Gurman: iOS 16 to Include New Ways of System Interaction and 'Fresh Apple Apps'

[CarlJ]

I hope one of those "fresh Apple apps" is a calculator for the iPad.

Still don't get the level of anger over this, when (a) the Apple calculator app on the iPhone isn't that amazing and (b) the iPad is capable of running the literally thousands of calculator apps on the App Store. It's so much whining over a problem that is so easy for any individual to remedy for themselves. If you can't pick out a good app on your own, try PCalc - it's well liked by many, fairly customizable, and has a history going back before the iPhone existed.

 

[coolfactor]

"new ways of interacting" = "change for the sake of change"

 

[coolfactor]

iOS stopped being iconic since iOS 7. That redesign was quite awful. It has been polished a bit over the years but it’s still quite bad. A complete reset is needed.

I actually prefer the current iOS 15 design over the pre-iOS 7 designs. During versions 7-12, I wasn't entirely happy, but they've really refined it. The gestures, probably the best improvement, feel so natural and powerful.

 

[coolfactor]

Buy a good app. Jeez. You can crash a thousand dollars on an iPad but not a few dollars on a good calculator or a subscription to a good weather app?

I agree with the original poster. Why doesn't iPadOS have a native calculator app? Seems so bizarre. Is it really to help out the developer community?

 

[ZacksWorld]

If you don't think the iPad should have a first-party calculator and weather app you're out of your mind – the amount of time it would take Apple to bang these out is minuscule and the result would be no one ever mentioning it again...

You shouldn't have to download an app to literally compute on a computer! ✖️➗➕➖

 

[DocMultimedia]

Just give me the ability to customize the lock screen. Time and charge percentage. That's all you will ever need when you tap your phone during a meeting?

 

[Wildkraut]

Buy a good app. Jeez. You can crash a thousand dollars on an iPad but not a few dollars on a good calculator or a subscription to a good weather app?

Subscription to a weather app ?
If they make sure I just get good weather, i might do it, otherwise no thanks, subscription is evil.

 

[ghanwani]

You’ll have to pet your phone to get it to do things for you.

 

[pdaholic]

Hopefully the bigger iPhones get more multitasking capabilities.

 

[Hails09]

People just don't know what they want. If you compare iOS 7 to iOS 15, there were actually quite a few redesigns already. A lot of it does not look like the original vision any more besides some of the remaining icons (even most of them were redesigned in the meantime, even if just slightly).

It’s not a redesign that’s happened from iOS 7 to iOS 15 more like refinement small changes. The way I see apple is like they are kind of stuck because of the type of user base they have from young people to pensioners. The biggest percentage of the user base will moan & complain if they do a major overhaul, that’s why it’s been small refinements. Plus if you take into account the oldest phone supported will probably be iphone 7 then you have a lot of phones out there with old specs that a good handful of them would probably be horrible and unusable.

 

[_Spinn_]

it will include new ways of interacting and some "fresh Apple apps."

I just want to see effort made with Shortcuts, Automations, HomeKit & Matter, and Focus Modes. I expect that I'll be disappointed.

 

[Rychiar]

Agree with most of your post, but the App Store calculator apps all suck for one reason.
Calculators don't usually randomly have ads pop up and bother you.
Also, Apple bought DarkSky, they should absolutely bring a weather app to the iPad.
Outside of that, I agree.since when does the iPad not

And Weather. This is a running joke at this point.

My iPad has weather….

 

[nikaru]

Interactive widgets is a must for me. I want to control my Tesla from the widgets without the need to enter Tesla app.

 

[LiveM]

I hope one of those "fresh Apple apps" is a calculator for the iPad.

And weather. These seemingly insurmountable challenges remain the greatest Apple has ever faced.

 

[LiveM]

Can you imagine if you could finally search for Calendar events from more than 12 months ago, or include line breaks in text replacement phrases, without also owning a Mac?

What’s a computer? That is, Apple. That is.

