Users Underwhelmed by iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, Survey Suggests

[Bubble99]

Why are you waiting for an Apple calculator? Is that a must-have app and only the genuine Apple version will do?

Why? Well two things.

One lazy culture.

Second, because in the USA culture of people are taught Apple or Microsoft or Google for apps and not to look for third party apps.

That If there is 5 or 10 apps to choose from than that is pure socialism that there should only be one or two apps to choose from. That even as it is there is way way way way way way too many players now to choose from be it Windows, ChromeBook, Android or Apple.

So no, it does not fit what kids are taught in school amount capitalism. And all democratic and republican party have and will past way more laws that a free market system is socialism and only monopoly system are capitalism.

So no they don't want other businesses to step in and fill the cap what Apple did not bring to the table.

The court cases you here every month in the news of breaking up tech companies like facebook, twitter, amazon, youtube, Apple so on will just pass more and more laws to make it easier to have more of monopoly.

 

[ToadyBlegh]

The Register has an interesting article about the new Microsoft OS in which it argues that, "Not being a problem is the highest accolade an operating system should aim for. An OS exists to let other things do their jobs reliably, swiftly and painlessly." That seems like a valid point in this context - Apple are making incremental changes to a well-established platform that should make that platform run better and more useful. The problem is that in recent updates Apple has gone the other way, adding more complexity under the guise of new functionality, mostly "me-too" tools mimicking Android options, that actually get in the way or make it harder to use. iOS14 had more stuff than iOS13 but it was objectively less useable, it required more input for the same purpose. Similary, iOS12 was leaner and more functional than 13, and iOS15 continues this trend towards bloatware, waste and dysfunction. Apple is trying to sprinkle star dust on its products to justify the absurd pricing premiums and make users overlook all the hidden costs, and in the process it is making it worse. They have reached the point where the marginal returns from innovation are now negative and, while their brand momentum will probably keep them going for at least another decade, that trend will inevitably lead to decline.

 

[Kaptajn Haddock]

Guess that is why Apple is tiptoeing, by stating that updating to iOS 15 is voluntary - or what ever the wording was.

As for MacOS, it piss.. me of that I am still having Bluetooth issues in Big Sur, with lagging keyboard and disconnects all the time (which never happens in Catalina). Fix the bugs first, Apple!

 

[Anthony Sullivan]

Dude it’s so easy, blue tooth keyboard and mouse do exist. Or how about the magic keyboard. It took me 10 seconds to come up with a simple and practical answer.

Ruing full macOS installation. Invoke tablet mode when no keyboard and mouse attached.

M1 is powerful enough to run macOS and tablet mode at same time.

Never understand why iPad can’t just take secondary display and use external display for full desktop operation. M1 iPad still just mirroring iPad display.

Again, you clearly haven't actually thought any of this through, nor have any of the idiots who think this is so simple. So, what, you're going to have iOS and macOS on a tablet device? So you have to fully shut down iOS and wait for macOS to boot? Sounds painful and awful. What about the file system? Is it shared? If so, how exactly (actually think this through this time)? How would all of this fare for battery life?

Does any of this actually sound consumer friendly to you?

There's a reason why things are the way they are on iPad. And why Windows 8 was such a joke. Because none of this is nearly as simple as you people seem to think.

 

[Bubble99]

Again, you clearly haven't actually thought any of this through, nor have any of the idiots who think this is so simple. So, what, you're going to have iOS and macOS on a tablet device? So you have to fully shut down iOS and wait for macOS to boot? What about the file system? Is it shared? And how (actually think this through this time)? How would this fare for battery life?

Does any of this actually sound consumer friendly to you?

There's a reason why things are the way they are on iPad. And why Windows 8 was a joke. Because none of this is nearly as simple as you people seem to think.

They are not thinking.

What they really want is Apple to kill iPadOS and make MacOS more touch user friendly. And port MacOS over.

But they will never say that here.

 

[xyz01]

I'd love to know how many people actually viewed the WWDC Keynote vs. media reports. I, for one, can't wait for the official version to hit the streets in the Fall.

