A hoverboard is the ultimate method of travel for short distances and definitely provides the most fun. Whether you're curiously browsing to see if a hoverboard is right for you or you're just trying to find the right one, you've come to the perfect place.

While hoverboards were in danger of becoming extinct a few years ago over safety concerns and fire risks, those concerns should now be eliminated. As long as you know what safety certification to look for on the packaging you shouldn’t need to worry.

You need to look for a hoverboard that is UL 2272 certified. This certification applies to all personal mobility devices, not just hoverboards, and went into effect in late 2016. You can look for a UL Mark on the hoverboard packaging and a UL holographic certification label on the actual product itself.

All the hoverboards here are UL 2272 certified and all reputable hoverboards sold at major retailers should now be too. The biggest question is: which hoverboard should you get?

Picking a hoverboard is all about knowing what you'll be using it for and how much you're willing to spend on the transit device. If you have a specific use for it in mind, like getting around a college campus, or around the neighborhood, then you can make the proper selection around the features you'll need. We’ve broken these into several common categories below.

The other determining factor will be price. Once you know what the hoverboard will be primarily be used for, it will be much easier to select a hoverboard in your price range that can get the job done. While price does vary significantly depending on the board you choose, there should be a decent option that will suit most peoples' needs in different price ranges.

With Black Friday 2019 and Cyber Monday around the corner at the time of writing, you also might be able to get a discount on one of these boards.

These are products that we haven't had in our test labs, but based on our experts' opinion and knowledge of the most reputable brands around, we think these are worth looking at.

Our selections takes into account online reviews, brand reputation, product capability or unique features, to help you pick through the maze of choices available to you.

• Check out all the best Black Friday 2019 deals

The Swagtron T1 is the stereotypical hoverboard and probably a universal recommendation for most people. The T1 is well reviewed across different sites and balances price and features to make it an easy choice when picking a hoverboard.

The T1 comes in a variety of colors, and as long as you'll be sticking to sidewalks or other smooth surfaces the Swagtron T1 should make it around with ease.

You'll be able to cruise around at a speed of up to 8mph and get about 11 miles of range on a single charge. The nicest ability is likely the 30-degree climb capability, so steep inclines won't slow you down.

It doesn't have an app or Bluetooth connection, but a solid ride with good range at a reasonable price still makes this a compelling choice.

Segway is finally living out its dream of being a mainstream people mover with its miniPRO, the hoverboard version of its iconic mall-cop ride.

The Segway miniPRO has come down in price since its original debut but still costs more than the T1 above. That extra money gets you bigger (10.5-inch) air-filled tires which help it handle a greater variety of roads and obstacles.

It has a 10mph top speed and 12.5-mile range with a 15-degree climbing angle - one of its very few negatives. The ride quality is quite nice and steering with your legs/knees is more convenient overall, after a tiny learning curve.

Besides the beefier and slightly larger unit compared to other hoverboards, the connected app experience is a big reason to consider the Segway miniPRO. With the mobile app you're able to adjust light colors, change safety features, check vehicle diagnostics, and remotely control the miniPRO to move on its own.

You're also able to protect the miniPRO with an alarm that alerts your phone if someone tries to move the board. All in all, the Segway miniPRO is a terrific hoverboard for its price.

Sometimes you don't want to stick to sidewalks with your hoverboard. The Swagtron T6 Off-Road can take you off the beaten path. But, even if you don't need an off-road option you may still want to consider the T6, as it's a sturdy board that supports more than the typical 220-pound capacity most other hoverboards offer.

In fact, Swagtron advertises the T6 as the only hoverboard in the world with a weight capacity of 420 pounds.

Despite the heavy-duty capability, the board will still reach a speedy 12mph and can travel 7-12 miles on a single charge.

The T6 Off-Road also has an app, and connects via Bluetooth to play music directly from your phone to the speakers on the board.

