What's your iPad / iPadOS Wishlist? | MacRumors Forums

Intro

I’ve been building a list of iPad features, and am curious to see what other want from their iPads. I’m more of a power user, but some of these pertain to a better experience for many types of users.

My Situation:

I'm a log time Mac user, and IT processional. I recently bought an iPad Air 5 for my 7 year old daughter, to replace her aging MacBook Air 11" 2012 and iPad mini 4 (I've only ever given her hand-me-downs over the years, so this is her first new tech). I've been setting it up to be as much of a general computer as possible, and seeing how far I can push it in usability. She'll mostly use it for school, YouTube/streaming, music, art, and games—but since she's become interested in making videos for her little YouTube channel for fun (https://www.youtube.com/@ladybrianna5187 is anyone cares), I wanted to also teach her basic video editing on this iPad. I've bought a keyboard and trackpad combo-case for this as well, so a few of my items on my list pertain to the lackluster implementation of the trackpad.

Anyway, in the process of setting up this iPad Air, I've really found that the iPad is very lacking in software potential, features that the hardware and form factor could very easily handle, and have a running list of features I think the iPad sorely needs.


My feature wishlist:

1. User accounts. If you can do this with an old Mac that's literally a 1,000 times slower and has a smaller screen, than you can def do it with an iPad. This iPad (and the ones I manage for work) would benefit greatly from having a separate admin account. Families sharing devices would also benefit, societally those that have kids of difference ages that can have access to different levels of content. Apple is actually bringing a version of this feature in the form of device sharing via Apple Business Essentials (you log in with your iCloud account), but that is major overkill for most users, and requires a subscription.
2. Bringing Expose-like window management, and improved window management to the iPad would be great. I've been testing Stage Manager for working in multiple apps while editing a video, and it very lacking.
3. Move clock on the right side of the top screen area, to make it like the Mac. It's a simple and easy way for continuity with their other device. They could then add an icon on the left side to notify the users that wiping down on that side will take them to notification (they could also put alerts up on the left side, like when something is using the location services, microphone, camera, or an active call). From my experience, most users aren't aware or forget how to get to the control panel and Notification Center / Widget, and making this change could help.
4. Add 3 finger swiping left and right on touchpad to let you move between open apps. I keep impulsively doing this, since I'm so used to it on the Mac. They could do 4 finger swipe to swatch between Stage Manager sets as well, but that's probably pushing it too far lol.
5. Change 3 finger swipe down on a trackpad (for app overview) to swiping up, to match the Mac. This is really poor UX design on Apple's part. They inverted the gesture from the Mac, for no logical reason.
6. Make 3 finger swipe down on a trackpad to bring you to the Home Screen
7. I really don't think Apple will ever do this, because Apple, but unlocking Hypervisor on the M-series Apple Silicon chips would be HUGE. For those who don't know, Hypervisor is the hardware level feature that lets you virtualize other operating systems inside apps like Parallels, VMware, and UTM. The M1 and M2 that's inside in the iPad has this feature, just like the Mac, and people have used it via Jailbreaking, some know it works well. Apple doesn't like emulation for some reason, but the ability to virtualize other systems would be a great benefit for IT professionals and developers.I've been using UTM on the Mac and my iPad mini 6 for over a year now, and works great. The problem is (besides the fact that you have to side load to get UTM), you can only emulate, and it's slow (though, the M1 handles older OSes pretty well), but virtualization is blocked via a missing or locked-out framework, that requires jailbreaking to use. It's real shame, I'd happily pay Parallels for the ability to do this directly on my iPad. Right now, I have to use a remote app and/or service to remedy connect to a computer that's running other OSes
8. Screensaver. I know they’re kind of pointless these days for saving a screen from burn-in, but having a screensaver to give you buffer room before the iPad’s screen locks and requires you to unlock it with your passcode / Face ID / finger print would be nice. Very useful when connected to a keyboard, and can double as bring the photo sideshow feature back (I’ve been using my original iPad as a digital picture frame for years, and has served well as a way to give it new life).
9. This is more of a hardware feature, but move the front camera to the long side, for better landscape usage. This came with the iPad 10th Gen, and I’m sure they’ll fallow suit on the iPads with magnetic Apple Pencil support, once they can figure out how to fit the components all on the one side (I have a feeling this will happen with an Apple Pencil 3 with a redesigned charging coil location).
10. Allow changing the app Dock size, and adding the ability to magnify apps while hovering over them and hiding the Dock when using a trackpad/mouse. I know this is more of a “I’m used to the Mac way”, but I think it would enhance the experience when using a keyboard and trackpad/mouse.
11. This one is more specific app related, but bring Final Cut Pro to the iPad, or at least add more features to iMovie. FCP does a lot, so I’m sure it’s a matter of taking a long time to bring it over, or Apple just decided it isn’t worth it, but it would be great to have it. For now, I’m stuck using a combination of iMovie and 3rd party apps.
12. Better support for iPad mini’s smaller screen. Up until now, most of the features I’ve talked about are mostly in stores by using the larger iPads, but I use my mini 6 the most, and love it for travel, and especially for car navigation (CarPlay sucks). The problem with the mini is the fact that iPadOS is designed for the large iPads, then shrunken down on the mini. This can be a usability nightmare at times, with tapping on some UI elements being difficult at times, especially when in a car.
13. The ability to format drives. This can be as simple as a popup alerting you that you’ve connected a drive with an incompatible file system, and give you the option to format it (with possible file loss warnings), to options for report and partition (knowing Apple, it’ll would likely ever be the former).

Bonus: I’d love a good keyboard/trackpad case with a USB hub and SD card reader built-in, that can run through the Smart Connector. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen something like this in the past (may not have used the Smart Connector though), but don’t see anything for the iPad Air 5. 2 USB-C/thunderbolt ports. I’d also love to see 2 Thunderbolt/USB-C ports on the iPad, even if it’s just Pros, or even just the larger Pro.

I'm sure I'll be editing this to add more stuff as I think of it, or as other people's suggestions inspire me to do so.

Overall, I know Apple wants to preserve the simple and straightforward experience of the iPad, but given all the poorly implemented advance features they’re put into it over the last few years, I get the feeling that they’re either not dedicating enough resources to the iPad, or the people in charge of it are lacking vision, motivation, or resources. Many of these more advance features can be off by default, and activated via settings, just like Stage Manager is now.