I watched it, and was underwhelmed.

- maps changes - irrelevant. It's like they keep adding features that are very site specific. Since I live in Norway, I don't care that they do some fancy stuff for San Francisco.
- ID card. Meh. Yet another change that's local, not global.
- FaceTime changes. The only potentially interesting thing there was the impressive noise cancellation, and that's only interesting if it is an API that can be used by other apps - and not implemented in FaceTime itself. I don't see work and other organizations switching away from Teams and Zoom, so I'll continue as a marginal user of FaceTime.
- Ipad widgets / App Library. The main question here is "why was this missing last year?". It's hard to be excited about something that was mysteriously missing from one device range, rather than annoyed of the one year delay.
- "sharing". Couldn't care less. I can share what I need today, and on a scale of 1-6 I think the sharing the experience of watching AppleTV+ together is a clear 0 for "irrelevant bloat".
- improved weather app. *Shrug*. I'm using a well maintained app from the national weather forecasting bureau rather than some global app with less accurate data, this is also in the category of "I don't care".
- When the health changes for the Apple Watch is adding another workout type to a local, non-global service (Fitness+) you know there is nothing to talk about. I wish they would have done something useful instead, like combining the data they have (sleep, activity, workouts, resting HR etc) to monitor recovery and use this for optimising workout gains - like Polar, Garmin etc.
- third-party Siri. Initially very positive, then it turned out they'd limited this to Homepods for marketing reasons and it ended up in the category of "*shrug*". Homepod minis are only available in a couple of markets, not globally. I also already have a better system for sound around the house. If they had supported it on any HomeKit hub - on the AppleTV, to be even more specific - it would have been great. The HomePod limitation suddenly made it "not available outside a couple of markets, but irrelevant in any case".
- in general disappointed in limiting support for some features to their new low-end Macs. My 27 inch maxed out 2020 iMac is more powerful than them, and I do expect Apple to support this for new features for a long time to come.

The good things:
- the iCloud private relay and Digital Legacy are very interesting.
- Notification changes could be good.
- Adding surround support for Apple AirPod Max in tvOS is great, although I'll admit this is one thing I was very disappointed in not being there from the start.

 

[xyz01]

How many people even know about iOS 15? I can’t imagine many outside of tech nerds actually watched the keynote.

Quite a few, I think. At least here in Norway, the most popular newspapers have quite a bit of coverage of how your iPhone is going to change.

 

[aplnub]

total flop.

 

[jackietreeh0rn]

Wrong methodology. Should have asked Rene Ritchie a 3000 times to get better results. After all, he thought it was fitting to have words like 'mind=blown' on the thumbnails for one of his iOS15/iPadOS 15 review videos. He later took it down after lots of furious commenters called him out lol.

 

[tobybrut]

when people like max tech are angry and returning it you know apple screwed up

The problem with MaxTech is that they are fixated on things only YouTubers care about like video and photo editing. They don't take into consideration anyone else's definition of pro. When your whole life is focused on two features, you get tunnel vision. When's the last time they did a review of any Apple product that didn't involve just bench marks and video editing? There's no mention of other rather powerful apps that already run on the iPad Pro. They also incessantly complain about external monitor support... an app-specific function on a keyboard-less, mouse-less, window-less interface. Did they ever stop to think that you can't effectively do generic external monitor support on a touch interface? The ability for apps to use an external monitor has been there since 2018, but few apps use it because it makes no sense for them to do so. A few do use it, telling us the feature has been there all along, only few developers feel the feature is worth it.

Don't get me wrong. I subscribe and love their channel, but sometimes they get that tunnel vision and forget about the rest of us who don't spend our lives video editing. The second Apple introduces a touch version of Final Cut Pro, they'll forget about all of their complaints and declare that the iPad Pro is finally pro-enough to replace their laptops. I'll note Final Cut Pro is an app, not an OS, so their main complaint is about an app Apple didn't release, yet they'll declare iPadOS 15 to be a disappointment. For all we know, they might still be working on an iPad version but is taking a long time due to having to re-write an entire interface to accommodate touch and a tiny screen, but Apple learned their lesson about pre-announcing any product, a la AirPower. Note Adobe is taking an eternity to bring the power of Photoshop to the iPad because it's hard. It isn't just a matter of recompiling it.

