An interview with Apple SVP Craig Federighi on the journey to iPadOS' windowing system and menu bar, the iPad's essence as a “magical piece of glass”, and more
It's a cool, sunny morning at Apple Park as I'm walking my way along the iconic glass ring to meet with Apple's SVP …
MacStoriesFederico Viticci
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple has been incrementally expanding iPad interaction models, from the iPadOS cursor redesign to multitasking changes in iPadOS 15. This interview places the windowing system and menu bar in that longer effort to add desktop-like capabilities without abandoning Apple's touch-first framing.
The interview gives users and developers a clearer rationale for iPadOS windowing and the menu bar: they are presented as extensions of the iPad rather than a conversion of it into a Mac.
Apple further reinforces the distinction between iPad and Mac even as their software interaction models overlap.
Second-order effects
That distinction raises the bar for future iPad software changes: Apple must make more capable workflows feel coherent with touch and the iPad's existing conventions.
Developers building complex iPad apps gain a stronger signal that windowed, menu-driven interfaces are part of the platform's direction, while still needing to preserve iPad-specific usability.
Third-order effects
If Apple sustains this approach, the iPad category may increasingly compete for sophisticated work while remaining a deliberately separate computing model from the Mac, rather than converging on a single interface.
The durable strategic question is whether Apple can keep adding professional interaction patterns without making the iPad's simpler, direct-manipulation identity harder to understand.
The trend: This is one data point in Apple's gradual effort to make the iPad a more capable work surface while preserving its touch-first product identity.
Hmm... so I guess this won't (easily) solve the “keep an SSH client session open in the background” problem... I mean it could, but the UX wouldn't be great: — “your app needs to run the task only in response to someone's action, such as tapping a button” #wwdc25 [embedded post…
Last week, @viticci.macstories.net sat down with Craig Federighi for a wide-ranging conversation about the iPad and what's coming in iPadOS 26. It's a story about the iPad's journey — and Federico's - meeting at the crossroads in Cupertino on @macstories.net: — www.macstories.…
Last week, I sat down with Craig Federighi for 30 minutes to talk about the iPad. — We covered a lot: the iPad's multitasking journey, being inspired by macOS, iPad criticisms over the years and...the essence of the iPad in 2025. — I'm proud of this one. — My story: www.mac…
If ‘Interactive Snippets’ isn't a feature that would otherwise be intended for Apple's HomePad home hub, I will eat my hat. This WWDC session stood out from all the others and didn't really explain where it came from, but it very much hints at the kind of Siri-driven smart (app-…
100% has to be what snippets are for. Can also see them being valuable on glasses. Two new pieces of hardware that will need an ecosystem but can't suffer the same fate as the visionOS, watchOS, and tvOS app stores. https://mastodon.online/...
🐞 First radar filed in six months, this time for the new SpeechAnalyzer framework, which I think would be massively improved by handling the audio taps at the system level, so I can use it in something like @broadcastsapp — (I want live captions too!) — [image]
Am I the only person who finds the iPad keyboard weird? We press 123 to get to the numbers when they stay visible no matter what, then press #+= to go to the keys where none of #, +, or = are visible 🤷♂️
The groundwork has been set now for an iPad with a larger display. I think a 15" iPad would make a lot of sense, and I know I would love one. iPadOS is in a state now where it would be quite comfortable to move into desktop form factors, like a drafting table iMac. …
I've been using iPadOS 26 on an external display for a bit, and I have some strong feelings. It does need tweaks, for sure, but not a lot of them. It's the closest this platform has ever felt to being a real computer — I would even go as far as to say the onus has now shifted b…
This is THE interview I have been waiting for since once again feeling genuine excitement for the iPad at last week's WWDC. — Craig Federighi talks to @viticci about iPad's essence, iPadOS, its multitasking journey, and not wanting to create a spork! — https://www.macstories.…
One of the really interesting tidbits from this article is how Apple completely scrapped the window management system on the iPad and started fresh. Including Stage Manager in iPadOS 26. Stage Manager is now just a layer on top of the new windowing system.
I really like what Apple has done with iPad multitasking in iPadOS 26, and I'm sure lots of power users are going to love it. For me, I still can't quite get the hang of it. Even when doing the sort of tasks that the iPad is great at, it still feels like trying to use a Mac whi…