Apple finally brings Mac-like multitasking with a distinctly Mac-like interface to iPad

iPadOS 26 takes a huge leap forward and pushes the unique capabilities and versatility of iPad even further.
Apple on Monday previewed iPadOS 26, the biggest iPadOS release ever, taking a huge leap forward and pushing the unique capabilities and versatility of iPad even further. iPadOS 26 introduces an entirely new powerful and intuitive windowing system with new features that help users control, organize, and switch between apps, including a Mac-like menu bar. The supercharged Files app (think Finder) offers new ways to organize files and customize folders. And with Folders in the dock, users can conveniently access downloads, documents, and more from anywhere.
Andrew Cunningham for Ars Technica:
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And after many incremental steps, including a big swing and partial miss with the buggy, limited Stage Manager interface a couple of years ago, Apple has finally responded to requests for Mac-like multitasking with a distinctly Mac-like interface, an improved file manager, and better support for running tasks in the background.
But if this move was so forehead-slappingly obvious, why did it take so long to get here? This is one of the questions we dug into when we sat down with Federighi and Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Greg Joswiak for a post-keynote chat earlier this week.
“If you want to rewind all the way to the time we introduced Split View and Slide Over [in iOS 9], you have to start with the grounding that the iPad is a direct manipulation touch-first device,” Federighi told Ars. “It is a foundational requirement that if you touch the screen and start to move something, that it responds. Otherwise, the entire interaction model is broken—it’s a psychic break with your contract with the device.”
Of course, those hardware limitations no longer exist. Apple’s iPad Pros started boosting the tablets’ processing power, RAM, and storage in earnest in the late 2010s, and Apple introduced a Microsoft Surface-like keyboard and stylus accessories that moved the iPad away from its role as a content consumption device. For years now, Apple’s faster tablets have been based on the same hardware as its slower Macs—we know the hardware can do more because Apple is already doing more with it elsewhere.

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MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote on Monday, “We really wonder if Apple held windowing and a menu bar from iPad for a year like this when they’re light on new stuff at a WWDC. This could have been done years ago. Regardless, it’s finally here and it makes us want to use our iPads much more!”

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