Gurman: Apple Preparing to Debut Enhanced Lock Screen, Windowing in iPadOS, Redesigned Mac Apps, and More at WWDC

[bradman83]

I will hate that if it turns out to be true. Having to exit the app I am using to go into a completely different app to change a setting for the app I am already in is not something I will cheer.

On iOS/iPadOS, it’s a mishmash of apps that have their preferences in the Settings app (mostly Apple’s first-party apps) and apps that have their Preferences in the app itself (just about every other third party app out there). It’s arguably one of the worst aspects of iOS’s user interface design.

I get that certain core OS app settings could be ported to System Preferences. Someone brought up the fact that Finder’s settings to show volumes on desktops is in Finder’s preferences and not System Preferences, and to that end I would agree. But please don’t try to force third party developers into using the System Preferences app.

 

[jonnyb098]

How about Apple allows multiple audio streams on ios/ipados so that my music and podcasts don’t STOP when browsing safari. its beyond annoying and has been for…10+ years.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

One of the biggest reason people love Stickies is its almost nonexistent UI which allows them to organize numerous stickies across their desktop, wherever they like, without extra clutter, along with the ability to have differently colored windows, just like you can with real-life sticky notes.

While Notes does support multiple windows by double-clicking on an individual note, you cannot have multiple empty notes open simultaneously, and the smallest possible window in Notes (380×300) is about 70× larger than the minimum window size in Stickies (54×30). Type customization in Notes is very limited, and of course, you can't set a background color.

Also, Stickies is local to the machine out of the box — no need to fuss around with accounts or System Preferences or the app preferences to get to an “On My Mac” mode. If you don't want or need your notes synced to all your devices, it…just works. Imagine that.

I don’t think you’re understanding what I’m asking for.
I’m not asking Apple to *remove* the functionality of stickies.
I’m asking them to *integrate* Stickies directly into the Notes app instead of having two separate applications, both with the purpose of notetaking.
Add it directly into the file menu of Notes, “new stickie”

 

[Premium1]

How about the ability to arrange icons from the bottom up on the homescreen? Screens are getting larger, it makes sense (and would still keep apple's grid of icons look). *And yes I know you can use widgets to do that but would love to be able to without having to stick widgets on the screen.

 

[jonblatho]

I don’t think you’re understanding what I’m asking for.
I’m not asking Apple to *remove* the functionality of stickies.
I’m asking them to *integrate* Stickies directly into the Notes app instead of having two separate applications, both with the purpose of notetaking.

No, I understand completely, and while it's less shortsighted than your suggestion to merge TextEdit's functionality into Pages, it's still a bad idea, and there are myriad reasons why it hasn't yet been done — if Apple wanted to merge them, they would likely have done so by now.

They're intended for similar but distinct use cases — they're meant to follow the physical metaphors of sticky notes vs. notepads — and the UI is completely different between the two apps. If you're expecting major disk space savings or something, you aren't getting them because the Stickies app as of macOS Monterey consumes only 1.8 MB (not even large enough to call it a rounding error at this point) and the Stickies code wouldn't just vanish once merged into Notes — most or all of the Stickies app’s 1.8 MB disk usage would be added right back into the 37.7 MB Notes app.

From about any angle I'm able to approach this supposed engineering problem, the Stickies app's presence hurts no one, but merging it into Notes would upset a lot of users with zero tangible benefit.

Add it directly into the file menu of Notes, “new stickie”

Under this way overly simplistic concept, the UI for viewing and managing existing Stickies is...? What if you want to hide (as in ⌘H) Notes while working with Stickies or vice-versa? Maybe this simple problem isn't actually nearly as simple as you think.

 

[jwolf6589]

Because it would be nice to be able to see your health status and progress on the iPad when you are using the device, instead of having to stop and pick up the phone, which has a much smaller screen. There is also the fact that many people would like to use the Apple Watch, don't own an iPhone but, they do own an iPad. Bringing the Heath App and pairing to the iPad would open up more sales for Apple and more usability for the users of said devices.

I dont see the draw since most people do own a iPhone. But this is my view.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I dont see the draw since most people do own a iPhone. But this is my view.

Says the person who (I believe) wants a stock calculator on the iPad.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

How about Apple allows multiple audio streams on ios/ipados so that my music and podcasts don’t STOP when browsing safari. its beyond annoying and has been for…10+ years.

That’s an app thing. And, I’d imagine that Apple provides a recommendation to folks to mute their own audio when another audio source starts to play. Given the proper app support (like the background audio setting in some apps), audio from Garageband and Safari can play at the same time. It can be cacophonous, but it’s there.

 

[jonnyb098]

That’s an app thing. And, I’d imagine that Apple provides a recommendation to folks to mute their own audio when another audio source starts to play. Given the proper app support (like the background audio setting in some apps), audio from Garageband and Safari can play at the same time. It can be cacophonous, but it’s there.

It’s a safari thing due to autoplaying videos and such. Happens a ton on news sites. Even if it’s muted for whatever reason safari will cut off any playing audio to favor the website. The Mac doesn’t have this problem as it allows for multiple audio streams simultaneously.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

It’s a safari thing due to autoplaying videos and such. Happens a ton on news sites. Even if it’s muted for whatever reason safari will cut off any playing audio to favor the website. The Mac doesn’t have this problem as it allows for multiple audio streams simultaneously.

