macOS 26 vs iPadOS 26 — Apple Just Made This Decision Harder Than Ever

0:00 So, this chicken scratch diagram is to help illustrate where iPad OS stood compared to Mac OS prior to iPad OS 26. You can see that there's about a 50% overlap. And I might be being generous here with that amount of overlap. It could be far less depending on who you are, but there was some overlap. But at the end of the day, Mac OS was still just a lot more productivity focused. And I would always recommend somebody who was choosing between the two to go to Mac OS or at least nine out of 10 times. iPad OS is far too limited and there's too many workarounds to really fully recommend iPad OS as a computer replacement for most people. Again, I'm somebody that dealt with all those issues because I love the iPad. But now with iPad OS 26, this is what the ven diagram now looks like and it's a completely different story. Let's talk

0:46 about it. But now, before we continue, definitely consider subscribing to the channel because it helps motivate us to make more videos like this, which we love to do. But now let's put into context where iPad OS stood prior to iPad OS 26. So when Apple did separate iOS and iPad OS into two different operating systems, everybody began to think that you know what, maybe Apple is making something better with the iPad and making it a little bit closer to Mac OS versus staying so close to iOS. And we were wrong for a long time. While yes, the iPad got some improvements over time. We got some cool new features like stage manager, a little bit better multitasking. Some iPads got extended monitor support to a certain extent, no pun intended. It was still not quite at the Mac OS level. Yes, for me personally, I forced myself to use the iPad in a productivity setting and the

1:31 workflow that I created worked for me. But the second I deviated from that workflow and kind of had to improvise a little bit, things got a lot more complicated. And that's why Mac OS was always the preferred operating system for most people in those productivity settings. In context, iPad OS 18 and below and any iPad, no matter what you're dealing with, the iPad was always kind of a supplemental device. It was great for content consumption. It was great for handwritten notes and note-taking. There were some highlevel use cases like for designers and 3D renderers and people that like to use things like Affinity Photo and Procreate and things like that where they were revenue generating applications on iPad. But for the most part and for 95% of people, I would say that the iPad was a supplemental device to the more productivity driven and the more legacy driven applications and kind of

2:17 situations that you were dealing with on Mac OS. Whenever you got into a Mac OS computer, everybody knew what to expect. There were no real weird workarounds. You had a great file system. Everything worked as intended. Applications on the productivity level, both on the professional side and in the education side, for the most part, worked better on Mac OS because everything was made with Mac OS in mind. And then little by little, iPad OS did get a few more things as it went on. But still, from a contact standpoint, when people came to me and they said, "Hey, I have $1,000. I'm going to school." Or, "Hey, I just graduated. I have $1,000. Which computer should I get?" I would always tell people, "Get a MacBook Air because you'll be able to have way less limitations in dealing with any app issues or compatibility issues, external accessory issues. Everything just worked a little bit better on Mac OS." So again, to pull up that ven diagram in the beginning, there was some overlap.

3:03 You know, there were some applications that worked on iPad OS and Mac OS. There were some counterparts where Mac OS there were some counterpart applications where yes, the App Store is fully available on iPad OS. So, some applications worked a little bit better on iPad OS and there was a little bit of crossover and they worked extremely well together. So that's why there is that kind of 50% overlap. But now with iPad OS 26, things are completely changing and that line is very very blurry and the amount of different things that you can do on iPad versus Mac OS has shrunken in terms of specificity when it comes to different applications and use cases. But now before we continue, a quick word from our sponsor, Clean My Mac, which helps support make videos like this one. So if you own a Mac computer and you've never used Clean My Mac, then you're definitely missing out. every single Monday morning like clockwork. I make sure to run a complete

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4:35 can take quick action on directly from your toolbar without needing to open up the entire application. So again, if you have a Mac and you haven't tried Clean My Mac, I highly recommend clicking the first link in the description down below to try it out. They offer a free trial for anybody that has never used it before. And of course, you can sign up for their yearly plan with the link below. So big thank you to Clean My Mac for partnering with 9 to5 Mac and sponsoring this video. But now, let's keep talking Mac OS 26 and everything that that offers. So now let's talk about iPad OS 26 and what that brings to the table. And what's amazing about iPad OS 26 is that the differentiator for the iPad has always been versatility. It's great for content consumption. You have the Apple Pencil, the Touch First interface, the ability to get access to the entire App Store, which has millions of applications versus the Mac App Store, which doesn't have nearly as many

