iOS 18 Speculation Thread

[gwhizkids]

I agree with you as well. It’s mostly the people on these forums, Reddit, etc. that have the complaints about iPadOS. Most people I know who don’t really follow Apple News/tech news are very satisfied with their iPads.

That’s nice and all but I don’t think it’s unreasonable for a device that the manufacturer touts as a computer to actually act like one for everyone.

I’m not advocating for it to be a Mac. But I also don’t want it to be simply a content consumption device with a few add-ons that allow it to do light computing tasks.

For some it may do everything they need it to do. But that is far from universally true.

Apple iPad Pro TV Commercial - What's a Computer? [2017] â¤ï¸

Apple iPad Pro TV Commercial - What's a Computer? [2017] â¤ï¸Transcript:Mom: Hey, what you doing on your computer?Kid: What's a computer?Meet the new iPad Pro....

www.google.com

 

[maxrest]

That’s nice and all but I don’t think it’s unreasonable for a device that the manufacturer touts as a computer to actually act like one for everyone.

I’m not advocating for it to be a Mac. But I also don’t want it to be simply a content consumption device with a few add-ons that allow it to do light computing tasks.

For some it may do everything they need it to do. But that is far from universally true.

Apple iPad Pro TV Commercial - What's a Computer? [2017] â¤ï¸

Apple iPad Pro TV Commercial - What's a Computer? [2017] â¤ï¸Transcript:Mom: Hey, what you doing on your computer?Kid: What's a computer?Meet the new iPad Pro....

www.google.com

Never said anything about it being unreasonable. All I meant from my previous comment was that there are many satisfied people.

 

[Kal Madda]

That’s nice and all but I don’t think it’s unreasonable for a device that the manufacturer touts as a computer to actually act like one for everyone.

I’m not advocating for it to be a Mac. But I also don’t want it to be simply a content consumption device with a few add-ons that allow it to do light computing tasks.

For some it may do everything they need it to do. But that is far from universally true.

Apple iPad Pro TV Commercial - What's a Computer? [2017] â¤ï¸

Apple iPad Pro TV Commercial - What's a Computer? [2017] â¤ï¸Transcript:Mom: Hey, what you doing on your computer?Kid: What's a computer?Meet the new iPad Pro....

www.google.com

The problem is define what “acts like computer” means. To the vast majority of the population, a computer is a means to access the internet, check email, and many professional workflows consist primarily of writing Word documents, zoom meetings, and other such things. All of these things can be done on an iPad handily. Even professional graphic designers can use the iPad for their workflow. Is everything perfect? No. But the computer functionality that probably around at least 90% of users need is there. And Apple is continuing to improve the experience to suit as many users as possible. But not every computer is suitable for everyone. Some don’t find the Mac to be suitable for their needs. Much of this just depends on user preferences. Many of these reviewers will likely never be happy with the iPad and iPadOS no matter how much functionality it gains because it’s not identical to macOS (nor should it be).

 

[gwhizkids]

The problem is define what “acts like computer” means. To the vast majority of the population, a computer is a means to access the internet, check email, and many professional workflows consist primarily of writing Word documents, zoom meetings, and other such things. All of these things can be done on an iPad handily. Even professional graphic designers can use the iPad for their workflow. Is everything perfect? No. But the computer functionality that probably around at least 90% of users need is there. And Apple is continuing to improve the experience to suit as many users as possible. But not every computer is suitable for everyone. Some don’t find the Mac to be suitable for their needs. Much of this just depends on user preferences. Many of these reviewers will likely never be happy with the iPad and iPadOS no matter how much functionality it gains because it’s not identical to macOS (nor should it be).

Fair enough.

I don’t count myself among those will never be satisfied. But I simply want the ability to be able to manage documents efficiently. I also wouldn’t mind the ability to use functionality like keyboard maestro, Better Touch Tool or other similar apps that allow you to use keyboard shortcuts to accomplish things beyond just basic cut and paste.

 

[Kal Madda]

Fair enough.

