iPadOS 26 is an Absolute Mess

[eltoslightfoot]

I’m not going to discuss this here because it isn’t the thread, but I’ll just say that after 15 years of iOS experience without ever updating (in the overwhelming majority of devices I’ve had) or replacing a battery (0 batteries replaced):

Battery health is irrelevant if the device is never updated.

If you want the full argument, go to the “does Apple install malware to slow down your iPhone?” thread on the iPhone subforum, this isn’t the thread for this.

I made a full iTunes restore, if I had updated via OTA, maybe, but I don’t think this is the case here.

After everything I’ve tried up to an updated iPhone 11 was worsened, and after reading A16 reports, I’m inclined to believe this.

I distrust reports from people who update and keep saying everything is fine so much (because they’ve always said that and whenever I got my hands on the device they had mentioned my experience was always awful) that I will not believe them until I can test a device myself.

Now this is different. This I can agree with. The M1 is powerful enough to withstand updates thus far. Battery life is probably not the same, but then again, maybe it’s not enough to be truly noticeable if you don’t track it.

You probably have the bugs everyone has, even on the latest device. An M1 iPad is a whole different ballgame, because we aren’t at the end of its update life yet. Still a lot of breaking to go by Apple. Just give it some time. I was considering devices updated to their final versions.

The A16 has small issues like the ones I mentioned earlier (which may or may not have been fixed), but to be honest, I doubt I’d care that much myself about what I’ve seen. It’s not right, but it won’t change the experience.

Yeah, like I said, an M1 iPad is probably fine for now. The 9.7-inch iPad Pro was mostly fine with iOS 12 (I have one). By the time iPadOS 16 came however… whole different story.

I disagree with this completely, but I’ll just leave it there. I explained above.

Pretty much all comments I’ve seen confirmed it. Apple might have fixed it somewhere along the way, but it was there.


I think it’s still a matter of tolerance. I think that the first major update at least must be pristine, flawless, like-new. This one, 26, clearly wasn’t, but some people may not care too much.

Still, I think it’s better for you that you’re used to running betas and have a higher tolerance. Seriously, it gives you a far better margin for error to be satisfied with how your devices work.

Since I know I would notice those details, I have to stay behind. I especially notice the battery life drops, and I never enjoyed my 9.7-inch iPad Pro the same way after apple forced it out of iOS 9 into iOS 12 and took 30% of the battery life in the process.

Based on what I’ve read, I’d feel the same with my A16 on 26, so I’m staying on iPadOS 18.

And I really dislike liquid glass, especially on the iPad. But that is totally subjective.

I think you might really be on to something with tolerance for these current OSes. Those of us that have been using Mac OS X since the beginning remember actual competence in the OS.

It used to be that Mac OS, iPadOS, and iOS really were well done. I never rebooted my iPhone. Ever. I remember when my brother first got one (he was on like an HTC Incredible I think), and he was like how often should I reboot? And I got to tell him "we don't do that here." Well now we do. I reboot about once a week. Siri randomly answers things wrong.

Same with iPad. It's now clunky if you are used to a certain way of doing things. It's slower, it drains the battery faster. Notice that even rated battery life on the iPad Pros is WAY below that of a Macbook Air. Things just aren't quite right. There are these underlying snap grids that affect only some apps. You can't just resize them to any size you want. But part of that is trying to make the iPad something it isn't.

And now the Mac. Tahoe has made my Mac collect dust. I planned on using my Windows 11 Laptop (which is a beast with an RTX 5090 I grant you) for gaming, and my M4 Macbook Air for everything else, but it just sits there. It's just clunky. Huge rounded corners on all the apps. The dock looks bad now. Just not good.

There really was a golden age of awesomeness for Apple software there for a while. Now it's just gone. And some like Kal Madda and Ludatyk say everythiing is peachy, but I disagree. I don't care to argue with them anymore so I just ignore these threads and stick to others where people accept that we are not a good trajectory software-wise.

I am really hoping WWDC changes things, but I am afraid it will be all AI all the time and no fixes to anything.

I hope I am wrong. Either way, I am going back to other threads. Just know you are not alone, and there are far more of us than "just a few people." The argument that Apple would fix things if there were a lot, doesn't really hold water. Apple made us put up with the butterfly keyboard for 4 long stupid years. It is what it is.

 

[Ludatyk]

There really was a golden age of awesomeness for Apple software there for a while. Now it's just gone. And some like Kal Madda and Ludatyk say everythiing is peachy, but I disagree. I don't care to argue with them anymore so I just ignore these threads and stick to others where people accept that we are not a good trajectory software-wise.

