into the Switch to iPad site, and it’s also a great user experience, in my opinion, in the sense that it’s easy to both login and cancel accounts.
So, this is what happens now.
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It’s almost as if these things are scheduled, isn’t it? Anyway, the sixth iPadOS 16 developer beta is out, alongside various other betas for Apple platforms, as usual. Expect the fourth public beta to arrive shortly, too.
This is possibly the shortest post on Switch to iPad thus far. Don’t worry, I’m not turning it into a habit.
The fifth iPadOS 16 developer beta has started to roll out (release notes), and it does look like there are some improvements to Stage Manager, among other fixes. I’ve yet to play with this one as I’m deep in Switch to iPad fixes as a result of that 100 issue survey I did a while back, but I’m looking forward to it. There are quite a few quirky things with Stage Manager, especially related to following links that open external apps, which then might not happen in the logical view, as well as plenty of render bugs. I stopped using an external monitor with beta 3 as I found it unreliable, but having a go at that is long overdue.
Stage Manager is, presumably, the reason Apple seems to be pushing the iPadOS 16 launch to October. Meanwhile, iOS 16 is still due in September, if the Apple Rumor Mill™️ is to be expected. In the end, only Apple knows for sure.
Update: The third public beta was released shortly after the fifth developer beta.
Fifteen games are leaving the Apple Arcade subscription service, which is something that has annoyed quite a few people online. It’s to be expected, this is how game subscriptions work, Xbox Game Pass does the same thing. But here’s the deal: You might still be able to play the games that left Apple Arcade, assuming you’ve downloaded them to your iPad. Not forever, but at lest you’ll get at least two weeks to finish them. Apple made this clear in a new support document, where we also learn that games that’ll end up as paid (or free, I presume) releases on the App Store after the Apple Arcade exclusivity, will support any old save files you might have.
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It sounds like Apple wants some additional time to get work done on iPadOS 16, something that might not come as such a surprise if you’re running the beta. There’s still work to be done, and traditionally, iPadOS version has launched alongside iOS versions. The latter, being iOS 16, is likely in September, but iPadOS 16 might have to wait until October.
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