When Apple Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi introduced the new multitasking UI in iPadOS 26 at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference this week, he did it the same way he introduced the Calculator app for the iPad last year,

iPadOS 26 gives the iPad its biggest windowing redesign ever, letting users resize app windows, place them where they want, tile them, and open more windows at once than before. The new OS also features a new menu bar for the iPad, as well as a new Preview app and file navigation system.

The iPad, on the other hand, evolved from the iPhone. (Those old enough may recall the "It's just a big iPod touch" commentary mocking the first model.) The App Store has always been the only official way to install apps on the iPad ( EU exceptions notwithstanding). That remains so in iPadOS 26.