iPadOS Hands-On: Apple's tablets just got a lot more flexible

Apple has

just

released its public beta versions for iOS 13 and Mac OS Catalina and perhaps most importantly for iPad OS, and I say this knowing full well that it is basically a version of iOS 13 adapted for tablet, what is really interesting here is that Apple has achieved two goals. At the same time, they've kept that classic iPad experience for people who

just

want to see what movie is blowing up on the web and that will be fine, in fact it will be better in some ways, which we'll get to, but most importantly for people who really want to try and use an iPad for work such as those professional users who want to buy an iPad Pro.

There are enough changes here that could really make an iPad Pro a viable option. Let's take a closer look first. I think we should execute it quickly. Through the look and feel of the iPad OS, all the things that are in iOS 13 that made it such a unique design experience are here too, you've got dark mode, you've got the revamped volume HUD, it works well on these larger ones. . screens: What's really interesting is that Apple realized that there has always been a lot of dead space, let's take advantage of that so you can compress up to 30 apps, not including the apps in the base, on a single home screen that is active.

Since 20 and earlier versions of iOS and 2 also make use of that screen space. Apple also gives you the ability to lock your Today widgets right to the side of your home screen, which may not seem like a big deal, but if you're like me and like quick access to the latest news and stock prices and your to-do list, which is

more

important to me than maybe anything else I just mentioned, having them live right on your home screen is kind of a game changer. The revamped design is perhaps the least interesting of Apple's changes here. Personally, I find the tweaks Apple made to multitasking to be of much

more

value, as with previous versions of iOS on iPads, you can multitask through two main tools.

Slide and split view of the waste site over the works. Do you drag an app from your Dock to the side of the screen and that forces you to run it in a narrow window floating on top of another app? So if you're like me, you're probably watching YouTube and want to watch. To move up some lyrics, drag Safari and you get that nice floating window for quick access to additional context. The big difference with iPad OS is that you can now have multiple apps running on the slide, so if you need slack and Gmail and Safari, you can drag each one. of them in that floating window and swipe them very quickly by tapping the bottom of the screen in a way Apple simply replicated the iPhone dozens quick app switching functionality by swiping and it's a lot more useful than you think.

I should also note that if you swipe up from the bottom, you'll be able to see all the app types in one place, so it's much easier to access and display any additional context you need by selecting that app, the second main tool for multitasking, it's split for you and works the same mechanically, at least we're AB, an app from the dock, you drag it to the side of the screen and it will split so you have two apps running side by side. Another, it always worked pretty well if you needed slightly more detailed views of two apps at the same time, but what's really cool about iPad OS is that you can now effectively drag items from an app into that secondary space.

I have two windows running the same application. I know what some of you are thinking. What good is that at this point? Because third-party developers haven't adopted it yet, they may not notice it, but sometimes it's really useful if you're browsing the web, for example, it's a fire and you want to open a new page without giving up what you have. you're currently viewing, you can grab a link from the Google search results on the side of the screen and it will open in a secondary app window, no problem, it's one of those tweaks I didn't think I'd find particularly valuable doing, but Now that I've gotten used to it, I can't give it up, he said that's how it is.

It's not exactly perfect, why hold an iPad with both

hands

and I'm just browsing websites? I find it easier than it should be to grab something by accident and open it in a separate window, which immediately puts me in the mindset of a little Dan, how can I close this again? Apple could probably play around with this time and make it feel a lot better, but the core functionality works and, frankly, I'm glad it's here for me, even though some of the biggest hits in iPad OS are basically just ways Apple makes it happen. has forced it to function a little more like a traditional computer, like browsing in Safari, for example, Apple talked about quote-unquote desktop-class browsing in Safari at WWDC for quite a while and it's no wonder I've never been able to fully do it.

