Tricks With Ipad

Today we’re sharing not one, not 10, but 50 of our favorite best kept secrets that will have your iPad truly working for you and making your life a whole lot easier. While the best MacBooks and Macs can make your work life a breeze and the best iPhones are great for staying connected while you’re out and about, there’s something about an iPad that can’t be beat. It’s not as cumbersome or heavy as a laptop, which makes it great for taking on holiday and its screen is bigger than that of a smartphone, which means it’s easier to operate Excel or Word.

But not every user is familiar with the true breadth and depth of what this genius device can do. From organizing your apps to making Siri sing, here are 50 of our favorite iPad tips and tricks. One of our favorite iPad tips and tricks, swipe up from the Dock and you’ll see your recent apps with large thumbnails to make them easier to identify.

Swipe down from the top right of the Home Screen to show Control Center, which has shortcuts for everyday tasks such as adjusting the brightness and volume, turning Bluetooth on and off, locking the screen orientation and so on. Does your iPad store data you don’t want to fall into the wrong hands, such as your top secret plans for world domination?

Go into Settings > Touch ID & Passcode and scroll down to Erase Data.

This enables you to automatically erase your iPad if there are ten failed passcode attempts.

It seems like every app wants you to enable notifications, and some of them take advantage of your trust by blasting you with unwanted ads. This enables you to create shortcuts, so for example we’ve got a semicolon followed by “sorryno” to automate polite replies to product pitches.

The screenshot is automatically added to your Photos library but a thumbnail appears on screen for a moment: tap on that and you can edit it before saving or sharing it. Touch and hold the icon for the second app and drag it upwards; it’ll now appear in its own panel.

If you find you keep triggering these by mistake you can turn them off in Settings > General > Multitasking. When you’re watching a film or having a FaceTime video call in full screen mode you’ll see a little icon of a screen with an arrow in it, so for example if you’re watching a music video in Apple Music it’s up by the close icon at the top left of the window.

Printing wirelessly is easy if you’ve got an AirPrint printer: assuming your printer and iPad are both on the same Wi-Fi network it’s just a matter of tapping the Share menu in your app and choosing Print. Some apps like to do things in the background, which can be useful: for example it’s handy to have your newspaper ready to read when you turn on your iPad in the morning, or to have the current weather forecast in your widget.

But background refresh could also mean apps using bandwidth and battery for no good reason, which isn’t ideal if you’re on a cellular connection. And you can customize it: if you tap on it, scroll right and choose More, you’ll see which features can be turned on or off. Your iPad Home Screen can include widgets to show calendar items, weather forecasts, news headlines and anything else you fancy. Press and hold on a blank bit of your first Home Screen and you can add the widgets you’d like your iPad to display.

If you change your mind just press and hold again, and you’ll see little circles with minus signs in each widget. It doesn’t take long to fill up even the most enormous iPad with photos, apps and videos. Go into Settings > General > iPad Storage and you’ll see what’s taking up space.

You can now make a number of changes, including offloading unused apps. This removes the app from your iPad but keeps its icon and data; when you need it, just tap on it to pick up where you left off. When you’re typing you can add punctuation and symbols without switching from the ABC keyboard. Mail offers a useful feature to tame unnecessary notifications: you can ask it to notify you only when a message comes from a Very Important Person, and to have an inbox folder that only shows messages from those VIPs. In Safari on your Mac, iPhone or iPad you can share open tabs with your other devices. Maps offers real-time public transport information, and when you search for an address you can choose public transport options including underground railways, buses, trains and ferries. If you choose public transport in the Directions tab you’ll also see advisories of timetable changes and other issues that might affect your trip.

In the US, you can also get directions for cyclists that warn of steep hills, stairs and other issues. Apple has been beefing up Maps’ capabilities over the years, and it can offer a lot of useful information about places: photos, contact details and TripAdvisor reviews of hotels, whether retailers accept Apple Pay and whether dentists are sadists.

