At the WWDC 2019, last night along with the announcement of the iOS 13 and watchOS 6 preview, the company also announced new iPadOS built specifically for iPad’s with a larger display. The new iPadOS brings new Home Screen, Powerful Multitasking, New Ways to Use Apple Pencil and More.
iPadOS is built on the same foundation as iOS, adding powerful new capabilities and intuitive features specific to the large display and versatility of iPad. It introduces new ways to work with apps in multiple windows, more information at a glance on a redesigned Home screen and more natural ways to use Apple Pencil.
New Home Screen
The new Home screen has been redesigned with a new layout to show more apps on each page. Today View can now be added to the Home screen, allowing quick access to widgets for at-a-glance information, including headlines, weather, calendar, events, tips and more.
Split View and Slide Over
iPad users can now work with multiple files and documents from the same app simultaneously with updates to Split View, or can quickly view and switch between multiple apps in Slide Over. For example, one can compose an email while viewing another email side by side or access multiple apps like Messages or Calendar with just a swipe.
Apple Pencil
With iPadOS, Apple Pencil is even more integrated into the iPad experience. Users can now mark up and send entire webpages, documents or emails on iPad by swiping Apple Pencil from the corner of the screen. A redesigned tool palette gives quick access to tools, color palettes, shapes, object eraser, a new pixel eraser for removing any part of a stroke and a ruler for drawing perfectly straight lines.
Files App
The Files app is a central place to quickly access and manage documents, and with iPadOS, it gets even better with iCloud Drive support for folder sharing. iPadOS also supports external drives, allowing users to easily plug in USB drives, SD cards or log into an SMB file server, all from within the Files app. A new Column View with high-resolution previews helps users navigate directories, while support for Quick Actions such as mark up, rotate and create PDF makes it easy to be more productive on iPad. iPadOS also introduces local storage, zip and unzip, and new keyboard shortcuts.
Desktop Browsing with Safari
iPadOS automatically presents the desktop version of the website, scaled appropriately for the iPad display, and optimizes it for touch, so web apps like Google Docs, Squarespace and WordPress work great in Safari on iPad. Safari also supports significant new features such as a download manager, 30 new keyboard shortcuts and enhancements to tab management.
Improved Text Editing
Text editing on iPad receives a major update with iPadOS, making it easier and faster to point with even more precision and speed, select text with just a swipe and use new gestures to cut, copy, paste and undo.
Other iPadOS Features
- Dark Mode delivers a dramatic dark colour scheme that looks great across the system and is easier on the eyes in low-light environments.
- Custom Fonts can be installed for use across the system, perfect for creating beautiful documents on iPad. Fonts from boutique and major vendors such as Adobe, DynaComware, Monotype, Morisawa and Founder will be available on the App Store.
- A new floating keyboard saves space and includes support for QuickPath — making one-handed typing easy and leaving more room to display apps. Customers can pinch in to enable the floating keyboard and drag it anywhere on the screen.
- Photos curate the library to highlight the best images, automatically hiding clutter and similar photos to showcase significant events from the past day, month or year. Photo editing is more intuitive with new tools that are easier to apply, adjust and review, and almost all photo editing capabilities are available for video editing.
- Sign In with Apple is a fast, easy and private way to sign in to apps and websites using Apple ID.
- Maps feature a new base map, built from the ground up: Look Around with beautiful street-level imagery of cities using high-resolution 3D photography; Collections for a new way to share restaurants, shops or destinations; and Favourites for quick navigation to frequent locations.
- Performance improvements make the entire system more responsive with faster Face ID unlock, and a new way to package iPad apps on the App Store that reduces download sizes by up to 50%, makes app updates up to 60 percent smaller and results in apps launching up to twice as fast.
Availability
The developer preview of iPadOS is available to Apple Developer Program members at developer.apple.com now and a public beta program will be available to iPadOS users later this month at beta.apple.com. iPadOS will be available this fall as for iPad Air 2 and later, all iPad Pro models, iPad 5th generation and later and iPad mini 4 and later.
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