3 Android features I need on my iPad ‣ Diverse Daily

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs once called Google’s Android platform “stolen” from the iPhone, and promised to go to “thermonuclear war” over the issue. He did — his company launched a massive legal campaign, which ultimately didn’t make much difference aside from paying lawyers and tying up the courts. While the iPhone has a stranglehold on markets like Canada and the US, Android devices are dominant globally. The irony is that Jobs himself once quoted Pablo Picasso as saying “good artists copy, great artists steal.”

When it comes to tablets, iPads still have the edge, but Android devices are close behind. And it’s no wonder. For a long time Apple was complacent, and it’s only in the past few years that executives have stepped up iPadOS to justify ever-increasing horsepower, which in turn keeps pricetags where Apple likes them. If Apple wants to stay on top, especially with recent price hikes, it needs to do more than upgrade Apple Intelligence and Siri — it needs to go toe-to-toe with Android.

Multiple user profiles

Apple’s most stubborn resistance point

This one has been on Android tablets for a while, and requested by iPad owners for even longer. Apple refuses to budge outside the enterprise and education markets, however, and has never offered up a convincing excuse as to why. In reality, the incentive for the status quo is all too obvious — without multiple user profiles, you’re more likely to buy separate iPads for each person in your home, at least in theory.

That may not fly for much longer. With the right peripherals, an iPad can now function a lot like a MacBook, including access to desktop-level apps like Photoshop and Final Cut. But if the company really wants people to treat an iPad like a laptop replacement, the product has to behave like one in every important aspect, and that means recognizing that some couples or families might have a limited budget, and would prefer to share. When an iPad is a secondary device, it’s still a little ridiculous that something starting at $450 excludes a feature an ultra-cheap $300 Windows PC can handle. It’s purely a profit-driven decision by Apple executives.

Samsung DeX/Android Desktop Mode

Close, but not quite

Speaking of feeling like a Mac, you can help approximate that experience with Stage Manager in iPadOS 26, assuming you have an external display and an iPad with an M-series processor. You can launch plenty of apps simultaneously, and adjust them freely in a way that will feel familiar to anyone who’s used macOS, touch gestures notwithstanding.

In the end, though, Stage Manager is just an extension of your homescreen, even if it remembers your app groupings and layouts. What would be better is something like Samsung DeX, which automatically kicks in a separate desktop mode. That means not just an appropriate interface, but a whole host of exclusive settings, including resolution and wallpaper control. You can also turn off your host device and keep working on your monitor, which is something missing with Stage Manager, although a lot of people do enjoy having a two-screen setup.

Google’s Android Desktop Mode gets a mention just because it’s a spinoff of DeX, and could eventually become ubiquitous on Android products. At the moment, it’s still playing catch-up in the feature department.

Silicon-carbon batteries

Thin and running forever

If you’re not aware of silicon-carbon (SiC) tech, there’s a good reason. While it’s increasingly common on Chinese Android devices, the phone and tablet brands that are most popular in the US — Apple, Google, Samsung, and Motorola — have so far opted to stick with conventional batteries. Presumably they’re worried about the transition cost, as well as (potential) risks like accelerated degradation or thermal runaway.

The advantages can be huge, however. Essentially, SiC is a more energy-dense variation of the lithium-ion batteries you’re used to. This means you can get the same battery life in a thinner body, or greatly extended runtimes if you keep dimensions the same.

For a frame of reference, the Honor MagicPad4 includes a 10,100mAh battery pack in a body just 4.8mm thick. That’s less capacity than an iPad Pro, but not by much, and it’s slimmer — even the thinnest Pro (the 13-inch M5) is still 5.1mm. It’s also lighter, with the MagicPad 4 weighing 450g versus the 13-inch Pro’s 579 to 582g (depending on whether you get cellular).

SiC would allow Apple to either continue obsessing over thinness, possibly making the iPad a better e-reader, or else give its products extreme longevity. Sure, an iPad can often last for several days on standby, but you still can’t expect one to run more than 10 hours in active use. That’s less than a MacBook Air, and it can mean having to charge up midday if you’re using one at work or during a long cross-continental trip, as with my flights from Canada to see friends and family in Texas.