Apple lastly turned the iPad right into a Mac, and...

At its Worldwide Builders Convention (WWDC) occasion for 2025, Apple unveiled sweeping updates throughout its portfolio of software program platforms. Far and away, the headlining characteristic this 12 months is a brand new ‘Liquid Glass’ digital materials with reflective and refractive properties. Very similar to with the iPhone, the Mac, the Apple TV, and the Apple Watch, the iPad is ready to obtain the Liquid Glass therapy when the brand new iPadOS 26 replace formally launches someday this fall.

A brand-new visible design is at all times thrilling information, regardless of some early issues over UI legibility and an absence of distinction in sure components of the OS. At first look, I am a fan of the refresh, and it is clear that quite a lot of work has gone into getting the new glassy material to feel and look slick whereas in movement. That being stated, the essence of Apple’s new design fashion leaked forward of time, and so I can not say I felt a lot of a ‘wow’ issue once I lastly put in the now-available developer beta 1 onto my own iPad.

Moderately, Apple’s elementary retooling of the iPad productiveness expertise in iPadOS 26 is the factor that continues to genuinely pique my curiosity. I’ve long been hoping for the corporate to take inspiration from the Mac and the PC relating to the iPad’s working system, with a view to leverage the unbelievable {hardware} that ships inside modern iPad fashions.

At its keynote presentation, Apple highlighted main multitasking, file administration, and audiovisual enhancements making their technique to the iPad in iPadOS 26. After some preliminary hands-on testing of developer beta 1, it feels to me as if the corporate has lastly, really determined to show the iPad into a pc as soon as and for all. As an iPad person, I am merely ecstatic about this improvement.

This 12 months, the iPad is lastly rising up

iPadOS 26 is the Mac-like glow up the iPad has desperately deserved for years

After years of half-measures suffering from an overthinking of the ‘what is a computer?’ query, it seems Apple is lastly able to let the iPad enter into its PC substitute period. With iPadOS 26, the tech large is giving me precisely what I’ve at all times wished from a UI perspective. The replace presents correctly malleable home windows that may be resized and minimized at will, a devoted Menu Bar for surfacing essential settings and capabilities, and a brand new cursor that appears and feels much more PC-like than in its present incarnation.

File administration is vastly improved, too, with a extra complete Recordsdata app that features an ‘open with’ context menu entry, higher organizational instruments, and the flexibility to pin folders on to the system’s utility dock. The arrival of the Mac’s Preview app is good news for PDF energy customers, and it makes whisking by way of paperwork a much more fluid expertise on the entire. The newfound capability for the system to hold out background duties (corresponding to exporting a mission) by way of a Live Activities notification is right, as is the flexibility to pick out microphone audio enter on a per-app foundation from Management Heart.

In observe, all these newfound iPadOS options are working roughly as marketed, albeit on a beta software program construct with uneven animations and abysmal battery life. I anticipate nearly all of these optimization points to be addressed in future pre-launch updates — I knew what I used to be stepping into when opting to check out iPadOS 26 forward of the curve, however there is definitely extra lagginess right here than I initially anticipated to come across. Placing efficiency apart, I genuinely benefit from the capability to resize home windows with out being restricted to overzealous grid snapping, in addition to the Microsoft Home windows-style side-by-side app snapping and the Mac-like site visitors gentle window controls.

Associated

Apple needs to complete its iPadOS puzzle if it wants to keep the iPad Pro afloat

In its present state, iPadOS lets down the iPad Professional — Apple must reevaluate its OS technique to justify the value of its ‘Professional’ tablets.

Not every part is sort of good but

I nonetheless have some gripes with the iPadOS expertise

Pocket-lint / Apple

I’ll say that I am stunned Apple eliminated the legacy Slide Over and Split Screen multitasking options on this new launch. I think about it has one thing to do with the corporate’s ‘rearchitecting’ of the multitasking software program stack, however I notably loved having a carousel of iPhone-sized apps working in their very own separate atmosphere on my iPad. I additionally considerably miss the ‘stickier’ circle cursor of iPadOS 18, which I discover to be extra dynamic and enjoyable to work together with. In the end, nonetheless, the rational facet of me is relieved to see the debut of a extra Mac-like cursor, which presents extra point-and-click precision on the entire.

I additionally nonetheless have some gripes with iPadOS that proceed to stop me from successfully utilizing it as a pc, even with iPadOS 26 developer beta 1 put in. In no explicit order, I might like to see the next additions carried out in a future software program launch:

• An expanded Management Heart floor that does not mechanically pause multimedia content material when invoked
• The power to regulate audio on a per-app foundation, and to play audio from a number of sources at a single time
• A devoted clipboard interface that may be accessed from the digital keyboard
• Correct third-party mouse and pointer customization choices

Even with out these additions, I am discovering my iPadOS 26 expertise to be a dramatic step-up in performance over my iPad working iPadOS 18. Now greater than ever, the iPad seems and looks like a product that may function a main computing system, which is all I can actually ask for from Apple. At a time when Google is working away at improving Android’s capability to function a full-fledged desktop OS, I am completely satisfied to see Apple relent on its head-scratching iPad software program restrictions of yore.

Associated

With iOS 26, Apple is finally taking the iPhone’s phone app seriously

By far, iOS 26’s most helpful new options are Name Screening and Maintain Help — here is why.