It’s handy for online articles that might not stay available, such as things you’re reading as part of a subscription. You can also take a screenshot of an entire webpage, not just the bit you’re currently viewing: to do that, take a screenshot as normal (the home and power buttons, or the sleep/wake and volume up buttons) and then tap on the thumbnail to open it in editing mode. At the top you’ll see an option to grab the entire page, which you can then save or share. No problem: just tap the correct object or area and the camera will refocus and re-meter.

You can also switch Smart HDR mode on or off in Settings > Camera for high dynamic range shots: they’re good for dramatic shots such as foul weather on bright days. You don’t have to leave FaceTime’s picture-in-picture window in its default location.

In the camera app tap on the Pano option and you can use your iPad to create a huge panoramic image. You can also get similar adapters that enable you to connect USB devices such as flash drives or musical instruments.

If you’re typing a web address in Safari, press and hold the full stop key to see a selection of domain options including .com, .co.uk and so on. If you’ve enabled iCloud for Safari this is synced between your devices, so you might save an article from your work Mac to read on your iPad when you get home.

Some sites do a great job of hiding useful content behind bad design or invasive ads. Tapping the AA icon in the Safari address bar switches in to reading mode, which strips out a lot of unnecessary clutter, and if you tap the icon again when you’re actually in reading mode you can adjust the font and color and size.

It’s important to stress that both of these things only affect what’s recorded on your iPad: the sites you visit and their advertising trackers will still know you were there and what you were looking at. The screen will now open the link in the right and retain the original page in the left.

On the Home Screen, slide down with two fingers to bring up the search box. This will include some Siri suggestions of commonly used options, such as “Send a message to Julie”.

Depending on where you live you can choose between multiple options, so for example in the UK we have a choice of male and female voices with US, Indian, Irish, South African, Australian or British accents. For example, animation can make some people feel ill, while other users may have motion difficulties or vision issues. There are lots of options in Settings > Accessibility to make the iPad more usable, including changes to the way it displays text and its support for assistive devices. Apple’s voice recognition can understand punctuation, which can make your dictated texts and emails much easier to read.

50 iPad tips and tricks: how to make the most of your Apple tablet

It’s not as cumbersome or heavy as a laptop, which makes it great for taking on holiday and its screen is bigger than that of a smartphone, which means it’s easier to operate Excel or Word.

But not every user is familiar with the true breadth and depth of what this genius device can do.

From organizing your apps to making Siri sing, here are 50 of our favorite iPad tips and tricks. One of our favorite iPad tips and tricks, swipe up from the Dock and you’ll see your recent apps with large thumbnails to make them easier to identify.

Go into Settings > Touch ID & Passcode and scroll down to Erase Data. This enables you to automatically erase your iPad if there are ten failed passcode attempts. It seems like every app wants you to enable notifications, and some of them take advantage of your trust by blasting you with unwanted ads. This enables you to create shortcuts, so for example we’ve got a semicolon followed by “sorryno” to automate polite replies to product pitches.

The default iPad keyboard takes up a lot of room, especially in landscape mode. If your device isn’t AirPlay-enabled but has a rival system such as ChromeCast, look for an app such as Tubio, which streams to all kinds of things in pristine HD. The screenshot is automatically added to your Photos library but a thumbnail appears on screen for a moment: tap on that and you can edit it before saving or sharing it. Touch and hold the icon for the second app and drag it upwards; it’ll now appear in its own panel. If you find you keep triggering these by mistake you can turn them off in Settings > General > Multitasking. When you’re watching a film or having a FaceTime video call in full screen mode you’ll see a little icon of a screen with an arrow in it, so for example if you’re watching a music video in Apple Music it’s up by the close icon at the top left of the window.

And you can customize it: if you tap on it, scroll right and choose More, you’ll see which features can be turned on or off. Your iPad Home Screen can include widgets to show calendar items, weather forecasts, news headlines and anything else you fancy. Press and hold on a blank bit of your first Home Screen and you can add the widgets you’d like your iPad to display.

Go into Settings > General > iPad Storage and you’ll see what’s taking up space. You can now make a number of changes, including offloading unused apps.