Known for its scooters, Razor has gained a reputation for producing quality personal transportation vehicles at affordable prices. The Razor Hovertrax 2.0 is no different and can routinely be found for far less than the other options in this list. In fact, the Hovertrax gets pretty close to impulse-buy territory without sacrificing a reputable brand name people trust.

Reaching a 9mph top speed, the board can be ridden for 60 minutes of continuous use. It features decent specs overall, but contains some niceties that aren't found on other models that make it stand out, even on the low end.

For example, the Hovertrax features a removable battery (LG brand) so that you could purchase additional ones and swap out a fresh one while another one is charging. It also has LED lights and a battery readout to display the board's charge.

If you're one for taking things to the extreme and want to use a hoverboard for some serious sport, you should consider the Onewheel. Named after its single wheel, the Onewheel essentially works the same way as a more traditional hoverboard, by having you lean forward and back to travel in that direction.

The Pint model has a 6-8 mile range and will go 16mph. Onewheel started as a way to add the feeling of extreme sports to your transportation, carving in a way a typical skateboard or hoverboard couldn't.

Beyond the amazing ride experience, the board features fast starting and stopping, LED lights, and a complete recharge in 50-120 minutes depending on the charger being used. There's also a Onewheel+ version that ups the specs even further for professionals.

If the Onewheel Pint looks fun to your eyes, you're in for a treat. If it looks a little intimidating, you'll be better with one of the more traditional options. This board is really for the hoverboard extremist looking to take the experience to the next level.

If you're looking for a general purpose board that is well suited to venturing away from the sidewalk, the Epikgo All-Terrain is a great option. It features enhancements for handling all terrain types, to help you avoid ever getting stuck on an unplanned path.

The Epikgo features 8.5-inch solid tires to keep from puncturing at the worst time. The tires should allow grip and movement across mud, sand, ice, and grass. It also features a large footprint for better balance on the different terrains.

Similar to other boards, it can travel around 10 miles on a single charge, but achieves a better than average climb angle of 18 degrees.

Those looking for a hoverboard that can take some weather conditions beyond sunny, and paths that aren't the smoothest, should consider the Epikgo All-Terrain. The added IP56 water resistance and aluminum alloy frame should stand up to most environments and situations just fine.

• On a tight budget? Check out the best cheap hoverboard deals

It took six months, but Apple News Plus has officially made its way to the UK and Australia today, finally bringing the subscription news and magazine service to countries outside of the US and Canada.

Apple News Plus UK costs £9.99 / AU$14.99 a month, opening up access to over 150 publications in the UK and 'hundreds of titles' in Australia at launch. The UK edition is priced similarly to the US version, with the exception that the US version has more than 300 publications available — roughly double the amount in the UK.

The UK and Australian release of Apple News Plus gives readers the same upgraded Apple News experience, complete with “richly designed layouts, animated magazine covers, vivid photography and bold typography optimized for iPhone, iPad and Mac.”

UK, Australian region-specific publications

Apple News Plus does come with some region specific titles in the UK. Apple highlights several notable British publications that will appear as part of the monthly subscription: The Times, The Sunday Times, Cosmopolitan UK, Elle UK, Esquire UK, FourFourTwo, Empire, Hello!, Cyclist, and Grazia.

Australia gets the same localized treatment with The Australian, The Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun, The Courier Mail, The Advertiser, Vogue, Australian Women’s Health, Elle, The Australian Women’s Weekly, Harper’s Bazaar Australia, GQ, Australian Men’s Health, Delicious and Australian Geographic.

Apple News Plus outlook

Apple News Plus was able to amass 200,000 sign-ups in the US in its first 48 hours of availability (note: there was a one-month free trial, just like there is in the UK and Australia). But new subscriptions are said to have flatlined, according to 9to5mac. It’s also competing with Apple’s newer, cheaper subscription services, like recently launched Apple Arcade and the November 1-bound Apple TV Plus. 

