iPADOSmoretimeshowinghowwemightuseitinanoffice
environment – in other words, more like a pen and legal
pad. Here’s what you can expect when iPadOS drops
later in the year.
Better latency, better writing experience
The Apple Pencil already has a very good latency of
20ms, but iPadOS will push that all the way down
to 9ms. That means the iPad will do a better job of
interpreting your subtle movements while handling
the Pencil, whichinturnshouldtranslateintoa
writingexperiencethatbetterresembleswritingwith
apen.Thedifferenceswilllikelybesubtle,buteven
subtledifferencescanleaveabigimpactwhenit
comestowriting.
Currently,writingwiththePencilfeelslike
scribblingwithafine-tippedSharpieatbest,but
better latency could help it approach the precision
of a fountain pen. (Honestly, I doubt the Apple Pencil
improvements are that good.) But here’s the catch:
Apple is mainly referring to the latency on the new
iPad Pros, which already support Apple’s ProMotion
technologythatboostsdisplayrefreshrates.The
lower-end iPads should also see improvements, but
they likely won’t be as dramatic.
Improved Pencil support in third-party apps
Apple also introduced a new ‘PencilKit’ framework that
lets developers take advantage of the Pencil’s improved
latency and optimized technology for laying down lines
in their own apps. In its PencilKit presentation, Apple
claimed it only requires three lines of code.