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Apple is successfully learning from Microsoft.
As is the rest of the tech industry. However, while it's arguably a dark pattern to have "Continue" mean "Download & Install Automatically" (instead of Don't Download & Install Automatically), I think it's a good idea to give users a little push in the right direction when it comes to automatic updates for minor OS releases (thinking of friends and family here).
 
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I didn't notice any new prompts when I rebooted, but I had Automatic Updates on anyway. By the way, isn't that a good thing (excluding the LG hate)?
I figure it definitely is for people on the beta channel, but for people without backup hardware it might be good to just get alerted, and wait a couple days for other people to find bugs. It probably also isn't that useful for people with hardware more than a generation behind, as fewer new features get added to those. Like...

Not if you have a just barely good enough 9th generation iPad and Apple pushes it up to 26 and there is no way back.

They may get 26 optimized enough to run well on the A13 iPads, but I have not heard that yet. It does work pretty well on the A16 model.
heh. That's exactly what I have, but so far I haven't found anything really bad about 26 since I added contrast to the glass stuff. Has yours gotten slower? My battery may be dying more quickly on standby; mine was actually dead when I read the article title and went to check if it updated.
 
Pro Tip.

If you NEVER want Apple forcing 26 on any of your devices it’s NOT enough to turn off “Automatic Updates” in Settings. You must sign up for the “Beta Developer” account at Apple.com. Once your do that either turn off your devices and turn them on again or log out and log back in to your Apple account and go back into Settings on your devices. Go to “General”. “Software Update”. Look for “Beta Updates”. Turn that “ON”. Now you will see the options for Betas of either 26 or 18 for iOS or for “15 Sequoia” or “26 Tahoe”. Choose iOS 18 for your phone and 15 Sequoia for your MacBook. It will cycle for a second and voila !!….you will only see updates to either iOS 18 or MacOS 15 forever until Apple stops sending out updates for those versions or until YOU choose to update to 26 or higher.

Let the masses be the continual beta testers for 26. I’m not touching 26 until it’s call 27.1
 
Pro Tip.

If you NEVER want Apple forcing 26 on any of your devices it’s NOT enough to turn off “Automatic Updates” in Settings. You must sign up for the “Beta Developer” account at Apple.com. Once your do that either turn off your devices and turn them on again or log out and log back in to your Apple account and go back into Settings on your devices. Go to “General”. “Software Update”. Look for “Beta Updates”. Turn that “ON”. Now you will see the options for Betas of either 26 or 18 for iOS or for “15 Sequoia” or “26 Tahoe”. Choose iOS 18 for your phone and 15 Sequoia for your MacBook. It will cycle for a second and voila !!….you will only see updates to either iOS 18 or MacOS 15 forever until Apple stops sending out updates for those versions or until YOU choose to update to 26 or higher.

Let the masses be the continual beta testers for 26. I’m not touching 26 until it’s call 27.1

This and/or install a tvOS profile and get Apple out ya bizness.
So sick of some aspects of this company now.

 
Please give us an option to have app updates automatically install as they become available. I’m tired of going into the App Store and tapping my profile icon and then swiping down. Every time I mention some new feature to my wife, she says she doesn’t have it and I find that she has 26 pending app updates. Come on Apple. I’m the guy that emailed Steve Jobs 15 years ago and hopefully kicked this off internally within Apple. To his credit, he replied to little ole me 38 minutes later. I about unloaded in my pants when I saw my email client pull in his email!

On Dec 2, 2010, at 9:16 PM, I wrote:

Steve,

When is auto app update coming?

Every time I check my dad's iPhone, he has 37 apps that need to be updated.

Thanks,

Me
Product Manager (who was working on the first swimming pool control app at the time and was frustrated that my beta testers weren’t installing the app updates as I pushed them to the App Store)


From: Steve Jobs <sjobs@apple.com>

Date: December 2, 2010 9:54:46 PM PST

To: Me

Subject: Re: Auto app update for iOS

It's a bad idea security-wise.

Sent from my iPhone
 
Apple OSes already turns radio buttons on without my consent. Why would this be any different?
A slippery slope that Apple dictates everyone how their devices should operate. Not just under the hood but on the surface as well, short of randomly calling people in your contacts and start Siri generated conversations that kind of over the top stuff.
 
I figure it definitely is for people on the beta channel, but for people without backup hardware it might be good to just get alerted, and wait a couple days for other people to find bugs. It probably also isn't that useful for people with hardware more than a generation behind, as fewer new features get added to those. Like...


heh. That's exactly what I have, but so far I haven't found anything really bad about 26 since I added contrast to the glass stuff. Has yours gotten slower? My battery may be dying more quickly on standby; mine was actually dead when I read the article title and went to check if it updated.
My A13 is still on 18 and is doing fine. The new A16 is on 26.2 and also doing fine since I found the Tint option. I checked the update setting and it was on autoupdate. Now it is set to download only.
 
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It seems Apple is willing to conveniently forget how to respect users’ selected settings on updates when it suits them. Didn’t something like this happen with the Apple Intelligence settings a while back?

Yes they did. The second time they turned on Augmented Idiocy without asking I reverted to Sonoma.
 
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Apple, cut the crap and leave our settings alone. If I turn off auto updates, or any other setting, I expect it to be left off.

Apple's business practices are really getting annoying. Who the F--- are they to turn settings back on that I have turned off? I find myself buying less Apple products as a result. When a competitor has a decent alternative, I have been buying the competitor. I am rewarding Apple's arrogance with less $$$ from me.
 
Fun fact. iPhone 15 Pro Max user here. I have set automatic updates to the “off “position since my very first iPhone (v2). Along comes iOS 26 and every single iteration has automatically downloaded and crashed during said unauthorized automatic download and install requiring me to do a complete DFU mode reinstall which takes as you all know hours and hours and hours and hours. At this point, I am so over Apple they cannot fire people fast enough over in Cupertino. I have reset all settings, reset network settings on and on and on. Not have this problem with my iPad, just my iPhone, which of course then forces me to do the same again with my watch after it finishes a 200 GB per restore. And also all the other sundry reinstall things like Riad and credit cards to Apple Pay yada yada.

And the best part is iOS 26 and this glass nonsense runs so sooooo slowly, app icons populate slowly, rearrange icons is a slow messy joke etc, but the only thing that doesn’t drain slowly is my battery. So on the one hand, it’s a giant pain in the butt, but on the other hand, the normal problem isn’t there. Go figure.
 
Probably not much to worry about, the automatic updates are not so “automatic” anyways. The OS barely even checks for an update, let alone installs it.
 
I thought it always tried to force you after an iOS update to make it automatic updates. Even with my new phone after setting up iOS 26.1 I had to go into settings and toggle off automatic updates and automatic software download
Not always.
It happened to my iPad with 18.7.2, but not again with 18.7.3.

26.1 the marathon release did it for my iPad mini 6th gen. Finally lost my Twitter app with the bird (still worked up to then).
If you still have the old ipa file with the bird, you can load it back in the device.
A friend just did that a couple of weeks ago because she hated the icon and the name change.
 
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Is this the new iClock?
 

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