iPadOS 26 turns your iPad into a Mac (almost)

iPad continues to be sort of a confusing product. Who is plopping down the money for a new iPad + keyboard case and couldn't just afford a MacBook Air which is much more capable?
 
Chittagong said:
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nani17 said:
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Canadian Lol GIF
 
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PurePlatinum said:
iPad continues to be sort of a confusing product. Who is plopping down the money for a new iPad + keyboard case and couldn't just afford a MacBook Air which is much more capable?
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When I'm slouching or lying on the couch I just want a touch screen.

Unless I'm sitting upright or at a desk laptops and MacBooks just feel so impractical.
 
RetroGamingUK said:
Nice try troll

No doubt Windows 12 will attempt to copy all of this while still having UI elements and icons that haven't changed since Windows 95 like Control Panel.

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Oh I hope not. I have gone to great lengths to remove all kind of nonsense from my version of W11. I don't remember exactly all the things I've done, but I know I feel a slight horror each time I stumble upon stock W11 with its fat taskbar and whatnot.
 
HoodWinked said:
Don't use apple so I don't really have a stake in it but it's very aesthetic. The readability hysterics is engagement/rage bait, they'll tune it as they get more feedback.

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I mean it'sso esthetic you litterally need to find the time in the woods.
 
RetroGamingUK said:
Windows 7 only had transparency and blurring

It had none of the light refracting and splitting that Liquid Glass has.

This is some next level shit

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Yeah, I know. But still, the only thing they added was light refraction. But the overall look and feel is not that far off from Windows Vista / 7. We've come full circle and there is no convincing me otherwise. May as well call it Web 2.0. Visually, OS 26 is very cluttered and not very clean. The goal of your device is to bring information forward, not the OS itself.


also that last part of that video reminds me of this. Give or take the live tiles which are now called widgets on iOS.
1_windowsdeviceshero_story.jpg
 
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ResilientBanana said:
also that last part of that video reminds me of this. Give or take the live tiles which are now called widgets on iOS.
1_windowsdeviceshero_story.jpg
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Worst OS I've ever used, the hybrid approach defied all logic, it's like they just spent an evening designing it while having a night out on the piss in a bar and just dumped it on the public.

Aesthetically it was awful too.

- Start menu had random blank spaces

- Tile colours were garrish

- Visually inconsistent with the desktop

- Win 95/XP/7 icons mixed with flat white 8 icons

- Buttons were flattened starting an awful trend, even MacOS 7 and Win95 designers realised buttons needed to appear raised.

Seriously, I can't believe we went from fruitier aero to THAT!

I remember downloading it on my last Windows PC and just having this sinking feeling while using it. I've never owned a Windows app since, though I do find Windows 11 aesthetically pleasing

Funnily enough both iPad and Android tablets are finally getting traditional desktop windowing this year, who thought multistasking design from the 80s with overlapping resizable windows was the answer all along.
 
RetroGamingUK said:
Worst OS I've ever used, the hybrid approach defied all logic, it's like they just spent an evening designing it while having a night out on the piss in a bar and just dumped it on the public.

Aesthetically it was awful too.

- Start menu had random blank spaces

- Tile colours were garrish

- Visually inconsistent with the desktop

- Win 95/XP/7 icons mixed with flat white 8 icons

- Buttons were flattened starting an awful trend, even MacOS 7 and Win95 designers realised buttons needed to appear raised.

Seriously, I can't believe we went from fruitier aero to THAT!

I remember downloading it on my last Windows PC and just having this sinking feeling while using it. I've never owned a Windows app since, though I do find Windows 11 aesthetically pleasing

Funnily enough both iPad and Android tablets are finally getting traditional desktop windowing this year, who thought multistasking design from the 80s with overlapping resizable windows was the answer all along.
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I agree with you. iOS26 is basically if Windows Vista / 7 came out today across multiple devices. Addint with it is a crap-ton of icons and a cluttered desktop that you can shove together in more icons called folders. They're doing nothing to innovate or simplify and are adding a ton of complexity by hiding features. Phone OS's in general need an overhaul.
 
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ResilientBanana said:
I agree with you. iOS26 is basically if Windows Vista / 7 came out today across multiple devices. Addint with it is a crap-ton of icons and a cluttered desktop that you can shove together in more icons called folders. They're doing nothing to innovate or simplify and are adding a ton of complexity by hiding features. Phone OS's in general need an overhaul.
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Desktop interface design matured in the 90s and people have been resistant to change ever since.

