We didn’t get the iPad features at WWDC we wanted. Now what?

Prior to WWDC, I wrote about three things I wanted Apple to announce for iPadOS that would make it more of a true Mac replacement product. In brief, those were improvements to background processes, better Stage Manager/external display support,  and better app support. And with the exception of bringing Calculator to iPadOS, we got none of those.

So what happened?

In short, Apple Intelligence happened. I think it’s clear that Apple’s engineers spent the last year prioritizing Apple Intelligence. Apple is one of the wealthiest companies in the history of the planet, but even they don’t have unlimited resources. They certainly don’t get any more time than anyone else on the planet does, and there are a finite number of skilled software engineers to choose from. And this didn’t just affect the iPad. If you happen to be running any of the new OS betas you’ll find that there’s not much there that’s different on any of them. It was all-hands to Apple Intelligence this year, so unless we get a mid-cycle update like the one we got in 2020 that brought mouse and trackpad support to iPadOS, we’re going to have to wait at least one more year to get some of the changes many of us are hoping for.

Ok, ok, but there is some positive news.

First’s it’s encouraging that iPadOS got all of the new Home Screen customization options that iOS got. You can move your icons around more freely. You can use Dark Mode icons. You can tint your icons (if you’re a psycho). In the past the iPad has sometimes had to wait a year to get new features introduced for the iPhone. Not this year.

Secondly, Apple remains committed to keeping the Mac and iPad distinct. I know there are those of you who want to be able to run macOS on an iPad, but I am not in that camp. I don’t want my iPad to be a Mac. iPadOS is delightful. I just want iPadOS to continue to mature. I want it to get additional Mac features while still remaining an iPad. And during their interview on The Talk Show, Craig Federighi and Greg Joswiak were emphatic that Apple still has no interest in porting macOS to the iPad. Good!

Lastly, every iPad running any M-series chip is going to be getting all of the Apple Intelligence features Apple announced at WWDC. The iPad won’t be left behind in Apple’s new generative AI future.

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