Apple released the full version of iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 on Wednesday. iPhone owners get Home screen widgets and a new way to organize their devices. And iPad owners get handwriting recognition and new drawing tools.
While reports indicate not everyone has access to the new versions yet, Apple says it released them at 1 p.m. Pacific time. The Golden Master versions of these upgrades went out to beta testers Tuesday.
iOS 14 brings Home Screen widgets
iPhones get one the biggest user interface changes since 2007, because iOS 14 includes Home screen widgets. These give fast access to useful information, and can be positioned anywhere on the Home screen.
If that were’t enough, the new version brings the new App Library, which automatically organizes every app on your iPhone into folders. Plus, there’s video picture-in-picture, a built-in language translator and more.
iPadOS 14 gets improvements, too
Apple added Home screen widgets to iPad in 2019 (along with plenty of other changes in iPadOS 13, like mouse support). Last year’s changes were dramatic, but that means there’s less to offer tablet users in iPadOS 14.
Still, the just-released version has plenty to offer fans of the Apple Pencil. With Scribble, a stylus can be used to enter text just by writing words into any text box. And iPadOS 14 brings better drawing tools, too.
How to update your iPhone or iPad
With beta testing now finished, any iPhone user can install the full, final version of iOS 14. The same goes for iPad users and iPadOS 14.
All that’s necessary is to connect your device to a Mac (or a Windows PC running iTunes). Alternatively, an over-the-air update is also possible. That’s accomplished by opening the Settings app and going to General > Software Update.
Update: This article was updated at the actual release of iOS 14 and iPadOS 14.