It isn't the OS holding it back. It's people's perceptions of what makes an iPad Pro pro. For instance, I use my iPad Pro about 90% of my computing time and my desktop Mac the rest of the time. I don't even touch the MacBook Pro because the iPad does everything I want to do better. The form factor and input method matter a lot. The iPad Pro has been pro for years. It just may not do everything certain people want simply because the touch interface changes things.

 

[tobybrut]

With the introduction of M1 ipads expectations were too high, contributing to a feeling of disappointment. Granted, apple never said “final cut and logic incoming!”, but then again, they kind of made a big deal of a desktop chip being in their tablets.

There are lot more pro apps than just Final Cut Pro and Logic. That M1 "desktop" chip is actually a natural phone chip upgrade from the A13 to the A14 that would have been named A14X if Apple hadn't decided to switch away from Intel on their Macs. Apple's A-series have been competitive with Intel laptop/desktop CPU's for at least two or three years.

 

[Ethosik]

Watched the video. 17 minutes of him whining bout how he bought the topend model of something that would still been overkill at base spec in the hope that features noone promised (and noone with any sense really expected) would just materialize a few weeks later.

Sure he makes some good points, and sure some of their videos are really great but this for sure pure clickbait (which I guess is something you have to do trying to make a living of youtube in when there just isn't anything interesting to report).

All signs were pointing to something coming. You cannot blame people for thinking this. Not only did the ram go from 6 GB to 8GB, it also went to 16GB on the top end model. Going from 6 GB to 16GB. Think about that for a minute. Also, the fact that the first time Apple has publicly, on their iPad page so its very easy to see, they advertise the RAM amount on an iPad. Why? From all of existence, we either had to wait for iFixIt or some other report to know what the RAM is on the iPad, so why did Apple decide to advertise it now?

 

[Ethosik]

The second Apple introduces a touch version of Final Cut Pro, they'll forget about all of their complaints and declare that the iPad Pro is finally pro-enough to replace their laptops.

That is the whole point. Apple not only more than DOUBLED the RAM in the iPad (going from 6GB to 16GB in the top end version), they are also for the first time easily advertising the RAM sizes without us waiting for teardowns or other reports. So why did Apple suddenly start advertising the RAM.

Not sure what your post is supposed to address. Of course when things are released that actually utilize the 16GB of RAM they will be happy, that is the whole point.

 

[tobybrut]

That is the whole point. Apple not only more than DOUBLED the RAM in the iPad (going from 6GB to 16GB in the top end version), they are also for the first time easily advertising the RAM sizes without us waiting for teardowns or other reports. So why did Apple suddenly start advertising the RAM.

Not sure what your post is supposed to address. Of course when things are released that actually utilize the 16GB of RAM they will be happy, that is the whole point.

They advertised the RAM because they wanted people to know what version of M1 they were getting. Remember they’re just re-using the same skus they used on the Mac mini, MBP, and MBA and those were M1’s with 8 or 16GB. They were just telling you which ones. I didn’t read it as any more than that. I wasn’t expecting apps that would use 16GB if the M1 Macs were any indication. Those apps so many here were hoping to see, like Final Cut Pro or Logic Pro, all run comfortably on an 8GB M1. Why a report of a 16GB M1 would mean anything beyond a number on a spec sheet, I don’t know. There isn’t a whole lot of difference between an M1 8GB or 16GB on a Mac either, so why were expectations so high on an iPad? We saw a slew of videos comparing 8GB and 16GB on the new Macs with the usual conclusion that 8GB was enough for the vast majority and that 16GB was only useful for future-proofing. Same goes with the iPad. The iPad’s typical upgrade cycle is 5 years. Only those with a lot of money or YouTubers upgrade every year, unlike with iPhones where people upgrade every 1-2 years. The M1 will be a creaky, old processor in five years time, so if you ask why Apple used an M1, well, there’s your answer. Besides, the M1 is virtually indistinguishable, performance-wise, from an A14X if they were to build one had Apple not decided to replace Intel, the chip having the same number of CPU cores and GPU cores they always put in an X- or Z-variant. Would expectations be any different if Apple had called it the A14X?

