Back in May, I wrote about some iPadOS rumors and my hopes for the os update. Today, Apple unveiled a lot of good stuff across their OSes. My short list for ipadOS was:

• Rethought support for background processes
• ChatBot Siri
• A clipboard manager
• Launcher utilities

Background tasks can run now, and show as a Live Activity on screen. These get on my nerves sometimes, but I’m curious to see how it works for me.

That’s all I got from my list, but if the improved Spotlight makes it over to the iPad, it might not matter as much. I did not, sadly, get a clipboard manager, but maybe the updated background processes will enable a developer to make one. No Chatbot Siri, either. I’m gonna have to stick with copilot for now.

In addition to new features coming over from iPhone and the Mac, iPad gains:

• Files app improvements, like specifying default apps for opening file types
• more Mac-like window management, with red, yellow, and green widgets
• A menu bar and a true mouse pointer
• Preview: no more using Files to mark up PDFs

Other notable developments:
– Split View and Slide Over are gone. I will certainly issue the latter, especially using Notes with Safari
– The Phone app on the iPad: what could this mean for the iPad Mini with cellular?
– Audio input: I wonder if this will work cleanly with my Thunderbolt dock and Scarlet Solo?

I’m excited to see Liquid Glass running on everything. I think I’ll skip the monochromatic themes, but I look forward to seeing others’ screenshots. (Clear, maybe.) I do hope Apple stops referring to it as if it were a substance, though.

Tabs in photos look good; I take a lot of pictures with my iPhone, but I love to view and edit them on the iPad.