Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) started today. This annual event is one of the biggest for Apple of the entire year, giving us an early look at the company’s next software updates for its biggest products.
One of the many announcements at WWDC 2024 was iPadOS 18 — the next major software update for the iPad. iPadOS 18 has a lot in common with iOS 18, and when it arrives on your iPad later this year, it’ll be chock-full of new features for you to check out. Here’s what’s new.
iPadOS 18 is getting many of the same updates as iOS 18. That includes the new, more customizable Control Center, with shortcut buttons that can be rearranged on the Control Center view and placed across multiple pages. Also rolling out is a new tab bar in some apps for better app navigation. There’s a Tab bar API so developers can use this in their apps too. .
The Settings app is getting a welcome revamp for easier navigation, better organization and more reliable search. This is huge because the Settings app hasn’t been touched since the first generation of the iPhone and has steadily grown cluttered and unmanageable. Last but not least, there is going to be a new wallpaper pack.
The long-awaited calculator app is finally available on the iPad. And when we say long, we mean it’s taken 14 years for Apple to bring a calculator app to the iPad. It’ll show history and let you do unit conversion.
There are math notes in the calculator app. You can write out expressions, once you write an equal sign it’s solved immediately for you. You’ll also be able to save math notes and come back to them later. For example, if you write a bunch of numbers in a vertical row and draw a line below them, you’ll get their sum.
All of the math note features are supported in the Notes app too
This is just day one of WWDC 2024 and the announcements aren’t over yet, so stay tuned at Digital Trends as we keep the coverage rolling and dive into more iPadOS 18 features.
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