Agree. There are plenty of reasons a person might opt to own an iPad rather than a laptop. Maybe they do a lot of sketching or drawing. Maybe they already have a desktop Mac at their office for heavy lifting. Whatever. But, of all of the reasons; cost size, and weight would not be on my list. Not if we are comparing an iPad Air 13 in with 256GB storage plus Apple Keyboard plus Apple Pencil to a base M4 MBA (16/256), which can routinely be purchased on sale for $799.
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iPadOS 26 is an Absolute Mess
- Thread starter tweaknmod
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Apple listened to that ridiculous, niche userbase that wanted a Mac and a Mac with a touchscreen and here we are.
Those same users are still complaining.
I will remain on iPadOS 18.
Yep ... I have nothing against Federico Viticci (he seems like a great guy), but the amount of attention he got on "doing Mac stuff with an iPad" was ridiculous.
Convoluted setups, Shortcut sequences that were like a 100 lines long, cases & dongles & adapters ... just absolutely ridiculous wastes of time in pursuit of "not buying a Mac", for some reason.
It's like trying to force yourself to use a screwdriver to pound in nails and refusing to just go buy a hammer to hit nails with.
Yeah, it’s even worse: it’s like repeatedly, annoyingly, incessantly asking screwdriver manufacturers to add a rounded head so that it can pound in nails instead of, you know, buying a hammer.
They got what they wanted. The touch experience of the iPad has been diminished. But wait, they didn’t: they are still complaining.
This is all on them.
I understand. My point was not whether listening to this narrower user base was advised or ill advised. I was simply responding to the assertion that Apple does not listen to their customers. They sometimes do listen, which is part of the reason we are here right now.
Personally, I am not too fussed either way. I use my iPad as a tablet not a laptop. But, I can toggle the windowing off or just ignore it, and it really does not bother me. But, I understand others don't feel that way.
This notion that the iPad cannot evolve to something more… is simply crazy. Like all computing platforms… there’s improvements to the interface, pre-existing multitasking (SplitView/SlideOver) was limited in nature which people seem to gloss over.
Apple scrapped the old multitasking and brought in something new... which will be improved upon as I stated earlier in this thread. SplitView/SlideOver was introduced back in iOS 9 and over time Apple added features to it... folks seem to have it wrapped in their minds that when it was first released it was perfect.
This! It can be toggled off and use the iPad in Full Screen mode... but obviously, that's not the response they want.
I briefly toyed with the idea of getting a MacBook instead of the iPad but as I have said elsewhere, I do not like laptops. Basically, I do not like the keyboard.
No, we don't gloss over it.
That's a feature, not a failing.
I'm all for iPad Pro people getting w/e hybrid setup they want. I think Apple should break that off and restrict it all to the iPad Pro lineup.
Many of us like iPads ... as iPads ... not as convertibles with software that gets gummed up with all the complexity of trying to be everything to everyone.
Sure. But, you do realize that people will complain that Apple is limiting windowing to the Pro as an up sell money grab because the M3 processor in the Air could easily handle it.
Damned if you do, and damned if you don’t situation.
If you're going to get flak no matter what, as you say, just make decisions that make sense in that case, right?
What makes sense is for the Pro line to do more and be more than just "more expensive" and a "trim level" as it has become.
Apparently folks are out there who want the "almost a Mac, but not quite and still an iPad".
I'm all for it!
But not at the expense of what made iPads so great to begin with.
They could do all this just with software honestly.
Software is supposed to be so much more flexible than Apple is allowing it to be.
We should be able to have all sort of multitasking choices and ways to configure our iPad. It's reprehensible to just rug pull how multi-tasking worked and tell everyone "here's the new ways -- deal with it".
I'd argue we should have far more optionality on the UI, also.
Being limited... is a feature? Not sure I follow you on that one.
And then you will have iPad Air users... that's equipped with M series chip complaining why they can't get those features.
Heck, there some users who have a base iPad are glad to have these features... you are advocating to take those features away from them?
And you can still have that... as @Mainsail pointed out.