We also do not know Apple’s future plans. I fully expect they will revise that current 5GB RAM limit to probably 7GB or 15GB depending on which unit you have since they like to have reserved system RAM for maintaining apps in memory. The iPad Pro was not released with a new version of iPadOS on its launch day, so the old limit was still there. I expect the limit may change either in the next version of iPadOS 14 or in one of the upcoming beta versions of iPadOS 15. Nobody knew that limit existed until just a couple of weeks ago because it wasn’t important at the time.

 

[Ethosik]

They advertised the RAM because they wanted people to know what version of M1 they were getting. Remember they’re just re-using the same skus they used on the Mac mini, MBP, and MBA and those were M1’s with 8 or 16GB. They were just telling you which ones. I didn’t read it as any more than that. I wasn’t expecting apps that would use 16GB if the M1 Macs were any indication. Those apps so many here were hoping to see, like Final Cut Pro or Logic Pro, all run comfortably on an 8GB M1. Why a report of a 16GB M1 would mean anything beyond a number on a spec sheet, I don’t know. There isn’t a whole lot of difference between an M1 8GB or 16GB on a Mac either, so why were expectations so high on an iPad? We saw a slew of videos comparing 8GB and 16GB on the new Macs with the usual conclusion that 8GB was enough for the vast majority and that 16GB was only useful for future-proofing. Same goes with the iPad. The iPad’s typical upgrade cycle is 5 years. Only those with a lot of money or YouTubers upgrade every year, unlike with iPhones where people upgrade every 1-2 years. The M1 will be a creaky, old processor in five years time, so if you ask why Apple used an M1, well, there’s your answer. Besides, the M1 is virtually indistinguishable, performance-wise, from an A14X if they were to build one had Apple not decided to replace Intel, the chip having the same number of CPU cores and GPU cores they always put in an X- or Z-variant. Would expectations be any different if Apple had called it the A14X?

We also do not know Apple’s future plans. I fully expect they will revise that current 5GB RAM limit to probably 7GB or 15GB depending on which unit you have since they like to have reserved system RAM for maintaining apps in memory. The iPad Pro was not released with a new version of iPadOS on its launch day, so the old limit was still there. I expect the limit may change either in the next version of iPadOS 14 or in one of the upcoming beta versions of iPadOS 15. Nobody knew that limit existed until just a couple of weeks ago because it wasn’t important at the time.

Apple can very easily say which M1 it is without saying a thing about RAM. Face it. As someone that loves Apple like crazy, they messed up here. The 16GB iPad Pro has very little, if any, benefits over my 2020 6GB one.

 

[I7guy]

They advertised the RAM because they wanted people to know what version of M1 they were getting. Remember they’re just re-using the same skus they used on the Mac mini, MBP, and MBA and those were M1’s with 8 or 16GB. They were just telling you which ones. I didn’t read it as any more than that. I wasn’t expecting apps that would use 16GB if the M1 Macs were any indication. Those apps so many here were hoping to see, like Final Cut Pro or Logic Pro, all run comfortably on an 8GB M1. Why a report of a 16GB M1 would mean anything beyond a number on a spec sheet, I don’t know. There isn’t a whole lot of difference between an M1 8GB or 16GB on a Mac either, so why were expectations so high on an iPad? We saw a slew of videos comparing 8GB and 16GB on the new Macs with the usual conclusion that 8GB was enough for the vast majority and that 16GB was only useful for future-proofing. Same goes with the iPad. The iPad’s typical upgrade cycle is 5 years. Only those with a lot of money or YouTubers upgrade every year, unlike with iPhones where people upgrade every 1-2 years. The M1 will be a creaky, old processor in five years time, so if you ask why Apple used an M1, well, there’s your answer. Besides, the M1 is virtually indistinguishable, performance-wise, from an A14X if they were to build one had Apple not decided to replace Intel, the chip having the same number of CPU cores and GPU cores they always put in an X- or Z-variant. Would expectations be any different if Apple had called it the A14X?