The slow rollout of Apple News Plus to various countries around the world likely has to do with the tedious task of making individual deals with local and regional publications. Presumably, more counties will gain availability to the subscription service in the coming months.

• Go pro in 2019? Our iPhone 11 Pro review

In an unusual software update cadence, iOS 13.1.2 is now available with more bug fixes for the fresh mobile operating system – which applies to both iOS 13 and iPadOS 13.

This might feel a bit like deja vu since iOS 13.1.1 was only released to the public a few days ago on Friday. Today’s update doesn’t contain any particularly notable front-facing features, according to 9to5Mac. It’s mostly fixes to minor annoyances. What’s interesting is the frequency at which these updates are coming to the general public to fix Apple’s iOS software.

Among the iOS 13.1.2 release notes, bug fixes for iCloud, Bluetooth, HomePod, and the display are mentioned.

• Fixes a bug where the progress bar for iCloud Backup could continue to show after a successful backup
• Fixes an issue where Camera may not work
• Addresses an issue where the flashlight may not activate
• Fixes a bug that could result in a loss of display calibration data
• Fixes an issue where shortcuts could not be run from HomePod
• Addresses an issue where Bluetooth may disconnect on certain vehicles

Despite the rapid updates to iPhone’s and iPad’s software, there are still things that remain broken for developers. Marco Arment, developer of the podcast app Overcast calls out the UISearchController-UINavigationBar corruption bug which he says, “totally screwed my app.”

The iOS 13 beta launched June 3 at Apple’s WWDC 2019 keynote, however, even after more than three months of testing and the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro launch, it’s clear that even more time is needed to patch the software update. 

We've told you about the best iOS 13 features coming to your iPhone and have done the same with iPadOS features arriving on the iPad Pro, iPad Air, and other tablets. But to be totally honest, the full list of iOS 13 perks is overwhelming. 

While it’s nice to have the big, headlining features like a redesigned Photos app and the long-awaited Dark Mode, the real stars of the update are little tiny improvements that will make your life a bit easier every time they kick in. Even small things like the addition of a 16:9 photo format helps out. 

So, today, we're taking a look at the lesser-known tips and tricks that people will be excited about when they get iOS 13, even if they don't know it yet.

1. Alarm change suggestions for holidays

When there’s a holiday the next day, the iOS 13 version of Siri can suggest switching from your usual daily alarm routine before you fall asleep — and then change it back again.

This avoids the unfortunate scenario in which you forget to turn off an alarm when you're finally given a chance to sleep in. Or an even worse situation: forgetting to turn your alarm back on the next day when you do have to work.

2. Type to Siri from Spotlight search

Saying “Hey Siri” to summon the assistant when your hands are tied is convenient, but accidentally saying it during an important meeting or trying to activate Siri in a loud restaurant is not. iOS 13 is here to fix this by swapping your input from voice to text - which is a great addition for accessibility, too.

Typing a command to Siri is as simple as pulling down anywhere on the home screen and tapping away at the keys into the Spotlight search box. It'll always be the last option under 'Search the web' and 'Search App Store' options.

3. Delete apps from App Store

Have you ever gone to the App Store Updates section and realized there were a few apps that, instead of updating, you’d rather just delete? In iOS 13 you’re able to swipe left on an app with a pending update and delete it off your phone.

4. Different languages for different apps

In iOS 13 you’re be able to set language preference per app. If you want a calendar app to be in English, but a task app to be in Spanish, you can now arrange it - though keep in mind that though not all apps support this feature.

To do this, head to the Delete apps from App Store& Region. Select 'Add Language' to add another language to your iPhone's on-device array. After that, navigate to the general Settings page and and click into each app's specific settings to turn on.

5. Offline dictation

Continue dictating notes or other items even if you lose connectivity. This is a feature that will likely go unnoticed when continuing dictation during commutes or while working in other areas with spotty carrier service. Siri is not yet offline, but dictation can happen without an internet connection.

