iPads are becoming more like PC’s

🚀 iPadOS 26: The Biggest iPad Update Ever

At WWDC on June 9, 2025, Apple unveiled iPadOS 26—its most transformative update yet. Here’s what your blog audience needs to know:

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✨ Liquid Glass: A New Unified Look

• A sleek “Liquid Glass” design brings translucent, refraction-based UI elements to the iPad—echoing the aesthetics seen in iOS, macOS Tahoe, watchOS 26, and visionOS 26  .
• Translucent icons, menus, and vibrant layering refresh the overall feel of the interface.

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🪟 Windowed Multitasking: True Desktop Power

• iPads now support free-form, resizable windows complete with familiar “traffic light” controls to close, minimize, or full‑screen  .
• A Mac‑style menu bar appears when swiping from the top.
• Exposé-style tile views and window tiling help manage multiple apps at once.
• Legacy multitasking modes—Stage Manager, Split View, Slide Over—are deprecated or removed in favor of this unified system  .

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📁 Files & Dock Upgrades

• Folders in the Dock allow quick access to often-used file sets  .
• The Files app now features a customizable list view, richer sorting, and organization tools  .

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📝 Preview App & PDF Markup

• Introducing a Preview app on iPad, matching its macOS counterpart, with PDF annotation using Apple Pencil and AutoFill support for forms  .

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📔 Four New Mac‑Grade Apps

iPadOS 26 brings four apps previously exclusive to Mac or iPhone: Journal, Games, Preview, and Phone.

• Journal supports handwriting, sketches, inline media, and geo‑tagging  .
• Games features a central hub for browsing, challenges, and in‑game overlay chats .
• Phone adds Call Screening, Hold Assist, and on-device call translation for one-on-one calls  .

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🤖 Apple Intelligence: Smarter iPad

• Live Translation now works across FaceTime and Messages  .
• Genmoji and Image Playground, part of Apple Intelligence, offer creative visual expression in-app  .
• Shortcuts get smarter with deeper integration and suggestion capabilities  .

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🎨 Pro‑Level Creative Tools

• Background Tasks, audio input selection, and local capture enhance workflows for video/audio creators  .
• Preview and Files are now tuned for creative and professional use.

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🎓 Compatibility & Release Timeline

• This update drops support for the 7th‑gen iPad (2019)  .
• Apple Intelligence features require M1/A17 Pro and newer.
• Full release is expected this fall (around September/October) .

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🗣️ What Critics Are Saying

• Tom’s Guide hails the windowing system as “a productivity game changer”  .
• TechRadar affirms this as “the upgrade iPad users have been waiting for,” praising the menu bar, Dock folders, and background tasking  .
• Meanwhile, Wired highlights Liquid Glass and the new multitasking model as top-tier additions  .

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