Our friend Federico Viticci at MacStories is back at it again with his annual comprehensive review of Apple’s new software updates: iOS 17 and iPadOS 17. This year, Federico ponders: “In the year when the vision is elsewhere, what do you get the OS that has everything?”

As it turns out, iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 contain what Federico describes as “a little bit of everything for everyone.”

Federico writes:

iOS and iPadOS take a bit of a secondary role in 2023, happily conceding the spotlight to a new software platform that hasn’t launched yet, but which developers around the world are already testing in person.
To be clear, I am not complaining. iOS and iPadOS 17 may not have an industry-defining, obvious tentpole feature, but in their approach to offering miscellaneous improvements, they’re fun and interesting to cover. Of the two, iPadOS is the one that suffered from lack of development resources the most and whose strategy could be easily summed up as “it’s iPadOS 16, but we fixed Stage Manager”. Which, again, given the circumstances, is absolutely fine with me.

One of the biggest takeaways from Federico’s review is that iOS 17 is the update that truly takes widgets to the next level. Widgets came to the iPhone in iOS 14 three years ago, and iOS 17 turns them into something “more than Home Screen ornaments.”

Looking beneath the surface of iOS 17 and its collection of system tweaks and new app features, there is one emerging theme worth paying attention to: Apple’s bet on widgets everywhere and the progressive modularization of apps.
The company may have not come out and said it in the same terms as I will, but it’s clear from iOS 17, iPadOS 17, macOS Sonoma, and watchOS 10 that widgets – tiny pieces of apps delivered to the user in different contexts – have turned into something more than Home Screen ornaments. With interactivity now finally supported everywhere and a new area of iOS 17 entirely dedicated to widgets, it’s clear that Apple believes in widgets as an interaction paradigm that is here to stay for the next several years.

I don’t want to give away too much and spoil Federico’s thunder, so I’ll send you over to MacStories for the full review. As always, Federico’s mega-review has it all: In-depth details on every new feature, incredible graphics and artwork, and an incredible attention to detail. Also, be sure to  join the Club MacStories membership to unlock even more from Federico and the MacStories team.

I’ve come to describe Federico as a madman, and nothing exemplifies that more than his annual reviews. This year’s iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 review is no different. He’s still a madman, and still one of the best in the business of covering Apple.

And of course, be sure to check out 9to5Mac’s full coverage of iOS 17 as well. We’ve got roundups of new features, how-tos, and much more.