11 new features coming to your iPad that will make it much better at replacing your laptop

Apple's software update for the iPad coming later this year will bring a handful of useful new features, such as improvements to the way the iPad multitasks and handles file management.

The company is calling the update iPadOS, making it the first time it's separating its tablet software from the iPhone's iOS software.

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Although the iPad isn't meant to be a complete replacement for your laptop, Apple's tablet has slowly become a more viable productivity tool in recent years. That's truer than ever with iPadOS, the new software update Apple will be launching for the iPad later this year.

It marks the first time Apple has separated its iPad software from its iPhone operating system, a move that further distinguishes the two products from one another. It's a sensible move — now that smartphones generally have much larger screens today than they did when the original iPad launched in 2010, people are using their phones for some of the tasks they may have turned to a tablet for in the past.

As such, companies like Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, and others have been positioning their tablets as productivity-oriented devices that offer larger screens than smartphones and better portability than laptops. The iPadOS update will provide new features that are critical in boosting the iPad's performance in this role as a work device.

Apple didn't say precisely when iPadOS will be released, but the company typically debuts new software updates across its products in the fall time frame.

From new copy and paste gestures to improved multitasking, here are our favorite new features coming to the iPad later this year.