I do love my Stage Manager messaging command center. But even that would be better with better multitasking. | Image: Apple / David Pierce
There is really only one big idea inside of iPadOS 16. The new operating system comes with plenty of improvements and upgrades, of course — editable messages, a Weather app (finally), improvements to most of Apple’s built-in apps, and some extremely clever new Live Text features — but most of that is already available on the iPhone through iOS 16. There’s nothing wrong with an iterative update, of course, and by the time you hit version 16 of anything, you’re not likely to be breaking much new ground.
Stage Manager, though, is an almost entirely new thing. It’s the one feature in iPadOS 16 that has the actual potential to change the way you use your iPad (provided you have a compatible model — third-gen iPad Pro or newer, fifth-gen iPad…