6. Share your own contact photo

In iOS 13 you can control what photo or name is used for your contact information that other people see when you call or message them. This feature is a little buried in how it gets set up, but will make a big difference on a daily basis (especially for those friends who prefer to use a less-than-flattering photo of you). To set it up, head to Settings, Messages, and then Share Name and Photo.

7. Save all Safari tabs

In iOS 12 you can hold down on the bookmarks icon at the bottom to “Add Bookmark” or “Add to Reading List.” In iOS 13 that changes to include an option to bookmark all the tabs you have open. Especially handy for the "tab forest" folks (no judgment here) who are more likely to keep plenty of tabs open and might need to save them in a bookmark archive at any given time.

Upcoming features

These iOS 13 features were announced at or since WWDC 2019, when Apple introduced everything coming with the operating system update. Expect to see these perks in the smaller post-iOS 13 versions to come.

8. Time to finish charging

Instead of a percentage or hours remaining when you plug in your phone, you’ll be able to see what time it will finish charging. This has long been a feature in Android phones, but better late than never for iOS devices. In this case, it really is the little iOS 13 perks that will make daily life more convenient.

9. Automatic ETA sharing through Maps

In Maps, you will now be able to add someone to a favorite location and the app will automatically share your ETA once you start navigating toward that spot. This should save a lot of annoying "how far are you now" exchanges when you're just trying to focus on getting there.

• Curious about EVERYTHING coming in the new iOS? Check out iOS 13 guide

Apple Watch Series 5 just got a radical new feature: an always-on display... which essentially makes it as useful as a hundred-year-old analog wrist watch. 

While this Apple Watch wearer is overjoyed that I no longer need to flex my wrist just to see the time, the addition of an official Apple sleep tracking, rumored in the lead up to the iPhone 11 launch event, would have been much more useful than a display that never turns off.

Why do we feel so strongly about it? Well, Apple Watch has established itself as the ultimate health accessory thanks to its comprehensive health-tracking sensors and metrics used during the day, but a sleep tracking feature built and supported by Apple would have given good reason to wear it 24 hours a day. 

Still, here we are years later and no official sleep tracking is available.

Why didn’t sleep tracking show up?

So why didn’t we get sleep tracking on the Apple Watch 5? There are no obvious answers. Third-party app developers for Apple Watch have been offering sleep tracking solutions for some time now, but they can’t quite provide the functionality and neat tricks Apple would be able to work directly into the watch. Many of the best smartwatch alternatives out there have added their own sleep tracking, so why not the premier watch from Apple? 

To give the company the benefit of the doubt, it’s better to get the sleep tracking feature exactly right before debuting something emitting false positives. If the company’s sleep tracking software feature isn’t ready or enough studies haven’t been performed to certify its efficacy, it would make sense that Apple cautiously held off on introducing a new area of health monitoring.

In terms of what we can glean, it’s possible that Apple thinks its claimed 18-hour battery life isn’t enough, but that shouldn’t be the determining factor here. Personally, I can report wearing a Series 4 watch for more than 12 hours a day, using cellular and exercise tracking and I still have more than 50% battery life remaining at the end of the day. If folks can’t remember to top up their watch enough to last through the night, it shouldn’t prevent users who can from benefiting from a new feature.

One theory is that Apple is trading the extra battery capacity for the always-on display. The battery life is good enough that the company opted to spend the extra capital on making the watch more...watch-like. I get the reasoning: Apple might not want to push it and risk the watch not lasting a full day for the average user, but it’s a shame both features couldn’t have been added.

Other smartwatches that have always-on displays have typically incorporated tricks like keeping watch faces mostly static and limiting the on-screen information when the wearable is inactive. In Apple’s case, the Series 5 always-on display switches to a minimal and darker watch face to turn off some pixels and conserve battery. 