Everything is peachy? I criticize when it's warranted... I use Windows & Android, so it's not as if I'm tied to one platform. I know bugs and occasional hiccups exist on EVERY platform... humans are not perfect, mistakes happen.

It's just folks seem it's all doom and gloom... I don't harp and put on a magnifying glass trying to find each and every issue. I use them as tools for certain tasks and go on about my day... ultimately that's what they are.

 

[Kal Madda]

I’m not going to discuss this here because it isn’t the thread, but I’ll just say that after 15 years of iOS experience without ever updating (in the overwhelming majority of devices I’ve had) or replacing a battery (0 batteries replaced):

Battery health is irrelevant if the device is never updated.

If you want the full argument, go to the “does Apple install malware to slow down your iPhone?” thread on the iPhone subforum, this isn’t the thread for this.

We’re simply never going to agree on that. Physics *exists*. Batteries degrade with use. That is a fact…. There isn’t the LiPo battery cell out there that magically last for 4 years of daily use and never degrades at all…

And we will never agree that Apple allegedly loads “malware” onto iPhones to supposedly “slow them down”… 🤦🏼‍♂️.

I made a full iTunes restore, if I had updated via OTA, maybe, but I don’t think this is the case here.

After everything I’ve tried up to an updated iPhone 11 was worsened, and after reading A16 reports, I’m inclined to believe this.

I distrust reports from people who update and keep saying everything is fine so much (because they’ve always said that and whenever I got my hands on the device they had mentioned my experience was always awful) that I will not believe them until I can test a device myself.

And that’s your prerogative, it just doesn’t mean your conclusions are necessarily accurate. And that’s fine, if you’re worried about encountering problems with a product, then there’s nothing wrong with avoiding it.

Now this is different. This I can agree with. The M1 is powerful enough to withstand updates thus far. Battery life is probably not the same, but then again, maybe it’s not enough to be truly noticeable if you don’t track it.

Again, of course battery life isn’t going to be the same, I used the device daily for about 5 years. The battery capacity of the lipo cells obviously degraded in that time with that many charge cycles… Again, that’s hardware. Batteries degrade…

You probably have the bugs everyone has, even on the latest device.

I’m pretty sure I can determine which bugs I do and do not have on my devices…

An M1 iPad is a whole different ballgame, because we aren’t at the end of its update life yet. Still a lot of breaking to go by Apple. Just give it some time. I was considering devices updated to their final versions.

I don’t agree with the presupposition that Apple is trying to “break” devices…

The A16 has small issues like the ones I mentioned earlier (which may or may not have been fixed), but to be honest, I doubt I’d care that much myself about what I’ve seen. It’s not right, but it won’t change the experience.

Not universally. I and many others have not encountered the alleged bugs in question…

Yeah, like I said, an M1 iPad is probably fine for now. The 9.7-inch iPad Pro was mostly fine with iOS 12 (I have one). By the time iPadOS 16 came however… whole different story.

For you and some others, perhaps. For everyone? Not so much… Again, just because some people encounter bugs doesn’t mean that everyone does, or that it’s even a bug rather than a problem with an individual’s device/hardware… 🤷🏼‍♂️

I disagree with this completely, but I’ll just leave it there. I explained above.

Yep, we simply are never going to agree on that.

Pretty much all comments I’ve seen confirmed it. Apple might have fixed it somewhere along the way, but it was there.

Again, that’s anecdotal. There are millions of users who never post in forums like this… 🤷🏼‍♂️

I think it’s still a matter of tolerance. I think that the first major update at least must be pristine, flawless, like-new. This one, 26, clearly wasn’t, but some people may not care too much.

I respect that as your opinion. But I disagree that 26 “clearly wasn’t” “pristine” as compared against prior updates. Is it perfect without a single bug that anyone could possibly ever encounter? Of course not, no OS is, nor has any version of Apple’s software ever been…

Still, I think it’s better for you that you’re used to running betas and have a higher tolerance. Seriously, it gives you a far better margin for error to be satisfied with how your devices work.

Since I know I would notice those details, I have to stay behind. I especially notice the battery life drops, and I never enjoyed my 9.7-inch iPad Pro the same way after apple forced it out of iOS 9 into iOS 12 and took 30% of the battery life in the process.

Based on what I’ve read, I’d feel the same with my A16 on 26, so I’m staying on iPadOS 18.

And I really dislike liquid glass, especially on the iPad. But that is totally subjective.

And I respect your opinion. I personally disagree, but to each their own. 🙂👍🏻

 

[Luftkopf]

I think you might really be on to something with tolerance for these current OSes. Those of us that have been using Mac OS X since the beginning remember actual competence in the OS.

