While I’m sure there will likely be some new Apple Intelligence and Siri improvements in iOS 19 and iPadOS 19, I’m thinking it may not be as much of the focus. iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 actually have made quite a few improvements with non-Apple Intelligence and Siri features, even with those being the primary focus this go around. But I’m kind of thinking we may see more focus on other feature enhancements and such in 19. I think 18 is really the biggest and most important software cycle for Apple Intelligence, because it’s laying the foundations. But once the foundations are laid, I don’t think it will be the same kind of focus of future updates, we’ll probably see some enhancements, but I don’t envision them just rerunning the 18 update cycle with 19, with Apple Intelligence and Siri features getting all of the air-time at WWDC. Kind of like 18 was with the Vision Pro. When 17 was announced, the Vision Pro took up most of the time at WWDC23, and all of the other presentations for the existing platforms felt rushed. When 18 was announced, Vision Pro still got some air-time, but much more reasonable and less, and it was Apple Intelligence that was taking up most of the time. I’m thinking possibly with 19, they’ll focus more on more conventional features and feature improvements, and will still include some nice new Apple Intelligence stuff, just not the primary focus. But who knows, I could be wrong on that.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iOS 26 Speculation Thread
- Thread starter Kylo83
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
So maybe they wait until iOS 20 to make a 6 GB cutoff? That would run on iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 13 Pro, and all 14, 15, 16, 17, etc. series phones. I just have a feeling they are running into real headaches on those 3 GB and 4 GB RAM devices and would like to leave them behind and just issue the occasional security update until they are considered vintage or whatever. They created the problem by being too stingy with RAM for too long. The SE3 from 2022 still had 4 GB, so saying 3 years of updates would be kind of harsh.
The change I want more than AI or any new apps or features is just an easy couple toggles: 1) ability to get rid of the page when you swipe to the left if you have no widgets there and 2) make alpha-sort the default view on the App Library (instead of requiring an extra swipe).
I really hope they don’t switch to that circle icon setup. As an option you can select, like how they treated Dark Mode Icons, sure, but hopefully they wouldn’t make that shape the only option, because it just doesn’t look nearly as good as the squircle icons in my opinion. One positive note is that if they were going to force circle icons as the default and only options, they likely wouldn’t have just released Dark Mode icons in 18 which requires developers to modify their icons to fully support it. If they were going to make such a dramatic change, they likely wouldn’t do that and make app developers have to change their icons yet again only 1 year later to support circle icons.
Now, I could totally see more translucent UI elements, though technically visionOS actually kind of borrowed that from iOS and macOS, not the other way around. macOS has had translucent sidebars in apps for years now. And iOS uses translucent elements on occasion, such as the App Dock, Control Center, Lock Screen Widgets, Safari tab bar, several menu strips in apps, etc., and even the current Camera app design already uses translucent elements. So I totally could see them add more translucent elements, though I wouldn’t say it would be a huge redesign as much as just a visual tuneup. 🙂👍🏻
Last edited:
Personally I like the circle icons a lot lol. Back in the day when I used to jailbreak I would always make my icons circular. Pretty simple tweak actually and most app icons looked good, so I don’t think devs would need to do much. I do agree though it probably should be a choice. I am hoping for a redesign, I liked the dark icons and new control center in iOS 18 but was hoping for more of a redesign on the same level as iOS 7. Pretty cool video I thought I hope a lot of it comes true.
Oh yeah, I wouldn’t be opposed to an option to make the app icons circular. That could be interesting. I just would hope it wouldn’t be the only option, and I think now that we already have a customization system in place for icons, they could just add a toggle to change the icon shape. That could be nice.
Yeah, I do think they will add more translucent elements across the system in system apps and such. I think that makes sense. I think a lot of what he says in the video makes sense. I didn’t mean to come off like I was hoping he’d be wrong, I hope he is right, I just was hoping that if they add a circle option it is an option and not the only option. 👍🏻
What I really would like to see in iOS 19 is that you can change your icons to a icon pack of your choice without losing the ability to receive the red badges or long press options on the app icon.
Love the icon packs from Lokki, but I dislike the point that i can’t see the red badges on them.
Love the icon packs from Lokki, but I dislike the point that i can’t see the red badges on them.
Attachments
A few things I'd like to see in iPadOS 19:
- Fully featured Fitness app. I'd like to see my own and friend's fitness progress on the iPad screen.
- Journal app. I've experimented with Day One and Obsidian for digital journaling. Though, I just want something simple and free like Apple's Journal app.
- iPhone Mirroring on the iPad. It's not the most needed feature, other than mirroring the Fitness app or Journal app to my iPad, I can’t really think what else I’d want/need it for. Apple Watch Mirroring would be a plus too.
- Removing the Sports tab out of the News app.
- Not directly related to iOS 19 - Apple owns Pixelmator now, will we ever get Pixelmator Pro on the iPad?
