From Jason Snell, writing over at Six Colors:
Then there’s the Globe key. Hold it down in any app in iPadOS 15, and you’ll see a different set of commands, all of which can be applied globally. (Get it?) These menus are full of shortcuts to switch to the home screen (Globe-H), open a Quick Note (Globe-Q), activate Control Center (Globe-C), and pretty much any other system-level area.
Reading this should already pique any power iPad user’s interest, but then there’s this, emphasis mine:
The Globe menu also contains loads of keyboard shortcuts to control multitasking. You can put apps into Split View and Slide Over, pop them back into full screen, and cycle between apps, all via Globe key shortcuts.
As a heavy keyboard user, I was already excited from Apple’s recent WWDC that they were finally adding keyboard support to multitasking on the iPad. Naturally, as a former Mac user at home and still current one at work, who wrangles around multiple windows of the same application on a regular basis — as well as on my iPad — I found myself holding on with bated breath for even a sampling of these pending shortcuts. Hoping for just that one in particular, that while being only a simple combination of two inconspicuous chiclets on a keyboard, would signal to me that the iPad is growing up. And then, like the glowing filament of the proverbial lightbulb moment, there it was staring me in the face:
Right here is when I realized the iPad is starting to join the big leagues of more power computing for those that need or want to take advantage of it. I’m still confident that while we didn’t perhaps see all the wanted features at the event, at some point we will. That forward momentum for the platform is again taking place and will continue to do so. All from the inclusion of this single, lowly keyboard shortcut, ported over from its Mac big brother.
Is this a small thing? Maybe.
Is it geeky to get this worked up about it? Guilty as charged.
Did it put a huge smile on my face? Absolutely.