It used to be that Mac OS, iPadOS, and iOS really were well done. I never rebooted my iPhone. Ever. I remember when my brother first got one (he was on like an HTC Incredible I think), and he was like how often should I reboot? And I got to tell him "we don't do that here." Well now we do. I reboot about once a week. Siri randomly answers things wrong.

Same with iPad. It's now clunky if you are used to a certain way of doing things. It's slower, it drains the battery faster. Notice that even rated battery life on the iPad Pros is WAY below that of a Macbook Air. Things just aren't quite right. There are these underlying snap grids that affect only some apps. You can't just resize them to any size you want. But part of that is trying to make the iPad something it isn't.

And now the Mac. Tahoe has made my Mac collect dust. I planned on using my Windows 11 Laptop (which is a beast with an RTX 5090 I grant you) for gaming, and my M4 Macbook Air for everything else, but it just sits there. It's just clunky. Huge rounded corners on all the apps. The dock looks bad now. Just not good.

There really was a golden age of awesomeness for Apple software there for a while. Now it's just gone. And some like Kal Madda and Ludatyk say everythiing is peachy, but I disagree. I don't care to argue with them anymore so I just ignore these threads and stick to others where people accept that we are not a good trajectory software-wise.

I am really hoping WWDC changes things, but I am afraid it will be all AI all the time and no fixes to anything.

I hope I am wrong. Either way, I am going back to other threads. Just know you are not alone, and there are far more of us than "just a few people." The argument that Apple would fix things if there were a lot, doesn't really hold water. Apple made us put up with the butterfly keyboard for 4 long stupid years. It is what it is.

I don't know. I can't really agree with this. I think things don't feel as great as they used to as, for quite a while, every new version of OS X ran better than the previous version did on the same hardware, as they continued to optimise it. There were plenty of bugs in OS X. If Tahoe had bugs of the same magnitude, these forums would melt down with the collective rage. There would be calls for class action lawsuits!

I still have a Win11 box. It's not currently plugged in, and every time I use it it just reminds me how much I hate it. Currently, its job is to collect dust, while I enjoy using my M3 Pro with Tahoe.

I have an iPhone 14 running iOS 26.5, and I still never restart it. There's no need!

I feel, having used macOS since Jaguar, is that things are OK. I'm keeping a wary eye on the path Apple takes on a few things, mostly AI, but overall, given my experience, I'm still happy.

 

[Kal Madda]

…There really was a golden age of awesomeness for Apple software there for a while. Now it's just gone. And some like Kal Madda and Ludatyk say everythiing is peachy, but I disagree. I don't care to argue with them anymore so I just ignore these threads and stick to others where people accept that we are not a good trajectory software-wise.

I never claimed “everything is peachy”… 🤦🏼‍♂️ The world isn’t perfect, nor is anything that’s in it… I just haven’t encountered nor been able to replicate some bugs people seem to insist are “universal”… And I believe it’s entirely unreasonable to expect modern OSes with millions of users and lots of complexity, various settings and software configurations, etc. to be perfectly bug free for every user. Especially when many issues we call “bugs” can actually be caused by hardware issues, errors during installation, etc. I don’t find that to be a reasonable expectation.

And even macOS Snow Leopard, which seems to be the typical favorite to hold up as the “standard of quality” had bugs people were reporting back then… It’s just part of software development…

Oh, and I never restart my iPhone unless it’s updating to the latest updates in which case it does that automatically. I’ve never had any need to do so on any of the iPhones I’ve owned… 🤷🏼‍♂️

 

[FeliApple]

We’re simply never going to agree on that. Physics *exists*. Batteries degrade with use. That is a fact…. There isn’t the LiPo battery cell out there that magically last for 4 years of daily use and never degrades at all…

And we will never agree that Apple allegedly loads “malware” onto iPhones to supposedly “slow them down”… 🤦🏼‍♂️.

And that’s your prerogative, it just doesn’t mean your conclusions are necessarily accurate. And that’s fine, if you’re worried about encountering problems with a product, then there’s nothing wrong with avoiding it.

Again, of course battery life isn’t going to be the same, I used the device daily for about 5 years. The battery capacity of the lipo cells obviously degraded in that time with that many charge cycles… Again, that’s hardware. Batteries degrade…

But then again, do you know why we’ll never agree? Because I have subjected myself to your conditions, and you’ll never subject to mine.

My conclusion is that original iOS versions are efficient enough to withstand battery degradation within any reasonable timeframe of use. I assume there’s a limit, but I have not found it yet, and even if it is, it’s irrelevant. Of course, this is without overwhelmingly heavy usage which kills every device (which I also discussed in the malware thread). So let’s make it my usage, with light, efficient apps on the majority of cases and without brightness being too high.

