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iPadOS 26 is an Absolute Mess

01cowherd said:
I find it baffling that "Full Screen" still allows multiple app instances. For example, double tap an email in Mail or "Open in New Window" in Safari or News. Anecdotally, I've never seen a normal user get confused over Split View, but I have seen them with 5+ windows open of News or Safari without realizing it.
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Yes, it is strange. I agree.
 
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Heat_Fan89 said:
Kal Madda was suspended, for what? He's always been helpful, polite and never confrontational. 🧐
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There is a couple of posters, WHO SHALL REMAIN NAMELESS SO DON'T REPORT ME, that are doing all of this. Still, I thought Kal Madda would have been safe due to what he was generally arguing. Ah well.
 
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Mrbiggestman said:
Officially going to be selling off my iPad A16 and my mac mini M4.

iPad A16- A mix of different sizes with different compromises, the trackpad in the 11 inch range is just to small though I didn't want to size up to the 13 inch and feel like everything is a massive slab at the expense of having a big trackpad. iPadOS though really good in concept, it needs work to get all the features to work cohesively and the friction between apps.

Mac mini M4- In reality, never fit into my workflow, I mostly work at college (UK) and so there isn't much portability but it was the first device that got me in MacOS. I was also never that productive, the big 27" screen was distracting and screen real estate was overbearing. The most I was honestly doing was watching videos and gaming, the rest of the time it felt like a liablity sitting around.
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Thanks for talking to us about it.

So you ‘re off apple devices completely?

I really thought you were enjoying the new os, was there anything particularly breaking your workflow about it?

Though friction would be enough for me too (and the right word for it), so i get it if that’s the case.
 
Mrbiggestman said:
[…]

iPad A16- A mix of different sizes with different compromises, the trackpad in the 11 inch range is just to small though I didn't want to size up to the 13 inch and feel like everything is a massive slab at the expense of having a big trackpad. iPadOS though really good in concept, it needs work to get all the features to work cohesively and the friction between apps.

[…]
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All devices have their tradeoffs. But the A16 is one size 11 inches. The larger 13 inches is the iPad Air with the m4 chip. So a different , and more expensive model.

However if you can elaborate on the friction between apps. I dont feel that is the case on my IPad Pro m5.
 
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My single biggest gripe with ipadOS 26 is Safari. Why on earth you can’t set the address bar on the bottom just like in iOS? And why you can’t swipe from said address bar to reveal all open tabs? This single thing is driving me nuts in my iPad Mini because it would make whole lot of sense here.
 
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the-bigwig said:
My single biggest gripe with ipadOS 26 is Safari. Why on earth you can’t set the address bar on the bottom just like in iOS? And why you can’t swipe from said address bar to reveal all open tabs? This single thing is driving me nuts in my iPad Mini because it would make whole lot of sense here.
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I would seriously consider a new browser if they moved the address bar to the bottom. Maybe a toggle for that would be in order though.
 
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iPadOS 26.5 on iPad Pro 2019 an absolute mess - constant loop for new Face ID recognition and Password - yet without Keyboard showing - so there is no way to enter your new password. What the f...ki? Not that its basically stopped charging after latest beta, its now impossible to set it up. Is Apple on drugs or what. This one is just worst ever.
 
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pdoherty said:
Yeah I think the pissing match over who is more anecdotal misses the point that there shouldn't be ANY examples with this type of bug as they're all running the same OS and it's Apple's own website
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It actually doesn’t miss the point. I’ll grant that all software including iPadOS has bugs, but iPadOS is far from being as bad as claimed which is more the point. And there have been considerable discussions on “I don’t like this”, which doesn’t make iPadOS a mess.

But we are all here to post our opinions and opine on said topic.
 
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I7guy said:
It actually doesn’t miss the point. I’ll grant that all software including iPadOS has bugs, but iPadOS is far from being as bad as claimed which is more the point. And there have been considerable discussions on “I don’t like this”, which doesn’t make iPadOS a mess.

