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By Jason Snell for Macworld
Center Stage is the iPad Pro feature the Mac needs
The iPad Pro has frequently been an incubator for technology that Apple ultimately plans on rolling out to the rest of its product line. Last year, the iPad Pro got a LiDAR scanner months before it appeared in the iPhone 12. This year’s 12.9-inch model introduced the mini-LED screen technology that will probably be showing up very soon in a new line of MacBook Pro laptops. And this fall’s iPhone Pro models are rumored to come with high- refresh-rate displays, pioneered years ago on the iPad as ProMotion.
But there’s another core Apple technology of the future that’s currently available only on the 2021 iPad Pro. And I’m confident that, in the next couple of years, you’ll see it spread across most (but not all) of Apple’s products: Center Stage.
Center Stage uses machine-learning technology to pan and zoom in a camera’s field of view to get the perfect shot during a FaceTime call or other videoconference. It will zoom in on a single subject, or zoom out to find every person in the frame. If you haven’t tried Center Stage, you’ll need to trust me: It’s great. And having experienced it for months on my iPad Pro, I now want it everywhere. It’s too good a feature not to be, and as soon as possible.