Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPadOS 19 Will Be 'More Like macOS' in Three Ways
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Exactly. They've said those same three things with every iPadOS release, and every time it's incredibly underwhelming and does not move the needle.
I've just quit this group last month. I was really torn between an M4 Pro Mac Mini + iPad Air with Keyboard and Pencil. I choose instead to throw in my iPad as trade-in besides my Mac and got an M4 Air with 24GB ram for really cheap. I would have loved the lower size and weight of iPad Air, but iPadOS is just too dumb. There was no way to just look at the contents of a Dockefile saved in iCloud to check something. That was the final straw from that useless garbage.
Probably will get a cheap Android tablet to read pdfs, and that's it, iPads are seriously overpriced for what they can provide me at their current state. Luckily iBooks got so buggy, that last year I've migrated to a platform-independent solution. An iPad Air/Pro with macos would fill the void left behind by the 12" MacBooks, most of the people had that as a secondary device. Same would be with tablets.
Every file has to be associated with an app. Can't have a file system like on a Mac.
All apps should have the same features across all platforms, whether it’s macOS, Windows, or iPadOS. This applies to Microsoft apps, Adobe products, and even Apple’s own apps. So, it’s not about the operating system itself.
But hold on, take Safari, for instance. It can’t do certain things in the background. Is that the multitasking improvement they’re talking about? Well, that’s an iPadOS thing, and it will help it they solve it.
This website contains lists of features that iPadOS lacks. For instance, only the last connected camera is available, preventing switching between them in like Microsoft Teams or Apple FaceTime. However, it is uncertain how many users have multiple cameras. The same applies to microphones. I have both built-in in my external monitor. Nevertheless, but for serious work you require anyway a video switcher, such as Black Magic ATEM, or an audio interface for a good microphone. I use both of them sometimes.
I am uncertain whether this is a limitation of the API, not available in iPadOS, and therfor it cannot be switched, or if the developer of Teams or FaceTime simply decided not to implement it because every iPad has a camera, while not every Mac.
So maybe ultimately, for me it all comes down to the apps themselves.
But still no support for multiple users? The single thing that would actually make the iPad vastly more useful to families and couples who share a device?
Years ago, I vowed never to buy another iPad until they added this feature. And so far I haven’t given in.
Years ago, I vowed never to buy another iPad until they added this feature. And so far I haven’t given in.
It just sounds like Stage Manager 2.0 to me, with the main iPad experience likely being closer to Jon Prosser's iOS 19 leak. I’m curious if we'll just get the Mac menu bar and close/maximize/minimize buttons. Or if it's going to be more substantial.
Oh well, we'll know for sure in less than two months.
In contrast, shouldn‘t we discussing the limitations of a Mac, such as paying my farmer for fresh eggs, showing my train ticket, open the door (car, house), using Microsoft Authenticator or similar authentication devices, installing banking applications for the first time, creating photos and videos, and utilizing the Apple Pencil?
Additionally, switching automatically between AAC, lossless and high-resolution audio formats and utilizing FaceID.
Additionally, switching automatically between AAC, lossless and high-resolution audio formats and utilizing FaceID.
I’m convinced that Apple has deliberately held back iPadOS for days like today when growth is needed and they can release features people have been clamoring for in order to drive sales. There’s just no other possible explanation
Given that unix in the early 70s had multiple users - and macOS does too, as it's unix-like - it cannot be beyond Apple to implement this, even if they keep the App Store model, as users in unix were always allowed to install their own programs that other users didn't get to see.
I don’t understand why iPad. The best uses I’ve seen for it are digital artists drawing on the touch screen and audio people using the touch screen to control a sound board. For most things I do, I’d like a keyboard and to be able to run standard Mac software. If I need to run an iOS app, I’ve already got the big iPhone for that.
I’ve actually warmed up to it but I agree about Expose. Why focus so hard to reinvent the wheel?
It’s a tablet one camera for granny to FaceTime with out complications ! Go play on a Mac, it’s a tablet
I believe it was Rosetta. I agree, being able to virtualize other operating systems would be a huge win for the iPad. It might even get me to spend $100/year on Parallels through the App Store, which is a lot more than I currently spend combined with any other App Store subscription.
Leave iPadOS for the people who want it as is. But open it up to allow other OS to be virtualized for the people who do want that too. I’d much rather run another OS on the iPad itself than having to use Jump Desktop or Shadow PC to connect to another machine somewhere.
Even if I can’t run another OS, maybe just let something like Crossover or Wine come to the iPad and let me run desktop apps through that.
That is an arbitrary decision by Apple not a technical limitation of iOS/iPad OS.
As a musician, the ipad is a godsend. Digital sheet music is visible in low no light, doesn’t blow away in the wind, and is significantly less bulk to carry to gigs than literal reams of paper sheets. Also you can download music on the fly for audience requests.
As you suggest in your post, having precise remote control over my digital mixer has been a massive win as well, due to not needing a large format (console) audio mixer any more.
I could go on and on. Great device.
As much as I would enjoy this (I'm among those who think that iPadOS is really lacking), I still think this is not the correct move. Being able to run macOS on the iPad would - imho - be better.
Reason being that many people enjoy the simplicity of an iPad. And adding more and more features to iPadOS would just make those people feel overwhelmed. I'd even advocate for a removal of some features such as multitasking and stage manager in order to make it simple and "great again".
That would be:
Reason being that many people enjoy the simplicity of an iPad. And adding more and more features to iPadOS would just make those people feel overwhelmed. I'd even advocate for a removal of some features such as multitasking and stage manager in order to make it simple and "great again".
That would be:
- iPadOS as it used to be ➡︎ simple and intelligible for everyday users
- macOS in dual boot mode (or alike) ➡︎ for power users when they need it (requires a mouse/trackpad + keyboard and that's an acceptable tradeoff)
Last edited:
Reading all these comments, I was thinking the same thing. It seems like a ton of people are saying "why cant it work like MY mac."
But, you have a mac. So why not just use that when you want the mac experience? Based on sales, it seems like the Ipad is a large media consumption device. The majority of Ipad users aren't using it for things that are done on a mac. Its for web browsing, sending emails, watching Netflix, Youtube, reading books, facetime, texting, instagram. The mac doesn't do those things better then the Ipad currently does. And if you want your Ipad to do Mac things.......buy a mac. Really, what might be a good idea would be to release a new product called Macpad. Just Ipad pro with macos on it. If it sells great, maybe expand that option. But to change all Ipados to macos is going to confuse a ton of people who aren't even familiar with macos and dont need those features.
