Apple renames iOS for iPads to iPadOS

Spread the love

Apple renames iOS for tablets to iPadOS. The manufacturer announced this during its own developer conference WWDC. New features are coming in iPadOS over iOS, especially to make it easier to use multiple apps at once.

The move came out before the announcement during WWDC because Apple already mentioned iPadOS on its own developer site, in the list of operating systems for which developers can create software. Apple renamed iPhone OS to iOS in 2010 when the iPad came out. Although the Apple Watch and Apple TV run a derivative of iOS, the manufacturer called the software tvOS and watchOS and gave it their own version numbers.

The move should make it clear that the iPad software is different from iOS as it runs on iPhones. The operating system will continue to be called iOS on iPhones, presumably because it also runs on the iPod touch, of which a new version was released last week.

Many changes are aimed at the iPad Pros. For example, they benefit from the lower latency when input from the Pencil in iPadOS. That goes down from 20ms to 9ms, Apple claims. In addition, there is a PencilKit SDK for developers to integrate a set of Pencil editing tools into apps. Last year’s iPad Pros can finally do more with the USB-c port that Apple put in it. It will support USB sticks. In addition, it is possible to import photos directly into Adobe Lightroom or another photo program. That is not possible under iOS 12.

Changes have also been made to the interface. For example, it is possible to place widgets on the left side of the home screen. In addition, it is possible to open multiple windows of the same app, such as a mailbox and a mail in different windows. They can be used side by side or completely separate from each other. Third-party apps also automatically support the new feature. Copying and pasting text is now possible with three-finger gestures, just like undoing an edit.

The slide-over function for apps now has its own home bar, so that it is possible to change the view of the secondary app. There are also keyboard shortcuts for Safari, which from the upcoming version of iPadOS also shows the desktop version of sites by default, instead of the mobile version.

Another big change is in the Files app. That gets support for smb for file servers. In addition, iCloud Drive will have the option to share folders. Apple will release iPadOS this fall for the iPad Air 2 and later, iPad Mini 4 and later, and all iPad Pros.

You might also like