Take an iPad. Take your iPad, mine, both. Take two M1 Airs or two M1 Pros. If they’re Airs, keep one on iPadOS 15, and update one until Apple stops supporting it. If they’re Pros, keep one on iPadOS 14, and update the other one forever.

Use them in the exact same way, with light use, for ten years. I don’t care about the battery health number, it might be lower on one or the other, it’s fine, but it won’t be 100%. Light use does NOT mean not much use in terms of time, it means “with efficient apps”. Use it 24/7 for all I care.

I can guarantee that the original version iPad will have the same runtime, or it will be extremely close to what it got when new. The degradation will be negligible to this usage pattern.

I am absolutely sure that the updated one will see a catastrophic runtime loss. 50, 60, 70% or more. In fact, the battery may fail and the iPad die quickly because the battery just can’t take the voltage requirements anymore even with light use, because the software ends up being so inefficient that it collapses. If it doesn’t fail, the runtime loss is catastrophic, with maybe 2-3 hours of battery life

I’m pretty sure I can determine which bugs I do and do not have on my devices…

I don’t agree with the presupposition that Apple is trying to “break” devices…

Don’t care if they’re trying, they’re doing it. Unacceptable that people report significant worsening of the experience with 26 on A16 iPads. It’s the latest model.

Not universally. I and many others have not encountered the alleged bugs in question…

For you and some others, perhaps. For everyone? Not so much… Again, just because some people encounter bugs doesn’t mean that everyone does, or that it’s even a bug rather than a problem with an individual’s device/hardware… 🤷🏼‍♂️

Yep, we simply are never going to agree on that.

Again, that’s anecdotal. There are millions of users who never post in forums like this… 🤷🏼‍♂️

Some people just don’t care enough to see them, let alone track battery life, let alone care about liquid glass at all.

I respect that as your opinion. But I disagree that 26 “clearly wasn’t” “pristine” as compared against prior updates. Is it perfect without a single bug that anyone could possibly ever encounter? Of course not, no OS is, nor has any version of Apple’s software ever been…

And I respect your opinion. I personally disagree, but to each their own. 🙂👍🏻

iPadOS 15 on my Air 5 is the best version of iPadOS I’ve used since iOS 9 on my 9.7-inch iPad Pro. I don’t care if it’s perfect under every circumstance, it just doesn’t have to be poor like 26 is.

 

[01cowherd]

Seeing many performance complaints on the A16 iPad, which is rather sad considering it’s the latest model.

The below video came across my feed, and I thought of this thread. I know it's the cheapest "entry level" iPad, but the very first thing you do has frame drops. (timestamp: 16:28)

 

[Kal Madda]

But then again, do you know why we’ll never agree? Because I have subjected myself to your conditions, and you’ll never subject to mine.

False. We’ll never agree because what you’re claiming doesn’t jive with observable science. Battery degradation is a thing, which means the battery runtime of an old device will not be the same after several years of daily use no matter what OS version you have installed on it… 🤷🏼‍♂️🤦🏼‍♂️. This is something I can observe with many other devices like headlamps which don’t get software updates at all, yet I get significantly less battery runtime after several years of use… This has nothing to do with anyone “subjecting themselves to someone else’s ‘conditions’”, it has to do with basic observable science…

My conclusion is that original iOS versions are efficient enough to withstand battery degradation within any reasonable timeframe of use. I assume there’s a limit, but I have not found it yet, and even if it is, it’s irrelevant. Of course, this is without overwhelmingly heavy usage which kills every device (which I also discussed in the malware thread). So let’s make it my usage, with light, efficient apps on the majority of cases and without brightness being too high.

People may need more usage from their devices than what you may manage with for starters… What you might deem “overwhelmingly heavy usage” might be regular standard usage for most people, for all we know…

Take an iPad. Take your iPad, mine, both. Take two M1 Airs or two M1 Pros. If they’re Airs, keep one on iPadOS 15, and update one until Apple stops supporting it. If they’re Pros, keep one on iPadOS 14, and update the other one forever.

Use them in the exact same way, with light use, for ten years. I don’t care about the battery health number, it might be lower on one or the other, it’s fine, but it won’t be 100%. Light use does NOT mean not much use in terms of time, it means “with efficient apps”. Use it 24/7 for all I care.

I can guarantee that the original version iPad will have the same runtime, or it will be extremely close to what it got when new. The degradation will be negligible to this usage pattern.

