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iPadOS 18 Brings a New Customizable Tab Bar and Sidebar UI to Apps

With the floating menus or tab bars showing up on more devices like the Apple TV, iPhone and iPad, I think this is all coming from the Vision Pro. Slowing moving the other OS’s over to vision pro’s design aesthetic to ease people into accepting a new computing device in the future when its price comes down.

The floating menus on the Apple TV were not introduced at wwdc last year and they just mysteriously showed up around December, and most people were a little upset with the surprise.

This year they made sure to show the new floating menu/tab design in the keynote, to maybe ease people into this new OS design. Idk just my opinion. I neither love or hate it. LOL.
 
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I take it all back, this gem of an update was clearly worth making no improvements to Stage Manager or expanding the overall functionality of the iPad.
 
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Apple, just because you won’t let me hide MLS doesn’t mean I’m suddenly going to care about soccer. Just let people do what they want already.
 
Agent4797 said:
Personally I feel like this UI change simplifies things, not make it more complex.

in iOS 17 you have the sidebar and all other type of navigation at the top, meanwhile you have the tab bar at the bottom, by moving it all to the top it makes it easier to navigate. Sometimes I would miss an app having a tab bar because it feels so tucked away at the bottom on a larger screen like the iPad, or even bigger when you connect to an external display.

Now if you have a simple tab bar in your app it's at the top, if you have a side bar with more options it's still going to be at top of the screen. For me that just makes more sense.

In iOS 17 some apps like the Photos app have the same UI design at the top. Now that they use the same UI it's more coherent.
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The photos app navigation is horrible.
The search button on the top opens a text input on the bottom. It’s not a good example to follow
 
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fine, whatever. but is there a reason why this language wasn’t extended to the brand new app released on ipad os, calculator? why do i have to flip a switch hidden behind an icon to turn on/off conversion mode? isn’t this a perfect use case for this fancy new floating menu bar?

do teams within apple communicate with each other?
 
Personally, I think this will go the way of the much-derided Safari tabs update from a couple of years ago. I think it'll either be altered through the betas or just be effectively abandoned and put behind an optional setting.
 
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By now, only App Store App let top tab bar in landscape. In other apps top tab bar only appears in portrait, maybe a bug.
 
Was happy for this until I read the MLS was fixed :( - despise sports and don't need/want it on my bar. Really chaps my ass when companies force stuff on me. I DON'T WANT IT! I'LL NEVER USE IT! LET ME GET RID OF IT!
 
StoneJack said:
it is missing virtually everything in terms of desktop, file management and windows management.
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Because it’s not a desktop paradigm user interface. That’s been the point since day 1. It excels at certain activities because it’s easy to use.
 
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NT1440 said:
Because it’s not a desktop paradigm user interface. That’s been the point since day 1. It excels at certain activities because it’s easy to use.
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And yet Apple has added mouse and keyboard support, allowing it to be used as a desktop. Lots of things could be cleaned up without killing the ability to use it standalone as a touch device.
 
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richpjr said:
And yet Apple has added mouse and keyboard support, allowing it to be used as a desktop. Lots of things could be cleaned up without killing the ability to use it standalone as a touch device.
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A desktop paradigm refers to the UI, not the use of keyboard and mouse.

Take a look at just the cursor, note how it’s not a pixel-precision targeting device like on a Desktop UI.

The iPad can do many things a desktop can, as long as you’re not expecting a 1:1 drop in replacement for how you do it on a desktop UI. Your workflow has to change. If it’s not worth the effort, that’s understandable.
 
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richpjr said:
You can only use that cursor with a mouse, which is a desktop paradigm device.
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No, the input device does not define the UI paradigm. I think you’re confusing my terms here.

You can hook up a keyboard to an Apple TV, does that make the UI a desktop paradigm now?
 
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NT1440 said:
No, the input device does not define the UI paradigm. I think you’re confusing my terms here.

You can hook up a keyboard to an Apple TV, does that make the UI a desktop paradigm now?
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If I can add a keyboard, mouse and an external display to a device and use it without requiring touching the screen ever, it does cross over into not requiring the UI paradigm.
 
jameseld82 said:
Let's move the tab to the top so it's not as reachable. At first I was excited about this update but the more I see things the more I'm not as impressed. I've only updated my iPad to the beta. I will wait for the official update in September for my phone.
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So counter to the design philosophy they pushed to Safari with the nav bar at the bottom, which I love and am glad Chrome added the option.

Maybe some genius will realize and move it in the beta.
 
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