- JIT or Hypervisor support. It would open up a proper UTM, Parallels, and whatever else to come to the iPad. I like my iPad for what it is, but having to use these weird workarounds to testing or using a desktop application is a bit baffling. I can run Shadow PC (through an external payment system) on my iPad and have a complete Windows 11 experience anyway, possibly through a not secure connection and can break at any point when a server goes down. Or, I can pay a yearly subscription through the App Store for Parallels have it all running securely from the iPad. I wonder why Apple wouldn't want this, other than them wanting me to buy and use a Mac instead. UTM SE is a nice party trick, but what can I possibly do with a 20+ year old operating system running at very slow speeds.
- Saving apps to an external drive. I don’t play AAA games on my iPad (unless Angry Birds or Pac-Man 256 counts), but I know some of those new games take up a lot of drive space. I'd want to offload it to a USB drive.
Nice list! 👍🏻. I’m definitely hoping for iPhone Mirroring or at least a more capable AirPlay Receiver on iPadOS. I was so excited when they introduced the AirPlay Receiver setting in iPadOS 17, but then it only worked with the Vision Pro, which is just so frustrating because we’re so close and yet so far away. Now with SharePlay allowing others to mirror and control your iPad from a distance, it just makes so much sense to be able to do the same with your own devices on a local network connection. Hopefully they’ll actually improve this in 19.
Saving apps to an external drive could be interesting. 👍🏻. Obviously it wouldn’t run as well as on native storage, but it could be an interesting way of expanding for gaming. I may be wrong about this, but that would likely also require support for high performance mode on external drives, which would also require ejecting the drives before unplugging them. So if they did that, people would probably get an eject button for external drives as well.
JIT and/or Hypervisor support could be good for several emulators beyond just PC VM app like Parallels as well. Game emulators could run faster and more efficiently, and could emulate for newer gaming platforms. I think we could see something like this at some point. I know that some people cynically claim Apple doesn’t allow JIT or Hypervisor because it would allow people to get software from outside the App Store or whatever, but the number of people who are actually going to end up using a VM app are going to be few and far between. It’s a relative niche of the user base. I think the actual reason Apple hasn’t added these yet is likely due to system security concerns. JIT especially poses a major threat to security as it can add code into the app that wasn’t ever checked by the review process or any of the pre-installation guidelines. So an app that passed all of the reviews up front that didn’t contain any malware could inject malware after it was installed, and without any safeguards to prevent it. So JIT is a very big security risk, even though it can be useful. I think maybe what they could do is allow JIT entitlements for trusted developers on a managed basis to preserve security. That could possibly at least mitigate some of the security concerns. But I definitely think it warrants a very cautious and well thought out approach in implementing it. I am in favor of them finding a secure way of implementing it though. 👍🏻. One interesting thing is that I’ve heard that some people have run modern Linux distros in UTM SE with pretty good performance. I myself ran a Windows 7 virtual machine in UTM SE on my M1 8GB RAM iPad, and it ran pretty good. It actually ran faster than it did on any of the computers I had that ran it at the time. I was going to try Windows 10 and 11, but those require some more tinkering with settings, and I didn’t really need them or want to take up the space for them on my iPad since I don’t use Windows for any productivity anymore, but I’ve heard that some have gotten those to work pretty good also. So things definitely seem to be improving. And as you mentioned also, people would be buying or paying subscriptions for these apps (most are subscription) in the App Store, so I definitely don’t think that Apple is against allowing such apps in concept, we even have UTM SE and iSH as evidence that Apple’s okay with this kind of thing, it’s just that there are real security concerns with the implementation of JIT and Hypervisor, so I’m guessing Apple may try to find a more secure way of implementing it before they add it into iPadOS. But with the popularity of emulator apps and Apple’s focus on gaming, maybe that will happen soon in iPadOS 19. We can certainly hope so, it would open up some more possibilities for some people. 👍🏻
I’m definitely excited to see what Apple does with Pixelmator and Photomator now that they own them! I think they’ll basically become the spiritual successor of Aperture in Apple’s software lineup. Back when Aperture was around, Adobe pretty much copied Aperture with Lightroom and managed to outperform Aperture to the point that Apple couldn’t justify supporting it any longer. Now though, Adobe has painted themselves into a corner with their expensive subscriptions. They aren’t really a great option for an amateur photographer on a budget, or just an average user who wants to touch up their photos. And with Adobe Lightroom’s setup on iOS and iPadOS, you have to import photos you want to edit into Adobe’s cloud storage (another expensive subscription). Even on the Mac, it looks like Adobe CC will be the only option at some point, and they will probably eventually drop Lightroom Classic (which allows for importing without cloud storage). Photomator is in a great position since it’s already a very popular app on Apple’s platforms, and a big part of that success is reasonable subscription prices and direct integration with the Photos app and the Files app. So if you use your iPhone for many of your shots, they can be edited in Photomator seamlessly. And with the Files support, you can also import photos from a camera, drive, etc. as well. It can basically be a one-stop-shop, instead of requiring a bunch of additional import steps for those on Apple’s platforms. With Apple behind it now, it will be interesting to see what new features and ML capabilities we may see in these apps! 👍🏻
I’m definitely excited to see what Apple may add in iPadOS 19! Thanks for sharing your list. 👍🏻
Last edited:
A cost effective NVME SSD with a 40 GB TB3/4 SSD enclosure. Obviously TB3/4 connectivity required. Skip the noisy fan option.
