5 New Features in the iPad OS

Highlights

• New Home-screen
• Dark Mode
• New Multitasking features
• 3rd Party Storage compatibility
• Sidecar with Mac OS Catalina

Apple announced a separate OS dedicated to iPads in this year’s WWDC. Till last year the iPad used to run on the same iOS that also powered iPhone. However, it did limit the growth of what iPad is capable of doing. This was one of the primary reason why Apple decided to create an OS specifically dedicated to the iPad. This all-new iPad OS adds many new features to the iPad such as new multitasking options, updated home screen, 3rd part storage compatibility and many more.

1. New Home-screen

With iPad OS the widgets now live on the side next to all of your apps. Moreover, your favourite widgets can now also be pinned to the front page which is a pretty handy feature. Furthermore, now you can get more apps on the main screen as apple has added 1 more row and a column to the app’s grid. This was made possible by shrinking the icons and making the dock available for further app additions.

2. Dark Mode

Perhaps the most anticipated feature of the iPad is the dark mode. Combined with the new home-screen, this looks stunning in the night. Moreover, you also have the option to automatically enable dark mode after sunset with just a single click. This is quite useful as it means your iPad won’t glare at you when you decide you’re going to binge-watch something at 11 pm when you actually should be in bed.

3. New Multitasking Features

This is one of the biggest feature that sets the iPad OS apart from IOS. Though for the novice user this can be seen as a bit overwhelming, However, when you get the gist of it, then you can realise how easy they make our lives while multitasking. Apple calls it “Slide Over” which enables you to drag an app from the dock and float it on your screen. Though this isn’t a new feature it has several new improvements compared to the existing multitasking on the iPad. Basically now, you can have multiple apps at once in Slide Over. It’s a collection of apps you can overlay over the main app you’re working in – or over two apps you’re using in Split View. You can now also open two simultaneous tabs of the same app as well, For eg. you can open a mail on one side while composing another one.

4. 3rd Party Compatibility

Finally, you can now connect your iPad with pen-drive, external hard drives or even sync with a DSLR camera directly from your device. There’s also a new column view that’s reminiscent to the approach used in macOS

5. SideCar (iPad as a second screen)

With sidecar, you will be able to use your iPad with your MacBook as a second screen. This is quite a handy feature that lets you use your iPad as a basic display, but also as a drawing tablet when combined with Apple Pencil, which is bound to appeal to users who use their iPads creatively.