This removes the app from your iPad but keeps its icon and data; when you need it, just tap on it to pick up where you left off. When you’re typing you can add punctuation and symbols without switching from the ABC keyboard.

Mail offers a useful feature to tame unnecessary notifications: you can ask it to notify you only when a message comes from a Very Important Person, and to have an inbox folder that only shows messages from those VIPs. In Safari on your Mac, iPhone or iPad you can share open tabs with your other devices.

Maps offers real-time public transport information, and when you search for an address you can choose public transport options including underground railways, buses, trains and ferries. If you choose public transport in the Directions tab you’ll also see advisories of timetable changes and other issues that might affect your trip.

At the top you’ll see an option to grab the entire page, which you can then save or share.

No problem: just tap the correct object or area and the camera will refocus and re-meter.

If you’re typing a web address in Safari, press and hold the full stop key to see a selection of domain options including .com, .co.uk and so on.

If you’ve enabled iCloud for Safari this is synced between your devices, so you might save an article from your work Mac to read on your iPad when you get home.

This will include some Siri suggestions of commonly used options, such as “Send a message to Julie”.

There are lots of options in Settings > Accessibility to make the iPad more usable, including changes to the way it displays text and its support for assistive devices. Apple’s voice recognition can understand punctuation, which can make your dictated texts and emails much easier to read.

10 Fun Tricks You Never Knew Your iPad Could Perform

One of the biggest selling points of the iPad is the ecosystem of apps and accessories that make so many things possible. All the tips in this article are available in iPad OS 13 and iOS 12, but most have been available in one form or another for much longer.

However, when it comes to selecting text or placing the cursor, it’s hard not to miss having a mouse or a touchpad. You’ve probably stumbled across the Control Center by swiping down in the right corner of the screen (or up from the bottom on some models).

Select Screen Mirroring in the Control Center on the iPad and tap Apple TV. If you bought a new iPad (or iPhone) in the past few years, you have free access to iMovie, which is a full-featured video editor you can use to create your own movie trailer or edit videos on your iPad.

When you launch a new iMovie project, you choose between creating a Movie, in which you work without a template, or a Trailer that gives you fun themes such as Fairy Tale, Indie, and Romance, among others. There are a lot of great apps for viewing movies on your iPad, but what about watching cable television?

It operates by intercepting your current cable broadcast and “slinging” it to your iPad. The ability to have two monitors can do wonders for productivity, and if you already own an iPad, there’s no need to spend $200 or more on another display when cheaper alternatives are available.

You can also use Siri to play music (even a playlist), dial a phone number from your contacts, or read your text messages. You can select from American, Australian, British, Irish, and South African dialects in either male or female versions.

One of the coolest kid’s accessories is the Osmo system that uses a mirror and the iPad’s camera to recognize shapes and interact with your child to play games.

How to access hidden Settings navigation to move through sections faster on iPhone

The Settings app on your iPhone and iPod touch with iOS 14, as well as your iPad with iPadOS 14, lets you navigate sections more effortlessly via an enhanced Back button. Follow our quick tutorial to learn how to use the handy but hidden Settings navigation menu on an iPhone or iPad. This time-saving feature is supported on any iPhone or iPod touch model compatible with iOS 14, as well as on iPads with the iPadOS 14.0+ update. Follow these steps to access the hidden navigation menu in Settings for iOS and iPadOS 14:

What it does not do, however, is provide the full alphabetically sorted list of all the root-level sections such as General, Battery, Wallpaper, Accessibility, Privacy and so forth. For a quick overview of the 50 headline new iPhone and iPod touch features introduced with iOS 14, be sure to watch our hands-on video walkthrough embedded right ahead.

10 tips and tricks for your new iPad

The holiday season has passed, and it’s time to play with your new toys. Tech products are always a popular gift under the Christmas tree, and you’re spoiled for choice between phones, tablets, smart speakers, laptops and more obscure items like smart temperature-controlled coffee mugs. Most people buy extra cables and chargers, especially now that these accessories aren’t even included with pricey smartphones.

