iPadOS 18 developer beta review a few days in

I downloaded the iPadOS 18 developer beta on Wednesday! At first that might seem hard to believe (I'm not a developer!), but since you don't need a $99/year Apple Developer account anymore (you just need to sign up with your Apple ID to the beta program), I could do it! First and foremost, Apple Intelligence.

Just kidding! Apple Intelligence is only compatible with M-series-powered iPads, and I have an A14 Bionic-powered iPad 10: not on the list. And even if I tried to download the beta on my mom's iPad (which is M-series-powered thanks to Mother's Day last year) despite her screaming, the Apple Intelligence betas only start in the fall when iPadOS 18 becomes available.

Anyway, onto the other stuff that I can try out. First, Home Screen customization. At first when I tried it, I tried to both make it Dark Mode and tint it green, but then I decided that it was better with no tint and just Dark Mode (third-party apps don't turn dark but do tint). I later decided to frame the beautiful Joshua Tree NP wallpaper (a photo taken during winter break last year and put as my wallpaper via Photos' new Wallpaper Suggestions feature), then decided to completely reorder the Home Screen so that the photo stands out in its entirety and only my most needed apps appeared (the others went on a less-beautiful second page). The result can be seen below.

Next, Messages. I was the only one in the family with the new OS, so the best I could do was text myself to try out the new Messages features (even when I texted my family tapbacks in the new, more colorful style, they appeared as regular iOS 17 tapbacks on the other end). First, I sent "Hello, iPadOS 17!" (a mistake: I meant to say 'iPadOS 18') to myself while using the new text effects feature to animate "iPadOS 17" to enlargen. The feature appears, BTW, in the top-right corner of the keyboard (you can tap the same button to style text). Then, I put a tapback phone emoji (there was no iPad emoji, neither Genmoji (that was an Apple Intelligence feature) to create one) on my message and the other automated message of the same form (in a conversation with yourself, when you hit send, both your blue-bubble message and an automated gray-bubble message of the same form appears). The emoji feature for tapbacks appeared under the tapbacks list in a gray circle with the signature emoji-designating design. Send Later? The buggy dev beta made it not appear as a feature (if you want to see if it appears yourself with the dev beta, just hit the plus button, hit More (or scroll down), then tap it (it's supposed to be right under Store), select your time, and done). A video of me using the new text effects and tapbacks can be viewed at the link below. https://video.wixstatic.com/video/26a6e3_b6953f620fc74788b720039614967f1c/480p/mp4/file.mp4

After that, Calculator. It works and looks just like an iPhone calculator, except that you hit a calculator icon in the app to switch to the scientific calculator (and Math Notes!) instead of flip your iPad to another orientation. It does overflow, of course, when I put in 1.048^10^7. Talking about Math Notes, it's nice for multiplication but breaks as soon as I enter x or y (it considers those variables as "unknown symbols": by now I know it's not just my handwriting). Also, it only gives me the option to insert a graph (when it works, you tap on the '=' sign and then press "Insert Graph") when I put in something like 'y=1', and that's a lame graph. Finally, although this is only a feature request, I can't enlarge my space like I can on Freeform: when I've written the equation too big to see the automatic answer good, too bad. A video of Math Notes at its best (actually, not really its best: a bit of the answer went off the screen) can be viewed at the link below.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/26a6e3_4e4d5176060740f496e4879a0a879f15/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

Then, Photos. It has a new layout which requires practice to navigate (some controls are now on the bottom of the screen instead of the top), along with a carousel and a neat-looking interface below the grid. The sidebar, when tapped, doesn't look all that different, except for the new Wallpaper Suggestions entry, the Handwriting and Illustrations categories, a new icon for Photos, and a new Pinned Collections dropdown menu as part of the Collections feature. Somehow the Hidden folder just disappeared (it was there at one time but not another), although this is probably a bug. A video of me using some new Photos features can be viewed at the link below. https://video.wixstatic.com/video/26a6e3_9e910c11bc564328a3e89e63ad0e363c/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

Now, we have all the other apps. Highlights and Reader, the two new features in Safari, never appear (once it worked, but I didn't think to look at it before going back). I don't use Pages, Swift Playgrounds, Numbers or Keynote, so I couldn't see the "updated document browser", but the new tab bar, I noticed once when looking at Apple News. In that case, it shows Today, News+, Sports, and Search in that order, along with a sidebar button to turn it into a sidebar (needed because of the lack of a Following tab on the tab bar). With the sidebar (where nothing has changed except the new white icon color for a selected tab), it also shows a button to switch back. I can't test out the new SharePlay features due to the fact that (again) I am the only one with iPadOS 18 installed. The feature that might have been the most useful in everyday life was the new ability to look at hikes (I've used it once to select a beautiful hike at San Bruno Mountain). I haven't used Passwords a lot (except to get rid of a few unneeded passwords once), and I can't show you a screenshot because even though the app hides the passwords, I don't want you to see my usernames. Locked by default under Face ID, it has several categories, including Codes, Passkeys and Wi-Fi. The Home app now can host robot vacuum cleaners (although we couldn't find the QR code for ours), and you can link the app to your energy account (which we did with my dad's account) to see energy info. Freeform is improved with new Scenes (the UI for creating them is pretty satisfying and reminiscent of making a screenshot) and a new layout and diagramming mode, plus the ability to send a copy board to someone that automaticallly opens the board (I only got a chance to try the first feature). Finally, unrelated, Game Mode is here for iPad, which is supposed to reduce background stuff and improve latency with AirPods and controllers, but even though I'm 10, I never play video games (not because I can't: I don't want to), so I didn't get a chance to try it out (and anyway, I wouldn't have iPadOS 17 reference if I tested it). Smart Script in Notes (just kidding about "finally") is pretty neat, even though I often end up handwriting a few more words until it has corrected a word. A video of me using Smart Script can be viewed via the link below.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/26a6e3_dea2f914c49448839008ad68106a7c2b/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

Privacy and security updates? Haven't tested them out, but there's improved Contacts and Bluetooth security when handing access over plus a new look for Privacy and Security settings (part of a general lesser redesign of the Settings app).

Finally. Now I can really say that. Phew. Anyway, my verdict is that, with Apple Intelligence yet to come in beta, iPadOS 18 is pretty boring and doesn't add much (the best feature and one of the best features of the whole WWDC, Math Notes, had to be ruined with bugs, making it even worse). Bye!

By Leo