iPad One wish for iPad OS at WWDC

[BhaveshUK]

Hey everyone!,

Hope you are all well.

I've seen a lot of threads recently debating the usefulness of iPad and whether Mac OS should just be put onto the device. A lot of the discussion was making me feel quite negative about the iPad so I stepped away to regain appreciation for the device I already have. With this thread, I want to reframe things with a more positive, optimistic outlook.

I felt it would be fun to create a scenario and see what people want most to transform their iPad OS experience. The scenario is WWDC has arrived. Apple are going to grant you one iPad OS feature of your choice! You can have anything you want, but the condition is you can only have one thing, and you can't request iPad runs Mac OS. What one feature would you wish for iPad OS?

For me, I would like external monitor support which behaves similar to Samsung Dex. My iPad OS experience would feel much improved by this because I love working on bigger screens at my desk. I find the ergonomics are much nicer for my neck and spine. The current version of mirroring the iPad screen is workable, but not pleasant to use. I feel if we had a windowed experience option there would be more options for how we can work on iPad and the productivity options at our disposal.

How about yourself? Which one iPad OS feature would you ask Apple to grant you at WWDC? ?

 

[GhostOS]

A lot of the discussion was making me feel quite negative about the iPad so I stepped away to regain appreciation for the device I already have.

I get that with things like the Surface tablet around, people want a similar thing and want to make their expensive glass slab "more useful" by "being able to do MacOS things".

But from the perspective of someone who hadn't used one since the original iPad years ago, I've been incredibly happy with my experience on the gen 3 iPad Pro 11. I've ended up doing more reading than ever before, due to the friendly magazine-like slim form factor, learning to and making more art that I never thought I would, thanks to the Pencil 2 and seamless performance with 120Hz screen, and have mostly been overwhelmed with the plethora of different high quality iPadOS apps that let you do and explore so much.

Having said that I really wish they'd let us turn off the annoying multitasking dots from the top centre of the screen. And an option to stop Books app from deleting downloaded books even when i have plenty of memory.

 

[cupcakes2000]

Sidecar improvements. I wish that you could start the session from the iPad, via a proper app and I wish it could be extended to work over the internet like a normal Remote Desktop. Universal Control should work better with Sidecar also, if you exit Sidecar to use regular iPadOS features, it should intelligently switch.

 

[fromsixtozero]

open ipadOS same as macOS

 

[NastyMatt]

Extended monitor support (not mirrored) is the one feature I would love.. I'd even put up with the portrait camera!

Fully featured browser would be good too. Most of (my) apps I use for work are cloud based in a browser, most of the time they fully work, every now and again there will be a small feature that does not work - like a pop up window - which renders the app unusable.

 

[jdb8167]

Can I cheat and ask for iPadOS to allow virtual machines? Of course, the reason for this is to run macOS (along with Windows and Linux.) This would necessitate some other changes though too. I don't think VMs would run very well without virtual swap memory. Unconstrained background multitasking would need to be available as well.

 

[Digitalguy]

Why just one thing? I am sure many people would like more than one thing from iPadOS 16. Anyway for me it would be, among other things, extended display via a desktop mode.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

How about yourself? Which one iPad OS feature would you ask Apple to grant you at WWDC? 😄

I want Apple to really focus on improving multi-tasking. If that were to happen the transition process to the Mac will be more seamless and smooth.

 

[Scarboose]

My only complaint with iPadOS is the sound/video. I wish you could play multiple videos or sounds at the same time. I hate how one stops the moment another starts. If Apple changed that, then I would be happy.

 

[sparksd]

I'd like to hear full support for an external monitor and that they finally figured out how to use exFAT attached storage without corruption.

 

[Ludatyk]

I want Apple to really focus on improving multi-tasking. If that were to happen the transition process to the Mac will be more seamless and smooth.

Tbh, I think Apple tries to improve multi-tasking… however, it’s never what users want.

But on that topic, in an effort to improve multitasking… I would want Apple to give developers access to Quick Note API. Federico brought this up on a podcast and I think it‘s one of those features that doesn’t go against iPadOS, similar to PiP… but a feature that‘s catered to be an extension of app.

IMO, Apple does not desires to merge macOS and iPadOS… they want them to stand on their own.

 

[The Game 161]

for me I would love the option to place app icons where I want. it likely won't happen but the space you could use on a big iPad display is wasted to be honest

 

[Scarboose]

To all of you who want full monitor support, I don’t think it will ever happen. Don’t get me wrong, I’d like it too, but I also don’t think it makes sense based on what Apple has done so far.

