iPadOS 16
Stage Manager follows the same pattern as the other features Apple took too long to realize were already figured out on the Mac: make it arbitrarily different to be able to call it new. Just like the “changing cursor” for trackpad support on the iPad. But hey, I&#x27;ll take it I guess.<p>Unfortunately, in previous cases, these &quot;justification&quot; tweaks have resulted in a strictly worse experience IMO. The transforming cursor on the iPad is distracting and it can be weird how it disappears over icons (resulting in me losing track of it sometimes). The iPad Keyboard is more awkward than a real keyboard, top-heavy, and sold separately of course. I wouldn’t be surprised if the same is true of Stage Manager, although at least it&#x27;s on the Mac too so hopefully if it turns out to not be that great, it won&#x27;t be excused as &quot;people not getting it&quot; like all the weirdo undiscoverable gestures on the iPad.<p>The sad reality though is that it&#x27;s taken 10 years for the iPad to finally mature into... an arbitrarily different take on OS X? Same chip as the Mac. Works with a keyboard and mouse. Better for drawing but worse for external monitor support. And now basically the same window management we&#x27;ve always had with the Mac. I was always (and remain, theoretically) a big believer in the opportunity the iPad presented, and think it could have gotten to the same place sooner, but bolder, with the actual aim of replacing the Mac (the same way the iPhone replaced the iPod). Where it&#x27;s at now kind of proves that&#x27;s always been possible... it just chose to get here meekly instead, not stepping on any toes, always making sure there was an excuse to need to buy <i>both devices</i>.<p>Universal Control to me is the epitome of that mentality: a supremely technically impressive, but ultimately completely over-engineered and absolutely ridiculous &quot;solution&quot; to a problem that wouldn&#x27;t exist if the Mac simply had a touch screen. You wouldn&#x27;t need WiFi and communication between two computers to move your mouse from screen A to screen B if the Mac just had a touch screen. The experience of having a touch Mac that you just... plugged into an external display would be strictly better than the weird world of Universal Control, where you drag an image from Adobe Photoshop for Mac over to Adobe Photoshop for iPad, or sometimes, you drag it from Adobe Photoshop for iPad running on the Mac using Catalyst to Adobe Photoshop for iPad running &quot;natively&quot; on the iPad.<p>I think Apple truly squandered the opportunity in the last decade to get truly get ahead on &quot;big screen&quot; (aka, non-phone-based) computing. Instead, the field still remains wide open.