{"id":173760,"date":"2025-06-13T13:01:04","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T17:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/midatlanticconsulting.com\/blog\/?p=173760"},"modified":"2025-06-13T13:01:04","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T17:01:04","slug":"apple-says-the-ipads-hardware-limitations-prevented-it-from-implementing-proper-windowed-multitasking-earlier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/midatlanticconsulting.com\/blog\/2025\/06\/apple-says-the-ipads-hardware-limitations-prevented-it-from-implementing-proper-windowed-multitasking-earlier\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple says the iPad\u2019s hardware limitations prevented it from implementing proper windowed multitasking earlier"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Apple couldn\u2019t bring windowed multitasking to older iPads with the responsiveness you\u2019ve come to expect from the iPad\u2019s multitouch interface.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

Ars Technica<\/em><\/a> sat down with Apple\u2019s software chief Craig Federighi, who explained that the engineering team couldn\u2019t bring the new windowed multitasking feature from iPadOS 26 to older iPads due to hardware constraints.<\/p>\n

While they could have done so at the expense of responsiveness, doing so would\u2019ve broken the magic of the iPad\u2019s instantaneous multitouch interface, something Apple doesn\u2019t want to compromise. That\u2019s why we\u2019ve waited so long for windowed multitasking on the iPad\u2014Apple was waiting for the technology to catch up.<\/p>\n

iPadOS 26: Windowed multitasking requirements<\/h2>\n

\u201cIt is a foundational requirement that if you touch the screen and start to move something that it responds,\u201d Federighi told Ars Technica<\/em>\u2018s Andrew Cunningham. \u201cOtherwise, the entire interaction model is broken \u2013 it\u2019s a psychic break with your contract with the device.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Slide<\/figure>\n

He\u2019s right, Apple doesn\u2019t want to see headlines that slam the iPad for a choppy multitasking performance. But it could have added a switch for power users in Settings to turn on windowed multitasking even if the hardware isn\u2019t up to snuff, no?<\/p>\n

The same hardware restrictions held back Stage Manager, a multi-window multitasking feature that debuted in 2022, which also requires relatively new iPad models listed on Apple\u2019s support page<\/a>. But as iPads have become more powerful in the past several years, Apple\u2019s engineers felt confident that they could finally bring a proper Mac-like multitasking experience to its tablet.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver time, the iPad\u2019s gotten more powerful, the screens have gotten larger, the user base has shifted into a mode where there is a little bit more trackpad and keyboard use in how many people use the device,\u201d Federighi said. \u201cAnd so the stars kind of aligned to where many of the things that you traditionally do with a Mac were possible to do on an iPad for the first time and still meet the iPad\u2019s basic contract.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new windowing system<\/h2>\n

The company adopted a different approach with iPadOS 26, deciding to \u201cmake everything we can make available, even if it has some nuances on older hardware, because we saw so much demand.\u201d The new windowing system on iPadOS 26 supports more open app windows at once on newer iPads, with older models restricted to up to four windows.<\/p>\n

\"Pages<\/figure>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean that macOS and iPadOS will converge<\/a> into a unified operating system. \u201cWe\u2019ve looked and said, as the iPad and Mac come together, where on the iPad the Mac idiom for doing something, like where we put the window close controls and maximize controls, what color are they \u2013 we\u2019ve said why not, where it makes sense, use a converged design for those things so it\u2019s familiar and comfortable,\u201d said Federighi. \u201cBut where it doesn\u2019t make sense, iPad\u2019s gonna be iPad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apple will release iPadOS 26 to all owners of compatible iPads in the fall. The operating system is currently available as a developer preview, with a version for public beta testing arriving in July.<\/p>\n

iPadOS 26 makes your iPad more Mac-like<\/h2>\n

iPadOS 26 further blurs the line between a tablet and a computer with changes like Mac-like menus in apps and traffic-light window controls, the ability to place overlapping windows freely instead of snapping to an invisible grid, true background tasks and proper windowed multitasking which has replaced the Split View and Slide Over multitasking features that are no longer available<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The improved windowing system also reopens windows in the same position and size you left them. And with Stage Manager (which isn\u2019t going away anytime soon) on iPadOS 26, you can group windows into specific stages to create separate environments for, say, work and play.<\/p>\n

As noted in our WWDC25 roundup<\/a>, another cool feature in iPadOS 26 is a Preview app, ported from the Mac. With it, iPad owners have a dedicated place to view, edit and mark up their PDFs and images, autofill PDF forms and more.<\/p>\n

Source link: https:\/\/www.idownloadblog.com\/2025\/06\/13\/apple-ipad-windowed-multitasking-hardware-constraints-craig-federighi\/<\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Apple couldn\u2019t bring windowed multitasking to older iPads with the responsiveness you\u2019ve come to expect from the iPad\u2019s multitouch interface. Ars Technica sat down with Apple\u2019s software chief Craig Federighi, who explained that the engineering team couldn\u2019t bring the new windowed multitasking feature from iPadOS 26 to older iPads due to hardware constraints. While they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":173761,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-173760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-allnews","category-appleindustrynews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/midatlanticconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/midatlanticconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/midatlanticconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midatlanticconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midatlanticconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173760"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/midatlanticconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":173762,"href":"https:\/\/midatlanticconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173760\/revisions\/173762"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midatlanticconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/midatlanticconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midatlanticconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midatlanticconsulting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}