iPadOS 16: Making Multitasking Useful at Last

There are also public beta bugs: Connecting to a monitor will turn off my iPad’s audio, unless I use headphones. Sometimes, I have experienced sudden restarts due to too many apps. Unplugging from my monitor causes some app groups to suddenly have empty black windows. Oh, and Catan started up upside down when I tried to launch it on my monitor. Beta explorers, good luck.

It feels weirder and more buggier the deeper I go. To watch Batman Returns on Apple TV while I write, I launch it on my iPad. It automatically plays on the screen instead of my iPad screen. The whole video can be moved up to the monitor, but it won’t go back to my iPad. The app then crashes when I try to move Pages from the iPad to the monitor (which I do via the tiny three-dot icon at each window’s top, which now has a menu that vaguely states “move to display”) and it goes completely blank.

Overall: This is a step forward, but it’s a strange one.
iPadOS 16 includes most of iOS 16’s best features, with the exception of the cool customizable Lock Screen feature. Apple has finally released a Weather App. It’s now possible to share documents and collaborate with others through FaceTime or Messages. This is an improvement on what was already available last year. The Freeform collaborative whiteboard app from Apple is not yet in public beta but will be available this fall.

It is still not recommended that you download a public OS beta version from Apple to your main device. Too many bad and strange things could happen. I have had to experience several crashes with the iPadOS 16 beta.

It can also make M1 iPads have an additional monitor to act as a second screen. I am already thrilled about this. It would be great if Stage Manager made it easier to place windows and screen-jump more easily. Right now, it feels very beta. Apple’s Control Center allows you to toggle the feature on and off, suggesting that it may not be considered an everyday feature, but rather a pro feature you will need to be aware of.