I don’t count myself among those will never be satisfied. But I simply want the ability to be able to manage documents efficiently. I also wouldn’t mind the ability to use functionality like keyboard maestro, Better Touch Tool or other similar apps that allow you to use keyboard shortcuts to accomplish things beyond just basic cut and paste.

I agree, I think there is room for improvements in these areas, and I think iPadOS should add a custom keyboard shortcut function that allows us to assign things with custom keyboard shortcuts, and assign them to third-party apps as well. Maybe this could be combined with the rumored AI feature that can trigger individual app features? Implementing it that way could actually make a lot of sense, because some Apps don’t have many keyboard shortcuts, and some don’t have any at all. 👍🏻

 

[CopyChief]

I don't know, but what I do know is that if all of this stuff comes to pass, I don't know how they intend to cover it all in 2 hours.

Based on the features announced, leaked and rumored so far, it seems like there will be a lot more pieces left for discovery and development during the beta phase. Beyond the WWDC tentpoles, that’s always the most exciting part of this time of year.

 

[Kal Madda]

Based on the features announced, leaked and rumored so far, it seems like there will be a lot more pieces left for discovery and development during the beta phase. Beyond the WWDC tentpoles, that’s always the most exciting part of this time of year.

Yeah, even though iOS and iPadOS 17 were more minor updates, that actually happened with a lot of pretty nice new features, like the addition of options for renaming and erasing external drives in iPadOS 17. I think this year, with what’s considered to be a big update, we’ll likely find many additional new features that didn’t get a mention in the keynote. 👍🏻

 

[Realityck]

The problem is define what “acts like computer” means. To the vast majority of the population, a computer is a means to access the internet, check email, and many professional workflows consist primarily of writing Word documents, zoom meetings, and other such things. All of these things can be done on an iPad handily. Even professional graphic designers can use the iPad for their workflow. Is everything perfect? No. But the computer functionality that probably around at least 90% of users need is there. And Apple is continuing to improve the experience to suit as many users as possible. But not every computer is suitable for everyone. Some don’t find the Mac to be suitable for their needs. Much of this just depends on user preferences. Many of these reviewers will likely never be happy with the iPad and iPadOS no matter how much functionality it gains because it’s not identical to macOS (nor should it be).

People that are used to some type of methodology using phones, tablets, desktops/laptops will prefer what works the most efficiently compared to just trying to reconstruct the same procedure in a around about method on a device that the OS/Application can't replicate. Yes you can get used to doing it relatively efficient on your preferred device, but other people find it awkward, not smooth and complain. Editing forum texts with a touchscreen only vs a keyboard/touchpad is a good example of difference in work efficiency. The Touchpad or mouse allows for pretty exact lassoing of text to copy/paste with multiple bowser windows opened. The same on a tablet is doable but you feel like it's awkward to use touch movements to lasso the same text from tab to tab. So yes we all have to decide what we can utilize and feel comfortable with and that garners a lot of opinions as one example.

I don't see iPadOS needing to duplicate the same methodology as MacOS, but its does need more options to do multitasking even better as iPads evolve to be more powerful.

 

[Kal Madda]

It would not be a bad idea for those planning on installing the beta to figure out your "rollback" plan in case the beta is too rough for general use.

I recommend making an archived and encrypted backup of your device using the instructions at this link. Do this just before you install the iOS 18 beta so your backup is as recent as possible.

Before keynote day, I would download a copy of the IPSW file for the iOS software that's current as of the time you installed the iOS 18 beta (right now, that's 17.5.1). You can get this from the Apple developer portal here.

Then, I would familiarize myself with the rollback steps to get back to the current public release if things go wrong. I've reproduced those instructions below from @Pearsey's excellent tutorial (contained in the "spoiler" section of the first post of each beta thread). These instructions apply equally to installing the new beta via IPSW or to restoring back to the current public release (assuming you have the IPSW downloaded on your Mac).

View attachment 2385366

Start this process now or over the weekend so you're not racing around trying to figure out how to do it immediately after the keynote.

