Today was all about iOS 14 and WWDC 2020, but Apple also unveiled iPadOS 14. The platform actually mirrors some of the iOS 14 novelty, especially the new stuff related to widgets. The platform now supports Scribble, also expanded universal search and more. We have details below.
iPadOS had widgets on the homescreens ever since last year, but now they also reached iPhones via iOS 14. With iPadOS 14 we get new widget formats, form factors and also the ability to drag and drop them, plus place them between apps. In other news Apple is now keen on sidebars. The Photos and Apple Music apps get Sidebars, which are lateral bars with extra options related to categories and better organization of the app data. Photos are organized by days, weeks, months and other categories, while the Music is split in genres and more.
Siri is also split in two, with the cards that show the result of your query at the top and the animation at the bottom of the screen. Phone calls, Skype calls and more just take up a small portion of the screen, so phone calls aren’t full screen anymore, just like Siri.
The Universal Search draws some inspiration from the Spotlight Search from the Mac. There’s a floating search field in mid screen and the search now works in any UI portion (you can start searching no matter which app you have open). You can look up apps, content within apps, online info, perform Internet searches and more. There are now fewer steps and windows to go through in order to reach the result.
ARKit 4 offers a new Depth API used by developers to access more precise depth info captured by the LiDAR sensor.
The biggest novelty is probably Scribble. Your handwriting will be turned into typed content now in text fields. Scribble lets you start searches or take notes just by hand writing over any text field. iPadOS 14 is available from today for those who are part of the Apple Developer Program and a public beta will come next month. The final version comes this Fall. It runs on iPad Air 2 and newer models, plus any iPad Pro and iPad 5, as well as iPad Mini 4.