But, it is also incorporating a new Low-Temperature Polysilicone and Oxide (LTPO) screen allowing for a dynamic refresh rate, as slow as 1Hz a second—down from the high of 60Hz per second. Unlike other competitors however, Apple Watch largely keeps the same watch face and information refreshed and visible while inactive. A hyper conservative attitude towards battery life is probably the reason we have yet to see sleep tracking.

So when will sleep tracking arrive?

Don’t fret, sleep tracking is still likely coming. If you still aren’t convinced that Apple is building the ultimate health accessory with its watch, you probably haven’t seen the tear-jerking video it showed at its event. It’s worth watching. The Apple Watch is first and foremost a device to monitor your health, and Apple has gone to great efforts to lead the way in this area, most recently through the addition of the ECG feature to check for irregular heartbeats like atrial fibrillation (AFib) in real-time.

Sleep tracking is the other side of the coin for Apple’s (daytime) health initiatives, but so far the Apple Watch isn’t ready to help people with the other third or quarter of their day—the time they spend sleeping.

There’s no way Apple ignores the feature of sleep tracking forever; rumors about the company investing in the idea go back as far as 2014. With the most recent rumors detailing several features tied to sleep tracking and even a code name for the feature being leaked—the code name is burrito, by the way—there’s even a chance that the feature could come before or at WWDC in June 2020. I might even bet it comes in a point release for watchOS 6.

Always being able to look down and see the time and information on your watch face is nice Apple Watch perk, but a sleep tracking feature could help the 50-70 million Americans who reported having chronic sleep and wakefulness disorders. Until Apple addresses it, it will remain a lingering feature ripe for the picking – one that Apple needs to pick.

• Want to improve your sleep? Here are the best sleep trackers in 2019

Listening to the radio used to mean turning a dial until the static lifted. These days, 'listening to the radio' (a term we use loosely) it means turning on a stream of continuous music from an app. Sure, it's not the way your grandparents listened, but the new way is a lot more convenient, diverse and accessible.

The only problem is that, with so many places to stream new music, which service should you turn to when it's time to let the beat drop?

Let’s take a look at two of the most popular radio apps to see which is you should be using: Spotify’s new Stations app or Pandora radio.

Spotify Stations

Spotify Stations is a brand new app from Spotify which provides radio-like music streaming. It's available on iOS and Android and can be used with free and premium accounts. Overall, Stations simplifies the on-demand music of Spotify’s main app into fewer choices so that you can start playing quick, and have it just keep playing.

It’s probably not a coincidence the app is called Stations, a direct reference to how Pandora describes the different streams people listen to.

What is Spotify Stations and how much does it cost?

To get started, you need to sign up or sign in to an existing Spotify account (a free account works). The app is free and will play ads if you don’t pay for Spotify Premium. If you do pay for a premium account you won’t hear ads and can skip as many songs as you want. 

To get started, add a “station” by tapping in the top left corner and select an artist or a mood. Or, search for a song, decade, or something else.

Once you have multiple stations, you can slide up and down to switch to the different stations, and as a nice detail, stations pause and resume as you go back to them. (A feature particularly useful because it’s easy to accidentally switch stations.)

You can also rename stations, have stations play only a single artist or mix in a few you like, and limit it to all similar music or just those artists. If you like or hate a song you can give it a thumbs up or down to influence future music, but that’s pretty much it. There aren’t many more features than those yet.

The benefits of the Spotify Stations app

Stations is a fast way to get music playing and show off the company’s world-class algorithm recommendations. That’s why it might be the perfect way to listen to music—and as simple as turning on the radio.

If you aren’t intrigued by unlimited, on-demand music enough to subscribe to Spotify in the first place, maybe you’re looking for something more like a radio station, in an easy too use package. In which case, this is it.

The Spotify app already has this radio functionality, but its desktop and mobile devices are verging very close on becoming iTunes—the butt of every joke for including too much stuff and being too complex. Stations allows the company to offload the radio functionality without being confusing.

