In this video, I’m breaking down my honest experience living on the iPadOS 26 public beta for over a month on my M1 iPad Pro. Apple’s “Liquid Glass” redesign is the first thing you’ll notice—semi-transparent menus, frosted sidebars, and that moodier, more immersive look that feels a little closer to the spatial vibe of VisionOS. I actually like it a lot, but I can already tell some people will find the transparency a bit much, especially with lighter wallpapers. I really wish Apple would give us an opacity slider instead of just a basic toggle. But the real reason iPadOS 26 matters is the Mac-style windowing. Proper resizable, overlapping windows with the traffic-light buttons completely changed how I use my iPad—research in Safari next to Notes, a YouTube video floating, calculator off to the side… it finally feels natural instead of restrictive. Apple also brought over genuinely useful apps like Journal, Preview (huge for PDFs), Phone, and a Games hub, plus creator-focused upgrades like background tasks, local capture, and true external display support as a separate workspace. The iPad still isn’t a Mac replacement—and I’m the first to tell you it never will be—but this is the biggest step forward in years. It’s still in a weird place… just a good kind of weird now.