Tap or click here for tips on how to pick the correct chargers and cables for your devices. The company also released iPadOS 15, which shared many of the iPhone’s new features while adding some of its own. A second monitor can boost productivity and make multitasking less of a chore.

Here’s how to set it up for your Mac using Sidecar, which works wirelessly or while your iPad is charging: Duet Display works with macOS, Windows, iOS and Android.

For $19.99, you get wireless support, gesture controls, a remote desktop app and more. RELATED: Save space and boost productivity with this simple monitor trick Focus mode filters out the notifications and apps you don’t need to see at the moment. Swipe up from the bottom edge of your iPad screen and hold in the middle until the app switcher appears and then let go.

Widgets give you instant information right on your Home Screen: Touch and hold an empty area on your Home Screen , then tap the Add button. You can use an Apple Pencil to quickly write a note from anywhere on your iPad, even while it’s locked. You can swipe up from the bottom right of the screen with your Apple Pencil to write a Quick Note.

iCloud syncs the tabs you have open in Safari on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Mac. Go to Settings > Control Center and then tap the plus icon next to Screen Recording .

To stop recording, open Control Center, tap the screen record icon or the red status bar at the top of the screen, then tap Stop. Simply tap the search field and type in the name of an app.

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The Best iPad Tips and Tricks: How to Conquer iPadOS

But with Apple splitting the two devices’ operating systems into iOS and iPadOS, there are now some iPad-specific functions tablet owners should know. Read on to learn the secrets that will make Apple’s biggest touch screen even more worthwhile in your daily life. For more, dig into our iPhone tips story, as well as the fundamentals of how to navigate an iPad without a home button and how to change the look and feel of the icons and text. Another way of sharing access across devices is to see the tabs you have open in the Safari browser on, say, your iPhone, also appear on iPad or Mac.

On the iPad (or iPhone) go to Settings> [your name] > iCloud and ensure Safari is switched on. Menu options include Undock (so the keyboard “floats”), Floating (so you get a mini iPhone-sized keyboard you can put anywhere on the screen), and Split (pictured above).To undo, long-press again and select Merge or pinch outward with two fingers. Those are the symbols, punctuation, or numbers you get if you hit the shift key on either side of the space bar. For a side-by-side Split View, do the same thing as above, but then hold the top of the Slide Over window and drag it down slightly right (or left, depending on where you want it).

The glorious thing about the multitasking option is the ability to drag and drop text or other info between apps. For example, the Photos app next to Mail, Messages, or Notes lets you drag and drop your memorable digital imagery for sharing or saving in a whole new context.

Dragging a photo from a PCMag story to the Notes app in Split View. You’re not limited to drag and drop within a Split View or Slide Over app—but they make it easier.

But beyond the apps created by Apple, you’ll find support for it in Google Docs, Chrome, Annotable, Twitter, Evernote, AirMail, Bear, and more. If you don’t have a home button, press Power and Volume up simultaneously.

If you have an Apple Pencil(Opens in a new window) stylus, swipe up from the bottom corner.

You can annotate an image after you take it (which is a lot easier with the Apple Pencil, of course). iOS and iPadOS also allow full-screen recording now, for videos of what’s happening on screen. Got a kid who wants to play with a single app on your phone, but always ends up somehow sending your boss an email?

Take an unpaired Bluetooth-capable pointing device, pair it to the iPad via Settings > Bluetooth, and begin moving the cursor. On the Mac (with macOS Catalina or higher), this feature is known as SideCar, and you can do it over USB or even wirelessly, as long as both devices are logged into the same Apple ID. Coming to iPadOS 15 will be the ability to place widgets on any page you want in any spot, just like with iPhone. You’ll see it trying to find friends first, but click the Devices icon at the bottom to locate your Apple equipment. Options like playing a sound on the iPad may help you track it if it’s nearby. The nuclear option is to hit Erase This Device so nothing on it falls into the wrong hands, even if the iPad itself won’t be coming back to you.