We also do not know Apple’s future plans. I fully expect they will revise that current 5GB RAM limit to probably 7GB or 15GB depending on which unit you have since they like to have reserved system RAM for maintaining apps in memory. The iPad Pro was not released with a new version of iPadOS on its launch day, so the old limit was still there. I expect the limit may change either in the next version of iPadOS 14 or in one of the upcoming beta versions of iPadOS 15. Nobody knew that limit existed until just a couple of weeks ago because it wasn’t important at the time.

So the a14x=m1. Possibly could use the a14x in the macs. Sure in 5 years the m1 will be creaky. In 5 years every processor of today will be creaky compared to processors of tomorrow.

 

[Kaptajn Haddock]

I wish that instead of focusing solely on new features, this should have been a 'under the hood performance and bug fixes' update.

 

[bb9]

This unimpressed crowd represents a very small percentage of ipad users……
The negative crowd always tends to scream louder.

 

[svish]

iOS 15/iPadOS 15 is definitely not a major update. But it has some small and useful new features

 

[Michael Scrip]

Maybe iOS 15 is having its "Snow Leopard" moment:

 

[Razorpit]

I think that iOS 15 will be one of the most useful updates in quite some time. It fully bakes so many features that have fallen short for some time. iPad OS 15 could have gone a bit farther but the whole deal of being able to control your iPad with an adjacent Mac was unexpected and incredibly impressive.

The whole photo stacking in messages and “shared with you” feature is going to be so useful to me every single day, multiple times per day.

the tab groups in safari is going to match my workflow in a big way.

Searching text in images system wide — so useful for anybody who takes pictures of documents

and on-device Siri is going to be so so so much better than having to go to a server. I use Siri every day and to have it respond without having to wait for network lag especially when pulling out of my driveway and the phone is still deciding whether or not to switch to LTE from WI-FI. So useful.

While those are cool features, many of them fall in to the group of “who was asking for that?” As some here say “no one outside of this group is asking to run MacOS on their iPad. 🤓” Well, let’s be honest, how many people here or in “the real world” were asking to control their iPad with their Mac? Or use that FaceTime share feature? You have to be a subset of a subset to even have remote interest in something like that. (I know, 10 people will post just to tell me I’m wrong on that one… 🙄)

iPad OS does seem to be letting down the particularly powerful m1 version

Like having a Lamborghini and taking the tyres off

I like “replacing them with wagon wheels” better. 😉

 

[fourthtunz]

I think these people forgot to watch the video below.

Too early to make any judgements. Apple introduced well over 500+ changes this year come on now. Just look at the new weather and map App!

The attention to detail Apple is hitting is crazy.

I would just like for apple to not mess with my music playlists that I've put together over 20 years

 

[Michael Scrip]

I like “replacing them with wagon wheels” better. 😉

Reminds me of this:

 

[Premium1]

I think ios15/ipados was pretty good out of the gate. We'll see what comes down the line further in the development cycle.

IOS wasn't as meh as IpadOS but let's be real, nothing in IpadOS15 even touches the surface of the added power and ram of the new M1 chips. Ooh, we finally got widgets anywhere (like IOS had for a year).....

 

[Absolute Trainwreck]

Honestly I’m very happy about iOS 15. It seems to be going the power user route in some of the things they’ve opened up, and the amount of refinement and integration between apps is unparalleled. The only bugs I’ve encountered so far is some tab behaviour weirdness on safari and some unexpected auto correct and I’m on beta 1!

I think many of the survey responders were people who are expecting a redesign or some huge new feature set every year, but ironically it’s probably the same group of people that complain about bugs all the time. Tick tock is absolutely the way to go on an OS this complex.

That being said, iPadOS 15 is a bit of a joke though considering the path they paved with m1. Nothing about it suggests “post-pc”