Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Windowing, Menu Bar, and Pointer Come to iPadOS

I've been calling for macOS Lite for years on the iPad. Glad to finally see it happening, and hopefully this is a stepping stone towards more things to come. Would love to see a built-in Terminal app someday. Like that the Files app is becoming more Finder-like. No idea why they don't just make it the Finder. Out of everything announced today, this was probably my favorite update. Love being able to have longer background tasks on the iPad, and not fiddle with Stage Manager anymore. Was so annoying. Still, I wonder if there will be window limits?
 
  • Like
Reactions: It’s always something, groove-agent and 2Xtreme21
I want to know if SplitView is going to still be around. Hopefully they don’t remove it.

I have the 11” iPad Air and it’s very useful when using it as tablet. I like Mission Control and everything announced for when using a mouse and keyboard, but in the smaller iPad, SplitView is the best.

Can someone confirm if they didn’t remove it please?
 
kitt9000 said:
Can’t get a Mac w 5g to start which I use very regularly for $10 a month unlimited without using up my phone’s battery, and iPad Pro has the flexibility of touch, it’s 2 in 1 nature, including signing documents, and just a much better screen. Plus iPad interface is still more futuristic than a Mac imo for those who don’t need legacy Mac apps necessarily. I feel there is a large audience for this sort of update on the iPad.
Click to expand...

Plug iPhone to Mac. It's been solved.

Signing documents doesn't need iPadOS26 update.
 
colonel179 said:
I want to know if SplitView is going to still be around. Hopefully they don’t remove it.

I have the 11” iPad Air and it’s very useful when using it as tablet. I like Mission Control and everything announced for when using a mouse and keyboard, but in the smaller iPad, SplitView is the best.

Can someone confirm if they didn’t remove it please?
Click to expand...
Not sure but with the new windows manager if you long press on the open window it will like on the mac now show you a number of window options - two window apps side by side Or four windows apps
 
A new gesture allows users to swipe home twice to minimize all open apps and windows, instantly returning to the Home Screen.
Click to expand...
Err… does that mean that a single swipe won’t return you to the Home screen anymore?
 
Yeah this iPadOS update is probably the best part of the keynote today.

Why do I feel like this 'liquid glass' is just a glossy version of iOS7 though? They even brought back parallax wallpapers that quietly got removed years ago - presumably because it made people nauseous.
 
  • Like
  • Love
Reactions: SoVaRo, iMean, patrickbyrd325 and 3 others
I like that 'Mac OS lite' name someone mentioned.

There's still some file system deficiency, but it's a good start. When is the beta?
 
ctg7w6 said:
Dude NOBODY has wanted that. We who want MacOS on iPad have been very adamant that the usual interface with iPad should also remain. We literally just want to ALSO use MacOS on iPad. We want you to have your preferred experience and we want our preferred experience.

And really, most of it is that we want to be able to use it as a Mac when we want to and use it as an iPad at other times.

We literally are asking for just another option that will not affect you. For example, a switch that turns off MacOS from ever showing up on your iPad so that you can use it as a regular iPad.

Quite often we are people who would rather not buy a Mac AND an iPad, but have one device that does everything for us (i.e. Mac stuff AND iPad stuff). Literally the best thing that could happen for a consumer.
Click to expand...
Apple is never going to do that because then you would have no reason to buy a Mac. I’m sure Apple has data that shows power users own both a Mac and an iPad. They’re not going to do anything to change that.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MikeDr206
Surgicalshark said:
Love this genuinely… wonder what external monitor resolution will iPadOS 26 support? Just want to use Excel on big screen.

If it does support bigger monitors, then skipping m4 mini and giving m2 mini to my kiddo and make m4 11” iPad Pro as my primary device.
Click to expand...
I used it on iPadOS 18 and an ultrawide 38’ monitor and it was awesome. No clamshell mode though, not sure if that is changed with iPadOS 26.
 
Hkfan45 said:
Meh. Give us actual macOS not some watered down pointless visual effects layer on ipadOS. The hardware can easily support it.
Click to expand...

Not sure something like the base iPad with 64 GB storage can really run MacOS. But those users may get a lot of use out of these improvements
 
macnerd77 said:
Makes me think they are pushing for the iPad to replace the MacBook. I certainly hope this is not the case.
Click to expand...
long term I think it will as we get more powerful chips and reduced need for laptop style devices. Wouldn't bother me in the slightest tbh, if they can merge the OS's well [which is appears they can, as of today......].

A lot of people probably could survive with a 12" pro iPad for everything they do, right now.
 
  • Like
Reactions: snipr125
Hkfan45 said:
Meh. Give us actual macOS not some watered down pointless visual effects layer on ipadOS. The hardware can easily support it.
Click to expand...

Baby steps - now they have better window management, a menu bar, a real mouse cursor and slightly better file management I honestly believe that they will at some point allow apps purchased from the Mac App Store to be run on the iPad.

Sure it won't actually be macOS on iPad but it will be comfortably restricted and different enough for Apple to justify the different product lines.

It would also be a massive boost for the Mac App Store which I'm sure is used far less than the iDevice App Stores.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back