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Top Five New Features in iPadOS 17
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I absolutely love my 12.9 inch iPad Pro. I’ve owned one iPad or another since it was introduced and this is the best one by far in terms of hardware.
But WOW is the OS inadequate. The potential of the iPad is really hampered by Apple’s apparent disinterest in focusing on it. Stage Manager for example. What a sad, half baked effort.
So any improvement is welcome, but it seems obvious to me that Apple needs to put a lot more thought and effort into making iPad more functional and intuitive.
But WOW is the OS inadequate. The potential of the iPad is really hampered by Apple’s apparent disinterest in focusing on it. Stage Manager for example. What a sad, half baked effort.
So any improvement is welcome, but it seems obvious to me that Apple needs to put a lot more thought and effort into making iPad more functional and intuitive.
I second that. It does RPN so it is actually useful for me.
I just really hope they fix the stupid sound out for issuing stage manager, so you can actually choose to use the speakers in your iPad instead of it defaulting to the speakers in the display you’re using. And, of course, it does that even if your display doesn’t actually have speakers. I can’t believe that they were dumb enough to think that was a good idea.
I hope they bring these features to iPhoneOS 17 as well!
Finder alone has tons of room for improvement. I agree there no longer really needs to be a yearly release but there are many system level bug fixes and tweaks macOS still needs. My issue with everything being iOS first is that the last several years they’ve just shoved things that (kinda) work on iOS like notification center instead of coming at it from a desktop first perspective.
Not a lot happening here, which isn't a surprise. The iPhone seems to be center stage this go-round.
I remember them explaining this at one point. They had one made early on, but took it off because they just couldn't do a good enough job of... putting a calculator app together. All the designers and engineers at apple couldn't figure out how to make a simple calculator WHEN THEY"D DONE IT THREE TIMES ALREADY (on mac, iphone and ipad).
I just love having to load a calculator app and find it streaming a bunch of ads over my connection bc they went to a subscription model now. Yes I really want to subscribe to a calculator. I wish this ranked higher on the list of the iPad OS's dysfunction.
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The more apple adds laptop-like features to iPadOS, the more annoyed I am with the device not reaching a laptop-like experience and productivity.
To be fair, the Mac announcements this year basically boiled down to widgets, a new lock screen, better screensavers and some Safari security improvements.
Not exactly what I’d call paradigm altering.
Pretty sure that's never coming. They want everyone to have their own iPad.
Some of us have to buy a new device in order to install iPadOS 17
I mean… you don’t. It’s a pretty light update so you could wait a year before updating.Some of us have to buy a new device in order to install iPadOS 17
Is it really that big a deal,..there are plenty of options. Craig has already said they have no intention of adding a calc, as there are so many already in the app store. PCalc is also ready for the Vision Pro, so don't expect it there.
I’m just happy to finally have the health app.
Currently, if the iPad OS is the manifestation of Apple vision for the future of computers ... well compared to MacOS is really bad. Touch friendly ... yes ... Pen support ... yes ... everything else ... no. Everything else is actually most of it.
Never thought I would say this ... but honestly ... the route of iPad OS makes me actually wonder if the people wanting Touch and Pen support baked on MacOS weren't actually right all along. iPad OS looks more and more like an expensive mess as years pass by.
Apple ... please create a 14" MacOS Tablet ... call it a T-Air
Never thought I would say this ... but honestly ... the route of iPad OS makes me actually wonder if the people wanting Touch and Pen support baked on MacOS weren't actually right all along. iPad OS looks more and more like an expensive mess as years pass by.
Apple ... please create a 14" MacOS Tablet ... call it a T-Air
I’ve been running the developer betas of iPadOS 17, and I actually think it’s a really nice update! There are lots of smaller additions to the system that haven‘t gotten much attention, such as a brand new ”Multitasking & Gestures” menu in the Settings app, and new right-click/hold-press options for external drives in Files such as “Rename” and “Erase”. The ”Get Info” option also shows the drives capacity, and how much space has been used. It may not be a huge flashy update like iPadOS 16, but there’s a lot of good stuff here that’s being added in the betas that doesn’t really get much attention. There are lots of ”small” quality of life improvements like these that are going to be really nice for daily use.
They better make this crystal clear this update is ONLY applicable for external display. I tried to move windows on iPad. Same old crap. Nothing changes.
I believe this is only applicable when connected to external display, not while using iPad as a standalone device.
I like it, myself. For one thing, with it enabled it makes all those portrait-only games work properly on a landscape iPad (which is how most people (including me) use iPads).
Like collaborative PDF Notes with pencil input!.![]()
While iPadOS 17 has adopted almost all of the features that are available in iOS 17, there are also several additions designed specifically for the larger display of the iPad. In our latest video, we've highlighted the best new features available for the iPad in the iPadOS 17 update.
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For more on what's new in the iPadOS 17 update, we have a dedicated iPadOS 17 roundup.
- Updated Lock Screen - In iPadOS 17, the iPad gets the Lock Screen customization features that came to the iPhone with iOS 16. iPadOS 17 users can choose the look of the date and time, select different iPad-optimized wallpaper options, and have multiple Lock Screens that are tied to Focus modes.
- Widgets and Live Activities - Live Activities are now supported on the iPad's Lock Screen, so you can follow along with timers, food orders, sports games, and more. Widgets on the Lock Screen and the Home Screen are interactive, allowing you to turn on the lights, play a song, mark a reminder as complete, and more, directly from the widget with no need to open an app.
- Health App - The Health app is available on the iPad in iPadOS 17, showing health data in detail. The app is optimized for the iPad's display with an updated Favorites view and interactive charts for categories like Trends and Highlights.
- PDF & Notes Additions - Enhanced Autofill allows the iPad to identify fields in a PDF or scanned document so names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and other information can be added from contact cards. There's also a new feature for collaborating on PDFs with others directly through the Notes app. The Notes app has been enhanced for PDFs, and PDFs will show up in full width for quick annotations with Apple Pencil.
- Stage Manager Updates - When using Stage Manager, windows can be freely resized, repositioned, and placed anywhere on the display. Stage Manager also supports an external camera like the one on the Studio Display for FaceTime and conference calls.
Article Link: Top Five New Features in iPadOS 17
Good to have lock screen customizations on iPad!!
Can someone tell me if there is a calculator app now? You know one without ads and spyware?
Interesting use case.
I use stage manager, even though it’s unfocused and unintuitive. The updates to it look good. I’ll use it more now.
There are so many EASY areas they could address on iOS and iPadOS that they ignore, not just for one or two annual updates but into perpetuity and at the same time the struggle to make each year's release meaningful.
IT'S BECAUSE they don't REALIZE that some of the items they neglect to improve upon and fix would actually be meaningful!! Apple - it's ok to fix stuff as a "new feature".