Apple has released a Developer Note documenting a new feature that lets iOS apps use higher memory limits.
Individual apps on iOS have previously been limited to 5GB each. This helps avoid sluggish system performance on lower-memory devices.
The 5GB limit has become an issue, though, with Apple Silicon delivering desktop-class performance on iPads and iPhones, and memory on the higher-end devices going up to 16GB.
Increased memory limits open the door for more resource-intensive applications, like complex audio and video editing.
In iOS 15, Apple has introduced a Property Key, com.apple.developer.kernel.increased-memory-limit, that is a Boolean value that indicates whether core features of your app may perform better with a higher memory limit on supported devices.
Developers can add this to their apps to inform the system that some of the app’s core features may perform better by exceeding the default app memory limit on supported devices.
Apple notes that developers should make sure their applications will work with the standard amount of memory, and can call the os_proc_available_memory function to determine the amount of memory available.
iOS 15 is now in beta and will be available as a free update this fall.
What will be the first daw to port to iPad?
Bitwig. On a surface pro, the touch features are already there and not just a side-feature, its been thought through. Could be better with the selection wheel but its there. A joy to use with a touch screen.
we can only wish
Holy Expanded Memory Batman!! I won’t need to have memory space ….what a way to go! Bring it on Apple!! Apple bought out DC Comics….now I know why!
Apple considered it but they did not buy them. AT&T bought them, and then just announced a deal to get $43 billion for unloading WarnerMedia’s assets — including HBO, CNN and Warner Bros. – onto Discovery Inc., creating a new gigantic entertainment company. 😐 all hail the new overlords.
Yeah… Bitwig on a Surface is a great experience actually. And without any of the walled garden file shenanigan’s that come with an iPad. If you compare prices vs functionality (assuming you care to someday get your music onto a desktop computer for further work, publishing, archival, etc), the iPad is in the weaker position.
“If you compare prices vs functionality (assuming you care to someday get your music onto a desktop computer for further work, publishing, archival, etc), the iPad is in the weaker position.”
Yet the Surface kinda bombed and the iPad basically created a new category of devices.
Pundits and power users always want new tech to do what old devices do, because they’ve built up skill and knowledge on old devices.
You can really only understand new devices if you let go of your assumptions and pre-requisites. What if you getting your music onto a desktop computer for further work is not your main goal?
iOS is so much more powerful than a computer for capturing audio and video and publishing it to the web or the cloud. It’s better as an interface for virtual instruments and MIDI controllers. And it’s great as a cheap platform for capturing musical ideas.
Samplr is a fantastic example of how iOS has created new ways of interacting with sound that blow away previous approaches. Moog Model 15 is a fantastic experience on iPad.
With sales of $1.329 billion, I wouldn’t say the Surface bombed (source: Forbes). The Ipad is great, but I stopped counting the times I heard “why doesn’t it do this or that?” or “when is Apple going to release a Mac with a touchscreen?”.
You do realize that the revenue on iPads last quarter was over $8 billion, don’t you, and that it was an average quarter?
Yes I know the Ipad is way more popular, but that means in no way that Surface “bombed” as you claimed.
I still hope they do a 24 inch iPad someday.
When it was introduced, the Surface was covered in the PC press as an ‘iPad-killer’, so that may skew my take on it.
If you look at the Surface through the ‘iPad-killer’ lens, it clearly failed.
If you look at it as an alternate vision for touch computing, maybe it’s more successful at that. But the relatively low sales volume of the Surface seems to confirm Apple’s strategy of creating a multi-touch OS vs creating a ‘converged’ desktop computer with a touchscreen.
If you look at the Surface just on its own, it hasn’t really succeeded at being a money-maker for Microsoft, either. The company lost money on it for the first 6 or 7 years and it’s just now starting to be profitable. The Surface has probably been most successful at being a reference design for other Windows computer makers.
Garageband.
There’s Cubasis. With update 3.3 it gained a lot of useful features but it’s still not there yet.
I pretty much gave up all hope that Apple really wants people to use the iPad like a lot of us want.
After spending thousands on iPads for a decade and the minimal features added in iPadOS15 it’s clear to say that Apple just wants you to buy a Mac if you wan’t anything ‘pro’.
Fortunately a Mac Mini M1 base model with 8GB RAM at €700/800,- or base model Macbook Air at €1000,- seems like a pretty sweet deal. (8GB should be enough for most people working with audio and plugins)
Just picked up a mac mini m1 8gb 2 days ago. It’ll fit the bill for what im using. Bitwig, plugins (Pigments, Fab Filter, a bunch of FX VST’s) VCV rack and misc other plugins that doesn’t consume too much CPU.
How does Bitwig do on an M1 with 8gb?
i have not made the jump to Apple Silicon macs yet. The M1 8gb is ridiculously powerful for the price, but I haven’t heard much about how media apps run on the M1 with 8gb. I considered 16gb to be minimum for doing media on Intel Macs.
No issues yet. I’ve ran it through the mud on my first run just to see, only bitnwig plug-ins and instruments. 100 tracks mixed with all the Bitwig instruments running multiple voices each. I don’t have an accurate count since I just picked, let’s say, polymer, then played chords in a 4 bar loop, rinse repeat. Set up modulators, and a few instances of poly grid. It didn’t break a sweat. I was reluctant to go 8gb but it was a difference between getting it in the store that day of waiting for a 16gb version in the mail. It’s held up nicely and I don’t think I make the kind of music that’s heavy on the CPU. Just wanted to try out what I saw from Nick Batt at sonic state with Logic Pro and an M1 8gb.
i wish there was bitwig for the ipad pro m1, or better, osx for ipad 🙂
Now Korg Gadget can have AUv3!
This also means that we need to go and buy new devices, since all but the most current one’s simply don’t have the RAM for this. Be sure to never update to ios 15 on anything older than an m1.
In case you didn’t read entire article:
“ Apple notes that developers should make sure their applications will work with the standard amount of memory, and can call the os_proc_available_memory function to determine the amount of memory available.”
Or you could read the article your commenting on:
Apple notes that developers should make sure their applications will work with the standard amount of memory, and can call the os_proc_available_memory function to determine the amount of memory available.
I think this is where iPads begin to take off on a whole new level. I’m going for a Mac Mini; that’s the form that works for me. Still, with just a few apps like SAMPLR & Garageband and Synthmaster having just been ported over, a lot of new doors are opening. The new Wakeman stack is slowly becoming 2 iPads, a standard keyboard controller and an MPE instrument. Unless you’re old enough to have eaten sh*t from dying floppy drives, you’re luckier than you know!