iPadOS: *maybe* “multitasking mode” with floating windows is coming?

I don't have a strong opinion about potential iPad multi-window use yet. I'd have to give it a try on my iPad Pro to see how it feels and if it makes sense for how I use my iPad.
 
I don't have a strong opinion about potential iPad multi-window use yet. I'd have to give it a try on my iPad Pro to see how it feels and if it makes sense for how I use my iPad.

It sounds like, if it happens, it would only happen when connected to a mouse and keyboard, so the experience should be similar to the mac.

That said, such a solution would be a very-un-Apple-like solution.
 
It sounds like, if it happens, it would only happen when connected to a mouse and keyboard, so the experience should be similar to the mac.

That said, such a solution would be a very-un-Apple-like solution.

Yeah, I think it would feel kind of weird. Speaking for myself, I already have a laptop for portable use - and even normal regular use at home, such as right now writing this response. I even use it for Lightroom, unless I'm going to be making prints.

Is there a compelling need for doing that on my tablet? Only if I didn't already have a laptop, I suppose.

I will say my iPad Pro has a better screen than my M1 MBA.
 
Yeah, I think it would feel kind of weird. Speaking for myself, I already have a laptop for portable use - and even normal regular use at home, such as right now writing this response. I even use it for Lightroom, unless I'm going to be making prints.

Is there a compelling need for doing that on my tablet? Only if I didn't already have a laptop, I suppose.

I will say my iPad Pro has a better screen than my M1 MBA.
For a lot of people, iPad is the perfect “computer.” And now some of them have CPUs equivalent to Macs. The existing multitasking is not good. It’s actually not very simple to arrange windows the way you want, and obviously it’s not very flexible. Non-overlapping windows was actually a thing in the early days of GUIs. In fact, the original version of Windows didn’t support overlapping windows. There’s a reason that that paradigm lost out - the gain in simplicity of tiled windows was not enough to overcome the gain in productivity from arbitrary-sized overlapping windows.



So if Apple can find a way to increase productivity of multitasking while not making things too complicated, they should do it.
 
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The timing of this looks really good for something WWDC related as well. It certainly has all the earmarks of something being shown off in just over a week. The OS notification name that is attached to some value that isn't a platform constant is a nice touch of obfuscation.
 
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Latest rumors are promising:

 
Seems like something that would go great with Extended Monitor support; meaning two discrete monitors (iPad & external), not a mirror of the iPad display...
 
Seems like something that would go great with Extended Monitor support; meaning two discrete monitors (iPad & external), not a mirror of the iPad display...

Yeah, I mean at this point that has to be on the drawing board, right?
 
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