iPadOS 16.1/macOS Ventura

[OtinG]

Stage Manager on my MacBook Air M1 running Ventura looks okay, but it isn’t particularly intuitive nor all that useful. I guess for people that have a gillion apps running at once it has a purpose, but if you only run 3 or 4 at once then it is easier to just creatively arrange the app windows on the screen.

For the person who asked about it, it is a feature to help organize icons (or representations) of open apps on the screen that is supposed to facilitate easy switching between those apps.

[tomsem]

I'm too used to using Spaces, Exposé, Split screen on Mac. You can use Stage Manager in addition to that, but so far I haven't warmed up to it.

Supposedly it is mostly for iPad, where by definition, it is normal to have many apps 'running' (or at least showing in task switcher). I have never found it that difficult to 4 finger swipe back to a recently used app, and with a keyboard connected, I use Spotlight a lot to navigate. I'm playing around with it some, but so far have yet to see what is 'better' about it.

[JSWolf]

Apple introduces some features that are not good aka Stage Manager and then they don't give you any directions on how to use them. Apple leaves you to flounder trying to figure out how to use MacOS.

But, if you have Kindle Unlimited, there are some eBooks on MacOS Ventura you could check out.

[OtinG]

Apple is truly bad about making the K.I.S.S. idea into a convoluted, kluge process that requires contorting various parts of your body to accomplish anything on an iPad. For someone with severe arthritis and carpel tunnel syndrome, it is as painful as playing Twister as an elderly person!

YouTubeAds is your friend to understand how to make Apple crap work.

[tomsem]

Stage Manager enables at least one use case I'm experimenting with: I can resize the Kindle app window to make it a more comfortable size. In landscape orientation, single column is much too wide, and I don't care for 2 column mode. When in Stage Manager mode (on iPad Pro 12.9") I can make it about the size of iPad mini, which is what is to me more optimal (I turned off Dock and Recent Apps display). And having it more square (2/3 of screen) is pretty good as well.

And while I don't use my iPad Pro 12.9" in portrait very much, the same resize trick would again let you reduce line widths.

On iPadOS, there is not the fine grained resizing that you have with macOS: the app has to explicitly support given widths, so in the case Kindle app supports Split Screen modes, hence 1/3, 1/2, 2/3, 1 are available. They could add more in the future, of course. Apple Books seems to support some in between these as well.

I can do something similar with Split View, but it's ugly having 'something else' on the other side and having the Kindle app over on one side or other, not to mention the split bar and its handle.

And yes, still has 'affordance bug', though now it is the 'resize affordance' and not the 'home affordance'. And it's a little less annoying, being smaller and down in the corner.

(Continuous Scrolling mode, when available, also does not have issue with affordance.)

[tomsem]

Finally had a chance to try external monitor support with my iPad Pro.

I think it will be useful for ... something.

It would not work for me with DVI: display flickered or blanked out ever few seconds. So I got a USB-C to DisplayPort adapter, and that works with the same monitor.

One annoyance is that iPad audio is disabled. I think the monitor has audio pass through but I don't have anything plugged into the stereo jack (which is awkward to access), and there's no option to just use the iPad speakers. So I have to connect headset or bluetooth speakers.

Also you cannot AirPlay while external monitor is connected. I guess that makes sense but I just wanted to connect to AirPlay for audio (see above).

Universal Control still works, too.

You can have apps full screen on the external display, or some Stage Manager arrangement.

Oddly the iPad itself does not need to be in Stage Manager mode. But that's like macOS with different Spaces, in this case there are only 2.

I think there are special powers when you have a 4K or 5K monitor (this was with 1920x1200). I'll try that but mine is connected to my iMac. Wonder if there are USB-C switches that would let me switch it from my Mac and iPad without swapping cables.

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by tomsem

Wonder if there are USB-C switches that would let me switch it from my Mac and iPad without swapping cables.

