See how Apple connects iPad and Mac in ways you never imagined!

"Work and study before buying, watch TV series online after buying" was once a golden phrase people used to make fun of the tablet product experience. For tablets, entertainment capabilities always prevail.

The current iteration direction of tablet products of major manufacturers has begun to focus on productivity scenarios that are strongly related to office and study, trying to make tablets as efficient as laptops and desktops under special interaction and visual design. On the other hand, computers have also begun to change, becoming more balanced in terms of lightness and performance. A laptop with exquisite industrial design can also be a powerful performance monster.

Against this backdrop, WWDC21 brought iPadOS 15, which focuses on efficiency improvement, macOS 12, which "connects" Apple's entire family of products, and Apple online services that support more platforms and richer capabilities.

iPadOS 15: Familiar but efficient multitasking evolution

In 2021, iPadOS is still an operating system that serves the iPad. It has not made the major leap to "desktop level" as we had envisioned, but it has gone a step further in optimizing the efficiency of large-screen operations.

First of all, iPadOS can now finally place the widgets introduced last year in different sizes in every corner of the desktop. The iPhone's application library is also brought over, and you can even edit the desktop in pages. The experience of various widgets in iPadOS looks like what was achieved when Android tablets were first born, of course it is better in both visuals and functionality.

Next, iPadOS has more powerful multitasking. It can open two applications in parallel like Windows 8 tablet mode. Data can be dragged and dropped between each other, and when applications such as mail open secondary windows, they will appear as floating windows that do not affect the current multitasking. In the multitasking management interface, two windows can be directly merged into one task, and after switching, they will be opened in parallel.

Regarding the multitasking experience within a single app, Apple has proposed a new concept of an app shelf on iPadOS, which is similar to multiple web page tabs in a browser, and can exist and switch between them at the same time. When you open an app, the app shelf appears on the new bottom bar, alternating with the familiar Dock bottom bar. If you can use it skillfully, the multitasking switching efficiency may be higher.

The sticky note app has many collaborative capabilities, including being able to @ other users directly and adding tags and annotations, etc., from iPadOS to all platforms. The tablet side will have a system-wide fast and convenient input function. You can start recording or writing by pulling up from the corner. You no longer need to go back to the desktop to start the sticky note separately. You can also directly insert shortcut links to applications and websites.

This is another capability expanded from iOS. iPadOS welcomes the translation app. The tablet can also quickly translate text or multi-task comparison translation. In communication mode, it can translate voice in real time. In addition to supporting quick translation of foreign languages ​​in text, it can also translate directly from pictures. What will be the next application from mobile phones to tablets? The built-in functions of iPad are becoming more and more abundant.

Does anyone still remember "productivity"? The Swift Playground app on iPadOS has made an epic progress: in addition to being able to write programs as usual, users can compile apps written in Swift UI directly on iPad, and all development resources such as documents and libraries can be called.

Projects can be synchronized with Xcode on macOS, and apps can even be published directly to the Apple Store, allowing the entire app development process to be completed using only an iPad.

macOS 12: From now on, your Mac will no longer be alone

The major versions of macOS have said goodbye to the version numbers and decimal points. Now we have macOS 12, codenamed Monterey (Monterey Bay), and the main colors of the wallpaper have also been changed to purple and blue to match the bay.

One of the biggest changes at WWDC this year is evident here: feature updates are not limited to a single device, but run across iPhone, iPad, and Mac, so multiple devices benefit from one upgrade. So the SharePlay feature that supports live video sharing windows, the Do Not Disturb mode that can be synchronized with other devices, and the new Sticky Notes feature that appeared on iOS 15 have all come to macOS 12.

Of course, Mac also has its own unique skills, which Apple collectively calls Continuity, and the main feature now is Universal Control: you can work together on Mac and iPad with just one set of keyboard and mouse, and the iPad will be automatically recognized when it is close to the MacBook. You can move the cursor from macOS to iPadOS and control the tablet with the keyboard and mouse of the notebook, and files on the tablet can be directly dragged to the notebook across devices. This is exactly the same between different Mac devices, such as iMac and MacBook.

Many domestic Android customized systems have already realized the ability to project images from mobile phones and tablets to PCs. Now there is also an Apple-style version: AirPlay has upgraded its screen projection function and started to support device projection to Mac. iPhone and iPad can project pictures, files, sounds and even the current screen to macOS, and Mac can also serve as the second screen for mobile phones and tablets.

In the past, macOS often relied on language scripts such as Terminal to use automation functions, but now it has begun to support Shortcuts, which have been integrated on iPhone and iPad for a long time. Compared with pure scripts that are obscure and have a high threshold, the graphical editing capabilities of shortcuts allow more users to set their own automation operations, so that a lot of repetitive work can be easily saved on the computer.

The Safari browser, which was refurbished and upgraded last year, has had another interface update. Apple has brought a new multi-tab management interface that combines the best of many other browsers. The browser's address bar and search box are directly integrated with the current page tab, and the sidebar provides grouping display based on the different attributes of the page, allowing users to edit or add pages to be viewed later.

The multi-tab management of browsers on iPhone and iPad has also been updated based on the same concept, and it also starts to support extensions, which means that users can customize browser functions more flexibly. The M1 chip has changed the Mac, but macOS 12 still supports Macs with Intel x86 processors, including the MacBook Pro in the second half of 2013.

Apple's "productivity" improvement across the board begins to focus on efficiency

Productivity has always been a rather confusing word in the Apple ecosystem.

On the one hand, Apple is actively introducing "big things" that allow users to unleash their creative abilities: the unrivaled stylus and keyboard in the tablet industry, the increasingly enhanced multi-window and multi-tasking capabilities of iPadOS, the Office suite from Microsoft, the best Apple ecosystem developer, and the complete Photoshop that has been said to be in the works.

At the same time, although macOS is relatively strong in applications related to audio and video editing, it has made limited progress in more mainstream consumer usage scenarios such as graphic editing, gaming and entertainment; the iPad has the same chip as a notebook and a larger screen, but it can never be compared with real computers such as Mac; the same is true for the iPhone, even if file management is open, it is quite limited.

Apple's ecosystem is still special, and it can't become another rival. At WWDC 2021, I saw Apple's pursuit of efficiency improvement in multi-device experience, and began to be itself in a relatively fresh way.

As long as it is a new function or involves changes to all platforms, it must be included in mobile phones, tablets, and Macs. Even FaceTime has begun to support Android, PC and other platforms to participate in video chats. Universal Control and AirPlay screen projection to Mac are even more eye-catching. The chemical reaction between the "Apple family bucket" is getting stronger and stronger, and each device is no longer an isolated island.

What is Apple going to do next? Starting from the "Big Three" of mobile phones, tablets, and Macs, and adding wearables and smart homes, it will create a truly multi-device experience that is efficient and easy to use. This may sound familiar, but it is obviously a consensus among major technology companies.