I am absolutely sure that the updated one will see a catastrophic runtime loss. 50, 60, 70% or more. In fact, the battery may fail and the iPad die quickly because the battery just can’t take the voltage requirements anymore even with light use, because the software ends up being so inefficient that it collapses. If it doesn’t fail, the runtime loss is catastrophic, with maybe 2-3 hours of battery life

That’s just completely absurd and defies physics… 🤦🏼‍♂️

Don’t care if they’re trying, they’re doing it. Unacceptable that people report significant worsening of the experience with 26 on A16 iPads. It’s the latest model.

Some people in forums like this will always report “worsening of the experience” with every new update. That doesn’t make it so…

Some people just don’t care enough to see them, let alone track battery life, let alone care about liquid glass at all.

And some people just don’t care to see the purple elephants that run through their living rooms either… 🤦🏼‍♂️. I find the way you speak of others and their ability to notice or determine what bugs they are encountering or not on their devices entirely dismissive and disrespectful…

iPadOS 15 on my Air 5 is the best version of iPadOS I’ve used since iOS 9 on my 9.7-inch iPad Pro. I don’t care if it’s perfect under every circumstance, it just doesn’t have to be poor like 26 is.

And you’re entitled to your opinion. I respect your opinion as an opinion. It is not fact. And quite frankly, looking at the other thread you referenced makes it abundantly clear we are absolutely never going to agree on this, so this conversation really isn’t going to get anywhere other than going roundy roundy. You claim that Apple’s software updates are “malware”. That’s a non-starter. And you repeatedly claim developers are “garbage”. That’s another non-starter… We are simply never going to agree, and it has nothing to do with someone not “subjecting themselves to conditions”…

 

[Kal Madda]

The below video came across my feed, and I thought of this thread. I know it's the cheapest "entry level" iPad, but the very first thing you do has frame drops. (timestamp: 16:28)

Oh no, one ragebait YouTuber is complaining! 🤦🏼‍♂️🙄

 

[01cowherd]

Oh no, one ragebait YouTuber is complaining! 🤦🏼‍♂️🙄

Actually you’d be best buddies with him. He uses his iPad Pro as his main and most used computer.

 

[Kal Madda]

Actually you’d be best buddies with him. He uses his iPad Pro as his main and most used computer.

Maybe so on that front, I may look closer at some of his content, though I think I’ve seen other videos from him that annoyed me. That doesn’t mean we wouldn’t get along or that I wouldn’t watch any of his videos, I have many friends I disagree with on things. 👍🏻

It should also be noted though, watching the section of the video in question, he only experienced a slight stutter during setup, which is when you are most likely to encounter such things. The lag was very minor, and certainly didn’t impact functionality. When an iPad is setting up for the first time, there is a ton of indexing that has to happen. A users files are getting installed and synced in the background. And so a slight glitch isn’t very surprising, nor is it going to impact the functionality of the device…. As he even noted, it’s probably the hardware, the A16 is an older chip, and it’s only paired with 6GB RAM vs the 16GB RAM he’s used to.

Furthermore, just because he experienced a bit of lag doesn’t mean that everyone does…

Even if we assume nothing is exaggerated for the camera, I don’t see any meaningful issues for an iPad user. A very slight lag in an animation when the system is working overtime to index everything doesn’t seem like it’s going to be harmful to anyone’s workflow. 🤷🏼‍♂️

 

[FeliApple]

And some people just don’t care to see the purple elephants that run through their living rooms either… 🤦🏼‍♂️. I find the way you speak of others and their ability to notice or determine what bugs they are encountering or not on their devices entirely dismissive and disrespectful…

I’m not going to reply to the rest because it’s just repetition. If you ever want to try staying behind, do it and see how battery life remains the same.


No. I notice because I track it. How do I know that using the Apple Pencil with my iPad Air 5 incurs a 20% battery life penalty? Because I measure it.

99% of people don’t. Most regular users probably won’t notice the small artifacts on an A16 iPad on 26 because they don’t care enough, just like I wouldn’t notice some things about something else because I don’t care enough.

And you’re entitled to your opinion. I respect your opinion as an opinion. It is not fact. And quite frankly, looking at the other thread you referenced makes it abundantly clear we are absolutely never going to agree on this, so this conversation really isn’t going to get anywhere other than going roundy roundy. You claim that Apple’s software updates are “malware”. That’s a non-starter. And you repeatedly claim developers are “garbage”. That’s another non-starter… We are simply never going to agree, and it has nothing to do with someone not “subjecting themselves to conditions”…

Yes. Garbage, pathetic developers upping requirements every five minutes are the #1 impediment to device longevity, to me having to use Liquid Glass at some point, to me having to have a device with iPadOS 2X. Third-party developers, that is.