I found this one. Not sure how well these will work, or if they will work with Apple devices. Kind of pricey though!

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by OtinG

I found this one. Not sure how well these will work, or if they will work with Apple devices. Kind of pricey though!

Yes, I looked at a lot of these, and they all say '4K'. My other monitor is 5K (Studio Display). I guess I could post a question, they usually get answered. I will try connecting it to see how it flies.

I did verify that audio goes through DisplayPort as expected: I plugged in my bookshelf speakers. However there's no way to control volume from the iPad, I have to either reach up and twist the volume knob or navigate into the monitor menu to find volume control. Not very convenient. Wonder if HDMI has this issue, I'll have to try it.

Anyway I hope some update lets you route audio more flexibly, not just for external monitors, but on iOS in general. It's another thing that keeps iPads from being great for audio applications, even though the hardware seems well up to the task.

At least now apps can get up to 16GB via virtual memory for any M iPad. And why not more? (shrugs)

Also I'd like to be able to hide Dock and Recents for Stage Manager on the external monitor, just as one can on the iPad.

[drofgnal]

Anyone have any insight into performance of a M1 machine and ventura? Any worse, better, no difference?

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by drofgnal

Anyone have any insight into performance of a M1 machine and ventura? Any worse, better, no difference?

I’m running Ventura on my MacBook Air M1 2020 (16GB RAM, 1 TB SSD). Performance seems about the same as on Monterey.

I’m not too thrilled with the redesigned System menus though as they tried to make them look like what is in iPadOS. Any time you redesign something that much it causes frustrations for users. I wish they had left it alone.

[OtinG]

I forgot to mention that Apple screwed up the Empty Trash function for SD cards in Ventura. When I try to delete all the photos off of a camera SD card, it used to take only 1 click. Now it takes at least a dozen, sometimes more, to clear all the files from the SD card. If I open Get Info, I can see that Empty Trash only deletes a few files each time. Really pathetic that Apple sucks so bad at programming these days.

Also, I tried to view my volumes via System menu today. It took a couple of clicks under Monterey, but in Ventura it takes about 6 clicks, and a lot of trying to figure out where it is hidden! I guess this is what happens when a bean counter runs a tech company...

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by OtinG

I’m running Ventura on my MacBook Air M1 2020 (16GB RAM, 1 TB SSD). Performance seems about the same as on Monterey.

I’m not too thrilled with the redesigned System menus though as they tried to make them look like what is in iPadOS. Any time you redesign something that much it causes frustrations for users. I wish they had left it alone.

Even with the older Preferences, I used Search quite a lot to find things, rather than try to commit everything to memory. And also Spotlight.

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by tomsem

Even with the older Preferences, I used Search quite a lot to find things, rather than try to commit everything to memory. And also Spotlight.

I guess I'm "old school", after all I'm an old guy! I still rely heavily on muscle memory. Apple is way too bad about completely rearranging things in the menus, and that is very frustrating to users. But I did use Search this morning to find where they hid away the function to make the screen of my MacBook Air M1 2020 turn off after X minutes, so I need to start doing that more often.

[tomsem]

Just discovered something I can do with my iPad that doesn't work with macOS: I have this USB cassette capture thing that I got some time ago to digitize some cassette tapes. It works okay with my Windows computer, but on macOS (Intel or M1, any version) it only momentarily registers as 'USB PnP Audio Device', so it's not compatible somehow.

However, it works fine with my iPad Pro (though I had to get a 3rd party app, Ferrite, to record).

Also got a 4K UHD monitor to use as external display with my iPad Pro (also AppleTV and aforementioned Windows computer). It really does make it possible to do more useful things with iPad. I can also use it as USB hub (ethernet, the above USB tape deck etc.).

The only down side is audio: it all goes to the monitor, and you cannot control sound level from the iPad, and you cannot AirPlay audio separately. I'm able to connect Bluetooth headset or speakers, or plug external speakers into the monitor.