But we are all here to post our opinions and opine on said topic.
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“It’s buggy but not as buggy as it could have been” is hardly a praise for the most “premium” ecosystem on the market backed by the richest / 2nd richest corporation on Earth .
 
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iPadOS 26 is the buggiest and most poorly designed operating system Apple has released over the past 26 years, and no other release else even comes close. The iPadOS user experience is intolerably poor, and the only thing keeping this platform alive is its world-class hardware and form factor.
 
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I'm not a fan of liquid glass, but the thing that annoys me about Ipad 26 is I'm not sure where the windows are going. For example, I swipe up and when I want to get back to the home screen it still looks dimmed like I have a window still open somewhere and not sure where. It forces me to close everything just to get back to the home screen and I shouldn't have to do that. They really wanted to make it look like MacOS and forgot the reason why the Ipad was created in the first place.
 
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sjsharksfan12 said:
I'm not a fan of liquid glass, but the thing that annoys me about Ipad 26 is I'm not sure where the windows are going. For example, I swipe up and when I want to get back to the home screen it still looks dimmed like I have a window still open somewhere and not sure where. It forces me to close everything just to get back to the home screen and I shouldn't have to do that. They really wanted to make it look like MacOS and forgot the reason why the Ipad was created in the first place.
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Yeah, I'm not a fan of the fact that you can't actually just look at homescreen easily anymore, you always have windows kind of pushed to the sides and if you tap away they come back again.
 
SnowCrocodile said:
“It’s buggy but not as buggy as it could have been” is hardly a praise for the most “premium” ecosystem on the market backed by the richest / 2nd richest corporation on Earth .
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They claimed all software has bugs (which is true)... not once did they state it could of been more worst.

I like iPadOS 26... think it's the best iPadOS update, gave us new features like window tiling, menu bar and more flexibility in window sizing. And I like what they did with Slide Over... can move around more freely. Liquid Glass is something new and fresh... which is welcomed.

I’m curious though… what improvements did you want out of iPadOS 18?
 
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Ludatyk said:
They claimed all software has bugs (which is true)... not once did they state it could of been more worst.

I like iPadOS 26... think it's the best iPadOS update, gave us new features like window tiling, menu bar and more flexibility in window sizing. And I like what they did with Slide Over... can move around more freely. Liquid Glass is something new and fresh... which is welcomed.

I’m curious though… what improvements did you want out of iPadOS 18?
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Better window management on iPad was a welcome change. The ugly visual bugs are not.

Otherwise, I'd say it was a net negative from my personal perspective:

  • Noticeably worse battery life on all of my devices. I'd say at least 25% decrease across the board.
  • Liquid Glass is a step backward and makes iPhone look like a cheap homemade Android skin from 2010s. To me it looks "trailer park cool". Definitely not polished upscale visual experience. Of course this is a subjective opinion. On iPad, the visual impact isn't as noticeable (sans the bugs).
  • I don't like the way Preview has been implemented, but that's a not a major complaint.
The improvements that I would want out of iOS 18 would be better multitasking and external monitor / peripherals support (it didn't work out all that well, especially at first, but at least they tried), better file management (probably not coming to iPadOS as a matter of policy)... well that's about it. IMHO iPadOS was already a pretty good tablet OS, I'd just like to see more features for using it as a standalone computer. All that massive UX change was both unnecessary and poorly implemented.
 
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SnowCrocodile said:
“It’s buggy but not as buggy as it could have been” is hardly a praise for the most “premium” ecosystem on the market backed by the richest / 2nd richest corporation on Earth .
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I think my words were all software has bugs. And with iPadOS I’ve encountered one in windowed mode while browsing MR and having the stoplights over the hamburger menu. I did not say “iPadOS has is not as buggy as it could have been.” That’s a cold take of which was not being said.

iPadOS works very well on my iPad. Battery life across all devices in 26 is with good or the same as before. Liquid Glass does look great in the Mac. The windowed iPad multitasking is much better than slide over on iOS 18.