5:20 applications. You still have all those great differentiators of the iPad, but now iPad OS also starts to blur that line of what multitasking is, what window management is, and things of that nature. So, things to consider that iPad OS 26 brought to the table is that we now have real multi-wind management when it comes to real free floating windows, being able to resize them, having an unlimited resizability, whereas before with stage manager, it was still a little bit clunky. You can have up to 12 windows open at the same time. But so far, you can have unlimited tabs open. Chrome can have basically unlimited tabs open. RAM management has been very good even on the beta 1 update cuz which again, we're still in developer beta 1 with iPad OS 26. And two big things came to window management which really changed how you feel about iPad OS. The first one is a traffic-like management where you have the the red, the yellow and the green little circles on the top

6:06 left to close out to minimize and then also to enlarge and also you have the tile system as well where you can have three apps side by side or the four windows or four corners or just a kind of split view situation. I know split view is a little bit different but I think it's better. And yes, we lost slide over but that's in lie of a bunch more multitasking which I'm totally okay with. And then secondly, we got the menu bar or the taskbar all the way at the top where you have your file, your edit, your view, and a bunch of other different kind of shortcuts and use cases, which from a function standpoint, it hasn't added too much, but just visually and how it feels makes you feel that you are using some sort of Mac OS computer, which is exactly what we wanted on the iPad. Another amazing change that came to iPad OS 26 is the file system. The file system was always a bit broken on iPad OS. It definitely worked to an extent, but Finder was

6:52 always leaps and bounds better than the file system that you had on iPad OS and iOS. And now things are getting a little bit more familiar. For example, now you can actually drag a folder onto the dock and keep it on your dock persistently. So I have my iCloud desktop on my dock at all times on my iPad. So I can move files and images and kind of be able to have access to all of them just by a click of a button. You have a grid view. You have the fan view in the file system. You also have the ability to now resize your columns. You get more information when you press get info and things just feel a lot more like Finder, whereas before the Files app was very watered down. Of course, you still have external monitor support, but it just feels a lot more like Mac OS because you're dealing with that cool windowing system that is an extension of the iPad. Albeit, you're limited to only one external display on empowered iPads. But still, it's a great thing to have.

7:38 Whereas the lowest entry-level modern Mac right now supports, I believe, up to three external displays on the Mac Mini and two external displays, plus the actual laptop display on the MacBook Air with the M4 chip. They also included things like the brand new cursor, which is a small change, but a big one for usability and how you feel when you're using iPad OS and how it makes it feel a lot more productive because you now have a pinpoint, I guess point, for lack of a better term, with a cursor that makes you feel like you're actually pressing in between letters and things like that when you are editing something versus that kind of circular uh mouse cursor that they had before, which was supposed to emulate and imitate using a finger touch as your interface and as your input method. And then you still get all the amazing things of iPad OS like math notes, like being able to notate with handwritten notes. You still have the screenshot functionality and the screenshots have gotten even better with

8:24 the new UI and things like that. The settings menu has gotten more robust as well. So overall, iPad OS has still gotten all the good stuff of Mac OS while staying and having the essence of being an iPad, which has always been a touch first interface. And again, just a glass canvas that you can use whenever you want to. And again, I'm avoiding speaking about the hardware right now because I don't want to compare that. was strictly talking about software because if we start talking about hardware, the M4 iPad Pro display is the best display that Apple makes probably aside from the Pro Display XDR. The Tandem OLED is beautiful. So, as you can see, you do have that vin diagram which is starting to fill up with a bunch of features and use cases and usability stuff in the middle that both of these devices can do. But again, it's not perfect and there's still some things that Mac OS has over iPad OS. But again, from Mac OS standpoint, you still have things like full app freedom. So, you

9:09 don't aren't limited to the app store. You can go on the internet of course and download any application that is supported by Mac or has some Mac support which does mean you aren't limited to the apps that are in the Mac app store because the Mac app store doesn't have a lot of applications but you have the entire internet in terms of finding out which applications work for you and it's a little bit more customizable and a little bit more open as opposed to on the iPad you can technically sideloadad applications but again it's completely different than Mac OS and then you also have the pro apps right so you have things like Xcode and Logic Pro and while there is stuff like Logic Pro on the iPad and while it's not fully watered down on the iPad. It's still not as kind of featureful as it is on Mac OS. And then of course you have your command terminal. That is a big one for a lot of people that are still in the desktop world. And it's funny how we've kind of gone full circle with the terminal and things like that. But overall, when it comes to using a

