Mine are mostly software related.
On iPadOS
Improve the ability of getting bits of text from one place to another so it’s as smooth as it is on desktop. Create a paste w/o formatting option. As it stands, I have to make formatted text pass through Clean Text before going to its ultimate destination. Ability to change case would be nice, too.
Improved file search in files.app. Improved abilities to do batch file activities: e.g., renaming groups of files.
Improve Apple Mail. It needs more options for getting mail out. Rules. More robust search. More shortcuts support.
iPad hardware
multiple audio streams/channels. Longer battery life. My MacBook Pro M1 Max is the gold standard and I’d like my iPad Pro to outdo it.
Third Party iPadOS software
Give these apps more feature parity with desktop versions. Logos and OmniFocus 4 are good proof that this can be done. I’m looking at you MS Word.
Stage Manager (iPadOS) -
First, accessing apps within recent apps. When you have an app set that is accessible in recent apps, it would be ideal if you could “open up the pile” and drag over any app in the pile onto the active stage.
Second, Shortcuts support should be prioritized for Stage Manager because it is such a fantastic productivity tool. Being able to use Shortcuts to create app sets, put them on the stage, “clean” the stage by closing the set and transitioning to some other app set, etc. could be a powerful means of controlling one’s work flow. Apple could even pre-populate the gallery with starter shortcuts. I think the kinds of functionality you’d want from Shortcuts would be the following:
- Detect whether Stage Manager is on or off.
- Switch Stage Manager on/off [This is in the beta of iPadOS 16.4, I understand].
- With Stage Manager on:
A. Open a single app in a new stage [either a new window or activate the most recently used instance, at the user’s option; this way the user does not have to break-apart an existing app set she or he wants to keep together] on either the iPad display or the connected external display;
B. open the app to a specified size: default, narrow, or full screen;
C. Create app sets on either the iPad display or the connected external display;
D. If the app set is
(i) two windows, open them with the default orientation of 1/2 and 1/2 (similar to Split View).
(ii) three windows, open them with the default orientation, or across the screen divided 1/3 each; or
(iii) four windows, open them with the default orientation.
E. Close app sets (i.e., close out apps on the stage in favor of a different app or app set); and
F. move apps between displays from either the another display’s stage or recent apps.
Third, allow 8 windows on stage manager and have multiple windows from the same app not count against the total.