In a collection of tweets over the weekend, prolific Apple leaker Ming-Chi Kuo spoke a couple of foldable iPad probably arriving in 2024, which can imply we’ll see no new iPad enhancements by way of {hardware} this yr.
To me, that is nice information if it is true as a result of, whereas iPad {hardware} continues to go from energy to energy, there’s nonetheless some work to be achieved on the software program facet, which a break from new fashions might facilitate.
We noticed the working system of the iPad take a change of identify from iOS to iPadOS in 2019, bringing exterior storage assist and, with iPadOS 13.2, debuting trackpad assist a number of months later so you can join an exterior mouse to the pill.
Nonetheless, we have seen subsequent releases fall behind the speed of innovation we see in iOS. It is comprehensible on one hand, because the iPhone is Apple’s golden goose. However on the opposite, iPad customers have needed to wait an additional yr for brand spanking new options, equivalent to widgets on the house display screen in iPadOS 15, whereas that they had lengthy since arrived in iOS 14.
It feels as if Stage Supervisor, debuting at WWDC 2022, ought to have been a change in fortunes for iPadOS innovation — being a model new function with iPad its main goal. Nevertheless it debuted in a buggy and complicated vogue.
So with the concentrate on software program this yr, Apple ought to drill into iPadOS 17, tweaking iPadOS to make its pill line a content-creation — not simply consumption — vary for everybody.
Future fixes
Prior to now, I’ve used an iPad as my fundamental machine, utilizing it for every little thing from faculty work, to serving to me write a ebook in 2020 in the course of the pandemic. Nonetheless, its multitasking options have all the time felt limiting to me, whereas trackpad assist did not really feel as intuitive because it ought to have.
So when iPadOS 16 was introduced at WWDC 2022 with a brand new means of multitasking within the type of Stage Supervisor, I used to be a part of the group who was passionate about this function. You can have greater than two apps show directly, and in case you linked your iPad to an exterior show, you can have as much as six apps directly. Whereas this additionally debuted with macOS Ventura, Stage Supervisor on iPad seemed like a significant step up for multitasking.
However when it got here to utilizing it in the course of the public beta season, I ended up feeling pissed off, and that feeling stayed with me even when it was launched as a part of iPadOS 16.1 to everybody within the fall of 2022. It was complicated when managing home windows, and generally, the function would crash completely, with my iPad having to restart again to the lock display screen.
Because it stands for iPadOS, this new function nonetheless feels confused. And once more, a function on iOS is prepared for use — lock display screen widgets — whereas they’re nowhere to be seen on iPad.
The Magnificent iPadOS Seventeen?
Let’s examine iPad take a backseat for 2023, and let’s examine its software program debut with refinements throughout the board as a substitute.
In addition to introducing a bunch of lock-screen widgets and nice wallpaper collections in iPadOS 17, let’s get enhancements in Stage Supervisor, equivalent to eliminating the invisible grid that snaps apps to sure locations on the show.
This may very well be an enormous enchancment by itself right here, as you are not restricted to the place Apple desires you to position these apps in Stage Supervisor.
And whereas we’re at it, let’s examine a few of these widgets on iPadOS lastly show your health information out of your Apple Watch. Seeing these three rings on the lock display screen or residence display screen on that massive, lovely iPad Professional show can be a good time saver, and simply makes extra sense as a substitute of getting to examine your iPhone or Watch face for this.
Constructing on this potential, let’s additionally see Management Heart be a part of the multitasking tray while you’re switching between apps (within the overview while you drag up from the underside of the display screen), and never simply have it present by itself. It appears odd on an iPad mini, and ridiculous on a 12.9-inch iPad Professional. Expanded Management Heart options, equivalent to extra accessibility toggles, would not go amiss both.
These will solely make me use my iPad Professional extra, and even contemplate an iPad mini in time. The pill has a spot for everybody, it simply wants extra refinement to make it that good middle-ground between an iPhone and a Mac.