Yes to the malware. Maintain device quality instead of shredding it every single time and I will install updates happily.

And I commend Apple for allowing me to use older versions of their apps, like Pages on my Air 5 which I use quite a bit, without having to install 26… unlike the developers I mentioned above.

 

[QuarterSwede]

Maybe so on that front, I may look closer at some of his content, though I think I’ve seen other videos from him that annoyed me. That doesn’t mean we wouldn’t get along or that I wouldn’t watch any of his videos, I have many friends I disagree with on things. 👍🏻

It should also be noted though, watching the section of the video in question, he only experienced a slight stutter during setup, which is when you are most likely to encounter such things. The lag was very minor, and certainly didn’t impact functionality. When an iPad is setting up for the first time, there is a ton of indexing that has to happen. A users files are getting installed and synced in the background. And so a slight glitch isn’t very surprising, nor is it going to impact the functionality of the device…. As he even noted, it’s probably the hardware, the A16 is an older chip, and it’s only paired with 6GB RAM vs the 16GB RAM he’s used to.

Furthermore, just because he experienced a bit of lag doesn’t mean that everyone does…

Even if we assume nothing is exaggerated for the camera, I don’t see any meaningful issues for an iPad user. A very slight lag in an animation when the system is working overtime to index everything doesn’t seem like it’s going to be harmful to anyone’s workflow. 🤷🏼‍♂️

Most people don’t even see these hitches people complain about on MR. I’m pretty sensitive to that stuff and I haven’t seen it since 26.0. Although, I also don’t get hung up on things that don’t matter and would rather them fix the system data memory inflation bug that plaques iOS and macOS since 15 … something like that.

 

[Kal Madda]

I’m not going to reply to the rest because it’s just repetition. If you ever want to try staying behind, do it and see how battery life remains the same.

Observable and repeatable science tells us the battery life will absolutely not remain the same… 🤦🏼‍♂️.

No. I notice because I track it. How do I know that using the Apple Pencil with my iPad Air 5 incurs a 20% battery life penalty? Because I measure it.

99% of people don’t. Most regular users probably won’t notice the small artifacts on an A16 iPad on 26 because they don’t care enough, just like I wouldn’t notice some things about something else because I don’t care enough.

The claims you make here don’t hold up to basic observable science… And you again make broad sweeping assertions you can’t possibly hope to prove… How do you know that “99% of people don’t measure their battery health”? You simply don’t….

And other users have purposefully tried to replicate alleged bugs and not been able to. I think those of us who have done so are very capable of determining what bugs are or aren’t ailing our devices…

Yes. Garbage, pathetic developers upping requirements every five minutes are the #1 impediment to device longevity, to me having to use Liquid Glass at some point, to me having to have a device with iPadOS 2X. Third-party developers, that is.

Just know that many in this forum are app developers. App developers are human beings. You may not like some decisions they make, but calling human beings “garbage” because they make decisions you don’t like for their software/business is wholly unacceptable…

Yes to the malware. Maintain device quality instead of shredding it every single time and I will install updates happily.

And this is a complete non-starter. If you’re going to try to claim iOS updates are “malware”, then I really don’t care about your opinion of the latest one… 🤷🏼‍♂️. And this is a position that even people critical of version 26 expressed strong disagreement with in the other thread, so it seems I’m not the only one either…

And I commend Apple for allowing me to use older versions of their apps, like Pages on my Air 5 which I use quite a bit, without having to install 26… unlike the developers I mentioned above.

You do you, but I really honestly can’t take your position very seriously when you repeatedly make claims that contradict basic observable science, when you claim that Apple’s software updates are “malware”, and quite frankly, I’m appalled at the way you talk about human beings who work very hard to provide you with free services, and your willingness to call those people “garbage” because they don’t do everything exactly as you want it…

 

[flybub]

These last 2 pages have been comical, and I tend to side with FeliApple. Not just on the iPad, but on this OS across all devices. There have been complaints everywhere on just about every forum I'm on. Even family members who worship the ground Apple walks on are complaining about it. And if they're complaining, Apple really screwed up.

I still have my share of bugs on my iPhone that should not be there, but it is what it is at this point. I'll live with it until my contract is up and move on. Apple is not going to listen to the feedback from us. Why would they? The company exists to appease shareholders and analysts. When people start sending their feedback by not opening their wallet, I bet Apple listens.

 

[I7guy]

These last 2 pages have been comical, and I tend to side with FeliApple.

I take his view in one point. As functionality is added to iOS, and more multitasking occurs more battery is required.

