If like us, you watched Apple’s WWDC 2019 live stream, you will have seen some of the great announcements about the upcoming OS releases this Autumn. If you didn’t, I’m sure that by now you’ve heard or read something about them.

What you might have missed however are some of the really useful and exciting features coming in iPadOS, iOS 13 and macOS 10.15 (Catalina) for Businesses and Education. Whilst there was some mention of these features in the main Keynote, there was additional detail spread across the multiple video streams that Apple released from the rest of the WWDC event.

As public release looms closer and closer, these are our top 5 features to look forward to in Business and Education following the release of iPadOS,  iOS 13 and macOS Catalina:

It feels like the Files App has taken a leap forward in becoming a ‘Finder’ for the iPad, and these capabilities will continue to expand with the coming updates, with the likes of a download manager for Safari, and the ability to unzip files in the app. With the updates, we are seeing more of a familiar file ‘structure’ appearing on iPad.

In the WWDC Keynotes, another feature that Apple put a big emphasis on was the ability to use external storage media like USB drives. This will provide enhanced flexibility when moving content to and from the iPad with ease, as most users are currently relying on cloud services to achieve this, such as iCloud, Office 365, and GSuite.

Talking of accessing content on your iPad, the new Files App you will also be able to connect to network file shares. This is an incredibly exciting prospect for Business and Education users! The amount of people that we speak to that would like to be able to retrieve or store items ‘on the server’ is still really high. Of course this has not be impossible before now, using third party tools such as Foldr who have made such things possible – however the prospect of being able to achieve this ‘out of the box’ is something we are looking forward to… having seen it in action, its just like using the ‘connect to server’ option on macOS.

Even with the move to cloud services, we still think this is an important feature for business and education.

Apple’s new SideCar feature will allow you to use your iPad as a second display for your Mac! And we’re super excited. We feel that this is going to be a big plus for creatives, and anyone that travels for work.

For creatives, specifically people those working in Design and Graphics, the ability to use the Apple Pencil with an iPad means you’ve got a graphics tablet wherever you are.

For those that are often travelling for work, having that extra screen real estate can be a god send. Furthermore, using the iPad as the extra screen just stops you from having to move between desktops, and saves a lot of time.

I’m currently using the App Duet with good success, but can’t wait to get started with SideCar.

This one only applies to people that will be managing Mac suites, but is incredibly powerful, and shouldn’t be overlooked. The part of the feature that Apple focused on is Snapshots for backups, but dig a little deeper and you will be able to use these snapshots to replicate a volume on one Mac, and deploy it to another.

It’s not the resurrection of imaging by any means and you’ll still need a base OS on your Mac first, but thanks to the way that APFS uses containers, any Mac Admins managing suites of Mac have a new tool to add to their bag of tricks.

Want to learn more? We highly suggest you check out this video from WWDC.

Whilst it was mentioned in the main keynote, the majority of the detail around this was provided in subsequent keynotes that were released through Apple following WWDC. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Enrolment is a new type of enrolment that sits between ‘unmanaged devices’ and ‘full supervision with MDM control’.

Designed for BYOD deployments, this enrolment enables employees or students to bring in their own devices, and using their managed Apple ID provided by the company (yes, Managed Apple IDs are coming to Apple Business Manager) or school, enrol into the corporate Mobile Device Management (MDM) system to get resources (apps, email accounts etc) while ensuring the device is secure (by enforcing passcodes for example).

The company or school will not have have full MDM access to the device (such as hiding apps or remote wiping the device), but can provide VPN or email account details through management profiles.

This new enrolment method should help tackle employees or students not happy with the company or school having full control over their device, whilst still delivering business critical settings and apps to users, and ensuring that these devices are encrypted and safe enough to house company data.

To find out more about this pre-release check out the WWDC video here.

Catalyst is great news for Apple in business and education. Project Catalyst enables iOS apps to run on macOS, and although not strictly just a Catalina feature (Apps in Mojave such as Voice Notes and News used this technology) there is a much bigger focus on this with Catalina.

With such a wide selection of iOS Apps that are staple tools in many companies and schools, this will really open the door for further enhancement in terms of integration and workflows between macOS and iOS devices.

The key here is that Apple have given the developers a really easy and simple way to ‘port’ their iOS apps on to macOS with little work (think about designing an app for touch but then needing to redesign this for a mouse, Apple has this covered) to promote and encourage developers to bring their catalogue of apps to the Mac.

Need to upgrade to the latest tech, in order to get the latest updates? Check out Syncfinity, our flexible subscription solution for business and education.

Anthony Darlow is an Apple Certified Trainer, Apple Certified Support Professional, Jamf 300 professional, and ZuluDesk certified engineer. Ant has been supporting schools and businesses across the UK with their iOS and macOS deployments for almost 10-years.