Apple’s new iPadOS 15 has just been unveiled at the Worldwide Developers Conference with features designed to increase productivity and improve multitasking to make the iPad more capable than ever.
“We’re excited to make the iPad experience even better with iPadOS 15,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering.
“With more intuitive multitasking, a new Home Screen design with integrated widgets and the App Library, system-wide note-taking with Quick Note, Translate designed for iPad, SharePlay, a redesigned Safari experience, new tools to stay focused and more, users can now be even more productive.”
MULTITASKING AND KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
iPadOS 15 makes working with multiple apps a lot easier thanks to the new multitasking menu which will appear at the top of apps to give users the option of split view or slide over with a single tap.
It’s also possible to access the home screen quickly using split view so you can get to the right app.
A new feature called Shelf gives users access to other apps that have multiple windows like Safari and Pages and also quickly preview emails.
And if you are using an external keyboard there are all-new keyboard shortcuts to help get more done.
WIDGETS AND APP LIBRARY
iPadOS 15 brings widgets to the iPad which can be placed on home screen pages to see more information at a glance.
These larger widgets are designed to suit the larger display of the iPad and offer an easy way of showcasing videos, music, games, photos and more.
App Library is also coming to iPad so it can automatically organise apps into helpful categories and allow access from the dock.
QUICK NOTE
Another area improved with iPadOS 15 is note taking.
Now notes have gone systemwide with a new feature called Quick Note which provides a fast and easy way to take notes system wide whether you’re browsing in Safari or finding a location in Maps.
Quick Note can be used to jot down a thought or add links and can now also be arranged in a new way and sorted with tags to make them easier to categorise and find when needed.
TRANSLATE
The Translate app comes to iPad with iPadOS 15 and includes features that make conversations easier and more natural.
Auto Translate can detect when someone is speaking, and in which language, so it’s easy to converse naturally without having to tap a microphone button.
This also works for in-person conversations so two people can sit across from each other with the iPad between them and see translations of the conversation in real time from their own side.
iPadOS 15 also includes the same new features introduced on iOS 15 to find focus, enjoy more natural FaceTime calls and shared experiences with SharePlay.
Additional iPadOS 15 Features
– Universal Control lets users work with a single mouse and keyboard to move between iPad and Mac, for a seamless experience with no setup required. Users can even drag and drop content back and forth between devices — great for sketching a drawing with Apple Pencil on iPad and placing it into a Keynote slide on Mac.
– Shared with You works across iPadOS 15 to find the articles, music, TV shows, photos and more that are shared in Messages conversations, and conveniently surfaces them in apps like Photos, Safari, News, Music, Podcasts and the Apple TV app, making it easy to quickly access the information in context.
– Photos includes the biggest update ever to Memories, with a fresh new look; an immersive, interactive interface; and integration with Apple Music, which uses on-device intelligence to personalise song suggestions that bring memories to life.
– Maps delivers new ways to navigate and explore the world. Users will experience significantly enhanced details in cities for suburbs, commercial districts, elevation and buildings; new road colours and labels; custom-designed landmarks; and a new nighttime mode with a moonlit glow.
– Privacy is taken to the next level with new protections, transparency features and controls. Mail Privacy Protection helps stop trackers from snooping on an email, and App Privacy Report provides transparency into how apps are sharing information with other companies.4
– Siri is designed to protect user privacy. Now, with on-device speech recognition, audio of Siri requests is processed entirely on iPad by default5, and performance improves significantly. Siri also adds Announce Notifications on AirPods, the ability for users to share what’s on their screen just by asking, and more.
– iCloud+ combines everything users love about iCloud with new premium features — including Hide My Email, expanded HomeKit Secure Video support, and an innovative new internet privacy service, iCloud Private Relay — at no additional cost.6 Current iCloud subscribers will be upgraded to iCloud+ automatically this spring. All iCloud+ plans can be shared with people in the same Family Sharing group, so everyone can enjoy the new features, storage and elevated experience that comes with the service.
– New accessibility features are designed to work the way users do. The VoiceOver screen reader now uses on-device intelligence to explore objects within images, enabling users to discover more details about people, text, table data and other objects within images. Support for third-party eye-tracking hardware enables users to control iPad using only their eyes. Background sounds play continuously and mix into or ‘duck under’ other audio and system sounds, to mask unwanted environmental or external noise and help users focus, stay calm or rest. Sound Actions lets users customise Switch Control to work with mouth sounds. Users can now customise display and text size on an app-by-app basis.