A feature unique to the iPad Pro 12.9-inch (5th generation) or iPad Pro 11-inch (3rd generation) is the ability of the front-facing 12-megapixel Ultra Wide camera with 122-degree field of view to keep you centered in the frame during FaceTime video calls. The 2nd generation Apple Pencil(Opens in a new window) is one of those rare products to earn five out of five stars from PCMag.

Double tapping the 2nd gen Apple Pencil on an iPad will switch you back to the last tool you used. This also sets what you get when you click the Notes icon in the Control Center without unlocking first, so it also works on iPhone. Your sketchy, stretchy imperfect shape will quickly be replaced by a perfect rendition. Shape recognition supports the following shapes: line, curve, square, rectangle, circle, oval, heart, triangle, star, cloud, pentagon, thought bubble, outlined arrow, continuous line with 90-degree turns, line with an arrow at end, and a curve with an arrow at the end.

Layer them or angle them so a square looks like a diamond, and write words inside them as you see fit. Need a quick way to create a PDF, or just want to save some items for reading later on any device? You’ll now get a new Share icon at the top that allows you to save the PDF to a place like Files, Dropbox; or the Notes app; or email it, AirDrop it, or send it via Messages, Slack, Signal, etc.

Best Apple iPad tips and tricks

These are the best iPad tips and tricks to help you master your Apple tablet and the iPadOS software. Swipe down from the battery icon at the top right of your iPad screen to access Control Centre. Pressing and holding icons within the Control Centre will also offer more options and settings. Swipe down from the Home page on your iPad to access the search bar.

For other iPad models, double tap the Touch ID home button. If you’re reading a document in iBooks, tapping on the left side of your iPad’s screen will take you back to the previous page. If you want to stop your iPad’s display from rotating when you turn it, swipe down from the top right corner of the Home screen to pull up the Control Centre and then tap the icon with the circle and arrow around the lock. You can also open an app and tap on the three dots at the top of your display to enter Slide Over or Split View.

To move the secondary Slide Over app to the other side of the screen: Drag from the top of the window (you’ll see a grey long line there). Have Safari running alongside Notes in the Split Screen view. There’s a feature called Focus within iPadOS 15 that allows you to automatically filter notifications based on what you are doing. Smart Stack shows you relevant information throughout the day, such as weather, your next calendar event or photos from your library.

To add a Smart Stack to your Home screen: Touch and hold the Home Screen > Tap on “+” > Tap on Smart Stack > Add Widget > Done. If you want to know what kind of iPad you have or find out the generation: Open Settings > General > About. Today View will give you timely information from your favourite apps, at a glance. If you have lost your iPad and you have another Apple device: Open the Find My app (green circle with a blue dot on a white background) > Tap on Devices at the bottom > Tap on your iPad from the list > You can then choose a number of options, including playing a sound if you think you have lost your iPad nearby, or getting directions to its last known location.

With iPadOS and macOS Catalina or later, it’s possible to use an iPad as a secondary display to your Mac. By default, there’s a small section of the iPad’s Dock reserved for recently used apps.

The iPad keyboard makes it easy to get to the symbols and numbers you use frequently. Swipe down quickly on the corresponding key to get to your primary punctuation symbols and numbers. In iPadOS, you can pinch to shrink the keyboard and move it wherever you like on your iPad’s display.

Once the picture is taken, the iPad can then automatically realign it to make it a flat, editable document.

For iPad Pro (2018) models and newer, you can use Memoji and Animoji in a FaceTime call. If you want to change the homepage on Safari – set it to Google for example – then you’ll need to open Safari on your iPad > Go to the page you want to set as your homepage > Tap the rectangle with the arrow in the top right of your screen > Add to Homescreen > Rename the page if you want to > Tap Add in the top right.

To do this, swipe down from the top right corner of the iPad’s Home screen and tap the Airplane. You’ll then need to confirm pairing and your iPad and the App Pencil will be connected and ready to use. If you have the second generation model, simply attach it to your iPad via the magnetic strip.