This is actually the way that I regularly backup my iPad even when I am not running beta versions, because I prefer using local storage over eating up a lot of space in iCloud. And it would also be faster to restore all of my files and settings, etc. over a wired connection rather than relying on my internet connection. I try to remember to create one of these backups at least once a month. 👍🏻.

 

[jamezr]

It would not be a bad idea for those planning on installing the beta to figure out your "rollback" plan in case the beta is too rough for general use.

I recommend making an archived and encrypted backup of your device using the instructions at this link. Do this just before you install the iOS 18 beta so your backup is as recent as possible.

Before keynote day, I would download a copy of the IPSW file for the iOS software that's current as of the time you installed the iOS 18 beta (right now, that's 17.5.1). You can get this from the Apple developer portal here.

Then, I would familiarize myself with the rollback steps to get back to the current public release if things go wrong. I've reproduced those instructions below from @Pearsey's excellent tutorial (contained in the "spoiler" section of the first post of each beta thread). These instructions apply equally to installing the new beta via IPSW or to restoring back to the current public release (assuming you have the IPSW downloaded on your Mac).

View attachment 2385366

Start this process now or over the weekend so you're not racing around trying to figure out how to do it immediately after the keynote.

I wish apple would let me backup my iPhone and iPad to a local USB drive. It could be encrypted and save time and cloud storage in the process.
But thanks for posting these instructions. it is helpful.

 

[Kal Madda]

I wish apple would let me backup my iPhone and iPad to a local USB drive. It could be encrypted and save time and cloud storage in the process.
But thanks for posting these instructions. it is helpful.

This is one of the items on my wishlist for at least iPadOS 18, since we generally use external drives more often with iPadOS anyways. 👍🏻 It could be encrypted like you said, and then it would be a much better solution for backing up our devices.

 

[Tagbert]

I know that others don’t agree, they don’t need to. But they’re not the authority either. Just because they believe the hardware is underserved by the software does not mean that that is actually the case, or that everyone universally agrees that’s the case. One thing that bugs me is many of these same people say things like “there aren’t any OS features that push the absolute limits of my hardware” when the OS itself should not generally be pushing the hardware of the devices it’s running on. Apps can push the hardware limits, and there are several pro apps I use that definitely benefit from the power of the M-chips. An OS’s job is generally to run efficiently so the actual apps people are running on the system can use the hardware performance.

And again, I don’t think iPadOS is perfect, I think it can improve, just like I think macOS can improve as well. But I am happy with where iPadOS is currently, and that’s why I use it as my primary computer. I think Apple is clearly improving iPadOS and making it a more capable platform. 👍🏻

I don’t agree with all of the negative posts about iPads and I use my iPad for at least 2-3 hours a day. I do suggest reading the article in that link. It is a really good, thoughtful piece about areas that Apple could improve iPad OS. It is written by Federico Viticci who has long been a proponent of using iPads for work.

 

[Kal Madda]

I don’t agree with all of the negative posts about iPads and I use my iPad for at least 2-3 hours a day. I do suggest reading the article in that link. It is a really good, thoughtful piece about areas that Apple could improve iPad OS. It is written by Federico Viticci who has long been a proponent of using iPads for work.

I read the article from Federico, and while I thought some of his critiques were valid, I think some of them were inaccurate. It seems like he’s gotten more anti-iPad the last couple of years. Before, he would advocate for implementing these kinds of things in a way that made sense for the iPad, now he seems to favor doing things on the iPad the Mac way. Of course, these are just my opinions and impressions, and I’m not saying he doesn’t have any valid criticisms, I’m just saying I think he’s misguided on some of the things he claims and argues for. But again, I do think several of the things he addresses are legit things that could be improved. But I also think, for example, his claims that the Files app is the “buggiest app” and is unreliable is maybe his experience with it, but not many others. I use Files all the time, and I’ve never had a single issue with it. And that’s even been while I’ve run beta versions. So making a blanket statement it’s bad for everyone is too far, I believe.