 

[RadioHedgeFund]

Because people get bored, and don’t realize that these days all of our devices are basically appliances.
People don’t want to have to relearn how to use their phone every couple years or so, and Apple knows this.
iOS 6 to 7 was a one time thing, the iOS team was completely restructured with A guy with pretty much the opposite design philosophies as the previous leader put in charge, so of course there was going to be a big change.
And even that change upset a lot of people, and it took a while before they got it just right. And now they have something that most people are familiar with and that most people are happy with, there’s absolutely no reason to change it.

iOS7 was a reaction to the wider market, specifically Windows Phone 7. WP7 took the font-based UX of Windows Media Center and the Zune and expanded upon it with large typography and flat silhouettte icons like the signs on transportation systems, hence the codename 'Metro'.

Google initially reacted with its 'Holo' design language with Android 4.0 before going all-in on flat design with the effective Android relaunch that was 5.0 'Lollipop'.

Apple brought out iOS7 as their reaction to the flat design movement. There is a reason that Apple also launched the Lumia-like iPhone 5C alongside iOS7.

The writing had been on the wall for a number of years that iOS was starting to look a little tired and the less we say about Android before lollipop the better. WP7 accellerated this change by not only offering a refreshingly different take on the phone OS but also by being better. A new competitor forced Apple and Google to up their game and everybody benefited.

The theming options in Android 12 are nice and all but in reality it and iOS15 are really just slightly tweaked versions of what came before. We need another competitor to come along with a fresh vision of what a phone OS should look like to wake them both up again.

 

[B/D]

If Windows Phone 7 and IOS 7 were examples of a fresh design back then, then I guess I´m old and tired, because to me IOS 6 (and previous versions) was a million times better.

 

[SmugMaverick]

Honey question…what do you mean by app switching? We have a bunch of ways to switch apps. But people say they want app switching and so I am missing it.

 

[PsykX]

My iPad has weather….

It is not the native app, because it does not exist.
So you probably have an app that you pay, or an app filled with ads.

 

[PsykX]

So far that has been one of the dumbest additions. Apple added hardware without a software solution. Very android like. My guess is they drop LiDAR as a mistake.

I mostly agree with this, but LiDAR is used for Augmented Reality and could have uses with the camera, especially with Portrait Mode.

The problem I think is that Apple basically doesn't do much with it themselves and let devs do the work instead.

 

[jjudson]

idk why people want a redesign so badly. iOS is iconic and looks great…

Because even the Starship Enterprise had to eventually get rid of their light bulb indicators and CRT displays…

 

[MVMNT]

Will more than likely leverage the front facing camera and LiDAR sensors for hands free interaction.

Will become especially useful for countries that are getting tighter on handset usage in car.

 

[MVMNT]

So far that has been one of the dumbest additions. Apple added hardware without a software solution. Very android like. My guess is they drop LiDAR as a mistake.

No chance of LiDAR getting dropped as software and social network vendors are utilising it. Especially the likes of Tim-Tok, Apple can't afford to affect market share against that big a user base.

 

[urnotl33t]

You can activate led warnings in settings. I think it was in universal access / audio visual

Yep his is in Accessibility. Been there's since.... iOS 4? IPhoneOS 3?

 

[urnotl33t]

That’s already a thing.
Now people are just requesting things that already exist

Yep. There was a poster a few messages ahead of yours with a "16 point plan" of "features". All of those exist as-is, exist in a different capacity, or are otherwise "don't function in human social methodology in order to work as imagined".

I don't think this is a major issue with the poster/user, but rather speaks to the existing yet otherwise unknown complexities inherent to iOS at this late stage of its life. It's super configurable and complex. Much of it is designed to be hidden from view by the average non-technical person (like a car or microwave). If it was a super-nerd device, it wouldn't exist today (remember that Firefox phone for the one week it existed?).

On the flip side, since there are so many under-the-hood features, they can be hard to surface without an exploratory safari excursion through the jungle of Settings. Apple has to walk a fine line between "it works well out of the box" and "everyone else will have to figure it out". The iPhone (and anything else) should not require the user to read a 1430 page manual to operate it.

Now we get feature requests that already exist. The frustrating part is that people post rants rather than taking time for due diligence themselves (personal responsibility) to see if it's possible now. People lost their sense of "personal responsibility" since the time of those financial institutions saying "you're not responsible for fraud"; this just instilled a general sense of "I'm not responsible for anything; it's not my problem."

TL;DR

Aye, I've veered off track into a study of human sociology at this point. So I'll just close with.... "Explore the options in Settings app and eat your veggies."