I have been writing about iPads here in Tom’s guide for years, and I think I am more excited for iPados 26 than any iPad update in recent memory.
This is partially because I have found some of the last few repetitions of iPados very indifferent. But even if Apple’s slate was on a warm line, I think iPados 26 will still be important as it is likely to make iPad very useful as productivity device.
When iPados 26 reaches this decline, it will bring a host of changes in your tablet, but is the most exciting for my money.
New winding features may not look exciting as AI improvement or screen upgrade, but those of us who work on the tablet regularly, it can be a game-changer that allows iPad to change the best Macbook on your next work trip.
Opening a window for a better ipad experience
It is not very flexible or comfortable when you can do well on iPads using a stage manager, split view and the slide over feature right now.
Many people do not even know how to use split screen features on iPad, and even when you master them, iPados is quite harsh about how many apps you can open and what size they are.
But with iPados 26, we find a new way to interface with iPad that allows you to tap and draw a new arrow on the lower-right corner of an app to re-shape it. Flick an app on the edge of your screen and it will fly and stick there, allowing you to have two, three or four apps simultaneously.
In addition, apps are receiving a new menu bar that you can summon by pulling down the top of the screen. These menu will look a terrible look like the menu bar on your Mac, so expect to look at submens like file, edit, image and more.
Apps will also get traditional red, yellow and green buttons in the top corner, like a Mac. When you minimize an app and then open it again, it will pop up back in the same shape and leave it, too, will make the iPads a little more Mac-like.
This is the ability to personally be a huge game-shineer because I have been robbing laptops to suppress events around the world for almost two decades, and I am ill with it.
On more than one occasions I have tried to dig my laptop and get it with just one iPad, but I am disappointed with the harsh boundaries of iPados every time. Apple’s tablets are now able to ship with a ship with Apple silicon, yet for some reason the company has unnecessarily handcuffs iPads with more simplified app stores and interfaces. And even when you find iPad apps, let you go to do your work, you can use only one or two at a time.
This is better than nothing, but it is not enough for me to dig my laptop and work with an iPad. Sometimes I need to refer to the files of many sources or types while writing an article, then compose and edit images to go to the said article, and I think there is a bad dream on such a multi-tasking iPad.
It seemed back in 2022 that when Apple introduced the stage manager in iPados 16, things were getting easier, so that you could quickly flip between four apps at a time. But after using it for a month or two, I closed the stage manager and never thought about it again, because it was very cumbersome and was really unfit to help me do anything.
Apple is not getting rid of the stage manager, but I suspect that I will use iPados 26 ships once in September. I am already trying early versions of winding features in iPados 26 Developer Beta, and while it is not complete yet I already like to use it.
Of course, you can disable it if you hate new window control in iPados 26. The Apple iPad is re -creating the control center and adding a new button that you can hit to enable or disable winding control, so the old way to use your iPad is just a tap.
But personally, now that I have tasted the windows on the iPad, I can never imagine going back in old ways.
