WWDC19: Apple Introduces iPadOS

A big announcement at WWDC 2019 was iPadOS. With support for external storage, new ways to multitask, and more, iPadOS supercharges your productivity.

iPadOS Features

iPadOS will get the same features of iOS 13 of course, but there will be special iPad-specific features to take advantage of the larger display.

• Slide Over and Split View: Working with multiple apps is easier than ever. You can have multiple apps in Slide Over, apps in multiple spaces, and with App Exposé see all of the spaces you have open with an app by tapping that app’s icon on the dock.


• Home Screen: Pinning widgets lets you see them right on the home screen. Instead of swiping to see the widgets in a separate home screen page, they appear alongside all of your apps.


• Apple Pencil: The latency of the Apple Pencil is now just 9 milliseconds, making it closer to writing on a physical piece of paper. Markup has been redesigned with a new tool palette you can shrink and move anywhere on the screen. You’ll also get full-page Markup to capture an entire piece of content like an email, web page, document, and more.


• Sidecar: macOS Catalina lets you use your iPad as a secondary display. You can also use the iPad as an input device. Artists and graphic designers will love this.


• Text Editing: Editing text is easier with some new gestures. Copy a block of text with a three finger pinch, then paste it by swiping down with three fingers. Instead of shaking your iPad, you can down swipe left with three fingers to undo an action.


• Text Selection: You can move the cursor on the screen exactly where you want it, then quickly select text by dragging your finger over it. Plus, with intelligent text selection, you can choose a word with a double tap, a sentence with three taps, or an entire paragraph with four taps.


• Keyboard: Pinch to shrink the keyboard do make it easy to type while holding your iPad with the other hand. Swipe to text with the new QuickType keyboard, and if you have a physical keyboard you’ll get more keyboard shortcuts.


• Fonts: iPadOS gives you font management. Download fonts from the App Store and use them across your apps and documents.


• Files: Apple has added external storage support in Files, so you can plug in a USB-C flash drive or hard drive, and view your files in a new Column View. You can also share entire iCloud Drive folders, instead of individual files. Files also adds support for servers.


• Safari: Safari on iPadOS gives you full desktop browsing, so it’s not limited to a mobile version of websites. With a Download Manager, it’s easier than ever to download files in Safari. They will be saved to a new Downloads folder in the Files app.

iOS 13 and iPadOS will be available in July as a public beta.

Further Reading:

[TVOS Upgrade Announced AT WWDC 2019]

[WWDC19: Apple Launches ‘Sign In With Apple’ Privacy Feature]

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