Technology is constantly advancing and sometimes, to move on to the next big revolution, certain devices have to be left behind. For Apple, some of the new features in macOS 13 Ventura and iPadOS 16 will not be available on older Macs and iPads.
Indeed, these new features require the technology used in Apple’s M1 and M2 chips. So if you have an Intel-based Mac or an iPad with an A-series chip, you won’t be able to use the following features next fall.
Features of macOS Ventura for Mac with M1 or M2
The following macOS Ventura features will not work on Intel-based Macs and require a Mac running an M1 or M2 SoC:
live subtitles
Announced in May, Live Captioning is based on the Neural Engine in Apple’s M-series chips to create real-time captions during phone calls, FaceTime chats and video conferences.
Dictation emoji support
When using dictation in macOS Ventura, you can insert emoticons, but only if you’re using a Mac with an M1 or M2 processor. It also requires voice templates to be uploaded and works with Spanish, English, French, German, Cantonese, and Japanese.
Reference mode with Sidecar
If you have a 12.9-inch iPad with a Liquid Retina display, you can connect it to your Mac with an M-series chip and use it as a reference display. This means the iPad can use color palettes for specific purposes, such as video production, printing, and web design.
Features of iPadOS 16 for iPad with M1 or M2
These iPadOS 16 features only work on iPads with an M-series chip (iPad Pro 11″, iPad Pro 12.9″, and iPad Air):
visual organizer
The visual organizer is by far the most anticipated new feature this fall, but very few devices will be able to use it. Here’s how Apple justifies it:
“Visual Organizer is a fully integrated experience that delivers an all-new incredibly fast and responsive windowing experience and allows users to run 8 apps simultaneously on iPad and an external display with up to 6K resolution.
Delivering that experience with the immediacy that users expect from the iPad touch experience requires large internal memory, blazingly fast storage, and flexible external display I/O, which iPads with the M1 chip offer . »
external screens
New support for external displays in iPadOS 16 doesn’t just show the iPad screen, it expands your workspace. If you have an iPad with M1, you can connect a display and use resolutions up to 6K, as well as drag and drop between iPad and apps running on the external display.
Reference modes
The 12.9-inch iPad Pro with Liquid Retina display can be configured to display Differential Reference Mode colors for use with video production, print and web design, and more.
Also, as mentioned above, this iPad is the only one that can be used as a reference mode display with an M-series Mac.
Other iPadOS 16 Exclusive Features
iPadOS 16 has other features that won’t work on all iPads:
- Magnifier app: Announced in May, the iPadOS 16 Magnifier app will support door detection, person detection, and image descriptions. It will be available on the 12.9-inch iPad Pro (4th generation or later) and the 11-inch iPad Pro (2nd generation or later).
- Virtual Memory Swap: If you’re using an iPad app that requires more memory than available RAM, this feature will temporarily use the iPad’s built-in storage (up to 16GB) as RAM. It works on iPad Pro 12.8″ (5th Gen or later), iPad Pro 11″ (3rd Gen or later) and iPad Air (5th Gen) with 256GB.
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