Apple couldn’t bring windowed multitasking to older iPads with the responsiveness you’ve come to expect from the iPad’s multitouch interface.

Ars Technica sat down with Apple’s software chief Craig Federighi, who explained that the engineering team couldn’t bring the new windowed multitasking feature from iPadOS 26 to older iPads due to hardware constraints.

While they could have done so at the expense of responsiveness, doing so would’ve broken the magic of the iPad’s instantaneous multitouch interface, something Apple doesn’t want to compromise. That’s why we’ve waited so long for windowed multitasking on the iPad—Apple was waiting for the technology to catch up.

iPadOS 26: Windowed multitasking requirements

“It is a foundational requirement that if you touch the screen and start to move something that it responds,” Federighi told Ars Technica‘s Andrew Cunningham. “Otherwise, the entire interaction model is broken – it’s a psychic break with your contract with the device.”

He’s right, Apple doesn’t want to see headlines that slam the iPad for a choppy multitasking performance. But it could have added a switch for power users in Settings to turn on windowed multitasking even if the hardware isn’t up to snuff, no?

The same hardware restrictions held back Stage Manager, a multi-window multitasking feature that debuted in 2022, which also requires relatively new iPad models listed on Apple’s support page. But as iPads have become more powerful in the past several years, Apple’s engineers felt confident that they could finally bring a proper Mac-like multitasking experience to its tablet.

“Over time, the iPad’s gotten more powerful, the screens have gotten larger, the user base has shifted into a mode where there is a little bit more trackpad and keyboard use in how many people use the device,” Federighi said. “And so the stars kind of aligned to where many of the things that you traditionally do with a Mac were possible to do on an iPad for the first time and still meet the iPad’s basic contract.”

The new windowing system

The company adopted a different approach with iPadOS 26, deciding to “make everything we can make available, even if it has some nuances on older hardware, because we saw so much demand.” The new windowing system on iPadOS 26 supports more open app windows at once on newer iPads, with older models restricted to up to four windows.

That doesn’t mean that macOS and iPadOS will converge into a unified operating system. “We’ve looked and said, as the iPad and Mac come together, where on the iPad the Mac idiom for doing something, like where we put the window close controls and maximize controls, what color are they – we’ve said why not, where it makes sense, use a converged design for those things so it’s familiar and comfortable,” said Federighi. “But where it doesn’t make sense, iPad’s gonna be iPad.”

Apple will release iPadOS 26 to all owners of compatible iPads in the fall. The operating system is currently available as a developer preview, with a version for public beta testing arriving in July.

iPadOS 26 makes your iPad more Mac-like

iPadOS 26 further blurs the line between a tablet and a computer with changes like Mac-like menus in apps and traffic-light window controls, the ability to place overlapping windows freely instead of snapping to an invisible grid, true background tasks and proper windowed multitasking which has replaced the Split View and Slide Over multitasking features that are no longer available.

The improved windowing system also reopens windows in the same position and size you left them. And with Stage Manager (which isn’t going away anytime soon) on iPadOS 26, you can group windows into specific stages to create separate environments for, say, work and play.

As noted in our WWDC25 roundup, another cool feature in iPadOS 26 is a Preview app, ported from the Mac. With it, iPad owners have a dedicated place to view, edit and mark up their PDFs and images, autofill PDF forms and more.

Source link: https://www.idownloadblog.com/2025/06/13/apple-ipad-windowed-multitasking-hardware-constraints-craig-federighi/

Learn how to see file name of an image or video in the Apple Photos app on your iPhone or iPad to identify it faster when browsing files.

The built-in Photos app doesn’t display media file names like the Files app, but it doesn’t block you from viewing them either. With just a few taps, you can reveal the file name the Photos app has assigned to a saved image or video, and we show you how.

See file names in Photos for iPhone and iPad

Open the built-in Photos app and tap a picture or video to open it, then swipe up or tap the info icon ⓘ to reveal the file name below the capture timestamp.

View image filename in the Files picker

If you hit the share icon in Photos and choose Save to Files, you’ll see the file name displayed at the bottom of the Files picker. We’re not going to actually save anything, so pull down to cancel and close the Files picker.

