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tsycho | on: New iPad Air, powered by M4
I agree that this would be an awesome feature, and it would also significantly enhance iPads' value for me.

That said, having worked on account/identity systems at another FAANG, I think that the commenters saying that Apple is holding this back purely to sell more iPads are underestimating the complexity of this feature.

This is not a feature that you just bolt on to the top. It will require a significant ground up rewrite of iOS' fundamentals if you want to support account switching without a full shut down of the device (and even with that, there are complications with shared storage).

There are likely tons of singletons across the iOS codebase for the "current account", and switching between users will easily lead to bugs where the new account shares/accesses state from the previous account.....and these "violations" are much harder to detect via static analysis than you might naively imagine.

UPDATE: I wasn't aware that Apple already supported a bunch of this via MDM. My only point was that if they didn't already build this into the foundational layer of the OS, then this is a very difficult feature to add later. If they already have this, then I don't have any defense left for them.

ewoodrich | parent | next

  Shared iPad overview

  Shared iPad allows more than one user to sign in to an iPad. The iPad needs to be supervised before Shared iPad can be used. Shared iPad can be used not only in education but also in business. Multiple users can use the iPad, and the user experiences can be personal even though the devices are shared.

  Shared iPad requires a device management service and Managed Apple Accounts that an organization issues and owns. Users with a Managed Apple Account can then sign in to an organization-owned Shared iPad. Devices need to have at least 32 GB of storage and be supervised. The following devices support Shared iPad:
https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/deployment/dep9a34c2ba...
moolcool | root | parent | next
> Shared iPad requires a device management service and Managed Apple Accounts that an organization issues and owns

I don't want to have to do a bunch of sysadmin just so my wife and I can both see our own YouTube subscriptions on an iPad. Again, you could do this with zero fuss in 5 minutes on Windows XP.

dijit | root | parent
the point is that the OS primitives exist.
tqwhite | root | parent
This sounds like a business opportunity. I have to learn more. Imagine a family MDM service. Would be cool.
dmd | parent | next
How does your assertion hold up give they've already written this code and it's used every day by millions of people?

You just have to turn it on with a MDM profile. It's just consumers they don't let use it.

giobox | root | parent | next
"Shared iPad" in Apple marketing speak: https://support.apple.com/guide/deployment/shared-ipad-overv...

And yes, it's existed for years now. That ordinary consumers can't have it is a business choice, not a technical limitation.

| root | parent
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bubblewand | parent | next
I’m guessing the main (technical) hang-up is that it messes really badly with one of the most distinctive things about iPads vs other devices, which is extremely low time-to-interactive from any sleep state. Device been sitting on your desk untouched for three weeks? Pick it up and it’s ready to go almost before you are, and still with a useful amount of battery left (offer void for cellular models).
minton | root | parent
Not my experience. I have iPad Pro and I only use it for workouts. It sits on my workout machine and once or twice a week I try to watch a ~45 min episode while doing cardio. It’s always dead and needs constant charging. Never last more than 3 days without needing charging.
bubblewand | root | parent
Weird, mine’s usually good for a month at least if it’s got a decent charge. I just picked mine up off a table in front of me and it hasn’t been plugged in for at least two weeks, instantly on, 82% charge. It’s an earlier Pro 12.9” though, I think the last pre-M-series model, though god I hope they didn’t screw up the battery life that badly in the M series.

If it’s not a regression in the newer models, my top 3 guesses would be:

1) Is it a cellular model? Those have phone-like battery life (non-cellular should have iPod-like battery life, I used to develop for these things and seeing a bunch of “good” Android tablets next to iPads and how huge the idle battery life difference was contributed to my going all-in on Apple, every model I’ve personally seen that’s non-cellular has weeks of useful battery life when idle)

2) Some accessory somehow forcing it to wake periodically? I have AirPods and an Apple Watch, and those don’t do it to mine, but maybe if they were malfunctioning or something, or maybe some other device is doing it.

3) Faulty hardware

[edit] fwiw I do have find-my enabled on everything, never noticed a hit from that.

NetMageSCW | root | parent
4) Bad app that is tricking iPad into using battery all the time.
loading story #47226375
jtbayly | parent
Isn't it already possible with MDM? If so, do these problems all exist? I've considered using MDM just to get this feature, so I'm curious if anybody has experience with it.
giobox | root | parent
There are some drawbacks, not everything is supported:

https://support.apple.com/guide/apple-business-manager-m/sha...

There are other potential issues as well not listed on that page. Apple could address all of these though if they really wanted to roll the feature out broadly.