Multitasking on the iPad Air

Since the iPad came out in 2010, it’s been getting closer to replacing my laptop for various tasks.

Out of the gate, it was my favourite way to browse the web at home, to relax, watch movies, re-discover comics, read Instapaper. Eventually the iPad became my main email, calendar and note taking device when I wasn’t at my desk. Keynote allowed me to present from it, Bossjock to record podcasts, iTeleport to remote back to my home and work machines. As long as their was an app for the task, the iPad could handle it.

But there was still one thing the iPad failed at, switching between apps in a meaningful way.

For me, that meant I could never write up show notes on the thing. When I’m putting together show notes for a weekly podcast, I’ll open a bunch of tabs, choose the best links, then copy them into a Google Spreadsheet. It’s a simple task, but until now it was far too painful to do. Switching from a browser with a lot of tabs open to Google Drive would make one app fall out of memory — so all the tabs would refresh in the browser, or Google Drive would kick me out of the Spreadsheet. Again and Again. (Using Docs in a browser tab didn’t help either, btw).

I just tested this task on the iPad Air, and I was able to jump back and forth between a browser with a bunch of tabs open (Safari in this case) and Drive, and copy-paste links without issue. Neither app fell out of memory, and using four finger swipe between the two apps made the job super fast.

It’s a tiny thing, but it feels like the iPad finally has proper multitasking and multi-app workflows with the iPad Air, and I can’t wait to try it on the new Retina mini.