The Photos file naming scheme

When you snap a photo or record a video in the Camera app, or capture a screenshot, or save media to Photos from other apps, it’s saved using the default “IMG_X” naming scheme, where X is a counter that automatically increases. This excludes images saved in Photos from AirDrop, Mail and Messages attachments, and third-party apps like WhatsApp which retain their original file name.

Change the image filename in Files

To set a new name for a photo or video, save it to the Files app first by choosing Save to Files from the share menu, then enter a new file and hit Save. Or, export the image as-is and rename it later in Files. If you export the image back to Photos, however, it will be saved using the default “IMG_X” naming scheme.

You cannot search in Photos by file name

Unfortunately, Photos doesn’t support searching images by file name. However, the app’d advanced search lets you find images using simple keywords or more complex descriptions. For example, type “pizza” to show all pizza pictures. Or, you can search by caption provided you’ve added captions to your photos. With Apple Intelligence, you can use complex search phrases such as “James wearing a red shirt on the beach” to pinpoint what you need.

Also, check out: 41 tips to make the most of the Photos app on your iPhone

Source link: https://www.idownloadblog.com/2025/06/13/how-to-see-filename-in-ios-photos-app/

Learn how to minimize the new Liquid Glass transparency effects across the user interfaces on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Apple TV.

Apple’s new Liquid Glass design language simulates a translucent glass-like material which “reflects and refracts what’s beneath in real-time,” in Apple’s own words. It’s applied pretty much everywhere, from the Control Center, to the Lock Screen notifications, to your Home Screen, apps, and beyond. Liquid Glass will launch for everyone in the fall—it’s currently available in the developer betas of iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe 26, watchOS 26 and tvOS 26.

Liquid Glass in its current form gets in the way of visibility and accessibility. I’m certain Apple will address the biggest complaints and polish the design before the updates are released publicly this fall. Meanwhile, people on X, Reddit, and other online forums are having a field day with Liquid Glass.

The most egregious examples of form over function is the Control Center, where the background is completely visible. The good news is, you can subdue this see-through effect to a great extent with the good ol’ Reduce Transparency accessibility feature. Doing so will replace the hazy transparency effect with a solid background.

Some Control Center toggles will still refract light around borders, but that’s not a biggie; at the very least, a non-glassy user interface will make onscreen items more visible, while readability and accessibility.

iPhone or iPad

Venture into Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size on your iPhone or iPad and turn on the Reduce Transparency option to minimize the Liquid Glass effects.

To quickly toggle Reduce Transparency, add it to the Control Center or assign it to your Accessibility Shortcut invoked by triple-pressing the power button.

Apple Watch

Open the companion Watch app on your paired iPhone and select the My Watch tab then choose Accessibility and turn on Reduce Transparency.

Or, go to Settings > Accessibility on the watch and turn Reduce Transparency on.

If you’d like to toggle the Reduce Transparency feature from the Control Center on your Apple Watch, just add is buttont to your Accessibility Shortcut.

Now the Control Center and other user interface elements on your Apple Watch will have a solid background and reduced transparency. Don’t expect miracles; as evidenced by the screenshots below, the difference doesn’t seem that noticeable.

Mac

Click the Apple menu and choose System Settings, then select Accessibility in the sidebar and click Display on the right. Here, turn on the Reduce Transparency switch to minimize the Liquid Glass effect throughout the Mac’s user interface.

macOS 26 brings Control Center customization by letting you add new controls and adjust their layout. Fee; free to add a Reduce Transparency toggle to the Control Center so you can quickly toggle the feature.

This is how the Mac’s Control Center and the menu bar look without and with Reduce Transparency.

Apple TV

Open the Settings app and navigate to Accessibility > Display, then turn on Reduce Transparency.

You’ll no longer see the Liquid Glass effects in the Control Center and other places.

How to install the iOS 26 bets and other “26” betas

If you live on the bleeding edge of technology and would like to take iOS 26 and Apple’s other “26” operating systems for a spin right now, we have a step-by-step tutorial explaining how to install the developer betas of iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 on your devices. We also have detailed tutorials explaining how to install the watchOS 26 beta, the macOS Tahoe 26 beta, and the tvOS 26 beta.

Also, check out: How to downgrade your iPhone or iPad from iOS 26 beta to iOS 18

Source link: https://www.idownloadblog.com/2025/06/13/disable-liquid-glass-apple-devices/