Apple announces iPadOS 18 with new Calculator app that can solve handwritten equations

Apple announced iPadOS 18 today. With it comes a load of new smart features for note takers, math students, and more. 

Apps in iPadOS can now use a floating tab bar for navigation within the app. Tapping this bar will make it shift to the side of the screen to pull up more options. Developers will have access to APIs for both the floating tab bar and sidebar to implement them into apps.

New features are coming to Shareplay as well, making it easier to help users with tech support. Users will be able to share their screen with another iPad. While screen sharing, a user can markup the screen in real time to show taps or draw instructions. Users can also request access to control a connected iPad, similar to remote desktop access software. 

One of the biggest updates is the Calculator app, which is coming to iPadOS 18. The Calculator app includes the same functions as its iOS equivalent, including calculation history and unit conversion. However, its biggest feature is Math Notes, which allows users to draw or hand write equations in the Calculator and solve them dynamically. Apple claims that as soon as an equal sign is written, the Calculator app will attempt to read the equation and solve it. It should be noted that this feature is limited to the math functions included with the Calculator app, so advanced mathematics may not be supported.

Math Notes can also be used to solve physics and algebra problems and diagrams. It can recognize written variables in a problem and can dynamically update equations and solutions that consider a variable if its value is changed. 

Notes is getting a similar feature to Math Notes with Smart Script, which will attempt to learn a user's handwriting style and incorporate it into system features. What this means is that after the Notes app has learned a user's handwriting, it can paste in typed text in a font that mimics the user's handwriting. Additionally, note takers can shift handwritten text around to make room for additional notes and scratch out text. 

iPadOS 18 will be available later this year.