If you have an Apple Pencil and an iPad that supports it: Wake the screen > double tap on the Lock Screen with the tip of the Apple Pencil and you’ll be able to open Notes and start creating a new note.

If your iPad is running iPadOS 15 or later, then you can swipe from the bottom corner with your finger or the Apple Pencil to take a Quick Note. If you’ve handwritten a note and you want to copy the text into another app, like Mail or Safari, it’s easy.

Simply double tap on a handwritten word and drag the points to cover everthing you want to copy. Once everything is selected, tap once to get the option bar and press “Copy as text”. If you are using the Apple Pencil (2nd gen) with the iPad Pro (2018) models or newer, you can change what the double tap feature does. Cmd + Shift + 4: Takes a screenshot and then automatically opens it in mark up mode.

Become an iPad pro: Must-know iPad tips and tricks

You can move the popup around, hide it in the left or right corners of the screen for when you need it, or expand the app by pressing the three dots on top of it. You can move the popup around, hide it in the left or right corners of the screen for when you need it, or expand the app by pressing the three dots on top of it. Now with your other hand you can swipe up from the bottom and open another app, while still holding that photo or file. Now with your other hand you can swipe up from the bottom and open another app, while still holding that photo or file. To personalize your iPad home screen with some widgets, press and hold it until the apps start jiggling. Granted, not every app supports the drag and drop feature, but most do.If you’re watching a Netflix video but want to do something else at the same time, don’t pause the video – just go ahead and jump to the home screen or move to another app, and your video will run in a popup window.So this way you can continue watching your show while doing other things – browsing the web, maybe even opening Quick Note and jotting down notes, the sky’s the limit!Well, actually the limit is which apps support Picture in Picture. So you can freely play a video in those, then jump out of them and do something else on your iPad, while the video continues playing in a popup.Supposedly YouTube is also finally going to let both paid and free users play videos in Picture in Picture at some point, but we don’t have concrete dates on when, and in which regions, yet.While once your iPad home screen was just app icons, nowadays you can add widgets among those app icons to make things more interesting. And, of course – to get more information at a glance.To personalize your iPad home screen with some widgets, press and hold it until the apps start jiggling. By adding those to your home screen, you’ll be able to see at a glance your latest incoming emails, your upcoming reminders for today, a large clock, and this week’s weather respectively. Safari tips and tricks: make the most of your iPad web browsing experience All open tabs, along with the search bar are now in the same single row, which saves a bit of vertical space for the actual websites that you visit. However, you can revert back to the old Safari look, where the search bar is separated from the tabs, if that one is easier for you to use.

By adding those to your home screen, you’ll be able to see at a glance your latest incoming emails, your upcoming reminders for today, a large clock, and this week’s weather respectively. Of course, you can add any other widgets that you want, and as you can see, they really spruce up the home screen.As of recently, the Safari web browser has a new, compact look. All open tabs, along with the search bar are now in the same single row, which saves a bit of vertical space for the actual websites that you visit.However, you can revert back to the old Safari look, where the search bar is separated from the tabs, if that one is easier for you to use. Popular iPad Safari extensions include 1Password, which, as the name suggests, is a password manager.

Achoo HTML Viewer & Inspector is a good one for some users, adding the “Inspect” option many desktop browsers have. Noir is another iPad Safari extension that attempts to give you a “dark mode” for every single website that you open, which can be much easier on the eyes.

So yeah, dive into those paid and free iPad Safari extensions, see if you find something that will make your web browsing experience even better! Noir is another iPad Safari extension that attempts to give you a “dark mode” for every single website that you open, which can be much easier on the eyes.So yeah, dive into those paid and free iPad Safari extensions, see if you find something that will make your web browsing experience even better!

Since its humble beginnings as a portable entertainment and web browsing device, the iPad has evolved to become a viable computer replacement for many users.Back in 2019 it received its own operating system – iPadOS – which itself is a fork of iOS.

