iPad finally gets down to business with iOS 11's new features

Apple has always positioned itself as the cool, creative alternative to the more office-minded Microsoft, seen in the hands of people who are themselves cool, creative and alternative.

But the latest operating system overhaul on iPhone and iPad seems to be taking notes from Bill Gates’s business-friendly software. iOS 11, launched on Tuesday evening, retains Apple’s intuitive design principles but packs in plenty of productivity-boosting features for its phones and tablets.

The most immediately noticeable addition is the Files app — something iOS has needed for years — where you can store documents, spreadsheets, images, videos and GarageBand projects. It’s a move towards the “My Computer” functionality of Windows, and by connecting to Dropbox, Google Drive, and iCloud it keeps your files in one place. For Mac users, it means instant access to your home docs on the go too.

“It's no surprise that people’s iPhones and iPads are increasingly de facto a work device,” says Entrepreneur First co-founder and CEO Matt Clifford. “Innovative businesses like startups want to be able to access their work not just anywhere and anytime, but on any device. This means the line between work and non-work devices blurs. Apple’s recent changes recognise this and hopefully contribute to a more productive workforce with a better user experience.”

Other improvements across iPhone and iPad are more hidden but immediately helpful. Web browser Safari can now turn any webpage into a PDF that you can annotate, before saving it to — yes — Files. After taking a screengrab, you can crop, scribble, magnify and add a signature without loading a third-party app. There are other new features. Screen Recording is the video screengrab mode you’ve been waiting for, while iPhone Plus users with aching hands will be thankful for the one-handed typing mode — which shrinks and shifts the keyboard to one side of the screen so you don’t have to stretch your fingers as far.

The biggest improvements are exclusive to iPad for now. Apple’s tablets have always been laptop companions rather than replacements but app multi-tasking means the iPad is a more viable business buy. You can run four apps simultaneously and switch between them at speed, with a split-screen function so you can work on them side by side. If you’re writing a report and need to Google something, you can bring in a pop-up Safari window and swipe it away when you’re done without closing your Word Processing app.

iPad users get a substantial “drag and drop” update — you can drag images straight into documents, drop attachments directly into emails or select a chunk of text and drag it into a new page. Working alongside multi-tasking, it’s a simple but important update that makes the iPad a far more fluid and functional work device.

It’s not all perfect. Great as the Files app is, you still can’t plug in a USB stick and drag files on or off it — the Cloud may be the future but USB file-sharing is still the present. The biggest iPad Pro would also benefit from being able to run more than two apps in split-screen.

Incremental iOS 11 updates will bring further refinements in due course — but already the latest software suggests the possibility of ditching your work computer for an iPad is closer than ever.

Follow Ben Travis on Twitter: @BenSTravis