Weekender #19

• It was a short, hot and fairly uneventful week at the Pizza HQ. Not much to report on the myna bird side of things. Handsome continues to come by at the end of the day. Still no sign of a new mate.

• Audra and I ate at a restaurant this weekend. It’s the first time for both of us in a year and half. There wasn’t anything amazing that happened, but it was really nice to be able to sit and eat then go about the day.

• Time for WWDC talk…

It’s been a while since I’ve written about the iPad, and with WWDC happening tomorrow, I figure I should get some thoughts down on what I hope I’ll see from Apple tomorrow.

Apple has had a long time to get their act together with the iPad. Each year, WWDC comes and goes, and maybe iPadOS will get a few tweaks. Apple has never shown us a complete vision of what the iPad and iPadOS should be. Imagine if the Mac took this long to reveal to us the kind of computer platform Apple was envisioning, no one would be using it today.

The slow trickle of features that should have been released years ago can often feel like getting a drop of water in the middle of the desert. Two years ago, Apple finally allowed us to use a mouse or trackpad with the iPad. We didn’t get much in terms of new iPadOS features last year. My hope is that this year, they finally tackle the mess that is multitasking in iPadOS.

I’d love for Apple to somehow figure out a windowing system for iPadOS. I’m not sur how it would work, but it could potentially solve the multitasking mess. Currently, iOS use a single app to control the entire screen. Yes, there is split screen mode and slide over, but those two methods of multitasking have driven me nuts for years. I still can’t reliably get slide over to work 100% of the time. There’s still no way to tell which app is active in split view. Even though I’m doubtful, I’m hoping there is some attempt to bring some form windowing for iPadOS that would at least make it easier to place apps into split screen as well as choose any app to add to a split screen view.

I’m hoping that iPadOS branches off from iOS and allow the iPad to make full use of the hardware it has. Until Apple gets their act together and shows us their vision for the iPad, it will always feel like using a really nice screen with a half baked operating system.