9:55 terminal, the iPad just doesn't have any of that. So if you're a coder or an engineer or you live in the terminal, Mac OS is going to be your only real option. And the iPad does not have that. Another small thing that's missing from iPad OS that Mac OS has is a font management system in the settings menu. you still need to download a separate application like if fonts if you want to import custom fonts versus on the Mac you don't need to do that and it's super simple so just another thing that uh from a personal gripe standpoint I wanted to bring up so again that vin diagram you have that 95% in the middle you have all the things that Mac OS can do which iPad OS can't do but again like I said earlier the iPad is still an iPad and all the things that made it an iPad are still there so you have the Apple Pencil and touchscreen the portability and versatility the iPad is unmatched no matter which one you get whether it's the entry level or the beautiful M4 13-in kind of prolevel iPad that we

10:42 have. You saw the rear camera on the iPad, which again I don't use too often, but is great for document scanning and and the fact that you do have a rear camera is great. It's also much more immersive for reading and watching content. It is a content consumption machine and it just works better in a bunch of different environments. Like it's more malleable in terms of your situation versus a laptop or a Mac. It's just it is what it is and we all know what it is cuz it's been the same design for 50, 60, 70 years basically. So where does that leave us in the iPad OS versus Mac OS discussion? And again, these are still in developer beta as of now, depending on when you're watching this. In the fall, these are going to be out for everybody to play with and test out and see what that's like. And the public beta does come out in July. So keep that in mind if you do want to jump in and kind of risk it a little bit with your device. But when it comes to iPad OS and Mac OS, there's just a much bigger overlap than there ever was before. And now that whole situation where somebody

11:28 comes to me and says, "Hey, I have $1,000 and I want to pick between an iPad and a Mac." That line is a lot more blurry. And now I need to ask a little bit more in terms of what are you going to be using it for? Do you want the versatility of an iPad? Do you need support for legacy applications? Are you living in terminal? Are you a developer? Are you a designer or things of that nature? Because again, all the multitasking and the usability and the amount of power that you need and have is all there from a hardware standpoint. So, so that's all great. They both work in the Apple ecosystem. They both have iMessage and Safari and they all sync with notes and they'll have your file system and work with iCloud. So, all that stuff will be there and access to your documents will be there. And now being able to multitask for real and having a real file system, that's all great. So now it comes down to your personal use cases, right? If you live in the command terminal, if you're a developer, if you need real prolevel

12:14 applications that you need to download off the internet, then yeah, you're going to have to stick with Mac. And if you use more legacy type of applications, stick with the Mac. But if you're more of a creative, a designer, a content consumer, somebody who is not really into pro-level multitasking, but still needs multitasking to be able to have six, seven, eight apps open at the same time, and you like the form factor of the iPad, then just go with the iPad. Now, there is something to say about price, because if you go with the iPad Pro, Magic Keyboard, and Apple Pencil, that's about a $17 $1,800 commitment versus an $850 commitment with the M4 MacBook Air from Amazon. So, from a price standpoint, that's another conversation that I might want to have in a future video. But if you're purely looking at the operating system, the capabilities, what it feels like, that line is very blurry, and it's honestly getting a little bit more confusing in terms of who should get what in what

13:01 situation. So, now we live in this beautiful world where my closing statement is going to be it's not about what the iPad can't do anymore. It's all about how you use your computer and how you want to use it. But that'll do it for this video, everybody. If you did make it to the end, leave a dolphin in the comments down below so I know you made it to the end. And let me know if you like these types of videos in terms of being able to compare these different operating systems because they're so close now that it's getting almost more confusing than obvious in terms of what you should get. And that's just my two cents. Leave a comment down below of what you use, which one you prefer, why you prefer them, what use cases you have for each one in terms of, hey, if you're a Mac OS user, the iPad will never be your computer. Why is that? Or vice versa. If you are an iPad user, you're so excited that now you can actually multitask and use it as a real computer in your day-to-day workflow. Always curious to have those conversations down below. But if you want to watch more

13:47 content like this, definitely check out one of these videos right here. And until next time, I'm Fernando. Peace, everyone. The future really isn't iPad or Mac. It's both of them kind of evolving to meet in the middle, in my opinion.