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I tend not to recommend downloading public beta versions of Apple’s software unless you really want to and have a secondary device you’d like to try out. Apple’s latest public beta releases Because its various devices are here as expected, and I’ve been living with iPadOS 27 in developer beta for a month now on the latest version. iPad Air 11 inch With M4 chip. I can already tell you that the benefits this year are minor but greatly appreciated.
My expectations of turning my iPad into a Mac are gone. This operating system is no closer to being Mac-like than iPadOS 26 was, and Apple’s tablet remains (to me) an odd hybrid of something that looks like an iPhone and a Mac, but not technically as well. I accepted it reluctantly, As I noted earlier this year.
But the good news is that iPadOS 27 does iOS 27Focus on performance improvements and Siri will be much better.
You might be saying to yourself: Who cares about Siri, or AI for that matter? fair enough. I’m tired of the AI too. The difference between Siri and other AI services is that it really amounts to a better device-aware assistant that can help a lot with searching for things. I haven’t even scratched the surface of what it could potentially do, but Siri’s deep connection to messages, files, photos, mail, calendar, and everything else gives it a contextual awareness that most other AI platforms lack.
I’ve been playing with it too On seeing Apple Prowhich does not have a public beta but contains several developer betas that do the same thing.
A big part of that is an overhaul of indexing on your device, a new Spotlight search that takes a while to finish processing once you download the new operating system. It’s a one-time process, but it’s not instant. You can continue using iPadOS 27 as you normally would, but the new Siri’s extensive search intelligence takes a while to get everything fully indexed.
Siri now lives in a new app, just like all other AI chatbots. Turning it on will display a saved history of all your previous chat sessions, which can help jog your memory about what you were trying to search for previously. Siri does things like write drafts of things, analyze documents, and describe whatever you’re curious about. Awareness of research is what gains me more than anything else.
I love this teardrop-shaped drop-down effect in iPadOS 27.
Siri can also be summoned by voice, or by a graceful pull-down gesture from the top edge of the screen, which looks like a magic teardrop detaching from the edge of the screen. It turns into a search bar, and if you ask certain questions, it will also tap directly into Siri. I asked what a friend of mine had told me that day, and combed through email and messages until the information surfaced. I’ve also tried asking about all the instances where you’ve discussed magic recently.
Within moments of downloading the first beta, I found drafts of my play scripts in email, which Siri quickly analyzed and provided comparative thoughts on. I can find conversations that I lost track of. Siri is limited to Apple apps and services for now, at least until third-party apps create connections that Siri can access. This will likely happen more broadly in the fall, when iPadOS 27 and iOS 27 come out of beta. For now, don’t try to summon all your apps via Siri just yet.
Yes, I ask Siri a lot about my old documents. The new Siri app keeps all previous sessions for your reference.
Using the new Siri to search through large repositories of Apple-stored stuff, like Notes, is also interesting. I use Notes as a short-term memory tool a lot of the time, and now Siri is tied to that memory… and it feels like an extension of myself, a little bit?
Siri is a local type of AI memory (also triangulated in Apple’s cloud), something different from the AI services into which I have to enter information. In that sense, it’s also immediately useful, I think. I’m sure everything will improve significantly in the fall when more third-party apps are linked to it, but I think Siri is something I love now.
The iPad’s feel among devices is also something I’ll appreciate. IPadOS 27 sometimes feels like a larger iPhone, and other times it feels like a Mac. It pulls features from OS updates in both. Perhaps this shows that after all these years, the iPad is where both the iPhone and Mac are finally headed. I’m here in the middle, on this iPad Air, waiting for it to be over.
