Apple has addressed one of the biggest complaints iPad users have had about their tablets and, whisper it, made the iPad a little more like the Mac. At the firm’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), Apple unveiled new versions of all its products’ software, including a new version of iPadOS that has “an entirely new powerful and intuitive windowing system”, according to Apple.
This system gives iPad owners the ability to resize app windows a lot more flexibly than on iPadOS 18, the current version, and in a demo the windows were easily resized and kept their shape even when layering them on top of one another, a first for the iPad.
Until today, iPad windows have been fairly rigid, either taking up the whole screen or half of it in Apple’s split screen mode. With the new software, dubbed iPadOS 26 to correspond to 2026, Apple may be conceding that people just want their iPad to act more like a Mac – and it could be music to your ears.
“Familiar window controls allow users to seamlessly close, minimize, resize, or tile their windows. Window tiling is designed for the unique capabilities of iPad, and enables users to arrange their windows with a simple flick,” Apple said.
“If a user previously resized an app, it opens back in the exact same size and position when they open it again.”
Sound familiar?
This move is sure to make using a iPad more intuitive, particualry to those buyers who ar emor eused to the traditonal windowing of desktop computers such as Apple’s Mac and Microsoft’s Windows.
More to follow.