Not just on the iPad, but on this OS across all devices. There have been complaints everywhere on just about every forum I'm on.

Complaints everywhere? Also praise everywhere.

Even family members who worship the ground Apple walks on are complaining about it. And if they're complaining, Apple really screwed up.

I’m not seeing this from my family and associates.

I still have my share of bugs on my iPhone that should not be there, but it is what it is at this point.

I have a reliably replicable minor bug. The compact tab bar in Safari.

I'll live with it until my contract is up and move on. Apple is not going to listen to the feedback from us. Why would they? The company exists to appease shareholders and analysts. When people start sending their feedback by not opening their wallet, I bet Apple listens.

More people are happy than unhappy with Apple at this point. IMO.

 

[eltoslightfoot]

These last 2 pages have been comical, and I tend to side with FeliApple. Not just on the iPad, but on this OS across all devices. There have been complaints everywhere on just about every forum I'm on. Even family members who worship the ground Apple walks on are complaining about it. And if they're complaining, Apple really screwed up.

I still have my share of bugs on my iPhone that should not be there, but it is what it is at this point. I'll live with it until my contract is up and move on. Apple is not going to listen to the feedback from us. Why would they? The company exists to appease shareholders and analysts. When people start sending their feedback by not opening their wallet, I bet Apple listens.

That's just a small amount of people. /sarcasm

I am secretly still holding out hope that WWDC is a patch fix fest, and not an AI slop fest.

 

[Kal Madda]

I take his view in one point. As functionality is added to iOS, and more multitasking occurs more battery is required.

Yeah, I’m sure some heavier new features are going to eat more into battery if users are using them. But the idea that batteries don’t degrade after years of daily use and it’s all just a conspiracy from Apple to inject “malware” onto their devices to allegedly sabotage their own products is just silly to put it kindly… That’s where I strongly disagree with the claims being made…

Complaints everywhere? Also praise everywhere.

Yep, I’ve seen lots of praise, especially for iPadOS 26. Even several content creators who spent years complaining and trashing on the iPad have been praising iPadOS 26…

I’m not seeing this from my family and associates.

Mine neither. All of my friends and family haven’t had any meaningful issues with iPadOS 26 or iOS 26. And they’ve all been very happy with the update. Not a single person I know in my circle of friends and family (which is pretty large) disliked 26. Of course this is anecdotal, but I do find it interesting that even some I know who had sharp criticisms of past updates didn’t have any such criticisms for this one. Forums like this and some clickbait content creators are the only places I see such complaints. And these places also largely have a track record of complaining about every new software update… So it’s hardly surprising they take issue with a major new update that also brings a fresh design language…

I have a reliably replicable minor bug. The compact tab bar in Safari.

Yep, I don’t doubt that people do encounter bugs with every update, and I enjoy being helpful where I can with trying to help troubleshoot them. It’s frustrating that real and legit bugs people encounter are drowned out by the loud complaints often from people who haven’t even tried the latest updates, and from people making off-the-wall claims like claiming Apple’s software updates are “malware”. It makes constructive discussion far more difficult. And then there are some who seem to expect that Apple’s software updates should be perfect with no ability for anyone to ever encounter any minor bugs, which I find to be a completely unreasonable expectation. 🤷🏼‍♂️

More people are happy than unhappy with Apple at this point. IMO.

Yep, it seems obvious when looking at the market data, with Apple increasing iPhone sales even during a sales drop for other smartphone manufacturers… I honestly don’t really see how anyone could look at the market data and conclude otherwise… 🤷🏼‍♂️

Apple Grew U.S. iPhone Sales While Broader Smartphone Market Declined in Q1

Apple's smartphone sales increased 1.3 percent year-over-year in the United States during the first quarter of 2026, according to data shared by Counterpoint Research. Apple saw a sales increase while the broader U.S. smartphone market experienced a 5.7 percent decline during the same time...

www.macrumors.com

 

[Luftkopf]

I work for designers. One of them updated to iOS 26, took a look at Liquid Glass, said “yuck! Bubbles!” And proceeded to get on with using his phone. Chatting with him later after he’s had time to get used to it, he doesn’t like the look, but he knows apple refine their designs and is looking forward to improvements.

That is the sole negative reaction anyone I know in real life has had to any appleOS 26.

We all have our anecdotal evidence, which will quite frequently disagree. For something on the massive scale Apple operates, anecdotal evidence really does not cut it! You need real data, which Apple will have. All the evidence we can gather suggests that things are ok.