Runs $269 or $386 stateside for a 2 or 4 TB. Canada will be somewhat higher.
Ca enclosure link. Yes TB cable included
ACASIS 40Gbps M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure,Tool Free Installation,TBU401 NVMe Enclosure for M1 Pro/Max,Compatible with Thunderbolt5/4/3,USB4/3.2/3.1/3/2, Support 8TB SSD Size 2280/2260/2242/2230 B+M M-Key
ACASIS 40Gbps M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure,Tool Free Installation,TBU401 NVMe Enclosure for M1 Pro/Max,Compatible with Thunderbolt5/4/3,USB4/3.2/3.1/3/2, Support 8TB SSD Size 2280/2260/2242/2230 B+M M-Key
www.amazon.ca
WD_BLACK 4TB SN850X NVMe Internal Gaming SSD Solid State Drive - Gen4 PCIe, M.2 2280, Up to 7,300 MB/s - WDS400T2X0E
Strap in for breakneck gaming speeds with the WD_BLACK SN850X NVMe SSD. Crush load times and slash throttling, lagging, and texture pop-ins for a smooth, fast experience that lets you compete at your absolute peak. This purpose-built gaming drive comes in capacities of 1TB to 4TB(2), with an opti...
www.amazon.ca
Last edited:
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Those look nice, eventually I might get one of those for extra portable storage. 👍🏻. Just to clarify, I’m not saying it wouldn’t be doable to run apps/games on external storage, I’m just saying it would technically be a bit slower due to the cable connection, that’s all. And I don’t think the speed difference would be too big of a problem or anything, just if you want top performance on a software it would be better to run it on the iPad’s native storage. But in order for running software on an external drive to work, I believe iPadOS would need to support high performance mode on external drives, and have an eject button for removing those drives. So it would likely be accompanied by some changes in Files. 👍🏻A cost effective NVME SSD with a 40 GB TB3/4 SSD enclosure. Obviously TB3/4 connectivity required. Skip the noisy fan option.
Runs $269 or $386 stateside for a 2 or 4 TB. Canada will be somewhat higher.
Ca enclosure link. Yes TB cable included
ACASIS 40Gbps M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure,Tool Free Installation,TBU401 NVMe Enclosure for M1 Pro/Max,Compatible with Thunderbolt5/4/3,USB4/3.2/3.1/3/2, Support 8TB SSD Size 2280/2260/2242/2230 B+M M-Key
ACASIS 40Gbps M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure,Tool Free Installation,TBU401 NVMe Enclosure for M1 Pro/Max,Compatible with Thunderbolt5/4/3,USB4/3.2/3.1/3/2, Support 8TB SSD Size 2280/2260/2242/2230 B+M M-Keywww.amazon.ca
WD_BLACK 4TB SN850X NVMe Internal Gaming SSD Solid State Drive - Gen4 PCIe, M.2 2280, Up to 7,300 MB/s - WDS400T2X0E
Strap in for breakneck gaming speeds with the WD_BLACK SN850X NVMe SSD. Crush load times and slash throttling, lagging, and texture pop-ins for a smooth, fast experience that lets you compete at your absolute peak. This purpose-built gaming drive comes in capacities of 1TB to 4TB(2), with an opti...www.amazon.ca
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
iOS 19 Rumored to Include These New Features for Your iPhone
iOS 19 is still around three months away from being unveiled, but there are plenty of rumors about the upcoming update. Below, we recap iOS 19...
www.macrumors.com
Last edited:
Of course, the eject button for the external drives will be on the iPadOS 19 wishlist, right?
Already is, I posted my wishlist in here. 👍🏻. It should be on the first page in this thread. And I’ve been updating it as I think of new things. 👍🏻
Last edited:
Well, before speculating about iOS 19, how about at least getting iOS 18 right at first?
Supposedly iOS/iPadOS doesn’t do the cached writes that require ejecting drives in Mac OS. You can just unplug an external drive from iOS without data loss.
Edit: I meant to type “doesn’t do” not “does”
Last edited:
That’s correct. 👍🏻. It is technically not necessary for the current system. But it could be helpful for people who switch between iPadOS and macOS constantly. I used to just unplug my thumb drives without ejecting them on Windows, and never had an issue there either, so I’m guessing iPadOS is doing similar. 👍🏻
iOS 18 is great. Who says we can’t speculate about 19 because 18 isn’t finished yet?
Same here. I have no issues with 18 and enjoy reading about future builds.
Yea, or maybe iOS 20 will leave the 3GB devices behind which is a good bunch. The SE3 has 4GB and was sold until recently. Would be strange if they dropped that model that soon.
My guess is that iOS 19 will run an all devices that iOS 18 did, seems like many reports point towards that.
iOS 20 could drop support for the 3GB devices, XS, XR, 11, SE2.
But its not all down to RAM either. Could be other reasons to drop support.
I don't mind them optimizing things so they run well on older devices, sure it affects multitasking and so on and might make it harder for some developers. I think it was a good move that Apple decided to only offer AI for devices that can handle it and still support older devices.
