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iPadOS 19 Will Be 'More Like macOS' in Three Ways
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iPad with keyboard and mouse (plus a 24-inch display supplied by my employers) IS my laptop and mobility device. I elected to replace a dying MacBook with a refurb iPad Air 5 and some lightly used accessories (magic KB 2, Magic Mouse 2, Pencil 2). Display and a webcam from my employer create a kinda ‘iMac Air’ vibe.
My use cases aren’t demanding - word-processing, the usual mundane digital stuff with some music recording via GarageBand. For me, this rocks. For other people, this would suck muchly.
It already has an M4 in it. The processor is a little beast. Give us a MacOS option! It would be amazing.
Apple needs to enforce external keyboard compatibility.
Notion and Google apps are barely useable with an external keyboard.
Notion and Google apps are barely useable with an external keyboard.
Your dual OS idea is intriguing. I've got more keyboards and mice than I can shake a stick at. If I could get an iPad Air that runs MacOS, it could be an attractive alternative to spending $400 more for a MacBook Air.
However, I think the idea would throw Apple's marketing department into fits on how to position and sell the overlapping lines. That kind of confusion between a set of product lines has hurt many a company.
😝 no it’s bigger better screen and processor on a TABLET ! And it’s not pro. But if you want to give Tim you money then complain it not got Mac OS on then foolish you !! You want a touch screen Mac ! Learn the difference
Most people complaining that the iPad isn't a Mac generally have buyers remorse that they didn't just get a Macbook Air instead
The iPad line is however Apples sub-$1000 computing line. At the bottom end that $350 model is incredibly competitive when compared to similarly priced Windows and Chrome devices for the market they are aimed at. At the top it is sold as a creative accessory for people with perhaps an existing desktop. Its a weird device to generalise, which is what makes developing iPadOS harder.
I imagine they'll go with M-Series models having the new windowing system and keep the $350 model as a 'giant iPhone'. It needs to be closer to the Samsung tablets that have a full desktop-like window management system when switched to 'Dex' mode.
Would it really be that hard for them to get Finder on iPadOS?
- Improved productivity
- Some iOS global features, more likely AI stuff
- Improved multitasking
- UI change (yes, only one) to look more consistent with VisionOS, like Tab bar in 18
- Improved app window management
- Window tiling from Sequoia
Not so interesting and more look like reality, right?
“Next thing will be like previous thing, but better”
Whole bunch of nothing, courtesy of Mark Gurman as usual
Whole bunch of nothing, courtesy of Mark Gurman as usual
How to fix iPadOS:
1. Get rid of the window manager 3-dot menu, swipe up recent apps, and stage manager
2. Bring macOS dock with all its glory
3. Bring macOS mission control and the current window expose of the iPadOS, merge them and invoke this new interface with the swipe up and hold instead of the current recent apps
4. Add a title bar and bring macOS traffic lights. App name in the titlebar is the window drag handle, red button quits the app, yellow is minimize, green is fullscreen (macOS style), tap and hold for split screen and slide over options.
5. Add the bottom right handle to the app window to resize app
6. Don’t add limitation on max open app windows
7. (For devs) bring some quality apps to iPad. We desperately need a code editor like VS code, Xcode, a proper video editor, a proper UI/UX prototyping app (like Figma)
1. Get rid of the window manager 3-dot menu, swipe up recent apps, and stage manager
2. Bring macOS dock with all its glory
3. Bring macOS mission control and the current window expose of the iPadOS, merge them and invoke this new interface with the swipe up and hold instead of the current recent apps
4. Add a title bar and bring macOS traffic lights. App name in the titlebar is the window drag handle, red button quits the app, yellow is minimize, green is fullscreen (macOS style), tap and hold for split screen and slide over options.
5. Add the bottom right handle to the app window to resize app
6. Don’t add limitation on max open app windows
7. (For devs) bring some quality apps to iPad. We desperately need a code editor like VS code, Xcode, a proper video editor, a proper UI/UX prototyping app (like Figma)
No, it needs to be MacOS. We manage over 1000 Macs and several hundred iPads with JAMF. Because iPadOS does not execute scripts our management is much more difficult.
I got inspired by some posts here and tried out Stage Manager on my iPad and it was a mess. I can have a group of three apps, but when I make one app full screen it leaves the group so I have to put it back there again. If I have them windowed then a lot of space goes wasted on the sides. Wow, someone actually got paid to come up with this?
Its the repeat interactions that I find illogical. For example:
- With Stage Manager turned on you cannot swipe in from the left on a cold desktop and bring up the stages. It summons the increasingly-useless single column dashboard.
- When an app is open you can only view 3 'Stages' at any one time, whereas the swipe-up expose shows them all. Why have two interactions for the same feature where the older one is still better?
- The dashboard and control centre both have two-thirds of a display to use yet leave it blank. Why not combine them?
- Why are notifications still limited to a central column on the lockscreen? Why not combine them with something else like the Mac?
As for iOS, I'm pretty fine with that one being limited to App Store, and I live in European Union. As for the iPad, users worldwide should have the option to enable Power User mode just like Windows has (or even Mac? Heck, I can't say for sure as my 2017 iMac doesn't receive new software and pre-M1 versions used to be more open as per articles). Hopefully, one day Apple will finally give up on these useless software limitations.
Apple will never change the functionality of the iPad as long as there are people willing to spend a lot of money on a device that serves as a device for consuming video and other content.
The files app is pretty bad. The Apple IIgs had a better file system and interface to it. The 233 MHz beige G3 with 256 MB of RAM ran MacOS 10.2. There is no technical reason for the hobbled nature of iPadOS. Even the screen on the iPad is bigger than the one on an IIgs.
It’s worth mentioning that Apple once encouraged its product teams to attempt to cannibalize other Apple products, as this motivated them to make the best products possible.
Also, Apple should be smart enough to capitalize on each form factor’s inherent strengths to differentiate them without compromising what they could do. If so, we’d still buy both.
I just got a new iPad Air (M3) 13" . Hopefully iPadOS 19.0 features will fully work on my new iPad.
Just bring over MacOS to the iPad. IpadOS does such a diservice to the hardware.