I rely on safaris to give me exactly the version of a website I wanted, sometimes I would get the full desktop view which is great, that's what I need, other times it would default to the mobile site and you can have it show you a desk. version of the site, but that requires extra steps that shouldn't be necessary - honestly, that's no longer the case. Every web page I loaded on a twelve point nine inch iPad Mini and iPad pro running, I had the OS correctly show me the desktop. Even better version, all the web apps that I use regularly and can never count on using on Safari and iPads in the past actually worked perfectly here.

Google apps are probably the best example. We use Google Docs. We use Google Sheets. Gmail. All of that plays a huge role in making sure things happen and on devices, and I've been able to seamlessly interact with each of those services directly in Safari. It takes a little getting used to because you're playing instead. Clicking and getting used to it takes a little time, but I'm honestly surprised and excited that this works as well as it does with one of the other ways Apple has improved the iPad by making it act a little more like a The normal computer is in the way it handles files, if you are a long time iPad user and use files before you know you can see things in folders on your device created by other apps and manage things pretty well. in iCloud Drive as a whole, but you can never create your own folders on your iPad and place files on your iPad, that is no longer the case.

I've spent the last few days plugging in USB sticks and creating folders in files on this iPad because it has a terabyte of storage I have to use it somehow and I've just been moving stuff around eight because I can and because I'd rather have my stuff in multiple places just in case something happens, your specific scenario might be a little different and there's a good chance that if you're looking at this you'll never need to do this, it goes against what Apple has trained us to believe the iPad should be capable of. do, that being said if you are a professional customer and want to be able to get the most out of the stores you paid for.

This is a big problem. The only drawback I've found so far is that Apple says you can use USB sticks connected to an iPad. pro or USB hard drives but the only USB hard drive I tried didn't work, Matt for some reason pulled power from the iPad totally fine, it spun up like it was supposed to but it never showed up or the files and I'm still not sure. what it is about, the list of new updates, frankly, goes on for a while, there are a lot of pencil improvements if you are an Apple pencil user, the latency is said to have been reduced to about nine milliseconds, which for those of Those of you keeping score, that's only about half the latency you'd see on the original Apple Pencil, which sounds pretty impressive.

I haven't noticed any really concrete changes, but if you're an artist, you'll probably find it useful while doodling on the screen. I should also point out that the smallest change with the Apple Pencil is probably the most useful. If you swipe from the sides of the screen using the iPad OS pen, we'll take a screenshot that you can start marking up immediately, which is really nice for quickly posting things and sending them to people who might need this information. There's also a sidecar that lets you use your iPad pro as a graphics tablet or secondary display for a Mac when connected via USB.

I will see. To be completely honest, I didn't have a spare Mac that I could use to sacrifice to the public beta and the gods, but our colleague Dan, a woman, does and has her full impressions in her Mac OS catalina beta story at a device, so check it out if you want to know more, and just because I feel like I need to point out that yes, you can use a mouse with iPad OS. Here's what you need to keep in mind: It's actually part of an accessibility feature, call it assistive touch, and iPad OS, while tweaked and tuned in many valuable ways, just doesn't handle mice very well.

I tried it with some Bluetooth mice, the pairing process was super simple once you found the right settings and you can even customize the mouse buttons if you have a lot of extras, but at least in my case, since there is no way to adjust the sensitivity of the mouths, the cursor just bounced all over the screen even when I barely moved my hand, it is useful to a certain extent, but if you count on using this feature daily, just don't do it among the strong fundamental changes we are getting on iOS, your computer, and all the very, very useful iPad-specific settings that you'll find on an iPad.

OS I don't think there's ever been a better time to be an iPad person, it doesn't hurt that Google is officially out of the tablet race, leaving Apple as one of the only companies actually dedicating resources to making good

tablets

Because the iPad operating system contains so many changes, from the most subtle to the most broad and far-reaching, that there is something here for everyone and for Apple, a company that has been caught between different priorities when it comes to

tablets

, the ability to please everyone and in one go. It's really important and it's something I haven't seen in a long time.

This is a big update and we'll continue to dive deeper into what it means until the official release sometime this fall, so stay tuned for more information and thanks for watching.