Holy crap it's true and on the dev downloads portal pic.twitter.com/gqPpTDmlOr — Steve Troughton-Smith (@stroughtonsmith) June 3, 2019

The info comes via iOS developer Steve Troughton-Smith, who tweeted a screenshot from Apple's developer downloads portal -- it now lists iPadOS separate from iOS, macOS, tvOS and watchOS as a fifth platform.

As to how this will differ from the iOS 12 currently running on modern iPads, it's too early to say. But Apple's WWDC keynote kicks off in just a few minutes and we'll certainly learn more before long. Up to today, rumors had indicated that Apple will show off a new multitasking experience and a revamped home screen. The multitasking redesign might come about by new functionality that lets apps be broken out into moveable windows, something that would make the iPad a lot more like Macs and Windows PCs.

Whatever Apple has in store, stay tuned here -- we'll be posting the details as we get them.