If you look at it this way, Stations is just a lightweight interface which should enable you to hit play and forget about the rest of the choices associated with picking out music.

Stations shouldn’t be criticized for being overly simplistic, but it could use a few minor feature additions. The first and most obvious is a way to save a song to your library without it necessarily influencing future music. Combining the “save” feature with the thumbs up, traditionally meaning “play more like this,” is a little too minimalistic. It would be neat if all the saved songs became its own playlist within Spotify as well, like “Favorites from Stations.”

To that end, it would be nice to see a history of the past songs you listened to in Stations so you can save the ones you might have missed.

Overall, Spotify Stations is fast to get started, easy to use, and probably exactly what most people are looking for when they decide the time-of-day calls for music to be playing.

Pandora

Pandora wasn’t the first to do streaming internet radio, but it was the first to usher in an era of good streaming radio. Its music genome project helped identify similar artists and songs so well, it became popular among the general public, young and old, looking for an endless supply of music.

How much does Pandora cost?

Pandora took off because of its decent music recommendations, but also because it is free with ads—just like traditional radio—and remains that way to this day.

If you’d like to ditch the ads it will cost you $4.99 to go to Pandora Plus. Not only will you get a music-only listening experience, but you’ll be able to skip more songs if you don’t get a song you want to hear.

If you’d like to match Spotify’s on-demand listening function, beyond just radio, Pandora Unlimited can do that as well, which also costs the industry standard $9.99 per month.

The benefits of Pandora radio

Pandora’s roots are all about radio functionality and so it’s definitely the service to beat.

You can search for an artist, song, mood, or decade to start a station or choose one of the premade stations to get started. Every time you start a new station it will be saved until you delete it. You can also shuffle stations if you really want to add some variety to you life.

Pandora’s radio functionality resides in its main app so when you search for an artist or song so you’ll see the song you search for—you just can’t listen to it unless you subscribe to the Unlimited service. Otherwise you’ll need to start a station from the song. 

The Pandora app displays plenty of information about tracks without being too cluttered. Once you’re playing a song you can swipe up to display bio information about the artist along with the elements of the particular song: instruments used, types of rhythms, and more.

Scattered throughout are lots of nice touches that make sense for a music app. Those include a sleep timer and alarm clock. There’s also a dedicated button to replay a song and full screen display with the ability to share a song and start a new station.

Because the primary focus of Pandora is to play radio-like stations, the app remains easy to navigate. Never does the Pandora app feel cluttered, but as it adds podcasts and on-demand listening into the mix, radio listening might eventually get crowded.

Verdict

Head to head, Spotify’s exceptional song recommendation engine shines bright. So much so that the better song selection outshines anything that might be lacking in its barebones app. The Pandora app has a wonderful and full-featured user experience, but its music choices feel lacking compared to Spotify.

That’s why Spotify Stations is the best radio app you can use at the moment. If you’ve spent years refining your Pandora stations or need some of the features it offers, Pandora is still a great option—just know Spotify Stations is out there, and could be a better option if you're ever looking for greener pastures.

• How does Apple Music stack up? Don't miss our Apple Music vs Spotify comparison

The iPad has been a laptop-replacement in waiting since its unveiling by Steve Jobs in 2010, but hasn’t been capable of truly doing so – until now. 

Nine years later, and thanks to a new, customized operating system called iPadOS introduced at WWDC 2019, the iPad may finally be ready to be a computer replacement, not just a supplemental machine.

People working independently or in less traditional workplaces were some of the first folks to utilize the iPad and its extreme portability. For those in more complicated work environments, replacing a laptop or desktop with an iPad required a lot more hoops to jump through to be feasible.

