Apple is calling iOS 11 its biggest software release ever for the iPad, thanks to the myriad iPad features it includes, like a new dock that supports improved multitasking, a Files app for better managing files, improved Apple Pencil support, a new App Switcher, and system-wide drag and drop.
iOS 11 also includes many features for both the iPhone and the iPad. There’s an incredible ARKit API that’s going to let developers build all kinds of new augmented reality apps, and there’s also a CoreML machine learning API that’s going to allow apps to become a whole lot smarter.
Peer-to-peer Apple Pay payments are being introduced, Messages is gaining a new App Drawer that makes it easier to access apps and stickers, a Do Not Disturb feature that mutes notifications will make it easier for drivers to stay focused on the road, and Siri, Photos, and the Camera app are gaining huge improvements.
There’s a ton of great stuff coming once iOS 11 is released, and it truly looks like the iPad-focused release people have been asking for. Be sure to take a peek at Apple’s official iOS 11 page, as it details some of the prime new features.
Curious to see how many “old” iPads it relegates to EOL with this iOS upgrade.
I guess less than the Android tablets running Android 7 updates or planned updates to Android 8.
Edited 2017-06-06 06:25 UTC
Thank you for bringing this up. Apple gets a lot of credit for their updates, but in reality my iPad 2 only received 2 good updates (4 -> 5 and 5 -> 6). From 7 to 9 the updates are something that I deeply regret doing as they made the device unbearably slow and less reliable. Every release there kept being promises like “much faster, also on older devices” and that was always a lie.
A computer that I bought with Windows 8 just shortly after actually received 2 free upgrades and now works faster, just as reliable and has many nicer features and will be supported for many more years.
The iPad is now only used for Skyping and single tab browsing for quick lookups. It was a great Christmas present when I received it from work, with a much shorter enjoyment cycle than I expected.
All of that said, all of the announcements at WWDC seemed really good. Now lets see if they actually turn into good products as well. I will personnaly not get a new iPad though
the update is for iPad Air 1 and above, so iPad 4 and below is not supported which is more to do with the ipads having 32bit processors.
The iPad Mini 2 and above is supported as is the iPhone 5S and above.
All of the 32-bit iPads, though that sort of makes sense. What you need to wonder about more, in Apple’s case, is how many of the new features won’t be available on the older iPads which are technically supported. It is better than the Android situation–at least the iPad security updates always make it–but sometimes you might be left disappointed when a feature you really wanted doesn’t make it to your model of iPad, regardless of the reason.
I’m hoping they have a public beta program for this one (their web page indicates that they will). I particularly want to have a file manager, though I do hope it supports more than local and cloud (SMB/AFP shares would be awesome). They have a chance to rethink the basic file management concept here, and I’m looking forward to seeing just where they take it.
via the previous methods in ios10 and before you can, the extension api has changed so none if the existing apps for it work (i.e Transmit)
As such I would expect it will be possible to with the new api, but not looked at it yet
Lovely to get some improvements on the iPad task switch interface — I’m already missing it when I go back to my iOS 10 device from my beta one.