Perhaps. But if I were an iPad Air owner, I would want to have the choice to toggle windowing on or toggle it off, depending on my workflow and user preference.
I wouldn’t say ‘most macbooks’ but it definitely is more expensive than an Macbook air without the storage hike. other than that Macbooks are generally more expensive.
well, when you put desktop class CPU’s and GPU’s into an ipad, your going to have people asking for desktop class apps and multitasking to go along with it.
I have long hated the concept of only bringing ‘pro software’ to ‘pro’ branded hardware. Sure, keep the hardware differences but I don’t want to pay extra money for extra power that I won’t need, for software that I would have to set a very high bar for only to be disappointed because of the many software features that I expected to use not working out. perfect example of this is stage manager.
Fair enough ... I can respect that.
I still think users should be able to more purposefully "choose" the iPad experience they want.
Almost like a "Pro mode" and "Classic iPad mode" sort of thing?
This garbage that takes seven taps to get to what we had earlier isn’t an improvement. It’s a regression.
And they are mistaken. Whatever the chipset inside, it’s still an iPad.
I guess ask all the people who constantly tell me iPhones are "better" when you can only get software from Apple?
(where they get their cut of the revenue -- which is all the lockdown is about anyhow)
One app is already open… you bring another app in. TAP once (traffic lights), HOLD and tap FILL arrange…. Is that seven taps? And then there is the fact that apps remember their last state. So, sometimes you don’t even have to do any adjustments because… apps stay in their half state (done this plenty of times).
But I prefer to use the gestures.. one app on the left while bring in the 2nd app to flick to the right. And the crazy part about your response… you ignore the rest I stated. The old system was LIMITED… we only had two apps actively available and the 3rd app (SlideOver) was hovered over the two.
And correct me if I’m wrong, you are not big on updates in general… so it being limited was perfect for you. But personally, I wanted a change.
Basically, you are saying… that iPhones being limited to only app downloads from the App Store is considered a feature?
Yeah, that doesn’t make any sense… and if I’m not mistaken users have the ability to sideload using developer accounts.
Which is all something I used to be able to do in one slide gesture. It was that many under 26.0, Apple reintroducing a form of slide over in 26.1 is an admission they got it wrong removing it. I think the application in 26.1 is inferior to the original but because it's a beta and could undergo changes I'll reserve judgement until full release.
It made zero sense to remove slide over in the first place, that slide in gesture does not interfere with any other function in the new windowed environment. Or the other option would have been to keep it in 'Full-Screen Apps' mode (rename it 'Classic' or something), because it wouldn't interfere with operation there either just be available for those that wanted it.
Fully aware… have admitted that it was much easier to get into SplitView under the old system. However, you gain more freedom under the new system… let’s disregard that. But my response is disputing the notion it takes that long to get into SplitView under this new system.
SlideOver the way it was previously… could be position to the left or right while currently Recent App area ALSO sits on the left side of the screen when using Stage Manager.
And if you were to look under iPadOS 18… you would see Full Screen mode is free of multitasking, which Apple had to do because they received criticism from users about accidentally evoking multitasking gestures while using the iPad.
To be fair you've ignored my point that there would have been zero detriment to maintain the slide over gestures from iPadOS 18 because it doesn't interfere with any of the mechanics of the new windowed system, nor would it if they moved it into a 'Classic' option with people still being able to use full screen apps.
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I didn’t ignore it… I responded to your point. Have not used Stage Manager? That was part of my response… the fact that Recent App area sits on the left side can be detriment in using Slide Over gestures. Because Slide Over is not only enabled in the new Windowed mode… but Stage Manager as well.
And if you moved Slide Over gesture to Classic (guessing you mean Full Screen) mode then you would end up having multitasking forced on users who don’t care to have it. Ultimately, the criticism stems from wanting 4 modes… Full Screen, SplitView/SlideOver, Stage Manager and Windowed Mode.
And if Apple grants 4 modes, great! But it appears as though they rather keep the Settings set to 3 modes.