Stay Ahead of the Curve: In Depth Look at iPadOS Update Timeline, Price Structure & Feature Highlights

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iPadOS 18 is the upcoming operating system update for the iPad. Keep reading to see when it’ll hit your tablet, which iPads will be supported, and all the new features we expect to see.

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iPadOS 18 Release Date

Apple unveiled iPadOS 18 at the keynote for the 2024 Worldwide Developers Conference on June 10. Its release date is in Fall 2024, probably September.

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iPadOS 18 Price

iPadOS is free. If your iPad is supported (see below), you’ll be able to update to iPadOS 18 once it’s available to the public.

iPadOS 18 Features

iPadOS 17 was a big update, and iPadOS 18 may have even more new and updated features. Here are some of the best ones:

Calculator : The biggest update to the Calculator app–possibly since its creation–adds unit conversion and keeps track of your calculating history. You can also use Apple Pencil to write out data and analyze it.

Control Center : Control Center includes more options you can add to it, along with groups of controls that you can swipe down the screen to access.

Customization : Just like with iOS 18 , iPadOS 18 provides new ways to get your Home screen as useful as possible. Some options include more options for where to place apps and widgets, new color schemes, and icon resizing.

Game Mode : This feature originated in macOS and helps to make games run more smoothly. It minimizes background tasks so more resources are available for the game and also makes your iPad more responsive to external controllers and AirPods.

Messages : iPadOS 18 lets you style text in Messages using bold, italics, strikethrough, and underlining. You can also use any emoji in a tapback reply and schedule messages for delivery.

Notes : The Smart Script feature cleans up your handwriting using machine learning to make it easier to write (and read) your notes. You can also copy and paste in your handwriting. This app also gains live audio transcription, highlighting, and the ability to collapse sections of notes.

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Passwords : This new app aims to replace options like OnePassword and LastPass. It’ll hold your credentials and sync them across devices.

Photos : Your pictures are more organized than ever with new categories and carousels.

Safari : The Apple web browser gets Highlights for web pages that point out the most important information. The new Reader also generates a table of contents and a summary.

SharePlay : If you’re sharing your screen with someone in SharePlay, you can draw on it to point out important information or hand control over completely.

The biggest news in all of Apple’s 2024 updates was Apple Intelligence, which works on iPads with M1 Silicon chips and later. This AI-driven functionality aims to learn from what you do to make you more efficient and also includes text and image generation.

iPadOS 18 Supported Devices

Like previous years, this version of iPadOS will not run on every iPad, and some features might be reserved for the more powerful models. Here are the iPads that can run this operating system:

iPad : seventh generation and later
iPad Air : third generation and later, M2
iPad Mini : fifth generation and later
iPad Pro : 11-inch (first generation and later), 12.9-inch (third generation and later), M4

The Ultimate iPad Comparison Chart (2024)