This feature was introduced with iPadOS 15, so first and foremost, make sure your iPad has been updated to the latest iPadOS version.Whether you’re doing research, or you suddenly get an urge to jot down whatever’s on your mind, just swipe from the lower right corner of the screen towards the center. You would click on a text field, a virtual keyboard would appear, and that was your main way of input.But now the iPad has Scribble! This feature basically lets you handwrite anything, into any text field, with your Apple Pencil.For example, you can open the Safari web browser and write down “pancakes” in the search bar, with your Apple Pencil, instead of by pressing virtual keys on a virtual keyboard like a caveman!

And web search results for “pancakes” you shall get!Just start handwriting into any text field with your Apple Pencil, because, again – you don’t need to deal with an on-screen keyboard when you have a handy stylus… at hand.This is just good to know if you’re a student who relies on the Notes app, for example. Or heart, or arrow… Handy, right?If you own a physical iPad keyboard that you use with your tablet (like it’s a laptop), you’ll be happy to know there are a number of handy keyboard shortcuts for doing things quickly.Shortcuts, of course, are keys you can press to perform quick actions.

The command key is marked “cmd” on your iPad keyboard, and it’s right next to the space bar.

Those two shortcuts work for copying and pasting files too, by the way.You can also undo an action by pressing Cmd+Z on your iPad keyboard.

At any time, in most apps you can just press and hold the Cmd key for about two seconds to reveal all of the available keyboard shortcuts.If you press and hold the Cmd key on the home screen, you’ll see system-wide shortcuts you can use anywhere.And again, press and hold Cmd in, say, a video editing iPad app, and you’ll see its unique keyboard shortcuts.

Tips and tricks iPad users should know about

These versatile Apple tablets are capable of doing a lot — including building and publishing apps. And even if you’re on a limited budget, there’s an iPad for you — for the company manufactures various models with different specifications and price tags.

You still can’t compare it to a desktop operating system, but it has become decent when integrating certain features and shortcuts into your workflow. By clicking it, you will get a floating menu to choose between Fullscreen, Split View, and Slide Over modes. This mechanism is inspired by the green dot button in the top left corner of macOS apps. By having that button there, users can instantly enter and leave Fullscreen mode without needing to drag apps around — as it was on earlier iPadOS versions.

This feature allows you to have more apps floating over the main background window — which you can swipe to the edge of the screen to hide. In this mode, you can have multiple (supported) apps open and switch between them without impacting the main window in the background. By holding on an email, message, or note, you get this view with a dedicated 3-dot multitasking button as well. By swiping up from the corner of your iPad screen, you can open a small floating note window. So you can connect a mouse to drag a cursor around and a keyboard to type through physical buttons. It’s somewhat known that macOS has keyboard shortcuts that make life significantly easier (they don’t pay your bills, though).

The virtual iPad keyboard can occupy a big chunk of your screen real estate. It also supports QuickType (swipe to type) — which isn’t present on the iPad keyboard in its full form. To restore the keyboard to its original state, place two fingers on the floating one and spread them apart.

This feature isn’t a Family Sharing equivalent for free group access. To live an organized life, one has to set boundaries to accommodate the different routines we go through every day. As our detailed guide on Focus mentions, this feature allows you to create custom Home Screen pages.

So you can create a layout with the education apps you have installed and an agenda widget for when you’re using the study Focus mode. As long as you’re running the latest iPadOS version, you’ll be able to do that without a Mac — for the very first time.

Swift Playgrounds is free to download, so you can actually build functional apps on an iPad independently without spending a cent.

Apple is famous for its tightly-integrated ecosystem that allows users to make the most of their devices. First off, both of your devices should have WiFi (connection to a network isn’t required) and Bluetooth enabled. Some companies offer third-party services to enable a similar feature on outdated iPads/Macs.

Universal Control almost breaks the space-time continuum by allowing you to drag-and-drop items from one device to another. This is perfect for artists and designers who use their iPads to illustrate but resume their work on macOS.

What once used to be a large, stretched-out iPhone is slowly turning into an ultra-mobile laptop of sorts.