About 24 hours ago, at WWDC 2019, Apple announced a split within the iOS ecosystem. Starting with iOS 13, the iPhones would use regular iOS and the iPads will use iPadOS. This fork in the road would let iPads get more evolved features and progress towards being genuine laptop alternatives. Below we have a list of the iPads that will get the update, so here we go.
Now before we get started you should know that iPadOS brings a few extras compared to regular iOS 13. It has widgets on the homescreen, split screen inside apps and cloud support for Files, as well as hooking up USB drives and microSD cards, plus browsing in them. There’s Dark Mode, multiple apps in Slide Over view, new gestures, including ones for text editing and new keyboard features.
Custom fonts and Quick Path are also part of the package. As expected, all iPad Pro models will get the update, but here’s the full list of compatible iPads:
- iPad Air 2
- iPad Air 3rd gen
- iPad Mini 4
- iPad Mini 5
- iPad (5th gen)
- iPad (6th gen)
- 9.7 inch iPad Pro
- 10.5 inch iPad Pro
- 11 inch iPad Pro
- 12.9 inch iPad Pro
The developer beta for iPadOS is already available starting today and the public beta will come in July. The final version of iPadOS arrives in Fall 2019. I should also mention that Apple Pencil input gets a boost, as well as Safari, that has a download manager and loads desktop versions of sites. Also, I’d like to do a mea culpa and say that iPadOS does offer second screen support for Mac and mouse support too.