 

[gwhizkids]

I’m as guilty as anyone but I think we need to move the iPadOS discussion out of this thread.

This is an iOS speculation thread and we’ve hijacked it somewhat with a protracted discussion of iPadOS and iPad hardware capabilities.

 

[Kal Madda]

I’m as guilty as anyone but I think we need to move the iPadOS discussion out of this thread.

This is an iOS speculation thread and we’ve hijacked it somewhat with a protracted discussion of iPadOS and iPad hardware capabilities.

There isn’t an iPadOS 18 speculation thread. People just assume we’ll discuss both here as far as I can tell. That said, we can focus more on iPadOS 18 rather than the current state of the iPad and it’s hardware capabilities. 👍🏻

 

[gank41]

I’m as guilty as anyone but I think we need to move the iPadOS discussion out of this thread.

This is an iOS speculation thread and we’ve hijacked it somewhat with a protracted discussion of iPadOS and iPad hardware capabilities.

Well, not to be facetious here but some of the recent critiques of iPadOS seem to put it more on par with iOS than macOS, and that's the reason for discussion in the first place.

I for one like where iPadOS is at, but more flexibility with background apps and processes would be great.

 

[Kal Madda]

Only 4 more days!!! 🎊🎊🎊

 

[bigjnyc]

Sorry if this has been discussed, I didn't go through all 15 pages. But is the sentiment that Apple will keep the same free tier developer account option active for iOS 18? I haven't read or seen any mention of this anywhere.

 

[gwhizkids]

Sorry if this has been discussed, I didn't go through all 15 pages. But is the sentiment that Apple will keep the same free tier developer account option active for iOS 18? I haven't read or seen any mention of this anywhere.

Not sure. It would seem to make sense for them to do so.

But as you may recall, the change to this present system was done without warning at WWDC. Everyone thought it was a mistake. So they could simply flip back again and we won’t know till it happens.

 

[Realityck]

Not sure. It would seem to make sense for them to do so.

But as you may recall, the change to this present system was done without warning at WWDC. Everyone thought it was a mistake. So they could simply flip back again and we won’t know till it happens.

Yes the change occurred the following morning from the 2023 keynote. We had problem accessing the Apple developer site on Monday June 5th 2023 most of the day making the iOS 17 dev beta not immediately available part of the day. For people that joined Apple developer on Monday, they found out the next day things had changed.

On Tuesday people discovered that Apple goofed are so they thought and allowed a free dev account without the $99 annual fee with submitted online forms. But it turned out this was not a mistake and it was Apple realizing there are a fair number of people that like exercising the dev beta for free. This after all that locking down the Public beta and Developer beta access to your Apple ID associated with your developer or public beta agreements, along with terminal commands disabled.

I kinda don't suspect them to change as we have heard of nothing the was negative with this change. I also thought this was a nice gesture to all the past active developers that could still get the dev betas without the fee.

 

[winxmac]

Being able to have the same early access as developers to the previously paid developer beta access is nice...

I used to search for developer beta profiles downloadable online since I cannot afford the fee but now there is no need to ever since Apple made the change...

 

[cbreze]

I have the free account and I’ve gotten many invites to the iOS 18 presentation, behind the scenes stuff and other goings on regarding all things, iOS 18.
I’m hoping that means I’m in as far as getting iOS 18 on Monday. Maybe won’t even need a new profile. Guess we’ll all see on Monday.

 

[gwhizkids]

Looks like Passwords will be getting its own app at last

https://twitter.com/x/status/1798813700922724433

 

[gank41]

Looks like Passwords will be getting its own app at last

https://twitter.com/x/status/1798813700922724433

Would be cool if a lot of stuff was broken out into apps so they could possibly be updated on the fly as opposed to being tied to OS updates (Siri & Search, at least, IMO).

 

[Realityck]

Looks like Passwords will be getting its own app at last

While his latest blab mentions iOS/iPadOS/MacOS for that app, tvOS Apps require password management too.