I don’t know if you know, but this week, iPadOS 16 finally came out! I’ve been waiting for this update for months after watching the event back in the spring. To make matters worse, Apple delayed the update one month after it is normally released. To make matters even worse, I had trouble installing it. You would think with how much I like technology, I would be able to figure it out, but nope. I went to install the update the night it came out, and it would not download for the life of me. It would finally download, but then not install! The problem was probably my patience because if it took longer than 10 min, I would restart it. I know this because I finally left it alone to play a game and it worked. So, all that to say, I was excited! Let’s get into my pros and cons with this new update.
First, let's change things up and start with the cons. Even though I was really excited about this update, I actually came into it with low expectations. This update was not iPadOS 15 which brought plenty of big things to the iPad. The biggest thing for this update is Stage Manager. If you keep up to date on tech news, you know that the 9th Generation iPad doesn’t even get this. My iPad is less than a year old, and it doesn’t even get the biggest thing. I don’t even know whether I would like Stage Manager or use it, but it would be cool to test out. I think that is the biggest con with this update. Going off this, since this was the “big thing,” we are only left with little things. A lot of these little things I don’t even use. Apple also advertised with this update that collaboration was getting a big update. While it is better, it isn’t that much better! One final thing that is sad is the fact that this update didn’t include Lock Screen widgets, like the iPhone update did! This is not the first time Apple has done something like this (Widgets on Home Screen and App Library are two prime examples). I’m hoping that we might see this in iPadOS 17! Those are my critiques of this update. There isn’t anything enormous, and the biggest thing, Stage Manager, doesn’t even work with most iPads.
Now, let’s get to the pros of this update. Since there were many little things in this update, a lot of these little things were good things. They added something I have been wanting for years on the iPad, but has just finally come in this update! It is the Weather app! This may not seem like a big deal, but Apple achieved impressive results with the Weather app. It is beyond functional and beyond beautiful! Since we are talking about something I’ve been wanting for years, let’s talk about iCloud Shared Photo Library! This allows you to have a shared photo library with your family members, so photos can be shared in one photo library! This is great for sharing photos from trips or family pictures from throughout daily life! One last thing that I’ve been wanting for a while is the ability to edit a message, unsend a message, and mark a message as unread. You can now do all of these with the Messages app on iPadOS 16! Speaking of communication, the mail app got a pretty good update (unsend messages, scheduled send, follow up, rich links, and improved search). Now, to share something that I was unsure about and still am. Desktop-Class Apps was announced back in the Spring, bringing “Countless app enhancement. Even more productivity.” I didn’t totally know what this would entail, but I was still excited for this. Now having the update, I really like this, especially in Keynote, which I’ve been using a lot this week! I really like being able to customize my toolbar, although it is hard to decide what to put there! A few more great things from this update: My Sports in the News app, templates in the Reminders app, and updates to focus modes!
In conclusion, iPadOS 16 is a great update, even though there isn’t anything massive that came with it (unless your iPad gets Stage Manager). If you haven’t already, you should definitely download it!