iPadOS brings more functionality to Apple's tablet

When Apple users shelled out money for the Apple iPad Pro, they expected more functionality out of the giant, premium slate. But Apple wasn't quite ready to deliver on that front. This time, though, Apple is addressing some of the features its users have been asking for years. Instead of relying heavily on iOS, Apple hopes the new iPadOS is the middle ground between the mobile operating system for the iPhone and macOS for its traditional desktop/laptop OS. With the launch of iOS 13, we’re going to see the iPad have less similar features to the iPhone and perhaps turn the tablet into something that can really work as a laptop replacement.

What are some of the new features you can expect?

The iPad will not be reliant on the mobile browser anymore. Safari on the iPad will get “desktop-class” browsing instead of the mobile version of the app. This means you can take advantage of the bigger display of the iPad. There should also be better web app support here, a new download manager, new keyboard shortcuts, and improved tab management. But if you’ve stuck to using Google’s Chrome browser, you might not feel this change. Safari users should be relieved about this, though.

Apple improves on the Split View and Slide Over features. These two features make a bit more sense here. You can get multiple “instances” of an app now. You can have things like two Microsoft Word documents open side-by-side now. Slide Over will let you quickly check and switch between multiple apps. While App Exposé will give you a quick view of open windows of any one app with just one tap.

The Files app gets a revamp, too. iCloud Drive gets folder sharing support, which would allow for easier collaboration and give you easy access to the latest version of the file. It also now supports external USB drives and SD cards, SMB servers, and shared network drives. A new Column View gives you high-resolution previews, while Quick Actions will make it easier to do things like mark up, rotate, and create PDFs. It also now offers local storage, zip and unzip, as well as new keyboard shortcuts.

Text editing is better on iPad OS, too. It’s much faster and easier to select text. There are also new gestures to cut, copy, paste, and undo portions of text.

The Home Screen has been redesigned to show you more apps on each page. And Today View can now be added to the Home Screen if you want it there.

As an accessibility feature, it also seems like iPad OS has mouse support now. But we can’t say yet how well that feature will work.

Apple is also giving the Apple Pencil more functionality here, too. You can now mark up and sent entire webpages, emails, or documents by swiping the Apple Pencil from the corner of the screen. The tool palette also now offers quick access to tools, shapes, object eraser, color palettes, ruler and a new pixel eraser to take out any part of a stroke. With advanced prediction algorithms, latency has also been reduced to as low as nine milliseconds.

Source: Apple + Engadget