Apple officially announced iPadOS 16

iPadOS 16 replaces iPadOS 15 and focuses mainly on the productive changes that should bring the iPad to a full-fledged computer. For example, Apple is finally making it possible to resize and overlap application windows.

iPadOS 16 also lets you change file extensions, view folder size, and sort lines. All of this can be done – only – in Apple’s Files app. It is worth knowing that some modifications are only available on iPads with the M1 processor. These include the modern iPad Air and iPad Pro models.

All iPads running iPadOS 16 will have access to Apple’s new Weather app.

One of the innovations is Free Form available for iPad, iPhone and Mac. Free Form is a new app that will be released later this year and aims to collaborate with colleagues or other students.

Freeform allows you to share and collaborate on documents. From file sharing and collaborative brainstorming in a whiteboard environment; many things are possible. If you want, you can see live edits from employees. It is possible to create projects in Free Form. For example for your work and part-time study. Free Form supports Apple Pencil, the iPad’s stylus. Good to know, Free Form appears to be geared towards Apple equipment only. For example, it is not clear what this means if one of the colleagues or students has a Windows laptop.

Only iPads with M1 processors will have the ability to scale the screen with iPadOS 16 so that more apps appear on the screen. Apple calls this innovation especially helpful for those using Split View.

Another innovation in iPadOS 16 is Virtual Memorey Swap. This allows you to use the iPad’s storage memory to increase memory for all apps. This should make multitasking even smoother. For ‘busiest apps’ the iPad can use up to 16GB of memory.

Also read: Apple presents iOS 16

iPadOS 16 also offers support for a computer monitor. At least on iPads with M1 processors. These are the modern iPad Air and modern iPad Pro models. They will soon be able to connect to a monitor with a convenient USB-C cable to show four apps on the iPad screen and four apps on the monitor. The feature built into Stage Manager works at resolutions up to 6K.

The free iPadOS 16 update will be released in the fall – Apple will announce exactly when until then. A public beta for developers will be released in July. Not all iPad models will receive the update. These models will receive the update; iPad (5th generation and later), iPad Mini (5th generation and later), iPad Air (third generation and later), and all iPad Pro models.