Ipados 26 in hand-on: restart for the iPad

The long-awaited multi-window world turned out to be a big and long-standing fight with many dead ends-for Apple and for iPad users. Confusing modes, hidden gestures and many restrictions caused all sorts of frustration. Beginners landed unintentionally in views from which they no longer simply found out. Even for professionals, the learning curve was steep and the window system was still far too limited. Instead of bringing the solution, the delivered Stage Manager underlined the problem: the window management was extremely complex at the same time, worked inconsistent and still remained restricted. With a maximum of four apps and windows per stage, it was over and even on the most expensive, expensive iPad-Pro-hardware.

Windows as far as the eye can see

With Ipados 26, Apple dares to exemption and undisingly MacOS as a model – the good is often so close. The result is not macOS on the iPad, but a newly developed iPad window system. It is designed for the operation by touch and inputs with an external keyboard, trackpad or mouse. If you connect the trackpad or mouse, Ipados 26 even get a classic mouse pointer. This makes small controls better than with the previous pointer in the form of a thick point.

That was the reading sample of our Heise Plus article “Ipados 26 in Hands-On: Restart for the iPad”. With a Heise Plus subscription you can read the whole article.