As someone who uses their iPad for a lot of things – including typing this article – I am always looking forward to the next software update from Apple. Always hoping they do more to make the user interface better, to make it a better productivity tool.
I have the complete setup from the Pencil to the Magic keyboard, and I love it. But like many other iPad users, I still feel the operating system, more so the user interface hold it back from being the ultimate portable machine.
With iPadOS 15, I expected much more from Apple honestly. And I was pretty annoyed when no huge changes were announced. All we got are widgets being placed anywhere, and a pretty okay App Drawer. There’s still no serious separation between iPadOS and iOS.
Anyways, with the coming of the App Drawer, and the fact that you can place widgets anywhere, I decided there’s no need to have apps on the Home Screen anymore.
So I now have one Home Screen with a couple of widgets placed to show me important information.
These are the widgets on my iPad Homescreen:
- Music Player – Important since I listen to lots of music throughout the day. I would have placed the Spotify Widget but Apple Music sounds better with the latest lossless rollout.
- Google News – I wish Apple News was available in Kenya though. Google News still doesn’t know what content I like. I just have it there if there could be anything worthy maybe.
- World Clock – Important to help me know different time zones. Helps me to know the time when communicating with people who’re there.
- Siri App Suggestions – this is actually really good and accurate as it learns my usage and suggests Apps based on how I’ve used apps in the past.
- Battery Meter – Works well with headphones and other external accessories. So you connect Headphones and you see battery life.
- Weather – Very important!
- Recent Files – Quick access to my recent things. Especially important for long articles, image files, that will need to be used in other places.
If I need an app, I swipe down and use Spotlight Search. If I cannot remember the name of the App, I go to the App Drawer and find it there by either looking in the different folders (tedious) or just swiping to have the full list of apps (easier).
Since the launch of the M1 iPad Pro, I am hoping to see a major update to the iPad that will make it even more capable of using all that power it comes with.
If you have an iPad, what’s you setup like? Have you tried iPadOS 15? It’s pretty stable I should say.