Phone interface design also matured about a decade ago, neither Apple or Google dare tinker with it much now.

Tablet interface design, outside of Windows, started out as being big phones. We're now at a point where ARM processors compete with x86, so we can get those multiple windows running at once while maintaining touch ideals.

VR interfaces are the next frontier.

 
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I think it works great, iPad OS 26 that is. Both using the touchscreen only and especially well hooked up to a mouse and keyboard if you feel like doing that.

They need to fix mouse scrolling though, it has very odd behaviour, and for the love of fucking god get rid of mouse acceleration.
 
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PurePlatinum said:
iPad continues to be sort of a confusing product. Who is plopping down the money for a new iPad + keyboard case and couldn't just afford a MacBook Air which is much more capable?
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It is certainly niche. Best I can think about are some top execs that travel frequently, and do not need a keyboard all the time, but even then it's a stretch. It's not even about being more capable, for me typing on the Macbook is still infinitely better than on iPad with a keyboard attached.
 
Cyberpunkd said:
It is certainly niche. Best I can think about are some top execs that travel frequently, and do not need a keyboard all the time, but even then it's a stretch. It's not even about being more capable, for me typing on the Macbook is still infinitely better than on iPad with a keyboard attached.
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My iPad Pro is an excellent PDF and comics/magasines reader, but for anything requiring desktopish functions I use my laptop. Having a true desktop OS will always be more comfortable to me.
 
iOS 26 looks fucking terrible on my iPad. Everything being rounded makes for some really bad alignment. The shines also are really distracting, they look like scaling artifacts.

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Jesus the glass effect on the video overlay play pause buttons is so cringe.

WTF were they thinking

I feel like I'm using some temu android phone
 
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The visuals really pop on iPhone, less noticeable on iPad and not very noticeable at all on Mac.

I think it looks great though.
 
Yeah, this is Apple's worst iOS update ever. Not just is everything visually bugged, unpolished and misaligned, but they changed something about the hit detection and cursor control, so that I hit wrong stuff constantly. I challenge anyone to try to download a bunch of episodes on the TV app, and not fire the episode up by accident. Which now highjacks audio from Spotify I am AirPlaying to my Sonos system.

Also, the transfer assistant from iPhone to a new iPhone is borderline broken. I have been battling for hours to get an iCloud backup or a device-to-device transfer happen.

Absolute shite.
 
Chittagong said:
Yeah, this is Apple's worst iOS update ever. Not just is everything visually bugged, unpolished and misaligned, but they changed something about the hit detection and cursor control, so that I hit wrong stuff constantly. I challenge anyone to try to download a bunch of episodes on the TV app, and not fire the episode up by accident. Which now highjacks audio from Spotify I am AirPlaying to my Sonos system.

Also, the transfer assistant from iPhone to a new iPhone is borderline broken. I have been battling for hours to get an iCloud backup or a device-to-device transfer happen.

Absolute shite.
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I updated my mac and effing hate it so much. Just in Music you have a hovering menu to hit the next song, ridiculous.
 
Chittagong said:
Yeah, this is Apple's worst iOS update ever. Not just is everything visually bugged, unpolished and misaligned, but they changed something about the hit detection and cursor control, so that I hit wrong stuff constantly. I challenge anyone to try to download a bunch of episodes on the TV app, and not fire the episode up by accident. Which now highjacks audio from Spotify I am AirPlaying to my Sonos system.

Also, the transfer assistant from iPhone to a new iPhone is borderline broken. I have been battling for hours to get an iCloud backup or a device-to-device transfer happen.

Absolute shite.
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Agreed i hate my iphone 15 pro max right now.
It looks like my HTC android phone from 10 years ago. With a cheap shitty skin
 
p_xavier said:
I updated my mac and effing hate it so much. Just in Music you have a hovering menu to hit the next song, ridiculous.
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I updated one of my Macs and I don't really see much of a difference so far. It doesn't feel all that drastic to me.

My iPad and iPhone are a different story. I hate the Liquid Glass aesthetic on mobile and I've been digging in and turning off what I can. First thing to go was transparency. I also want the outline around icons to disappear. I also dislike on iPad they got rid of the split view and slide over shortcuts. I used slide over a lot. I can simulate split view with the window menu options. It takes longer than hitting the dots at the top of the window but it works. It really sucks not being able to quickly slide the calculator or notepad in with a gesture. Sometimes I think Apple does it for spite.
 
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