Overall a great update.
 
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I7guy said:
I think my words were all software has bugs. And with iPadOS I’ve encountered one in windowed mode while browsing MR and having the stoplights over the hamburger menu. I did not say “iPadOS has is not as buggy as it could have been.” That’s a cold take of which was not being said.

iPadOS works very well on my iPad. Battery life across all devices in 26 is with good or the same as before. Liquid Glass does look great in the Mac. The windowed iPad multitasking is much better than slide over on iOS 18.

Overall a great update.
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Battery life has also been the same for my Mini 7 and M2 iPad Air. I personally like the clear look best. I tried it with a tint and I keep going back to clear icons. It's a nice start for Liquid Glass. That said, I get that the look is very polarizing, some like it (me), others hate it and some think it's meh.
 
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SnowCrocodile said:
Better window management on iPad was a welcome change. The ugly visual bugs are not.
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But how many visual bugs are we discussing... I'm aware you mention some Safari bug, which I haven't encountered... but anything else you noticed?

I don't like the way Preview has been implemented, but that's a not a major complaint.
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If I'm not mistaken... you don't like the fact that files/photos in Files app open in Preview instead of the Files app? I don't mind it... cause it's Apple's way to get users to utilize the Preview app.

The improvements that I would want out of iOS 18 would be better multitasking and external monitor / peripherals support (it didn't work out all that well, especially at first, but at least they tried), better file management (probably not coming to iPadOS as a matter of policy)... well that's about it.
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And for the most part... these improvements were part of iPadOS 26.

Heat_Fan89 said:
It's a nice start for Liquid Glass. That said, I get that the look is very polarizing, some like it (me), others hate it and some think it's meh.
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And that's the thing... design is subjective. I recall when iOS 7 was introduced.... it was met with loud criticism. But over time... more refinements, it got better.

Folks act as if this is the final stage of Liquid Glass... great that you mention "nice start," because it's far from finished.
 
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Ludatyk said:
And that's the thing... design is subjective. I recall when iOS 7 was introduced.... it was met with loud criticism. But over time... more refinements, it got better.

Folks act as if this is the final stage of Liquid Glass... great that you mention "nice start," because it's far from finished.
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The funny thing is, I loved the look of iOS 5/6 when I purchased an iPad 2 and the following year an iPad 3. Then iOS 7 was introduced and I also liked the look. The only thing that kept me from giving iOS 7 a thumbs up was because neither the iPad 3 and 3 were able to handle the frosted/blurred effects. The iPad 3 was even worse as IIRC it used a supped up version of the iPad 2 SoC.

I also remember the criticism that iOS 7 got when rotating the iPad on the home page and it was stuttering and very chopping. Eventually Apple fixed that.
 
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Heat_Fan89 said:
The funny thing is, I loved the look of iOS 5/6 when I purchased an iPad 2 and the following year an iPad 3. Then iOS 7 was introduced and I also liked the look. The only thing that kept me from giving iOS 7 a thumbs up was because neither the iPad 3 and 3 were able to handle the frosted/blurred effects. The iPad 3 was even worse as IIRC it used a supped up version of the iPad 2 SoC.

I also remember the criticism that iOS 7 got when rotating the iPad on the home page and it was stuttering and very chopping. Eventually Apple fixed that.
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The main thing that iOS 7 broke was that it took a bunch of Apps that had native iPad layouts which took advantage of the larger screen and simply removed them. It took years to get back to the point where iPad was its own distinct thing again with Apps that actually used the bigger screen.

This isn't a good thing, its just churn for the sake of churn, I'd rather have an older looking app that takes its time to update to the new UI rather than having them yank features out of the app and deliver a new looking UI before its ready.
 
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