In about a month, Apple will unveil iPadOS 17 during its WWDC keynote, and we’ll once again be looking for signs that the iPad Pro is turning into the high-end productivity device we all want it to be. And based on the latest round of rumors, this might actually happen.
According to Analyst941 on Twitter, Apple is preparing some major upgrades to Stage Manager in iPadOS 17 that will bring several improvements to the multitasking interface. Among the expected new features are:
• Support for webcams embedded in external monitors.
• Source settings for audio output.
• Streams audio/video simultaneously.
• Change the size of the dock on an external monitor.
• The ability to operate an external monitor while the iPad screen is off.
This makes it seem like Apple is going all-in with Stage Manager as a professional productivity tool for the iPad Pro. (While the feature works with the M1 iPad Air, the feature is supported on all 11-inch iPad Pro models and four generations of the 12.9-inch iPad Pro.) from iPadOS 16.1, but updates have slowly improved the multitasking interface.
While this year’s Stage Manager update will be interesting, 2024 will deliver the big iPadOS update we’ve been waiting for. Revegnus (@tweet) on Twitter stating that “many more macOS features are coming to iPadOS” in 2024, as Apple prepares to launch the 14.1-inch iPad Pro with the M3 Pro processor. Many advanced features may be limited to models with M1 processor (and later) such as support for external display of Stage Manager.
Finally, Analyst941 claims that Apple will finally release it iPad versions Two of its popular professional applications, Final Cut Pro and Logic, are out in 2024 and 2025, respectively. Furthermore, the leaker claims that the version of Final Cut Pro for iPadOS “will be 1:1 to its big brother, along with a slightly modified UI to support touch.”
Apple will unveil iPadOS 17 at the WWDC keynote on June 5. However, it looks like the big changes are coming in 2024 with the upcoming iPad Pro update and iPadOS 18.