iPad running iOS 9 Will Have Laptop-Like Battery Powers

Apple previewed the next version of its mobile operating system at its Worldwide Developers Conference on June 8, and the iPad-specific features Apple has planned for iOS 9, adding multitasking capabilities and new keyboard features to its tablet.

iOS 9 Gives Your iPad Laptop-Like Apple A1079  Battery Power

Easier App Switching

In addition to these multitasking features, Apple is also modifying the task switcher in iOS 9. The task switcher now offers a full screen preview of all the apps, fanned out in a carousel-like view that appeared vaguely reminiscent of OS X’s Cover Flow view.

Multitasking: Take That, Surface

Easily the biggest change in iOS 9 for iPad users will be enhanced multitasking support. Up until now, multitasking in the iPad meant jumping from one app to the next or, for the truly fancy, using a four-finger gesture to swipe between apps. Apple is enhancing your multitasking capabilities considerably in iOS 9, giving you the ability to run apps side by side.

Using iOS 9’s Slide Over feature, a leftward swipe on your iPad will bring a new app into a pane alongside the main window of the app you’re working in. You could be reading messages in Mail and decide you want to consult something you jotted down in Notes; a swipe would bring up Notes, right next to the Mail window. If you want to take a glance at a different app, just swipe down in the Slide Over pane to bring up a list of other apps.

QuickType Turns Keyboard into Touchpad

Changes to the QuickType keyboard in iOS 9 further emphasize how your iPad experience is going to be more laptop-like. Besides suggested words, the bar above the keyboard adds shortcuts for functions like cut and paste, formatting text, and adding attachments. There’s also a camera shortcut for easily adding images to whatever you’re typing.

Apple also added new multitouch functionality to the keyboard. Place two fingers on the iPad’s keyboard and you turn it into a virtual trackpad, letting you move around the cursor, select text and drag entire selections to new parts of a document.

Picture in Picture

The other big multitasking addition to iOS 9 involves a picture-in-picture feature that allows you to watch streaming video in one window while continuing to work in Apple  A1022 Battery. Demoing the feature, Apple senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi started off by watching streaming video from the WatchESPN app. Tapping the video shrunk it down to a smaller window and summoned up a different app.

iOS 9 will arrives this fall, though if you’d like to experience some of the changes first-hand on your iPad, a public beta will be available in July. It might take new hardware, like a bigger screen iPad Pro, to fully take advantage of all of these new features, existing iPad owners will also get a significant productivity boost.