When Apple announced iPadOS 16 back in June 2022 during WWDC, they showed off a couple of great features. One was something users had been demanding for years. The other was a new app. Both were conspicuously absent from iPadOS 16.1 with Apple opting to skip iOS 16 completely from public release. But the latest developer betas of iOS 16.2, iPadOS 16.2 and macOS Ventura 13.1 are delivering promised features.
External display support
Almost from Day 1, since the release of the OG iPad, users have been asking for the ability to do more than just mirror their iPad’s display to an external screen. Throughout the iPadOS 16 beta process, support for external displays has appeared and then been withdrawn as Apple continues to refine its implementation.
Well, it seems that external display support will make its official debut in iPadOS 16.2 – as long as you have an M1 or M2 equipped iPad.
When external display support was available during the public beta In used it with an iPad Pro and a USB-C powered external display. It makes the iPad Pro an almost-replacement for a laptop.
Freeform
Apple previewed the Freeform app and it’s now appearing in beta versions of iPadOS 16.2, iOS 16.2 and macOS Ventura 13.1.
Freeform is a collaboration app that enables you to pull together images, text, video and drawings on any device. Think of it as being a whiteboard that is shared by lots of people working from wherever they are.
It seems to have some similarity to Dropbox Paper but is specifically designed to take advantage of the tight links between apps and devices in the Apple ecosystem. A team could work together using FaceTime to see each other and then leverage Freeform to share ideas and content.
Unlike other tools like Google Docs and Microsoft 365, Freeform doesn’t limit the types of content it can hold. For example, Microsoft Word is great with text but a pain for images. And Google Sheets is great with tables and numbers but not useful for drawing. Freeform is more content agnostic.
It’s been a strange release cycle from Apple this year. In the Steve Jobs era, a new service, app or feature would rarely be announced unless it was ready to ship. But it seems that this generation of Apple is prepared to announce in hope rather than in confidence that new features will ship.
Anthony is the founder of Australian Apple News. He is a long-time Apple user and former editor of Australian Macworld. He has contributed to many technology magazines and newspapers as well as appearing regularly on radio and occasionally on TV.