Technology is always advancing, and sometimes it is necessary to leave some devices behind in order to move on to the next great thing.

Several of Apple's new features added to macOS 13 Ventura and iPadOS 16 won't work on older Macs or iPads, because the technologies needed to do so are present in Apple's M1 and M2 chips. If you own an Intel Mac or an iPad A-series, you won't be able to use these features in the fall: The following features will not work on Intel-based Macs and require a Mac with an M1 or M2 processor

Live Captions

Apple's Live Captions are based on the Neural Engine in the M-series chip to create real-time captions during phone calls, FaceTime conversations, and video conferences.

Dictation emoji support

The ability to insert emojis while using Ventura dictation is only available for computers that have an M1 or M2 processor. Additionally, you must download speech models for Cantonese, English, French, German, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, and Spanish.

Reference Mode with Sidecar

In the event that you have a 12.9-inch iPad with Liquid Retina display, you can use it as a reference display, meaning the iPad can use specific color palettes for specific purposes, like video production, printing, and web designing.

iPadOS 16 M1/M2 features

Apple only provides these features on iPads with M-series chip (11-inch iPad Pro, 12.9-inch iPad Pro, and iPad Air).

Stage Manager

Digital Trends reported that the new Stage Manager multitasking feature relies on the M1's fast memory swapping. This means Stage Manager cannot run on other models of iPad with A-series CPUs.

External displays

iPadOS 16 adds support for external displays beyond mirroring the iPad and expanding the workspace. On the other hand, if you have an M1 iPad, you can connect a display and use resolutions up to 6K, as well as drag and drop between the iPad and the apps running on the external display.

Reference Modes

Apple's 12.9-inch iPad Pro with Liquid Retina display can display different reference mode colors for video production, web and print design, and more. The only iPad that is compatible with Mac M-series computers as a reference display is the one above.