If you add full monitor support, is it really that much different than adding macOS to the iPad?

 

[sparksd]

To all of you who want full monitor support, I don’t think it will ever happen. Don’t get me wrong, I’d like it too, but I also don’t think it makes sense based on what Apple has done so far.

If you add full monitor support, is it really that much different than adding macOS to the iPad?

I think there's a huge difference - there is far more than the display differentiating iPadOS & macOS.

 

[RadioHedgeFund]

Multi-user support seems long overdue but then again mine is a work device so I don't care about that.

Honestly I think the one thing I'd like changed is the utterly useless notification shade which takes up the entire display. This should be a small list on the opposite side of the screen to control centre.

 

[IJBrekke]

I will never, ever take iPadOS seriously as a work/productivity device as long as Apple prevents reverting the software. The fact that you cannot go back to a previous OS if there are issues is a non-starter. It will remain a consumption toy unless I happened to get into a niche like digital art or something that uses the Pencil heavily.

I’m aware that Apple will never change this.

 

[Digitalguy]

I think there's a huge difference - there far more than the display differentiating iPadOS & macOS.

100%. It would be like saying that Samsung DEX and Microsoft Windows are basically the same thing... Far from it...

 

[leifp]

To all of you who want full monitor support, I don’t think it will ever happen. Don’t get me wrong, I’d like it too, but I also don’t think it makes sense based on what Apple has done so far.

If you add full monitor support, is it really that much different than adding macOS to the iPad?

Yes, it is. It remains controlled from the iPad, and runs iPadOS apps. And would only be required for the "pro" iPads, if they want to do an arbitrary distinction.

This would allow me to return to my pastel and ideal world wherein I live with a desktop computer but travel with an iPad. If that doesn't sound like you, that's fine. If you think I should be able to x,y, or z then you're not talking about my use case, which won't be over-simplified here...

 

[Ludatyk]

To all of you who want full monitor support, I don’t think it will ever happen. Don’t get me wrong, I’d like it too, but I also don’t think it makes sense based on what Apple has done so far.

If you add full monitor support, is it really that much different than adding macOS to the iPad?

I can't speak for everyone, but I don't believe its a case of adding macOS to the iPad. But when it comes to full monitor support... do not mirror iPad screen and no letterboxing.

If Apple can address those two issues... it will certainly help in the case of monitor support.

 

[turbineseaplane]

My only complaint with iPadOS is the sound/video. I wish you could play multiple videos or sounds at the same time. I hate how one stops the moment another starts. If Apple changed that, then I would be happy.

I used to have a JB tweak that allowed that -- it was wonderful.

I really hate how it's still so simplistic.. There I am browsing a site with some music playing and some auto-play garbage cuts off my music playback.

It's a complete joke that Apple have never addressed this in all these years.

 

[UltimateSyn]

For me, I would like external monitor support which behaves similar to Samsung Dex. My iPad OS experience would feel much improved by this because I love working on bigger screens at my desk. I find the ergonomics are much nicer for my neck and spine. The current version of mirroring the iPad screen is workable, but not pleasant to use. I feel if we had a windowed experience option there would be more options for how we can work on iPad and the productivity options at our disposal.

This is exactly what I want. Really both the iPhone and iPad should be able to output a macOS-like windowed mode when connected to external displays, but I'd understand if only the iPad got that feature.

 

[kaardowiq]

Can I cheat and ask for iPadOS to allow virtual machines? Of course, the reason for this is to run macOS (along with Windows and Linux.) This would necessitate some other changes though too. I don't think VMs would run very well without virtual swap memory. Unconstrained background multitasking would need to be available as well.

You can steady do this… Of course, only arm (in reasonable speed, however x64 can be emulated), but Linux is no issue at all. Take a look and feel free to open issues / PRs… https://getutm.app/

 

[AstroRexaur]

Desktop mode, similar to macOS but iPad oriented (fully integration with apple pencil, touch and magic keyboard).

 

[ian87w]

For the Files app to support mounting encrypted dmg. I'm finding in macOS that encrypted dmg is useful as a "locked briefcase" that I can move around without worrying somebody looking into the files.

 

[Funny Apple Man]

Everyone here pretty much said everything already, but if all of these wishes would come true then I'm definitely buying a new 12.9 iPP right away.