iOS 13 for iPad is now known as iPad OS

Last night, I watched the entirety of the WWDC 2019 keynote, announcing a slew of new software changes and update coming to all Apple devices this fall. One particular update that caught me off guard was the renaming of iOS13 for iPad to a standalone iPad OS. And the new OS just for the iPad introduces a slew of great multitasking abilities that will take iPad to a whole new level in terms of productivity and efficiency.

I am particularly excited about improvements made over Split View and a new multitasking function called Slide Over. Slide Over allows to quickly switch apps that appear on the right side of the screen as a second app running in the background. No more fumbling over going back to the home screen and finding the secondary app you wish to open off to the side and coming back to the main app you were interacting with earlier. With Slide Over, you can quickly switch apps on the right, while keeping the main one intact.

Multiple Spaces is another great multitasking feature that I am looking forward to using it. Think of Multiple Spaces as working with multiple windows of the same app or program on windows, or just like having multiple tabs on your browser. Instead however you can open and interact with multiple spaces within the same app. I can open two different notes from the Notes app and put them side to side. Or I can open two documents from Microsoft Office app and work on those two documents side by side. This new multitasking ability will surely make the iPad a powerhouse when it comes to multitasking.

New gestures are also introduced in the upcoming software update. My favourite is the new way you can copy and paste pieces of texts. With the new update you can simply highlight a piece of text by dragging your finger over the text, rather than tapping twice and highlighting them. Copying the text is now a simple three finger pinch rather than tapping the screen twice to bring up the copy button before tapping on the copy function. Paste is now simply dropping the text down with three fingers. It is that easy. The on-screen keyboard can now shrink and more to wherever you want on the screen for easy one-handed typing. This is a boon for bigger iPads, like the iPad Pro 12.9 inch models.

These are some of the many new features being introduced in the upcoming software update in iOS 13 coming this fall. I seriously cannot wait for the update to drop so that my iPad Pro can not be treated like a serious machine for heavy multitasking purposes.