In short, doing certain work was just too cumbersome, thanks to the software. Copy and pasting required tedious tapping, for example, because Apple's tablet had been reliant on controls that worked on the smaller screen of the iPhone, so actions like shaking the device to 'undo' were crazy on an iPad.

iPadOS: Not 'iPad first,' but 'iPad only'

At WWDC 2019, one of the big reveals was the introduction of iPadOS. Occasionally iPad would receive features first or have a different user interface for interactions, but for the most part, iPad was an afterthought compared to the iPhone in terms of new operating system features. While the iPad’s hardware continued to be improved, it was limited by the operating system (OS) and software designed for a smartphone.

The switch to iPadOS changes that dynamic – likely forever. While the new OS’s initial features introduced during the WWDC keynote are a big step forward, the iPad is likely to see more improvements at a quicker pace by having a dedicated OS. But for now, here’s what’s changing and why your existing iPad will be much more ready to replace your laptop once the new OS is released.

Split View and multitasking on iPad

Split View now allows two instances of the same app on screen at once. On a Mac, it’s not a big deal to open two notes or scroll back through your email messages while composing a new one – but, on the iPad, it was an ordeal. 

Having the same app open in multiple instances is a huge productivity win that brings it closer in line with how we use laptops. There’s also now a new App Exposé, which will show all the instances of the app currently open.

Also new in the multitasking arena is improved Slide Over support. Apps that you quickly slide out from the side and hover on top can now be cycled through and fanned out to make more use of limited screen space. Again, better access to multiple apps at once makes for a much more productive experience.

Files and Safari

The Files app now acts even more like users expect with support for flash drives and external hard drives over USB-C. It was a much-desired feature to move files around and import them using mass storage devices, and that functionality has finally arrived.

Column view will be supported to provide greater metadata visibility. Plus, Files will support SMB servers for enterprise users needing to move files around in that way. Not demonstrated was the important, but miscellaneous addition of zipping and unzipping folders natively in the app – another essential laptop function.

Speaking of desktop-class improvements, Safari was called out as being able to improve the internet browsing experience on iPad. Up until now, Safari browsing was hit or miss on whether a desktop or mobile web page would be delivered. 

Safari will now handle that distinction more intelligently, serving up desktop pages that have been streamlined and adapted for touch controls. On the WWDC 2019 stage, Apple specifically mentioned how much easier it was to use Google Docs as a web app in Safari — something becoming increasingly frustrating as more work moves to the cloud.

The browser will gain a download manager and more keyboard shortcuts to boot, both of which will make laptop diehards feel more welcome.

Text editing, markup and more

Text editing with multitouch got a big improvement in iPadOS through gestures for cut, copy, paste, undo and redo. Instead of the magnifying glass and having to tap a few times to actually select text and manipulate it, there are new gestures, including a three-finger pinch and flick, to instantly copy and paste.

These could be seen as small refinements to existing iPad gesture controls, but in practice they will make a huge difference to the speed and flow of people working with their hands on the iPad.

If you use the Apple Pencil, like a lot of iPad users, there is a new markup mode which is activated by swiping it up from the screen’s corner. Not only is it a fast way to access the controls without taking a screenshot, there’s support for full document markup which doesn’t just limit websites to the viewable selection on screen — it will include the full page of the site.

Shown off or mentioned alongside all these new features were things like support for rich fonts, downloadable through the App Store; compact layout of the keyboard for one-handed use; and a slightly new home screen layout with pinned widgets right next to app icons.

All in all, through a lot of simple refinements, this is a huge upgrade for the iPad as an independent and next-generation computing machine. It’s not like Apple has given up on its Mac computers, however – in fact it’s even allowing developers to easily port iPad apps to the Mac – and there are plenty of tricks the iPad needs to learn to be the obvious choice for all laptop users. Namely, we're still waiting for mouse support (a feature which might be secretly baked in to iPadOS).

Still, iPadOS is a 'finally' type of upgrade that catapults the tablet toward a day when it becomes a main computing platform to compete toe-to-toe with your laptop of choice.

• Here are 10 things you probably missed from WWDC 2019

Images Credit: Apple