California: With a lot of new launches, soft wear and hardware announcements, Apple introduced its much-awaited iPadOS 17 new interactive widgets at its 2023 Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday.
According to The Verge, an American Technology website, the next tablet software update is expected to include many of the same features as iOS 17, such as new Messages features (such as automated voice note transcriptions), improved AirDrop capabilities, and better autocorrect for text input. With the option to personalise the lock screen, the iPad is catching up to iOS; this works similarly to how it does on the iPhone.
Apple's software VP Craig Federighi also demonstrated new interactive widgets that can be installed on the home screen. The Health app will also be included in iPadOS 17. Finally, the iPad will be able to display Live Activities, much like iOS.
The Notes app and PDF annotation will also be highlighted in the future version. "Thanks to new machine learning models, iPadOS can identify the fields in a PDF," Federighi explained. In the Notes app, iPadOS 17 will have new methods to organise, annotate, and collaborate in real time on PDFs, as per The Verge report.
Apple published Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro for iPad last month, finally responding to requests from power users for professional-grade software on the tablet. However, based on this early glimpse, iPadOS 17 may disappoint power users. Since its launch last year, Stage Manager, a tool meant to unleash greater multitasking freedom on the iPad, has been uninspiring and at times unstable. Federighi stated that with iPadOS 17, Stage Manager would provide additional freedom in window sizing and location.
Apple also said it is working to improve the stage manager, which keeps you focused during a video conference. Siri, similar to iOS 17, may now be activated by merely saying 'Siri'. Users can issue numerous commands back to back without having to restart them.