I am super excited for iOS 27 to be the "snow leopard". Long, long overdue.
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Report Reveals iOS 26.4 Beta Release Date
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Tagbert
macrumors 604
A lot of people have been asking for a Snow Leopard release with no new features and all bug fixes. I expect something like Snow Leopard which actually did have some new features but nothing major with most of the effort going into cleanup and fixes, something that we could use after the 26 launch.
Tagbert
macrumors 604
If you are talking about the predictive text replacement on the keyboard, that is driven by an SLM (small language model AI). If Apple is replacing its on-device AIs in 27, you may get what you asked for in a better keyboard. This is why AI is important.
klasma
macrumors G4
The actual quote is: "Beyond introducing a more personalized Siri with a chatbot interface, Apple will be focused on improving the nuts-and-bolts performance of the software with iOS 27. That means eliminating bugs, removing old code and fine-tuning the interface."
So this part is just a reiteration of the information from November: https://www.macrumors.com/2025/11/23/ios-27-two-key-upgrades/
klasma
macrumors G4
SFjohn
macrumors 68030
Just tried to recreate that bug on my iPhone 17 Pro Max running the latest iOS and it did not happen. Thumbs up typed perfectly on my iPhone & iPad Pro M4… 👍🏻 So I don’t understand why your keyboard isn’t working properly. Are you not on the latest public release of iOS 26 perhaps? 🤷
A few bugs just seems like the price users have to pay for demanding new and improved features every few months.
klasma
macrumors G4
The general unreliablility of the iOS keyboard in recent years is widely reported, google around.
SFjohn
macrumors 68030
Why don’t you instead tell me what iPhone you have and what OS it’s on, as that would be more important. 🤷
Tagbert
macrumors 604
Yes, that is why we are hoping for some AI improvements in the near term. The tiny AI that controls those keyboard functions needs an upgrade to do the job better.
AI is costing Apple a fortune. Even with the language models already built, they haven't shown any ability to speed up the process. At this rate, iOS 26.4 will be officially released a week before WWDC 26 haha
adb1973
macrumors regular
Are you even in the same meta-verse reality?? I have iOS did the iPhone 4 and this is by far the buggiest iOS I've ever had to deal with. I want it to work my whole damn ecosystem works on it...
iOSBry
macrumors 6502a
There bugs in iOS 26.x Apple introduced in the last half dozen releases that have yet to be fixed.
They need a year of bug fixing, and serious performance and code optimizations.
Tagbert
macrumors 604
For a lot of people the bugs in 26 are just not that impactful. I do hope that they continue to spend a lot of their efforts on bug fixes in 27. 26.3 is a big improvement over the original 26 release but they still have a way to go.
SFjohn
macrumors 68030
What specifically is bugging you about the latest versions of iOS 26.2.1? Everything is running smoothly on my iPhone 17PM & iPad Pro M4… If you do answer, please list the hardware & software you are running. I like to see if I’m able to duplicate these “bugs”. 😉
MacHeritage
macrumors 6502a
"Apple is said to be focused on improving performance, fixing bugs, and fine-tuning the design of its software platforms this year."
That is not a muted affair for anyone who uses macOS, that is party time and update time!!! We all long for those three features over any other new features. Apple can literally take Tahoe and just fix bugs, boost performance and fine-tune the whole thing, fixing Liquid Glass in the process.
This is the Snow Leopard moment for them in 2026. Dumping Intel code (which actually needs help before sailing off!) and focusing on AS solely. And just like Leopard was not the most speedy Mac OS X for PPC users back in 2007-2009, Tahoe is also not great for Intel users now. I see a pattern here. Except Apple isn't giving themselves a few years to correct bugs in each OS release like they need to.
That is not a muted affair for anyone who uses macOS, that is party time and update time!!! We all long for those three features over any other new features. Apple can literally take Tahoe and just fix bugs, boost performance and fine-tune the whole thing, fixing Liquid Glass in the process.
This is the Snow Leopard moment for them in 2026. Dumping Intel code (which actually needs help before sailing off!) and focusing on AS solely. And just like Leopard was not the most speedy Mac OS X for PPC users back in 2007-2009, Tahoe is also not great for Intel users now. I see a pattern here. Except Apple isn't giving themselves a few years to correct bugs in each OS release like they need to.
The Doctor11
macrumors 603
You don’t pay $5 billion to license someone else’s tech to stick with your own garbage tech.
Fascinating how Apple user base is split in "could not care less about AI" and "lack of AI will kill Apple".
Whatever Apple does, half of the users will roll their eyes 🙄
Whatever Apple does, half of the users will roll their eyes 🙄
SFjohn
macrumors 68030
Half or more of MacRumors posters will roll their proverbial eyes. Everyone else will be fine if it helps them through their day… 🤷