 

[FeliApple]

I work for designers. One of them updated to iOS 26, took a look at Liquid Glass, said “yuck! Bubbles!” And proceeded to get on with using his phone. Chatting with him later after he’s had time to get used to it, he doesn’t like the look, but he knows apple refine their designs and is looking forward to improvements.

That is the sole negative reaction anyone I know in real life has had to any appleOS 26.

We all have our anecdotal evidence, which will quite frequently disagree. For something on the massive scale Apple operates, anecdotal evidence really does not cut it! You need real data, which Apple will have. All the evidence we can gather suggests that things are ok.

But you see, I don’t care about the overall picture. If I see that it incurs a 20% battery life penalty on the latest models and has verifiable performance glitches, whether the rest of the userbase notices or cares is irrelevant to me.

I notice. And I use it. That’s all that matters to me.

 

[Matsamoto]

This beautiful screenshot was taken a couple of days after iPadOS 26.5 was released😅😅
I have used iPads for nearly 10 years now and this was the first one.
iPad Pro 12.9 2021

 

[Kal Madda]

Some people in threads like this:

“My iPad had a minor visual stutter on a scrolling animation while it was setting up and indexing all my files! Worst update! Apple doesn’t care about us!”

Meanwhile my experience yesterday:

“My Asus Ally was working fine until Windows decided to install an automatic update that nuked the EFI Bootloader software when I was away. So now I have to jump through all the hoops to create bootable media to completely reinstall everything…”

Even running developer betas on Apple devices, I have never had anywhere near this level of bugs or issues… Yesterday reminded me why I left Windows for anything that matters and needs to work… iOS, iPadOS, and macOS are so superior to Windows it isn’t even a contest in my experience and opinion… And I’m sure most here can probably agree with that. 👍🏻

PS. To clarify, I am not trying to dismiss or diminish annoyances people have, I’m just wishing to share some perspective from an issue I just encountered with another device.

 

[Steve Adams]

Found a new one beyond the little stutters and the scattered interaction point hidden behind some of the liquid. I am trying to react to the previous post by @Kal Madda with a laugh as I thought it was funny, and could not. Kal, if there are a million reactions in your notifications sorry. ha ha.

You would actually get along with Quinn in those videos. He's a cool guy.

EDIT: I originally came here to state that since the last couple of updates, the graphical issues and stutters are gone on my 10th gen.

 

[Phineasgage1848]

I think you might really be on to something with tolerance for these current OSes. Those of us that have been using Mac OS X since the beginning remember actual competence in the OS.

It used to be that Mac OS, iPadOS, and iOS really were well done. I never rebooted my iPhone. Ever. I remember when my brother first got one (he was on like an HTC Incredible I think), and he was like how often should I reboot? And I got to tell him "we don't do that here." Well now we do. I reboot about once a week. Siri randomly answers things wrong.

Same with iPad. It's now clunky if you are used to a certain way of doing things. It's slower, it drains the battery faster. Notice that even rated battery life on the iPad Pros is WAY below that of a Macbook Air. Things just aren't quite right. There are these underlying snap grids that affect only some apps. You can't just resize them to any size you want. But part of that is trying to make the iPad something it isn't.

And now the Mac. Tahoe has made my Mac collect dust. I planned on using my Windows 11 Laptop (which is a beast with an RTX 5090 I grant you) for gaming, and my M4 Macbook Air for everything else, but it just sits there. It's just clunky. Huge rounded corners on all the apps. The dock looks bad now. Just not good.

There really was a golden age of awesomeness for Apple software there for a while. Now it's just gone. And some like Kal Madda and Ludatyk say everythiing is peachy, but I disagree. I don't care to argue with them anymore so I just ignore these threads and stick to others where people accept that we are not a good trajectory software-wise.

I am really hoping WWDC changes things, but I am afraid it will be all AI all the time and no fixes to anything.

I hope I am wrong. Either way, I am going back to other threads. Just know you are not alone, and there are far more of us than "just a few people." The argument that Apple would fix things if there were a lot, doesn't really hold water. Apple made us put up with the butterfly keyboard for 4 long stupid years. It is what it is. rounded corners and new icons are bad enough to make you use Windows? It’s way worse over there my friend.

Tahoe is bad but woah. its not bad enough to make me use Windows 11 willingly!

 

[anika200]

Got my first two iPads just last week, one is 8th gen and one is a 13" M4 pro. I am pretty darned impressed with iPad OS26 and for that matter the other one is 18.7.8 and it is great too. I have not had a single issue with either, I think the visuals on 26 are a little back to the 90's but as far as functionality it is filling all my needs with ease. I have the keyboard for the M4 and now it has been replacing my old HP laptop. I liked the OS26 enough that I put it on my Mini M2 and find it works well there too.