What I’m saying is that the OS supports background music playing continuously regardless of what Safari’s doing NOW. If the podcast app developers were to update their apps to use the same “background music” service GarageBand is, problem solved.

 

[ccsicecoke]

Leave macOS alone!

 

[bluecoast]

My dad struggles with the iPad after so many years of using Windows at his job before retiring. His use of Safari completely baffles me as I lead so many split window instances open it took me a full 30 seconds to swipe close each one. I’be shown him tabs, but that hasn’t caught on with him. He actually achieved some sort of mode that I didn’t even know existed on iPadOS. I do wish there was a way to keep a simpler mode (At Ease) and yet allow for more advanced users without splitting it into an Easy or Pro mode. Alas, I don’t think that is going to happen.

It’s a really good point you make.

When I take my 70+ parents through iOS it makes me realise how complex and unintuitive iOS has become.

I’d also argue that the iOS 15 safari ui is unintuitive wherever your age!

Finally, I’m hoping that porting the iPadOS settings approach to the Mac means a general clean up of seatings on all platforms.

 

[Isengardtom]

I hope to get a calculator and weather app in IPadOS.

Or at least an interactive widget. Something that opens a Quick note style window that allows to interact with it whilst keeping your other apps open

Other wants :
- Improved Home Screen app placement. More MacOS style, less iOS style (but keep the option available for the people that like the current setup)
- Proper external display support / further improvements to Sidecar and Universal control
- Multi user support
- ”pro Apps” which includes a push to better games: Sim games especially would be good on the iPad. Apple Silicon allows for iPad games on the Mac, but it would be nice if desktop / laptop games would be easy to bring to the iPad. Apple should support developers in this more.

 

[bradman83]

How about the ability to arrange icons from the bottom up on the homescreen? Screens are getting larger, it makes sense (and would still keep apple's grid of icons look). *And yes I know you can use widgets to do that but would love to be able to without having to stick widgets on the screen.

Or the ability to place icons and widgets wherever you want (within the grid) on the home screen instead. Want to sort them from the bottom up? You can do that. Only on the right side? You can do that too. It's one of the few user interface aspects of Android I wish Apple would bring to iOS.

 

[giebe]

Just bring wide screen support for external displays on iPads.

 

[abowlby]

My list for iPadOS is; the ability to extend the display (at multiple resolutions), Thunderbolt 4 improvements on iPad Pro (such as the option to safely eject peripherals), WebM support in Safari, allow processes to continue in the background (i.e downloading a file), add some “robustness” to the Files app/enhance drag and drop.

 

[svish]

Looking forward to all the changes this year, especially for iPadOS.

 

[SmugMaverick]

GIVE US INTERACTIVE WIDGETS FFS

The rest sounds fine, but Gurman stole these “leaks” from Twitter leakers that reported these months ago.

He’s such a hack.

New icons, multi windows, new control centre and notifications, all needed

 

[jonnyb098]

What I’m saying is that the OS supports background music playing continuously regardless of what Safari’s doing NOW. If the podcast app developers were to update their apps to use the same “background music” service GarageBand is, problem solved.

So by your logic apple needs to update their own apps like music and podcasts. Which was my whole point in the first place. I don’t care how they do it it just needs to be done.

 

[jonnyb098]

My dad struggles with the iPad after so many years of using Windows at his job before retiring. His use of Safari completely baffles me as I lead so many split window instances open it took me a full 30 seconds to swipe close each one. I’be shown him tabs, but that hasn’t caught on with him. He actually achieved some sort of mode that I didn’t even know existed on iPadOS. I do wish there was a way to keep a simpler mode (At Ease) and yet allow for more advanced users without splitting it into an Easy or Pro mode. Alas, I don’t think that is going to happen.

Why not just turn off multitasking and split screen in settings. iOS can be made very simple If needed.

EDIT : nvm apple took that away in iPadOS 15…

 

[turbineseaplane]

Hopefully they make iOS16 look and scale much better than iOS15 does on the iPad mini models.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

So by your logic apple needs to update their own apps like music and podcasts.

Right. It’s not an OS issue, the OS can handle multiple “background audio” apps at once. If you want the Apple’s app to be handled like background audio as a feature (and it kinda makes sense as auto play websites have unfortunately become the norm), I’d say provide feedback to Apple.

 

[44267547]

I realize it won’t happen, but the ‘health App’ to migrate to iPadOS for a more detailed layout depicting more graphs, charts, statistics, ect.

The condensed iPhone layout isn’t enough and is to finite. There’s plenty to expand on here.

 

[George Dawes]

Just make a dedicated os for the vastly increased screen space of the iPad over the tiny iPhone

The pro models should definitely have a separate pro’ os

 

[Premium1]

Or the ability to place icons and widgets wherever you want (within the grid) on the home screen instead. Want to sort them from the bottom up? You can do that. Only on the right side? You can do that too. It's one of the few user interface aspects of Android I wish Apple would bring to iOS.

Agree 100%